elphaofficehour.lauramesa

LauraMesa·Oct 22, 2023

Posted in:Navigating Career Transitions Venture Capital Office Hours Product Marketing

Hi Elphas! This week we're bringing you ✨live✨ Office Hours this Friday @ 12pm PT. RSVP here to hear Laura's expert insights.

If you've got a question you'd like to ask Laura, reply to this post with it, or ask her live.

Look forward to seeing you on Friday!

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I’m Laura Mesa, most recently the VP of Marketing and Community at Product Hunt.

My career thus far has been a journey of serendipitous, and often unexpected twists and turns, centered around building community and product marketing for consumers, founders and small businesses.

Before Product Hunt, I was at Sequoia Capital leading the community programming and content for the Sequoia portfolio. At Facebook I built a SMB Advocacy program from scratch, eventually leading a global team responsible for some of the most impactful resources, support and educational content for SMBs during COVID. I’ve led world-class customer marketing and product marketing teams at Facebook, Yahoo, Mozilla and Lookout.

As someone who was recently impacted by a layoff, I now have the opportunity to take a step back and figure out the next step of my career journey.

I’m an open book - ask me anything about building community, product marketing, GTM strategy, venture capital, brand management, building and managing exceptional audience-centric teams, career development, surviving lay-offs, LGBTQ, parenting or Latin-x identities in the workplace.

Join us this Friday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT for the Live Office Hour!

RSVP at https://lu.ma/elphaofficehour.lauramesa

Edit: For those of you who've missed it, our call recording is here!

Password: LiveOH@ElphaOctober2023

Josefina·Oct 22, 2023

Thanks so much for joining us @LauraMesa!Elphas – please ask @LauraMesa your questions by Thursday, October 26th. @LauraMesa will answer these questions and any live ones on the call!We may not have time to get to all questions, so emoji upvote your favourites 🔥👍🏾➕Note: we will update this post will a link to the recording afterwards.

Iynna·Oct 22, 2023

SO excited for this! Thank you @LauraMesa!

Loree147·Oct 23, 2023

Hi Laura! Thanks for your time. What's a skill or quality you believe is crucial for success in the world of product marketing and community building that might be often overlooked?

Tajuana122·Oct 23, 2023

What would you say is your career mantra? Perhaps a piece of advice that has stuck with you throughout your career?

Ila85·Oct 23, 2023

How do you approach building and managing audience-centric teams? What are the key differences between that and building customer-centric/user-centric teams?

katykavanaugh·Oct 25, 2023

Hi Laura, looking forward to your talk! I trained in, teach and practice Design Thinking which is, as you likely know, an iterative, user-centered product development approach. We've tested our MVP, a learning platform, in several countries and have seen its success in three sectors. We're in the NSF-SBIR Phase 1 to advance the technology and further develop user interface. Q1) There is NSF training but no marketing budget in Phase 1 so we plan to document and social media the heck out of it (we're storytellers). We have groovy stickers, too. What else would you recommend? Q2) Phase 2 is where marketing can kick in. We've focused on an international community. Still NSF, not a super-huge budget, how much would you recommend budgeting for a global education campaign?

emilybrooks·Oct 25, 2023

Hi Laura! Have you worked successfully with partners at your previous companies and if so what has been a feature GTM or partner launch that stands out to you and why?

GiselleGalper·Oct 25, 2023

I'm a founder who has just launched an AI-powered career coach (on the App Store and Play Store). I'd love advice about how to get the most from Product Hunt and thoughts generally on releasing an AI "for good" product to consumers and partners.

natalliayelsky·Oct 25, 2023

I am so excited to learn from you @LauraMesa!I am building a dog toy consumer brand (https://www.profloof.com/), funded by my full-time hustle and some savings from my old corporate job. We make scented toys and enrichment kits for dogs. Given that we are a dog brand, we are interested in focusing on building authentic relationships with dog parents and their dogs as a back-bone of our go-to-market. Whether it's gifting TikTok micro influencers or going to the dog park to promote in person, I'd love to hear some tactical marketing ideas that cost a bit less and provide a high ROI for the brand. Thank you!

akilahkamaria·Oct 24, 2023

Thank you @LauraMesa! Launching our startup next month www.personifyco.com and we are bootstrapped. 1. Can you share some strategies and tactics for building a strong and engaged community around a startup with limited marketing budget? 2. Given your experience at Facebook and building an SMB Advocacy program, what cost-efficient methods or tactics would you recommend for reaching and assisting small businesses with limited budgets during their early stages?

Iynna·Oct 25, 2023

That's such a thoughtful question! I love it! Deff come on the live OH so you can have it answered live btw!

Shenna20·Oct 23, 2023

What were some of the most memorable and successful product launches or community moments you were involved in during your time at PH? And what were some of your go-to sources for staying updated on emerging trends & product developments while working in such a dynamic environment?

lizstack·Oct 27, 2023

Hi @LauraMesa! I won't be able to join live but really appreciate your time and wanted to submit a question for the session. As someone who has experienced a layoff, what advice do you have for those experiencing layoffs around them / those dealing with re-orgs and new company strategy?

✨ Live Office Hours✨ I'm the former VP of Marketing & Community at Product Hunt. I'm Laura Mesa. AMA!Featuredhttps://lu.ma/elphaofficehour.lauramesa

✨ Live Office Hours✨ I'm the former VP of Marketing & Community at Product Hunt. I'm Laura Mesa. AMA!Featuredhttps://lu.ma/elphaofficehour.lauramesa

✨ Live Office Hours✨ I'm the former VP of Marketing & Community at Product Hunt. I'm Laura Mesa. AMA!Featured https://lu.ma/elphaofficehour.lauramesa

✨ Live Office Hours✨ I'm the former VP of Marketing & Community at Product Hunt. I'm Laura Mesa. AMA!Featured https://lu.ma/elphaofficehour.lauramesa