Jess wants to hire a product marketer

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This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast

Vector

11 episodes

19 hours ago

This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast drops you smack dab in the middle of the closed-door sessions where Jess Cook (Head of Marketing) and Joshua Perk (CEO) are working to turn their company, Vector, into B2B marketing’s next big thing. In each episode, they tackle a real, strategic decision together—"Should we hire an agency?", "Should we push free trials or demos?", "What are we going to do with all the swag Josh bought?!"—dishing out pros, cons, knowns, unknowns, wins, challenges, and stories along the way. Come for the big picture strategy and day-to-day tactics, stay for the jokes that make HR nervous.

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Marketing

Business,

Entrepreneurship

Jess wants to hire a product marketer

This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast

26 minutes

2 months ago

Jess wants to hire a product marketer

Jess didn’t tiptoe into her new role—she marched in, spotted the gaps, and asked for headcount by day 2. Josh? Still processing.

In this episode, Jess and Josh unpack the thinking behind their first big hire at Vector, why product marketing came before growth, what made one candidate rise above 65 others, and how building the right team early on turned heads across the industry.

TL;DR: If you’ve ever had to scale fast—or want to know how Vector assembled the B2B marketing Avengers—this one’s for you.

Get to the good stuff:

[00:00] Jess reminds Josh that she asked to make her first hire… 48 hours in. Josh has not recovered.

[01:08] How Vector’s ideal customer shaped Jess’s hiring criteria: credibility, practitioner experience, and a dash of envy.

[03:22] “Are you building the Avengers?” Josh reveals the industry buzz about Vector’s marketing team.

[05:19] Jess shares why she prioritized senior, practitioner-led hires over junior generalists—especially in a startup environment.

[06:40] Content + PMM = rocket fuel – why demand gen had to wait
[08:18] Affirmation time, baby

[10:18] The 1+1=3 moment: Jess makes her case (live, in person) for building out the team.

[13:50] The "I'm hiring" LinkedIn post? 55K views, 53 reposts, 65+ applications—and how Jess filtered the noise to find standout talent.

[17:10] The winning combo that makes marketers stand out: peer recommendations, great writing, clear thinking, and... following directions.

[21:04] Top 1% hiring mentality: why the best people say no to comfort and yes to building.

[23:18] Enter: Alex. Why her experience at Metadata, founder-ready mindset, and “recipe-like” walkthroughs sealed the deal.

[27:00] Sales enablement, product launches, content libraries, positioning tweaks—Alex is already doing all the things.

[28:52] What’s next? Jess reveals her plans for staying lean—and what role she’ll hire for next (but not yet, don’t DM her).

This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.

Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.

Editing by Handy Man Edit.

Music by Peter McIsaac Music.