Welcome!

Each week we bring to you a discussion on the latest trends in digital marketing and how you can actually implement these strategies into your organization.

#158 How Startups Are Rewriting the Marketing Playbook with Gianluca Ferremi & Madhav Bhandari

Today we’re speaking with Gianluca and Madhav. Gianluca is a technology innovator with over 25 years of experience in digital transformation, from launching AR/VR educational apps used by 35,000 students to co-founding South Africa’s first low-cost Pay TV. He specializes in soft skills development and believes education should elevate human talent and personal growth. Madhav is a B2B marketing leader and Head of Marketing at Storylane, where he helps 4,000+ teams like Gong, Clari, and Rippling create demos that win deals. In this episode, we explore the intersection of education, technology, and storytelling—how innovation in both learning and marketing can unlock growth, impact, and connection.
“I wouldn’t be able to be the Chief Marketing Officer of the company without AI. … It’s like having a person expert in marketing that explains things exactly the way I want to understand them.” -Gianluca Ferremi
“SEO is not dying. I think it’s evolving.” -Madhav Bhandari

About the Episode

Welcome to a deep dive into the world of modern growth marketing, as experienced by leading startup executives and marketers on the front lines. In this blog post, we’re bringing you real stories and lessons from two fast-moving organizations: Wise Path and Storylane. Through extended interviews with their leaders, you’ll get an inside look at how startups are tackling soft skills with gaming technology, revolutionizing SEO strategy, and using AI to punch above their weight.

We’ll explore:

  • The founding stories behind Wise Path and Storylane
  • Creative marketing strategies for early-stage and fast-growing startups
  • What’s working (and what’s not) in SEO right now
  • The hands-on realities of using AI as a marketer
  • Favorite AI tools—and how they boost impact
  • Advice for startup marketing at every stage

Meet the Guests

Let’s start with introductions:

  • Gianluca Ferremi, CEO & Co-Founder at Wisepath, an early-stage startup based partly in Italy and partly in the United States, focused on measuring and training soft skills using commercial video games.
  • Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at Storylane, a fast-growing SaaS company redefining interactive demo automation and riding a wave of creative SEO success.

Both leaders are at the cutting edge of startup hustle—managing sprawling responsibilities, experimenting with new tech, and growing their companies from the ground up.

Wisepath: Measuring Soft Skills With Video Games

The COVID-Era Spark

“Back during the COVID time we began seeing that there was a wave of people that were beginning to wonder why they were doing the job that they were doing.”

Like many startups, Wisepath was born during the transformative early days of the pandemic. People everywhere started questioning their career paths—a collective reset on work-life priorities. Gianluca Ferremi and his co-founder realized something: the most critical skill gaps weren’t technical. Instead, they were in soft skills—the interpersonal and cognitive abilities that separate good employees from great ones.

“We began understanding that the problem had nothing to do with technical skills. It had to do with non-technical skills. Still professional skills though.”

Recognizing how hard it is to measure soft skills objectively, Wisepath spent years exploring methods. Their breakthrough came when they discovered academic research showing commercial video games could be leveraged to evaluate and even improve these elusive skills.

Startup Life and Wearing Many Hats

Wise Path’s story is the true startup spirit: small team, giant ambitions, and each person handling multiple roles. The company is a Delaware C-corp with co-founders split between the U.S. and Italy.

“Min is the CEO, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer as well. CEO and Founder.”

Having a tiny team means wearing a lot of hats. For Gianluca Ferremi, that means simultaneously being CEO, CMO, CRO, and often the company’s main spokesperson. This is startup life—scrappy, creative, and always juggling priorities.

Tackling an Untapped Need

Wisepath is introducing a solution the market hasn’t seen before. Their product uses commercial video games as a fun and engaging way to measure and train soft skills. But here’s the challenge: most organizations think they need better technical training, not soft skills evaluation. This means Wise Path isn’t just selling a product—they’re selling a new way to see workplace development.

For such a new concept, traditional marketing doesn’t cut it. As Gianluca Ferremi explains:

“We are selling a product that didn’t exist before, solving a problem that people have always sensed they had but they never put their finger on it.”

Breaking Through With Relationship-Based Marketing

When you’re building a new market category, blasting cold emails just won’t work. Wise Path needs to educate, build trust, and earn advocates—person by person.

Instead of lead gen campaigns, they focus on building connections. Their marketing at this stage is:

  • Getting as many references as possible
  • Building a network of trusted people
  • Gaining introductions through existing relationships
  • Treating every interaction as a potential multiplier for future growth

This stage isn’t about scaling fast—it’s about craftsmanship.

“It’s much less an automatic process than actually an artisanal process at this stage.”

Relationship-driven marketing lets Wise Path learn from real conversations, refine their message, and adapt to the true pain points of customers and stakeholders.

Gianluca’s story echoes the lesson: don’t buy what you don’t understand. Marketing must match the stage of the business. For early-stage startups building something new, a handcrafted, trust-first approach works. Scale comes later—after you know your message resonates.

AI as the “Co-CMO”

How does Wisepath pull off one-to-one marketing, global outreach, and content creation with a team of two?

Enter AI.

“I wouldn’t be able to be the Chief Marketing Officer of the company without AI. … It’s like having a person expert in marketing that explains things exactly the way I want to understand them.”

AI isn’t just a helper; it’s a partner, providing:

  • Fast learning on new topics
  • Deep research into customer backgrounds and tones
  • Summarizing big concepts for bite-sized pitches
  • Drafting and customizing outreach messages in targeted, personal ways
  • Polishing email tone and structure to maximize clarity and empathy

For Gianluca, AI enables Wisepath to replace an entire marketing department, stay nimble, and adapt quickly to what’s working (or not).

“If the point is to send an email … and be effective with that statement, who cares if artificial intelligence did it?”

The “artisanal” approach thrives with AI co-piloting. It means Wise Path can zero in on customer needs, experiment freely, and avoid the slow-moving bureaucracy of larger teams.

Favorite Tools and Building Custom Agents

When asked about their AI toolkit, Wisepath leans on:

  • ChatGPT and Claude for smarter, faster work—using one to double-check the other, just in case of “hallucinations.”
  • Ongoing experiments with building custom AI agents—preferring custom solutions over off-the-shelf marketing tools.

“We want to learn to build our own agents. … You can build that very quickly and with the tools that are available right now with an AI agent.”

For startups, the takeaway is clear: build processes that scale with your needs. Off-the-shelf tools are great for big corporations, but as a startup, crafting your own AI assistants can both save money and amplify impact.

Storylane: From Interactive Demos to SEO Breakthroughs

Joining a Fast-Growing Company

Next up, let’s follow the story of Storylane, and hear from their Head of Marketing.

Storylane is an “agent tech demo automation platform”—that is, it helps companies create interactive product demos that put buyers in the driver’s seat before they commit.

What drew Madhav Bhandari to join Storylane?

  • An exciting product category that was new, but already showing rapid revenue growth
  • A company that looked small, yet was already serving significant customers

This blend—real traction and untapped market potential—is what makes startup work so exciting.

Inside the Life of a Startup Marketing Exec

At Storylane, marketing is a team sport, but it’s also high-stakes and high-intensity. Here’s how Madhav breaks down the role:

  • Running day-to-day operations with an 8-person marketing team (plus contractors/agencies)
  • Overseeing various channels: brand, organic search, influencer partnerships, events, social ads, and outbound
  • Continuously searching for new growth experiments and channels
  • Filling talent/knowledge gaps as they arise, often acting quickly to solve resource shortages
  • Keeping a laser focus on the end goal: hitting a revenue number by year end

“On my head is sort of like this revenue number and by the end of the year I need to hit it. So anything I can do with the budget that I have to be able to get us there is primarily my responsibility.”

The Demo-First SEO Strategy

Storylane’s biggest win? “Demo-led SEO.”

This experiment completely rewired their content strategy. Instead of long blog articles, they created SEO-focused landing pages where the main content was a live interactive demo—no lengthy text, screenshots, or step-by-step guides.

How did it work?

  1. Find High-Intent Keywords: For example, “how to merge a custom field in Salesforce.”
  2. Build Targeted Demo Pages: Skip the wall of text. Show the answer through an interactive demo.
  3. Launch at Scale: Try 100+ pages. Measure which pages actually rank.

“Instead of writing like text to sort of answer, we basically just added a demo … it was just the title, the demo page and that’s it.”

The Results?

  • Half of demo pages ranked on page one
  • 1 in 5 pages hit position one
  • Traffic scaled from 20,000 to 220,000+ visitors per month in six months
  • Then tripled product-led growth (PLG) revenue
  • Major enterprise deals began closing as a direct result

“There’s not been a single month where we’ve had a dip in signups or dip in customers coming—like every month just been growing insanely.”

Storylane now produces about 400 demo pages per month, with 7,000 live at last count.

This radical move overturned the usual SEO playbook.

The State of SEO in 2025

Let’s talk industry trends. Is SEO dead? Clickbait headlines say yes, but the reality—according to practitioners at the cutting edge—is very different.

“SEO is not dying. I think it’s evolving.”

What’s Changed?

  • Cost to create content is near zero (thanks to AI)
  • Old playbooks (long-form posts packed with keywords) are outdated
  • Success now requires:
    • Pages with unique value (interactive demos, new structures or experiences)
    • Fast, accessible information (reducing “time to value”)
    • Recognition and credibility. Brand matters more than ever
    • Personal point-of-view content, backed by subject matter expertise

Page experience now means more than fast loading—it’s about surfacing value in new ways, like demos or interactive elements that help users solve problems instantly.

Brand, LLMs, and the SEO Future

The landscape is broader, too. Google, yes, but also AI-driven platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude now surface answers based on content authority and brand awareness. If users know your brand, they’ll trust and click it in AI-generated previews.

“If your brand is strong, you’ll get more clicks. … You’ll also get more traffic from LLMs. … The playbook is evolving, but if you evolve, you’ll still continue to get similar or actually better results.”

AI’s Role in Modern Marketing Teams

AI’s real gift? Punching above your weight. Storylane’s lean marketing team (just 8 people) covers the work of 20–25, thanks to smart use of AI.

  • “Right now we’re at a point where even though we’re a team of eight, we’re actually able to do the work of 20, 25 people.”
  • AI fills resource gaps—whether it’s copywriting, data research, content generation, or campaign support

“You have the best copywriter in the house. … We’ve launched massive campaigns that have taken us two months in like a week.”

With AI as a co-pilot, campaigns launch faster, teams stay lean, and the business can react to opportunities at startup speed.

Example Uses:

  • Refining and personalizing email outreach
  • Fast drafting for LinkedIn posts or blog updates
  • Research at record speed
  • Generating demo pages, collateral, or landing pages on the fly
  • Everyday project management and creative brainstorming

Even at only a “2 out of 10” adoption level, the improvements are striking.

How Creative Talent Fits In

Still, AI isn’t a silver bullet for everything. The most creative work—defining brand identity, high-level strategy, or nuanced campaigns—cannot be fully replaced by AI (at least, not yet).

“For the more bar basics like creatives, like for example, visual brand identity, you can’t give it to AI because there’s a lot of your own points of view that bring into that. … But for basic level things, like refining the copy for my website, that’s easy.”

So, where’s the line?

  • AI excels at: Lower-level creative and production work, refining messaging, supporting research, assembling landing pages, etc.
  • Humans excel at: Defining brand voice, overall creative direction, and crafting memorable campaigns from a unique, authentic perspective

The blend is key: let the best people do their best work, amplified by AI’s speed and breadth.

AI Tools in Everyday Marketing

A sample of Storylane’s daily AI toolkit:

  • ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity: For research, writing, generating and training models
  • Clay, Grain: Automating demos, building AI-driven qualification and support agents, mining call recordings for insights
  • Storylane’s own platform: Leveraging their own automation and demo creation to qualify leads and guide visitors instantly (see the inbound STR agent case)

“It’s a lot of … combination of existing apps plus the LLMs is how we’re using it.”

Practical Takeaways

After hearing from both Wisepath and Storylane, some core learnings stand out for startups and growth-focused marketers:

1. Build Trust Before Scale

  • For new products and markets, relationships are more valuable than bulk outreach.
  • Invest early in trust, references, and conversations. Scale comes after you find your fit.

2. Experiment Boldly

  • Don’t wait for permission—try new things!
  • Storylane’s demo-led SEO is a perfect example: break the template if it might work better for your ICP.

3. Match Marketing to Your Stage

  • Don’t buy complex solutions you don’t understand
  • Your approach must fit your product’s maturity and your market’s readiness

4. Embrace AI as Your Co-Pilot

  • AI can turn a small team into a marketing powerhouse
  • Use it for research, writing, outreach, and even building entire demo or landing page flows
  • But don’t expect it to replace all human creativity or empathy—blending is better

5. The New SEO Is About Experience and Brand

  • Deliver unique experiences (interactive demos, instant solutions, new formats)
  • Build a brand that buyers and algorithms both trust
  • Stay flexible and optimize for new platforms, including LLM search

6. Lean Into Building Custom AI Agents

  • For startups, customizing your own agents can offer more tailored solutions at a fraction of the cost of enterprise tools
  • Keep experimenting—today’s best AI toolkit is only the beginning

“We are all good at something, but we are not good at everything. And artificial intelligence right now … is allowing us to be good at other aspects as well.”

Want to connect with fellow growth marketers and keep leveling up? Consider checking out mastermind groups and advanced roundtable cohorts like the ones highlighted in the NTM Growth Marketing Podcast.

Final Thoughts

The world—and playbook—of growth marketing is changing rapidly. Whether you’re building a new category or scaling up what works, the most valuable skills are:

  • Willingness to experiment
  • Relentless focus on the customer’s problems
  • Using AI as both lever and amplifier (not a replacement for creative genius)
  • Building processes and teams that adapt and move at startup speed

And perhaps most of all: keep learning from those who’ve been there and are still figuring it out. The future is built one experiment, one conversation, and one happy customer at a time.

More Episodes

The School for Humanity Archive

Explore our archive of NTM’s original podcast, The School for Humanity, created to discuss the greatest challenges humanity faces and help promote those who are helping to find solutions. 

Skip to content