How do you build a marketing strategy for one of the fastest-moving markets in tech? And what can AI startups learn from the growth strategies behind OpenRouter and Notion?

In this episode of Brandformance, Pranav Piyush sits down with Andrew Silard, former growth marketing leader at Notion and fractional marketing advisor to OpenRouter, to explore how AI is changing developer marketing, brand building, and growth.

Andrew shares his experience helping OpenRouter expand its marketing efforts, from developer communities and organic adoption to paid media, SEO, YouTube, influencer partnerships, and events.

They discuss why developers still respond to strong brands, how AI agents are changing the structure of marketing teams, and why distribution matters in an increasingly competitive AI market.

In this episode:

• How OpenRouter approaches developer marketing and brand building
• Lessons from Andrew's experience at Notion and OpenRouter
• Why even developer-first companies need strong brands
• Building lean, AI-enabled marketing teams
• Finding new distribution channels in competitive markets
• Measuring marketing impact during hypergrowth
• What marketers should know about AI search visibility and AEO

Chapters:
00:00 – Developers Hate Marketing?
00:40 – Meet Andrew Silard: Notion to OpenRouter
02:01 – What Makes a Brand Stand Out?
03:42 – OpenRouter's Developer Marketing Strategy
09:44 – Do Developers Really Hate Marketing?
12:36 – Building an AI-Powered Marketing Team
17:12 – How AI Is Changing Growth Marketing
23:55 – Marketing in Competitive AI Markets
30:45 – SEO, AEO, and AI Search Visibility
34:09 – Measuring Marketing Impact at OpenRouter
36:15 – The Future of Community and Events

What do you think matters most for AI startups today: product, brand, or distribution? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Scaling an omnichannel consumer brand challenges traditional marketing measurement when customer purchase journeys split across digital DTC funnels and retail shelves. In this episode of Brandformance, Jessica Duncan, who leads data science and analytics at AG1, joins Pranav Piyush to explain why relying on a single metric fails and how growth marketing teams can evaluate overall marketing effectiveness across multi-product portfolios.

Drawing from years of hands-on econometric modeling and her background teaching AI and data storytelling at the University of Maryland Global Campus, Jessica breaks down what breaks in your data infrastructure when transitioning from one flagship product to omnichannel retail distribution. She details how to approach marketing attribution without channel bias, align cross-functional teams around shared definitions, and build credible cases for brand spend when finance leaders demand short-term proof.

In this episode, we cover:

• Multi-Product Analytics Shifts: What breaks in customer acquisition and LTV models when moving into retail environments where individual shoppers cannot be tracked.
• Customer Journey Attribution: Explaining multi-touch customer journeys using Markov chains without oversimplifying buyer behavior.
• Marketing and Finance Alignment: How to build scenario models with real data so stakeholders can stress-test assumptions collaboratively before budgets shift.
• Metric Integrity and the Semantic Layer: Why standardized metric definitions and a shared semantic layer keep analysts honest and prevent cherry-picked reporting.
• The Brand vs Performance Challenge: Why top-of-funnel brand marketing remains difficult to prove to finance, and the incrementality test Jessica would run with an unlimited budget.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:38 Teaching AI and Data Storytelling
02:48 Stop the Scroll: Landing Dashboard Insights
04:29 From Model Builder to Analytics Leader
06:53 Markov Chains, Twins, and Baby Shoes
09:10 What Broke When AG1 Went Multi-Product
12:00 Measuring DTC and Retail Together
13:30 LTV When You Can't Track Retail Customers
15:35 Getting Finance and Marketing Aligned
18:08 New Leaders and Measuring With Grace
20:44 Why There Is No One Number
24:59 Keeping Analysts Honest and Managing Bias
27:51 Building a Semantic Layer
29:44 The Brand Measurement Problem
32:10 The Test She'd Run With Unlimited Budget

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Sundar, a former Uber marketer and consultant helping CMOs defend marketing ROI, joins this week's episode of Brandformance with Pranav Piyush to break down why even teams with great measurement still struggle to win over their CFO, and how to close the gap between evidence and narrative.

With a degree in finance, a CFA, and years leading marketing, Sundar sits on both sides of the table. His take: CFOs aren't afraid of risk. They're afraid of surprises.

In this episode, we cover:

• Evidence vs. Narrative: Why an incrementality test is the evidence, not the story, and why marketers need to tell the story finance wants to hear.
• The Four Risks of Reallocating Budget: Leaving a channel you thought was working, betting on unproven channels, the time horizon, and the one marketers forget: keeping the CFO in the loop.
• Test and Learn Without Getting Burned: Setting incremental hurdles and leading indicators so finance sees progress before revenue shows up.
• From Channel to P&L: Translating channel-level results from MMM and incrementality tests into what the CFO actually sees across the business.
• Lag, Payback, and Cash: Why marketing impact takes quarters to show up, and why contribution margin and cash timing matter to finance.
• Swing Bigger: Why you should test on your biggest channel, not your smallest.
• The Trouble With Benchmarks: Why marketing benchmarks like a 3:1 LTV to CAC can replace critical thinking, and when finance benchmarks do make sense.
• Who Owns the Story: Why translating marketing impact for finance belongs to the CMO.

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:20 Why Great Measurement Still Fails With the CFO

01:50 Evidence vs. Narrative

03:07 The Four Risks of Reallocating Budget

08:55 Causal Evidence vs. Hypotheses

10:26 Test and Learn Without Getting Burned

13:40 Turning Leading Indicators Into P&L Impact

16:55 From Channel Results to the Full P&L

20:04 Lag, Payback, and Cash Timing

23:09 Swing Bigger: Test Your Biggest Channel

25:09 The Trouble With Benchmarks

29:11 Who Should Own the Story

31:22 What CMOs Are Asking Sundar Today