Adaptability, Brand Repositioning, and Business-Driven Marketing with Peter Mahoney of GoTo

ABOUT THE GUEST

Peter is the Chief Commercial Officer of GoTo (formerly CMO) and the founder and former CEO of Plannuh, a venture-backed software company providing the first AI-driven platform to automate marketing leadership. Before founding Plannuh, Peter spent more than 30 years as a marketing and product executive with experience as a CMO for startups through multi-billion dollar public companies, including voice and AI leader, Nuance Communications. Peter is also an active board member, angel investor, advisor, a sought-after public speaker, and the host of The Next CMO podcast. Peter has a large following on Twitter via his @nerdCMO account. Peter graduated from Boston College with a double major in Physics and Computer Science and still lives a stone’s throw away from campus with his wife and three adultish children.

EPISODE SUMMARY

On this special episode of The Next CMO Podcast, we’re pleased to introduce our new host, Scott Todaro. Scott puts former host and Chief Commercial Officer (formerly CMO) of GoTo, Peter Mahoney, in the hot seat as Peter reflects on his extensive career, starting from his unexpected entry into sales at IBM, moving through various executive marketing roles at companies like Nuance and ATG, and eventually founding Plannuh. Peter highlights his experiences with company repositioning, handling multiple acquisitions, and the importance of understanding the business impact of marketing decisions. As Peter transitions back to a leadership role at GoTo, he emphasizes the need for CMOs to align their strategies with broader business goals.

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction to The Next CMO Podcast
The Next CMO Podcast explores topics that are on the minds of forward-thinking marketing executives, from leadership and strategy to emerging technologies.

We bring these topics to life by interviewing leading experts in their fields.

The Next CMO is sponsored by Planful for Marketing, a leading marketing performance management solution that automates marketing planning, financial management, and ROI optimization.

It’s hosted by me, Peter Mahoney, an experienced CMO, CEO, board member, and executive advisor.

In this episode of the Next CMO podcast, we’re actually going to interview me. This is an opportunity for me to pass the torch for now, and I am thrilled to introduce the new host of the Next CMO podcast, my very old friend—he’s not that old, but we’ve known each other for many years—Scott Todaro. So, Scott, welcome to the show. Here’s the keys to the show. Go for it.

Thank you, Peter. Well, it’s an honor to take it over from you. I mean, only 118 episodes, but I get it. You’re very busy. You’ve got a big job and hundreds of people working for you now. I’ll keep the seat warm for you, and when you’re ready to come back, it’ll be here. Hopefully, you’ll join us from time to time on some of these episodes. Maybe we can tag team a couple of guests and really get all we can out of them.

Interviewing the New Host
So today, what I’d like to do for the first episode I’m hosting is interview you. Having known you for 23 years and watching your career, it’s been remarkable. I think CMOs out there can learn a lot from you. They probably already have, having read your book, watched the podcast, or participated in the webinars you’ve done.

By the way, our book, Scott. You and Dan are equal co-authors on the book.

Okay, well, I mean, yeah, that’s true. But, look, you’ve written a lot of great content—over 200 blog posts—to help CMOs. Talking to you, there’s nobody better to turn it over to when it comes to asking these types of questions. So what I’d like to do is start us with a chronological timeline. It would be great if you could fill in some details that will help other CMOs as they try to figure out their own journey. I know that after you left Boston College, you went to IBM, which was a starting point for you. So tell us about that.

Early Career Reflections
Yeah, that was an interesting time, back in the ’80s. I graduated from Boston College in 1987 with degrees in physics and computer science. People used to say, “What in the world are you going to do with that?” I knew I wasn’t going to go into physics—my dad was a PhD physicist, and I wasn’t nearly as smart as he was. So I used to joke with people, “I’ll do anything as long as I don’t have to sell something,” because I had this image of used car salesmen in plaid pants and white shoes.

Little did I know that would soon become my own fashion vibe.

I didn’t want to sell anything, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. A great advisor from Boston College helped me look through job listings every week. He mentioned a former student who was a systems engineering manager at IBM and suggested I try that. So I flung in a resume at IBM. Many weeks later, I had several interviews, and eventually, they asked if I would be interested in a marketing job instead. I said, “Marketing? Sure,” even though I had no idea what it was. I had never taken a marketing class—and still haven’t.

I showed up for my first day of work, and back then, there was no web-based onboarding. Instead, they handed me a five-foot stack of white binders to read. About three weeks in, I realized that marketing at IBM actually meant sales. I was in a sales job! It was freaky; I didn’t want to tell my family, a bunch of scientists, that I was in sales. But that’s how I got my first job, accidentally showing up in the wrong place.

Transitioning to Head of Marketing
After working in sales at IBM for five years, I joined a public company in Boston called PictureTel, which did video conferencing. I did business development and worked on some presentations for the GM of a division. One day, he shows up in my office and says, “I just fired the head of marketing. Would you take the job?” And I said, “Okay.” So, my first job in marketing was running marketing for a division of a public company, which made no sense, but I did it.

Navigating Company Growth and Acquisitions
After that, I transitioned to a small startup called PerformaWorks, which was my first opportunity to run marketing entirely. We grew the company, sold it, and I ended up working for Nuance, where I spent 13 years. When I started, we were about 650 employees, and by the time I left, we had grown to over 15,000 employees. I was CMO there for five years and was involved in over 100 acquisitions, which made integrating brands and repositioning the company a massive challenge.

Founding Plannuh and Vision Development
After Nuance, I was ready to move on and decided to start my own company, Plannuh The idea came to me when I realized that marketers needed a tool to plan and track their investments, similar to Mint for personal finance. I called you, Scott, and we had lunch, and the rest is history.

Navigating the Shift from CEO to CMO
After selling Plannuh to Planful, I decided to take on one more CMO gig. Now I’m at GoTo, working to accelerate growth. It’s a billion-dollar company, and I’ve been able to apply much of the methodology we’ve written about in our book.

Key Insights for Aspiring CMOs
The biggest advice I have for CMOs is to understand the business impact of what you’re doing and drive toward improving efficiency and performance over time. Running marketing is one thing, but leading marketing is about aligning your efforts with the company’s business goals and improving results as you grow.

Closing Thoughts and Future Directions
Thank you, Peter. Huge shoes to fill. Everyone, please make sure to subscribe and give us a great rating. We look forward to continuing to bring you great content in future episodes.