288: Run Through Walls with Adam Coughlin

https://youtu.be/rADiqnrhgrk Adam Coughlin, Co-founder, CMO, and Managing Partner of York IE, is on a mission to help startups beat the odds by building strong, capital-efficient brands that resonate with their markets. We explore Adam’s Drumbeat Marketing Framework:Messaging & Positioning, Develop Unique Point of View, Execution, and Scorekeeping.He shares why brand consistency beats shiny-object syndrome, how vertical AI is redefining SaaS, and why startups need to balance storytelling with measurable impact. Adam also explains how to foster entrepreneurial thinking early and why founders must lead with a deep sense of purpose. --- Run Through Walls with Adam Coughlin Good day, dear listeners, Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. And my guest today is Adam Coughlin, co-founder, CMO and managing partner of York IE, where he works with startups on foundational messaging, content, communications, go-to-market strategy, website and digital marketing, revenue operations, and corporate storytelling. Welcome to the show, Adam. Yeah, thanks for having me, Steve. Appreciate it. Yeah, you guys are really a full-service shop. You do almost everything. So tell me, how are you guys unique, and what is it that makes you a superior solution for people? Yeah, absolutely. So the founding team of York IE, we all work together at a company called Dine here in New Hampshire that did the domain name system. And we built that company to about a hundred million of annual recurring revenue, got acquired by Oracle. While we were inside of Oracle, we kind of reflected on the growth journey that we took at Dine. And we felt that a lot of the legacy institutions that we turned to for growth help, whether that was our investors, our advisors, our vendors, they were operating out of antiquated models so that were really good for them, but not necessarily for us as the operators. And so that's what we wanted to disrupt. So in 2019, we launched York IE. We are an advisory and investment firm. So we help technology companies grow. We do that through investing in early stage exclusively B2B software companies. And then because we were operators, we also built a strategic advisory firm that does strategy and execution across the functional areas of R&D, go to market and G&A. Because we feel like we want to roll up our sleeves and help companies be successful.Share on X Yeah. So you're basically investing companies that advise them, help to improve them, and some you just advise them and don't invest. So it's a combination. Combination. Exactly. Right. And I think in addition to the advise, it's really important to get across that we do the execution because that is where companies need help. Especially early stage companies. A lot of those teams are small, they're dynamic, they have a good strategy, they just need help and take some things off their plates and we're there to help them with that. Sounds great. So that leads to my question. What is your personal “Why” and how are you manifesting it in your business? Yeah, absolutely. I think this is a great question. And my personal “Why” is I love entrepreneurs. I think that they are both visionary and builders and that they are pursuing their dreams in the effort to create something and build something that makes the world better. And I think that if they build good companies, then they hire good employees. Good companies have impacts on communities. Good companies build wealth.Share on X But unfortunately, the numbers are stacked against them. A large majority of startups fail, and I don't think that needs to be the case. And that's what I want to try to impact. If we can lower those numbers a little bit and help more founders and entrepreneurs succeed, then we're going to have a really positive impact on things because of all the good things that come from that success. Yeah, well, I couldn't resonate more with that.