She was CMO on the executive team that took Phase Forward through its turnaround and successful IPO. Kathryn Roy has helped dozens of the most successful and dynamic B2B companies such as IBM, Constant Contact, Avid, Computer Associates, Lotus, AT&T, Kronos, Phase Forward, and the list goes on and on. Kathryn, it's awesome you could be here today on our ninth episode. The best way I can think of doing this is by talking to people who have done it, people such as tech executive, strategic thinker, and angel investor Kathryn Roy. I am Sal Daher, and my goal for this podcast is to learn more about building successful, new companies. SAL DAHER: Welcome to Angel Invest Boston, conversations with Boston's most interesting angel investors and founders. 009 - "Knowledge Can Be a Problem" guest: KATHRYN ROY - Tech Executive, Strategic Thinker & Angel Investor
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DREAMS OF DESIRE EP 9 PROFESSIONAL
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Not Being Cut Out for Coding or Operations Research Did Not Discourage Kathryn Roy – She Knew Where She Could Better Use Her Acute Powers of Reasoning.Kathryn Roy Goes to a Dungeons & Dragons Company Next – Finds Her True Calling – Marketing & Behavioral Economics.Early Incarnation of Artificial Intelligence – Kathryn Roy’s First Experience in a Startup – Product in Search of Market – Classic Problem Described by Jeffrey Moore.Here are some of the topics covered in our conversation: The real benefit or the most important thing that you can do is understand the customer's needs, no matter how boring they are." “I think that's a challenge I see in a lot of companies, because you get marketing people and they want to work on fun things.You can get a customer quote, and they can talk about you, but when you brag about yourself, it is totally discounted by prospects.”
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“I always tell the companies I work with: never brag about yourself.Speaking about what companies should put on their websites she says: “What's really important is to let the visitor see, at a glance, what could you do for me? What problem could you solve, and do you solve it for other companies like me?”.Speaking about what she calls The Curse of Knowledge she says: “When you're steeped in a technical domain, you start talking to other people as if they have the exact same context in their heads.”.“The hardest thing about marketing and messaging is figuring out what you're not going to say.”.HERE ARE SOME QUOTES FROM OUR CONVERSATION: