Masters in Business
Joanne Bradford on the Power of Marketing
Thu May 02 2024Description
This episode features Joanne Bradford, who has had a successful career in technology, marketing, and finance. She shares insights from her experiences at Microsoft, Yahoo, SoFi, and Honey. The episode covers topics such as entrepreneurship, growing startups, financial planning, empowerment of women, gender bias, and advice for recent graduates. Joanne emphasizes the importance of innovation, financial control, and taking calculated risks. She also recommends resources for those interested in finance careers.
Insights
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Understanding Challenges Faced by Colleagues
Insight, awareness, and empathy can help in understanding the challenges faced by colleagues and lead to healthier companies.
Joanne Bradford's Career Journey
Joanne Bradford has had a successful career in technology, marketing, and finance with notable roles at Microsoft, SoFi, Yahoo, Pinterest, and various startups. She transitioned from Business Week to becoming the Chief Revenue Officer at MSN during a challenging time for online advertising. At Microsoft, Joanne Bradford played a key role in growing revenue significantly through innovative strategies like forming the Hulu consortium and securing an investment deal with Facebook. Joanne Bradford's experience at Microsoft taught her about the increasing importance of online advertising and the need to convince major companies to invest in digital marketing.
Challenges and Failures in Startups
The speaker shares their experiences working at Microsoft and Yahoo before transitioning to entrepreneurship. They discuss the challenges and failures faced while working at a startup and emphasize that most startups do not succeed. The speaker highlights the impact of algorithm changes on businesses, urging creators to diversify their platforms. After successful stints at Demand Media and Pinterest, the speaker joined SoFi to work on student loan refinancing, driven by a passion for financial education.
Growing SOFI and Honey
The speaker joined a company called SOFI and helped grow it from $10-20 million in loans per month to $1.5 billion of student loans and personal loans per month. SOFI focused on underwriting high-quality loans for students with high loan debt, aiming to prevent defaults. A key insight was that people were more likely to refinance their loans if they could save at least $388 a month. The speaker later joined Honey, a coupon code company, and helped it become successful by simplifying the process of finding and applying coupon codes. Honey's marketing strategy targeted gamers and YouTube influencers to reach a wide audience.
Success and Acquisition of Honey
The marketing team effectively told a clear story to consumers, leading to action. Honey's revenue model was affiliate-based, ensuring a cut of transactions without selling consumer data. Founders faced rejection from Silicon Valley VCs before finding success with Anthos and private investors. PayPal's acquisition of Honey for $4 billion was driven by adding 20+ million new active users and strategic benefits. COVID-19 positively impacted Honey's online shopping platform after the PayPal acquisition. The speaker emphasizes the importance of evaluating company performance metrics and values when considering investments.
Startups and Financial Planning
The speaker is open to innovative ideas and products like coupon codes, financial engineered products, and startups with unique offerings. The speaker discusses startups they have advised or are advising, including a travel money-saving app, a company building AI technology for managing trusts and estates, and their own startup Domain Money focused on financial planning. Domain Money offers financial planning services like the OnePage plan that analyzes spending and investments to provide actionable recommendations for a fee. The target market for Domain Money is individuals around 38 years old who need help with financial planning but are not looking for traditional AUM advisors. Domain Money has notable partners such as early engineers from Amazon Web Services, Mark Benioff, Ashton Kutcher, among others.
Empowerment and Women's Roles
Domain Money, a startup focused on providing financial control to individuals, has attracted quality investors and talent. The founder of Domain Money emphasizes the importance of financial control in people's lives and aims to deliver an exceptional experience. The transcript also discusses the evolution of women's roles in male-dominated fields like technology and finance. Women supporting each other, convening, and showcasing success is highlighted as crucial for empowerment and normalization. Encouraging women in organizations to network, take on responsibilities, and present ideas can lead to career advancement despite initial resistance.
Gender Bias and Challenging Career Opportunities
Gender bias was not perceived in the approach of a certain individual who emphasized giving opportunities based on merit. Creating spaces for women to convene and share information can have positive impacts on their well-being and productivity. The interviewee has a history of taking on challenging career opportunities during times of upheaval, which may be attributed to seeking new territories and industries.
Passion for Building and Exploring
The speaker enjoys the excitement of building and exploring new territories and industries. They believe in taking calculated risks and have had success with their ventures. The speaker focuses on financial well-being, female leadership, and resale as key areas in their life. They are working on projects related to the resale market, particularly community-based products like social selling platforms. Mentors like Paul Janssen and Steve Bomber have influenced the speaker's career path. The speaker is currently reading 'Midnight Express' and 'Financially Fearless' among other books. They recommend 'Wall Street Skinny,' an Instagram channel run by two women for those interested in finance careers.
Advice and Recommendations
Advice for recent graduates interested in finance and technology: Do your research, read annual reports, and analyze SEC filings. Importance of doing spec work when starting off in a career. Advice on branding: Keep it simple to make it easy for customers to understand and follow. Promotion of a podcast called The Money featuring 10-minute conversations with experts about money management and investing
Chapters
- Joanne Bradford's Career
- Transition to Entrepreneurship
- Growing SOFI and Honey
- Success and Acquisition of Honey
- Startups and Financial Planning
- Empowerment and Women's Roles
- Gender Bias and Challenging Career Opportunities
- Passion for Building and Exploring
- Advice and Recommendations
Joanne Bradford's Career
00:01 - 08:09
- Joanne Bradford has had a successful career in technology, marketing, and finance with notable roles at Microsoft, SoFi, Yahoo, Pinterest, and various startups.
- She transitioned from Business Week to becoming the Chief Revenue Officer at MSN during a challenging time for online advertising.
- At Microsoft, Joanne Bradford played a key role in growing revenue significantly through innovative strategies like forming the Hulu consortium and securing an investment deal with Facebook.
- Joanne Bradford's experience at Microsoft taught her about the increasing importance of online advertising and the need to convince major companies to invest in digital marketing.
Transition to Entrepreneurship
07:40 - 15:16
- The speaker shares their experiences working at Microsoft and Yahoo before transitioning to entrepreneurship.
- They discuss the challenges and failures faced while working at a startup and emphasize that most startups do not succeed.
- The speaker highlights the impact of algorithm changes on businesses, urging creators to diversify their platforms.
- After successful stints at Demand Media and Pinterest, the speaker joined SoFi to work on student loan refinancing, driven by a passion for financial education.
Growing SOFI and Honey
14:57 - 22:38
- The speaker joined a company called SOFI and helped grow it from $10-20 million in loans per month to $1.5 billion of student loans and personal loans per month.
- SOFI focused on underwriting high-quality loans for students with high loan debt, aiming to prevent defaults.
- A key insight was that people were more likely to refinance their loans if they could save at least $388 a month.
- The speaker later joined Honey, a coupon code company, and helped it become successful by simplifying the process of finding and applying coupon codes.
- Honey's marketing strategy targeted gamers and YouTube influencers to reach a wide audience.
Success and Acquisition of Honey
22:08 - 29:32
- The marketing team effectively told a clear story to consumers, leading to action.
- Honey's revenue model was affiliate-based, ensuring a cut of transactions without selling consumer data.
- Founders faced rejection from Silicon Valley VCs before finding success with Anthos and private investors.
- PayPal's acquisition of Honey for $4 billion was driven by adding 20+ million new active users and strategic benefits.
- COVID-19 positively impacted Honey's online shopping platform after the PayPal acquisition.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of evaluating company performance metrics and values when considering investments.
Startups and Financial Planning
29:03 - 36:37
- The speaker is open to innovative ideas and products like coupon codes, financial engineered products, and startups with unique offerings.
- The speaker discusses startups they have advised or are advising, including a travel money-saving app, a company building AI technology for managing trusts and estates, and their own startup Domain Money focused on financial planning.
- Domain Money offers financial planning services like the OnePage plan that analyzes spending and investments to provide actionable recommendations for a fee.
- The target market for Domain Money is individuals around 38 years old who need help with financial planning but are not looking for traditional AUM advisors.
- Domain Money has notable partners such as early engineers from Amazon Web Services, Mark Benioff, Ashton Kutcher, among others.
Empowerment and Women's Roles
36:09 - 43:49
- Domain Money, a startup focused on providing financial control to individuals, has attracted quality investors and talent.
- The founder of Domain Money emphasizes the importance of financial control in people's lives and aims to deliver an exceptional experience.
- The transcript also discusses the evolution of women's roles in male-dominated fields like technology and finance.
- Women supporting each other, convening, and showcasing success is highlighted as crucial for empowerment and normalization.
- Encouraging women in organizations to network, take on responsibilities, and present ideas can lead to career advancement despite initial resistance.
Gender Bias and Challenging Career Opportunities
43:31 - 51:10
- Gender bias was not perceived in the approach of a certain individual who emphasized giving opportunities based on merit.
- Creating spaces for women to convene and share information can have positive impacts on their well-being and productivity.
- The interviewee has a history of taking on challenging career opportunities during times of upheaval, which may be attributed to seeking new territories and industries.
Passion for Building and Exploring
50:49 - 57:56
- The speaker enjoys the excitement of building and exploring new territories and industries.
- They believe in taking calculated risks and have had success with their ventures.
- The speaker focuses on financial well-being, female leadership, and resale as key areas in their life.
- They are working on projects related to the resale market, particularly community-based products like social selling platforms.
- Mentors like Paul Janssen and Steve Bomber have influenced the speaker's career path.
- The speaker is currently reading 'Midnight Express' and 'Financially Fearless' among other books.
- They recommend 'Wall Street Skinny,' an Instagram channel run by two women for those interested in finance careers.
Advice and Recommendations
57:27 - 1:02:32
- Advice for recent graduates interested in finance and technology: Do your research, read annual reports, and analyze SEC filings
- Importance of doing spec work when starting off in a career
- Advice on branding: Keep it simple to make it easy for customers to understand and follow
- Promotion of a podcast called The Money featuring 10-minute conversations with experts about money management and investing