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EARLY RELEASE
The $1B Startup’s Marketing Playbook

Colin Piper spent a decade scaling Autodesk Construction Cloud’s marketing operation to over 100 people. Now, as CMO of unicorn startup BuildOps ($127M raised, $1B+ valuation), he’s applying enterprise playbooks to one of construction’s most underserved segments: trade contractors.

In this conversation, Colin breaks down the marketing engine behind one of construction tech’s fastest-growing companies, from brand-to-demand funnels and account-based strategies to the surprising AI adoption data from BuildOps’ latest industry report. Whether you’re building a marketing function from scratch or optimizing a mature team, Colin’s frameworks translate directly to the bottom line.

In this episode, you’ll:

  • Learn how to structure a marketing team from your first hire through 100+ people, and which role should always come first

  • Discover the “incrementality testing” method BuildOps uses to prove ROI on brand campaigns that most companies can’t measure

  • Understand why 78% of trade contractors have already adopted AI workflows (and what’s actually stopping the other 22%)

  • Get the account-based marketing playbook for landing enterprise deals—including the physical “swag box” strategy that still works

  • Hear why Colin believes the labor shortage and burnout crisis are accelerating technology adoption faster than anyone expected

Chapters:

  • 00:00 – Introduction: BuildOps’ Unicorn Journey

  • 03:13 – Colin’s Path from Autodesk to Startup CMO

  • 05:46 – What Marketing Actually Means at Scale

  • 08:43 – Demand Generation Explained: The Three Legs

  • 11:20 – Account-Based Marketing Tactics That Close Enterprise Deals

  • 19:45 – BuildOps vs. Autodesk: Reaching Trade Contractors

  • 22:59 – Building Top-of-Funnel Awareness for a Growing Brand

  • 28:00 – Channels That Work: Where Trade Contractors Actually Are

  • 33:34 – Why Long-Form Research Reports Outperform Everything Else

  • 35:52 – Testing Marketing Campaigns: When to Invest, When to Kill

  • 41:27 – Offline Marketing: Events, Direct Mail, and Out-of-Home

  • 43:27 – How to Structure a Marketing Team from Day One

  • 46:05 – The Marketing Tech Stack Every Team Needs

  • 47:35 – AI in Marketing: Why Every Marketer Must Be AI-Enabled

  • 50:35 – The BuildOps AI Report: 78% Adoption and What It Means

  • 52:26 – Labor Shortage, Burnout, and the Case for Automation

  • 55:14 – How Trade Contractors Should Market Themselves

  • 57:52 – Gen Z and the Future of AI Adoption in Construction

  • 01:02:16 – Closing Thoughts and Where to Find BuildOps

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