Welcome to especially exciting episode of the Heartbeat Podcast! In this discussion, we dive into something near and dear to our hearts – our recent acquisition by demandDrive!
Conor is joined by Lindsay Frey, CEO of demandDrive, Andrew Kolidas, Chief Digital Officer, Chapin Bennett, COO, and Daniel Paul, President of demandDrive to chat about what brought us together, how the merger came about, and, most importantly, what it means for our clients moving forward. We also get into what it means to join our teams’ forces and why we’re so excited to bring a whole new kind of offering to the world of sales development and digital marketing–all to create a seamless, integrated solution for our clients.
Listen below and get in touch if you want to learn more!
Transcript below:
Conor Snell: Hey everyone, thanks for listening to the podcast! I’m Conor Snell, the Director of Content Strategy at demandDrive. I’m here with the leadership team from demandDrive, and we thought we’d chat a bit about the recent merger between demandDrive and Digital Impulse—what it means and how it will impact our clients. Let’s start with some introductions.
Andrew Kolidas: I’m Andrew Kolidas, Chief Digital Officer.
Lindsay Frey: Hi, I’m Lindsay Frey, CEO.
Daniel Paul: Daniel Paul, President of demandDrive.
Chapin Bennett: I’m Chapin Bennett, COO.
CS: Awesome, thanks guys. So, let’s dive in. Why combine the companies? What’s the purpose? How did it all come together? Tell me a bit about how you met and what the process of merging looked like.
LF: It feels like we’ve known each other for much longer than we actually have.
AK: It really does, absolutely.
LF: So, for a bit of background on demandDrive: Dan and I co-founded the company back in 2011 with the goal of helping B2B tech clients build and manage sales development teams, ultimately to help drive pipeline. Our focus was entirely on the sales side of demand generation. Over the next decade, we kept getting clients asking, “Can you help us more with top-of-funnel activities? Can you help us build brand awareness? Can you drive marketing leads? Can you help with our digital strategy?” And we didn’t really have an answer for that, so we’d refer them to a partner or another agency.
We also noticed that inside sales and sales development teams are much more effective when they have a strong marketing function behind them. So, when we went through a private equity transaction in early 2022, one of our main goals was making strategic acquisitions. Dan and I were specifically looking for a strong digital marketing agency we could partner with.
That’s when we met Andrew and Chapin, around late 2022, I believe?
AK: Yeah, that sounds about right.
LF: Before we started talking about acquisitions, we were just talking about how we could partner. It was great that you guys were local, right down the street from our office. We began by helping Digital Impulse with sales development—building an outbound, account-based motion to drive leads. So, we started with a working relationship, which eventually led to the acquisition. I’m probably talking too much here—anyone else want to jump in?
AK: Yeah, from our side, Digital Impulse launched around the same time as demandDrive, so there was already a lot of synergy. We engaged with demandDrive to help with sales. Digital Impulse has always been about digital marketing, creative design, and technology, focusing on lead generation through digital marketing programs. But we had never tried a traditional SDR program before, so we were really curious and excited to partner with demandDrive.
The SDR program was a success, and the SDR who was part of that program is now a core member of our staff. We saw the value of bringing these efforts together. Some of our clients were getting fantastic marketing results, but they’d say, “Hey, this program isn’t working.” We’d look at the leads and wonder why they weren’t successful. We realized that in B2B services, leads need nurturing and relationship-building. Our clients often wanted silver-platter leads—people asking for quotes—without engaging with those who needed more information first. We saw a huge opportunity for our clients to benefit from the great sales resources demandDrive offers.
On the other hand, we could drive so much bottom-funnel activity with web design and technology that complements marketing efforts. It was one of those cases where one plus one equals three. It just made sense.
CB: I agree. It’s funny because we both had similar types of clients, but the opposite problem. You were generating leads that weren’t closing, while we were marketing without being able to close the leads. It was the perfect marriage of two companies, creating a one-stop shop for our clients.
CS: That’s awesome. It makes a lot of sense. So, it’s been about a year now. How has the integration changed your day-to-day operations? How do you practically combine a marketing and sales team?
AK: That’s a great question. There are so many variables—people, systems, technology, alignment. The first step is aligning the hearts and minds of your team. One big reason for the merger was to give our people new opportunities. We’ve got so many homegrown employees who started their careers at Digital Impulse, and we wanted to give them more room to grow. Joining a 400+ person company opens a lot more doors than a 35-person company.
But of course, that adds complexity—new relationships, roles, systems. I think the key is compromise, but not just for the sake of it. It’s about objectively looking at processes, people, and systems, and figuring out how they fit together. We’re about a year in, and I think we’ve made tremendous progress. The teams are coming together, and we’ll soon be operating under a unified brand. It’s been an accelerated timeline, but we’re nearly there, and it’s been mostly organic thanks to everyone’s hard work.
LF: I love what you said about giving employees more opportunities. A lot of the SDRs we hire are early in their careers, fresh out of college, and they don’t always know where they want to go next. Many have an interest in sales and marketing, but some discover they’re more interested in marketing. So, when we told them about the merger, they were excited to get more exposure to that side of the business. We’re already seeing some of that happen, and it’s been great.
Plus, we’re all in the same office now, which helps a lot. We’re still working through the process, but it’s going well.
DP: Yeah, I think the services side was a natural fit. That was probably the easier part. The harder part is navigating internal changes, especially with a merger. We’re about a year in, and I think we’ve made great progress. The teams are close, and we’ve had successful engagements with clients. Now, the focus is on bringing the brand together, which we’re really excited about. Conor, I’m sure you’re getting to it, but we’re going to be launching our new collective brand at HubSpot Inbound, which we’re super excited about. That’s the next piece of the puzzle.
CS: What are you most excited about for the launch?
LF: Number one, we’re hoping to launch the new website and branding. We’ve got a lot of clients attending, so it’ll be great to see them in person. We’re also hoping to meet new potential clients who may know us but don’t know about our integrated offering.
DP: Exactly. We’re really excited to bring this message to market. There are other companies out there that offer sales and marketing services, but they tend to be primarily focused on one or the other. We’re different—we’ve got two industry-leading services coming together to solve the problem Andrew described. Sales and marketing are notorious for not working well together, so we’re really excited to bring that integrated approach to the market.
AK: Our people are also a big part of our differentiation. It’s hard to quantify that on a website, but we’re eager to get out there, meet people, and show what we’re all about. We’re not a salesy company—it’s all about providing value, and this is a great opportunity to demonstrate that.
CB: I agree. Inbound is going to be where we really plant our flag—new brand, new website, new service offering. It’s exciting to see where things go from there.
CS: If you’re going to Inbound, come say hi. Otherwise, check out demandDrive.com to see what we’re offering.
LF: Thanks so much, Conor!
CS: Thanks, everyone!
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