Juan Mendoza, a former senior marketing technology strategist, has been supplying vital insights into the martech industry since 2020 as an industry analyst, international keynote speaker, and the author of The Martech Weekly.
We asked Juan to name someone who had inspired him in his career…
Who is your digital hero?
My digital hero is Scott Brinker, an entrepreneur, marketing technology researcher, and author who goes by Chiefmartec. He’s also the VP of platform ecosystem at Hubspot.
What have they done to win hero status in your eyes?
Scott represents to me something that’s very rare in the marketing and advertising tech industry – an enduring and vibrant curiosity. Scott’s work in defining the marketing tech industry with the Cheifmartec and Martech Tribe Martech landscape supergraphic has inspired an entire generation of technologists, marketers, and entrepreneurs.
How has their heroism helped drive digital?
The fact that Scott Brinker and Frans Riemersma at MartechTribe release the Martech supergraphic with an interactive database every year for free is quite remarkable.
When I was starting out with TMW I was really inspired by this grassroots volunteering to build up the marketing technology industry. It’s heroic because the industry desperately lacks visibility into what solutions are out there for marketers. With more than 11,000 products and some estimates pegging the value of the martech industry at $344.8 billion.
The role of the supergraphic and Scott’s own writing on Cheifmartec as a free and accessible contribution to the industry has done a lot to define and explain what is going on in the marketing technology industry. It’s certainly played a large role in my own career and business development.
What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
The problem of assessing technology vendors continues to be a major issue in the marketing and advertising industry. What Scott and Frans have started is a way to see every marketing and advertising technology solution in one space. But there’s so much more we can do to assess the value, innovation, and potential of different marketing technologies.
Marketers are utilizing marketing technologies less in their business, and after 15 years of startups building tech for marketers, the industry is now saturated with competitors. But so much of what’s out there that assesses marketing tech is either behind closed doors and led by opaque vendor assessment practices we’re not privy to or is paid for on vendor marketplaces, enticing marketers to leave reviews in exchange for gifts. It’s a low-trust environment, which makes selecting, implementing, and getting commercial traction even more challenging for marketers.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I started writing The Martech Weekly three years ago to make sense of how the marketing tech industry is changing. Since then TMW has become a premium newsletters subscription business, we run two podcasts and collaborate with a wide variety of media companies including The Martech Podcast, Adexchanger, and WARC. But that is not enough!
I’ve recently announced our most ambitious product yet called TMW 100 – ranking from 1st to 100th place, the most innovative marketing technology companies globally. We’ve assembled an international panel of 12 judges and a unique people’s choice platform to give vendor assessments back to the community. Winners are flown out to Anaheim California for the award ceremony in front of 500 of the most senior marketing technologists, and we’re donating 5% of all application fees to She Loves Data, a non-profit organization helping more women build data and tech careers.
By far it’s my biggest personal capital investment, with the most to lose. We may fail badly! But as I’ve been inspired by Scott Brinker’s work to define the marketing tech industry, I’m excited to take this community-led approach for technology recognition to the next level. We’re wanting to improve how marketing technology vendors are assessed and to give visibility to the companies that can prove their innovation, not just the size of their content marketing budgets.
