AI Companies Are Taking a Lot of The Good Marketers

Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Eric Siu and Neil Patel

Careers, Business, Marketing

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Eric and Neil talk about how AI companies are outbidding everyone for elite marketers, why many would join an AI rocket ship if starting today, and the reality of 996 work cultures. They debate “hire fast, fire fast,” share real exec hit rates and expectation-setting, and double down on why sales follow-up beats first-touch wins. They also cover AI-powered outbound (doing work upfront to earn meetings), an AI artist’s $3M record deal, AI podcast farms flooding feeds, and why human connection and events will matter even more amid the AI content surge. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) AI companies scooping top marketers & comp packages (02:00) Lindy, 996 expectations, and why AI roles are irresistible (03:50) Hire fast, fire fast? Real exec success rates & culture fit (10:54) Follow-up > first touch: email cadence, value-first outbound (15:00) AI artist $3M deal, podcast farms, and why human connection wins 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HOSTS Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel FREE RESOURCES (dont change) Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Transcript

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0:00.0	You have one here around how AI companies are taking a lot of the good marketers.
0:04.6	Dude, I've been getting a lot of requests from venture funded startups that raise between
0:08.8	$10 and $50 million.
0:11.3	Like, hey, we're in growth mode right now.
0:14.5	Do you know any amazing marketers we can hire?
0:18.1	And they're usually asking me for people who work in office,
0:22.7	typically in San Francisco. That's the most common city requests that I get. I do get every
0:28.1	once in a while, LA, but it's mainly San Francisco. Every once in a while, also get Seattle,
0:32.5	Washington, because they used to live there. But it really is mainly SF. And I know a lot of great growth marketers, but almost all of them work for the AI
0:43.2	companies.
0:44.6	And I've asked a few of them if they're interested in jumping ship.
0:48.7	And they're like, dude, they're like, my comp is so high.
0:51.6	The comp is so good.
0:52.5	Yeah.
0:52.9	Yeah.
0:53.2	And then I'm like, oh, is it because shares?
0:55.3	I'm like, oh, there's probably liquidation preferences when some of these companies raise, you know, like 10 billion, two billion, whatever it may be. And they're like, yes, it's shares, but they'll, and they once they told me their salary, I'm like, oh, okay. It's both they're like, yeah, they're paying extremely competitive salaries if not more than market rate.
1:12.5	Yeah.
1:12.8	And I'm getting shares.
1:14.1	So they're like, it's both that are like, yeah, they're paying extremely competitive salaries if not more than market rate.
1:12.4	Yeah.
1:12.8	And I'm getting shares so that it's hard to find a job that pays as much cash.
	...

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