Siz Degrees of Zack Rosenberg

1) If Beth {Comstock- SVP + CMO of GE) and Jeff Immelt (CEO of GE) told you to give up everything but one thing in digital marketing, what would you keep?

I don’t think we could get rid of social marketing. It has become the fabric for how we talk to people who share our passions in innovation, technology, and health.

Smart usage of Facebook along with Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, SocialCam, and increasingly LinkedIn make up the social eco-system for GE. One thing that is true for the GE brand is that the more people get to know us, the more they like us. They want to buy products, work at GE, or buy stock. I think social platforms allow us to bring forward our best selves. The average consumer can’t just walk into one of manufacturing locations, but we can invite them to virtually walk the factory floor or fly in a helicopter drone over a locomotive, and experience an aspect of GE in a rich, personal way.  Social platforms have allowed us to tell our best and richest stories in a transparent and authentic way.

2) What is your recommendation for how to best use content?

Content is foundational, but it’s inextricably linked with context. You can’t just be a content factory, pushing more and more out, but you need to think about content in terms of how it’s going to relate to a particular group of enthusiasts. I love how Noah Brier (co-Founder of Percolate) talks about content circulation in two ways (1) Content flow: Lightweight content and (2) Content stock (larger investment, permanent/semi- permanent). How you determine the rhythm of these two aspects is critical.

3) What makes someone a social media expert?

1) Peter Thiel recently started a fund for people to skip college as he believes that it’s a giant waste of time. Do you agree?

Peter is misdirected on that point. College is an important time not just to be a student, but to learn life skills. Social development relationship-building, emotional IQ, and other skills critical for a successful life beyond the vocational ones.

2) Is there a formula for being an entrepreneur?

I think great entrepreneurs are made in the first fifteen years of life. It is during those years that you develop the skills to handle adversity and uncertainty, develop resilience, and many of the skills involved in processing information and making decisions. I have the opportunity to teach at Harvard Business School and lecture at MIT and I can tell who the entrepreneurs are in my classes, within reason. They might not be successful the first time they start a company, or even the second time, but they possess the characteristics.

3) What is the most exciting part of being a VC?

I would say the most exciting thing is always to see the development and growth of people whether it be my colleagues who rise to become principals and partners,  or entrepreneurs who go on to start their own companies and grow as leaders. That is the greatest  

1) You’ve had an impressive career, congratulations! Was there a particular career path that you followed?
I’d really like to say that I had a planned trajectory, but I didn’t. I focused on having jobs I liked, were challenged and inspired by; working with brands and products I believed in, and with smart people. I focused on doing a great job and didn’t spend time on how to climb the ladder.

I came out of college with an international relations degree, and it was difficult to market the liberal art skills I acquired, so I entered a bank training program and became a commercial lender. What I discovered I loved was how to grow a business. After being a lender for 4 years, I realized the job was not going to change much, so I decided to go back and get my MBA.

While I was in graduate school, I decided on brand management and worked for Clorox, a classic CPG (consumer packaged goods) company. Conveniently, Clorox is near Silicon Valley and after several years in Brand I moved to the startup world. This was truly an incredible learning experience; I joined a start up where I was employee 27, we went public, and filed Chapter 11 (collapsed) –  all in 3.5 years. And during all of this, no one left the company due to the incredible culture that the company had built.
I then decided to start a company with my colleague. The company was called Rocketcash, and within two years Coca-Cola bought the company. We launched the first Sprite.com with a  big online under the cap promotion (which has since morphed into “My Coke Rewards” with almost 20mm members). I eventually moved to Atlanta to start building the Coca-Cola interactive marketing team, pushing the company to a digital mindset. I spent six years in North America and three years as the Global Head of Digital Marketing. I never thought I would stay for nine years, but the work was continuously challenging and rewarding.

Coming to ESPN as CMO was a great next job after leaving the number one brand in the world (Coca-Cola) to lead marketing for the ESPN, the world-wide leader in sport. I am once again challenged, inspired, making an impact, and working with great products and very smart people.

2) What have been the two most interesting projects you’ve worked on?
Coca-Cola was the first brand that Facebook worked with and it was exciting to be an early adopter of social as a marketing tactic.The Coca-Cola Facebook page was started by two big Coca-Colas fans, and then when the page jumped to over 1mm fans Facebook made us take over the page, but Dusty and Michael remained administrators. Now the Coca-Cola page is one of the largest brand pages with over 35 million active fans. One of the keys to Coke’s success was a Fan’s First focus.

Working on our new WatchESPN product that allows Fans to watch live ESPN TV on their tablet, mobile phone or computer means delivering for sports fans their dream come true. How many times do you find yourself unable to tear yourself away from a game, but you have to go somewhere? ESPN is transforming this behavior; you can now watch a game ornSports Center and never miss a  

1) What was your journey to becoming COO of Mashable?

Initially, I was working in Real Estate and ironically focused on community building. For fun, I began blogging and sending interesting and funny emails to my friends, realizing that I enjoyed the technology and community building aspect of my job best. In 1997, I built a site to increase my search rank on Google, focusing on leveraging my community of friends. In 2007, I began blogging again with community based columns.  and this is what I presented to Pete [Cashmore founder and CEO of Mashable]. I knew Mashable and its existing community read more of my style, with news around startups,  and social networking.

2) Is there a formula for Startups?

It comes down to blogging 101. Make sure you are writing and providing good content that is positioned well, and is relevant to your community. Be sure to include community building opportunities through easy share functionality.

1. How did you become a branding expert?The Internet was picking up when I was in middle school and I started creating websites around my various hobbies like wrestling and James Bond. I took these programming and design skills with me to high school, where I landed a sales internship my senior year doing sales.  I didn’t sell anything, but I learned a lot, especially that I wanted to look at creative/marketing in college. In order to get into Bentley, I did whatever it took to sell myself and got in. I worked as hard as I could transforming myself from a B student to an A student, holding eight internships, seven leadership positions, worked for a consulting firm, built websites; overall I made myself stand out. I had a never give up attitude.Everything clicked for me when a hiring manager at EMC Corporation saw “Reebok” on my resume and hired me strictly from this association. I realized the power of branding right there- having Reebok on my resume gave me credibility.During my time at EMC, I began a branding blog in August 1997, which combined technology with personal branding. I wrote 10-12 posts per week and began writing articles for AMA, Brandweek, About.com which led to Personal Brand Magazine (and Donald Trump on the first cover)!Ten years from the date of the Personal Brand Magazine, EMC gave me a promotion,  and I promoted Me 2.0 in April 2009.

2) Do you believe big brands matter?Brands matter, they just do! If you don’t know who I am, you can look at the other brands around me that you trust and build a connection from that. If you can graduate and get a job at a big company, it is a huge deal for the jobs after that. Build your brand by associations, which are why smaller companies want to partner with larger companies; press releases will get traction because of the larger brand and you get that by association.

3) How should the graduating class approach getting a job?The most important things to do is have a never give up attitude, be specific, and give 500%. Create your own marketing plan through the available technologies: LinkedIn profile, website, etc.  and pour everything into getting to the door. According to research, a lot of young people want a meaningful job rather than a paycheck. So if you can identify the few companies and jobs you would want to work for, my advice is to pour everything you’ve got into focusing on  

1) What drove you to start a non-profit and what are the challenges unique to a non-profit like Pencils of Promise?

My time spent backpacking in the developing world helped me to fall in love with the different cultures and experiences. I saw there was a desire for access to education in these communities and I wanted to be something that facilitated this. However, not in the traditional way NGO’s work with governments and for communities, instead I saw this as a way to work with the communities to develop systems they could sustain.

The challenges unique to a non-profit are a lack of funding resources. When you come from a non-profit perspective, you are accustom to asking for funding and guaranteeing ROI in dollars in return. While non-profits may not be able to always put an exact dollar on their returns, they can guarantee a return in terms of a contribution to an effort, a passion, good will, and inspiration. These challenges are easier than some realize, and for Pencils of Promise our staff, following, and motivation for an important cause help us approach this challenge.
2) Your following is enormous and enthusiastic, how did you build this base?

Word of Mouth is entirely responsible for the incredible following Pencils of Promise has. When Pencils of Promise started, I cited the music and bands that I love and have had true staying power through organic, grassroots growth; not the bands who have catapulted to success with one big hit.  We’ve used this approach with Pencils of Promise and have spent time investing in our community, rather than high-profile donors through a 360 degree engagement approach.

1) What led you to start this company? What was the whitespace you recognized?

I have always been an entrepreneur and since 13 have been primarily self-employed. After college, I founded a software company and an eCommerce business.  Both were sold in the late 90′s.  After which I was recruited by Walmart and spent 4.5 years before I got the itch to go out on my own again. I wanted to start a company that combined emerging technology and marketing acumen. I knew that this type of company would have relevance in the marketplace serving clients as well as be a great platform that we could use to launch other successful businesses. I believed that digital wasn’t just a marketing opportunity but that entire organizations were going to be transformed by digital innovations.  We positioned Rockfish, not as a digital agency, but as a digital innovation partner that could provide value to the entire organization.

2) What’s your advice to others trying to start a company?

Startups that become successful companies are a combination of the right idea at the right time by the right team.  As we are thinking about new businesses to start through Rockfish Labs or looking at investments through Rockfish Brand Ventures I ask myself three questions;

A) What makes this idea unique and why will it succeed?  There are a number of possible answers to that question and many startups have two or three good answers.  If you can’t clearly articulate an answer to this question then your startup will likely fail.

B) What conditions or innovations in the marketplace make this the right time for this idea?  Timing is often undervalued in what determines the ultimate success or failure of a company.  There’s a reason that pioneers die young and it’s rare that the first person with a good idea is the one who ultimately is able to capitalize on it.  I love startups that are taking advantage of market timing.

C) Why does the team have the right to win with this idea?  Rockfish is great at incubating companies but we rarely have the right leadership in place to commercialize our own ideas since all of our executives are focused on serving our clients.  Today when we are