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- How Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine - Lori Peters - EARLY RELEASE
How Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine - Lori Peters - EARLY RELEASE

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EARLY RELEASE
How Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine
In this episode, Owen sits down with Lori Peters, VP of Marketing at Document Crunch, to unpack the marketing playbook that took a construction tech startup from seed stage to Series B in record time. Lori pulls back the curtain on what actually works in AEC tech marketing, from building community-led growth engines to navigating the AI hype cycle while staying authentic.
Lori shares hard-won lessons from nearly a decade in construction tech marketing, including why the industry-standard advice to avoid conferences is dead wrong for AEC, how Document Crunch built their "Crunch Community" into a competitive moat, and the specific frameworks they use to prove marketing ROI in an industry that still values handshakes over clickthrough rates.
In this episode, you’ll:
Discover why Document Crunch's CEO wishes he'd hired marketing leadership before sales and what that means for your go-to-market strategy
Learn the exact framework for evaluating which conferences and associations deliver real pipeline versus vanity metrics
Understand how to operationalize word-of-mouth growth instead of just hoping it happens organically
Get insider perspective on marketing AI solutions in construction without falling into the "AI-washing" trap that's killing trust
Hear why generative engine optimization (GEO) might matter more than SEO for your next customer acquisition strategy
Learn how to build customer advisory boards that actually shape product and marketing—not just rubber-stamp your decisions
Chapters
00:00 - From Consulting to Construction Tech: Lori's Unconventional Path
05:30 - The Marketing Strategy That Helped Close Series A and B
12:30 - Why In-Person Still Dominates in Construction (And How to Make It Efficient)
18:45 - Building the "Crunch Community": Accidental Success or Strategic Genius?
24:15 - Expanding Beyond a Single Buyer Persona Without Diluting Your Message
29:17 - The Customer Advisory Board: Your Secret Weapon for Product-Market Fit
31:30 - Navigating AI Hype: How to Build Trust When Everyone's Skeptical
37:05 - The Partnership That Changed Everything: ABC's Role in Scaling Trust
43:30 - GEO vs SEO: Why Generative Engine Optimization Matters for Construction Tech
46:15 - Thought Leadership and Founder-Led Marketing: Still Critical or Overrated?
49:10 - Building a 9-Person Marketing Team: When to Hire Specialists vs. Generalists
51:50 - Lori's Predictions: Where Construction Tech Marketing Is Headed
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