Latest / Sales Pipeline Radio / Only Humans Can Build Trust: Where AI Fits in the Engagement Stack

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Only Humans Can Build Trust: Where AI Fits in the Engagement Stack · Sales Pipeline Radio

• 0:15
  Matt Heinz: All right, welcome back to a special set of recordings
• 0:18
  for Sales Pipeline Radio.
• 0:19
  We're here live in Boston at the Omni Hotel and Seaport
• 0:23
  at the Webflow Conference.
• 0:25
  It's been a great day so far — really cool energy from the people that are here.
• 0:29
  This is not one of my typical marketing crowds.
• 0:32
  This is definitely a little more developers, more creatives, more agencies.
• 0:37
  Way cooler people than I normally hang out with, much better dressed.
• 0:41
  I was gonna wear a suit today, and I decided maybe to wear jeans and a jacket
• 0:44
  instead, and I still feel overdressed.
• 0:46
  But it's a pretty awesome crowd here.
• 0:48
  Oana Manolache: You're very well-dressed, Matt.
• 0:51
  You can easily come across as a creative.
• 0:53
  You have a creative mind, you can see that.
• 0:55
  Matt Heinz: I definitely don't look that way.
• 0:56
  I look like I came from a very different… I walked
• 0:59
  out of the wrong conference.
• 1:00
  Very excited to have on this episode of Sales Pipeline Radio here, Oana Manolache.
• 1:05
  She is the founder and CEO of Sequel.io.
• 1:08
  Did I say that right?
• 1:10
  Oana Manolache: Yes.
• 1:10
  Matt Heinz: Okay, excellent.
• 1:11
  All right.
• 1:12
  I've been told that the C-H in Romanian is more of a hard K.
• 1:15
  Oana Manolache: Oh, people don't usually know that.
• 1:17
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 1:17
  Well, that's thanks to my friend Claude.
• 1:19
  He helped me out on that significantly.
• 1:20
  We mentioned earlier, small world, I got a friend in Seattle, also
• 1:24
  from Romania, and lives in Seattle, and also is an entrepreneur.
• 1:28
  So I don't know what it is about the Romanian air.
• 1:30
  It breeds successful entrepreneurs, I guess.
• 1:32
  Oana Manolache: We're scrappy.
• 1:34
  Matt Heinz: Scrappy.
• 1:35
  He has a lot of interesting communist jokes that he tells
• 1:39
  that aren't always jokes.
• 1:40
  But anyway, I wanna talk about what you've built here, because this was
• 1:44
  a pivot to going to Sequel from your previous business, and now you've
• 1:49
  got an evolution to what you're calling the Agentic Engagement Cloud.
• 1:52
  Maybe just quickly talk about the growth of this business from the beginning.
• 1:59
  Oana Manolache: I don't think we've ever pivoted.
• 2:00
  I think it's a matter of how we're seeing marketing changing and shifting
• 2:05
  in the past few years, and the evolution, I think, is a better word for it.
• 2:10
  We started — obviously video is at the heart of everything that we do — but we do
• 2:15
  see that the most important thing that a marketing team can do right now is build
• 2:18
  a global audience, because that audience gives you so much more than just pipeline.
• 2:22
  It gives you content, brand, trust in the market.
• 2:26
  It fuels your website.
• 2:27
  It fuels your AEO strategy.
• 2:30
  It fuels your messaging, and of course, it fuels your pipeline and revenue.
• 2:34
  And because we've seen so many of our customers — like Clay, ElevenLabs, now
• 2:40
  Webflow, and so many others — building these massive audiences with video at
• 2:44
  heart, and you can call them webinars, which is kind of a more old-school
• 2:48
  term, but they're live streams, and master classes, and video streams,
• 2:53
  like Clay's doing — how Clay is Clay, which is so successful, and they've
• 2:58
  built a massive audience for it.
• 3:00
  It was a natural evolution for us to kind of step into this audience
• 3:06
  management platform that we are right now.
• 3:09
  Video is very much still at heart — live video, on-demand, live stream, however
• 3:14
  you want to do video — but building that audience and tracking how your
• 3:18
  audience is engaging across your video strategy and website content is
• 3:22
  so important to know how to approach every single person and build that
• 3:26
  personalized communication at scale.
• 3:29
  So this is what we're seeing with Sequel and stepping into this kind of engagement
• 3:34
  agentic cloud, deploying the agents on the content that we're delivering.
• 3:40
  Matt Heinz: I'm keying in on the word engagement, right?
• 3:41
  'Cause I feel like that's really where the best video and
• 3:44
  integrated platforms are going.
• 3:46
  When I think webinar, I think it's too often locked into that old
• 3:50
  adage of, like, okay, you show up and get lectured to for 45 minutes.
• 3:53
  It's kind of almost as bad as the white paper, which we still talk about,
• 3:56
  and most good, quote-unquote, "white papers" aren't white papers at all.
• 3:59
  They're engaging, they're interactive.
• 4:01
  They're incomplete unless you customize and personalize it.
• 4:05
  You said in the past, webinar isn't obsolete.
• 4:07
  The idea of a webinar isn't necessarily obsolete.
• 4:10
  The idea that its software should stop at the webinar is.
• 4:13
  And so talk about that importance of the engagement side and how
• 4:17
  that is keeping this format, in whatever we call it, very much alive.
• 4:21
  Oana Manolache: I mean, first of all, there's very few things as
• 4:23
  bad as a white paper right now.
• 4:25
  But yeah, you are right.
• 4:26
  Like, I think the webinar — and that's why it's the evolution of video strategies
• 4:31
  — is not just, like, the webinar itself.
• 4:32
  You put together a webinar, you have, like, 400 people
• 4:34
  coming, and then that's it.
• 4:36
  You probably get, like, a thank-you-for-joining email.
• 4:38
  That's just not the way to do it anymore, and I think that if that's
• 4:41
  your strategy, then you should probably put that budget somewhere else, because
• 4:44
  it takes time and effort to build a webinar and build a video strategy.
• 4:48
  The reason why we called this the engagement cloud is because
• 4:52
  understanding your audience engagement unlocks everything.
• 4:56
  And it's not just, like, the poll, the question, the chat.
• 4:59
  It's understanding, for example, Matt came to this webinar, he engaged this
• 5:03
  way, went on an enterprise page, went on the pricing page, came back to, like,
• 5:07
  an in-person dinner event, and then watched, like, four other sessions.
• 5:10
  Someone else from the company took different actions.
• 5:14
  Understanding what each person is doing across all of the content
• 5:18
  pieces — through your video, through the website — and using that data to
• 5:23
  create personalized communication and continuing that engagement is what's
• 5:28
  really making this a huge unlock.
• 5:29
  Creating webinars is not hard, and I think people should not continue
• 5:33
  doing that if it's just a webinar.
• 5:35
  Building an audience is where the biggest unlock for pipeline is right now.
• 5:39
  Matt Heinz: I love that you're using AI to create a more human
• 5:43
  approach to engagement, right?
• 5:45
  This isn't about taking the human out of it.
• 5:47
  It's about adding more human into it.
• 5:49
  And even if some of those are digital channels and digital delivery,
• 5:53
  if I'm the recipient of that, I don't feel disrespected because
• 5:55
  you're spying on my activity.
• 5:57
  I feel like you took the time and effort to make something more relevant to me.
• 6:02
  Oana Manolache: That's exactly why we call this human moments, agentic momentum,
• 6:05
  because video is at the heart of it.
• 6:08
  And you're seeing this with movies, right?
• 6:09
  Like, you're watching a movie, you love the actors, you build a kind of
• 6:13
  relationship, some sort of feeling towards that, and it's the same
• 6:16
  with video strategies for brands.
• 6:18
  Brands know the one thing that AI can't do right now, which is build trust.
• 6:24
  Matt Heinz: Mm-hmm.
• 6:24
  Oana Manolache: Only humans can build trust with other humans, and video
• 6:28
  is a perfect way to do that at scale.
• 6:30
  Do, like, master classes, fireside chats, behind-the-curtains what's
• 6:35
  happening — building in public is how we build relationships with humans.
• 6:39
  That's why even on LinkedIn, company pages are not as great as the founder's
• 6:43
  pages or the CMO's pages — it's because people build relationships with humans.
• 6:47
  That said, that relationship can't be scaled as much if you don't use AI.
• 6:52
  So you keep the human moments, the content, but then you take agents
• 6:57
  and AI to amplify that and surface intent and data that otherwise
• 7:02
  you wouldn't be able to get.
• 7:04
  Matt Heinz: Recording here live at the show floor for the Webflow
• 7:08
  Conference with Oana Manolache.
• 7:10
  She is the founder and CEO of Sequel.
• 7:13
  You've been busy — you just recently launched this agentic engagement cloud.
• 7:18
  I mean, there's so many cool features, engagement features in here.
• 7:21
  There's an MCP server included in it as well.
• 7:23
  But you're busy while you're here, so this entire conference is on
• 7:28
  your platform, and you have a panel tomorrow that I'm excited for — how
• 7:31
  CMOs are adapting in the age of AI.
• 7:34
  I'm curious, as you prep for that, give us a little preview.
• 7:37
  This is gonna drop way after the panel, so we're not doing any giveaways here.
• 7:41
  But what are some of the things you're seeing CMOs do to really continue
• 7:46
  to keep their foot on what's still important — the things that are
• 7:49
  evergreen — but also evolve their teams and their go-to-market strategies?
• 7:52
  Oana Manolache: I mean, first of all, indeed, this conference is buzzing.
• 7:54
  It's incredible what Webflow was able to put together, and it's a testament to
• 7:58
  the leadership of the company — Linda, and Dave, and Guy — as well as the
• 8:03
  entire team that put it together.
• 8:04
  So shout out to Mark and Trevor.
• 8:07
  And we're very excited to be partners with them, for Webflow to be a customer
• 8:10
  of ours as well, like you said.
• 8:12
  It's live streaming directly into their website.
• 8:14
  They have thousands of people joining live.
• 8:15
  They have incredible energy in person.
• 8:17
  It just goes to show that you don't have to choose.
• 8:21
  When you build an incredible experience, when you build trust
• 8:24
  with your audience, you can combine really well an in-person and virtual
• 8:28
  activation, and be very thoughtful.
• 8:30
  I'm very excited for the panel tomorrow.
• 8:32
  I'll be on the panel with Dave, and I will host my own panel, and we have
• 8:37
  the CMO of Zapier, Kustomer with a K, and Workhuman, as well as the head
• 8:42
  of product marketing at Profound.
• 8:44
  So very interesting perspectives from senior leaders thinking about how their
• 8:49
  website has changed in the past year even.
• 8:52
  I feel like AI has changed the way we're doing marketing, and websites
• 8:56
  have had the biggest impact on that.
• 8:58
  And it's, you know, every single discovery question is starting in ChatGPT or in
• 9:04
  Claude, so knowing how to design and build your website in such a way that
• 9:09
  your brand can be surfaced in those AI models — otherwise you won't be a part of
• 9:15
  the conversation — is really important.
• 9:16
  So a lot of leaders are thinking about their websites, building them
• 9:20
  both for machines and humans, because if you just build them for machines,
• 9:23
  the moment that humans are coming in there, they will not have the
• 9:25
  trust to continue the buying journey.
• 9:28
  At the same time, if you don't build for machines as well,
• 9:31
  then you're not gonna show up in those ChatGPT and Claude prompts.
• 9:35
  So how do you build a website to satisfy both audiences is gonna be really key.
• 9:39
  That's one of the topics for the conversation for the panel.
• 9:43
  And the second thing is, how do you make your website intelligent?
• 9:45
  How do you make it engaging?
• 9:46
  How do you make it personalized?
• 9:49
  And right now, I think the expectation of every single buyer
• 9:52
  is that it should be personalized.
• 9:54
  You know so much about every single person, so how do you build those
• 9:57
  personalized experiences that dynamically change based on what
• 10:01
  they're looking for is gonna be really key for every single brand thinking
• 10:04
  about their website in the next year.
• 10:07
  Matt Heinz: All right.
• 10:07
  So I wanna go a little bit into background before I get to this next question.
• 10:10
  Born and raised in Romania.
• 10:12
  Both of your parents are entrepreneurs.
• 10:14
  You moved to the UK when you were 18.
• 10:16
  You've been named Forbes Romania's 30 Under 30.
• 10:19
  You now live in the Bay Area, and I know you've mentioned that you feel just as
• 10:24
  at home in the Bay Area and New York, but I bring this up because the Bay Area
• 10:28
  is a very tech-centric culture, and it tends to be a very bro-centric culture.
• 10:33
  Can you talk a little about what it's like to lead and grow a company in an industry
• 10:38
  that is still very predominantly dominated by men, both in terms of the founders as
• 10:43
  well as the VC and funding communities?
• 10:46
  Oana Manolache: Interestingly enough, this is not new to me.
• 10:48
  So before I even started the company, I was head of marketing at a business
• 10:54
  unit at HP, which was industrial print.
• 10:57
  You don't want me to tell you how many women are in industrial print.
• 11:00
  I remember hosting this massive CEO dinner — this was, like, high business
• 11:06
  enterprise, our cheapest product was, like, a million dollars, and
• 11:09
  it was, like, 40 people in the room.
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  I was the only woman, the only immigrant, the youngest person.
• 11:13
  So in a way, it doesn't faze me as much anymore.
• 11:18
  And I think the Bay Area is becoming a lot more diverse.
• 11:21
  I have incredible female founders that are building awesome and very
• 11:24
  successful companies out there.
• 11:26
  It is true that female founders have to do 130% just to get the seat at the
• 11:31
  table, or get the funding that is needed.
• 11:33
  It's not easy, but I think that I'm playing it to my advantage in a way,
• 11:38
  because it's not necessarily the advantage of a female founder, but
• 11:41
  also the advantage of having been a marketer building for marketers.
• 11:44
  And I think every single founder is playing to their advantage.
• 11:48
  If they're not, like, a female founder, they're probably an immigrant, or
• 11:52
  they're a person of color, and it's just a matter of taking whatever you have
• 11:57
  as an advantage and turning that into something that's gonna help you succeed.
• 12:02
  And in the SF Bay Area, there's a lot of AI companies, there's a lot
• 12:07
  of male entrepreneurs, but I think that there's a lot of resources and
• 12:10
  support, both on the founder side as well as on the investor side, to grow
• 12:14
  the community of female founders.
• 12:16
  Matt Heinz: Let's go back further.
• 12:17
  I wanna talk about the impact your parents had just on
• 12:19
  teaching you as an entrepreneur, which I think is fascinating.
• 12:22
  My parents are both from the American Midwest.
• 12:24
  They had the same job for 35 years.
• 12:25
  They are not risk-averse.
• 12:26
  They thought I was nuts when I decided to just set up my own
• 12:29
  shingle, let alone grow a company.
• 12:31
  What are some lessons you took from your parents, whether they
• 12:33
  explicitly gave to you, or whether you just observed it from them?
• 12:37
  Oana Manolache: I think that the way I grew up kind of didn't
• 12:38
  give me a choice to do anything else but being an entrepreneur.
• 12:41
  In a way, even when I was at HP, I was part of this business unit
• 12:44
  that was acquired by HP, so I was operating more like a startup vibe.
• 12:49
  I grew up at the dinner table with conversations about team management,
• 12:54
  buying assets, investments.
• 12:57
  Sure, they were not VC-backed, but they did take investments in different ways.
• 13:01
  They even risked their house, putting it up as collateral to
• 13:05
  get a line from the bank to build the company from the ground up.
• 13:08
  So it was just part of my daily conversation with my
• 13:12
  parents — just observing, or even being asked what I think.
• 13:15
  And I think that's what made me the founder that I am
• 13:18
  today, and I'm really proud to
• 13:22
  identify myself both as Romanian as well as Californian, because growing up in
• 13:26
  Romania gives me the scrappiness, the grit, the feet on the ground, making
• 13:31
  sure that we're not running out of money, building a company that is sustainable
• 13:35
  and scalable, not just smoke and mirrors.
• 13:37
  So it gives me that kind of real foundation of building a
• 13:42
  good company for the future.
• 13:44
  But then the Californian in me makes me want to build a billion-dollar
• 13:47
  company, and build something that is kind of the most amazing
• 13:51
  company in this space and beyond.
• 13:53
  So the vision, the future, and the ambition to take this
• 13:57
  to the best possible way.
• 13:59
  So I'm really proud to have those two genes in me, and of
• 14:03
  course, a little bit of New York.
• 14:04
  I don't know, that place is just so special.
• 14:07
  Matt Heinz: So I wanna ask you a couple questions about impact as you
• 14:09
  build this amazing company, and I know people that work for you, and they just
• 14:12
  speak to what a great leader you are.
• 14:15
  In a podcast earlier this year, you talked about the importance
• 14:17
  of humility in leadership.
• 14:19
  Can you expand on that?
• 14:21
  Oana Manolache: I think that you have to lead by example.
• 14:24
  And the only way to build anything — not just a company, just a project,
• 14:29
  whatever it is — you have to strip away your ego so that you can focus
• 14:35
  on the problem, you can focus on the challenge, and not the ego side of
• 14:39
  things, or personal gains in such a way.
• 14:42
  And the only way that we can build that no-ego culture, which is
• 14:45
  actually part of our values, is to lead by example, and just to admit
• 14:50
  that you don't know everything.
• 14:52
  But also to show the fact that you'll find solutions, or you'll find people
• 14:56
  who are way better than you at certain things, and surround yourself with those.
• 15:00
  Because if you're the smartest person in the room, then you're
• 15:02
  definitely in the wrong room.
• 15:04
  So humility comes with asking for help — people who can actually open doors for
• 15:09
  you, or give you advice, or show you blind spots that you're probably missing.
• 15:14
  And the second thing is knowing where your not-so-strong characteristics are, so
• 15:21
  that you can bring those people on board and build something incredible together.
• 15:24
  And I think the entire team has that culture as a part of it, and
• 15:28
  that's how we show up to customers.
• 15:30
  We've won many quarters in a row, number one, for implementation and
• 15:35
  customer success with G2, for G2 awards.
• 15:38
  It's because we show that with our customers and partners, too.
• 15:41
  Matt Heinz: You've also said that you don't have to be a social impact
• 15:44
  company to have social impact.
• 15:46
  What does that mean?
• 15:48
  Oana Manolache: It means that you can build an incredible
• 15:50
  company that is profitable, that has an impact on the world.
• 15:53
  And we see that across a lot of other organizations that are for-profit, but
• 15:57
  they have a great impact on the world.
• 15:59
  And that's something that is really important to me — it's, obviously, built
• 16:04
  for profit, which is great, but what's the impact that we have on our customers?
• 16:07
  Even at the granular level, on the careers of the people that are actively
• 16:11
  using Sequel, and how they're using that to advance professionally.
• 16:16
  The second thing is giving access to people.
• 16:18
  Like, Webflow right now is streaming live on their website
• 16:22
  to millions of their audience.
• 16:26
  I am 100% sure that there are creators and agencies that have families, or
• 16:30
  don't have the means to travel all the way to this beautiful Boston area
• 16:34
  to come to the Webflow conference, but they can get the content.
• 16:37
  They can understand what the technology's doing new.
• 16:39
  So opening that up is actually growing a lot of people in
• 16:44
  geographies that are underrepresented.
• 16:46
  So by doing something great for profit, we can make a great
• 16:50
  impact on other parts of humanity.
• 16:53
  Matt Heinz: I love that approach.
• 16:54
  Well, I know you're busy here.
• 16:55
  You've got a big day tomorrow.
• 16:56
  Thank you so much for grabbing time with us here today on Sales Pipeline Radio.
• 17:00
  Oana Manolache: Thank you, Matt.
• 17:01
  Always a pleasure.