Anthony Kennada

Founder @GoldenhourHQ. Former CMO turned founder. Seminarian.

[Mihir Garimella @mgarimella]

📣 We just raised our $45M Series B from @TCVTech and @firstharmonic, with participation from @BainCapVC, @firstround, and @AlkeonCapital.

Sales is the most expensive function in most companies — and one of the hardest. Hundreds of accounts, different context, different stakeholders, different dynamics, and a different path to close. No one can do that perfectly. Critical things get missed.

So we gave every account its own AI agent — working 24/7, maintaining full context, progressing it through the funnel, and guiding reps and leaders on what to do next.

The greatest privilege has been building alongside companies like @Samsara @tryramp @ironclad_inc and @attentiveHQ — enterprises with thousands of sellers who are already living in the future.

There are only two unbounded upside problems out there: building and selling. Every company sells. and @useactively is building the system they'll all run on. We’re excited to pull every revenue team into the future we know is inevitable.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

I’m hosting a private screening of something new I’ve been working on.

If you want in, comment below and I’ll send you an invite.

Over the past 15 months, I’ve been working closely with AI-native founders at day zero — and with growth-stage CMOs trying to reposition around AI.

One thing is clear:

Marketing, as we know it, has fundamentally changed forever.

On April 22 at 10:00 AM PST, I’ll walk through what I’m seeing — and share a hypothesis for what comes next.

No recording. No replay. Not going on YouTube.

I’ll drop the link here later, but if you’re interested, comment and I’ll add you to the calendar invite.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

How Customer Voice Becomes Brand in the Age of AI https://t.co/ewKYLEElGX

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

@DomainGang @rob @snagged this wasn’t a rebrand

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

New chapter. New look. New domain.

Goodbye .net, hello .ai

Huge thank you to @rob and the team at @snagged for making it happen.

[tyler hogge @thogge]

Any list of moats that does not include brand is very wrong.

Brand is not only a moat, it’s one of the only moats getting more powerful - relative to other moats - over time.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

Please don’t cancel me for bringing up age. But we should talk about this.

There’s a conversation going around Silicon Valley that only young, technical twenty-somethings living in San Francisco should be starting companies.

Part of the belief is that this profile of founder is AI-pilled and willing to work 996.

It’s probably not that different from why young men and women are recruited as soldiers, or why most F1 drivers are in their late teens and early twenties. When speed, stamina, and risk tolerance matter, people pattern-match to youth.

And in venture communities, pattern-matching is literally part of the job description.

While this might feel pretty offensive to most of us, we’d be wise to listen to the signals behind the argument.

Here’s what I think is really going on:

Products are being built in completely new ways.

Founders aren’t just writing code anymore. Increasingly, they’re orchestrating systems — agents generating code, tools automating work, and software building itself in the background.

Another argument is that younger entrepreneurs will simply work more hours.

Maybe that’s true. But if writing code is becoming commoditized — and the real leverage comes from architecting systems that build products faster — does age or ZIP code actually matter?

Personally, I think this whole conversation is a bit of a distraction.

The next generation of winners will likely belong to:
• The first movers in a category
• The founders with enough knowledge to rewrite how an industry works
• The teams that can execute technically fast enough to stay one step ahead

One thing that still feels undervalued in company building: wisdom.

And unfortunately for some, wisdom can only be earned the hard way — with time.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

In the meantime, here’s a photo of me at 22.

Ironically, I’m working harder now.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

@jasonlk @thinkshiv much like us human CMOs

[Justin Taylor @TheSmarmyBum]

If this is what yo think a CMO does your business is going to fail

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

👀

[Nick Mehta @nrmehta]

Me in every Board Meeting at Gainsight: "Our biggest problem is pipeline!"

Board (inner monologue): "Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

I've spoken to so many founders (including conversations with myself) where we all get stuck in a very boring version of "Groundhog Day":
* Miss sales target
* Sales says pipeline is low
* Put pressure on CMO - "I need more leads!"
* Send more emails!
* Spend more on paid channels!
* Get a new agency for demand gen!
* Find a new PR firm!
* Look for a new CMO 😂

I've gone through that entire cycle way too many times...

Sometimes, it is indeed an execution issue. Often it's a strategy one. I now try to ask myself these three questions:
1. Is our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) granular? Or is it "everyone"?
2. Do we truly understand the size of the market that is ready to buy now? Or are we working off of fantasy TAMs?
3. Is our brand and message differentiated or are we just throwing dollars into the void?

Pipeline is often a symptom - not the root cause.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

We've been quietly building the next chapter of Goldenhour.

A new studio.
A new speaker lineup.
A new identity.
A new team.

Even an original theme song.

And while things may look different than before -- the message remains the same:

When anything can be generated, automated, and optimized

It's the most HUMAN brands that will win.

This is Season 2. Join us for the return of the Brand Humanity Show on March 26th.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

Did you catch Lovable’s new brand campaign on Monday?

Another great example of leading AI companies embracing brand humanity.

Here’s what stood out 👇

Lovable joins OpenAI and Anthropic in creating brand moments that focus less on the technology itself and more on the human impact that technology can unlock.

A few things I noticed:

The video is shot with a warm, nostalgic tone. Our hero is on her way to a bookstore when her imagination starts firing — sparked by music from someone’s headphones, concert posters going up, and the rhythmic clicking of a pen.

The idea grows from that moment — in the bookstore, on the commute home, and even walking through the door. How many of us have felt that obsession with a good idea we just can’t stop thinking about?

Finally, our hero gives in. She opens her laptop and builds an app in Lovable to bring the idea to life. As the closing line says: some ideas are too loud to ignore.

At a moment when the global AI conversation swings between optimism and doomerism, Lovable shows that leading with humanity may be the right way to build brand in the age of intelligence.

Bravo to the @Lovable team.

[Lovable @Lovable]

Some ideas are too loud to ignore.

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

Does brand equity decay over time — or can it be rebuilt?

That’s a question I’ve been wrestling with over the past several months.

Last week I announced that I’m starting a new company — and I decided to call it Goldenhour. Surprise!

But honestly, that decision brought up a lot of internal debate.

Because Goldenhour already had a story.

During my time building AudiencePlus, Goldenhour became the highlight of that experience. We hosted a conference in Brooklyn. Executive forums for CMOs in San Francisco.

The mission was simple: help marketing leaders usher in the industry’s next era.

And people responded to it. The brand started to mean something.

But when AudiencePlus shut down, the question became:

Was that the end of Goldenhour too?

The last Goldenhour event was about 18 months ago.

Since then, I’ve kept pieces of the mission alive — a podcast called the Brand Humanity Show, a weekly Goldenhour newsletter, and conversations with leaders trying to understand what marketing becomes in the age of AI.

But when starting a new company, the question came back:

Does brand equity fade with time?
Or can it actually compound if the mission stays intact?

After a lot of thinking, I made the bet that equity is something you build — not something you abandon lightly.

Goldenhour never accumulated negative meaning.

In fact, the opposite happened.

For the people who experienced it, the brand already has a cognitive reference point — a place where marketing leaders gather to understand what comes next.

And the mission in this next chapter hasn’t changed.

We’re still trying to help the industry navigate its next era — especially now as AI reshapes how companies build brand, tell stories, and connect with customers.

So the offerings may be different.
The company will be different.

But the mission behind Goldenhour remains the same.

If anything, it feels like the story was unfinished.

And now we get to continue building it.

Curious how others think about this:

Does brand equity decay with time — or can it be rebuilt?

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

It's time to build again. 🚀

[Phillionaire @gophillionaire]

The most "innovative" marketing strategy in 2026 isn't digital.

It’s analog.

You don't need a Series A budget or a 1,000-person conference to build a real community. You just need to engage the "Whole Human."

If you’re a founder trying to break through the noise, here is the next generation playbook for in-person events from @akennada , the man who turned IRL into a $1 Billion+ exit:

1. Move Beyond the Steak Dinner: Standard networking is boring. Borrow from the consumer world. Think wellness clubs, cold plunges, or "third-wave" coffee meetups.

2. Small is Scalable: High-touch executive forums with 10 people often provide more ROI than a 300-person ballroom.

3. Stop the Sales Pitch: Host conversations about the problems your audience is actually facing, not just your product features.

4. Build Shared Memories: People don't remember slide decks. They remember experiences that "bind" them together.

5. The world is nostalgic for life before the internet. Gen Z is buying flip phones for a reason.

If you want to win, get your CEO out from behind the screen and in front of your customers.

Early. And often.

Watch the full deep dive on how to build a high-impact event strategy here: https://t.co/aTu3KZCGiu

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

@jasonlk do we still think this is true today (at the $1m mark) given the “sea of sameness” that AI is contributing to?

especially if brand = differentiation and distribution

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

@Jacobtheclipper Now do Kobe

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

Great post by @OnlyCFO highlighting how companies can survive the SaaS to AI operating model transition. No surprise to see brand (via distribution and trust) as the top two primary moats.

[OnlyCFO @OnlyCFO]

New post: 5 things SaaS companies should be doing to survive SaaSocalypse

-Not all SaaS will be equally disrupted (despite the market thinking it’s all a zero)

-Not all companies are adapting (and following these 5 things👇)

https://t.co/mEN53SIcJ4

[Anthony Kennada @akennada]

As we race towards the commoditization of products (are we there yet?), brand becomes the final and most durable moat in the Intelligence Age.

[sandra djajic @TakoTreba]

The highest-paying job in tech will soon be marketing.