Al Leong | CMO & Board Director

CMO • Board Director • GTM Advisor | AI, SaaS & Web3 | Built teams 0→15 • Scaled agency revenue 5× • Helped position InfStones for a $110M raise

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published A Growth Lead Is Not a CMO. Polymarket Just Proved It. https://t.co/ygyK7Lefgo

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Robinhood’s AI Trades While You Sleep. The Liability Never Does. https://t.co/qNpe1Syi2F

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Your Marketing Team Says You’re Optimized for AI Search. Here’s How You’d Actually Know. https://t.co/MJlRPJIxmz

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Your AI product works. Your buyers don’t believe you. https://t.co/7s7vYO56zG

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

Last call on this for a while: if you run solo and you're tired of being the whole company by yourself, @scalesolo_co gives you the AI team to run it with you. Waitlist's open, early members lock 30% off 👉 https://t.co/Ax9ObjI25b. I advise them, equity and all — and I don't say that about much.

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Crypto Thinks the Rules Got Friendlier. The One That Matters Didn’t. https://t.co/0G4wFqYZBA

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

This is the pitch, and it's the right one. If you run solo, the pain in the first ten seconds is your Tuesday — and the fix is an AI team running the parts you shouldn't be touching. I advise @scalesolo_co, equity and all. - https://t.co/uX4W4FTK34

[Solo. @scalesolo_co]

Most one-person businesses don't stall from lack of skill. They stall because one person can't be the sales team, the marketing department, and the back office all at once.

Enter Solo. From Elysium Labs.

We built Solo. to carry that weight.

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

35 years in GTM and here's the shift that's real: one person can now run like a company of ten. Not with more hours — with AI doing the work a full team used to. Most people haven't reorganized around it yet. That gap is the whole opportunity, and it's why I'm advising @scalesolo_co

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Your Web3 CMO isn’t underperforming. You hired for the wrong job. https://t.co/jFFUzBqcZU

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

The most expensive thing a solo operator does is try to be the whole company. Sales, ops, finance, follow-up — all of it by hand, on top of the actual work. You went solo for freedom and ended up running six departments by yourself.

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

Big week. Drake and the Elysium Labs team are launching Solo early next week and I'm proud to be a small part of what they've built.

Solo isn't a chatbot. It's an autonomous operating system that runs the business side of a one-person company — leads, follow-up, admin — so the person at the center can stay in the work they're actually good at.

The insight underneath it is real: most solo operators don't stall because they lack skill. They stall because one person genuinely can't be the sales team, the marketing department, and the back office simultaneously.

Solo is built for that gap. Visit Solo here: https://t.co/q5Yq4svXU4

Waitlist is open now at https://t.co/qoHLG25cDh. Worth a look if you're running a business by yourself or thinking about it.

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

Most founders assume capital formation begins when the pitch deck is sent.

In reality, it begins much earlier.

The strongest capital outcomes are rarely driven by a single meeting, introduction, or investor update. They emerge from a process of consistent narrative reinforcement, visibility, and relationship-building long before a formal raise begins.

In our latest Deer Isle Capital article, "Capital Narrative Decay: Why Companies Become Invisible Between Raises," we explore a challenge that many companies underestimate:

📌 Investor memory fades.

📌 Mandates change.

📌 Teams turn over.

📌 Markets evolve.

📌 Narratives decay when left unattended.

Many organizations communicate intensely during a raise, then disappear until they need capital again. The result is often a loss of familiarity, trust, and momentum precisely when they need it most.

The article examines why narrative continuity matters and how sophisticated organizations maintain visibility and credibility between financing events.

If you're a founder, GP, fund manager, investor relations professional, or capital markets executive, I'd be interested in your perspective.

Article:

🔗 https://t.co/muG7nNlXmh

#CapitalMarkets #InvestorRelations #Fundraising #PrivateMarkets #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #CapitalFormation #ThoughtLeadership #BrandStrategy #InvestorEngagement #AI #CorporateCommunications

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I don’t just write about marketing.

I write about strategy, AI, fintech, Web3, capital formation, leadership, ethics, and how markets are changing.

If you’re one of my 126K followers here, I’d appreciate it if you also followed my blog:

https://t.co/qADnRSqnl0

More long-form thinking coming.

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I’m pleased to share one of my recent articles published with Deer Isle Group:
“AI Is the First Diligence Filter Before Ever Receiving a Response.”

This piece sits at the intersection of several areas I’ve worked in for years: capital formation, fintech, AI, investor communications, market structure, and strategic positioning.

The core idea is simple:
Before an investor replies, before a meeting happens, and before a company gets a serious look, AI-enabled tools and digital research are already shaping perception.

That means companies raising capital can no longer treat their website, messaging, public footprint, founder narrative, thought leadership, data room, and outreach as separate pieces.

They are all part of the diligence signal.

For CEOs, boards, and capital markets teams, the implication is blunt: credibility now has to be engineered before the first conversation.

Thank you to Dianna Raedle and Deer Isle Group for publishing the article.

Read it here:
https://t.co/bteo1yI3mt

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published The Strategy Delusion: Why Banks Are Mistaking AI Tactics for Survival Strategy https://t.co/nCFnNvu62i

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Your AI Feature Is Not a Moat https://t.co/VF99pxnjKP

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published Globalization Isn’t Dead. But Global Management Has Changed. https://t.co/t4NCVLTgnz

[Al Leong | CMO & Board Director @iDesignStrategy]

I just published From SEO to AI Recommendation: Why Zero-Click Discovery Matters Now https://t.co/ZxLkGEnw4j