Beyond Demand Gen: How Gated Built a Marketing Engine Without Traditional Tactics

Beyond Demand Gen: How Gated Built a Marketing Engine Without Traditional Tactics

When founders face growth challenges, the default solution often involves hiring demand generation specialists and investing in paid acquisition. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Gated founder Andy Mowat revealed why he took a radically different approach – and how it led to filtering 10 million messages monthly without traditional marketing spend.

Rejecting the Traditional Playbook

Andy frequently encounters founders seeking quick fixes for growth. “People call me and say… I need to hire somebody that can generate demand right now,” he explains. His response challenges conventional wisdom: “I tend to take a step back and say, well, explain to me what your business is uniquely good at and let’s think of how you can have a unique approach to demand gen versus just going out and buying a bunch of SEM ads.”

This philosophy stems from his experience scaling Culture Amp “from 4 million to 80 million in revenue in four years” through integrated go-to-market motions rather than siloed growth tactics.

Building a Mission-Driven Growth Engine

Instead of traditional demand generation, Gated focused on three core elements:

1. Product-Driven Virality: “We have an inherently viral product that people know about,” Andy notes. Rather than paying for awareness, they built it into the product experience.
2. Mission Alignment: “What I said very early to my Co-Founder was not everyone will use the tool, but I want everybody to believe in the mission of what we’re trying to do.” This mission focus creates organic evangelists.
3. Authentic Engagement: Rather than blast marketing messages, they engage selectively. Using Clearbit, they identify influential users and build genuine relationships based on shared interests.

Content as Dialogue

Gated’s content strategy focuses on sparking conversations rather than driving traffic. “I’ll write an article in kind of a draft form with a vision of the world in some way… and then I’ll share it with some deeply thoughtful people,” Andy explains. “It’s a great way to kind of have those dialogues going with people.”

This approach has produced substantial thought leadership, including “an entire six series handbook on rev ops” and regular articles about go-to-market strategy.

The Power of Advisory Networks

Rather than investing in paid influencer campaigns, Gated built authentic relationships with industry leaders. “If you look at our LinkedIn, you’ll see there’s a ton of advisors of people that are very prominent, that are helping us out,” Andy notes.

These relationships create a network effect, with advisors naturally promoting Gated’s mission because they believe in it, not because they’re paid to.

Results That Traditional Marketing Can’t Buy

The effectiveness of this approach shows in both quantitative and qualitative results:

• “Close to 10 million messages filtered a month”
• “High four digits of users”
• Viral recognition: “I go to a party in San Francisco around anything sales and marketing related and everyone’s like, ‘oh my God, that’s the tool, I know it.'”

Lessons for Founders

Gated’s alternative approach to growth offers several key insights:

1. Start with your unique strengths rather than copying standard playbooks
2. Build growth mechanisms into your product rather than bolting on marketing
3. Focus on mission alignment over mechanical acquisition
4. Engage authentically with a select group rather than broadcasting widely
5. Create content that sparks dialogue rather than just drives traffic

The key is understanding that sustainable growth comes from alignment between your product, mission, and go-to-market strategy. As Andy demonstrates, sometimes the most effective marketing isn’t marketing at all – it’s building something people naturally want to talk about.