Maryam Banikarim | Nextdoor’s CMO on the power of purpose in times of crisis

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Nina: Maryam, hello! We’ve been talking about corporate purpose together for a long time now, and you’ve been championing it since well before that as CMO at Univision, NBC Universal Comcast, Hyatt, and now Nextdoor. To kick things off, I’d love to hear about how you see corporate purpose playing out during the pandemic.

Maryam: Yes, absolutely! Purpose means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It matters to understand what it is, and importantly, what it is not. It's not your marketing tagline. It’s not your brand. It’s your corporate strategy, your authentic north star as an organization. 

One critical thing about purpose is that you can’t manufacture it– it has to be in your DNA. It also has to be shepherded from the very top of your organization. In my chapter for your book we talked about how you need a purpose champion who is not the CEO to bring purpose to life across the organization. That’s often been my role from the CMO seat, but you still need a CEO to commit to managing the company through purpose. 

With the pandemic we’re collectively experiencing, I think there is now new emphasis on how helpful that north star of purpose is in times of chaos. Jim Collins talks about this in his book Great by Choice. The example he gives is about two hiking teams going up Everest. One team changes their hiking pattern daily based on the weather; they go up faster one day if it’s clear and slower the next if it's blustery. This seems to intrinsically make sense– they’re responding to the weather. But as the story unfolds, what we see is that the team that goes strong and steady agnostic of weather makes it to the top without casualties. The point is not that you shouldn’t change and adapt, that’s important, but that you have a north star and stick to it. 

When you think about purpose, that's exactly what it is. Purpose helps you weather storms. The Covid crisis, along with the economic and social strife happening right now, is a storm we’re all living through. If your company has a clear purpose, it will allow you to remain steady in the face of chaos. Purpose serves as a strong anchoring mechanism to remember what business you’re in so you can pivot or respond in a way that actually fits your strategy—and serves your customers. It can also help you decide what not to do, which is equally important.

Nina: You started as Nextdoor’s CMO three weeks before the pandemic really took hold in the US—I’m sure you imagined your onboarding would look a little different than it did! I know you think a lot about life chapters and choices, and I’d love to hear why you chose this gig as your next chapter.

Maryam: Yes, my onboarding was 100% different than expected. My first week was working from San Francisco, my second week was in Europe because I oversee the international team, my third week was in New York City, and then we all went to working from home! 

Before starting at Nextdoor, I wasn't planning to go back to a fulltime job. Purpose was a key criteria in mind when I was evaluating opportunities that came my way. Nextdoor, which is a community platform that connects you virtually to your neighbors with the goal of connecting you to them in person, fit the bill. A Pew study had shown that 28% of people didn’t know a single neighbor. Nextdoor was created to solve this problem– to use tech to get you out in the world engaging with the people around you. 

Nextdoor is a purpose driven company. In the face of COVID, it was very clear that everyone at the company was living the purpose as we moved quickly to meet the needs of all our neighbors. We launched products in record time, such as Help Map and Groups to connect neighbors offering or asking for help. We also announced partnerships with public agencies such as California Governor Gavin Newsom’s and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s offices to ensure neighbors were getting real time and accurate information about developments in their communities. Just last week, we launched Sell for Good to give neighbors an easy way to give back to their local communities. 

Everyone at the company came to Nextdoor because they believe in the purpose to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. In a time of crisis, it was a no brainer to focus on how we could add value because we need our neighbors now more than ever. 

Nina: How did Nextdoor use its purpose to figure out how to add value when the pandemic hit?

Maryam: Before Covid, Nextdoor was really valuable not only to neighbors but also to businesses who want a hyper-local relationship with the customers closest to them. A great example here is our work with H&R Block. Through Nextdoor, they can give you on-the-ground resources you need so you can go into your local branch and do your taxes. Or take PG&E as another example. When the power goes out on your block they need a hyper-local way of sending trusted information to those affected. 

Proximity and trust have always been the two biggest dimensions of Nextdoor. So, when lockdown happened we knew the first thing we needed to do was get neighbors relevant and trusted local information. In the US, we got governors on the platform and in the UK we had the NHS, all cutting through the misinformation out there to give neighbors trustworthy updates. When Governor Cuomo instated the curfew, for example, I learned about it in my Nextdoor feed. Nextdoor was designed for this type of trusted communication with local communities, so this was top of mind for us. 

We also started enabling neighbors' desire to help one another with the Help Map and Groups I mentioned earlier. It became clear that local businesses, which are the cornerstone of every neighborhood, were suffering with shelter in place orders, so we turned to support them. 

Murray’s Bagels here in Chelsea is a great example of a business neighbors rallied around to support. Someone posted on Nextdoor that if you bought bagels from Murray’s, they would send them to essential workers at hospitals. Our neighborhood came together, buying from Murray’s which in return also supported local hospitals and heroes on the front lines. 

The pandemic put Nextdoor’s purpose into further relief. It’s always been about supporting neighbors and neighborhoods. And those closest to you matter more now than ever before. 

Nina: I love the idea that you pivoted through purpose by listening to the needs of your neighbors. You saw how they were using the platform and then made it easier for them to do what they were aiming to do. 

Maryam: Yes, purpose is obviously about how a company acts, but it’s also about how they listen. There are so many acts of kindness showing up on the platform. Since March, we’ve seen an increase of 262% in members talking about helping each other on the platform. 

There is the story of Quentin in Paris, who used Nextdoor to distribute 800 masks and several pounds of medical equipment to three retirement homes all the while promoting the Lions Club’s philanthropic efforts. There is the story of Lincoln in Colorado, who was turning 5 and was sad that because of COVID he wasn’t getting a birthday party. When his dad posted on Nextdoor, neighbors came out to help celebrate albeit in a socially distant manner. 

Enabling these kinds of connections is how we at Nextdoor live our purpose. It’s about building that neighborhood ecosystem of people, families, government, and businesses.

Nina: I love the idea of a neighborhood ecosystem! What role do you think companies can play in it?

Local businesses define our neighborhoods and we depend on them. Most of them are suffering given our current backdrop, and we need them to reopen and rebuild. Small businesses like Yoga Den (Chelsea, NY) owned by Bethany Lyons are struggling to survive and wanted neighbors to know how they could stay in touch and support them as they pivoted to offering recorded Yoga classes during the shutdown. There are businesses like the individual owners of franchises of Denny’s restaurants who have had to expand into meal kit delivery and grocery to stay afloat and needed to let neighbors know about this pivot. And big companies like Walmart who wanted to ensure that vulnerable community members could get what they needed, also turned to Nextdoor to create an innovative Neighbor Helping Neighbor program. 

Every business regardless of size needs to stay in touch with neighbors. We're all part of a Neighborhood ecosystem, and our path forward is together and that’s what Nextdoor is all about. 

Nina: What’s really interesting about what you’re describing is a very different kind of community. Most social networks today let us, encourage us even, to build our own bubbles—you follow (or unfollow) who you want, you read the news you want or get sent ads for stuff targeted at your past purchasing patterns. But you don’t get to choose your neighbors, and so you don’t get to choose who is in your Nextdoor ecosystem. How does that affect the kind of behavior you see?

Maryam: Yes, that’s one of the most amazing things about Nextdoor. Nextdoor connects you to those living closest to you. It connects you based on geography and helps you get plugged in locally. Neighbors share recommendations about babysitters, a plumber, or a favorite restaurant. They connect based on shared interests and help each other out. 

This premise sometimes forces you to stare the diversity between our neighbors and our neighborhood experiences in the face. A great example is the story of Shawn in Nashville. He had a perception that Nextdoor might not be a friendly place for him as a Black man. After the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, he decided to post on the app saying that he was feeling insecure about walking home in his gentrifying town. The next day, seventy-five neighbors showed up to walk him home, and now they show up regularly and continue to walk him home. 

Actions like these are a start. With the right intentions, we can begin to look at the divides we feel and experience in this country. We believe that actually talking to your neighbors is a way forward. And that Nextdoor is uniquely positioned to facilitate the important conversations and connections, ultimately cultivating a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can all rely on.

Maryam is Head of Marketing at Nextdoor. She has more than 25 years of marketing experience, managing global brands and international teams. She was most recently the Global CMO of Hyatt Hotels, repositioning the Hyatt brand as purpose driven by putting the guest at the center of the business. Her brand work at Hyatt resulted in increased brand awareness and organic user acquisition across online and offline channels. Prior to Hyatt, Maryam was SVP & CMO of Gannett. She also sits on Adweek’s Women Trailblazers Council Board, Fast Company’s Impact Council, and is the U.S. Board Chair of Reporters Without Borders.