Mindtrip Blueprints: Prioritize building authentic relationships (with more than just customers!)

Costanoa’s BuilderOps Blueprints are designed to help early-stage start-ups build successful foundations. Through this series, Costanoa's BuilderOps team interviews founders and start-up leaders, showcasing their superpowers and learnings on all things company building. Costanoa is an early-stage VC firm backing company builders across data, dev, and fintech.

For our latest BuilderOps Blueprint, we sat down with Michelle Denogean, Chief Marketing Officer at Mindtrip, an AI-powered travel platform tackling the entire end-to-end travel journey from discovery to planning, booking and on-trip experiences– plus tools for creators. The company has been featured in The New York Times and numerous other media outlets.

Michelle is also the author of GrowUp, which explores the psychology of start-up founders, identifies the core competencies around growth, and offers a blueprint for achieving scalable success.

You’re an incredibly experienced senior marketing leader who’s seen a lot of start-ups in action. How should early-stage founders think about marketing?

When early-stage founders think about marketing, they tend to think about demand generation first. In my experience, this is a mistake. Early-stage startups should focus on brand before they spend a dime on demand gen. Too many founders treat “brand” like a dirty word – but it’s really about owning your own reputation, which feels more personal and relevant.?

To me, your brand is how you show up in the world and position yourself to the industry you serve. That means everything from how your product and brand design is experienced visually to your presence in earned media, as well as how your own content and videos show off what you do best. I would also say the smartest founders I know consider making and deepening industry connections core to brand-building – and they’re right.

Let’s dig into that a bit – how do you think about forging those industry connections so they develop and last?

My rule is if they’re in your industry, get to know them. I never say no to someone in the travel industry who wants to get to know us because you don’t know where that relationship will take you in the future.?

When I was at Roadster, there were lots of consultants advising car dealerships. So in our early days, we’d reach out and ask if we could show them our product and get some advice. As we built those relationships, those product overviews turned into coffees, which turned into conference invites, introductions, etc. Many of our early customers came from consultant recommendations – they knew someone who was looking for the service we provided and they casually mentioned us.?

Remember: two things can happen if someone asks a person they trust if they’ve heard of your company. Either it’s “No, I’ve never heard of them so don’t waste your time” or it’s “I know Michelle and the team seems awesome – you should check them out.” You always want to be the one people recommend – not the one they’ve never heard of.

But is marketing too early actually a thing founders should avoid?

Not if you’re thinking about it in a relationship-first way!

It’s never too soon to make a list of the most influential people in the industry you serve. You need to know and understand who they are, even if you’re not yet directly connected with them. This isn’t just your customer set. It’s about who’s connecting with and trusted by your customers. Is it vendors, influencers, consultants??

This takes time because building authentic relationships takes time. But it’s why you need to give that 15 minutes when people reach out to you. Your time is valuable but spending it on this can lead to so much opportunity.

Marketing early on is also about developing your brand positioning and messaging. That way when you do start building these relationships, you have a strong point of view and a clear message for people to remember.

This is so important. If you are going to build relationships, you need to have a consistent message. Even if you aren't spending a dime on paid media, you need this. You need this for your website, organic social postings, media coverage, etc.

Mindtrip has a cool story to tell. How have you personally approached marketing here?

You’re right - we were the first in the travel space to really develop a consumer-facing user interface with AI at its core and the customer at the center. Travel is such a visual industry and our use of AI to answer travel related questions and make personalized and actionable recommendations visually is our differentiator. AI has really given us the leeway to be different and a bit unique.?

More broadly, travel is such a noisy space that we’ve had to be crystal clear on the unique core benefits we’re offering. We’re much more than a trip-planning site. We’re offering highly personalized, inspirational content that’s actionable and collaborative in a way others aren’t. We’re there for it all: inspiration, planning, bookings, and on-trip experiences.?

We've put significant effort into educating industry players about what we’re doing and why it’s different. That’s key—our strategy for breaking through was never just about reaching consumers directly. It also involved integrating Mindtrip with existing travel companies online, making it easier for customers to discover us through them.

You’ve worked with 10 of the 12 Mindtrip founders back in the Roadster days. Why did you continue your professional journey with them? Seems like there’s a lesson for founders looking to onboard key talent.

One thing I have learned over the course of my career is that the people you work with and the culture you create is everything. I encourage people to find a leadership team that shares the same vision and values that you do. When vision and values align, incredible things can be accomplished together.?

Many of us with Roadster on our resumes came over because Andy just has this determination and conviction about his vision that’s so contagious. He also has a powerful ability to know what someone’s good at doing and then give them the room to do that work. That’s a magical quality.

But my decision was about more than just Andy. The culture we built together at Roadster was the best most of us have ever experienced. With 80%+ of the Mindtrip team having worked together previously, we know how each other works. There are no egos or politics– only respect and trust, allowing us to build and share amazing experiences with our customers.?

What value or quality was particularly important to you as a senior hire?

I highly value an environment where team alignment is strong, but open and honest dialogue is still encouraged.

That’s important to me as I’ve gotten to know myself in my “seasoned” era. I ask a lot of questions and I never stay in my box! But here, the team not only accepts but embraces those qualities, recognizing the value they bring.?

You’re an author who has explored the psychology of start-up founders in depth. What are some critical takeaways that might be useful for our readers?

Every single founder I’ve ever worked with has a unique skill, a superpower, that has made them great at starting their company. These superpowers usually fall into four categories:

• Builders, who are highly analytic, great at building operations to scale teams
• Innovators, who see patterns, solve problems, and love to create
• Persuaders, who are good at negotiating, getting teams to take action, etc
• Connectors, who find success building, strengthening and maintaining relationships and culture

You might think most tech companies are founded by Innovators but that’s not necessarily true. The most successful founders know what makes them great is not going to be what makes them great at growing– so they surround themselves with the people who balance them out. The trick to scaling is to have all of those categories represented and free to do what they do best.?

Do we even have to guess what type you are as a marketer?

Ha! If you were going to say Connector, you’re right! Marketers tend to be people who understand customers and love bringing in key relationships, even if we’re not ultimately the salesperson closing the deal. But, not all marketers are Connectors. Your title does not always showcase your superpower. Some of the best marketers I know are Builders who create scalable programs.? I have some Innovator tendencies myself and know many founders and senior leaders who are a mix – and that’s a positive.?