For AI & Deep Tech Founders Scaling to $25M
Your deals aren’t stalling on product. They’re stalling on trust.
Enterprise buyers won’t take your word for it. They need to hear it from the voices they already trust. We become your CMO and run marketing end to end to earn it. Market Shaping is the mechanism.
We’ve won Shell, Apple, AT&T and Gartner as customers, partners and champions — for startups the size of yours. Three of those startups we took to exit.
Market Shaping won these brands for our clients.
- Microsoft
- Shell
- CNN
- Caterpillar
- Accenture
- DHL
- Apple
- ExxonMobil
- Discovery Channel
- KONE
- McKinsey
- AT&T
- Samsung
- Chevron
- The New York Times
- Johnson Controls
- Deloitte
- Gartner
- Salesforce
- Halliburton
- OTIS
- AAA
- IBM
- Veolia
- Trane
- Panasonic
- Boston Scientific
- Philips
- Vinci
A partial list
The Growth Problem
Vision made you fundable. It won’t make you scalable.
Vision works when you’re in the room. It doesn’t travel. Your first customers bought because you convinced them personally. Enterprise buyers don’t buy that way. They need analyst validation, peer references and credible voices they already know. When you can’t supply those, deals don’t die loudly. They stall in evaluation, and no amount of extra activity shakes them loose.
The shortlist is written before your outbound ever lands.
of buyers already have a shortlist before the purchase process formally begins
already have a single vendor in mind
Source: Forrester, June 2025
The Mechanism
When the right voices tell your story, deals stop stalling.
Market Shaping isn’t another line item. It’s your whole marketing function aimed at a single objective — buyers who already trust you when the conversation starts.
You broadcast at buyers and turn up the volume when it doesn’t land. They don’t know you. They don’t trust you. They scroll past. Cycles drag, win rates slide.
You identify the analysts, media, partners and industry bodies your buyers already trust — and give them a real reason to tell your story. Their credibility becomes yours — and every other part of your marketing and sales performs better for it.
a16z
“…it’s fundamentally about trust transfer. When a company is early, there’s a credibility gap that must be bridged every single time they try to attract something they need. Talent. Customers. Capital. Partners.”
David BoothPartner, a16z
CMOs who excel at market shaping are 8× more likely to exceed performance expectations Source: Gartner
Proof
Three wins. Three different ways in.
Gartner analysts succeed when they can guide clients before anyone gets blindsided. We gave them a sustained cadence of briefings — use cases, ROI data, sector differentiation. They defined a new category and named our client the leader.
Shell’s innovation champions had ambition but couldn’t quantify outcomes for leadership. We built a documented proof-of-concept on the world’s largest FLNG platform — ROI, operational impact, ready to circulate. The champion became a hero. Shell signed a global MSA.
Apple needed to prove iPads could displace ruggedized devices in the field — a story they couldn’t tell alone. We co-built campaigns across four sectors. The program beat every objective; Apple named our client their best B2B co-marketing team.
Give them the win. They give you the market.
What Founders Say
The one thing we can’t write ourselves.
“Northern Pixels was instrumental in shaping our foundational marketing strategy and catapulting us onto the global stage, firmly establishing our position as an emerging category leader.”
Eric BergeronFounder & CEO, OptoSecurity
“Mark and his team significantly boosted our brand awareness, trust and credibility. We became the leading enterprise solution in our category.”
Alvaro PomboFounder & CEO, TrueContext
The Engagement
Strategy built. Execution run. No plan left sitting in a deck.
We become your CMO and marketing growth team — and we do the work.
We map your buyers, your influencers, and the exact points where credibility is failing in your sales motion.
We build the whole motion for your market — category narrative, campaigns, partner programs, sales enablement your team can actually close with.
We direct strategy and run the high-leverage plays your team can’t.
What it costs
A senior, exit-proven CMO plus a specialist team — for less than the loaded cost of one mid-level marketing hire.
We work with four clients at a time. When we’re at capacity, we’ll tell you straight away.
Start a conversation
If your deals are stalling, let’s find out why.
Thirty minutes, and you’ll know where credibility is breaking down and what we’d do about it. No pitch deck, no price list ambush.
Or email Mark directly: mark@northernpixels.com