Cognition crossed $1 billion in revenue run rate in roughly two years, and its marketing organization is still in the early stages of scaling.. As the company’s new SVP of Marketing, Brandon Camhi has an opportunity to shape what a high-growth marketing team looks like in the AI era.

He's approaching the challenge with a focus on hiring exceptional people, moving quickly, and giving marketers the tools to do their best work. One of his first moves was launching a $10 million billboard campaign across 14 cities in just one week. Meanwhile, the team is already using Cognition's AI software engineer, Devin, to streamline everything from paid advertising to lead management and internal reporting.

In this episode, Brandon joins Profound's Trevor Pyle to discuss what he learned helping scale marketing at Rippling, why he's moving away from rigid org charts, and how he's balancing immediate growth with long-term brand investment. They also explore why AEO is a team-wide responsibility, what he looks for in great marketing hires, and why he isn't worried about AI replacing CMOs.

We discuss:

  • The first priorities when taking over marketing at a billion-dollar company
  • How a $10 million global billboard campaign came together in just one week
  • Why Brandon is rethinking traditional marketing org charts
  • The unconventional recruiting approach he uses to attract top talent
  • What he learned from his biggest mistakes at Rippling
  • How Cognition uses Devin to streamline paid ads, lead management, and internal reporting
  • Why high-quality storytelling matters in enterprise marketing
  • How AEO connects to everything from customer reviews to social media
  • The interview exercise Brandon considers more valuable than a case study
  • Why he isn't worried about AI replacing CMOs

Connect with Brandon:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bcamhi/

Cognition: https://cognition.com/

Connect with Profound:

Website: https://tryprofound.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tryprofound/

X: https://x.com/tryprofound

Read the Marketing Engineer Manifesto: https://www.tryprofound.com/marketing-engineer

Profound University: https://university.tryprofound.com/

The Marketing Engineer is a show for practitioners figuring out in real time what it means to market at the frontier. New episodes every two weeks.