The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, executive director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, associate research professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.
On this episode of Bootstrapped, we interviewed Hillary Berman, a Smith MBA alumna and the founder of Popcorn & Ice Cream, a marketing and consulting firm designed to cater to the needs and budgets of small businesses and startups. Hillary encourages her clients to see their business in the eyes of their customer, then builds them a customized marketing strategy that both attracts customers and meets measured goals and objectives. After six years in business, in 2016 she published Customer, LLC: The Small Business Guide to Customer Engagement & Marketing to provide a resource for entrepreneurs looking to find the most efficient marketing tactics for reaching their customers. In this episode, Hillary discusses the benefits of marketing automation technology, common startup marketing pitfalls and her three pieces of advice for entrepreneurs looking to boost their business.
Hillary Berman honed her marketing and branding expertise working for advertising agencies on Madison Avenue, then spent time at two technology startups before working on the agency side as an Account Director at O’Keeffe & Company, an integrated marketing communications firm. Prior to launching Popcorn & Ice Cream, Hillary worked with her husband to build and grow a financial services business, Coliseum Wealth Management. In addition to her role as founder of Popcorn & Ice Cream, Hillary currently serves as a Google Small Business Advisor. Hillary is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
To listen to this episode and gain further insights into the startup world, subscribe to Dingman Bootstrapped on iTunes or download the episodes on the Dingman Center website.
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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.