LiamLabistour
Marketing and growth executive for technology, AI, security, finance and CPG companies, focused on customer acquisition, revenue and retention.
I treat positioning and data-driven systems as the core drivers of demand, integrating executive-level strategy with hands-on execution. I’m currently the VP Marketing at VRIFY, an AI-assisted mineral discovery company.
For more than a decade I’ve run marketing as a revenue function across multiple verticals. I lead from the front and work best with teams that move fast, take ownership and raise the bar for each other.
Career experience
- May 2025 – PresentVRIFYVP Marketing
- Dec 2024 – May 2026Flax LabsCOO & Advisor
- Oct 2021 – Dec 2024SplinterlandsSr. Director, Growth Marketing
- Mar 2021 – Oct 2021Kobalt.ioHead of Growth
- Dec 2019 – Nov 2022Lumen5Sr. Growth Marketing Manager & Advisor
- Mar 2016 – Dec 2019BuildDirectDigital Marketing Analyst
- Dec 2012 – May 2020YouTubeBrand Manager
Advisory and boards
- 2023 – presentHaven ApparelMarketing Advisor
- 2019 – 2022North Shore Stroke Recovery CentreBoard Member
- 2016 – 2023YPO Next GenerationMentor
Care personally. Challenge directly.
I manage with Radical Candor, Kim Scott’s idea that the best managers care personally and challenge directly, at the same time. Caring without challenging lets people down slowly; challenging without caring loses their trust. I aim for both.
I define where we are going, prove out the first version of each program myself or with the team, then build a team that can own it and take it further. My default is to coach: I ask more than I tell, and I’m candid about what I see. When the stakes rise, I lean in and work shoulder to shoulder with the team, and once someone has clearly taken ownership, I give them the room to run it.
- Evidence beats opinion, including mineAnything we can’t measure yet is a hypothesis, and we treat it like one.
- Clear views, held looselyI’ll bring a strong point of view, and I’ll change it the moment better evidence shows up.
- Trust is earned weeklyDoing what we said, consistently, builds more trust than any single big moment.
- Results over appearancesWhat changed for the customer and the business matters more than how busy anything looks.
- High standards, safe to miss themPeople do their best work when they can take risks, raise problems early and hear honest feedback without fear.
- Transparency is keyGoals, numbers, decisions and the reasons behind them are shared openly, so everyone can see the full picture and act on it.
- Praise in public, specificallySaying exactly what was great, so it gets repeated, unless you have told me you prefer it kept private.
- Critique in private, quicklyWithin days, not at review time, and always about the work, not the person.
- Ask for it backI want to hear where I’m getting it wrong, and I’ll make it easy to tell me.
- Weekly 30-minute one-on-ones where the agenda belongs to you: what is going well, what is in your way, and where you need my help.
- Agree on what success looks like up front, and keep the numbers visible.
- Raise problems early, while they are still small.
- Challenge my thinking, and set ambitious targets with me.
- Engage in discussion and pick my brain. I am a verbal learner, and talking shop often sparks new ideas we can put to work.
- Tell me directly when I have something wrong, and do not wait to do it.
- You never have to hide how you are doing. We all have good days and bad days. The work should be ambitious, honest and genuinely enjoyable. If something is affecting your ability to work, tell me and I will help take some of it off your plate.
Principles, and where they were proven.
Every role I’ve had has run on the same loop: get closer to the customer than anyone else, pick the few bets that matter, prove the value in terms the buyer cares about, and keep score honestly.
Strategy and market5
01Growth is the scoreboard
Marketing owns a number, not a calendar of activity. If it doesn’t lead to growth, it waits.
In practiceVRIFY: monthly leads from 70 to 300 while CAC fell 45%.Case study02Positioning creates demand
Before scaling a channel, make sure the market understands what you are and why it matters to them.
In practiceKobalt.io: repositioned from zero; monthly leads up 6x and 120 new clients.Case study03Most of the market isn’t buying yet
Only a small share of buyers are in-market at any moment. Build memory with everyone else, so you are first on the list when they are ready.
In practiceVRIFY: roughly 95% of the market did not know us, so we built awareness and trust ahead of demand.Case study04Build brand and demand together
Short-term campaigns harvest demand; brand creates it. Starve either one and growth stalls.
In practiceVRIFY: signature events built the brand while ABM and SDR follow-up converted it; events became our largest revenue driver.Case study05Work backwards from the customer outcome
Define the result the customer should get, then build the program, the message and the metric from there.
In practiceLumen5: worked backwards from retention to find the 5D7 activation metric.Case study
Customers and revenue6
06Win before the first call
Buyers make most of their decision before they ever speak to sales. Earn it early with education, proof and peers.
In practiceVRIFY: an educational journey warmed accounts before outreach; at Kobalt.io, value-first emails primed every call.Case study07Proof beats claims
Buyers trust peers and evidence far more than promises. Put proof in front of every claim.
In practiceVRIFY: demos on the buyer’s own data and peer results; Flax Labs: a 3x ROAS guarantee as proof up front.Case study08Clarity converts
If a buyer has to work to understand you, you have already lost them. Simple beats clever.
In practiceKobalt.io: moved from generic warnings to specific findings about each prospect’s own website.Case study09Fix the bucket before you pour
More acquisition into a product that churns just makes churn expensive. Retention sets the ceiling on growth.
In practiceLumen5: churn ran as high as 33% in bad months, so we fixed activation before scaling spend.Case study10Find the moment that matters
Retention is decided early. Define the moment a customer first gets value, then build everything around reaching it.
In practiceLumen5: customers who hit 5D7 churned 86% less.Case study11Revenue lives on both sides of the bowtie
The signed deal is not the finish line. Onboarding, impact and expansion produce the cheapest revenue a company will ever earn.
In practiceVRIFY: time to value cut from four months to two and a half.Case study
Operating and AI5
12AI multiplies the team
Automate the work that shouldn’t need a person, and trust people with the work that does.
In practiceFlax Labs: revenue doubled at the same headcount; MER from 1.8x to 5.6x.Case study13AI connects the dots, people operate
AI systems can join up the signals and do the heavy lifting, but people still have to run them, make the judgment calls and build the relationships that convert.
In practiceVRIFY: agents surface the right accounts and people run the meetings; $7M+ in new pipeline every quarter.Case study14Test, cut, scale
Protect a testing budget, kill losers quickly, and roll winners back into the core program.
In practiceBuildDirect: ROAS up 230% while the budget grew 2.5x.Case study15Speed of learning beats depth of optimization
Markets now move faster than any single optimization. The team that learns fastest wins.
In practiceFlax Labs: new tools proven on smaller clients first, then rolled out to the largest.Case study16Rhythm compounds
A steady operating rhythm beats heroic one-off launches. Weekly reviews, one shared scorecard and a repeatable path from brand to pipeline to closed revenue turn small gains into large ones, and keep conversion holding as volume scales.
In practiceVRIFY: weekly opportunity reviews and one scorecard; sales cycles 25 days shorter and forecast accuracy at 80%.Case study