Cvent just acquired ON24. You're probably thinking, "Okay, another B2B acquisition, who cares?" But they bought Goldcast just 2 weeks earlier.

In this episode, we break down:

• Why Cvent is suddenly on a buying spree
• OpenAI is speculated to purchase Pinterest
• LinkedIn took down another data provider, Artisan, but this one has a happy ending.
• Microsoft’s AI Irony: AI writes 30% of their code, yet Windows 11 keeps breaking.
• Is adding Reddit moderator to your resume a flex or nah?
• McKinsey’s Creator Play: even the B2B dinosaurs are into influencers
• Reverse Psychology Ads: Why "DON’T BOOK A DEMO" is outperforming traditional CTAs.
• And much, much more.

Join us, it’s episode 44.

---

Connect with the hosts:

Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober

Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments.

---

Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B.

Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community.

Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026.

Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.

---

Also, special thanks to our friends at Vector - the only ad platform brave enough to say what we’re all thinking: native targeting is a scam.

Vector lets you build audiences by name. Not “job title at tech company.” Actual people who clicked your ad, visited your site, or creeped on your pricing page. (Also, the branding has cute ghosties. What more do you want?)

Check them out at vector.co and stop paying to show ads to your uncle’s dentist’s cousin.

---

Finally, huge shoutout to Sahil, CEO of Spiralyze, the company that captures winning A/B tests from 78,000 websites. He kinda knows what works on B2B websites.

This February, he's teaming up with folks like Anthony Pierri, Jess Cook, Rob Kaminski, Alina Vandenberghe, and our very own Tas Bober, to host Above the Fold - a workshop-style event designed to help you build a better website.

No keynotes. No panels. Just hands-on, practical sessions you can actually use.

Join us in February. Get the details at spiralyze.com/abovethefold

LinkedIn dropped its Year in Review - their version of Spotify’s wildly popular “Wrapped” where they give you fun statistics about your listening history on the platform.

LinkedIn’s version was exciting at first but then everyone started comparing notes. And the math does not math.

So naturally, this is how we’re kicking off the New Year.

Welcome to the first episode of Notorious B2B this year. And yes, we’re starting exactly where B2B deserves it.

Then we get into everything else B2B crammed in right before the calendar flipped.

• Goldcast acquired by Cvent and what that signals for event tech
• Salesforce to acquire Qualified and why this one actually makes sense ZoomInfo wins a key court ruling, allowing its patent infringement case against Apollo to move forward

• Calling out ZoomInfo Chorus for an auto-renewal trap tied to a missed 60-day notice
• Publicly criticizing a company offering $1,000 for a copy-paste sponsored post
• Why lazy “influencer” spend deserves public side-eye

• Jess Cook explains the standard marketers should hold for creative that actually stands out. Plus an intro to Vector’s latest concept
• Defending working multiple SDR jobs at once
• A $50 gift card challenge to prove an enrichment engine can actually pull emails from LinkedIn profiles. If the data works, prove it.

Timestamps:

• 03:13 Goldcast Acquired by Cvent
• 05:41 Salesforce Acquires Qualified
• 11:02 LinkedIn Year in Review: Data Discrepancies
• 25:40 ZoomInfo Sues Apollo for Patent Infringement
• 31:10 ZoomInfo Chorus Auto-Renewal Traps

---

Connect with the hosts:

Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober

Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments.

---

Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B.

Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community.

Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026.

Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.

---

Also, special thanks to our friends at Vector - the only ad platform brave enough to say what we’re all thinking: native targeting is a scam.

Vector lets you build audiences by name. Not “job title at tech company.” Actual people who clicked your ad, visited your site, or creeped on your pricing page. (Also, the branding has cute ghosties. What more do you want?)

Check them out at vector.co and stop paying to show ads to your uncle’s dentist’s cousin.

---

Finally, huge shoutout to Sahil, CEO of Spiralyze, the company that captures winning A/B tests from 78,000 websites. He kinda knows what works on B2B websites.

This February, he's teaming up with folks like Anthony Pierri, Jess Cook, Rob Kaminski, Alina Vandenberghe, and our very own Tas Bober, to host Above the Fold - a workshop-style event designed to help you build a better website.

No keynotes. No panels. Just hands-on, practical sessions you can actually use.

Join us in February. Get the details at spiralyze.com/abovethefold

This episode is a full recap of Chris Walker’s B2B era. From the early Refine Labs days, to Dark Social, to leaving his own company, to launching Encoded and talking about “frequency.”

We cover:

• How Chris Walker rose to become one of the most influential voices in B2B marketing
• The Dark Social era and why it resonated so hard
• Why he left Refine Labs and what he’s up to now
• Why the backlash was inevitable

If you’ve followed Chris Walker for years, this episode will connect the dots.

If you’re newer to B2B marketing, this is like the Messiah of B2B changing course.

---

Connect with the hosts:

Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober

Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments.

---

Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B.

Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community.

Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026.

Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.

---

Also, special thanks to our friends at Vector - the only ad platform brave enough to say what we’re all thinking: native targeting is a scam.

Vector lets you build audiences by name. Not “job title at tech company.” Actual people who clicked your ad, visited your site, or creeped on your pricing page. (Also, the branding has cute ghosties. What more do you want?)

Check them out at vector.co and stop paying to show ads to your uncle’s dentist’s cousin.

---

Finally, huge shoutout to Sahil, CEO of Spiralyze, the company that captures winning A/B tests from 78,000 websites. He kinda knows what works on B2B websites.

This February, he's teaming up with folks like Anthony Pierri, Jess Cook, Rob Kaminski, Alina Vandenberghe, and our very own Tas Bober, to host Above the Fold - a workshop-style event designed to help you build a better website.

No keynotes. No panels. Just hands-on, practical sessions you can actually use.

Join us in February. Get the details at spiralyze.com/abovethefold

In this 2025 B2B recap episode, we explain the Astronomer CEO scandal and why it became such a defining moment for the industry.

We cover:

• How and what happened
• The company’s response and whether it was brilliant or not
• And what this says about leadership and accountability in B2B

Catch up here.

---

Connect with the hosts:

Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober

Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments.

---

Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B.

Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community.

Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026.

Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.

---

Also, special thanks to our friends at Vector - the only ad platform brave enough to say what we’re all thinking: native targeting is a scam.

Vector lets you build audiences by name. Not “job title at tech company.” Actual people who clicked your ad, visited your site, or creeped on your pricing page. (Also, the branding has cute ghosties. What more do you want?)

Check them out at vector.co and stop paying to show ads to your uncle’s dentist’s cousin.

---

Finally, huge shoutout to Sahil, CEO of Spiralyze, the company that captures winning A/B tests from 78,000 websites. He kinda knows what works on B2B websites.

This February, he's teaming up with folks like Anthony Pierri, Jess Cook, Rob Kaminski, Alina Vandenberghe, and our very own Tas Bober, to host Above the Fold - a workshop-style event designed to help you build a better website.

No keynotes. No panels. Just hands-on, practical sessions you can actually use.

Join us in February. Get the details at spiralyze.com/abovethefold

Welcome back to part 2 of our miniseries where we recap the full-blown B2B SaaS James Bond tale of 2025: the Rippling vs Deel rivalry and the accusations of corporate espionage.

Here’s what actually went down:

• Rippling sues Deel over alleged corporate espionage
• A fake Slack “honeypot” used to catch a spy
• A former Rippling employee allegedly recruited while still employed
• Payments involving cash and cryptocurrency
• A court order, a locked bathroom, and a wiped phone
• Deel’s Head of Comms resigns
• Rippling reportedly raising at a $16B valuation
• Deel fires back with five serious counter-allegations

Including defamation, deceptive trade practices, whistleblower retaliation, and financial misconduct.

Live through it again with us.

---

Connect with the hosts:

Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober

Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments.

---

Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B.

Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community.

Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026.

Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.

---

Also, special thanks to our friends at Vector - the only ad platform brave enough to say what we’re all thinking: native targeting is a scam.

Vector lets you build audiences by name. Not “job title at tech company.” Actual people who clicked your ad, visited your site, or creeped on your pricing page. (Also, the branding has cute ghosties. What more do you want?)

Check them out at vector.co and stop paying to show ads to your uncle’s dentist’s cousin.

---

Finally, huge shoutout to Sahil, CEO of Spiralyze, the company that captures winning A/B tests from 78,000 websites. He kinda knows what works on B2B websites.

This February, he's teaming up with folks like Anthony Pierri, Jess Cook, Rob Kaminski, Alina Vandenberghe, and our very own Tas Bober, to host Above the Fold - a workshop-style event designed to help you build a better website.

No keynotes. No panels. Just hands-on, practical sessions you can actually use.

Join us in February. Get the details at spiralyze.com/abovethefold

We are ending the year with a miniseries recapping B2B’s biggest stories in 2025 starting with one of the most talked-about B2B moments this year - LinkedIn removing company pages for major data providers like Apollo, Seamless AI, and other lesser-known rivals.

The move signaled something bigger:

⦁ A clear stance against tools scraping LinkedIn personal data

⦁ A warning shot to the B2B data ecosystem

⦁ And a reminder of how fragile platform-dependent distribution really is

What makes this story notable isn’t just the ban. It’s what happens after (and it isn’t all bad news).

In this episode, we break down:

⦁ Why LinkedIn made this move in 2025

⦁ What the ban actually targeted

⦁ Why it didn’t slow buyer demand

⦁ What this means for B2B companies relying on platforms they don’t control

If you’ve been under a rock, this is the recap you need.

---

Connect with the hosts:

Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober

Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments.

---

Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B.

Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community.

Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026.

Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.

---

Also, special thanks to our friends at Vector - the only ad platform brave enough to say what we’re all thinking: native targeting is a scam.

Vector lets you build audiences by name. Not “job title at tech company.” Actual people who clicked your ad, visited your site, or creeped on your pricing page. (Also, the branding has cute ghosties. What more do you want?)

Check them out at vector.co and stop paying to show ads to your uncle’s dentist’s cousin.

---

Finally, huge shoutout to Sahil, CEO of Spiralyze, the company that captures winning A/B tests from 78,000 websites. He kinda knows what works on B2B websites.

This February, he's teaming up with folks like Anthony Pierri, Jess Cook, Rob Kaminski, Alina Vandenberghe, and our very own Tas Bober, to host Above the Fold - a workshop-style event designed to help you build a better website.

No keynotes. No panels. Just hands-on, practical sessions you can actually use.

Join us in February. Get the details at spiralyze.com/abovethefold

• Updated LinkedIn demographics data from Tas and why reporting on it is messier than it looks (long way of saying Tas was wrong?)
• It's that time of year again - SaaS is increasing prices but is 3x acceptable? Kit faces backlash while competitors cash in on the bad PR.
• Hustle culture is now going fully off the rails
• And…the possible return of the crying CEO??

• 00:00 – Cold Open: AI Dynamic Ad Placements (xAI Hackathon)
• 02:30 – LinkedIn Demographics Experiment: The Update
• 15:00 – Deep Dive: The xAI Hackathon Project (Kushar’s Ad Tech)
• 22:00 – Insider Trading? The Poly Market "Alpha Raccoon" Story
• 32:00 – SaaS Pricing Chaos (Kit & FiveTran Backlash)
• 42:45 – Hustle Culture Hall of Shame
• 49:30 – Is the Crying CEO Making a Comeback?

-----------------------------

It's Tas' birthday but she has a present for you - results from a LinkedIn demographic change...and the numbers are messy. We break down the “straight white male” profile switch, the 16–18x impression spike ChatGPT claims, why Tim won’t trust a single line without a Google Sheet, and whether the lift came from demographics, better content, or one 85K-view outlier post boosted by Chris Walker.

• 00:00 Intro + LinkedIn chaos setup
• 02:15 Changed My LinkedIn Demographics. Here’s What Actually Happened
• 17:10 Reddit Can Smell B2B Marketing From a Mile Away
• 21:55 500+ Job Applications and Zero Callbacks. At Some Point, It’s Not the System
• 35:45 Should You Cold Call on Christmas? Unfortunately… Maybe
• 41:20 Closed/Won: The Best and Worst of LinkedIn This Week

-------------------------

Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober Subscribe for more no-BS breakdowns of the internet’s wildest B2B moments. --- Today's episode is brought to you by Exit Five. Thanks to Dave and the Exit Five team for being OG supporters of Notorious B2B. Tim and Tas have both been members since the beginning and get a ton of value from being part of this community. Join the top community of B2B marketers now at ExitFive.com and get access to one of the 30+ in-person events Exit Five is hosting in 2026. Also, we heard Dave is super jacked, a millionaire, a great father, a speed reader, he’s run 300 marathons, and donates over $1M a year to very important charities.