B2B marketing leader

Matt Lyman

Demand generation built on stories buyers believe and numbers Sales trusts.

I fix pipeline. Not by throwing more budget at the top of the funnel, but by finding where it's actually broken: conversion rates, messaging that doesn't land, content that doesn't move buyers, and handoffs between Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success that leak revenue at every stage. Most recently VP of Marketing at Flosum. Seattle, remote.

Founder, R.I.D.E. 4 ALL. President, Highline Special Needs PTA.

Named a FINITE Influential 30 Marketer in B2B SaaS, 2023.

Message Matt on LinkedIn Resume (PDF)

Open to VP and Head-of marketing roles.

Matt Lyman smiling, wearing dark-framed glasses and a gray-blue t-shirt
18% to 50%
Marketing's share of new business pipeline
LeanData, 2022 to 2024
+45%
Marketing-sourced pipeline on 41% less demand gen spend, in the same year
LeanData, 2022 to 2023
+1,329%
Monthly Google search impressions, organic, after the SEO and GEO/AEO rebuild
Flosum, Sep to Nov 2025
7 of 51
Named ABM accounts that became opportunities in five months
Flosum, Nov to Apr
87%
Drop in cost per paid MQL in six months
Flosum, Oct to Mar
120%+
Average quota attainment of the SDR and BDR teams I led
Chef Software
“Matt's leadership style is one of empowerment. He sets the culture and direction and has allowed me to go take risks without the fear of failure. I have grown so much under his leadership.”
Chengxin Tan, Director, Demand Generation, Ivo. Direct report.

About

Matt Lyman is a B2B marketing leader based in Seattle with nearly 20 years in marketing, specializing in demand generation, with hands-on marketing operations and AI skills behind it. He has served as VP of Marketing at Flosum, VP of Demand Generation at LeanData, and Director of Revenue Marketing at Chef Software, where the revenue team grew about 2.7x through the company's acquisition by Progress. He founded R.I.D.E. 4 ALL, a nonprofit for inclusive recreation, and is president of the Highline Special Needs PTA.

I review customer calls, talk to the people who said yes and the ones who said no, and build programs around what I find. Nearly 20 years in marketing, most recently at Chef, LeanData, and Flosum. At LeanData, marketing's share of new business pipeline went from 18% to 50% while demand gen spend dropped 41%. At Flosum, cost per paid MQL fell 87% in six months and monthly search impressions grew from 70,000 to over a million.

Before software, I ran sales and marketing for a craft beer publication. At Flosum, I scrapped product-first messaging and rebuilt the strategic narrative from the ground up, then made sure the numbers behind it were ones Sales believes. Here's how I think about buyers.

I build with AI every day. Here's what I've built.

I lead from alongside, not above. My job is to coach my team well enough that they can take my job and go find a bigger one.

Matt Lyman in a yellow cycling jersey and blue helmet, riding into low sun
You'll probably find me on a bike.

Every buyer is a person.

B2H is business to human. B2B and B2C are labels for what the buyer is spending. The buyer is a person either way, with pain points, worries, hopes, and a to-do list that's too long. Whether they're choosing a streaming service or a revenue platform, what moves them is how it makes them feel: less afraid, less stuck, a little more hopeful. My job is to find the gap they're living with and show up with something that fills it. A need, an emotion, a simpler day.

How I tell it

Every campaign starts with a real story about who the buyer is and what they're afraid of. I get it from customer calls, from the people who said yes and the ones who said no. My playwriting degree helps.

What I make

Content that sounds like a person wrote it. I've tested humor in B2B, borrowed emotional tactics from consumer marketing, and learned more from lost deals than won ones.

How the team works

The same rule runs inside the team. People do their best work when they feel seen and heard, and the people who've worked for me say so. I write the operating manual so nobody has to guess how we work. See what they say.

The long version: Welcome to the era of B2H, on Marketers of Technology.

The work

Flosum

Apr 2025 to Jun 2026

VP of Marketing

Rebuilt the marketing function at an enterprise Salesforce governance platform. Reported to the CEO, led a team of 5. Agency partners ran the ad accounts. I owned strategy, measurement, and creative direction.

  • Cost per paid MQL down 87% in six months. In one quarter, spend rose about 42% while paid MQLs rose 167%.
  • Meetings from paid up 467%.
  • Monthly search impressions went from 70,000 to over one million, up 1,329%, through the SEO and GEO/AEO rebuild: 120+ assets updated, FAQ rebuilds, third-party authority placements.
  • ABM across 51 named accounts and 10 AEs. Target accounts clicked at 3 to 7x the campaign average, and 7 became opportunities within five months, mostly through BDR meetings.
  • Built an agent with product marketing that tracks competitor and industry news and hands Sales what changed, and an ABM dashboard that pulls ad, intent, and site data into one view. Also set up the AI SDR.

LeanData

Feb 2022 to Nov 2024

VP of Demand Generation

Moved the team from growth-at-all-costs to a demand model that scaled. Team of 4.

  • Marketing's share of new business pipeline went from 18% to 50%. In 2023, demand gen spend fell 41% while marketing-sourced pipeline grew 45%.
  • Enterprise went from 36% to 65% of pipeline.
  • BookIt, the scheduling product, hit 2x its ARR target in year one.
  • Lead-to-qualified-opportunity conversion rose from 2.5% to 10%+ after a lead scoring rebuild. Events returned 4:1 in pipeline. Paid inbound leads doubled while cost per demo fell by more than half.
  • Widened the audience from RevOps to sales and marketing leaders, then IT managers. Led the internal rollout of the Revenue Orchestration Platform.

Chef Software

2015 to 2022

Director of Revenue Marketing at exit

Ran demand gen, ops, web, and SDR teams. Team of 7. Joined the business unit leadership team after Progress acquired Chef.

  • Revenue team grew about 2.7x through the acquisition, with quarterly pipeline goals beaten by 4x or more.
  • SDR and BDR teams averaged 120%+ of quota.
  • Rebuilt Marketo from the ground up. An external auditor rated it best-in-class.
  • Marketed the training site to 10,000 active users in six months.

Earlier: B-Line, LLC, marketing specialist (2009 to 2011). G2 Web Services, marketing to financial institutions (2011 to 2015). AmericanCraftBeer.com, director of sales and marketing (2014 to 2017).

What I build with AI

Agents, dashboards, and search that AI can read. What each one does, and where you can see it.

Competitor and industry news agent

Built with product marketing at Flosum. It reads competitor sites, blogs, podcasts, and webinar transcripts, drops what changed into a shared sheet, and hands Sales the short version.

ABM dashboard and AI SDR

One view of ad, intent, and site data across 51 target accounts, plus executive review dashboards. I also set up the AI SDR.

Search that AI can quote

I rebuilt content so AI search tools can find and cite it: 120+ asset updates, FAQ rebuilds, and third-party authority placements. Monthly search impressions grew 1,329% alongside it.

This site

Built with Claude. It has structured data, an llms.txt file, and FAQ markup so AI search can read it, and every change goes through a reviewed pull request. The code is public.

More on GitHub.

The other job

In 2020 I rode 32.1 miles on March 21 to celebrate inclusion on World Down Syndrome Day. In 2021 and 2022 it became 321 miles over three days, Bellingham to Portland, with friends riding legs alongside me. Anyone could join, whether they rode 321 miles or 3.21 minutes.

In 2022 we started R.I.D.E. 4 ALL, a nonprofit for inclusive recreation. In 2025 and 2026 the ride evolved into Day of Play, a free event that brings kids of all abilities together to play in the same space, with the same activities.

  • R.I.D.E. 4 ALL, founder and board member. Chair of 321 for 3.21.
  • Highline Special Needs PTA, president since 2024, vice president 2022 to 2024.
In the news
Matt Lyman with his family, smiling and arm in arm in front of a tall green hedge
Matt Lyman making a big open-mouthed grin in a selfie with two kids beside a river

Talks, podcasts, and webinars

What people say

Matt was a key leader on my marketing team who regularly rose to the occasion and inspired his employees to do the same. His charismatic style makes him a natural mentor and coach.

Dan FrechtlingDirect manager, SVP Product and Strategy, LegitScript

Matt's superpower isn't just that he is a fantastic operator, it's that his team and everyone they interface with become happy high performers. Also, ask him about beer.

Direct manager

He's a rare marketing executive who pairs strategic vision with a hands-on approach… Matt has a genuine ability to make people feel seen, heard, and valued.

Rocio E. GarzaDirect report

Matt leads with both heart and data, creating an environment where his team thrives and delivers real impact. His mix of strategic thinking, collaboration, and mentorship has not only driven results but also helped me learn and grow in my own career.

Shaun YapDirect report, Langchain

Matt's leadership style is one of empowerment. He sets the culture and direction and has allowed me to go take risks without the fear of failure. I have grown so much under his leadership.

Chengxin TanDirect report, Director, Demand Generation, Ivo

Matt's team fears how much they love him.

Dan HauensteinLeadership colleague, VP Product Marketing, SolarWinds

Matt has the superpower to connect people, processes, and products to drive results through demand gen programs.

Matt CarterPeer, Head of Marketing, Superconductor

Matt has an ease about him… He is a valuable asset to any company, and an invaluable human being to get to know. In short; if given the opportunity? Hire. This. Man.

Nichol GoldsteinPeer, Community Manager, Progress Software

Skills and tools

Focus
Marketing leadership, demand generation, ABM, paid media, SEO and GEO/AEO, AI workflows and agents, messaging and narrative, lifecycle and lead scoring, attribution, marketing operations, sales and BDR alignment, product and category launches, events.
Marketing automation and CRM
Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, Pardot, Salesforce.
ABM and sales
LeanData, Qualified, Outreach, Salesloft, Demandbase, 6sense, UserGems, Intellimize.
AI and build
Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub.
Project management
Jira, Notion, Asana, Airtable.
Certifications
LinkedIn Advertising Fundamentals (2026). Pavilion Customer-Centric Growth (2025). Demandbase Account-Based GTM (2025). 6sense Fundamentals of Next-Gen Marketing (2025). Marketing Psychology and Consumer Behavior (2025). Six Sigma Green Belt.
Training
MBA, Global Marketing Management. Franklin Covey and Dale Carnegie leadership training.

Questions people ask

Who is Matt Lyman?

Matt Lyman is a B2B marketing leader based in Seattle with nearly 20 years in marketing, specializing in demand generation, with hands-on marketing operations and AI skills behind it. He has served as VP of Marketing at Flosum, VP of Demand Generation at LeanData, and Director of Revenue Marketing at Chef Software, where the revenue team grew about 2.7x through the company's acquisition by Progress. He was named a FINITE Influential 30 Marketer in B2B SaaS in 2023.

What does Matt Lyman do?

He is a B2B marketing leader who builds demand generation programs around buyer stories and the data to prove they work. He has built demand engines across paid media, ABM, SEO, events, and content at Chef, LeanData, and Flosum, and builds with AI every day.

What is B2H?

Business to human is Matt's marketing philosophy. B2B and B2C are labels for what the buyer is spending, but the buyer is a person either way, with pain points, worries, and hopes. Matt builds marketing that finds the gap that person is living with and fills it: a need, an emotion, a simpler day. It shows up in how he tells stories, the content he makes, and how his teams work.

What results has Matt driven?

At LeanData, marketing's share of new business pipeline went from 18% to 50% while demand gen spend fell 41%. At Flosum, cost per paid MQL fell 87% in six months and monthly search impressions grew 1,329%.

What is Matt's experience with ABM and GEO/AEO?

At Flosum, Matt ran ABM across 51 named accounts and 10 AEs. Target accounts clicked at 3 to 7x the campaign average, and 7 became opportunities within five months. He also led an SEO and GEO/AEO rebuild with 120+ assets updated, rebuilt FAQs, and third-party authority placements, which took monthly search impressions from 70,000 to over one million.

How does Matt use AI?

Matt builds with AI every day. At Flosum he worked with product marketing on an agent that tracks competitor and industry news for Sales, built an ABM dashboard that pulls ad, intent, and site data into one view, set up an AI SDR, and rebuilt content for AI search (GEO/AEO). This site was built with Claude, and its code is public on GitHub. The What I Build with AI section on this page has the details.

What roles is Matt open to?

Matt is open to VP, Head of, and Senior Director roles in marketing, demand generation, and growth at growth-stage B2B software companies.

What does Matt do outside of marketing?

He founded R.I.D.E. 4 ALL, a nonprofit for inclusive recreation, and is president of the Highline Special Needs PTA. He also rides bikes, a lot.

Where can I hear Matt talk about marketing and leadership?

Matt has been a guest on Marketers of Technology, Straight To Voicemail, Content Matters, The Hype Within, and Everything's Coming Up Marketing. He moderated LeanData webinars on event strategy, co-selling, customer champions, and go-to-market efficiency, was a panelist at RevGenius's RevCon 2024 on scaling demand generation past $25M, and gave a Finovate talk on LeanData's revenue orchestration platform. Links to each are in the Talks, podcasts, and webinars section of this page.

Where is Matt based and how can I reach him?

Seattle, working remotely since 2020. The best way to reach him is LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/mattlyman.

Matt Lyman smiling in sunglasses and a green cap on a driftwood beach below a sandy bluff

Say hello

If you're hiring for a marketing leader, or you just want to talk pipeline, LinkedIn is the fastest way to reach me.

Message Matt on LinkedIn Resume (PDF)