# Dave Gerhardt

> Dave Gerhardt is the founder and CEO of Exit Five, the #1 paid community for B2B marketers, with 5,700+ members and $3M+ in annual revenue. A former CMO who rose from PR intern to the CMO chair at Drift and Privy, he turned a decade of B2B marketing experience into a bootstrapped media company built on LinkedIn influence, a 50k+ subscriber newsletter, and a podcast with 348+ episodes. He is the author of Founder Brand (2022) and co-author of Conversational Marketing (2019), and lives in Burlington, Vermont.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Exit Five
- **Organizations:** Exit Five, Drift, Privy, HubSpot
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor's degree, Oglethorpe University, Guest Lecturer, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Founded Exit Five - #1 paid community for B2B marketers with 5,700+ members and $3M+ annual revenue, Bootstrapped Exit Five to profitability with zero outside funding, Co-authored 'Conversational Marketing' (Wiley, 2019) with Drift CEO David Cancel

## Career timeline

- **~2010** — Began career as PR intern; aspired to be a sports writer
- **~2012-2014** — Early marketing roles in Boston tech scene, including Constant Contact
- **2015** — Joined HubSpot to produce and host 'The Growth Show' podcast
- **2015** — Joined Drift as first marketer; helped define the 'Conversational Marketing' category
- **2019** — Co-authored 'Conversational Marketing' with David Cancel (Wiley)
- **2019** — Promoted to VP of Marketing at Drift; company reached $1B+ valuation
- **October 2019** — Launched 'The A List' community on Patreon at $10/month - precursor to Exit Five
- **December 2019** — Left Drift; joined Privy as CMO
- **2020** — Within 6 months of launch, The A List hit 1,000 members and $10k/month revenue
- **June 2021** — Privy acquired by Attentive for $100M+; Dave departed
- **2021** — Returned to Drift as Chief Brand Officer
- **April 2022** — Rebranded community from DGMG to Exit Five; migrated to Circle platform
- **2022** — Published 'Founder Brand' (Lioncrest Publishing)
- **2022** — Left Drift to focus full-time on Exit Five
- **2023** — Exit Five hit $800k revenue as solo operator
- **November 2023** — Hired Dan Murphy as COO; began building full team
- **September 2024** — Exit Five reached $200k/month revenue run rate
- **August 2025** — Launched industry-specific subgroups (FinTech, HealthTech, HR, Manufacturing, MarTech)
- **October 2025** — Exit Five expanded to 30+ geographic local chapters globally
- **2026** — 5,700+ members, 50k+ newsletter subscribers, 348+ podcast episodes, on track for 1M total downloads

## Achievements

- Founded Exit Five - #1 paid community for B2B marketers with 5,700+ members and $3M+ annual revenue
- Bootstrapped Exit Five to profitability with zero outside funding
- Co-authored 'Conversational Marketing' (Wiley, 2019) with Drift CEO David Cancel
- Authored 'Founder Brand' (Lioncrest, 2022)
- Built 191,000+ LinkedIn followers making it a top B2B marketing voice
- VP of Marketing at Drift during its $1B+ valuation growth
- CMO at Privy ahead of its $100M+ acquisition by Attentive
- Grew Exit Five newsletter to 50,000+ subscribers
- Produced 348+ podcast episodes with The Dave Gerhardt Show
- Guest lecturer at Harvard Business School
- Exit Five podcast on track for 1 million total downloads
- Exit Five named top 1% of all Circle communities by monthly active users

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — The Dave Gerhardt Show at 348+ episodes covering AI agents in marketing and B2B marketing strategy
- **2026-01** — Drive 2026 early access tickets available for Burlington, Vermont annual event
- **2025-10** — Exit Five expanded to 30+ geographic local chapters globally including London, Paris, Sydney
- **2025-08** — Exit Five launched industry-specific subgroups for FinTech, HealthTech, HR, Manufacturing, MarTech
- **2025-09** — Exit Five reached $200k/month revenue run rate with 5,700+ members
- **2025-01** — Newsletter grew to 50,000+ subscribers; team expanded to 6 full-time employees

## Links

- Website: https://davegerhardt.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/davegerhardt
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heydavegerhardt
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davegerhardt/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dave-gerhardt
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-26