Why I’ll Never Be a ‘Safe’ CMO Again
Wrote this while jamming with RajGPT: my AI twin, therapist, and sparring partner rolled into one. So I’m sharing it. Not because it's perfect. But because it’s true.
My mom didn’t raise me to play it safe.
She raised me in Kolkata, with grit as my inheritance. No silver spoons. No shortcuts. Just a single lesson drilled in: if you want something, you work for it. You don’t stop. You earn every inch.
So I didn’t stop.
I studied engineering. I coded protocol stacks. I moved to the U.S. the day the Nasdaq peaked, March 2000, chasing more than a dream, chasing a future.
I built a resume that felt safe. Cisco. AWS. Google. Cloud, growth, brand. But “safe” was a trap disguised as progress.
Leaving Google was the moment it broke.
I walked away from a cushy job, generous pay, and a logo that opens every door. I joined an early-stage startup instead. No playbook. No parachute. Just grit, again. I took a massive pay cut, worked harder than ever, and learned faster than I thought possible. That experience made me who I am.
It didn’t just prepare me for Atlassian or 1Password. It built the muscle I needed to create Outbound Fury.
The Myth of “Safe” in B2B
Let’s call it out: B2B marketing is full of conformists.
We hide behind category norms, predictable channels, lifeless branding. We let legal dictate our tone. We let MQLs define our worth. We think being “professional” means being forgettable.
Outbound Fury wasn’t just a campaign framework. It was me rejecting that nonsense.
At Bitbucket, I started running outbound that was loud, edgy, and deeply human. We didn’t wait for demand; we manufactured it. We didn’t blend in; we made people talk. We got scrappy with video, easter eggs, side bets, and provocative stories. And it worked.
Because it turns out developers are human too.
So are CISOs. And finance leaders. And HR. And every so-called “enterprise” buyer out there.
The difference now? They expect to be treated like humans. They expect a brand. They expect you to show up with something to say, not just something to sell.
The Cost of Playing Big
Being bold has a price.
At 1Password, I tried to push the brand into a bolder space: louder voice, clearer POV, edgier tone. We were prepping for an IPO. We needed to break through. Everyone didn’t agree. I stood my ground. We parted ways.
Still a fan of the company. Still a friend to the team. But I’d do it the same way again.
Because I’m not here to color inside the lines.
I’m not the CMO you hire to “optimize demand gen” or “tighten messaging.” I’m the one you call when you want to tear it all down and rebuild it from first principles. When you’re ready to disrupt your own go-to-market before someone else does it for you. And want the CMO to drive long-term results and revenue.
What I Know Now
Here’s the takeaway I wish someone told me earlier:
Safe marketing is just slow failure.
It delays the loss. Masks the mediocrity. Keeps your CAC clean while your category eats itself. Looks fine on a dashboard, dies in a boardroom.
The only way forward, especially now, is to make noise. To take risks. To show the world what you really stand for. Outbound isn’t dead. But vanilla is.
So yeah! I’m not a safe CMO.
And I’m proud of that.