Episode Summary:
Can a 27-second video replace a cover letter?
In this episode, Alan sits down with Luke Marshall, Head of Growth at UseVerb, a startup reinventing the way frontline teams hire with short-form video job applications. Luke shares his journey from big-budget media agencies to lean startup teams, the lessons learned from building and rebuilding UseVerb, and why Gen Z is redefining how we think about recruitment, content, and connection.
You’ll hear why UseVerb is doubling down on portrait video, how they’re targeting multi-location retailers and hospitality groups, and what their experiments in landing pages, email outreach, and TikTok-style branding have revealed so far.
If you’ve ever tried hiring at scale or building a startup in a noisy market, Luke’s insights on growth, product-market fit, and trust-based hiring will hit home.
Episode Sponsors:
Chapters:
02:02 – Childhood dreams, Jurassic Park, and marine dinosaurs
03:12 – From media agency life to the startup world
04:34 – The origin story of UseVerb and what went wrong the first time
07:41 – Rebooting the startup: What’s different now
08:40 – The power of a 27-second video job application
10:57 – Why Gen Z gets video — and how that’s a hiring advantage
12:07 – Who UseVerb is built for (and how to reach them)
14:37 – Why TikTok changed everything for startup marketing
16:46 – UseVerb’s omnichannel growth strategy
18:18 – Creating content for portrait video vs landscape: Lessons from Gen Z
22:43 – Personalised landing pages: Too creepy or just right?
24:39 – How UseVerb uses AI to write emails that don’t sound like AI
29:25 – Why diversity in case studies matters for conversion
31:34 – The heartbreak of bounce rates and browser tab 76
33:26 – Final thoughts + a callout for user research participants
Resources:
🙋🏻♂️ Luke’s Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshwah/
🗣️ UseVerb – https://www.useverb.com/
🧊 SmartLead – https://smartlead.ai/ – tool for cold outbound
🕸️ Make.com – https://www.make.com/ – no-code automation for landing page generation
📋 Microsoft Clarity – https://clarity.microsoft.com/ – session replay for landing page behaviour
