Why HyperSpectral Thinks Like a Media Company (Not a SaaS Company)

Why HyperSpectral Thinks Like a Media Company (Not a SaaS Company)

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Matt Theurer, CEO and Co-founder of HyperSpectral, said something that should make every B2B marketer pause: “We actually think of ourselves as a media company. We have a podcast, a YouTube channel, a newsletter. We’re creating content five days a week.”

Five days a week. That’s more than many actual media companies produce. And HyperSpectral isn’t a media company—they’re a sales hiring platform scaling to $3.5M ARR while simultaneously running what amounts to a full content studio.

Most SaaS founders would call this insane. Unfocused. A distraction from building product and closing deals. Matt calls it their most effective growth channel.

The Problem with Traditional B2B Marketing

Before we understand why HyperSpectral’s approach works, we need to understand why traditional B2B marketing increasingly doesn’t. The typical playbook looks something like this: run paid ads to drive traffic to landing pages, offer gated content in exchange for email addresses, nurture leads through automated sequences, book demos, close deals.

This model has two fundamental problems. First, it’s transactional. Every interaction asks the prospect for something—an email address, a meeting, a commitment. You’re constantly in extraction mode, trying to get prospects to move down your funnel.

Second, it assumes buying intent already exists. You’re fishing where the fish are supposedly swimming, targeting people actively searching for solutions. But what about everyone else? The VP of Sales who will need your product in six months but doesn’t know it yet. The recruiting leader who’s frustrated with their current process but hasn’t started looking for alternatives.

Traditional demand generation misses these people entirely. Or worse, it catches them too early and burns the relationship by pushing for a demo before they’re ready.

The Influence That Changed Everything

Matt’s thinking about content was shaped by watching successful B2B content creators transform their categories. “I’ve learned so much about content in general from Chris Walker at Refine Labs,” Matt says. Walker pioneered what he calls “dark social”—the idea that most B2B buying happens through channels you can’t track, influenced by content consumed over long periods.

The insight is simple but powerful: stop asking prospects for something in every interaction. Instead, give them value first. Let them consume your content, learn from you, and build familiarity with your brand on their own timeline. When they eventually have a need, they’ll already know who you are and trust your expertise.

Matt calls this “trust-based marketing.” The theory is that prospects engage with your content months before they’re ready to buy. “People might listen to one of our podcasts or read an article or see a piece of content, and then six months later they have a need,” Matt explains. “They already know who we are.”

This requires a fundamentally different approach to content. You’re not creating lead magnets designed to extract contact information. You’re creating genuinely valuable content that people want to consume even if they never become customers.

Building the Content Machine

HyperSpectral’s content operation rivals many media companies in scope and ambition. The core offerings include a podcast featuring recruiting leaders and sales executives, a YouTube channel with tactical hiring advice, a newsletter diving deep into industry trends, and active social media presence where Matt himself shares insights.

This isn’t repurposed blog content or recycled LinkedIn posts. Each format is treated as its own distinct medium with unique value. The podcast allows for in-depth conversations that reveal nuanced insights. YouTube enables visual demonstration of concepts. The newsletter provides space for detailed analysis. Social media creates opportunities for dialogue and community building.

The commitment is significant. Creating content five days a week while running a fast-growing SaaS company means dedicated resources, consistent processes, and leadership buy-in that this isn’t a marketing experiment—it’s core to how the company goes to market.

Why This “Inefficient” Approach Actually Works

On the surface, HyperSpectral’s content strategy seems wildly inefficient. You’re investing significant time and money creating content that doesn’t directly generate leads. You can’t easily attribute revenue to specific pieces of content. The ROI is impossible to calculate in traditional marketing terms.

But this apparent inefficiency is actually the strategy’s greatest strength. Because HyperSpectral isn’t asking for anything in return, people actually engage with the content. They listen to full podcast episodes instead of skimming blog posts. They subscribe to the newsletter because it’s genuinely useful, not because they’re trying to download a whitepaper. They follow Matt on LinkedIn because his insights are valuable, not because they want to be sold to.

This creates something traditional demand generation can never achieve: genuine mindshare. When someone in HyperSpectral’s target market thinks about candidate screening, there’s a good chance they’ve already encountered HyperSpectral’s content. They’ve learned from Matt’s insights. They’ve heard industry leaders discuss hiring challenges on the podcast. They’ve read tactical advice in the newsletter.

So when they eventually have a need—when they’re hiring 20 SDRs and drowning in candidate screening calls—HyperSpectral is already top of mind. The first sales conversation isn’t about establishing credibility or explaining who you are. It’s about understanding their specific requirements because they already trust you can help.

The Long Game of Content

The hardest part of this approach is the patience it requires. You’re investing in creating content today that might not generate pipeline for six months. Your CFO can’t easily model the ROI. Your board can’t track it on a dashboard. There’s no immediate gratification of seeing form fills convert to meetings booked.

Matt acknowledges this reality but sees it as a feature, not a bug. The lack of immediate attribution actually filters for higher-quality engagement. People consuming HyperSpectral’s content are doing so because they find it valuable, not because they’re trading contact information for access. When these people eventually become customers, they tend to be better customers—more educated about the problem, clearer about what they need, easier to onboard.

The compounding effects matter too. Each piece of content builds on previous pieces. Regular listeners become familiar with HyperSpectral’s perspective on hiring. They start thinking about candidate screening through HyperSpectral’s framework. By the time they’re ready to buy, they’re not just looking for any solution—they’re specifically looking for what HyperSpectral offers.

The Resource Allocation Question

The obvious concern is opportunity cost. Every dollar and hour spent on content is a dollar and hour not spent on product development, sales hiring, or customer success. How does a growing SaaS company justify this investment?

Matt’s implicit answer is that content isn’t separate from these other functions—it supports all of them. The podcast conversations with industry leaders inform product roadmap decisions. The newsletter deep-dives surface customer pain points that product should address. The YouTube content helps with customer onboarding and reduces support burden.

More importantly, content creates leverage that traditional marketing can’t match. A single podcast episode can influence hundreds of potential customers. A viral LinkedIn post can reach thousands of people in your target market. A comprehensive newsletter can position you as the definitive expert in your space. Traditional demand gen requires linear investment—more ad spend to reach more people. Content compounds over time.

Making It Work for Your Business

The HyperSpectral approach won’t work for every company. It requires authentic expertise worth sharing, commitment to consistency, and patience to play the long game. But the underlying principle applies broadly: in crowded markets where trust is scarce, giving value before asking for it creates competitive advantage.

You don’t need to produce content five days a week. But you do need to think differently about what content is for. It’s not a lead generation tactic. It’s a trust-building mechanism. It’s how you establish expertise, demonstrate value, and stay top-of-mind with potential customers long before they’re ready to buy.