David Alston, one of the leading lights at Radian6 a decade ago, is launching a new accelerator for chief marketing officers at Atlantic Canadian startups, hoping to improve the marketing leadership in the region.

Marketswell Solutions will launch next month with the goal of producing 25 grads in the next five years, all of whom will have the confidence and know-how to fill key leadership roles in high-growth companies. Alston said he is initiating the program because of a dearth of talent in digital marketing in the region and the difficulty in finding CMOs anywhere.

“The idea came to me less than a month ago after getting back-to-back calls from startups trying to figure out where they were going to find their CMO,” Alston said in an email. “I’ve gotten many similar calls over the past 10 years, which generally has me listing three to four of the same people – all who generally are happy in the roles they already have.  Atlantic Canada simply doesn’t have enough on the bench ready to go.”

Alston, one of the most experienced marketing brains in the region, wants to change that. He was the CMO at Fredericton-based social media analytics company Radian6 when it was bought by Salesforce.com for $326 million in 2011. After that, he spent a couple of years with Salesforce, and his roles since then have included Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the province of New Brunswick.

He was a driving force behind Brilliant Labs, which educates young Atlantic Canadians in technology, and now wants to help develop leading marketing talent for the region’s startups. The goal is to develop a pool of top flight marketing professionals who can help to grow companies across the region.

“I would say it is a situation just as critical as the lack of needed tech sales talent that [East Valley Ventures Chair] Gerry [Pond] has pointed out so well in recent years,” said Alston. “Honestly, this lack of senior marketing talent is also a Canadian and, I’d venture to say, a North American issue as well.”

In the Marketswell program, Alston will pair up with a “designated star” at the selected startups, working with that person for a set amount of time each week. They will work through issues, brainstorm and Alston will push them in the areas in which they need growth.

The accelerator also offers a cohort, with the participants working together as a group at times. There will be a Slack channel and monthly Zoom calls for peer-to-peer support and education.

“The goal is to create a network of marketing professionals that will be there for them after the program as they continue to grow,” said Alston, who said he will charge the participants as several startups have indicated they can recover the cost from government programs that fund training. 

The deadline for applications is Sept. 14, and you can apply via the contact form at the bottom of the company website.