Let’s talk about Chris Daglow. This is the man who turned Guardian Health from a sleepy little $100 million startup into a $10 billion juggernaut that steamrolled its way to an IPO. Not with superhero powers, mind you — unless you count caffeine as a superpower — but with a level of digital marketing savvy that makes the rest of us look like we’re still trying to figure out how to set up our voicemail.
Chris Daglow joined me on "The ADOTAT Show," and right off the bat, he was laughing about the messiness of the digital world. "Thank God for Google, right? Never a dull moment," he quipped. "Our industry is like trying to play a game of Jenga on a trampoline — just when you think you’ve got it all balanced, someone throws in another curveball." And he should know; he’s spent his career surfing these waves of chaos, turning them into strategies that somehow, against all
odds, actually work.
Let’s get this straight: Daglow’s story is less Steve Jobs and more “hustle until you collapse, then hustle some more.” Picture this: a guy with a lightbulb idea for a niche social network, walking into his living room and pitching it to his wife. “I told her, ‘I have this awesome idea,’” he recalls, “and she just looked at me and said, ‘You should do it.’ So three months later, there I was with a website.” It wasn’t long before he was doing
deals with Dell, Intel, and Microsoft. No small feat for a guy who admits he didn’t even know how to code. “I used Ning — does anyone even remember Ning? It let me build a social network without writing a single line of code. I just focused on the brand and content that would stick.”
“So, what’s the takeaway here?” I asked him. “Always listen to your wife?” He laughs. “Yeah, probably,” he says. “We all have different paths, but the same goal — running your own
business, feeling like you’ve got some control, even when it feels like you’re steering a ship in a hurricane.”
Control is a loose concept in the startup world, where, as Chris Daglow so vividly puts it, life often feels like “juggling flaming swords on a unicycle.” There’s no safety net, no margin for error; it's a relentless exercise in balancing chaos and strategy. "Every moment felt like that," Daglow admits, reflecting on the perpetual scramble to keep the
wheels turning without crashing. In this high-wire act, you're forced to confront every challenge head-on, using whatever limited resources are at hand and hoping the next gust of wind doesn't knock you off balance.
The key, according to Daglow, is to learn how to “do more with less,” a necessity that startups face daily. "You’re constantly forced to do more with less, squeezing every drop of productivity out of your day," he explains. This isn't just about being
busy; it's about making every minute count. For Daglow, that means adopting a mindset of ruthless prioritization and unwavering focus. "It’s all about prioritizing, having a strategy, and maintaining tunnel vision," he says. With limited resources and even less time, a startup can't afford to lose sight of what’s immediately important.
But Daglow also knows that trying to beat the big players at their own game is a fool’s errand. Instead, he suggests a more
measured approach. "You’re not going to outpace the big dogs," he says. “So you focus on the next step and take it one move at a time.” It’s not about speed; it’s about precision, carefully plotting each move in a game where the rules are always changing. For Daglow, success isn’t a sprint; it’s a series of calculated steps, each one designed to keep you in the game just a little bit longer.
I had to ask about his worst “oh sh*t” moments — those times when you’re
sure you’ve blown it. “You’re never going to be perfect, right? It’s about learning as quickly as you can,” he explains, channeling his inner Eric Ries. “We call it ‘validated learning’ — you throw out these little tests, see what works, and pivot or persevere based on what you find.” Classic Lean Startup methodology.
He talks about the time he built a “killer website” around the premise that third-party cookies were going the way of the dodo. “That assumption
didn’t quite work out,” he admits with a grin. "But hey, we had to roll with it. We ran a ton of experiments on what messaging would resonate with users, figured out what didn’t, and had to tweak everything on the fly. We just got the new site up today, in fact."
So I asked, “With all these pivots, is there ever a time you just have to trust your gut?” His answer was classic Daglow: "Of course. Your gut gets you started, but you don’t just run with it. You test
your gut. If your instinct says ‘go this way,’ you run a small test to see if it makes sense before you throw all your chips on the table. When in doubt, test.”
Chris’s experience has shaped him into a strange hybrid — part firefighter, part chess master. “A startup is always putting out fires — that’s just the nature of the beast,” he says. “But you also need to know your strategy, know where to move the pieces, and have your eye on the endgame. In this case, your
opponent is time. You only have so much time to find product-market fit, to get all the essential pieces in place.”
For digital marketers searching for a clear roadmap to success, Chris Daglow is the first to burst that bubble. He’s quick to remind you that in this ever-evolving landscape, it’s less about following a map and more like deciphering cryptic tea leaves. “Look, there’s a lot of MarTech out there that doesn’t work,” he points out with a knowing grin. The market is flooded with tools and platforms that promise to solve all your problems, but Daglow isn’t buying it. “I’m not
naming names, but we all know who they are. The ones selling black box solutions, promising the moon and delivering dust.”
Daglow's disdain for these so-called “black box” solutions is palpable. He’s seen too many marketers throw good money after bad, trusting in algorithms that operate like voodoo magic. "These solutions are shrouded in secrecy," he says. "They claim to have cracked the code, but they don't even let you look under the hood." For him, the real
problem is that marketers have been too willing to hand over the reins to these supposed miracle tools, expecting them to deliver results without understanding how they work. It's like putting your life savings on the roulette wheel and hoping for the best.
He’s convinced that the next big shift in the industry will be a move away from these gimmicks toward tools that offer genuine, transparent solutions. "Data privacy, compliant advertising, real outreach that
works — that’s the future," he asserts. For Daglow, the future isn't in algorithms that promise to read the minds of consumers, but in tools that help brands truly understand and connect with their audience. He believes marketers need to reclaim control of their data, cut through the jargon, and focus on strategies that genuinely deliver value.
"We need to own our data, activate it across all these walled gardens, and stop trusting these so-called algorithms that
are more about guessing than science," he insists. It’s a call to arms for marketers to take back control. Rather than relying on opaque, black-box solutions that provide little transparency, Daglow advocates for a back-to-basics approach: understand your data, know your audience, and use that knowledge to create meaningful connections. In his view, the future of marketing isn't about flashy tools or secret sauces; it’s about clarity, compliance, and building relationships based on trust and
transparency.
On AI, he’s no less blunt. “People think AI is going to save them, but it’s like asking a monkey to do your taxes. You might get something back, but it sure as hell won’t be accurate,” he laughs. “There are promising new tools, sure, but there’s a lot of crap out there too. The question is, is AI too good or not good enough? Because right now, most people can sniff out an AI-generated message faster than a dog on a
steak.”
And in case you think this guy is all business, let me leave you with this: when I asked him what he’d eat if he could have an unlimited supply of Italian food, he didn’t miss a beat. “Some seafood pasta, down on the Amalfi coast,” he sighs, his mind clearly drifting. “But part of me would want a pizza — takes me back to when I met my wife in Florence. I had no money, but I could afford a slice, and it was the most romantic dinner on earth.”
Daglow might be a marketing wizard, but he’s also the guy who reminds you to enjoy the pizza along the way. Because in this industry, sometimes you’re the lighthouse, sometimes you’re the storm, and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’re just a guy with a good slice of pizza.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE ON YOUTUBE
