Matthew Kanakidis didn't set out to build a tech empire; he just wanted a place to live. After getting scammed while looking for an apartment at UTSA, he realized the leasing industry was stuck in the Stone Age.

Today, as the CEO of RentBamboo, Matthew is replacing "annoying templates" with AI Agents that close leases in minutes. In this episode, we break down how he went from cold-calling landlords to building a high-speed sales engine that rivals the biggest players in PropTech.

Hosts:

Leon Hitchens

🔹LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonhitchens/

🔹X: https://x.com/Leonhitchens

🔹Website: https://www.leonhitchens.com/

Guest:

Matthew Kanakidis: CEO of RentBamboo

🔹LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-kanakidis-638352294/

🔹Website: https://www.rentbamboo.com/

🔹RentBamboo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rentbamboo/

Find Us:

🔹YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBoostChannel

🔹Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AHGT1Aoq9oAHZEHeORBpa

🔹Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marketing-boost/id1720047128

🔹Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBoostChannel

The "Too Long; Didn't Listen" (TL; DL)

▪️The Problem: Why it takes 3 days to get a reply from an apartment (and why that's killing business).

▪️The Pivot: How a "Tinder for Apartments" app failed on the user side but revealed a massive B2B goldmine.

▪️The Secret Sauce: A masterclass in Cold Emailing, using 24+ email accounts and 8 domains to reach the world’s biggest property managers.

▪️The "Five Ws": How to turn a "No" into a product feature that everyone wants.

▪️The Middle Market: Why RentBamboo is winning the "Goldilocks Zone" of real estate (1,000 - 10,000 units)

Key Moments & Highlights

▪️The Scam: The $1,000 mistake that started the company.

▪️Cold Outreach: Why Matthew loves "The Highest ROI Channel" in existence.

▪️The "Five Ws": A simple trick to handle rejection like a pro.

▪️Obama O’s: What a fake cereal box can teach you about marketing.

▪️Speed to Lead: Why the first 5 minutes of a lead's life are the only ones that matter.

Connect with Matthew

▪️Website: https://www.rentbamboo.com/

▪️LinkedIn: Matthew Kanakidis

▪️The Offer: Want to try RentBamboo for free? Reach out to Matthew on LinkedIn and mention the show!

▶️ In this episode of the Marketing Boost, we sit down with Franklin Morris, founder and CEO of KeepTabz, an AI-powered competitive intelligence platform. Franklin shares his journey from being a VP of Marketing at a venture-scaled business to launching his own startup. We dive deep into why competitive intelligence is no longer just for "the big guys" and how AI is changing the way we process market signals.

Host:

Leon Hitchens

➤ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonhitchens/

➤ X: https://x.com/leonhitchens

➤ Website: https://leonhitchens.com/

Guest:

Franklin Morris: Founder and CEO of KeepTabz

➤ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franklinmorris/

➤ KeepTabz Website: https://www.keeptabz.ai/

➤ KeepTabz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keeptabz/

Find Us:

➤ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBoostChannel

➤ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AHGT1Aoq9oAHZEHeORBpa

➤ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marketing-boost/id1720047128

➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBoostChannel

Key Discussion Points

🔹The "KeepTabz" Origin Story: After years of managing marketing for B2B SaaS companies, Franklin realized that keeping up with competitors was a manual nightmare of 50 open browser tabs and forgotten spreadsheets. He built KeepTabz to automate this process for the mid-market.

🔹The AI Revolution in Marketing: How AI allows small teams to perform enterprise-level research, tracking everything from pricing page tweaks and Terms of Service updates to SEO performance and social media activity.

🔹Ignore vs. Obsess: Franklin addresses the common "don't look at your competitors" advice. While you shouldn't let them dictate your roadmap, your customers are definitely looking at them. Understanding the market is essential for building trust.

🔹Signal vs. Noise: The biggest challenge in 2026 isn't a lack of data; it's the overwhelming volume of it. Franklin explains how his team shifted from "gathering data" to "interpreting strategic meaning" using AI agents.

🔹Founder-Led Growth: Why sharing expertise in communities (Slack, Reddit, LinkedIn) is more effective for early-stage trust-building than traditional outbound or SEO.

Memorable Quotes

"Whether you're paying attention to competitors or not, your customers definitely are. You actually don't get to determine who your competitors are, that's determined by your customers."

"Marketing has been more like 'ing' than 'market' lately. It’s been about doing activities and maybe not paying as much attention to the market itself."

Resources Mentioned

🔹KeepTabz: AI-powered competitive intelligence.

🔹Alloy AI: Franklin's previous home in the retail analytics space.

🔹Clay: Mentioned as a gold standard for building marketing trust.

🔹Adam Robinson (RB2B): Discussion on inbound-led outbound strategies.

🔹Geekdom: The San Antonio-based startup community where the recording took place.

Where to Find Franklin Morris

🔹Website: keeptabz.ai

🔹LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/franklinmorris (Remember: it's Morris, not Morrison!)

Zac Brown returns to the show to discuss the bold transition from Nonprofits HQ to GiveKit. While the original name was SEO-friendly, it lacked brand recall and was difficult for customers to communicate. Zac explains how they executed a complete name and identity change in just two weeks, and why "moving fast and breaking things" remains a valid strategy for growing companies.

Host:

Leon Hitchens
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonhitchens/
X: https://x.com/leonhitchens
Website: https://leonhitchens.com/

Guests:

Zac Brown: CEO of GiveKit
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacjordanbrown/
GiveKit Website: https://givekit.org/

Find Us:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBoostChannel
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AHGT1Aoq9oAHZEHeORBpa
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marketing-boost/id1720047128
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBoostChannel
Website: https://theboost.fm/

Key Takeaways

• The "Two-Week" Rebrand: Why Zac chose a lightning-fast rollout over a prolonged transition to maintain momentum and minimize over-analysis.
• Brand Recall vs. SEO: Why a "functional" name like Nonprofits HQ actually hurts word-of-mouth marketing and why GiveKit provides a clearer "hook" for their primary service: fundraising.
• Unscalable Marketing: Early growth didn't come from ads; it came from "guerrilla marketing," such as Zac spending entire days at nonprofit offices to understand their pain points.
• The "One-Way Door" Rule: Using the Amazon framework to identify which decisions are reversible (two-way) and which require absolute conviction (one-way).
• The Power of AI in Branding: How the team used tools like Claude to overhaul website copy and brand voice in record time without starting from scratch.

Memorable Quotes

"If you are writing copy by yourself, physically writing from nothing to something, you’re insane today... AI is an amazing assistant to help you get the base, add your human touch, and take those M-dashes out."

"Marketing, especially early on, is those unscalable actions... that got us a lot further than sitting in Canva figuring out what a logo would be."

"Everything we do needs to contribute to one of three things: the progress of our people, our products, or our company. If it doesn’t, we don't need to be doing it."

Resources Mentioned

• GiveKit: givekit.org
• Claude (Anthropic): Used for brand voice and copy transitions.
• Nonprofits HQ: The legacy brand.

Connect with Zac Brown

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacjordanbrown/
• Email: zac@givekit.org