From Seeds to Full Bloom: How Two Women Cultivated a Data-Driven Content Studio
Learn how Katherine Boyarsky and Gabby Pinto evolved from a traditional content agency into data storytelling pioneers and built a tool that's changing how marketers work with research.
Written by: Paige Bennett
Introduction
Katherine Boyarsky and Gabby Pinto have never been afraid to evolve. The two women, who started as a marketing coordinator and a graphic design intern, respectively, built Datalily (previously CXD Studio), into a thriving content marketing agency that works with brands like HubSpot, Canva, and DoorDash.
But their latest transformation reveals something deeper about their entrepreneurial instincts: the ability to recognize when your business needs to become something bigger than what you originally envisioned.
We caught up with Katherine and Gabby to discuss their recent rebrand, the launch of Flowerplot, and how their business continues to evolve in the rapidly changing world of content marketing and data analysis.
The evolution to Datalily
HubSpot for Startups: What prompted the rebrand from CXD Studio to Datalily?
Katherine Boyarsky: Since we last chatted, we've rebranded our content marketing and research studio to Datalily to reflect our specialized services in data-driven content marketing strategy, content creation, and market research. We wanted our brand to showcase how our team has evolved from more general content marketing to data storytelling and research. (Read more about the transition here.)
Gabby Pinto: We've grown our team and now have two dedicated data scientists on board who help us conduct original market research that fuels data-driven content campaigns for B2B SaaS brands. We're now working with brands like Klaviyo, Litmus (by Validity), Wistia, BrowserStack, and Pontera in addition to our existing portfolio of client partners like HubSpot and DoorDash.
Introducing Flowerplot
HSFS: What inspired you to develop the idea for Flowerplot?
Katherine: Flowerplot was inspired by a tool we'd built internally to help our marketing and data science teams to more easily analyze survey data and identify trends, create data visualizations, and pull out meaningful insights. We're now adapting that tool to help all marketing teams get more from their data and translate market research data into content-ready insights and data visualizations.
HSFS: Can you share a little more about what users can expect to gain from Flowerplot?
Gabby: With Flowerplot, marketing teams can get real insights and data visualizations from raw survey data without the need for a data analyst. They'll be able to transform the results from surveys (and in the future, any type of raw data file) into key takeaways and insights specific to their target audience using AI, and create branded data visualizations that they can include in content pieces, in both web-based and downloadable formats.
HSFS: Do you think Flowerplot will impact Datalily or vice versa, and if so, how?
Katherine: We think that Flowerplot will help clients who want more self-serve tools to be able to take action on market research faster, and complement our bespoke market research and content creation services.
HSFS: What role does AI play in Flowerplot?
Gabby: Flowerplot has AI features that can help to analyze survey results and automatically pull key insights for survey questions, tailored to the target audience and goals of the research. This takes the data analysis process from weeks to minutes.
HSFS: What are your short- and long-term goals for Flowerplot?
Katherine: Short-term goals for Flowerplot are to support our market research and data analysis process with our clients, and to build an MVP that our clients and partners can use in their market research.
Gabby: Long-term, we'd like to build out a suite of tools for marketers to help them analyze data, tell data stories, field market research studies, and build out entire data-driven campaigns from one place.
Katherine: We've been in the marketing research space for almost 10 years, and we've seen the disconnect between market research and content marketing. With Flowerplot, we hope to bridge that gap and empower marketers to analyze their own data without relying on data analysts or data scientists, and definitely not needing to use pivot tables or spreadsheets. We hope to make marketing data analysis less intimidating and more accessible for marketers at any level to play around with data and get more from their market research.
Looking back: The foundation years
The following is from our original conversation with Katherine and Gabby about building the original CXD Studio and their journey as women entrepreneurs.
HSFS: In what ways did your time working in various marketing roles with HubSpot help prepare you for later founding your own marketing agency?
Katherine: In my early marketing career, I learned so much from HubSpot. Even before working there, I read the HubSpot marketing blog religiously. In my first role as a marketing associate, I printed a checklist from the end of one of HubSpot's early ebooks titled "How to Grow 1,000 Twitter Followers Overnight" (I think), and pinned it up on a bulletin board in my office for inspiration.
Working in different roles in marketing within HubSpot, I went from having to Google "ToFu marketing" after my initial interview, to leading a "HubSpot How To" video series on YouTube. In this series, we educated marketers on tons of topics, from SEO to using tracking URLs, to writing captivating headlines, through quick, bite-sized video tutorials.
I had a chance to work on the demand gen side, where I got a good sense of the customer journey and owned prospect marketing. I also learned the joyful challenges of data attribution and reporting. In my demand gen role, I worked closely with our social team, content marketing and creative production, and sales enablement.
After working on prospect marketing and lead gen for some time, I moved on to the LeadIn team, which is now part of the HubSpot Marketing platform. It was fun — it was a startup within HubSpot, made up of me, a growth marketer, a product manager, a visionary team leader, and a bunch of incredible engineers. I went from trying to market HubSpot, an established software platform, to working to gain traction for a brand new HubSpot tool, and on the WordPress marketplace. It was a completely different experience and helped me learn how to do product marketing, build a brand from the ground up, and work with many different stakeholders within the company.
In our agency, I've been able to apply skills from both working at HubSpot and soaking up educational content on the blog and through the HubSpot Academy. I still use HubSpot resources, and honestly learn so much working on every report and project with the HubSpot team. We're constantly learning new best practices from research reports, and about the consumer preferences that are changing.
It's exciting to be able to lean on foundational skills from HubSpot, like testing and optimization, when approaching any new client challenge or creative project.
HSFS: What sparked your initial interest in graphic design?
Gabby: I first found interest in design when I was around 13 years old. It was on the first social media platform, MySpace, that I learned what digital design was. Other people on the platform created MySpace layouts and designed HTML/CSS templates you could install to personalize your page. My older brother helped me get Photoshop and I began watching tutorials on YouTube, reading blogs, and learning all I could about design and code. Eventually, I created my own custom MySpace layouts and built my own website for MySpace resources — my first design business.
When I got to high school, I continued learning by taking design classes and constantly designing in my free time. I edited photos in Photoshop, created abstract artwork with my photography, and created invitations for friends' birthdays, or whatever design projects anyone needed. I've always been passionate about design and that led me to teach myself everything about it, knowing that someday I would make it my career.
HSFS: What have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced in your career?
Gabby: One of the biggest challenges throughout my career has been negotiating, and having the courage to ask for what I deserved to be paid.
I also had to learn how to interview well and explain what I know in a way that translates to others. Over the years, I've built up the confidence to know what I want with my career and pursue it, whether by networking, asking for more complex, challenging work, changing jobs, or advocating for design resources.
The origins of CXD Studio (now Datalily)
HSFS: What led you to join forces and create CXD Studio?
Katherine: I was working in my first full-time marketing role as a marketing associate at an email marketing company. I hired Gabby as a graphic design intern on my third day in the role. We shared an office and quickly became a strong creative team — and the ideas never stopped flowing. We started talking about creating a business within the first few months of working together. Then, each of us started freelancing on the side. I took clients for copywriting and marketing projects, and Gabby took design clients.
Gabby: Many of our clients needed support on the opposite side, which led to us referring clients to each other, and eventually partnering up and officially forming our business in 2017. We complement each other creatively and have a strong understanding of how copywriting and design impact each other, which has been an important part of what makes our business special.
The challenges and rewards of being a founder
HSFS: What has been the most challenging part of building a company and what has been the most rewarding?
Katherine: The most challenging part of growing a business is the ups and downs. Building a business requires a ton of patience and resilience, and it can be tough to push through slower times or uncertainties. But having Gabby as my co-founder and business partner has made it all possible. We balance each other out and when one of us is feeling less motivated, the other one helps bring up the energy and push us ahead. We help each other creatively and both bring different skills and perspectives to the table.
The most rewarding part of building a business for me has been collaborating with and inspiring fellow women to pursue creative careers. We work with incredible freelancers from around the world and it's so empowering to be part of someone's journey toward financial freedom and finding a career they're passionate about. We also get to work with so many badass professionals in different industries and be creative through experiments and interesting projects.
HSFS: What would you say has been the biggest win for your startup thus far?
Gabby: Our biggest win for our business has been growing enough so that Katherine and I could go full-time. We started CXD Studio in 2017 when we both had full-time marketing and design roles, and we never imagined it would one day be our full-time jobs. Our main goal for starting the business was to have creative freedom, work with exciting new brands, and expand our skills. Of course, we also wanted to earn some extra money on the side as well.
As we began to grow, we worked nights and weekends while also managing our full-time roles and gained enough momentum to sustain full-time jobs for both of us and eventually hire my cousin as our finance manager/business manager/project manager.
Sourcing clients
HSFS: How do you find and secure clients?
Gabby: A lot of our business comes through word of mouth — Katherine and I both have strong networks in the Boston tech community (and beyond) from our years of experience in-house and with various agencies. We've continued fostering these relationships over the years when people change roles and companies, or move locations. We've also become a sort of a "preferred vendor" throughout several enterprise organizations, expanding our reach across different teams who need content marketing support.
HSFS: What types of companies do you target?
Katherine: We target enterprise B2B SaaS brands who believe in the value of content marketing. Our best work happens when we become partners with our clients and we can take ideas and turn them into growth opportunities, and the longer we work together, the more we can do with creative resources.
HSFS: How did you determine which areas of content marketing you wanted to focus on?
Gabby: When we started out, we took on any marketing client from an energy company to a local restaurant, to a family cookbook website. Then, as we gained more experience freelancing and in our in-house roles, we began taking more software and tech clients and ultimately landed on specializing in primarily enterprise-level B2B SaaS brands. In terms of services, we've figured out where content marketing teams need the most support, and what aligns best with our skills and experience. That led us to focus on short and long-form strategic marketing content, like reports and ebooks, and all of the content and strategy that goes along with launching these campaigns. Our client's biggest pain point is that they're strapped for resources, and need a team that's familiar with their brand, personas, and goals, and can work quickly while producing high-quality content.
HSFS: Tell us about the key services you provide for clients.
Katherine: We offer content strategy, copywriting, and design for short and long-form content like blogs, ebooks, and guides. This can mean just the downloadable content itself, or the whole campaign, with a landing page, email nurture sequence, promotional assets, and ad creative. We do content marketing and SEO strategy, including developing editorial calendars, and we love writing executive thought leadership content. Over the years, it's been fun working with many teams across enterprise organizations, like product, sales enablement, marketing, and research.
Industry trends
HSFS: Where do you see the future of content marketing? Are there any trends that you're currently finding in the industry?
Katherine: My prediction is that content marketing will go in two directions — one is tech-driven, AI-powered strategic marketing, for areas like advertising, SEO, website management, and CRO. The other is creative, almost "artisan content"? Yes, I just coined that term! We'll see a rise in hand-drawn illustrations, maybe even paired with cool AI/AR/VR features, long-form data-driven articles and reports with custom data visualizations and interactive webpages, and curated email newsletters with unique branding and more opinion pieces. I'm excited to see how we can combine the old with the new and creatively integrate art, marketing, and business. It's a new era of Mad Men-level creative campaigns and we're here for it.
HSFS: What are some of the biggest design problems you see businesses making, and how do you correct them?
Gabby: One of the biggest design problems I've seen has been with the rise in so many lightweight, accessible design tools. Because some managers think that these tools and free templates are a "too good to be true" solution to creating content, they task marketers with creating complex design projects, like reports and data visualizations. This can lead to distracting, inconsistent content which ultimately hurts your brand and can miss foundational design and CRO principles like accessibility, hierarchy, and showcasing the product strategically to encourage conversions.
We've had clients come to us with poor quality work that a marketer spent days or weeks working on, only to get frustrated and produce something that doesn't perform. When marketers can spend their time developing the campaign instead of trying to do a more advanced design than they realize, there's a much higher return on investment and likelihood of success. There is a time and place for marketer-friendly design tools, it's just not every project and every asset.
Combating challenges as female founders
HSFS: What challenges (if any) have you had as a woman in your industry?
Katherine: One of the biggest things I've felt as a woman in this industry has been that I wasn't taken seriously as a) a young woman, and b) someone in marketing with a Communications degree. There was a 'boys club' attitude at times throughout my career that made it feel more difficult for my ideas to be noticed or taken into consideration, and harder to get promotions or lead projects. I relied on allies to help me get recognition and felt more empowered when I worked on a team of women.
Gabby: I'm grateful to be able to lead a team with my business partner, Katherine, where we can work with clients who respect us, and give that same respect to our co-workers and freelancer community.
The road ahead
The evolution from CXD Studio to Datalily represents more than just a rebrand — it's a testament to Katherine and Gabby's ability to recognize market needs and adapt their business accordingly. By adding data scientists to their team and developing Flowerplot, they've positioned themselves at the intersection of content marketing and data analysis, a space that's becoming increasingly critical for B2B SaaS companies.
Their journey from two women working nights and weekends on freelance projects to running a specialized data storytelling agency with proprietary technology showcases the power of continuous evolution and staying ahead of industry trends.
As they continue to bridge the gap between complex market research and compelling content, one thing is clear: Katherine and Gabby are building something that goes far beyond what they originally envisioned when they first started talking about creating a business together.
The launch of Flowerplot and their expanded focus on data storytelling positions Datalily not just as a service provider, but as an innovator in the marketing technology space … proving that sometimes the best way to serve your clients is to build the tools they need yourself.
Author: Paige Bennett
Paige is a freelance editor and writer with nearly a decade of professional experience covering marketing, sales, and lifestyle content. Her work appears on the main HubSpot blogs, Business Insider, Better Homes & Gardens, Reader's Digest, and more. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Ohio University, specializing in gender studies and sustainability. Fun fact: as of this writing, she has sustained a 1,200+ day meditation streak (we can only imagine what her Duolingo streak must be!)
