No episode 116 do AmplificaCast, Eric Klein receives Jonathan Abbott, Partner and CEO of streamline[Company Name], a marketing automation and CRM platform for companies in different segments. The conversation gets straight to the point about what really sustains growth in [Company Name]. marketing The digital world, and the answer Jonatas builds throughout the episode, doesn't involve any specific channel, any trendy tool, or any shortcut. It's about product, a solid foundation, and a business vision built over almost three decades in the industry.
Jonatas entered the internet market in 1995, when commercial internet in Brazil was still in its infancy. He participated in the opening of this market, helped found ABRAD (Brazilian Association of Internet Distributors), and was president of the organization in São Paulo. Before that, he sold potatoes door-to-door in Porto Alegre, waking up at 5 a.m. to single-handedly load a ton onto a pickup truck. It was there that he learned how to sell, how to build belief, and how not to stop when everything indicated that he should. This trajectory is at the heart of what he advocates regarding growth.
Businessman or entrepreneur: different roles, different results.
One of the first and most important distinctions Jonatas makes in the episode is between businessman and entrepreneur. For him, the two roles can coexist in the same person, but rarely with the same level of quality.
"There's a huge difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur. A businessman is the owner of the company's tax ID number. And for me, a good businessman is one who knows how to hire good entrepreneurs."
In Jonatas' view, an entrepreneur is a creative professional who brings insights capable of changing the growth of an entire business. "One person can change the trajectory of an entire company because of a single idea, an insight. It could be about product, marketing, or sales. An exceptional sales director, an exceptional marketing director, changes the valuation of a company."
This distinction has a direct consequence for any marketing operation. When the company knows who thinks and who executes, decisions are made faster, deliveries are more consistent, and growth no longer depends on a single person who needs to handle everything at once.
Jonatas goes further and points out what kills an entrepreneur's creativity within a company: "Want to kill your creativity? Go into your company's accounting office." The irony is well-founded. When the entrepreneur gets stuck in operations, he loses the ability to see what could change the company's level. The growth he could generate remains trapped within a schedule full of operational tasks.
Product as the basis for growth
Before discussing automation, CRM, or any digital marketing strategy, Jonatas puts the product at the center of the conversation. “If you ask me what a company is, it’s the product. The product is the main reason why you’ll have customers, especially in B2B.”
The argument goes beyond the obvious. A good product is what allows you to build and maintain a high-level team. A good product gives you a good team and protects you from the team's performance. If you have a bad product, you train good people, you have a great team, and you lose them to a better product. The good salesperson, the good developer, wants to be in the company that has a great product.
For those who work in B2B digital marketing, this logic is straightforward: no acquisition strategy can sustain a weak product for very long. Marketing amplifies what already exists. When the product is solid, it accelerates growth. When the product is weak, marketing only exacerbates the problem.
Own database: the asset that no one can take from you.
One of the most compelling arguments in the episode is Jonatas' defense of having its own database as the main engine of growth for any company operating in digital marketing. "The entrepreneur who forgoes building an email database is handing over their future to Meta, Google, and other big tech companies. They become dependent; they're accepting that they'll become a passenger. The greatest asset a company can have today is its database."
Eric reinforces the idea with the concept of a digital asset. “What is a brand's digital asset? A foundation. Having all the necessary infrastructure to have your own territory, so you can do whatever you want there. While resources from other platforms are available, you can use them, but you have to build your own foundation, because that's your asset.”
Reliance on third-party platforms is a structural risk for any growth strategy. Algorithm changes, increased CPM, targeting restrictions: all these factors directly impact companies that haven't built anything of their own. Those with a solid foundation have predictability. Those without are always starting over.
This point isn't new, but it's rarely taken seriously before a problem arises. The cost of building your own database seems high in the short term. The cost of not building it, when the algorithm changes or when the CPM doubles, is much higher.
Marketing automation and CRM as drivers of predictable growth.
Dinamize was built around this logic. The platform offers marketing automation and CRM tools aimed at companies that want to build relationships with their customer base, nurture leads, and generate revenue in a more systematic way.
In the context of B2B digital marketing, automation is not an extra feature. It's what transforms a database into an engine for continuous growth, without depending on a new campaign every week. Nurturing flows, segmentation, timely delivery, and integration with the sales funnel reduce customer acquisition costs and increase customer value over time.
Jonatas built this understanding through practice, at a time when few believed in the potential of email marketing. Today, with digital marketing more saturated and paid media costs soaring, the logic of a proprietary database and automation has become even more relevant for those who want growth that doesn't depend on an increasing budget each cycle.
What selling potatoes teaches about growth.
Jonatas Abbott's career path is one of the most unusual in the industry. Before becoming CEO, he sold potatoes door-to-door in Porto Alegre. At 20 years old, he would wake up at 5 a.m., load a ton of potatoes onto a pickup truck by himself, and sell them from house to house.
"Selling a commodity is the worst thing there is, because you have nothing to say about a potato." But it was precisely in this environment that he learned the fundamental structure of selling: creating belief, persisting in contact, and continuing to work when everything indicates that you should stop.
This experience shaped how he built his career in computer sales, then on the internet, and finally in marketing automation software. "Every company is a belief. And selling is about making others believe in that same belief."
Growth that belongs to the company, not the platform.
The conversation between Jonatas and Eric makes it clear that building digital assets is a strategic, not an operational, decision. It's not about having an active automation tool or a configured CRM. It's about a stance: the company decides to build something that is its own, something that doesn't disappear when a platform changes the rules.
Digital assets in the context of digital marketing include a segmented and active email database, indexed content, a proprietary audience, constructed lead nurturing flows, lead interaction history, and behavioral data. Each of these elements represents accumulated knowledge about the customer, which no third-party platform will return if the company decides to leave.
Those who invest in these assets gain the autonomy to test, adjust, and scale. They achieve growth that responds to the quality of what has been built, not to the algorithm's mood of the month.
Want to understand what truly fuels growth in digital marketing?
Watch the episode 116 do AmplificaCast on Jonathan AbbottJoin us as a partner and CEO of Dinamize, in a conversation that spans from selling potatoes door-to-door in the 90s to building a marketing automation platform used by companies across Brazil. If you work in digital marketing, CRM, or B2B sales and want to move away from relying on third-party platforms to build assets that belong to your company, this episode delivers exactly that.
Also watch on YouTube:
