Audyence adds new customer experience chief amid rapid growth

Audyence named Horst Carreño-Bauer as vice president of customer experience as the Austin company continues building out senior leadership during a stretch of triple-digit growth. The hire underscores how B2B demand-generation platforms are competing on service, transparency, and operational rigor, not just product speed.

Why it matters: - Audyence is trying to turn rapid growth into durable customer retention and expansion. - The new role puts onboarding, success, support, and expansion under one leader. - The hire comes as Audyence trends toward another year of triple-digit annual growth after revenue rose 144% last year. - Strong customer experience is becoming a competitive factor in B2B lead generation, where buyers want more transparency and accountability.

What happened: - Audyence appointed Horst Carreño-Bauer as vice president of customer experience. - The announcement came July 21, 2026, from Austin, Texas. - Carreño-Bauer will oversee customer onboarding, success, support, and expansion. - The appointment is Audyence's latest senior hire as the company expands its leadership team.

The details: - Audyence describes itself as B2B's first and only programmatic marketplace for cost-per-lead inventory. - The company says it has built a programmatic ecosystem for B2B lead generation that connects demand generation marketers and agencies with verified publishers. - Audyence says the platform also provides workflow automation, data, and governance for modern demand marketers. - Carreño-Bauer brings more than 10 years of customer success and post-sales leadership experience across high-growth B2B SaaS and marketplace companies. - At Outdoorsy, Carreño-Bauer founded the company's first customer success function. - At Outdoorsy, Carreño-Bauer was responsible for $100 million in gross revenue retention. - At Outdoorsy, he improved Net Promoter Score by 26 points in six months and kept customer satisfaction above 94% for four years across globally distributed teams. - At TaxCloud, Carreño-Bauer built the post-sales organization from scratch. - At TaxCloud, he drove net dollar retention to 177% across new customer cohorts. - At TaxCloud, he rebuilt customer support to first-response times under two hours. - The new hire follows earlier senior additions, including Chief Financial and Operating Officer Mike Farrar and Vice President of Marketing Veena Vadgama.

Between the lines: - Audyence appears to be scaling leadership ahead of expected demand rather than reacting after growth slows. - The company is signaling that customer experience is part of its core operating model, not a back-office function. - The emphasis on verified publishers, real-time data governance, and transparency suggests Audyence wants to differentiate on trust as much as on efficiency. - Carreño-Bauer's background points to a focus on retention, expansion, and support metrics that matter after the sale.

What's next: - Audyence said it will continue investing in team and technology as demand for a transparent and efficient demand-generation operating system grows. - Carreño-Bauer is expected to help keep customers realizing value across renewals and expansions. - Further senior hiring is likely if Audyence continues on its current growth trajectory.

The bottom line: - Audyence is building leadership depth to match its growth, and it is betting that customer experience will be a key lever for staying ahead in B2B lead generation.