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According to research from Gallup, 21% of employees who voluntarily left their organization said their departure could have been prevented by more positive personal interactions with their manager. So how can you create a coaching culture that keeps teams motivated and drives sales success? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win-Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Robin Handley, Senior VP of Sales Enablement at Direct Travel. Thank you so much for joining us, Robin. We’re really excited to have you here. To kick us off, I’d love if you could start just by telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role. Robin Handley: Yeah, I’d love to, and thank you so much for having me. I’m absolutely thrilled to be here. I have actually been in the travel industry for 30-plus years, so I guess you could say I grew up here. I am the SVP of Sales Enablement at Direct Travel, like you mentioned. Under my current remit, you know, I am responsible for sales enablement, managing also what we call the inbound and outbound lead generation with our sales development reps and the proposal writing team.So I’ve got pretty, you know, three different distinct lines of business within my remit. And then I think it’s important to share that in my prior roles, in addition to sales enablement, I also led teams related to reporting, data analytics, CRM platforms, as well as change and transformation. RR: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. It seems like you have a wealth of knowledge acquired over a lot of different roles, and I’m so excited to kind of dig into it and steal some of your best practices. Thinking about your experience—maybe in data analytics, product, customer success, all of these things that you alluded to—I'd be curious to know how this diverse background kind of comes together to influence your approach to sales enablement at Direct Travel. RH: You know, I think having experience spanning across, you know, many areas, it gives a broad perspective around how things intersect, how they influence, and, you know, how they support each other. So, for example, leveraging data points such as why we win, reasons why we lose, as well as listening to customer feedback, you really start to see trends and start to understand the customer and industry pain points.So from there, you can really start to work with key business partners—I would say in marketing, product, customer experience, you know, those different areas—to make sure that you develop content and assets that are gonna arm your sales reps to overcome objections, to highlight key differentiators, and to align solutions to customer pain points.And when, you know, you’re leading in enablement, I always say it’s like vitally important to ensure that the right content and collateral and training and coaching is available to enable those sales reps to quickly advance through those sales cycles and close, win that business. RR: Wonderful. I’d love to maybe double-click a little bit deeper into that enablement approach and philosophy, especially focused on coaching, because I know on LinkedIn you’ve highlighted the importance of people-centric leadership, especially in sales coaching and feedback.I’m curious to know maybe how you bring this philosophy to life in your enablement efforts, and then how that affects your overarching coaching culture. RH: Yeah, so people-centric leadership, you know, it really isn’t just being caring, empathetic, committed. I think, you know, that’s all highly important, but it’s also about being intentional in how we grow our teams.So developing individuals through coaching, feedback, and recognition is so critical. So one thing I do is I run pitch exercises where reps record themselves, and I always tell them, this is your playground. You know, you can mess up here, not in front of a customer. And it feels like a safe space. So that mindset shift makes a huge difference.And this approach not only helps individuals grow, but it also fosters a culture where, you know, feedback becomes normalized and valued. So over time, this creates, like, that ripple effect as well. And so what I start to see is reps start to coach each other. They feel comfortable sharing tips or tricks or feedback. Even, you know, it’s not so much then from that top-down directive. It feels like it’s more of a collaborative community. And as a result, I think it’s also important just to call out that we start to see reps become more confident and collaborative just in general. So as a result of that, I would say, you know, it even helps increase or improve our win rates and, you know, helps people be better prepared and hopefully, again, win that business. RR: Yeah, I love to hear that. I think the idea of like making a safe space for practice is so important. People need to be able to make mistakes. That’s where you learn. So that’s great to hear. I’d like to switch gears maybe a little. I know that in addition to creating a healthy coaching culture, improving sales efficiency is a key focus for you at Direct Travel.I’d be curious—maybe some of the challenges to GTM efficiency that you’re seeing your teams face today. RH: Oh yeah. I say, you know, quite a few come to mind, and I think that’s normal, right? I mean, in any company there’s always those things. I would say, you know, sellers using old, outdated collateral, sometimes trying to find where are those assets stored, because they could be stored in multiple different areas.I would say another big thing that we’re challenged with is related to long sales cycles, and so, you know, for me it’s always top of mind: how do we continue to shorten and shrink those sales cycles? And then I think a lot of times you’re not getting full visibility into buyer engagement. So without that data, a lot of times the sales reps are using their gut.There’s only a few data points that they have, like, oh, are we able to have another meeting? Are they responding? But you’re not really getting that buyer engagement. And then, in addition to that, you know, really cumbersome and manual ways to coach the sales reps. Just—I can tell you—doing a pitch session a year ago without Highspot, it was so cumbersome. Just having to build out what is the talk track, sharing that video through email that we recorded of the pitch, and then coming together with a rubric and then trying to do all the scoring. It was very labor-intensive. RR: Yeah, I think you’re spot on with these challenges. There are things that we’re certainly hearing from our customers, we feel ourselves, and other organizations are talking about. And I think the big thing is that everybody is trying to solve for them. And so, as you kind of mentioned just a little bit, you have found a platform to help you with that. So I’d be curious if you could tell me a little bit about the strategic advantage of an enablement platform and how it’s helping you kind of overcome some of these challenges that you’re seeing. RH: Absolutely. So using Highspot is a dream come true, to be honest. Number one, you know, having one central hub for sales content is so critical and so important. So I feel like our sales reps that are in the Highspot environment no longer feel like they’re digging through email or SharePoints or going on a team site trying to find that collateral.So that is a huge efficiency gain, but also think of job satisfaction. Those sellers feel like, wow, this is so much easier for me to navigate. I would also say, again, going back to the real-time insights and analytics from buyer engagement—so now we’re able to see what content is being viewed, and it’s also helping us tailor our follow-up as well as being able to close deals faster.The other I would say is consistent coaching and training. So going back to the example I just used—very manual process historically—but being able now to leverage AI to provide feedback instantly is incredible. RR: Wonderful. That’s absolutely what I love to hear, and I’m super excited that you’re finding these wins already so early.Thinking about platforms and enablement technology, I’d like to maybe call out a win that we’ve heard through the grapevine, which is that even though you’re early in your journey with the platform, you’ve already achieved a really impressive 96% recurring usage rate. So I’d really love to hear what some of your best practices for driving that adoption are and how you’ve achieved that. RH: Yeah, absolutely. So right out of the gate, timing-wise, this worked perfectly because we were having our sales kickoff meeting in person, and so we used that as our launch, right? So we were able to get the hype going, and we had sessions where we did a whistle-stop tour of all the tools, key capabilities, and really got people excited about what was coming around the corner.So after our SKO, we then did what we called mandatory kickoff implementation calls to get everyone set up. And what we really wanted to make sure that we didn't do was one big bang because we know there are so many features and capabilities in the platform that we wanted to be really intentional about phasing that out.So the first thing that we did is we focused on content management. Again, you heard that was one of our challenges. So we wanted to make sure that we had one stop shop for all of our content and make it super easy for people to navigate and find anything that they need for their sales cycle.In addition to that, the next thing we wanted to do was roll out digital sales rooms because, again, you heard that was a challenge. We wanted to start to see buyer engagement. So that was really well received by the entire group. So it was very easy for us to get them excited and into the tool and the repeat usage. So that was the starting point.In addition to that, we started and continue to host every Friday an optional drop-in office hours call. And this is really great because people that are available, they'll jump in, they'll listen if they don't have questions, or others will actually ask questions, which then drives conversation and also highlights successes. Because in those moments, you know, people are starting to talk about, oh, you know, this is how we did it, or this worked for me. You really start to see some of those true successes come to life.I think the other important piece is making sure that we had our executive leadership team and other leaders be advocates for Highspot—so making sure that they’re talking about it in their meetings, that they’re highlighting it in town halls.And also, as we're starting to see some of the data and the proof points, I, along with other leaders, are sharing those out through email or on calls for recognition. So things like recognizing top users of Highspot, those that built the most digital sales rooms, those that had the most content viewed, or people viewing their digital sales room.And then I would kind of wrap that up with also—we've had some people create some really creative intro videos that they've included in the digital sales room. We're making sure that we're sharing those broadly so people can spark new ideas on how they want to show up in their digital sales rooms. RR: This is all really great advice, and I think very helpful tips. I love the idea of tapping into that competitive instinct in your salespeople—who has the most pitches, who has the most views. That is something that is gonna ignite activity for sure.So now, thinking that you’ve achieved this adoption and you have your sellers bought in, I’d love to dig a little bit further into maybe what’s next for you. I’ve heard that you’re planning to leverage Highspot AI capabilities to drive scalability and efficiency. So can you share a little bit about how you’re building AI features—things like meeting intelligence—into your enablement strategy going forward? RH: Yeah, absolutely. So we are really excited about leveraging the AI features and meeting intelligence. In fact, that was one of the selling points when we were going through the sales cycle with Highspot.Number one is we love the fact that you can ingest meeting recordings into the platform and right away, using AI, get some feedback on what I would say is like performance feedback.So I love being able to see stats on how much percentage of time a seller spoke versus a prospect—because we want that to be 20%, roughly, right? And we really want to do all of those high-gain questions to have our prospects open up and speak to us, especially, you know, during discovery.The other thing that I really love is using delivery insights. So there’s the pitch variation, pace, and filler words, and that’s really helpful for people that have never used a tool—to share that with them. They maybe have no idea how many times they say “right,” “um,” “you know,” all those different filler words. And so it’s really great to give them that awareness and to also show the pace because some people are fast talkers and some maybe are a little bit slower, so it gives them some intel on how to improve.The other thing that we've actively started using is the follow-up feature. So you can get quick capture or, you know, a transcript that then shows you next steps and actions. So it's a time saver, and you don't feel like you need to take notes. You can just let yourself focus on the conversation and be an active listener. RR: Awesome. I love the value that you’re seeing in some of these features. I really like to hear about the vision, so I would love to maybe hear a little bit about how you’re bringing that vision to life and what that strategy is.In May, you actually joined us here in Seattle for a workshop on our real-world coaching capabilities, and you shared with us that you’re currently testing them with a pilot group.So I'd love if you could kind of lay out how you’re rolling out these capabilities, how the pilot's going, and how you’re kind of empowering users to start leveraging this tool. RH: Yeah, so you’re right. I did attend the meeting in Seattle and it was fantastic. It was such a great opportunity to learn more about the capabilities and start framing up, you know, our go-forward vision of where we want to go with this.And I would say you're right—we are still very much in the early phases of leveraging this, especially, you know, the coaching capabilities. So what is in the works is, you know, we are starting to build out pitching exercises for different industry nuances and buyer personas, and I think that is gonna be super helpful to really get our sellers comfortable with different talk tracks based on different individuals that they’re speaking to.So to me, that is one of the first things that we really want to focus on, and we’ll be coming out of the gate soon. RR: Awesome. Well, I can't wait to hear about how it’s going in a few months. I know a lot of work to be done, but I’m sure a lot of wins in the future.Speaking kind of of down the line, I'd like to maybe turn to your measurement strategy, especially, you know, as we talked about, knowing that you’re a leader with a strong analytics background.I'd be curious—when it comes to enablement programs like this new coaching initiative, what key metrics you’re tracking to measure their impact, and then maybe what success looks like in the next year or so. RH: Yeah, I think we're tracking a blend right now of adoption, engagement, and performance metrics, which I think is really important because we're still in the early phases of rolling this out.So we want to make sure that people are adopting it, and then we want to make sure from an engagement perspective, we’re starting to see people leveraging feedback and things of that nature—and performance metrics. So I'll dive a little bit deeper into that.So definitely we are looking at, you know, the percent of reps who have completed coaching modules and sessions, percent who completed coaching tasks, and feedback ratings for sales reps.In addition to that, we're looking at things like leveraging meetings intelligence metrics, such as, you know, those talk ratios and the objection handling—because the other cool thing is at the bottom of the recording, it shows some key, I would say, like competencies. And I'm not sure how to phrase that, but it's really helpful for a seller to say, okay, this was an area where I should have been focusing on objection handling, and maybe I didn't, right? So some of those things are really important right now.And then performance metrics as well. So we are looking at quota attainment, pipeline growth, conversion rates, sales cycle length. And for me, you know, these seem to be the biggest indicator of success. You know, because you really want to see that ROI.You know, we’re starting to see some of our DSRs that, in the early stages here, we’re winning business. And we do feel like this is a game changer for us because we’re showing up differently. RR: Awesome. I love to hear that. And as I said, I can't wait to hear more about how the momentum grows over time at Direct Travel.Maybe returning to the present, I know you’re still early, but I think it’s important to talk about your wins, right? So I’d love to know—maybe key wins or things that you’re proud of that you’ve achieved so far. Anything you can share with us? RH: Yeah, absolutely. So I would say, you know, through this pilot and launch that we’ve done, we have had sales reps just absolutely elated when they send out a digital sales room, and the very first time someone takes a look at the room, right, and they look at the content, they are sending messages in chat like, oh my gosh, it’s working! And that in and of itself is a testament as to why, you know, we rolled this out.In addition to that, like I was just mentioning, we have already some sellers that have created and used digital sales rooms for the entire sales process, and it has shortened the sales cycle.We have a few individuals where they started at discovery using an intro video, updating some content and collateral about our tech stack and services, and then used it all the way to starting to post the proposal and pricing.And then there we are—we won the business right after that. So it’s pretty impressive. So I think those are the big wins. Just again, you saw the usage, you know, in the high nineties. We’ve got many digital sales rooms that have been created, and we're winning business as a result of it. RR: Wonderful. I think that rep feedback says a lot. If you can get your reps excited, you’re getting exclamation points through Slack—you know you’re doing something right. It seems like you and your team are doing really great work.And I just want to close with one last question. I know you’re deeply involved in mentoring, and you’re a mentor in the GBTA WINiT organization.So to close, I’d love if you could share with us one or two pieces of advice that you would give to other women looking to develop as leaders and drive impact for their organization. RH: Yeah, absolutely. I think the number one thing that I would say to people is: say yes. There are so many times where an opportunity comes up—whether it’s a stretch goal, an opportunity to participate in a project, or to even apply for a position.So many times I’ve talked to women where they feel like, I don't have the skill, I don't have the knowledge, I don't feel comfortable taking that next step. And I always challenge them to say: what's holding you back and why?Right. One of the things I always share with them is multiple examples in my career path where I have said yes. I was nervous. I certainly did not have the experience or maybe even the skill. But I didn't want that to hold me back, because if someone is willing to invest in you, that is the testament in and of itself, right? That is the answer.So take that leap and have confidence in yourself and give it a whirl.And the other thing that I've had a lot of people say many times is: oh, now's not a good time. And there's always reasons to hold back. And I always respond: if not now, when?There's always going to be something. So get over that something and just go for it. RR: That's great advice. I love the idea of just, you know, invest in yourself. There's never a better time than now. I know I'll certainly be taking that to heart.But that's all I want to say—thank you so much for joining us today. It was fantastic to learn a little bit more about you, your work, and the incredible trajectory that Direct Travel is on. RH: Awesome. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity. RR: To our listeners, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win-Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
We dig into: How customer-centric storytelling earns attention and trust Why diversity and inclusion are revenue strategies, not just values How to build visibility for underrepresented voices (including your own) Ways to shift from promoting product features to elevating your audience's identity and success Melissa also shares how she's helping female executives move from operating quietly to showing up powerfully and why that visibility benefits not just the individual, but the brand. If you're ready to make your brand more relevant, more human, and more effective—this one's for you. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes
Zach Perret saw a fintech explosion coming—and built the rails before it arrived.On this week's Grit, the Plaid co-founder and CEO retraces his path from building tools for developers to linking the world's largest banks, and how a failed $5.3B acquisition by Visa became a launchpad.He unpacks the pressure of operating in a tightly regulated industry, why rebuilding trust after the deal collapse was harder than expected, and how Plaid is navigating the shift from startup to staple—while staying obsessed with the end user.Links:Connect with ZachXLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins
Why you should listenGaurav shares how Jeeva.ai is revolutionizing sales automation by making AI-powered outreach as simple as ChatGPT, without the complexity of tools like Clay.Learn how to cut through the noise of generic AI outreach with personalized, multi-channel strategies that actually improve deliverability and response rates.Discover the future of sales technology and why natural language interfaces will replace complex CRM workflows - plus get insights from a Forbes 30 Under 30 founder backed by Mark Benioff.Your clients' sales teams are drowning in CRM busywork, spending hours on data entry and lead research instead of actually selling. Meanwhile, their cold outreach campaigns are getting lost in the noise of AI-generated spam, delivering terrible conversion rates despite all the time invested. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone - and there's finally a solution. In this episode, I sit down with Gaurav Bhattacharya, CEO of Jeeva.ai, who's built the AI sales automation platform that's changing everything. Gaurav is a repeat B2B SaaS founder who went from creating a radiology tool adopted by the Indian government at age 17 to raising over $20M and hitting $7M revenue in just 12 months with his latest venture. We dive deep into how Jeeva.ai eliminates the biggest pain points in modern sales - from automated lead research and data enrichment to personalized outreach across multiple channels. You'll discover why most outbound tools are actually making the spam problem worse, how to improve email deliverability in an AI-saturated market, and why the future belongs to natural language interfaces that work where sales teams actually spend their time.About Gaurav BhattacharyaGaurav Bhattacharya is a repeat B2B SaaS founder and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who's built, scaled, and exited startups before most founders finish their MVP. Currently the CEO of Jeeva.ai, he's leading the charge in automating outbound AI-powered SDR agents — helping B2B teams 2x their pipeline in half the time (and cost).Before Jeeva, he co-founded involve.ai, a customer intelligence platform that grew to 500+ companies and 1.1M users globally. He raised over $20M from top investors like Sapphire Ventures, Stanford University, and Gokul Rajaram — and hit $5M ARR in under 9 months with just 11 people.But Gaurav's story starts even earlier — at 17, he co-built a radiology tool that the Indian government adopted nationwide to fight sex-selective abortions. He's been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, LA Business Journal, and top startup podcasts — and he's not here to preach theory. Gaurav brings real-world operator lessons, raw founder stories, and tactical GTM frameworks that listeners can steal and ship the same day.When he's not building, he's probably over-caffeinating, mentoring founders, or geeking out on outbound psychology.Resources and LinksJeeva.aiGaurav's LinkedIn profileGet Jeeva at 90% off on your first yearElevenlabs.ioCaptions.aiHeygen.comChatgpt.com593
In this weeks' Scale Your Sales Podcast episode, my guest is Leore Spira. Leore Spira is a Revenue Operations executive and advisor, and GTM strategy leader with over 15 years of experience in B2B SaaS. She specializes in scaling startups, aligning cross-functional teams, and transforming insights into execution. Known for her strategic vision, operational rigor, and data-driven leadership across marketing, sales, and customer success. In today's episode of Scale Your Sales podcast, Leore emphasizes the importance of aligning people, processes, and technology, and shares why understanding both the business ecosystem and internal stakeholders is key to sustainable growth. They also discuss the evolving role of AI, the value of empathy and transparency, and how to balance automation with a human-first approach to customer relationships. Welcome to Scale Your Sales Podcast, Leore Spira. Timestamps: 00:00 Adapting Business Practices for Growth 07:09 Proactive Pre-sale and Marketing Strategy 10:09 Collaborative Pipeline Focus 13:56 AI for Streamlining Dashboards 17:24 Enhancing Team Support with AI 21:00 AI: Efficiency Over Expansion 26:19 Customer Journey and Success Focus 28:35 Mutual Evaluation in Sales Strategy 33:00 Leadership's Role in Organizational Impact 34:58 Data-Driven Survival Strategies https://www.linkedin.com/in/leorespira/ Janice B Gordon is the award-winning Customer Growth Expert and Scale Your Sales Framework founder. She is by LinkedIn Sales 15 Innovating Sales Influencers to Follow 2021, the Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Customer Experience Nov 2020 and 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders You Should Follow in 2021. Janice helps companies worldwide to reimagine revenue growth thought customer experience and sales. Book Janice to speak virtually at your next event: https://janicebgordon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/janice-b-gordon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaniceBGordon Scale Your Sales Podcast: https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/podcast More on the blog: https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/blog Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janicebgordon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScaleYourSales And more! Visit our podcast website https://scaleyoursales.co.uk/podcast/ to watch or listen.
This week on Topline, Sam Jacobs, Asad Zaman, and AJ Bruno dive into how AI-native companies are reorganizing go-to-market teams—with more investment in RevOps and post-sales, fewer traditional marketers, and agent-led outbound replacing SDRs. They break down new data from Iconiq, unpack Figma's S-1 through the lens of revenue quality, and explore what makes these orgs structurally different. Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of Topline drop every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Elevate your 2026 strategy and join us from September 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Stay ahead with the latest industry developments and emerging go-to-market trends with Topline Newsletter by Asad Zaman. Subscribe today. Tune in to The Revenue Leadership Podcast every Wednesday, where host Kyle Norton talks with real revenue operators and dives deep into what it takes to succeed as a modern revenue leader. You're invited! Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders, share insights, and keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! This episode is sponsored by UserEvidence. Want to know what actually moves the needle on trust? Download The Evidence Gap, a data-backed report on the customer proof that drives real results. Get it now at userevidence.com/evidence. Key chapters: (00:00) - Introduction to Topline Podcast (01:44) - Social Media Attacks and Community Dynamics (10:08) - AI Native Companies vs Non-Native Companies (12:58) - Insights from Iconic Data on Go-To-Market Strategies (37:16) - Figma's S1 and Revenue Retention Metrics (53:02) - The Talent War: Meta vs OpenAI
Marcin - Co-founder and GTM lead at Redstone, crypto veteran since 2017 with background in quantitative economics. Previously worked at Google Cloud before founding Redstone in 2020.The Oracle Infrastructure RevolutionRedstone's Modular Architecture Redstone built a fundamentally different oracle system designed for scalability from day one. Unlike traditional models that were difficult to scale across networks and assets, Redstone uses a modular architecture with four modules—keeping three off-chain to minimize integration complexity. This design enables rapid deployment across new blockchains and virtual machines.Multi-Chain Pioneer* First oracle on many non-EVM networks including TON (Telegram), Starknet, and Fuel VM* Strategic expansion philosophy: "Go where people want us, not where we force ourselves"* 75% of company are engineers, maintaining 100% reliability with zero mispricing incidentsWhy Solana, Why NowPerfect Timing Convergence Redstone's Solana launch aligned with a critical market moment. Their partnership with Securitize to serve major tokenized funds (BlackRock BUIDL, VanEck, Apollo, etc.) coincided with Solana's emerging RWA momentum through protocols like Camino, Drift, and Jupiter.Foundation Support Meeting Lily (Solana Foundation director) at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai catalyzed the expansion, providing technical resources and ecosystem connections for smooth integration.Real-World Assets ExplainedTwo Flagship Products* Tokenized Treasury Bills (T-Bills)* Low-risk, yield-bearing government securities* Principle should always appreciate (barring systemic USD issues)* Considered equivalent to cash in accounting (0-3 month bills)* Apollo's Diversified Credit Fund (Tokenized as ACRE)* Private credit outside traditional banking system* Example: Entrepreneur needs $10M for factory railway, banks reject due to complexity* Apollo intermediates: lenders provide capital at 8%, borrowers pay 12%, Apollo manages 4% spread* Involves real risk of default, but diversified across 100-1000 loansAccess Revolution* Traditional minimum: $5-10 million* Tokenized minimum: $50,000 (100x reduction in barrier to entry)* Global accessibility without complex traditional finance onboardingThe Technical Innovation: sACRESecurity vs. Utility Challenge ACRE is a security token, making it non-transferable and unsuitable for DeFi liquidations. Securitize created an elegant solution:* sACRE: Non-security wrapper around ACRE* Enables DeFi integration while maintaining regulatory compliance* Liquidators interact only with sACRE, never touching the underlying security* Vault system allows redemption back to USDC when neededDeFi Use Cases and Looping StrategiesThe Looping Mechanism* Deposit $1M worth of sACRE as collateral* Borrow $500K USDC (50% LTV for safety margin)* Buy more sACRE with borrowed USDC* Repeat process until hitting minimum investment thresholds* Amplify exposure while maintaining liquidation safetyRisk Considerations* Platform risk (Drift/Camino vulnerabilities)* Asset price risk (private credit can decline unlike T-Bills)* Liquidation risk if looped too aggressively* Need for proper risk management and position sizingInstitutional Adoption PathwayBaby Steps Philosophy Unlike crypto's "10x or bust" mentality, institutions take measured approaches:* Current: Basic tokenization and custody* Next: Simple lending and structured products* Future: On-chain hedge funds and complex derivativesBenefits Driving Adoption* Broader Access: Geographic and capital barriers removed* Secondary Liquidity: Instant swaps vs. 90-day redemption periods* DeFi Composability: Integration with lending, looping, structured products* Transparency: On-chain visibility vs. opaque traditional systemsMarket Lessons and Risk ManagementLearning from Terra/Anchor* Size caps prevent systemic overheating* Transparency requirements for risk assessment* Multiple audits and conservative approaches* Recognition that 20% yields were unsustainableCurrent Systemic Risks* Staking derivatives pose the largest potential systemic risk* Liquid staking tokens widely used as collateral across DeFi* Any major exploit could cascade across ecosystemFuture RoadmapImmediate Developments* Additional Solana-native stablecoin feeds* More yield-bearing asset integrations* Jupiter's "Drip/Plant" lending protocol (partnership with Ethereum's Fluid)Long-term Vision* Yield-bearing stablecoins as mass adoption driver* 4-6% yields as the "sweet spot" for user interest* Cross-chain collaborations and composability* Gradual expansion of on-chain institutional productsBuilder Ecosystem* Testing available at app.redstone.finance (Push → Solana)* Open communication channels via Telegram/Discord* Custom data feed development for specific use casesThe Bigger PictureAdoption Paradigm Shift Traditional crypto adoption focused on retail users buying NFTs and meme coins. RWA adoption brings institutional capital seeking familiar products with blockchain benefits—better access, liquidity, and composability.Global Financial Rails Redstone's vision extends beyond individual assets to creating seamless global financial infrastructure. Current traditional systems are siloed by country/region, requiring inefficient bridges. Blockchain technology enables truly global, instantaneous settlement.Competitive Collaboration The Jupiter-Fluid partnership exemplifies healthy ecosystem growth—established players collaborating rather than zero-sum competing, recognizing the early-stage nature of the overall market. Get full access to The Dramas of Thomas Bahamas at thomasbahamas.substack.com/subscribe
In this episode, Tom VanLangen, VP of RevOps at Quickbase, challenges the traditional idea of ops as gatekeepers. He shares why now is the time for ops leaders to embrace risk, carve out space for innovation, and say yes to calculated bets - especially when it comes to AI and evolving GTM playbooks.
Lee shares the sales effectiveness habits that separate top performers from the rest: Why training alone doesn't work—and what coaching really looks like How to develop curiosity and authenticity as sales superpowers What deliberate practice means (and why most teams skip it)How sales leaders can drive better prep, follow-through, and customer trust Why sales enablement needs a seat at the strategic planning table Whether you're a CRO, VP of Sales, or sales enablement leader, this episode will help you refocus your team on what actually drives pipeline momentum: authentic preparation, emotional intelligence, and trusted conversations—not just activity volume. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes
Guest: Sammy Greenwall, Founder of Henry.aiWhat if your go-to-market motion could skip past theory and build from real-world pain?That's exactly how Sammy Greenwall, founder of Henry.ai, approaches commercial real estate—and why his vertical AI startup is scaling without traditional sales or marketing. Sammy's background as a CRE professional-turned-founder gave him not only insight, but language, trust, and distribution advantages. In this episode, he shares how founder-market fit drives everything from product strategy to GTM efficiency—and how it's paying off in a space historically allergic to software.Sammy also pulls back the curtain on:How PLG became a byproduct of customer obsession—not the planBuilding a waitlist-worthy brand (with no ad budget)Creating real enterprise value in a low-trust, high-volume industryThree Key Takeaways for B2B GTM Leaders:1. Founder-Market Fit > Generic Product-Market FitSammy's deep domain experience gave him a faster path to traction: he didn't just “identify” pain—he lived it. That meant smarter onboarding flows, tighter feature prioritization, and messaging that clicked with buyers the first time. CEOs and founders with industry-specific experience should lean hard into that unfair advantage.2. PLG Isn't a Tactic—It's the Outcome of Product ObsessionHenry.ai didn't set out to be a PLG company. Instead, they tracked usage down to individual clicks, met with every early user, and iterated daily. That intensity created a product people wanted to talk about, which fueled organic adoption, referrals, and even early enterprise wins.3. AI Doesn't Just Accelerate Work—It Replaces ItIn CRE, Sammy's platform cut multi-week deal deck creation down to hours. That kind of workflow disruption isn't about “boosting productivity”—it's about letting revenue-generating staff focus on high-value activities like deals and relationships. This shift reframes AI adoption for skeptical buyers and opens the door to premium pricing.---Not Getting Enough Demos? Your messaging could be turning buyers away before you even get a chance to pitch.
Full show notes, transcript and AI chatbot - http://bit.ly/44K1vsE Watch on YouTube - https://youtu.be/9emUszHU41U Webinar sign-up link: http://bit.ly/4nCbIjz 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:00:47 - News Segment Introduction 00:01:10 - Anthropic's AI Experiment 00:04:00 - AI's Business Acumen and Failures 00:06:18 - Meta Poaching OpenAI Engineers 00:08:23 - WhatsApp Introducing Advertising 00:11:13 - VO3 Video Model from Gemini 00:12:55 - AI-Generated Content and Deepfakes 00:14:29 - Webinar Announcement 00:15:23 - Introduction to Guest: Dennis from Stape.io 00:17:04 - Dennis' Background and Stape.io Overview 00:19:30 - Stape.io's Community Engagement 00:24:17 - Technical Requirements for Using Stape.io 00:27:09 - Scaling and Cost Management with Stape.io 00:30:10 - Seasonal Traffic and Server Scaling 00:31:26 - Server Infrastructure and Data Compliance 00:34:03 - Reasons for Choosing Stape.io Over DIY Solutions 00:36:00 - Benefits of Server-Side GTM 00:40:43 - Ad Blockers and Data Collection 00:41:16 - Privacy and Data Control with Server-Side GTM 00:42:00 - Novel Use Cases for Server-Side GTM 00:44:34 - Who Should Not Use Server-Side GTM 00:47:21 - Data Quality Improvements with Server-Side GTM 00:48:16 - Justifying Server-Side GTM for Data Quality 00:49:38 - Open Source Tooling and Community Engagement 00:51:52 - Contribution to Google Tag Template Store ----- Episode Summary: In this episode of The Measure Pod, Dara and Matt are joined by Denis Golubovsky from Stape.io, the team making server-side Google Tag Manager implementation as simple as the click of a button. They dive deep into what makes server-side tracking so powerful, who benefits most from the switch, and the technical hurdles that come with it. Expect candid takes on ad blockers, cross-device tracking, and why configuration is just the beginning when it comes to getting server-side GTM right. ----- About The Measure Pod: The Measure Pod is your go-to fortnightly podcast hosted by seasoned analytics pros. Join Dara Fitzgerald (Co-Founder at Measurelab) & Matthew Hooson (Head of Engineering at Measurelab) as they dive into the world of data, analytics and measurement, with a side of fun. ----- If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe to The Measure Pod on your favourite podcast platform and leave us a review. Let's make sense of the analytics industry together! The post #124 Transforming tag management with server-side GTM (with Denis Golubovskyi at Stape) appeared first on Measurelab.
What do military aviation and AI workflows have in common? According to Chase Hannegan. founder of Chase AI, TikTok viral sensation and today's guest on Future Craft, it's all about precision, systems thinking, and being willing to suck at something new. Chase went from Marine Corps Osprey pilot to TikTok-famous agent builder. He's now helping thousands of creators and founders move from prompt experiments to real agent-powered execution—no coding required. In this episode, we get into: Why n8n is Chase's go-to platform for building practical, scalable agents The difference between AI workflows and true agents (and why most people get stuck) How to avoid YouTube tutorial hell and actually learn to build with intelligence A live walkthrough of Chase's personal assistant agent (and how you can steal it) What's not ready for prime time (yet), and how to build trust into your stack Whether you're a marketer, founder, or just AI-curious, Chase breaks down agent building in plain language—and shows that it's not about replacing people, but unlocking their time.
Workleap, a leading Canadian software company building the AI-powered talent management platform teams actually love to use, has acquired Barley, an end-to-end compensation management solution. This acquisition marks a significant step forward in unifying two critical components of talent strategy: performance and compensation. Traditionally managed in isolation through disconnected systems and workflows, these functions are now brought together in one unified platform, enabling HR teams to improve transparency, consistency, and alignment in how they recognize and reward employees. https://hrtechfeed.com/workleap-acquires-compensation-management-platform/ PHILADELPHIA—-Phenom, an applied AI company that helps companies hire faster, develop better and retain longer, will host its Industry Week 2025 livestream July 28 – August 1. The five-day, SHRM-accredited program addresses the unique talent acquisition and management challenges facing six critical industries — retail, hospitality and travel, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing — through real-world use cases and proven progressive AI implementation strategies. https://hrtechfeed.com/phenom-to-host-industry-week-july-28-august-1/ Deel, the leading global payroll and HR platform, today introduced a major wave of AI-powered features in its quarterly product showcase, The Deel Drop: Summer Edition. The update includes more than 500 improvements across onboarding, payroll, HRIS, and client experience, focused on simplifying day-to-day operations for global teams. Deel's all-in-one platform now embeds intelligence at every step, from talent strategy and financial operations to compliance and support. This quarter, the company introduced new capabilities that anticipate customer needs, reduce back-and-forth, and help organizations make better decisions about how and where to scale. At the same time, it continues to reduce operational friction through self-serve payroll features, built-in financial tools, and clearer HR workflows for global teams. https://hrtechfeed.com/deel-adds-built-in-artificial-intelligence-pay-flexibility-and-global-hiring-tools/ Lightcast, a global leader in labor market intelligence, has acquired UK-based Rhetorik—marking a major expansion in people and company data to offer one of the most comprehensive views of the global labor market. The acquisition strengthens Lightcast's position by combining demand-side signals with deeply curated supply-side data to power workforce planning, talent acquisition, sales prospecting, and more. https://hrtechfeed.com/lightcast-acquires-labor-market-intelligence-tool/ WANTED: An entrepreneurial role for an executive in the HR Tech industry to help run the GTM and daily operations of Jobstream. What happens to the 99% of candidates who don't get the job? Jobstream is an AI-technology platform helping employers build long-lasting candidate relationships by referring recommended jobs, even after they get rejected. https://hrtechjob.com/jobs/145495964-business-strategy-operations-gtm HR Tech Job of the Week: Business Strategy & Operations – GTM @Jobstream
Most GTM teams are stuck in a 10-year-old playbook — Anthony Enrico, Founder and CEO of LeanScale, shows how to break the cycle. Previously Head of RevOps at Boast.AI, where he helped scale the company past $20M ARR, Anthony now advises and enables dozens of founders and revenue leaders to engineer growth without burning headcount. He also shares how they help high-growth startups scale RevOps with a lean, efficient GTM motion. Specifically, Anthony discusses:(05:25) Startups replace brute-force growth with RevOps to boost revenue per FTE.(15:49) Most teams underinvest in the brand despite its long-term impact.(20:29) Use a data warehouse — not your CRM — for unified reporting.(25:18) Clay transforms RevOps with scalable, integrated data enrichment.(30:48) Default uses AI to route leads and trigger workflows across tools.(35:42) Amplemarket targets fundraisers and job changes with precise outreach.(40:28) AI is most effective when humans fine-tune for quality and authenticity.(44:44) Early days are easiest — scaling means harder niches and messaging.(54:46) Bootstrapping forced them to hire fewer, better people and build processes early.(01:03:33) A solo GTM dashboard tracks pipeline, ops and conversion rates.Resources Mentioned:Anthony Enricohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyenrico/LeanScale | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/leanscale/LeanScale | Websitehttps://www.leanscale.teamAmplemarkethttps://www.amplemarket.com/Clayhttps://www.clay.com/Ocean.iohttp://ocean.ioDefaulthttps://www.default.com/ChurnZerohttps://churnzero.com/Riversidehttps://riverside.fm/This episode is brought to you by:Leverage community-led growth to skyrocket your business. From Grassroots to Greatness by author Lloyed Lobo will help you master 13 game-changing rules from some of the most iconic brands in the world — like Apple, Atlassian, CrossFit, Harley-Davidson, HubSpot, Red Bull and many more — to attract superfans of your own that will propel you to new heights. Grab your copy today at FromGrassrootsToGreatness.comEach year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AILaunch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.caContent Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com#RevOps #GTMstrategy #B2Bgrowth #Product #Marketing #Innovation #StartUp #GenerativeAI #AI
Alex from NodeOps joins Sam to share how they're building a decentralized infrastructure platform that's already generating millions in revenue. She discusses her background at Google and other Web3 infra giants, NodeOps' unique AI-powered tools, dynamic mint-and-burn tokenomics, and how they're shaping the future of DePIN. From staking to Security Hub to developer traction, Alex breaks down what sets NodeOps apart and where the ecosystem is heading.Key Timestamps[00:00:00] Introduction: Sam introduces Alex and previews the conversation.[00:01:00] Alex's Journey: From Google to NodeOps, and building in Web3 since 2017.[00:03:00] What NodeOps Does: Infra that “thinks,” staking, compute, AI tools, and more.[00:04:30] Real Metrics: $3.8M in revenue, 700k users, 150M AUM, 24k+ providers.[00:06:00] DePIN 2.0: How NodeOps is redefining decentralized physical infrastructure.[00:08:30] Dynamic Mint-and-Burn: Token tied to real protocol revenue and usage.[00:11:00] Product Adoption: From RPC to Security Hub to AI Agent Terminal.[00:13:00] The Cloud Shift: Rising infra costs pushing institutions to alternatives.[00:15:00] DePIN's Opportunity: How underutilized capacity meets compliance.[00:17:00] Marketing Infra: Building a multichannel GTM strategy for a diverse audience.[00:20:00] Community-Driven: Why vibes, builders, and token holders all matter.[00:21:30] What's Next: Expanding product stack, scaling without hype.[00:23:00] Infrastructure for the Global South: Why accessibility and cost matter.[00:24:00] Final Ask: Builders, stakers, ambassadors—get involved with NodeOps.Connecthttps://nodeops.network/https://www.linkedin.com/company/nodeops/https://x.com/NodeOpsHQhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alexalbanoc/https://x.com/alex_incryptoDisclaimerNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. Finally, it would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend.Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/
Jonah joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss the key factors that allowed his company Moat to exit for $850M to Oracle and how he's approaching GTM differently this time around with his marketing measurement company Mobian. Joe, Eric, and Jonah riff on the Mobian story in real-time, and Joe scintillates the audience with a detour into French philosophy (courtesy of Jonah's dad).
Follow us on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/inside-commerce/Podcast Summary:Stay connected with the leading ecommerce platforms. In this episode, we interview leaders and visionaries from Shopify, BigCommerce, Centra, Commerce Layer, Remarkable Commerce, Scayle Commerce Engine and Shopline for a fireside chat on what's happening in the second half of 2025.The conversation covers global market trends, vendor-specific strategies, product roadmaps, and the impact of AI on ecommerce. Each vendor shares their focus areas, challenges, and innovations aimed at enhancing customer experience and optimising performance across various sales channels. The conversation delves into the evolving landscape of ecommerce, highlighting innovations in POS systems, the impact of AI on shopping experiences, and the importance of modular and composable commerce solutions. The speakers discuss current trends shaping their GTM strategies, including the rise of marketplaces, operational challenges, and the need for localised approaches in global commerce. They also explore product roadmaps and the significance of customer experience in driving engagement and conversion.Key takeaways:1. AI is becoming a crucial tool for platforms to enhance operational efficiency.2. Merchants are increasingly looking for solutions that simplify their operations.3. The future of e-commerce will heavily rely on technology that adapts to changing consumer behaviours. 4. POS systems are evolving to capture more customer data.5. Retailers are increasingly looking for flexibility in their tech stack.6. Customer experience is a key focus for ecommerce platforms.7. Global commerce requires localised strategies for success.8. The importance of a unified user experience in ecommerce is growing.Chapters:[02:00] Centra[15:30] Shopline[28:45] BigCommerce[44:30] Shopify[1:00:45] Remarkable Commerce[1:16:45] Commerce Layer[1:35:00] Scayle Commerce Engine
You'll learn: How to lead marketing teams through layoffs without losing trust Why recognition drives retention, performance, and collaboration How to operationalize values into your team culture The business case for investing in appreciation even during a downturn How to support employees through change with real empathy Whether you're scaling a growth team, navigating change, or rebuilding morale, this episode is packed with actionable leadership insights for marketers, founders, and executives alike. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes
Our guest for Episode 87 is Dana Therrien, VP of Sales Performance Management, Anaplan. Dana began his career as a U.S. Army Officer in the Finance Corps, with his first assignment at NATO headquarters in Belgium, followed by a role in Army Intelligence in Washington, D.C. He later transitioned into finance and operations roles across various companies. He brings over 20 years of experience to the conversation. In this episode, Ross and Dana discuss why an unapologetically decisive approach to GTM planning is the ultimate key to executing a fast start and winning the market.
Episode SummaryIn this episode of OnBase, host Chris Moody talks with Angela (Bruns) Herlihy about crafting and scaling an account-based strategy that aligns teams and delivers results. From her early days in gymnastics to leading marketing ops in a public company, Angela shares a compelling story of grit and growth.She walks through the operational realities of building ABM frameworks in resource-constrained environments, redefines what ABM really means across sales and marketing, and explains how to make strategic decisions with imperfect data. Angela's hands-on experience and pragmatic mindset offer a roadmap for anyone navigating the messy middle of ABM adoption.If you're looking to operationalize strategy, influence pipeline, and align GTM teams—this episode delivers both inspiration and actionable advice.Key TakeawaysABM Surfaces Everything: Account-based strategies expose every operational weakness—data silos, unclear accountability, or misaligned teams. But if addressed early, they lead to better GTM alignment and faster deal velocity.Reframe ABM as a Strategy: ABM isn't a campaign or a tech tool—it's a company-wide approach to relationship building. Angie's team embraced a tiered model (1:1, 1:few, 1:many) and shifted toward lifecycle-based engagement.Get Scrappy with Data: With limited resources, Angela built centralized dashboards using Google Sheets and manual inputs—creating a shared source of truth across sales and marketing.Co-Ownership with Sales: Alignment means co-creating everything from account selection to success metrics. Dashboards, engagement trackers, and real-time sales alerts made collaboration a practice, not a one-time effort.Lead with Progress, Not Just Revenue: Revenue is a lagging indicator. Angela focuses on buying group engagement, deal progression, and pipeline influence to maintain momentum and build trust.ABM ≠ Just Marketing: Angela avoids jargon and explains ABM through real-world examples that resonate with sales, leadership, and marketing alike. Her redefinition of ABM makes it feel like a growth strategy for the entire business.Quotes“ABM doesn't just require operational alignment—it forces it.”Best moments 00:30 – From South Dakota gymnast to GTM leader: Angie's journey.04:00 – How ABM surfaces internal misalignments and drives cross-functional clarity.07:00 – Evolving ABM from campaign-based to lifecycle-based strategy.08:40 – Scrappy ABM: Centralizing fragmented data without overhauling tech.11:00 – Aligning marketing and sales through shared metrics and processes.13:30 – Redefining ABM and earning internal buy-in with relatable use cases.15:30 – Balancing speed with long-term data discipline.Tech recommendationsPerplexityClaudeHubSpot (for its rapid evolution and product breadth)Resource recommendationsPodcasts:Talking Shop by Kelly Hopping – GTM alignment and real-world marketing challengesProf G Pod by Scott Galloway – Sharp insights on business, tech, and leadershipNewsletter:Marketoonist by Tom Fishburne – Humorous yet insightful takes on marketing absurditiesAbout the guestAngela (Bruns) Herlihy is a seasoned B2B marketing leader with a rare blend of technical expertise and strategic insight. Currently at DoubleVerify, Angela has built and scaled a full-stack marketing operations function covering everything from campaign management and analytics to website strategy and ABM.Her career spans roles in market research, database marketing, and marketing operations at companies including Gartner Digital Markets and LaserSpine Institute. Angela's work has influenced demand gen, reviewer acquisition, and full-funnel ABM strategy. She's known for her ability to scale marketing functions from scratch, align cross-functional teams, and drive operational efficiency with measurable impact.Angela brings a unique mix of grit, precision, and vision to her work—skills rooted in her background as a competitive gymnast.Connect with Angie.
Six leaders from across tech — from SaaS and semis to law and logistics — come together for our 250th episode milestone in this very special AI recap, where we unpack how new advances are transforming the way industries function, and how work gets done.Featuring:• Bret Taylor (Sierra Co-founder)• Winston Weinberg (Harvey Co-founder and CEO)• Matt Murphy (Marvell Technology Chairman and CEO)• Yamini Rangan (HubSpot CEO)• Chris Urmson (Aurora CEO)• Varun Mohan (Windsurf Co-founder and CEO)Connect with Joubin:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joubin-mirzadegan-66186854/ - X: https://x.com/Joubinmir Email: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins: https://www.kleinerperkins.com
This week on GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Dave Boyce, Executive Chair at Winning by Design and longtime SaaS builder, to explore why GTM systems are breaking, and what modern companies must do differently to build for predictable, customer-centered growth.They dive into what Dave calls “the layers of sediment” that have built up over time, e.g. commissions, org design, reporting structures, and outdated dashboards, and why those legacy systems are misaligned with today's buying behavior.They also talk about the real challenges CROs are facing right now: Deals are harder to win, old tactics aren't working, and most GTM teams are stuck optimizing for the wrong outcomes.You'll hear practical examples of what high-performing companies like Atlassian are doing differently, the importance of empathy in system design, and why the CEO—not just Sales or Marketing—needs to own this transformation.Together, they unpack why most GTM strategies break down. And it's not because of effort, but because they lack system design.Key topics in this episode:The broken layers of GTM measurement, and why that era is overWhy commissions often reinforce short-term, self-interested behaviorWhy visibility across the full funnel/bowtie is essential for accountability and improvementThe "Andon Cord" concept from Toyota and what GTM can learn from itWhy the CEO must own GTM system design (and why FP&A is the ideal quarterback)What Atlassian does differently to align around the customer
David Dulany shares major updates on the future of Tenbound and the Sales Technology Podcast. After nearly a decade of independent research, training, and events, Tenbound has officially joined forces with Cience—an industry-leading outsourced GTM agency. David now leads operations at Cience and also takes on a strategic role at Graph8, a new AI-powered front-office sales platform spun out of Cience. Tune in to hear how these changes will shape the evolution of the podcast, the adoption of the “Cientific Method” for outbound success, and the exciting future of AI-driven sales technology using Graph8. Whether you're building your first SDR team or modernizing a mature sales org, this episode offers a glimpse into what's next for the outbound ecosystem. cience.com graph8.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-sales-technology-podcast--1947957/support.
In this week's episode of The Geek in Review, Greg Lambert flies solo while co-host Marlene Gebauer enjoys some well-deserved relaxation. Greg welcomes Trevor Quick, Strategic Business Development lead at Harvey.ai, to discuss one of the most talked-about companies in legal tech today. With a staggering $300 million Series E funding round and a $5 billion valuation, Harvey is rewriting the narrative of what legal AI can be, as well as who it is for. Trevor, a longtime listener turned guest, brings an insider's view of the company's evolution and its ambitions for reshaping the legal services ecosystem.Trevor provides behind-the-scenes insight into how Harvey has become such a magnet for both capital and attention. He attributes the rapid growth to the company's structure—where legal expertise and AI engineering are in constant collaboration. From founder Winston Weinberg's legal acumen to co-founder Gabe Pereyra's technical leadership, Harvey's DNA has always been rooted in practical use cases for lawyers. The company's commitment to building with, not just for, the legal community has led to the development of a GTM team composed of practicing attorneys who work directly with law firms and corporate legal departments to customize AI solutions that align with real workflows.One of the most talked-about moves is Harvey's deepening partnership with LexisNexis. Trevor explains how integrating Lexis's data directly into Harvey's platform removes the friction lawyers face when juggling multiple research tools. With access to Shepard's citations and native case law lookup, attorneys can now verify and trust the results Harvey generates—turning it from a generative assistant into a full-fledged research companion. This update not only boosts confidence but also meets the rigorous standards legal professionals demand, especially those skeptical of AI's early stumbles.The conversation also touches on Harvey's new functionalities like the Workflow Builder, Vault document review enhancements, and Deep Research Mode. Trevor likens these innovations to “agentic” workflows that let users build custom solutions with low or no code. Whether it's KM teams building tailored research processes, or attorneys streamlining diligence reviews, Harvey is giving legal professionals the ability to shape how AI works with them, not around them. Trevor emphasizes that Harvey's success comes from its honesty, adaptability, and the trust it has earned by meeting lawyers where they are—not forcing them to change how they work overnight.In closing, Greg asks Trevor to gaze into the crystal ball, and while Trevor jokingly admits that predicting the future in AI is a fool's errand, he offers a vision rooted in intuition, collaboration, and democratized access to justice. From expanding into tax, compliance, and marketing workflows, to becoming a central hub for legal and adjacent industries, Harvey is on a path to not only augment what lawyers do, but to enhance how they feel about the work itself. With world-class partnerships and a relentless pace of innovation, Trevor makes a compelling case that Harvey isn't just a tool—it might just be the toolbelt.Listen on mobile platforms: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube[Special Thanks to Legal Technology Hub for their sponsoring this episode.] Blue Sky: @geeklawblog.com @marlgebEmail: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.comMusic: Jerry David DeCicca Transcript
If you want to create content that truly resonates, start by listening. Your audience is already telling you what they care about—you just need to ask the right questions and use their answers to fuel smarter, more personalized marketing. That's a quote from Rachael Bassey and a sneak peek at today's episode.Hi there, I'm Kerry Curran—B2B revenue-growth executive advisor, industry analyst, and host of Revenue Boost, a marketing podcast. Every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that drive real results. If you're serious about growth, hit subscribe and stay ahead of the competition.In From Insight to Impact: Smarter Research for Personalization That Resonates, I sit down with Rachael Bassey. She's the research partner to SaaS companies and the founder of ContentCollab.co. We explore how small marketing teams can personalize content at scale through smarter, more targeted audience research. We dig into practical ways to uncover buyer pain points, engage prospects through collaboration, and create content that stands out—especially in a sea of generic AI overviews.If you're looking for a way to connect your content strategy to pipeline impact, you don't want to miss this conversation. Be sure to stay tuned to the end, where Rachael shares how to turn contributors into loyal brand advocates and why that's the smartest way to grow both your content and your customer base. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review so you don't miss future episodes packed with actionable advice. Let's go!Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.72)So welcome Rachael, please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.Rachael Bassey (00:07.279)Hey everyone, I'm Rachael Bassey. People call me Ray—Ray of Sunshine, more like it. I work as a research partner for SaaS companies. My specialization or expertise is helping companies create original research reports. I'll dive into what these reports are and my process later, but in a nutshell, that's it.Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:41.966)Excellent. Well, thank you. I'm very excited to have you join us today because content is so critically important—especially original content and research specific to the audience. So talk to us a bit about what you're seeing and hearing as you're talking to your prospects or clients. What are the needs in the marketplace these days when it comes to getting smarter, better content?Rachael Bassey (01:10.529)Okay, before I get into that—thank you so much, Kerry, for having me. Really, thank you. So two things: One—AI. You have small companies that are like, “Why bother hiring a writer when I can just go to ChatGPT and say, ‘Help me with my content plan, content calendar, and 50 articles for my blog' and get it done?” But then, a lot of people can easily spot articles written by ChatGPT, and people are tired of the robotic voice—even though I use a lot of it. People want to hear things that actually sound human.People are also hungry for data—things they can benchmark their performance against.Then on the other hand, budgets are being cut everywhere—left, right, and center. So CEOs and founders are asking, “Why should I invest more in marketing? How do we tie marketing to revenue?”There's a debate around, “Is the whole marketing funnel even relevant anymore?”You just have different arguments around whether it's important to invest in marketing or if we should even bother right now. That's pretty much what I'm seeing in the space.Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:01.484)Yeah, definitely. And it's so true—I can't have a conversation about marketing without AI being front and center. There's a lot of value there, but to your point, if you're putting all your creativity into the AI model, you're not going to get the quality you need.Adding to that, AI also impacts search results. If you're just producing generic content, your rankings will suffer. You have to get smarter about content structure so your expertise can rank better.So much opportunity here. Talk to me about how you're solving this—how are you helping your clients?Rachael Bassey (04:03.102)Great. Okay, so I'll just do a bit of a rundown.I worked with a company called Databox back in 2019. I'm no longer with them, but we started what I like to call collaborative marketing before it was even a thing. Back then, people didn't really care about talking to real people or experts and collaborating with them to create content.Now you go on LinkedIn and see a lot of people talking about original research, but before it became the trend, we were doing it. We were a small marketing team. I was employee 25 in the company, and our team had just three people: John, Bella, and me.When you have a small marketing team, you wear many hats. You might not even be an expert in the industry, yet you're expected to write 50 articles in two months. So we said, “Let's collaborate with our customers and prospects.”At the time, agencies made up the majority of Databox's clients. I would spend so much time on directories like Agency Spotter, HubSpot, and Pipedrive to find and connect with them.It made so much sense to involve these people in our content production process. We'd create simple surveys, ask them specific questions, collect their answers or insights, and publish blog articles based on their input.Eventually, we stepped it up to create benchmark reports. For example, if you're a Facebook advertiser, and your click-through rate is 2.4%, what's the industry average? We could provide that kind of insight—so companies could compare and see where they stood.That's how we scaled from publishing two articles a week to an article every day.I moved on from Databox and later worked at a company called Terkel—now known as Featured. If you know HARO, Featured is kind of a competitor.I thought, “Okay, I did this for Databox, and I know it works—how can I do this for multiple companies at once?” So at Featured, I worked with smaller teams to help them understand it's okay not to have a big marketing budget.You can still do really good work if you focus on involving customers and prospects in your content creation process. Right now, if I were to write about civil engineering, it would be based only on what I find online. But if I talk to civil engineers who spend 8 hours a day on site, they'll give me insights no AI model can produce.Your experience, Kerry, is unique to you. ChatGPT can't replicate it.Then I started my own thing after Featured—but that's the origin.Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:07.552)Excellent. So talk to me about the process though. You're identifying the client's target audience and interviewing them. You said you research to find the right experts—how do you even start with what to ask them?Rachael Bassey (09:26.34)Great. So it depends on the level I'm working with. For example, one current client—during our first meeting, I asked about their ideal clients, and the founder listed eight different groups. I said, “How do I even reach out to that many groups? You can't possibly cater to eight.”Some companies aren't even clear on their ICP, so I always say, “First, we need to get that right.”Because once you know your ICP, everything else is much easier.So, first I ask:Who are your ideal clients?Where are they based?What do they talk about?What do they write about?For this particular client, I've been spending 80% of my work time in Facebook groups. I don't even know why I'm paying for LinkedIn Premium right now! I'm just listening to bloggers, creators, and entrepreneurs to understand what they're really talking about and interested in.Especially since this client is a Shopify theme developer, I'm trying to determine if the market actually wants what they're building—or if it's just a nice idea that nobody asked for.Once I do enough listening, I reach out to these audiences with a basic survey I've created. That survey is designed to surface their pain points.If a majority of respondents don't list monetizing their content as a pain point, for example, then that's a sign we shouldn't be investing in a solution for it.And sometimes people don't even know they have a problem until you talk to them.So first, I help my clients clarify their ICP—if they haven't already. Many clients I've worked with thought they had their ICP nailed, but after talking to customers, they ended up pivoting or refining it.Rachael Bassey (12:13.696)Next, I work with them to define what I call the "Ideal Contributor Profile" too—not just the ideal customer.For example, Kerry, if you were my ideal customer, I'd ask:Where do you live? What's your title? What's your industry? How many employees are at your company? Sometimes, trying to reach a VP at a 5,000-person company is a waste of time. You'll need approval from too many layers, and it's like going to court.So once we define who our ideal contributors are, I use LinkedIn filters—sometimes even certifications (like HubSpot Certified, for instance)—to find highly qualified individuals.It's not just about gathering insights. We want insights from people who can also become customers down the line. That way, the work serves both marketing and sales goals.For example, one client was in influencer marketing. At first, they wanted to gather input from agencies. But I said, “Let's focus on in-house influencer marketing professionals at eCommerce brands—because those are your buyers.”So we shifted our survey strategy. Now, instead of collecting insights just for backlinks or SEO, we're engaging the people who might actually buy the product.That way, when the marketing manager follows up to thank them for contributing, it's not just relationship-building—it's lead generation.We've even had contributors say, “I've been thinking about buying a tool like this—can I get a free trial?” Of course! That's exactly the goal.Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:10.028)No—and you're so right. And you're so smart, because I think we spend—personally, I spend—so much time researching. But to actually start interviewing your target audience, especially those who aren't already customers, is just brilliant.It's not necessarily easy, but it's manageable. Especially if someone like you is guiding the process.Tell us—how can people get in touch with you?Rachael Bassey (27:43.904)Rachael Bassey—not the American spelling! It's R-A-C-H-A-E-L. That's important. And Bassey is B-A-S-S-E-Y.I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so that's the best place to find me.I'm currently working on my website: contentcollab.co. Or feel free to email me: rachael@contentcollab.co. That's content and collab—C-O-L-L-A-B—dot co.Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:24.682)Excellent. Thank you, Rachael. I'll put all your contact information in the show notes. And thank you for reaching out on LinkedIn and asking to be on the show—this topic was so actionable.I already know what my takeaways are, and I'm sure our listeners will feel the same way. Thank you again.Rachael Bassey (28:45.22)Thank you so much, Kerry, for having me. This was lovely.Huge thanks to Rachael Bassey for joining us today. Her insights on using original research to create personalized, relevant, and scalable content are exactly what modern marketers need right now.If this episode sparked ideas for how your team can better connect with your audience, share it with a colleague—and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.For more strategies to connect marketing with revenue, head over to revenuebasedmarketing.com.And please follow me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn. We'll see you soon. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes
Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno, and Asad Zaman unpack what it means to lead through uncertainty in a time of rapid change. They reflect on Q2 wins, the emotional cost of ambition, and why founders are feeling more anxious than ever. From letting go of the SaaS playbook to adapting in real time, they explore how AI is reshaping leadership, team culture, and what “good” revenue looks like. Plus: the decline of CS, the rise of forward-deployed engineers, and how to build when nothing feels stable. Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of Topline drop every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Elevate your 2026 strategy and join us from September 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Stay ahead with the latest industry developments and emerging go-to-market trends with Topline Newsletter by Asad Zaman. Subscribe today. Tune in to The Revenue Leadership Podcast every Wednesday, where host Kyle Norton talks with real revenue operators and dives deep into what it takes to succeed as a modern revenue leader. You're invited! Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders, share insights, and keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! This episode is sponsored by UserEvidence. Want to know what actually moves the needle on trust? Download The Evidence Gap, a data-backed report on the customer proof that drives real results. Get it now at userevidence.com/evidence. Key chapters: (00:00) - Welcome and Pulse Check (01:14) - Celebrating Q2 Successes (02:57) - Navigating Business Transitions (03:59) - Hitting Numbers and Investing for Growth (04:47) - The Stress of Numbers and Daily Anxiety (05:47) - Balancing Ambition with Gratitude (07:00) - The Power of Pattern Interrupts and Support (07:38) - Is Ambition Always Dissatisfaction? (09:00) - Finding Fulfillment in the Journey (13:12) - The Beauty of Risk and Uncertainty (15:00) - The Astrologer and Fate vs. Free Will (23:00) - Charting the Uncertain Second Half (34:00) - Culture Change and Organizational Agility (43:28) - The Rise of Forward Deployed Engineers & Services Revenue (54:00) - The Future of Customer Success and Bearishness on Job Markets
“Visibility in the age of AI isn't just about ranking anymore—it's about being understood, trusted, and retrievable by the machines your buyers now rely on. These engines extract only the most relevant chunks of content to answer the query. And if your message isn't structured clearly or consistent across channels, you risk being invisible.” That's a quote from David Kirkdorffer and a sneak peek at today's episode.Hi there, I'm Kerry Curran, B2B Revenue Growth Executive Advisor, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast. Every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that drive real results. If you're serious about growth, hit subscribe to stay ahead of your competition.In The New SEO Frontier: How Marketers Can Win Visibility in the Age of AI, I sit down with David Kirkdorffer. He's a B2B marketing strategist and generative SEO expert. We break down how your content, website, and messaging must evolve to be visible in LLM-powered search. We explore what's changed, what still works, and what's next—so your brand stays front and center no matter which AI engine your buyer turns to.Be sure to stay to the end, where David shares why team alignment across content, SEO, PR, and partnerships is your best defense—and greatest opportunity—in an AI-first future. Let's go.Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.422)So, welcome, David. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.David Kirkdorffer (00:07.466)Hi, Kerry, and thank you so much for bringing me on the show. My background: I am a B2B marketer. I've been doing B2B marketing for—let's say—30-plus years. I have focused most of my career on generating leads for sales teams, and that is still my focus, though the way that is done nowadays has certainly changed.I've worked mostly in technology companies, selling technology to technology departments—so IT tech for IT tech consumers. Over the years, that has gone from enterprise accounts, as technologies became more democratized, down to medium-sized businesses and small businesses.So that's briefly about me.Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:00.214)Excellent. David, I know you have been deep into the research around what I'll introduce as the evolution of SEO. Tell me: What are you hearing? What triggered your interest in diving into gaining visibility for brands within the GPTs and other AI engines?David Kirkdorffer (01:25.994)Right. OK, that's a great question. Given my background of trying to get information into buyers' hands—being buyer-centric—a number of years ago I focused on what we might call buyer enablement and the buyer experience: the buyer being successful in finding the information they're looking for on our website. I realized that a lot of the great information buyers want sits behind a gate where you have to speak to a sales rep.The idea I was working with—and many people, of course, not just me—was, “Can we get this information onto our website so that when buyers come, they can find what they need and say, ‘This looks like a good fit'?” Along come these LLMs, and now all of a sudden I'm thinking, “How do I AI-enable training? How do I make sure the AIs have the information that answers buyer questions?”In a way, AI LLM tools are a disintermediating force separating my buyer from my answer. They're turning to the ChatGPTs, the Geminis, the Perplexities, the Claudes, the Copilots, and various other tools—some specialized for particular domains. Our challenge is to make sure our answers are read, understood, and correctly represented within these LLMs so that, when a buyer goes there for an answer, our brand is visible.It's much more effective for a buyer to ask questions with ChatGPT, and you might ask the same question to four or five tools just to validate, because they all have different information sets, models, crawlers, and licensing agreements. Therefore, you may have high visibility in one and low visibility in another. Training data differs; retrieval data differs; the models themselves differ—so they have different “brains,” just like different people. That's what brought me into this: trying to be customer-centric and helping my salespeople so that, when buyers do find information, our brand is there.Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:27.744)That's excellent, David, and it's such a hot topic. I don't think I can go through a few hours of my day without it coming up. I know you've been evangelizing it a lot, which I'm sure generates many questions. What are the main questions people ask you about this capability and opportunity?David Kirkdorffer (04:51.442)Everyone wants to know, “What am I supposed to do? How is this different—is it different?” Two main lines of inquiry emerge. One comes from senior marketing leaders—the CMO or someone at a higher level—who wants to understand what they and their teams can do holistically. The other is very tactical: people approach it from their domain expertise—website, SEO, content—and ask, “What do I do within my lane that makes an impact?”The truth is, it's a bit of both. In my view, it's a holistic problem to solve. You can operate in just one tactical lane—website, SEO, or content—and it will have an impact. When you combine them, the impact is amplified, and it should also involve your PR, partner, and demand-gen teams; their work can help or hurt how your brand is recognized and surfaces in answers. So those two lanes—holistic and tactical—intertwine, and where you start depends on team size and resources.Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:48.354)If the main question is “How do I do this?” what do you think people should be asking first? What's the right starting point?David Kirkdorffer (07:01.140)I think you need a big-picture view of how this is different and what drives it—how GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) actually differs from SEO. It even has many acronyms: generative engine optimization, AI optimization, LLM optimization, and more.Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:38.732)Based on your work, which term do you prefer?David Kirkdorffer (07:44.744)I like “generative engine optimization.” Unfortunately, “GEO” means other things in other domains, which is part of the problem—both technically and from a brand standpoint. When we use shortcuts like acronyms, we know what they mean; the LLM doesn't. It could interpret “MRO,” for example, as any of 50 different things until you spell it out first.Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:24.150)Earlier you said it starts with a mindset. What mindset should people adopt to lean into improving their strategies here?David Kirkdorffer (08:46.292)At the highest level, LLMs and GEO replace the short keyword query box with a large window where users add lots of context. Through vectorization—turning language into math—the LLM finds little chunks of information, the “needles,” rather than presenting a haystack of links. It compares those chunks, validates them against other sources, and synthesizes an answer.We often don't know or care where the answer came from, as long as it's accurate. But that means the LLM isn't reading your whole page; it's reading segments. So this isn't just a technical SEO challenge—it's about the words themselves: how we phrase them, how we make them easy to understand, and how we avoid letting brand personality cloud clarity.Because of “chunking,” answers often come from two or three sentences—maybe 200–300 words—not entire pages. So we need to optimize those chunks.Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:06.506)Before we dive deeper into tactics, explain how these platforms differ from Google's traditional search engines and why that demands a different strategy.David Kirkdorffer (13:41.514)Think of GEO as standing on the shoulders of SEO. If your SEO is weak, the shoulders aren't strong. Some say, “This is just a new kind of SEO,” and there's truth in that. Others think, “We just need to do good marketing,” and that's also true. But with GEO, some shortcuts we've taken—like heavy JavaScript or hidden tab content—now have new impacts because LLMs don't execute JavaScript or click tabs.For example, if your page uses tabs for five benefits, the LLM sees only the first one; it can't click the others. It forces us to reevaluate design choices, because GEO cares about different things.Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:11.054)So SEO is shifting from technical crawlability to a content-first approach—almost back to the early days of SEO. When you talk about chunking content, best practices seem to be resurfacing. What should we consider when writing content now?David Kirkdorffer (17:34.914)The best practice is simply doing what we've always known: write clearly for the reader. LLMs struggle with poetic or highly stylized language; they understand literal, structured information. Our challenge is to provide that clarity without becoming too dry. In the future, LLMs may understand nuance better, but for now, literal clarity wins.Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:09.686)There's still a technical aspect—different from technical SEO a few years ago—like tagging. Why is that more important than ever?David Kirkdorffer (21:09.686)We have semantic tags—H1, H2, H3, etc.—but many treat them as visual elements. You might find an H6 above an H2 because it looks good, but that confuses the LLM. Ideally, one H1 states what the page is about, multiple H2s mark subtopics, H3s detail components, and so on. When that hierarchy is broken, the LLM can't map ideas correctly, and your content may be excluded from answers.Kerry Curran, RBMA (25:57.034)Old is new again: off-site SEO also matters. Why is consistency off-site so critical, and what should brands do?David Kirkdorffer (25:57.034)B2B marketers want their message on as many authoritative sites as possible. A small brand's site may have little traffic, so its signal is weak. Getting listed in directories or partner sites amplifies that signal. In the old days, “brand police” ensured consistent boilerplates—25-, 50-, 100-word descriptions—so customers weren't confused. LLMs work the same way: if they see the same wording consistently, they trust it. When every team tweaks the message, it creates variations that confuse the model, so consistency is key.Kerry Curran, RBMA (30:33.718)This has been super valuable. For listeners who know they need to start right away, what's the most important first step?David Kirkdorffer (30:59.392)First, learn how these systems work. You don't need deep technical knowledge, but understand the impact. If you're in a specific lane—SEO, content, web—still learn the bigger picture so your choices align with the new reality. Then triage: audit where you'll work first based on team size and resources.Gather the whole team—web, SEO, content, PR, demand gen—so everyone hears one story and understands how their actions affect each other. Agencies should know what they can and can't do and set expectations. After learning and auditing, remember this is ongoing, like SEO has always been.Finally, be present where your customers go. Different LLMs rely on different data sources—Reddit, Wikipedia, licensed content—and those arrangements change. Go where your customers already spend time.Kerry Curran, RBMA (36:06.339)Excellent. For folks who want to learn more or bring you in to help their team, how can they reach you?David Kirkdorffer (36:42.518)The best way is through LinkedIn. Search “David Kirkdorffer.” My email is firstname.lastname@gmail.com. I post about these topics and provide training classes—very hands-on and tactical, covering tabs, accordions, LLMS text, schema and chunkability, and more. Feel free to DM or email me.Kerry Curran, RBMA (37:52.238)Perfect. I'll include those links in the show notes. David, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us today.David Kirkdorffer (38:05.046)Thank you, Kerry, and thank you to the audience. If you've made it this far, that's a compliment. I appreciate it and enjoyed the conversation.Kerry Curran, RBMA (38:15.050)Excellent—thanks!Huge thanks to David Kirkdorffer for joining me on the show. If your brand isn't showing up in AI-generated answers, this conversation is your roadmap to change that. From content structure to message consistency to offsite visibility, David laid out actionable ways to adapt your SEO strategy to this new era of AI-driven buyer behavior. If you found this valuable, share it with your team and hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.And for more strategic insights on revenue growth through marketing, head to revenuebasedmarketing.com or follow me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn today. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes
In this episode of Future Craft GTM, Ken Roden and Erin Mills explore how AI is reshaping every layer of go-to-market, from automating rote tasks to powering deep research. They kick off with Ken's wild DMV robo-caller story and Erin's bespoke AI-curated newsletter. Returning guest Tahnee Perry shares hard-won lessons on driving revenue with AI, upskilling non-technical marketers, and building scalable AI workflows. You'll learn how to: Measure true AI impact (hint: tie it to closed deals) Adopt the right mindset for prompt iteration Set up templated prompts and custom GPTs for your team Run fast SEO audits with deep research in under 30 minutes Assemble a lean AI-powered marketing tech stack Strike the optimal balance between human and machine effort They wrap with a live demo of GenSpark—watch an AI agent spin up an eight-slide pitch deck in seconds—and leave you armed with quick-hit AI workflows you can try today. Key Takeaways Revenue First: Always link AI projects to deal velocity or closed-won impact. Iterate Prompts: 80 % of prompt quality emerges through refinement, not one-and-done. Scale with Libraries: Use spreadsheets or Notion to catalog and tag high-value prompts. DIY SEO Audits: A 30-minute prompt can generate a 20-page SEO audit (36 sources, 292 searches). Tech Stack Essentials: Google/Microsoft agents, Adio CRM, Airtable/Notion PM, plus task-specific AI apps. Human + AI: The winners of 2026 will know exactly where to deploy humans vs. machines.
Episode Summary What if the most important system in your organization… is made of people?In this episode, Matt traces his path from creative ops leader to go-to-market operator—and reveals what never changed: his job has always been creating the conditions for others to succeed.We explore what it's like to build trust while scaling, why confusion and surprise are deadly for team performance, and how creative ops skills translate far beyond the creative department.Whether you're navigating hypergrowth or eyeing a new career path, this episode offers a powerful reminder: the most valuable systems aren't the ones that run the work—they're the ones that help people run well together. Key TakeawaysCreative ops isn't about managing creativity—it's about enabling performance.Confusion and surprise spread fast—and kill clarity if left unchecked.Prioritization and trust-building are what make scale sustainable.Outputs matter—but outcomes earn you a seat at the table.Creative ops skills are highly transferable across sales, growth, and GTM strategy.Passive Listening to Active Thinking Use these prompts to reflect solo—or spark meaningful conversations with your team:What conditions actually help your team do their best work?Where are you relying on process—when relationships would solve more?How might your creative ops skills translate into a different business function?Are you measuring outputs—or impact?What early signs of confusion or surprise are you overlooking right now?Guest: Matt Eonta, Head of Growth & Operations at Scleraworx | Former Head of Creative Project Management at HubSpot From agencies to in-house, from creative ops to go-to-market—Matt Eonta has built systems that help people do their best work. At HubSpot, he helped scale creative operations during a period of explosive growth. Today, he brings that same operational clarity to growth strategy and sales enablement at a fast-moving tech services company.
Frank Sondors is the Founder and CRO of SalesForge. Frank and his team have an AI powered Outreach solution that has had some of the fastest growth I've ever seen. But this isn't about the tired approach to revenue growth you are already familiar with. This is a blueprint for record setting performance with minimum headcount required. Frank and his team today service over 2,000 customers and are growing at an incredible clip by raising capital through sales…not investment. He's living proof that you can have remarkable growth by servicing customers…not investors. Today he shares a blueprint of sales success built on lean teams, automated operations, and new innovations to your GTM rhythm that results in a finely-tuned engine. As you enter the 2nd half of 2025…this is a perfectly-timed conversation that will help you think different as a leader. You can connect with Frank on LinkedIn here. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/franksondors/) You can check out SalesForge here. (https://www.salesforge.ai/) You can check out Agent Frank here. (https://www.salesforge.ai/agent/frank#af-ai-email) For video excerpts of this and other episodes of the Sales Leadership Podcast, check out Sales Leadership United Here. (https://www.patreon.com/c/SalesLeadershipUnited)
Laura Lakhwara leads GTM teams and customers in transformative strategies that empower businesses to streamline operations and scale efficiently with AI, automation, robotics, and data-driven insights. She has an incredible background from working at IBM, a first-ever partnership with IBM and Apple, and other companies like UI Path and Softbank Robotics. We had a great conversation - her expertise spans market entry strategies, enterprise sales, customer success, and fostering customer-centric cultures that drive revenue growth and long-term partnerships. Follow Laura: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralakhwara/ More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference. subscribe: https://bit.ly/thewspnews Contribute: https://forms.gle/v9rRiPDUtgGqKaXA6 Past News Issues: bit.ly/past_news_issues https://womensalespros.com/podcast/
Go-to-Market is a term often used to describe the strategy, processes, and organizations that B2B companies employ to acquire, retain, and expand their customer base.In this episode, Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike discuss the recently published ICONIQ report on the State of GTM 2025...and yes, it includes a lot about how AI-native and AI utilization are impacting all things GTM. Topics include:Funnel Conversion Rate TrendsAI-Native Funnel Performance Advantages Cost per OpportunityCustomer Renewal TimingGo-to-Market Headcount allocation (AI-Native vs Legacy SaaS)AI's impact on Sales ProductivityAI Spend TrendsIf you are a GTM leader, are responsible for the financial performance of your B2B SaaS company, or are interested in how AI is impacting all things customer acquisition, retention, and expansion, this episode has something for you!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Big Happy CEO Jonathan Frohlinger joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss how he got a mobile creative tech business off the ground, learnings in GTM and hiring from his agency days, and what an adtech moat looks like in the AI era. Plus, Jon shares some news: Big Happy's expansion from mobile to DOOH.
“Digital out-of-home is where attention lives. It's unskippable, brand-safe, and contextually relevant—right when and where people are most engaged. If your brand isn't showing up in high-dwell environments, you're missing a powerful and measurable way to connect.” That's a quote from Peter Schofield, VP of Partnerships at Atmosphere TV, and a sneak peek at today's episode.Hi there, I'm Kerry Curran, B2B Revenue Growth Executive Advisor, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast. Every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that drive real results. If you're serious about growth, hit subscribe and stay ahead of your competition today.In The Last Untapped Channel: Driving Precision, Attention, and Revenue with Smart Digital Out-of-Home, I sit down with Peter Schofield. He's the VP of Brand Partnerships at Atmosphere TV. We explore how digital out-of-home advertising has evolved into one of the most targeted, high-impact channels in modern media. From smart targeting and unskippable content to real-world attribution and creative flexibility, Peter breaks down how brands are turning physical spaces into revenue-generating media environments.Be sure to stay tuned until the end, where Peter shares how top brands are using API-powered digital out-of-home to personalize in-the-moment engagement at scale. Let's go!Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.698)So welcome, Peter. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.Peter Schofield (00:07.960)Thanks, Kerry. I'm excited to be here today. I'm Peter Schofield, VP of Brand Partnerships with Atmosphere TV. I've been in the marketing and advertising space for the better part of 30 years. I've always been curious about human behavior, social sciences, marketing, and advertising—connecting brands with people and people with people. That always puts you at the front of technology and innovation. So I've always been excited about that, and that's where I've spent most of my adult career.Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:41.112)Excellent, great. I'm excited to dive into your area of expertise. When we first met and dove into Atmosphere TV and your capabilities, I got really excited about the unique aspect of connecting consumers with brands and helping brands with their narrative and storytelling. So, excited to dive in. Talk about out-of-home—what trends are you seeing and hearing today?Peter Schofield (01:18.670)Sure. The out-of-home market, specifically the digital out-of-home market, is certainly thriving. The extraordinary reach, context, and impact of digital out-of-home are literally reshaping consumer engagement. Brands and agencies looking to move the needle are tapping into screens and spaces that have been previously overlooked, undervalued, or underutilized.Peter Schofield (01:48.192)Three key elements that are a consistent part of the narrative—what folks are looking for in their investment—are efficacy, deliverability, and accountability. Out-of-home provides all of those.Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:59.448)Definitely. I think the advent and growth of digital out-of-home really revamped and breathed new life into what we knew as traditional billboards, bus stops, etc. It's very cool to see the evolution and the more advanced targeting capabilities.Peter Schofield (02:26.644)It is sophisticated now. It's not your father's billboards, as they say, right? It's the optimal blend of scale, mass reach, and local precision. Brand-safe channels are really making this a distinguished place to market, for sure.Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:45.142)Yeah. How are you seeing that increased interest in out-of-home as part of the media mix?Peter Schofield (02:51.706)I think folks are recognizing it as a real opportunity to align messaging with not only what people are doing, but why they're doing it. At the neighborhood level, we can connect with what people are doing, how they're feeling, and what they're experiencing in real time—where they live, work, and play. It's inherently location-based and enhanced significantly by contextual targeting. That's where companies like Atmosphere really come into play.Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:26.784)Definitely. There are so many stats that prove the engagement and growth opportunity. I know you had some from eMarketer. Want to dive into those?Peter Schofield (03:40.846)Yes. In 2024, out-of-home revenue in the U.S. was just over $9 billion—a 4.5% increase from 2023. More notably, digital out-of-home, where I focus, represented about 34% or $3 billion of that market, also growing 4.5% year-over-year.Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:30.104)Definitely. With location targeting and dynamic creative, it's a perfect blend of niche targeting and visual storytelling.Peter Schofield (04:56.696)Absolutely. One person described it as, “Out-of-home is where attention lives.” It lets marketers deliver the right message at the right moment—contextually relevant, unskippable, and effective.Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:11.700)Right—and you can't skip an ad when it's in a waiting room or gym. It captures attention in a way digital often can't.Peter Schofield (05:25.230)Exactly. It's never been more measurable, creative, or smarter. The relevance and flexibility are a huge appeal. With tools like audience data, dayparting, mobile IDs, and foot traffic studies, we now provide insights that were previously out of reach in traditional out-of-home.Thanks for tuning in to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast. If today's episode sparked ideas, gave you new tools, or made you think differently, don't keep it to yourself—share it with your team or your LinkedIn network. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a future episode. For more growth insights, visit revenuebasedmarketing.com, and keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in marketing. See you next time. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes
In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Kevin “KJ” Jarnigan from GTM to talk about his inspiring journey through the outdoor and shooting sports industry. KJ shares how he got started in the firearms world, the evolution of his role at GTM, and what drives his deep passion for hunting and outdoor adventure.If you're into hunting gear, marksmanship, safety, or just love hearing stories from industry insiders, this episode delivers. Kevin gives us an inside look at how GTM creates some of the most engaging content in the industry—from training tips to real-world gear reviews—and how they're building a community focused on responsible use, skill development, and a love of the outdoors.Whether you're a seasoned outdoorsman or new to the world of shooting sports, this conversation offers valuable insights into the people and passion behind the media you trust. We also discuss KJ's favorite hunts, must-have equipment, and his top advice for anyone looking to improve their skills in the field or on the range.
Tomer London is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Gusto, the payroll and people platform used by over 400,000 businesses. He grew up helping run his dad's clothing store in Israel — an experience that sparked his mission to build better tools for small business owners. After moving to the US for a PhD at Stanford, he met his co-founders and started Gusto. In today's episode, we discuss: Reinventing payroll without any prior experience Why you should hire for humility, not just talent Gusto's scrappy customer research: cold calling from a walk-in closet Why founders should embrace customer rejection Why “emotional urgency” matters more than polite feedback The weekly co-founder ritual that built trust How Gusto expanded from payroll to a multi-product platform Building products customers actually love And so much more Referenced: ADP Eddie Kim Gusto Intuit Josh Reeves Paychex Steve Jobs' “Secrets to Life” clip Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech Wells Fargo Y Combinator Where to find Tomer: LinkedIn Twitter/X Where to find Brett: LinkedIn Twitter/X Where to find First Round Capital: Website First Round Review Twitter/X YouTube This podcast on all platforms Timestamps: (00:00) How a childhood around SMBs shaped Tomer's founder mindset (03:24) The three things that led to the creation of Gusto (07:17) Hiring for humility, not just talent (09:28) The tug-of-war test for product-market fit (11:58) Why founders should actively seek rejection (15:34) Gusto's scrappy customer research: cold calling from a walk-in closet (17:45) Betting on SMBs – and ignoring investor advice (20:44) “It's not an MVP, it's something that wows people” (24:09) Serving SMBs vs. startups (28:36) How to find the right co-founders (31:09) The weekly co-founder ritual that built trust (35:02) Reinventing payroll without any prior experience (38:49) Gusto's “start small” GTM playbook (42:16) The big opportunity Gusto wishes they tackled sooner (43:58) How switching costs became Gusto's moat (47:25) The two lucky breaks that gave Gusto an edge (51:56) What Tomer learned about customers from his dad's clothing store
What happens when a founder-led sales strategy hits its limits? In this episode of Coach to Scale, Ken Grasso, veteran CRO, advisor, and founder of Catalyst Peak Ventures, pulls back the curtain on the messy, mission-critical transition from instinct-driven selling to structured, scalable revenue operations. With experience leading global go-to-market teams and helping companies grow from zero to IPO, Ken shares unfiltered insights on why founders often struggle to let go of sales, the costly myth of the “natural-born” sales leader, and how process, not personality, is the real growth engine.Packed with real talk for CROs, revenue leaders, and founders alike, this conversation explores the pivotal role of coaching cultures, how to hire for system-fit over resume flash, and the urgent need to professionalize sales before seeking investment or exit. You'll also hear Ken's candid reflections on career reinvention, building credibility as a fractional exec, and why planning for the next chapter before you need to is essential for long-term impact. Whether you're scaling your first team or rethinking what makes sales truly sustainable, this episode is a playbook in disguise.Top Takeaways1. Founder-led selling becomes a liability as you scaleEarly-stage founders may be the best sellers at first, but their instinctive, unstructured style can block repeatability and growth.2. Great sales reps don't automatically make great managersPromoting top performers without leadership skills or process discipline can stall team performance and create chaos.3. The sales process is the foundation, not a nice-to-haveA defined, teachable sales process enables forecastable growth, efficient onboarding, and higher valuations.4. CROs must earn trust and re-educate founders on go-to-marketTransitioning founder-led orgs to scalable operations requires a blend of credibility, patience, and strategic coaching.5. Hiring should prioritize system-fit and coachability.The best candidates align with your GTM model and are eager to operate within a defined system, not just shine as individual contributors.6. You can't outrun a broken foundation with short-term winsHeroics might save a quarter, but without an operational structure, you'll eventually burn out or break the model.7. Fractional leadership can unlock massive value for growth-stage teamsBringing in experienced operators part-time can help companies avoid costly misfires and build maturity without overextending budgets.8. Plan your career pivot before the market makes you do itKen urges seasoned leaders to proactively define their “Plan B,” emphasizing personal reinvention and long-term career resilience.9. Strong systems beat star power—ask the NFL.Drawing on sports analogies, Ken explains why team performance relies more on consistent playbooks than flashy individuals.10. Valuation depends on your GTM maturity.Investors and acquirers don't just buy your product they buy your ability to sell it repeatedly, predictably, and without founder involvement
Daragh Murphy is giving brands their own credit-card platform—no legacy bank required.On this week's Grit, the Imprint co-founder and CEO traces the leap from being a junior lawyer to closing nine-figure card deals.He breaks down the hidden economics of credit-card loyalty, the discipline of treating capital “like the last dollar,” and how AI will slash risk-and-support costs.Guest: Daragh Murphy, CEO & Co-Founder of ImprintChapters:00:00 Trailer00:48 Introduction01:30 Actualizing the dream08:37 Imprint11:37 Partnerships are massive16:48 Understand the market18:42 “Get more, spend more” tradeoffs23:57 Fishing in the wrong ponds31:32 Can't skip work32:43 Exciting and scary34:56 Pride and ownership46:50 The way you spend your day50:20 New technologies54:51 Who Imprint is hiring54:59 What “grit” means to Daragh55:34 OutroMentioned in this episode: Figma, Rippling, H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, Barclays US, IBM, Coinbase, Charlie Munger, Instagram, Hamptons, Google, Nick Huber, Ribbit, Ireland, WeWork, Adam Kim, Amazon, Shopify, Tobias Lütke, Duolingo, Parker ConradLinks:Connect with DaraghLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins
On this episode of Embracing Erosion, Devon sits down with Jeff Hardison, CRO of CaseMark and former VP of Product Marketing at Calendly.They discuss the complexities behind operating a hybrid go-to-market motion, the positioning and messaging LinkedIn industrial complex, the nuances of product marketing and leadership in startups vs enterprise organizations, and they even touch on GTM engineering. Enjoy the conversation!
AI-native startups are outpacing legacy SaaS companies across every metric—growth, product velocity, and market attention. In this episode, Sam, Asad, and AJ unpack why the GTM landscape is shifting fast. They dive into the resurgence of IPOs, the rise of rollups, and the cultural edge AI-first teams have when it comes to speed, experimentation, and brand building. Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of Topline drop every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Elevate your 2026 strategy and join us from September 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Stay ahead with the latest industry developments and emerging go-to-market trends with Topline Newsletter by Asad Zaman. Subscribe today. Tune in to The Revenue Leadership Podcast every Wednesday, where host Kyle Norton talks with real revenue operators and dives deep into what it takes to succeed as a modern revenue leader. You're invited! Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders, share insights, and keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! Key chapters: (00:00) - Introduction (01:43) - Market Overview and Current Trends (05:52) - The Impact of AI on Business Dynamics (11:37) - Navigating the Challenges of SaaS vs AI Companies (17:25) - M&A Activity and IPO Market Insights (23:25) - Cultural Shifts in Tech Companies (29:23) - The Role of Social Media in Modern Marketing (35:33) - The Future of Go-to-Market Strategies (41:19) - Final Thoughts and Reflections
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Kim Graves is GM, Americas at Notion, where she oversees all Sales and Customer Success efforts across the region. She brings extensive experience in building and scaling high-performing sales organizations, most notably at Slack where she helped grow revenue from $6M to over $1.5B. In addition to her operational role, Kim serves as a founding partner at 20SALES, a GTM-focused VC firm, where she advises early-stage companies on scaling revenue and optimizing sales processes. Agenda: 07:00 – The Secret to Winning a Discount Conversation 09:30 – Notion's Wild New Sales Method: Mindsets Over Stages 12:00 – Why Great Sellers Never Talk Product Too Soon 14:00 – How Slack Avoided the Biggest PLG Trap of All 17:00 – The Fatal Mistake Founders Make Layering Sales on PLG 20:00 – The “Renaissance Reps” That Build Billion-Dollar Motions 23:00 – How to Spot True Grit in a Sales Hire (Without Asking Directly) 26:00 – The Case Study Test That Filters Out Bullshitters 30:00 – The Real Reason Most Reps Fail Onboarding 33:00 – Should Reps Own Their Own Pipeline? Kim's Take Is Clear 36:00 – Why Cold Calling Works in 2025 (And Nobody Does It) 39:00 – The Sales Team Audit: The REKS Framework That Changes Everything 43:00 – How to Avoid Hiring the Wrong Rep Under Pressure 45:00 – When Sales Feels Second Class: PLG vs Enterprise Tension 47:00 – The One Thing Reps Still Do That AI Will Obliterate 50:00 – AI Sales Tools: Why Every Startup Is Failing to Get It Right 53:00 – Will We Have More or Fewer Reps in 5 Years? 56:00 – Enterprises Are Scared of AI – Here's How You Break In Anyway 59:00 – Kim's Secret for Getting Past Gatekeepers and Fake Champions 1:09:00 – Kim's Hardest Phase at Slack and How She Survived It
This week on GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor walk through a practical, step-by-step breakdown of how companies should be measuring GTM performance—beyond the outdated funnel reports and measurement models that most teams are still relying on.This episode is structured like a mini masterclass: You'll learn the real stages of the GTM revenue factory, what metrics to track at each one, and how to spot the signals that lead to qualified pipeline before opportunities even exist.They also cover how most common GTM measurement systems fail, and what leading companies are doing instead, and why this shift helps teams make better, faster decisions across Marketing, Sales, and RevOps.Whether you're struggling to prove impact, spot performance issues early, or get your execs aligned on what's actually driving growth—this one's for you.Key topics in this episode:Why funnel reports and common Marketing metrics often give a false sense of progressThe disconnect between GTM activity and what leaders actually want to knowHow to rethink pipeline measurement and what metrics to rely on as your north starWhat high-performing companies are tracking at each GTM stageHow to evolve your dashboard into a true Revenue Command CenterThis episode is powered by Passetto. We help high-growth and equity-backed companies turn GTM data into better decisions, faster. We unify your GTM and financial data, identify your growth levers, and help you scale. Part SaaS, part advisory. Visit passetto.com.
It's frustrating when you've got a solid idea but can't seem to cut through the chaos to make it work. So many tools, platforms, and tactics promise results, but they end up pulling you in a hundred directions. It starts to feel like you're spending more time managing marketing than building your actual business. That kind of noise can kill momentum before anything real even gets off the ground. Zack Holland is a Brooklyn-based entrepreneur and four-time startup founder who sold his first company as a teenager to pay for college. Known for blending tech and strategy, he's built and exited multiple ventures in the marketing space. Now, he runs Avery.ai, a platform that pairs AI with expert marketers to help businesses simplify and scale their content efforts. Zack also shares how meditation and stoicism keep him grounded through the chaos of startup life. His focus is on building smarter tools that reduce overwhelm and improve results. Stay tuned! Resources: AI designed to help you grow Brooklyn-based startup founder, author, and GTM consultant | Zack Holland Follow Zack Holland on Facebook Connect with Zack Holland on LinkedIn
According to research from Gartner, more than half of organizations have increased their investment in AI since 2023. So, how can you effectively leverage AI to improve GTM productivity and accelerate business outcomes? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Chris Sargent, the director of sales enablement at BambooHR. Thank you so much for joining us, Chris. Before we get started, I’d just love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role. Chris Sargent: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Riley. Really excited to be spending some time with you today. So my background, I have been leading sales enablement teams for the better part of the last 10 plus years, and prior to that I was a sales leader and a sales individual contributor. So have spent a lot of time in both roles and really help companies scale. You talked about go-to-market strategies. My background heavily is aligned sales execution, focusing on how buyers can achieve goals and how selling and. Our ability to sell with a process with value can really be one of the greatest competitive advantages that we take to market. And in my current role at Bamboo, I oversee enablement programs globally across all of our different skill sets, all of our different segments. And really our mission here is to equip every seller and leader with the skills to tools and processes they need to win with confidence and consistency. RR: I love it. Confidence and consistency. That’s what everybody’s looking for. Well, we’re so excited to have you here. Especially as you mentioned, you know, you’re a pretty experienced leader and you have extensive experience spanning both the sales and the sales enablement side. And so you’ve probably seen the landscape change a little bit recently with the acceleration of AI innovation. So I’m curious, how have you seen the challenges that go-to-market teams face change as well? CS: Yeah, I think there’s been, you know, change is the, probably the important word there. One of the biggest shifts as it relates to specifically AI is I think the timing of AI aligning with just kind of a general trend in sales, right? That we’ve seen, I think in the early teens to the late 2019, even into 2000, 20, 21, economies were fantastic globally. Every organization had what felt like, in a lot of cases, unlimited budget to acquire tools and technology. And I think in a lot of ways that created probably some unintentional outcomes as it relates to sales. And in some cases it was a lot more of what I would call order taking versus what would potentially be a value driven sales cycle in a lot of cases, by no one’s fault, other than that was the nature of how buyers were buying at the time. So I think you take that. Component of that and then align that with all of those changes. Now with AI, I think one of the biggest shifts that most organizations and sales team members as individual contributors and leaders are dealing with is that AI is happening in real time. And not only is it happening in real time, it’s new for not only the individual contributors, but a lot of it’s new for managers, it’s new for enablement teams, even the buyers who are trying to figure out how do they leverage AI. So I think that challenge that we see is how do you understand and take the pace of AI innovation and your ability to adapt to that. And that means enablement specifically isn’t just about delivering training, but how are you actually building a culture that fosters the idea of ongoing learning experimentation across the board and cross-functional alignment to keep up with the pace of change while not sacrificing. What really the intended outcome of is that confidence and consistency in the rep’s performance because that desired outcome doesn’t change. How you may get there is what’s changing and understanding how to put that as part of your DNA as an enablement organization and handle that pace of innovation is gonna be critical. RR: Yeah, so we’re sort of in a perfect storm, right of change management in across a number of different areas. I think these are challenges that we’re hearing from a lot of our customers and just feeling in the market. I think you’re spot on with all of that, but rather than kind of lingering in our challenges, maybe let’s talk solutions. So in your opinion, what is Enablement’s role in helping GTM teams overcome these challenges and achieving more success amid these changes? CS: Yeah, it’s a very fair question, and I think this is the power of a really strong enablement organization because in that format and in that model, what you’re really asking enablement to do and what enablement should be doing is becoming the bridge between the new technology itself and the practical application at the rep level. So our role is to really translate what I would say innovation into that action. Our job is to make sure reps just aren’t aware of AI and it’s not just. Kind of a tool that they use on the side, similar to a Salesforce and outreach and a Highspot, for example. But they’re actually using it to be effective in everything that they’re doing in their day-to-day workflow. And I think about that in three core areas. And that’s how we’re trying to think about it is what are you doing to prepare? What are you doing in real time? And what are you doing post customer interaction that allows you to be better at your job? Because of ai and some of that’s customer facing, some of that’s internal. Really what I it means is we’re embedding AI into every existing process. We wanna build confidence through the training and reinforcement and giving managers the tools to coach around it. And I think that goes back to not losing our North Star of if the intended outcome is customers have the best buying experience and the reps are confident and have the ability to execute. That doesn’t change, but the modality to do it, we can make them better at their jobs, we can make them more efficient. We can create competitive advantages because of that. And it’s kind of rethinking not necessarily the intended outcome as much as thinking the journey that gets us there. RR: Yeah. I’ve heard it put as kind of like the job doesn’t change, but the way you do the work does. CS: Exactly. RR: We’re all still driving towards that North Star. We just have a little bit more tools in our toolkit to get there. CS: Yeah, totally agree. And I think that’s what every. Enablement organization. Every sales organization on the planet is trying to solve it right now, which is what does that look like? And going back to the challenge, I think the challenge in that is there’s desired state and then there’s what can actually be executed today, all while knowing what seems like every day, every week, every month there’s some new AI application that’s being launched. And how do you kind of take all of that noise and put it into a journey that aligns with not only your AEs and your reps and your managers, but really how do your customers wanna buy from you? RR: Yeah, and to your point, I think people are like clamoring for use cases. They’re trying to figure out how do we apply this? We have a vision, but how do we bring it to life? And so I know you guys have started putting in kind of the work to answer those questions and have started using some AI capabilities in Highspot to improve rep productivity and kind of streamline some of those workflows. So can you talk to me a little bit about how you’re using AI to elevate your enablement efforts and how that fits into your GTM productivity strategies? CS: Yeah. You know, I think there’s a few things and the beauty in that is, you know, we are fortunate enough to have an AI team that was hired about four years ago that’s led by a fantastic gentleman by the name of Alan Whitaker. And part of what we’re looking at is really aligning kind of the build or buy model a little bit. But some of the ways we’re leveraging this today is, you know, I think those core focus areas of how are we helping the rep be more efficient? And then how are we helping the rep. In real time, create a better buying experience and really help customers see the value of what it is that we do. We all know that we’re using AI, but also buyers are using AI and they have more access to information recommendations than ever, ever before. So there’s a few ways that we’re kind of leveraging AI in a current state, but also kind of hoping we get to from a desired state perspective. And we kind of look at that in a very pragmatic and phased approach way while also. Putting urgency and moving quickly. You know, I think about one of the most important things is we sell a platform and we sell, over the years have increased our ability and our product capabilities that go to market. And I think one of the things that’s really critical is in a lot of situations that’s being launched in real time on the back of other releases, and it’s really about guiding our sales team members to the right content at the right time, but also having that served up to them at the right time. We don’t have a lot of technical resources here. It requires in a lot of situations where we have a lot of high velocity opportunities at Bamboo hr. So it, it’s not even about coming back with information even a day or two later, because that could be too late. So one of the ways we’re leveraging this is serving up information at the right time based off of the rep’s ability to have a conversation in real time. It reduces time spent searching for content, for answers. It’s feeding that up proactively and it’s really increasing confidence in what our sellers need in the moment versus even, like I said, taking 30 minutes or an hour and coming back to that. One of the most powerful ways we’re also using AI is really how to engage. Data to better understand what’s resonating with our buyers and using those insights to fine tune our messaging and also which messaging we use. You know, one of the ways we’re currently leveraging Highspot, and it’s been extremely powerful for us, is understanding the content that makes the most sense, right? I think that the standard back and forth between most organizations and specifically marketing and sales is, hey, we’re creating content for you. Why aren’t you using it? And I think what. AI has allowed us to do is for reps to find information on content that’s been the most relevant at the right time. Highspot serves that up in a way that allows us not only to look at that in real time, but it’s recommending that also based off of what Highspot seeing on the backend from an analytics perspective being tied to the most revenue producing opportunities. That’s been a huge win for us in really increasing our rep’s ability to be faster, but also more accurate. Sometimes I think we just worry about being fast. It doesn’t help if unless we’re accurate. This has kind of allowed us to go down that model on both sides. RR: Yeah, it is hard to strike that balance when you know 30 minutes is too late, but. How are you gonna put together something strategic in such a short period of time? And I know one of the things that your team’s also kind of been leaning into a little bit is you mentioned on LinkedIn actually that continuous improvement is a big priority for you, and one of the ways that you’re using AI is with skill feedback to kind of support that ongoing learning loop. So how are you using that and how is that helping you, as you said, lean into continuous improvement? CS: Yeah, great question. I think one of the key things for us that’s been really, really indicative is about a year ago we kind of looked at our call analytics and call intelligence tools and wanted to see potentially if there was an opportunity for us to get a little bit more. Proactive in the way we were leveraging that to get insights, identify opportunities, and replicate things that were going well. And about six to seven months ago, even prior to me joining the organization, holistically looked and transitioned to what I would call an even more powerful AI enhanced call analytics to really not only capture real conversations. Allow it. The ability to provide things like real-time contextual feedback and use things like prompts to better understand why things were going well, but more importantly maybe where things weren’t going well. And what was really powerful in that is that was such a manual process for us before. And not only was it manual. It wasn’t necessarily consistent manager to manager, right? Some managers were better at it. Some managers had more time to invest just depending on the, the size of their teams and the amount of workload that they were working on. So instead of really waiting for a scheduled reviewer’s, shadow session, reps and managers could get real time guided insights and feedback so that when it came time for the actual coaching, it was very prescriptive. It was really, really, really powerful and it felt more individualized versus, Hey, we’re gonna have an enablement team come in and do a skill development session on, you know, executing a mutual action plan or getting access to key players. We could actually take that now to the individual level and focus on a skill development that made coaching more specific, more intentional, more timely, and ultimately more impactful for that skill development. Now, there is one thing that we are looking at as well, and we haven’t deployed this yet, but I’m assuming I’m not alone in this. Which is really, we have a pretty large sales organization all at different parts of their career. Also different managers at different parts of their career. And one of the things we wanted to do to, to drive more time for the managers to actually coach and spend time doing all the things they’re supposed to do, is we’re actually in the process of evaluating some AI role playing tools that use avatars. I know. That is not unique to us in any way, shape, or form, but when we think kind of along, like what’s happening now and what’s happening over the next two to three months, we’ll be deploying those to really also help the reps have a, a safe place and a consistent place to practice those skills. RR: Yeah. That’s so awesome to hear. I think, you know, sales coaching is one of those things that PLA teams everywhere, and so hearing that you can find these solutions that make you not only excited but certain in your programs is wonderful. And it really does sound like you’ve put together some very intentional programs to help your team succeed. And I think the data’s kind of showing that it’s working. We’ve seen that you’ve driven really strong engagement from your GTM teams, such as a 96% recurring usage rate of Highspot. So curious, you know, we’ve talked about the strategy. How are you then driving that adoption? Do you have any best practices you could share? CS: I think enablement teams each and every day and organizations are always trying to, you know, go through the process of how do I make the information or the programs or the projects or content that we’re taking to market actually be adopted and be used. And you know, I think one of the things that always has resonated with me, and I think about this phrase often, there’s a great enablement leader by the name of Roderick Jefferson, and many years ago, he gave a piece of feedback about the difference between training and enablement. And I’m paraphrasing this, so if anyone who knows this quote better than me, feel free to correct me. I believe he said, you train animals, you enable humans. And I think one of the things that always resonated with me about that then is if I want to enable someone, I need to get the lens of how they’re executing. And for us, that adoption, that 96% recurred usage in Highspot really started with making Highspot not only the single source of truth, but also putting it in a place where the sellers already live and breathe today from day one. It was critical for us that not only does every new hire here at Bamboo get trained to rely on Highspot for almost everything and have it not only live within that world, but for things like messaging, playbooks, objection handling, product updates, everything goes through there. But I also think it was more than that. One of the values that we’ve seen in Highspot is really our ability to have that proactive information fed at the opportunity level in our CRM tool. It allows the reps to get just in time information when they need it, but also when it’s most critical. Not only do we have the ability then to kind of. Indoctrinate them, so to speak, as a new rep. They’re also getting fed in real time, something that’s actually beneficial to them, and it’s proving its use case time and time again in real time, which has been a huge adoption ability for us. I think another thing. That has been super beneficial is going back to that adoption piece. We also cross collaborated and cross-functionally with other organizations like product marketing and product that absolutely see the benefit of that’s how their content gets used. So at the end of the day, the proof in the pudding and starting with that why and making it that single source of truth. We put it exactly where the reps live every single day embedded in our CRM. But when reps saw the tool and the action that it brought in saving time and helping them win that adoption started to follow naturally. And we continue. Every single week we have a reinforcement on content being placed out of there. It was a new muscle, and like any new muscle, we had to train that muscle. The good news is, is once we train it, we go to maintenance mode. And it’s been a much, much, much, much, much smoother process than when I’ve done this at other, other organizations where we were either under-resourced or underfunded, and we were really kind of rolling things out at a project level versus a programmatic level. RR: Gotcha. So it’s sort of that you can take a rep to enablement, but you can’t make them drink. You need to prove the value, and you need to be building for them. I think that makes a lot of sense. Thinking a little bit about doing the work, driving the adoption, how do you then measure success? What are the key metrics you track and then now moving into kind of trying to operationalize AI, how are you measuring that as well? CS: Yeah, very fair question. And I think this is also another thing, you know, this is my experience, been in groups with some really great enablement leaders across the board, and I feel like over the last several years, especially as that kind of transition to more. That value-based selling has become always important, but it’s become critical over the last several years with the introduction of ai, the different economic conditions and things of that nature. Every sales leader I talk to is really trying to measure the impact that their teams are having on the business and we look at it at a few ways here. I think we look at it from what we call some of our leading and lagging indicators. Specifically, we wanna see some of the early adoption and controls that we have there. So from a leading indicator perspective. We’re looking very closely right outta the gate. Whenever we launch a new program around things like certification rates, the usage data, early stage conversions, rates, some of that content engagement score, and then what we look at is the direct connection to the outcomes that happen, like stage progression, conversion rates, quota attainment, and sales cycle velocity. In my four months here, that’s where we’re really starting to drive and we’re starting to see a little bit more of those lagging indicators. As a business, we kind of have a core metric to maintain and also improve those conversion rates. So that was kind of the North Star, what we looked at from working our way backwards where, okay, what gets us to those things? And that’s where we looked at specific skills programs that we are running and we’re our rep certifying, were our managers certifying? Were they using the content that we created and did we see a correlation between those things and the performance? And we absolutely have, which has been really great for us to correlate a lot of that. To your second part of that question, as it relates to AI, I think we’re kind of looking at it from a few different ways. We are by no means the experts of AI measurement, but we, we have put some things in place that we’re looking at trying to get better constantly, which first and foremost is. Are we giving the reps more time to do more sales focused activities? So it, it’s one thing of it to create some time savings, but it’s also another thing to say within that time, did we help you be more intentional? Did we help you be more accurate? Did you use the right content or the right information? Or were you fed that in a way that helped you create a differentiating experience or a consistent experience in that engagement with a prospect or existing customer? When we can do that for at the rep level, we then want to drive AI driven insights on the backend to really look at how that impact coaching can take place at the conversational and the deal outcomes level. That’s the correlation. We’re kind of looking on that backend. Our ideal state would be able to also look at. How do we either add more propensity and volume to what our existing AEs are doing? Time savings is great, but what are you doing with that time on the backend, right? Is it, Hey, more time to go, you know, play ping pong down in the break room, which is always a great thing. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. But it does allow it to be more intentional. It does allow us to be more powerful in the capacity of each of our reps. I always have heard a great quote from John Barrows, who I’m sure many people know. And one of the things I’ve heard him say specifically about ai, and I think about this as we measure AI, is really good sellers and really go to organizations that help their sellers. AI will augment what they do. Anyone stuck kind of in the old way of selling it will replace you in what you do. And I think that’s how we look at, how are we leveraging and augmenting that AI to look at the time savings, but long-term, how do we make it so they’re more intentional, more accurate, and produce some of those more outcomes at the individual level? And then how does that really embrace the impact coaching conversations on the backend? RR: Yeah, I think the lucky part of being kind of mired in all of this change is that we’re building our metrics as we’re figuring out what we can reasonably do. And so when you have that philosophy that you led with of Know Your North Star, ask the questions that will help you understand what actually drives there, and fill out those leading and lagging indicators as you’re doing the work. That’s gonna be a helpful philosophy, and that’s gonna get you through to figuring out those metrics. I’m curious too, as you’ve been looking at these indicators for AI and also just for your broader enablement programs, have you seen any particular business results with Highspot or any wins that you’d like to share? Things that you’re really proud of? CS: Yeah, I think there’s a few things, and I kind of break these down by kind of what I’d call some of those leading and lagging and I think, you know, some of them directly correlate to, to business outcomes. I think a few things that have really driven up is how our reps and how our team members are meeting customers where they’re at. But then I would also say on the backend, how has training and coaching improved because of that? And I think that’s a huge, huge, huge win for us. When I kind of look at over the last, you know, four to six months, some of the numbers that pop out I, I kind of. Share with you that I think are relevant? I think one of the really cool things that we have seen is we’ve seen a 91% engagement with our buyers, especially with external shares that’s gone up massively. I think we tracked something like we’ve had nearly 30,000 views during this window and period of. External content that customers were viewing, but also what they were sharing internally with other parts of their organization. We had no clue what was going on with content when we shared it before. And why does that actually matter? Because we started to correlate some of the in increase in in buyer engagement, the increase in some of the sales play views, which actually went up over 260% for us, up to 31%. That was so powerful, and I kind of think about that at the just in time level. One of the other things that that really resonated with us is the findability ratio, and from a content management perspective, historically prior to our engagement with Highspot and leveraging the AI, everything that was recorded with that. One of the major complaints that Bamboo got from a lot of our reps were, oh man, it’s really hard to find things when I need them. That just in time moment sometimes passes, as I mentioned earlier, and even if it takes me 30 minutes to an hour to send a follow up, sometimes I don’t have that. And we look at that findability ratio that we have of a seven. We saw our click-through rates go up dramatically. I think they went up 32% and the amount of items we had viewed as reps were going through the process of engaging a prospect in real time went up 14%. Why does all of that matter? Because I think as we looked at, okay, we’re giving you the right. Content and clearly it’s helping it create engagement with our prospects and customers. Does that, what does that engagement lead to on the backend? And one of the biggest things we found across certification and consistency across that was when you kinda look at some of the certifications we launched with AI across the board, and I’m focusing just in a Q1 of this year, we had two really big certifications. That were across the entire revenue organization, one of them being a skills related focus, and one of them being a specific platform product related focus. We certified 300 users in one, over 300 users in another one, and with the manual time that that would’ve had taken prior, we were able to save almost 220 hours from an enablement. Side with the AI, with only these two certifications. So scalability became a really, really important thing from an operational side for our enablement team and our managers who are typically having to do this at a very, very manual level. So why does all of that matter as a business? What we’ve correlated is our reps that are leveraging this in executing this are performing at about a 25 to 30% improvement level across their peers that maybe haven’t adopted this yet. So some really nice leading and lagging indicators of the power of AI and the power of what these tools can bring to the table. Are we perfect at it? By no stretch of the imagination, we still have some laggards that we’re trying to bring up, but we have seen some of those economies of scale grow with the reps that really have embraced this, and even some of the others that kind of, some laggards initially still have some of those, but the proof has been in the pudding there for us and, and it’s been a fantastic investment. RR: Those are I to begin. Incredible wins, great numbers. 30,000 views is incredible. I love the way you kind of told that story of how your wins compound. You know, you start with content, you make things accessible, all of a sudden your reps can use it, and now buyer engagement improves and then it just continues to grow and you have this feedback loop of continuous improvement To your point earlier. Many compliments. I know, as you said, you’re always moving, you’re always improving, you’re always growing. So in that spirit of continuous improvement, curious if you could talk to me a little bit about maybe what’s in the future, what is that potential long-term value of embracing AI for Bamboo, and how are you gonna continue doing so down the line? CS: Yeah, so I, I think for us, the intentionality there is really around scalability. It comes down to that one thing, the long-term value for us is scalability. That’s a little bit general in a response, but let me kind of give some context to that as to why scalability is important, right? AI is so fantastic. It allows our enablement team to support more reps, do it more personally without having to necessarily grow linear head count. And I think that’s a challenge. We’ve been, you know, our executive team, very forward thinking, thinks very much about those things and is very intentional about how we’re leveraging that to not only scale what we do, but do so in a very intentional and respectful and responsible way. Really when we think about what’s happening, so when I talk about scalability as well, it also is looking at it at the rep level and giving our reps access to the personalization at an individual contributor level for career development and coaching and guidance, but doing it at scale so we can consistently up level the team with really. Without burning out our frontline managers, our enablement resources, because the two most precious commodities that we view here at BambooHR are clearly our customers, but also our people. Those two resources are so vital and so important, so when we think about our. AI strategy and, and an enablement. It’s how do we create scalability with some of the unknowns that frankly exist today. Our organization has moved very quickly. We’ve kind of gone through a renaissance of our own, and there’s been a lot of changes, even just at the operational level here. Part of the way we look and are very intentional for scalability with AI is. What does AI allow us? Not only do today, but what’s coming down the road that allows us to invest in changes that we don’t even know about yet? And how do we continue to do that to scale human application across the AI intentional application? And that’s kind of how we’re looking at that. RR: I love that. I think it’s, you know, a great philosophy and I think it’s something that a lot of people are kind of gonna be embracing in the coming days. Just one last question for you. Speaking of that, you know, philosophies that other people can lean on to close, if you could give us one, maybe two pieces of advice for other enablement leaders who are looking to improve sales productivity with AI, what would that be? CS: Yeah, this is a, I feel like a golden ticket question that I think everyone’s trying to solve for. I think for me is, I think everyone has an AI initiative that I speak with. I, I, I doubt there’s any organization that isn’t looking at how to do that. But what I would say is don’t treat it as necessarily a separate initiative. I, I think about how do you embed it to an earlier comment to kind of bookend the, the conversation a little bit is it’s not necessarily, and, and to your point about. Changing the intended outcome as much as how you do it. So embedding it into your sales process, embedding it into your organizational processes. One of the things that was really helpful for us is we kind of took the visual representation of what an enablement team member does, but also if our customer, our internal resources like our sellers. What does the journey look like for them as they start their day, they start their interactions, they prepare, they engage. And then kind of that post-call, post interaction, what does that look like? And what we said is let’s map that out. And then we started small with one or two use cases that were kind of low hanging fruit that directly supported the productivity like. Surfacing the right content during calls or providing real call time feedback. And then what we really wanted to do is we really wanted to listen and we wanted to map out what did we think we could do now? What did we want the like ideal state to look like? And then we sat down and we asked our reps and we said. How are you performing along this? We have data that shows us how we think you’re performing, but what’s working, but more importantly, what’s not working and how do we make those shifts so that we can make sure that we’re actually making a difference? And I think the big key for us was it, we didn’t think about it and we kind of took a step back almost as like a tool roll out. And what we really wanted to make this about was changing behavior. It wasn’t necessarily about, oh, here’s this new AI tool. Go use it. Like we may have rolled out. CRM training. In the past it was what is the behavior change that is associated with this? And really that’s the best thing that we could do is make AI feel intuitive, make it indispensable, make it, build it into how your reps are working so that it becomes. Just like, almost like breathing. You don’t think about it, but you definitely feel it if it’s not there. And that’s kind of one of the things I always talk about is how do you embed AI, align it with that AI journey and how they’re engaging with the customer in a day in the life. And as you embed it in there, it becomes part of what they do and then they start to feel it when it’s not there. But that would be, that would be my biggest piece of feedback for anyone that’s looking at it, is don’t treat it as a separate initiative, embed it into everything that you do. Map it against how you expect your internal teams to work and you start to find the adoption follows. RR: Awesome. Well, this has been so wonderful, Chris, so insightful, and I think this is kind of the insights that people are really looking for. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of Topline drop every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Elevate your 2026 strategy and join us from September 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Stay ahead with the latest industry developments and emerging go-to-market trends with Topline Newsletter by Asad Zaman. Subscribe today. Tune in to The Revenue Leadership Podcast every Wednesday, where host Kyle Norton talks with real revenue operators and dives deep into what it takes to succeed as a modern revenue leader. You're invited! Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders, share insights, and keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! Key chapters: (00:00) - Introduction (01:15) - The Evolution of Handraise and Its Technology (08:46) - Challenges in Building Handraise (11:56) - Targeting Enterprise Accounts (15:17) - AI's Impact on Product Development (19:02) - Navigating Market Dynamics (22:43) - Building a Sustainable Business Model (26:00) - Inspirations and Recommendations
In episode #291 of SaaS Metrics School, Ben Murray breaks down one of the most important—and often debated—questions in SaaS finance:
In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders podcast, Vijay sits down with Karthik Suresh—co-founder of Ignition and DoubleLoop.AI—to explore his unconventional journey from high-frequency trading to building one of the fastest-growing platforms in the AI agent space.Karthik shares how early career lessons in finance shaped his product mindset, why user empathy became his north star, and how doubling down on positioning and messaging turned go-to-market into a product strategy.You'll hear how Ignition was born out of a gap in product marketing tools, why the team pivoted to DoubleO when GenAI exploded, and the exact steps they took to validate product-market fit—from leveraging community partnerships to gating product access behind payments.Other topics covered:How to break into startups without prior experienceThe secret to founder-market fit and team dynamicsWhy most AI tools are vaporware (and how to tell the difference)Building brand trust through market educationWhy “pay if it works” is the next frontier in SaaS pricingWhether you're navigating an early-stage startup, experimenting with agents, or refining your GTM playbook, this episode delivers tactical insight with startup grit and product clarity.Connect with Karthik Suresh on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthiksureshlbs/Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/Brought to you by: stratyve.com
Your dashboards are green — but revenue is flat.Website traffic? Up.CPL? Down.Leads? Flowing.And yet… sales is quiet.In this raw and no-fluff solo episode, Nemanja Živković — founder of Funky Marketing and co-founder of Funky Enterprises — breaks down the dangerous disconnect between what your funnel shows and what actually closes.This is not another marketing podcast. This is a wake-up call for CEOs, founders, CMOs, and GTM leaders running revenue teams.
Kara Brown and Joe Lynch discuss the revenue engine. Kara is the Founder and CRO of LeadCoverage, the premier B2B marketing and PR firm dedicated to helping logistics companies increase lead generation through targeted marketing strategies and media coverage. About Kara Brown A prominent thought leader in B2B go-to-market strategy, Kara Smith Brown is CEO of LeadCoverage, the pioneering consultancy transforming approaches to PR, demand generation and marketing across the supply chain, heavy industrial, and tech sectors. Her successful corporate career started at Echo Global Logistics where she played a key role in its ascent to a market leader and celebrated IPO in 2009. In 2017 Kara leveraged her prior corporate experience to launch LeadCoverage, a strategy consultancy addressing all elements of the B2B sales conversion cycle for supply chain companies. Today LeadCoverage is an Inc. 5000 company and continues to grow. Kara's new book "The Revenue Engine" offers readers a guide to effective revenue-generating strategies. The book goes beyond theoretical concepts and serves as a playbook for crafting data-driven go-to-market strategies. These principles mirror the philosophy Kara has embodied and advocated throughout her career. Kara's achievements extend beyond her corporate success. She is an advocate for diverse emerging leaders. She has been named a “Top Women in Marketing” by PR Daily and her influence shapes future entrepreneurs through her many advisory roles as well as board membership in the Entrepreneur's Organization Atlanta chapter and LaunchPad2x. She is an Ironman triathlete and lives in Atlanta with her husband and two girls. About LeadCoverage LeadCoverage is the premier supply chain go-to-market consulting group, dedicated to driving revenue growth for their clients. Company specializes in crafting GTM strategies that are grounded in data-backed insights and sophisticated mathematical models. Their proven expertise transforms businesses into market leaders, ensuring they stay ahead of the competition and achieve sustained success. LeadCoverage's headquarters is located in the beautiful Coda building in Midtown Atlanta, adjacent to the Georgia Tech campus. This particular corridor — "Supply Chain Square” — also includes cloud warehousing company Stord, supply chain intelligence company Verusen, as well as the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute. For more information about LeadCoverage and its suite of supply chain, manufacturing, andlogistics-focused marketing, public relations, and analyst relations services, please visit LeadCoverage's website. The Revenue Engine: Fueling a B2B High Octane Pipeline by Kara Smith Brown Unlock the secrets to B2B go-to-market success with Kara Smith Brown's transformative book, The Revenue Engine. This is your roadmap to building a powerful revenue engine: Share Good News: Build relationships and keep conversations alive with compelling stories and data insights. Track Interest: Identify opportunities and guide prospects through your pipeline effectively. Follow Up Consistently: Convert leads into loyal customers with proactive engagement. Packed with real-world case studies and actionable strategies, this playbook is essential for both seasoned professionals and newcomers. CEOs and leadership teams will gain insights on leveraging data and measuring success through pipeline volume, velocity, and value―empowering informed decisions. Say goodbye to random acts of marketing and embrace a structured approach that delivers measurable results and secures your place at the executive table. Elevate your marketing game and drive your business forward! Kara has written a book titled "The Revenue Engine: Fueling a B2B High Octane Pipeline." Pre-order Kara's book on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/geq5TDn To receive a free book, fill out this form and Kara will send you one in the mail: The Revenue Engine | Kara Smith Brown Key Takeaways: The Revenue Engine Kara Smith Brown and Joe Lynch discuss Kara's new book "The Revenue Engine: Fueling a B2B High Octane Pipeline" and some of the strategies outlined in the book including: Ideal customer profile Executive thought leadership Intent data tools Sales partnerships LeadCoverage is the premier logistics and supply chain go-to-market consulting group, dedicated to driving revenue growth for their clients. Below are the services and results LeadCoverage clients receive: Marketing Automation Streamlined Processes: Automate repetitive tasks to save time and reduce errors. Targeted Campaigns: Reach your ideal audience with personalized messages. Data-Driven Insights: Gain valuable insights into your marketing efforts. Revenue Operations Aligned Teams: Create a cohesive approach across sales, marketing, and customer service. Optimized Processes: Streamline your revenue generation process for maximum efficiency. Data-Driven Decision Making: Make informed decisions based on real-time data. Public Relations Measurable ROI: Track the tangible results of your PR efforts. Thought Leadership: Establish your brand as an industry expert. Media Relations: Secure high-quality media placements to increase visibility. Paid Media Ads Targeted Reach: Connect with your ideal customers on the platforms they use. Measurable Results: Track the performance of your campaigns and optimize for better outcomes. Brand Awareness: Increase your brand's visibility and reach a wider audience. Timestamps (00:00:02) The Revenue Engine (00:00:21) Introducing Kara Smith Brown (00:01:32) Ideal Customer Profile (00:02:18) Account-Based Marketing and Intent Data (00:05:50) Go-to-Market vs Marketing (00:10:49) The Revenue Engine Book (00:12:44) Kara Wagner's Background (00:16:28) Global Clients and ODW Logistics (00:19:21) Thought Leadership Strategy (00:25:43) HubSpot Diamond Shop (00:27:31) Writing "The Revenue Engine" Book (00:32:41) Book Release Date and Data-Driven Go-to-Market (00:36:47) Intent Data Tools (00:42:07) Partnership Strategy (00:45:38) Ideal Customer Profile Focus (00:48:46) Three Go-to-Market Strategies Recap (00:49:50) Measuring Success with Volume, Velocity, and Value (00:53:25) Intent Data in Supply Chain (00:59:00) Podcast Outro Learn More About The Revenue Engine Kara Brown | LinkedIn LeadCoverage | LinkedIn LeadCoverage Lead Gen for Logistics with Kara Brown | The Logistics of Logistics LeadCoverage Ranks on Inc. 5000 List for Third Consecutive The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube
Bill Staples has spent 30 years redefining how the world writes, ships, and secures code.On this week's Grit, the GitLab CEO shares what it takes to lead a public, all-remote DevSecOps company trusted by more than half of the Fortune 100. He breaks down the discipline of managing energy instead of hours, why weekly operating cadences beat quarterly plans, and how AI will 10× software engineers by auto-debugging code and closing security gaps.Guest: Bill Staples, CEO of GitLabChapters:00:00 Trailer00:42 Introduction02:34 True joy in life08:16 Winning teams13:53 When the energy isn't there18:00 Super ambitious21:01 It's not just technology29:27 Elevating quality and standard41:36 Lifelong collaborator51:22 Competent intelligence54:22 Structuring goals and time1:03:59 Who GitLab is hiring1:04:17 What “grit” means to Bill1:04:54 OutroLinks:Connect with BillLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins