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Great marketing isn't just strategy, it's intuition, timing, and a deep understanding of human behavior. That's the beauty of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie about erasing your memories. In this episode, we're breaking down its lessons with the help of special guest Noha Rizk, Chief Marketing Officer at Incorta. Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from putting human emotion at the center of their work, trusting intuition alongside data, and embracing mistakes as the path to growth.About our guest, Noha RizkNoha Rizk is the Chief Marketing Officer at Incorta. With deep expertise in Marketing, brand management, integrated channel management, product leadership, P&L accountability, and change management, across various industries and launching and leading partnerships, marketing and product in over 50 countries, Noha brings extensive experience and insights into how to execute for brand loyalty, growth and sustainable share of the market. Prior to Incorta, Noha led marketing for Meta AI, launching Llama, and leading other open source projects like PyTorch. She pioneered online banking for Amex and Citi, online booking and revenue optimisations and integrated channel strategies in the hotel industry with Starwood and Marriott, led partnerships and loyalty in emerging markets, launched NGO and Gov projects with US state department, launched and spun off two of her own successful businesses and helped organise PayPals enterprise, Platforms and Developer product offerings and streamline their GTM strategies.Noha loves to solve big problems and create groundbreaking products and services that inspire customers and business partners. She focuses on delivering insights and metrics driven outcomes, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and coming up with innovative solutions. She especially enjoys building and developing strong, resilient, and nimble teams that can adapt to changing market needs and customer expectations.Noha is an avid reader, developing painter and pianist, proud mother and animal lover with a passion for helping the private sector thrive in emerging markets.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:Lead with human emotion. Great marketing isn't about features, it's about people. Even in B2B, you're dealing with human psyches, behaviors, and emotions—not faceless corporations. Noha explains, “Even as B2B marketers… you're dealing with individuals. You're dealing with the human psyche, you're dealing with the buying behavior… ultimately that is the objective. The objective is to maintain a relationship with your customers.” The lesson? Build messaging that connects on a human level first, because behind every buying decision is a person making sense of their own emotions.Balance data with intuition. Metrics matter, but numbers can't capture everything. Noha argues that some of the best insights come from being present, listening, and noticing what the data can't show. “Some things can't be measured…A big chunk of marketing has to be intuitive. It's not always purely scientific.” Just as the film's dreamlike narrative reminds us memory isn't linear or logical, B2B marketers need to leave room for creativity, serendipity, and gut instinct, because not everything that counts can be counted.Embrace mistakes as part of growth. Trying to erase failures is as dangerous in marketing as it is in memory. Noha points out, “You can't just erase away the pain… you won't learn if you don't make mistakes. A lot of marketers have to be super buttoned up, their campaigns have to work… there isn't a lot of opportunity for marketers these days to be allowed to make mistakes.” But the best brands learn from experiments that don't go as planned. Failure isn't wasted, it's the raw material for innovation, resilience, and better campaigns down the road.Quote“ As marketers…we explore the human psyche pretty much day in, day out, even if it's not explicitly said. But that's essentially what we do.”Time Stamps[00:55] Meet Noha Rizk, Chief Marketing Officer at Incorta[1:26] Why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?[5:51] Role of CMO at Incorta[9:07] Breaking Down Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind[22:11] B2B Marketing Takeaways from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind[43:56] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Noha on LinkedInLearn more about IncortaAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The apps and websites we use every day depend on systems most of us never see.Jay Kreps joins Joubin Mirzadegan to share how Confluent became the ‘central nervous system' for companies like Expedia and eBay, letting them respond to business operations instantly.They also break down why the myth of AI-driven efficiency falls short, and why building truly transformative companies takes far longer than most people expect.Guest: Jay Kreps, Co-Founder & CEO of ConfluentConnect with JayXLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins
This week's guest taught me truly the importance of always providing an exceptional customer experience and having that front in mind all the time. She studied History and Geography prior to beginning her career as a Research Manager. She later went on to expand her skills in Business Development, relationship selling, consulting, as well as communications research and satisfaction. This week's guest also spend almost 13 years at Vision Critical, where she held roles in business development, account management and enablement, working her way up to Sr Director of Product Marketing where she continued to shine a spotlight on customer stories. Following Vision Critical, she went to Dooly, where I was so fortunate to work hand and hand with her and the Customer Success team to drive adoption, renewals, and expansion. Learning from a leader like her truly taught me the importance of Cross-Functional collaboration, a skill that I now consider one of my core strengths. Now, she continues to help customers lay a strong foundation to successfully scale startups. Without further ado, I couldn't be more excited to introduce one of my career mentors - Ellie Hutton. In this episode, we discussed:Great service skills from hospitality to SaaSTackling post-sales business challengesLessons from McDonald's on process optimizationUnderstanding customers through researchThe role of a GTM ring leaderBeing customer-readyPlease enjoy this week's episode with Ellie Hutton. ____________________________________________________________________________I am now in the early stages of writing my first book! In this book, I will be telling my story of getting into sales and the lessons I have learned so far, and intertwine stories, tips, and advice from the Top Sales Professionals In The World! As a first time author, I want to share these interviews with you all, and take you on this book writing journey with me! Like the show? Subscribe to the email: https://mailchi.mp/a71e58dacffb/welcome-to-the-20-podcast-communityI want your feedback!Reach out to 20percentpodcastquestions@gmail.com, or find me on LinkedIn.If you know anyone who would benefit from this show, share it along! If you know of anyone who would be great to interview, please drop me a line!Enjoy the show!
AJ Bruno, the CEO of $21M SaaS startup Quota Path, explains his company-wide experiment to make all of his employees vibe code. The results were shocking. Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Sunday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech. Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! Chapters: 00:00 The Future of AI in Startups 00:52 Introduction to Top Line 05:08 Vibe Coding Fridays Explained 13:32 The Impact of AI on Company Culture 29:57 The Role of Managers in Modern Companies 33:36 Challenging Traditional Management Practices 34:13 The Role of Senior Managers and Getting Hands Dirty 35:38 The Value of Middle Management 45:54 The Impact of AI on Management Roles 52:20 The Bubble of AI Revenue Reporting 1:00:58 Predictions for the Future of Labor
Most GTM teamstoday are missing targets because they're simply measuring the wrong things. In this episode, Carolyn and Amber unpack why attribution is a mirage (it only shows the lucky 2% that become opportunities) and why the MQL hamster wheel keeps smart teams stuck optimizing a tiny slice of reality. We dig into the pre-pipeline “factory floor,” show how to expose the messy middle, and explain why “more volume” isn't a strategy—it's a cash leak.You'll hear concrete ways to replace vanity conversion stats with a causal view of attempts → connects → meetings → opps → DQs (with reasons), what to do about pipeline shock when you tighten scoring, and why pipeline needs a single owner (hint: not “marketing-sourced”). We also talk about modular change vs. big-bang transformations, and where attribution actually belongs (as seasoning, not the main ingredient), dig into where attribution actually belongs in GTM measurement (spoiler: it's seasoning, not the protein), and explain why modular change beats waiting for a full-scale transformation.What You'll Learn:Attribution ≠ answers: It validates the 2-5% that convert and hides the waste in the 98%.Kill the MQL hamster wheel: Measure the journey, not just MQL→SQL%.Instrument the factory floor: Person-level steps that predict pipeline (and the drop-offs to fix).Volume lies: “Do more dials” is a 2012 play—engineer repeatable patterns instead.Pipeline shock is healthy: Fewer junk opps → higher win rate and better CAC.One owner for pipeline: Align Sales + Marketing on quality pipeline, not credit.When to use attribution: After you fix data hygiene and pre-pipeline tracking.If your dashboards keep telling you to “get more leads” or “add more dials,” you're staring at the pipeline mirage. Break free from the hamster wheel, shine a light on the messy middle, and finally see what's really driving, or draining, your revenue.This episode is powered by Passetto, a GTM advisory and software company with a solution that eliminates the Pipeline Black Box™, the critical data hidden inside every GTM engine where leaders are flying blind when it matters most.
Apple ships hardware while everyone else ships AI press releases. The MOL quad debates whether Apple's “ignore the hype” strategy wins, why YC is full of “made-to-chart” AI startups, what unique conviction really means for investors, and how meme warfare is becoming the new GTM.Chapters: 01:02 – “Ozempic iPhone” and why “thin” might be back10:06 – Market reaction: “Not enough AI,” money flows to Oracle16:49 – YC protest: is relevance measured by outrage?25:47 – Creator-led startups as an investing edge26:49 – Khosla: bargain hunting is a poor AI bet37:20 – Why money feels unlimited again (FOMO returns)40:29 – Quiet shakeout: sub-$100M seed funds at risk42:05 – Crypto policy clarity as 2025 macro driver50:11 – Meme warfare: the next GTM playbookWe're also on ↓X: https://twitter.com/moreorlesspodInstagram: https://instagram.com/moreorlessYouTube: https://youtu.be/xzlAjHPZtW4Connect with us here:1) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin2) Dave Morin: https://x.com/davemorin3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit
Billy, founder of Intuition Systems (ex–VC/early crypto), digs into the biggest risk in AI: models trained on garbage, regurgitated data and algorithm-shaped behavior. We unpack how attestations, signed data, and web-of-trust reputation can give both humans and AI better intuition at decision time — from picking a chair to routing agentic AI across platforms.Timestamps[00:00] We're being shaped by algorithms; slop-in → slop-out AI [00:02] Billy's path: distributed systems, fintech, game bots, early Bitcoin [00:05] The problem: fragmented info (web + people's heads) & costly context-switching [00:06] What Intuition is: structured expression + rediscovery + rewards [00:08] Attestations & incentives (economic + reputational) without spam [00:12] Can bots game it? Bonding curves, loss for bad signal, web-of-trust filters [00:18] Best content should win: TikTok-style merit + trust primitives [00:19] Use case #1: AI agents—personalization, agent reputation, platform reputation [00:22] Why these reputations must be decentralized (avoid platform capture) [00:23] GTM: unopinionated dev platform + opinionated apps to show PMF [00:24] Biggest challenges: focus, hitting PMF, AI acceleration outpacing products [00:27] Mission: give AI “intuition” via signed, attributed, reputational data [00:28] Reducing AI's recursive slop problem; verifiable attribution with keys [00:30] Humans act differently per platform; algorithms distort expression [00:33] Call to action: build at the AI × Web3 trust layer; join the community [00:35] Layer Zero Ventures origins (people = Layer 0); why Intuition exists [00:37] Events: Korea Blockchain Week & Token 2049; Intuition side eventsConnecthttps://www.intuition.systems/https://www.linkedin.com/company/0xintuition/https://x.com/0xintuitionhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/william-luedtke-b0a3bb5a/https://x.com/0xbillyDisclaimerNothing 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/
On this episode of Grownlearn, Zorina sits down with Loic Potjes—Executive Coach, former Corporate & Scale-Up CEO, tech investor, and Managing Partner—who's coached 40+ CEOs across 17 countries. We dig into what actually scales a business: a crisp 80/20 strategy, the right “engine” (your core team), and smart use of AI that goes way beyond meeting notes and automation. Loic breaks down YPO's value (it's growth, not “networking”), how psychometrics (Map & Match) surface your real strengths, why many founders should stop “running the machine,” and his three levels of AI—especially Strategic AI, which he uses in 90-minute workshops to unlock new markets, products, and business models without the old-school strategy-consulting price tag. Guest: Loic Potjes — Executive Coach to Scale-Up CEOs, Chairman & investor, regular media contributor, YPO member. Find Loic: DisruptiveLeap.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrowNLearn, led by Zorina Dimitrova, connects select VCs, Family Offices, and Strategic Investors with precisely matched, high-growth ventures across Europe and the U.S. We also support founders with strategic growth advisory—helping you transform your business model, increase valuation, and prepare for investment or exit.
Kiren Sekar is the CPO of Samsara, a company that brings real-time visibility, analytics, and AI to physical operations. Before Samsara, Kiren was an early leader at Meraki, which was acquired by Cisco for $1.2B. In this episode, he walks us through Samsara's origin story: from hardware hacking in a basement to scaling a cross-industry IoT platform. He shares how early customer feedback loops led to the company's first product, why starting with the mid-market was a deliberate choice, and how Samsara kept a startup mindset even as it scaled. In this episode, we discuss: Lessons from Meraki's acquisition by Cisco How Kiren hires for intrinsic motivation Why Samsara was built for operations industries The early hardware prototype and the Cowgirl Creamery insight Building broad vs. niche from day one The shift from founder-selling to a scalable sales motion Organizing product teams around revenue vs. experience How Samsara uses LLMs and AI today What Kiren learned from longtime co-founder Sanjit Biswas Where to find Kiren: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirensekar/ Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson References: Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/ Clay: https://www.clay.com/ Cowgirl Creamery: https://cowgirlcreamery.com/ IBM: https://www.ibm.com/ Meraki: https://meraki.cisco.com/ Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/ Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ Samsara: https://www.samsara.com/ Sanjit Biswas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjitbiswas/ Uber: https://www.uber.com/ Timestamps: (01:27) Meraki's growth and acquisition by Cisco (03:25) The "evaporating" exit strategy from Meraki (04:42) Identifying the IoT market gaps (07:38) The early keys to success at Samsara (09:39) What does quality mean to Kiren? (10:54) Building a customer-centric roadmap (17:34) Early customer research and the failed fridge monitoring idea (20:57) How a cheese producer helped create Samsara's first prototype (28:06) Balancing depth and breadth in customer profiles (33:45) Developing customer trust to build feedback loops (40:27) How “ease of use” became a growth secret (44:23) Pricing strategies and market positioning (51:51) How Meraki influenced Samsara's GTM strategy (57:19) Helping customers navigate change management (1:00:48) How Samsara's team evolved during rapid growth (1:04:03) What AI means for an IoT giant
#281 Growth | In this episode, Dave is joined by Chris Walker, CEO of Passetto, and a prominent voice on LinkedIn, where he has been pushing the boundaries of B2B marketing for years. Chris shares actionable insights and tactics on social media strategy, what has changed in marketing over the last five years, and how to build effective feedback loops and flywheels.Dave and Chris also cover:The future of GTM and the evolving role of the CMOWhy sustainable growth is the only path forwardThe transformative role AI will play in B2B marketingTimestamps(00:53) - - Intro to Chris Walker (03:49) - - Managing different perspectives on social media (08:21) - - The ROI of podcasts and social media engagement (13:44) - - Why real-time feedback loops are valuable (19:19) - - Shifting from "growth at all costs" to sustainable growth (25:09) - - Rethinking marketing measurement and ROI (33:04) - - Splitting marketing teams: strategy vs. pipeline creation (40:09) - - How AI is reshaping B2B marketing teams (48:14) - - Chris's approach to creativity and focus (52:59) - - Predictions for the future of B2B marketing (54:37) - - Outro Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***This episode of the Exit Five podcast is brought to you by Qualified.AI is the hottest topic in marketing right now. And one thing we hear a lot of you marketers talking about is how you can use AI Agents to help run your marketing machine.That's where Qualifed comes in with Piper, their AI SDR agent.Piper is the #1 AI SDR Agent on the market according to G2, and hundreds of companies like Box, Asana, and Brex, have hired Piper to autonomously grow inbound pipeline. How good does that sound?Qualified customers are seeing a massive business impact with Piper: a 3X increase in meetings booked and a 2X increase in pipeline.The Agentic Marketing era has arrived. And if you're a B2B marketing leader looking to scale pipeline generation, Piper the #1 AI SDR Agent is here to help.Hire Piper, the #1 AI SDR Agent, and grow your pipeline today.You can learn more at qualified.com/exit5
According to research from Harvard Business Review, in 2022, the average employee experienced 10 planned enterprise changes, driving higher levels of change fatigue. So, how can you lead a change management strategy that helps reps navigate these shifts while maintaining GTM efficiency? 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 Megan Backus, director of MarComm and Sales Enablement at Culligan Quench. Thank you so much for joining us, Megan. We’re super excited to have you here today. As we’re getting started, I’d love if you could just kick us off by telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role. Megan Backus: Yeah, so Megan Backus. I am based outside Philadelphia, so you might pick up a little bit of my Philly accent. I can’t help it. So I’ve been with Quench now Culligan Quench for about 12 years, the last two in this MarComm sales enablement role. Prior to that it was marketing and I like to joke that I’ve probably touched a little bit of every single aspect of marketing in that time. So always kind of. In the role of creating the content as part of our customer’s buying journey. Another way of looking at it is the content that our sales team needs to close deals. So currently the best way to describe it is it’s kind of this weird crossroads between marketing and sales enablement, where I think with a marketer’s hat on making sure our reps have. The tools, the collateral, and the talking points that they need to combat any sort of questions or objections that they might get in the field? You know, the easiest way of saying, and my wonderful team, and we are a very small but mighty team of five women, we create all the collateral that our sales team uses. So everything from items for prospects at the very top of the sales funnel, everything to lead ’em through the sales funnel, and then even some items for after the sale is closed. RR: Amazing. Well, I think one of my favorite things about talking to folks working at enablement is all of the different weird ways that you come to enablement as a function, and everybody always has a different slant on how the function works and how it operates in their organization. So super excited to get that kind of marketing slant on it today. Got kind of a big question to start us off. I saw on LinkedIn that you mentioned being driven by impossible problems. So what are some of those impossible problems and maybe some of the key initiatives? That you’re focused last year? MB: Yeah, so it’s actually a misnomer. It’s that marketing hat that I wear, but in my view, there is no impossible problems. It’s in a belief in life that I have, whether it’s at work or outside of work, nothing is really impossible. Everything is actually figureoutable and I will be trademarking that. But, so I don’t necessarily view ’em as impossible problems, but I guess the best way, you know, kind of think of it is those problems where you’re just like, I don’t know how I’m gonna tackle this. So this year’s quote unquote impossible problem is finding the time management and the time to accomplish everything that we want to accomplish this year. Quench calling and quench, if you will, we like to have lots of key initiatives happening at the exact same time. My poor customer success manager with Highspot, I feel I always give her like anxiety attacks when we meet. ’cause I’m like, all right. I know we talked about this two weeks ago. We’ve moved on and we’re doing something else. But so some of the things that we’re working on this year, so this past January, we kind of ripped off the bandaid, if you will, and moved our sales team from being very territorial focused in their selling to more, we call it domains, but more brand focused and brand selling. So a lot of this year has been evaluating our newly rebranded content to make sure. It aligns with that focus and realigning it where necessary to support that transition. And like I said, we like to do multiple things at the same time. So last year we did our US rebrand. This year we’re also focusing on finishing up that rebrand, supporting our friends to the North and Canada with their rebrand and our friends to the South and Puerto Rico with their rebrand. While ever supporting our ever-growing sales team, so a lot of things all at the same time. So being the impossible problem, if you will for this year has been being able to juggle all of those key initiatives while maintaining my team. I’m gonna call it sanity, but making sure no one gets burned out or frustrated or just getting to a point of like, no, I don’t wanna do this. Because, you know, with that, we, you know, kind of ask the team to walk through fire. So every once in a while you gotta make sure you’re, you’re not getting burned. RR: Yeah, absolutely. It seems like you guys are no strangers to being agile and being asked to being agile. That is a lot on your plate, so I love that you have that. There’s no impossible problem perspective. ’cause I think you can’t approach this work without it. Especially, and you touched on a little bit on this, knowing just the volume of work that’s been going into the rebrand process, both in the US and in Canada and Puerto Rico, as you mentioned, for one, congratulations. Just knowing how much change that a rebrand like that tends to bring to sales teams. I’d love to know what some of your best practices for helping those teams effectively navigate those transitions are. MB: Yeah, I think, I don’t know whether it’s taking it back to the basics or best practice, but I think the best way of thinking about these big changes in, in our case, these rebrands is. They’re not thinking of them as anxiety inducing events, but thinking of them reframing it in our minds, which helps us reframe it for our sales team of growing opportunities. They’re just opportunities to grow, to learn, to do more, to do more exciting things. And I think that’s kind of really, I guess if I had to put a best practice on something, is recognizing that big change. You know, whatever it is, is just an opportunity to grow and adapt. So with our sales team, we do have some, uh, I affectionately call them nervous Nellie, but those who their first reaction to is not to embrace change, to help those people and they can, you know, hurt your momentum and hurt the morale. But having them kind of come on board and recognize that it’s not as big as it looks. It’s not as daunting or scary as it looks. And we do that by reiterating what’s staying the same. What support they’ll continue to get. And we break down this, these big overarching changes into more bite size and manageable bites to kind of ease those anxieties of like, alright, we have over a thousand pieces of collateral. You know, we have 200 and some odd sales reps and we have to rebrand everything on, you know, new colors, new ev, let’s backtrack it. Let’s do our product sheets first. Sales reps, the products aren’t changing. You can still sell the products. We’re just gonna have different colors. So kind of just breaking it down for them to be like, oh, this isn’t really as big of a change as I thought it was. RR: I feel like I’m getting a philosophy lesson here from you. Nothing is impossible. Change is an opportunity, not a scary thing. I’d like to switch gears a little bit. So we’ve talked about the rebrand, but I also know that as a part of that rebrand and maybe as a. Result of that rebrand, you guys have also experienced like hyper growth over the past year sales team headcount has increased significantly, which again, never an easy problem to tackle, but also a great opportunity. So what challenges have you kind of noticed that came with this growth, and then how have you overcome them or maybe reframed those challenges into opportunities? MB: Yeah. So yeah, hypergrowth, I wouldn’t classify a hypergrowth happen with the rebrand, but it’s one of those things we’re like, we’re gonna do lots of things at the same time. But yeah, we hired 50 reps in a three month period. As with any sort of hiring process, especially, uh, at the hypergrowth. Level, it was the onboarding. How quickly can we get these new reps talking about our machines, understanding our sales process, understanding our customers, and we have a very incredible training team who took on a lot of that, those sort of challenges of how do we get them onboarded as quickly as possible. But I think having Highspot as our content management system. Was incredibly helpful in that regard because it new and tenured reps, so whether the new rep was still in the training class or whether they’re sitting next to Joe Schmo and Joe Schmo needed to help them find an answer, any question, they could go to Highspot. And you know, one of our favorite features at Collagen Quench is. Using the search bar to ask questions, adding that little question mark in that search bar, and it allows the rep, whether they’re new or tenured, to be more empowered to find the answers themselves. Because with onboarding, what we find is there’s a million questions and they can be as minute as, I don’t know what the to price this as, or as big and philosophical as I have no idea how to put in a sale into Salesforce. So by having everything in one spot and. Really honing in with our sales team, our tenured reps, that everything they need is in Highspot. They can help each other. And so for our small Mighty training team, our small mighty sales enablement team is not bogged down in, Hey, I don’t know how to do this. Hey, they can kind of work together. And you have peer leaders to really get them. Using Highspot, finding the answers themselves. And if they do have that, that issue of legitimate issue, then the training team and the sales and need movement team can really focus on the bigger issues, bigger questions that we’re getting from these onboarding teams. But it kinda helps with. Empowering the rep to find the answers, I think is the biggest challenge that we had is onboarding. It’s, it’s a million questions and we have a very wide product line, and having Highspot allows them to find the answers themselves, or at least find enough of the answers that last little bit, the last little 10 yards or whatever. They can come to us and we can help them in that regard. RR: So we’ve heard a little bit about you know how you’re enabling new sellers to deal with coming into the organization and doing so at scale. When you have a bunch of folks coming in new, I’d be curious to know then how the platform kind of helps you during these change heavy moments and how it helps you orchestrate the entire organization. So if you could talk to us a little bit about that, that would be great. MB: The way that we and if for every one of our meetings, reiterate all the time, Highspot is where you’re gonna find your answers. Highspot is where you’re gonna find your collateral. Highspot is going to be where you find your best practices, your recorded trainings. Highspot is where you need to go. So we have a weekly newsletter that goes out to our sales team and everything that we reference in there, we go to Highspot it. We kind of. Drill into them often that any sort of question that they have, any sort of concern that start at Highspot. If Highspot doesn’t have it, then come back to us. We’ll work on it and then get it into Highspot by having Highspot as our one source of truth, if you will. It really enables them to not have to worry about, you know, all the noise prior to having Highspot. There was a point where I was sitting and there was, I think it was like 20 emails all about one topic and sitting there and putting on, you know, well, if I’m a sales rep and I got 20 emails and it’s all in one topic, which email is the correct information? Because this one over here hits one thing this. So, and by having it in one spot and allowing our reps to really recognize that it’s their one source of truth, it forces us who create, you know, the content to make sure we’re all on the same page because we’re only gonna put it once in Highspot to really kinda help the reps steer them in the right direction. RR: I kind of wanna dig into that a little bit more, which is, I know, like you said, you and a small and mighty team of five women, it’s all on you with content. So I’d really like to know how you’re equipping using the platform reps with the content and the messaging that you’re creating all of it in there to help them effectively sell to commercial and workplace buyers. So what is your approach there? How are you making that happen in the platform? MB: So I think we’re making it happen within the platform by being incredibly organized, I think is the best way of putting it, and not being organized in the way that makes the most sense from a marketing perspective, but making it make the most sense from a sales perspective. So oftentimes, you know, with that marketing hat on, you run marketing campaigns and the point of the campaign is to, you know, talk about this feature or talk about that feature. But from a sales rep perspective, it’s not necessarily breaking it out by features. And you know, we do bottles water coolers. So we have seven machines that all feature, and I’m making up seven. We have more, but we have seven machines that all feature touchless dispensing. Well, from a rep’s perspective. It. Have a touchless dispensing spot, not have a spot for that machine, this machine and that machine, and then tell them, Hey, we have seven spots for seven different machines and they all have touchless. We kind of take a point of making sure. Everything that we put in Highspot, the spots make sense from a sales perspective and not necessarily from a marketing or a content subject matter. If I were a rep, where am I going to find this? If I’m a rep, how am I going to ask the question to find this, versus this is our Spring 2024 campaign on, you know, this machine. No, no, no, no, no. This is an ice machine. It’s going in the ice machine spot because from a rep’s perspective, I’m gonna find it in ice machines. It’s an ice machine. RR: I think that’s so key of your reps are your customers and you kind of need to serve them in the way that makes sense to them. Otherwise, you’re not gonna see the usage that you’re looking for, which is what you’re aiming to accomplish there from one marketer to another. I know that a big part of your day-to-day is probably that organization piece governing managing your content just to keep reps on brand accurate, up to date, all of that fun stuff. So could you walk me through your strategy for managing and governing content? So those reps are not only aligned, but also informed and up to date. MB: Yeah, so I don’t really have a very complicated answer to this. It’s actually quite simple of. First, we think all of our content that we create, we’re trying to create it from a perspective of what questions or what objections our sales reps are receiving. And then when we are creating from that perspective, then it allows us to make sure we’re creating the collateral that they want to use. And then, you know, back to, it’s a small but mighty team. We have the advantage of having very few people. Adding new content into Highspot, kind of limit that to I think six people. I think we have one person from the training team. We limit that in the way that to make sure, and we have very clear rules, I guess you could say, that we’ve imparted on what goes in what spot. How it’s tagged, how you upload it, what’s your file name process, so that there’s not too many cooks in the kitchen, if you will. There’s a lot of, you know, pros and cons of having a small team, but that I really think is one of our pros is we can keep it very limited as to who is uploading so that we can make sure the structure stays the way that we’ve decided that that’s the structure we want. We take a point of when we’re creating content to be as evergreen as possible. So when there are changes, we’re not constantly having to update everything. We also evaluate all of our content twice a year. So we put, I guess you could say an alarm in Highspot where after six months, Hey, take a look at this, make sure it’s still accurate, because to our earlier point of. Colligan Quench does a lot at the same time. So it’s important from my perspective to take, and if you’re doing it regularly, it doesn’t take that long, but take that moment to make sure the content that’s available is still answering the questions and the objections that you might get from your customers. And it is still being used by the sales team. If it’s not being used, there’s a reason and reevaluate the content on a regular basis, and I think that’s how we kind of keep our governance in check. We did just recently, I think we’re at like 44% or something, which seems low, but given that we have thousands of pieces of content, our content is being used, it’s accurate, and I think that’s really what we, we strive for. Make sure it’s, it’s being used and make sure it’s accurate. And then the rest will kind of just follow, RR: you know, you started your answer there by saying it’s not a complicated process. And you’re right, but also it’s those core foundationals that are gonna get you where you need to go. So I think you guys are doing all of the right things and you’re doing them on the right cadence. I think oftentimes as marketers we have that intention of like, I will govern my content, and then a month goes by and maybe another. So I love that you guys are sticking to that cadence, and I think this goes back to that LinkedIn deep dive that we started with, which is that you’ve mentioned that effective communication is one of your strengths. But beyond good content management and governance, do you have any best practices that you could share for marketing teams looking to improve how they communicate? Big changes like rebrands or smaller updates, like newly published content to reps? MB: Yeah, so I always frame everything on how it helps the reps. You have to take a moment. ’cause as a marketer you’re like, well, I’m doing this for this marketing reason. Well, if that marketing reason doesn’t resonate with the sales rep, as you express it in a marketing way, the sales rep isn’t necessarily going to use it. But if you can reframe that in a way that allows the rep to understand the benefit to themselves, they’re more than likely to use it. So it’s a very simple thing. As creators, we can kind of get wrapped up in. Well, this is a really cool piece of content because I finally learned how to insert a GIF into a PDF, making that up. But if that doesn’t really help the rep in the objection that you’re actually trying to write the content for, and they don’t put two and two together, it’s just gonna sit on a shelf and high spy and get dusty. It’s always about showing them the benefits of this piece, showing them the benefits of the rebrand and how it helps them specifically as a sales rep, not necessarily how it helps the brand or the marketing team or that product line, how it’s going to help them. RR: And then the rest kind of just follows. I think that’s great advice, and it’s obviously coming from somebody who’s, who’s doing the work, looking at the data, we’ve seen that you’ve achieved a really impressive 94% adoption rate in Highspot. So what are your tips and tricks for driving such like consistently high adoption? Because that is an impressive number. MB: Yeah, we want to be at 97 to reach it and sustain it. Again, I don’t think there’s really any big secret. We kind of base it on like three main tenets. So one, and I’ve mentioned it before, make sure your content is aligned with the needs of the customer. Which will allow you to align with the needs of the sales rep. The sales rep is the person who’s getting all those questions from the customer. So if you’re making sure your content aligns there and it’s accurate, then the sales rep is going to use it. And if you’re using Highspot as we do of your one source of truth, the only place that they’re gonna be able to get to that content so they can use it is with Highspot. And then, you know. Back to that framing, Highspot as the one source of truth. Everything that the rep needs, wants, or possibly wants is in Highspot. Getting them in that habit of using Highspot as that one source of truth is really what helps us get that adoption rate. And the way that we got there, I basically used, uh, sales reps competitive nature to my advantage. So we had early adoption when we launched Highspot because the day we launched it, we actually had a scavenger hunt. In Highspot where we came up with, you know, using our marketing brains, you know, the puns and the brain teasers. We came up with a four item brain teaser scavenger hunt that then had the reps find those pieces of content in Highspot, send a pitch, and this was before digital room. So send a pitch. To myself to A, make sure they have the right content. B sent the pitch correctly. C made sure that part of the scavenger hunt is setting up their profiles and all that. And then the top, the fastest five got prizes. Now the prizes weren’t anything. To write home about. It was very, you know, I think one of the prizes was amok. The prize wasn’t necessarily the goal, but using that competitive nature among reps, we had a crazy high adoption rate. I think our first week we had close to 70% of our sales team in the first week. Something crazy like that. And then we kind of just continue to use that competitive nature. To our advantage. We stack rank our reps daily in what we call our flash report, but it’s basically their percentage to quota as it relates to where we are in the month and the hype of hypergrowth. So we are hiring more people than we can count, basically in a very short amount of time to get to that same, you know, scavenger hunt mentality. What we did is we did another scavenger hunt, but before we launched that scavenger hunt. We actually showed a statistic that our top, and I don’t have the numbers with me, but our top quota beaters, people who are well and above their quota, were also our top super users in Highspot. So we kind of put, you know, as a new rep, I just got hired into this company, I’m getting my sea legs, and as with anyone coming into what is good, how do I get them to be the best if I’m a sales rep? Well, if someone’s telling me the best of the sales reps are also the people who are using this tool called Highspot, I probably should learn what that is. Let me learn what that is as quickly as I can. So I myself can be a top sales rep. So we kind of just take that competitive nature of our sales reps, which I think is easily replicated and use it to our advantage. We, we regularly give out prizes. We’ve done a couple other scavenger hunts and we’ve done a couple other items where, you know, adding a little bit of fun to it. And like I said, none of the prizes are anything super special, like there’s no monetary value to any of these prizes. But I think the sales reps enjoy that competitive nature. They enjoy. You know, the little bit of silliness with it and it gets ’em back in the tool and recognizing that, you know, it’s not hard. It’s not a hard tool to learn, it’s not a hard activity to send a pitch or a digital room, but if you’re. Not experienced. If they’ve never done it before, it can feel intimidating. But by adding a little bit of fun to it, it helps them recognize that, take that first step, do the first pitch, do the first digital room. It’s low stakes ’cause it’s just coming to me and I’m just gonna evaluate to make sure you have the right content in there. It takes away that intimidation factor and they’re like, oh, this took me all of 10 minutes and I got a cup out of it. I think taking that away from it, it really helps us keep that high adoption rate. We don’t do, you know, scavenger hunts for every single new hire class ’cause we’re constantly, you know, growing and hiring. But we do keep that your first pitch, your first digital room. It’s low stakes. It’s not going out to a customer, it’s going to our training team, it’s going to me, it’s going to our, our senior director of sales enablement to kind take out that intimidation factor. And put in a little bit of fun into it. And then that kind of helps them get to a point of like, oh, this is not hard. This isn’t a big change. I’m doing the same thing as I would if I’m writing an email and attaching PDFs. I’m just making it better next level. And I think that’s kind of how we, we keep that adoption rate. But like I said, we’re striving for that 97%. I would love to get to a hundred, but I, I think that might be an impossible goal, but. Who knows, maybe in a couple years we will be, but we’re aiming for 97% and we wanna sustain that. RR: I think it’s always funny chatting with folks about the things that, you know, we feel are successful and almost always the response is, that’s not good enough. We can do better. So we’ll have to check back and I hope in the next couple of months we’ll see that 97% from you. Thinking of other wins that you’ve had with the platform, I’d love to know, since implementing Highspot, what business results have you achieved? Or maybe in addition to that, what wins have you accomplished or goals that you’ve met that you and your team are really proud of? MB: Yeah, so I think the thing that we’re most proud of is we had a very quick adoption of this rebrand, Culligan Quench, and we did the. Rebrand about a year after merging with who was our oldest competitor. So within a year we had onboarded people who. Our tenured reps and I say are, and it’s giving me a trip up ’cause they’re all our reps now, but we’re onboarding people who we used to go head to head with in deals and then we’re in a year in and we’re like, Hey, guess what? We’re now Culligan Quench and everything looks different. We have a new logo. We’re gonna talk about ourselves a little bit differently, and we had a really quick adoption to that and we didn’t get too many objections from it. And I think, I don’t have hard numbers against it, but the attitude around it was very positive, and I think a lot of that stems from. High spas not going anywhere. The content’s all gonna be there on this day. All of your content that you’ve been using for years is all gonna be, it’s just gonna look different. So I think that is a crazy achievement and a win that I will. Keep talking about until the day I retire. But another one is ramping reps. So getting reps up and running quickly is something that we really pride ourselves on. We have a very big product line we have. A very wide customer base. It’s basically any workplace that needs water. Spoiler alert, it’s all of you. From a new hire perspective, it can be a little intimidating. We have over 50 products and you’re, what do you mean? I’m going after every single industry on the world in the United States, but having Highspot, it allows us to ramp our new hires pretty quickly. On average, new hires are, you know, within. Three months, they’ve had at least one of their own first deals. Within six months, we take them off of what we call ramping, where they’re owners of their commissions and their quotas. But given how wide of a customer base we have and how many products we have, it’s pretty impressive that you can go from a Joe Schmo and in six months you’re using this very awesome next level tool to pitch. To every industry over 54 machines. So that’s something that we, we hold pretty high in a win. And like I said, I don’t, and I’ve mentioned this before and I don’t have exact numbers, but the, you know, our top quota beaters, consistent quota beaters that we see month after month, year after year. There also are super users in Highspot. So not only we producing the right content for the team, but the team is adapting to using Highspot and really proving, you know what I thought when I proposed us switching to Highspot years ago, it’s gonna set us apart from our competitors. And it’s, I think that stack kind of proves it, not only do we have reps using the tool, which was a fear that senior leaders had of why are we gonna invest in this tool? And reps are gonna still send emails, they’re using the tool and they’re winning what using the tool. So I think it kind of just furthers that, you know, loop that I’ve mentioned of. Getting reps to use the tool and everything else will kind of fall in all into place. And then the biggest win that I can share and that what I kinda put my hat on is we’ve pitched, and I can’t name names, but we pitched to some. Big international organizations using digital rooms. You know, you have the PowerPoint presentation and we have, you know, links in the PowerPoint presentation to the digital room for more information and a couple of times. You know, we’re pitching to C level of these international organizations and they’re going, this is incredible, this digital room presentation, I’ve never seen something like it. This is, you know, really sets you apart and I think. Because we are one of the few in our industry who are using Highspot. I don’t, I might be the only one in our industry using it, so I don’t wanna calculate a gamble, I guess you could say, on doing something different has really worked out. I think that’s a, a big win that I like to, to hang my hat on and getting you. We had a couple of senior leaders who were very skeptical of the whole process and getting them to a point where they’re like, they get a question or someone asks, they go, I don’t know, go ask Highspot. I don’t think I could say how often people are like, I don’t know. It’s in Highspot right now. We only have our sales team on it, but we have other people in other departments going, Hey, can I get Highspot? And I have to be like, no, you’re not in sales. You wanna come over to sales? I can give you when you’re ever in sales. But I think that’s a major win of just getting everyone on board. Rowing the same direction. Through all this change, we’ve maintained that adoption rate through all this change, through all this hiring. Yeah, I think that’s the biggest win. RR: Well, I think the volume of these wins kind of speaks to that point earlier of things are always changing, there’s new priorities, but you guys are coming out successful on the other side. Time and again, so that’s incredible to hear. So thank you for sharing. Just one last question for you to close this out. If you could share one key lesson that you’ve learned from your experience as a marketer tasked with supporting teams through all of this change, what would it be? I know that’s a big question. MB: I don’t know whether it’s a lesson learned or a lesson reiterated, but it goes back to nothing is impossible. Everything is figureoutable. I guess best advice is take the time to really think it through so you can set yourself up for later success. You know, break it down into pieces and really think it through. And often when there’s a lot of change or you know, big deadlines, you immediately wanna just jump in and start running. And sometimes the fastest way to get started is to actually think it through. Take a moment, think it through, break it down into pieces, and then just keep going. Just putting one foot in front of the other through the big change through the crazy deadlines is my best advice is just break it down part by. Foot over foot, and then next thing you know, it’s 12 years later and you’re like, whoa, look at all this stuff that has changed in the past 12 years. But yeah, it, I think that’s what it is. It everything is figureoutable. You just gotta dedicate a little time to figure it out. RR: I think that’s great advice. It’s that slow down to go fast mentality. I think that’s a great approach to close us out on. So we’ll end there. Thank you so much for coming on and joining us today. I think we’ve learned a lot from you and we have some really great advice and some philosophical frameworks to take us forward. MB: I couldn’t help it. That philosophy just comes out every once in a while. RR: Well, it’s amazing. To our audience, 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 at Highspot.
How is AI Transforming Go To Market for B2B SaaS? Inbound go-to-market for SaaS is undergoing a major transformation. What once relied on blog posts, lead magnets, and cold outreach is now powered by artificial intelligence. AI is no longer just a content assistant. It now fuels end-to-end workflows, drives strategy, qualifies leads, and personalizes outreach at scale. SaaS teams are deploying AI agents to track LinkedIn signals, automate follow-ups, and even manage outbound efforts. This evolution is unlocking new levels of speed and scale, but it also brings real risks if automation isn't carefully managed. In this episode of the Grow Your B2B SaaS Podcast, Maja Voje breaks down how AI is reshaping inbound GTM. She shares what's working today, where teams should stay hands-on, and how to build AI-assisted systems without losing the human connection that still drives trust in B2B. If you're building or scaling a SaaS product, this is your playbook for doing it smarter with AI.Key Timecodes(0:00) - Boosting AI Content Performance & Automating Founder Workflows(0:53) - What Is AI's Role in SaaS GTM? [With Guest Maja Voje](1:48) - Is Everything Dead? Why AI Agents Are the Future of SaaS Workflows(2:55) - Multi-Agentic Workflows Explained: Tools, Agents & Human Oversight(4:28) - Why You Must Earn the Right to Automate with AI(5:27) - SaaS Automation Gone Wrong: Avoiding Enterprise Pitfalls(6:15) - AI Agents: Build or Buy? Key Considerations for GTM Leaders(6:38) - Mapping GTM Workflows: LinkedIn, DMs, Offers & Content Ops(8:00) - Real-Life AI Marketing Automations You Can Use Today(9:43) - How Many AI Agents Do You Really Need for LinkedIn & Lead Gen?(11:08) - Iterating AI Models Post-Training: Prompts, Builders & Feedback Loops(12:55) - AI Costs, Compliance & Rollouts: From POC to Scalable Deployment(15:07) - Data Security in AI: The Case for 'Least Privilege' Access(16:04) - Rule of Thumb: Don't Share Data You Wouldn't Give a Friend(16:13) - Sponsor Spotlight: SaaStock Dublin—Investor Matchmaking + Discounts(17:22) - Inbound Marketing with AI: LinkedIn Trends & Time-Wasters to Avoid(18:54) - External vs Internal Knowledge Bases: Training AI Without Garbage Input(20:31) - Why AI Design Often Fails: Creatives, Claude vs ChatGPT & Brand Gaps(21:53) - LinkedIn AI Strategy: Commenting, Publishing & Legal Risks in the EU(23:30) - AI-Powered Outbound Marketing: ICP Scoring, Lead Research & Social Selling(25:52) - Training Your Team on AI: Avoiding Content Quality Pitfalls(27:26) - Human-in-the-Loop Design: What to Automate vs Delegate(28:43) - The AI-First Founder Mindset: Culture, Talent & Psychological Safety(31:20) - AI Implementation Choices: From Prototypes to Governance Guardrails(33:29) - PR & Leadership: Why 'We Replaced 7 People with AI' Is a Bad Look(34:10) - 2-Year AI Roadmap: Think Strategically, Reflect Often, Stay Safe(36:20) - Going from 0 to 10K MRR: Learn to Sell, Test Pricing, and Stay Focused(38:53) - Bootstrapping with AI: Don't Waste Model Credits, Focus on ROI(39:32) - Scaling to $10M ARR with AI: Ecosystem Marketing & Creator-Led Trust(40:47) - Recap: AI Workflows, POCs, LinkedIn Automation & Strategic Thinking(42:35) - Connect with Guest Maja Voje on LinkedIn(42:58) - Subscribe to the GTM Strategies Newsletter on Substack(43:28) - Final CTA: Review the Show, Sponsor, Ask Questions, and Connect
In this episode of OnBase, host Paul Gibson sits down with Carolina Bräuninger from doinstruct to explore the intricacies of building a winning go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Drawing from her journey in B2B software sales and her leadership in the construction vertical, Carolina shares lessons on industry-focused pods, balancing short-term execution with long-term growth, and how to truly understand customer pain points when scaling into new markets.The conversation covers practical strategies for entering verticals, aligning sales and marketing, and leveraging AI as a productivity booster — while avoiding blind reliance on it. Carolina also sheds light on the unique challenges and opportunities in the construction industry, the value of industry expert interviews, and the importance of authenticity in sales conversations.Key TakeawaysIndustry Context Matters: GTM strategies must be tailored to verticals. Language, lingo, and stakeholder priorities vary drastically across industries.Pods Drive Relevance: Organizing teams into industry pods ensures consistent market knowledge, relevant messaging, and better marketing alignment.Mini-Milestones Over Quick Wins: Interviews with industry experts, successful demos, and early inbound signals are often more valuable than chasing premature closed deals.Sales–Marketing Alignment is Non-Negotiable: Misalignment wastes pipeline. Both teams must see themselves as service providers for one another.AI is a Time Saver, Not a Silver Bullet: When trained correctly, AI can reduce prep time by up to 70%, but human oversight and contextual understanding are essential.Authenticity Wins in Construction: Avoid jargon and buzzwords — being real and informed is critical when selling to down-to-earth industry leaders.Quotes“Marketing and sales aren't silos. They're service providers for each other.”Best Moments (00:50) – Carolina shares her journey from SDR to construction pod lead.(06:40) – The role of vertical-focused pods in shaping GTM.(11:30) – Unique challenges in the construction industry and the importance of authenticity.(17:40) – Mini milestones and industry expert interviews as success markers.(26:00) – Rethinking sales and marketing alignment as mutual service.(44:50) – The role of AI in GTM strategies and the need for human oversight.Resource RecommendationsPodcastsBusiness Movers (Wondery) – A podcast exploring the origins of iconic companies.About the GuestCarolina Bräuninger is a Senior Enterprise Account Executive at doinstruct, where she helps B2B customers across industries achieve their business goals. With nearly seven years of sales experience, she has built a track record of consistently exceeding targets and driving results.Carolina has also developed strong expertise in sales processes and social media communication, drawing on projects such as her podcast Girl in Sales. Beyond her role, she is passionate about mentoring sales newcomers, sharing knowledge, and empowering the next generation of professionals to succeed.Connect with Carolina.
What if your competitors are using PR to drive revenue while you're still chasing headlines? Most B2B leaders still think of PR as press releases and media mentions. But here's the truth: companies winning today are using PR as a strategic growth lever, integrated into sales, marketing, and customer success to drive measurable revenue impact. In this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, host Kerry Curran sits down with Kristin Hege, Founder & CEO of Convey Communications, to uncover why the future of B2B PR is AI-driven, story-powered, and revenue-focused. Drawing on original research with 300 CMOs, Kristin reveals how growth leaders are twice as likely to embed PR into their GTM engine and why those who don't risk falling behind. You'll learn: Why PR must move beyond press releases to deliver pipeline, trust, and long-term brand equity How to align PR with product marketing, sales, and customer success for faster revenue impact The rising role of AI search and third-party review sites (G2, TrustRadius) in shaping buyer perception How to repurpose thought leadership across formats. From media coverage to TikTok shorts, to do more with less Practical ways to build executive buy-in and prove the ROI of PR This episode is a must-listen for CMOs, B2B tech leaders, and founders who want to strengthen their brand narrative, maximize content ROI, and ensure PR is fueling business growth, not just headlines. Stay tuned to the end, where Kristin shares how brands can start small, prove value fast, and scale PR into a revenue-driving function. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast. Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast gives you proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics to power your revenue engine.
Stop the Sales Drop Podcast with Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber
Send us a textEveryone makes ABM about accounts - and better account targeting. But ABM is not really about accounts. It's about the buyers inside the accounts you want to land and expand. It's about improving the interactions you have with these buyers and the account experiences you deliver to them. In this episode, Andy Monahan at Yield Group joins Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber to discuss what it means to be buyer-led and how ABM programs should be buyer-led. They also discuss:1. How GTM teams do not understand their buyers -- and what GTM teams are missing.2. How teams are not looking at buying group make-up fit, strategic fit, or future fit when defining the ICP. 3. How teams are not looking at the readiness of accounts. 4. How teams often miss the step of realigning their positioning, messaging, content, and even their pricing with the new ICP. They are pushing out the old stuff to new accounts and hoping for a better result. But accounts are still going dark because they haven't changed the content, interactions, and experiences to align with the ICP and the buyers within those ICP accounts.
Can a no-code giant reinvent itself in the AI-native era?This week on Grit, Airtable CEO Howie Liu shares what it means to “refound” a company, how speed comes from tearing up old playbooks, and why conversational AI is reshaping his product—and his company.Guest: Howie Liu, Co-Founder & CEO of AirtableChapters:00:00 Intro01:04 First startup & YC04:06 Salesforce acqui-hire07:31 Life-changing exit at 2211:07 Scaling too fast, layoffs14:04 Sparks vs. coasting growth19:33 Two years to launch24:04 Could AI Build It Faster?27:06 Vibe coding & AI startups36:47 Everyone can build software41:08 Refounding Airtable with AI51:04 Sprint vs. marathon58:15 Cap tables & control01:03:29 Always be hiring01:05:00 What grit meansLinks:Connect with HowieXLinkedInConnect with AirtableWebsite: airtable.comXLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins
Astasia Myers is a GP at Felicis, an iconic VC firm with investments in companies like Shopify, Canva, Adyen, Notion, Mercor, Plaid, Supabase, Flexport, and more. Astasia's favorite books: God's Bankers (Author: Gerald Posner)(00:01) Introduction(00:26) Astasia's Infra Thesis(03:59) Golden Age of Infra & Innovators Network(06:22) RL Environments & AI Agents(08:57) Disruption Opportunities: Data & Observability(11:31) Where to Find Infra Founders(16:31) Early Signals & Thesis-Driven Investing(18:01) Picking & Decision-Making Process(20:11) Red Flags in Infra Investing(22:20) References & Diligence(24:35) Proof of Usage & Production Signals(26:24) Building Edge as an Investor(28:01) How Felicis Helps Founders Post-Investment(30:05) Consensus vs. Contrarian Views in Infra(32:09) Tourist Traps in Infra Investing(34:43) GTM & Sales Motion in Infra(37:25) Pricing Strategies for Infra Startups(40:09) Ecosystem vs. Core Product Focus(42:15) Lessons from Outlier vs. Good Companies(44:30) Infra Wedges to Fund Today(45:23) Commoditized but Promising Categories(47:06) Exciting AI Advancements(48:21) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Astasia Myers: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astasiamyers/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infiniteX: https://x.com/prateekvjoshiResearch column: https://infrastartups.com
saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies. In episode #38 of season 5, Anna Nadeina talks with Jordan Crawford, founder of Blueprint, modern GTM playbooks for early-stage startups.--------------Episode's Chapters----------------00:00 — Introduction & Welcome00:35 — Meet Jordan & Blueprint01:33 — The Power of Messaging at Scale04:14 — Types of Campaign Messages: PQS & PVP11:28 — Deep Dive: Rewardful's Use Cases18:22 — Building the Ideal Customer Profile26:07 — Data Sources & Market Research32:06 — Affiliate Intelligence & Poachability41:21 — Scaling Campaigns & Value-First Outreach50:58 — Pre vs. Post Product-Market Fit Strategies56:52 — Closing Thoughts & Next StepsJordan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancrawford/Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish twice a week - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-groupStay up to date:Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_groupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796
Jesse Zhang is the CEO of Decagon, the $1.5B startup creating AI agents to transform customer service. Jesse talks to us about the future of AI agents, the limits of automation, and the AI startup landscape. Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech. Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! 0:00 Meet Jesse 4:19 Are We in a Bubble? 10:50 AI Implementation Challenges and Use Cases 16:07 Selling AI to Enterprise 27:02 Model Capabilities and Business Logic 37:11 Business Model and Pricing Strategy 48:09 Competition and Company Culture 56:56 Building and Scaling the Company
Is the hype around AI in marketing justified, or are we setting ourselves up for another "tech bubble" disappointment? Agility requires not only embracing new technologies like AI, but also a fundamental shift in mindset, processes, and even organizational structure. It demands a willingness to experiment, learn, and adapt quickly to the ever-changing marketing landscape. Today, we're going to talk about how AI is poised to revolutionize marketing, from personalization and customer engagement to the very structure of the SaaS market itself. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Rafael “Rafa” Flores, Chief Product Officer at Treasure Data. About Rafael Flores As an accomplished technology executive and proud immigrant from Honduras, I specialize in scaling SaaS companies from startup to high-growth enterprises. My career is built on my family's deep-rooted principles: valuing education, treating others with equal respect regardless of background, and uplifting younger talent—because I was once that little boy with big dreams. Throughout my career, I have led transformative initiatives at some of the most recognized names in the technology landscape:Meltwater: Played a pivotal role in the company's successful IPO, showcasing expertise in product innovation and market readiness.Datanyze: Led strategic initiatives that culminated in a successful acquisition by ZoomInfo, enhancing data intelligence capabilities.ARM Holdings: Spearheaded innovation in Retail SDK and IoT solutions, advancing the company's technology ecosystem and driving new business opportunities. 6sense: Led all automation, data, and AI-products, fostering a culture of collaboration and inclusion, while delivering data-driven solutions that empower GTM team(s) to sell effectively.Treasure Data: Orchestrated a landmark $600M acquisition by ARM and secured record-breaking Customer Data Platform (CDP) funding. Today, I am back leading Treasure Data through a transformative era of intelligence and automation fit for scale, while returning to an organization that feels like home—rich with talent, poise, and a passion for progress. I am also a devoted father of three beautiful children and grateful for the unwavering support of my wife—a registered nurse who embodies strength and compassion. My core expertise lies in defining and executing product strategies, roadmaps, and key performance indicators (KPIs). I possess deep knowledge of CDPs, data management, privacy frameworks, and SaaS go-to-market (GTM) applications, scaling solutions for businesses ranging from agile SMBs to Global 2000 enterprises. Rafael Flores on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ref2019/ Resources Treasure Data: https://www.treasuredata.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Josh Cons is leading the team at Notice Me(dia), helping build "The Modern Day PR Firm" (a group of specialized content agencies serving B2B teams). Josh spent the last 6 years, since the age of 16, building in technology, startups and Venture Capital. He spends 90% of his day consuming content on LinkedIn and strategizing GTM pushes for some of the most forward-thinking companies.
In this episode of RevOps Review, Jeff Ignacio sits down with Rich Archbold, SVP at HubSpot, for a deep dive into how one of the most iconic GTM platforms is using AI, not just to scale workflows, but to rethink them entirely.Rich shares how HubSpot is applying AI across the customer journey, from CRM hygiene to guided selling, to coaching reps via custom GPTs, and how frontline teams are quietly becoming GTM engineers themselves. They explore what happens when every employee uses AI, how this impacts org design (including middle management), and why building a “faster horse” just won't cut it anymore.If you're navigating AI in a RevOps or go-to-market leadership role, this one is a blueprint for what's coming next.
Databox is an easy-to-use Analytics Platform for growing businesses. We make it easy to centralize and view your entire company's marketing, sales, revenue, and product data in one place, so you always know how you're performing. Learn More About DataboxSubscribe to our newsletter for episode summaries, benchmark data, and moreIs LinkedIn really just a vanity channel? Brendan Hufford doesn't think so. In this episode of Move the Needle, Brendan – founder of Growth Sprints and SaaS growth advisor – shares how he uncovered a direct correlation between LinkedIn impressions and revenue.He breaks down how he ran the experiment, what tools he used, and why more GTM leaders should stop obsessing over perfect attribution and start looking for meaningful correlations across channels.What you'll learn in this episode:Why LinkedIn impressions can predict pipeline and revenueHow to think about correlation vs. causation in marketing metricsThe overlooked “marketing cycle” that outpaces your sales cycleWhy some traffic really is vanity — and how to know the differenceThe concept of “Content IP” and why it's powerful than pitching solutions
Alex Theuma speaks with Kieran Flanagan about his learnings from leading AI and GTM at HubSpot. Kieran shares his journey from leading HubSpot's inbound and PLG transformations to spearheading its AI-powered GTM initiatives, including: - Why integrating AI into your workflow is now essential for top performers. - The rise of new AI-driven roles like AI trainers. - The AI experiments at HubSpot driving 300–500% increases in booked meetings. - How startups can apply AI to GTM without breaking the budget. - A sneak peek at his upcoming SaaStock Europe keynote presentation. Guest links: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/ Marketing Against the Grain podcast - https://blog.hubspot.com/podcasts/marketing-against-the-grain Website - https://www.kieranflanagan.io/ HubSpot website - http://hubspot.com/ Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward:
Live from Bali at Coinfest and ZIGChain Connect, Abdul (co-founder, ZIGChain) shares how he went from Standard Chartered → early crypto investor → co-founder of Zignaly → now launching a purpose-built L1 focused on wealth generation and access for the Global South.We get into: why bootstrapping a chain (no massive grant spigot) can work, backing independent founders (10+ dApps at mainnet), and why private credit will be the next breakout RWA after stablecoins. Abdul explains DIFC fund tokenization, sustainable yields, and mixing TradFi discipline with Web3 velocity.Founders: don't miss his notes on finance fluency, AI-first ops, and using your token as a product marketing door-opener.Key Timestamps[00:00:00] Intro — Coinfest Bali & ZIGChain Connect[00:01:10] Abdul's path: Pakistan → banking → Bitcoin → Zignaly → ZIGChain [00:03:30] Access gap in emerging markets; why build rails, not just apps [00:05:20] TradFi skills in Web3: how capital really moves[00:06:15] Why another chain? Purpose-built for investment/yields (not generic L1)[00:07:10] Bootstrapping vs grants; investing in external founders (10+ dApps at TGE) [00:08:40] Culture & team: 60 ppl / 14 countries; resilience across cycles [00:10:05] Founder advice: business-first decisions; know your numbers; AI for leverage [00:12:20] Roadmap: testnet → public mainnet; DIFC tokenization; first tokenized fund [00:13:40] Bitcoin treasury yield use case; RWA infra as a service [00:14:30] Growth: token as GTM, mixing Web2 talent with Web3 speed [00:15:40] Events ahead: Token2049, BNB Chain Week, ADGM/FinTech, Switzerland Summit [00:16:40] RWA outlook: private credit as “next stablecoins” (12–16% in GCC) [00:18:10] The ask: builders > grants; strategic capital; play with (test/main)netConnecthttps://zigchain.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/zignaly/https://zignaly.com/https://x.com/zigchainhttps://x.com/zignalyhttps://x.com/arafaygaditDisclaimerNothing 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/
Engineer-turned-founder Sriharsha “Sai” Guduguntla, CEO of Hyperbound, joins the SaaS Sales Performance Podcast to unpack how voice AI roleplay is reshaping sales enablement. We cover de-risking AI initiatives, why practice beats pipeline obsession, and why the top reps are the hungriest users of coaching tech. Plus: the wild go-to-market behind Hyperbound's viral launch and what the future holds for enablement teams.In this episode, Matt sits down with Sai Guduguntla, co-founder & CEO at Hyperbound, an AI platform that lets enterprise sales teams practise real conversations through intelligent voice roleplay and coaching. Sai shares the founder journey from YC acceptance to a hard pivot, why “inbox-only selling” is fading, and how reinforcement—not one-off training—wins.You'll learn:The research sprint behind Hyperbound: 25k LinkedIn messages, 10k cold emails, 2k user interviewsWhy Hyperbound pivoted from AI SDR to AI coaching—and why realism is everythingHow to de-risk AI in GTM (start with the problem, not the tool)The enablement reboot: reinforcement, measurement, and coordination at scaleWhy top reps adopt practice tools fastest—and how laggards get found outTech notes: going from 15s latency to ~800ms; voice first, avatars later00:00 — Intro: Welcome & guest setup (Sai, CEO & co-founder, Hyperbound)01:20 — Founder Journey: Engineer → Salesforce → 20-month build; YC entry; 17+ ideas07:00 — The Pivot: CROs react to AI roleplay; moving from AI SDR to enablement10:30 — Viral Traction: Launch (22 Jan 2024), influencer wave, fully inbound growth13:00 — YC & Conviction: Why YC backed the team over any single idea14:30 — AI in GTM: Signal orchestration, account research, AI coaching at scale17:00 — De-risking AI: Start with the business problem, not the shiny tool20:00 — Change Management: Why enterprise; accelerating rollouts with AI22:00 — Sellers & Tech: Curiosity vs ROI; looking beyond “more pipeline”25:00 — Practice Works: A-players use it most; turning Cs into As with reinforcement28:00 — Enablement 2.0: From events to ongoing reinforcement & measurement31:00 — Mediums & UX: Voice AI today; avatars/AR/VR when realism arrives33:30 — Latency Leap: 15s → ~0.8s responses; what the next year could bring36:00 — Closer: Are great sellers made or born? (Made.)
Warren Zenna sits down with Amy Hsuan, Chief Customer & Revenue Officer at Mixpanel, to unpack what a truly unified revenue engine looks like. Amy shares how org design must follow strategy, why GTM is a core differentiator, and how aligning marketing, sales, success, and services creates consistent end‑to‑end customer experiences that actually win.Amy traces her path from journalism to BCG to Mixpanel, revealing how curiosity, cross‑functional leadership, and a customer‑first mindset shaped her Chief Customer & Revenue Officer role. She explains the shift from “hard” product differentiation to human‑driven trust, and how relationships, not features, become defensible moats in crowded markets.They dig into practical playbooks: orchestrating handoffs, clarifying tone across touchpoints, and reducing executive silos to move faster. Amy outlines a strategy‑to‑execution flywheel, her 80/20 time model for long‑ vs short‑term, and how consistent advisory through complex, multi‑stakeholder cycles sustains momentum and predictability.Amy also shares a grounded view on AI: use it to accelerate research, analysis, and context so leaders increase decision velocity—while humans own listening, rapport, creative adaptation, and navigating org dynamics. If you're a CRO, aspiring CRO, or CEO aiming to modernize revenue leadership, this conversation is a blueprint.
We had the privilege of sitting down with Marek Wasilewski, the dynamic Vice President of Sales for Americas and Latin America, to uncover the secrets behind his remarkable journey from aspiring fashion designer to sales powerhouse. Marek's story is a captivating narrative of ambition, resilience, and mentorship, painting a picture of how early experiences in selling timeshares and novelty memberships shaped his career. He shares invaluable lessons on how tough sales environments can be transformative, providing the backbone needed to succeed. Marek's tale is not just about climbing the career ladder but about sculpting one's character in the process and turning challenges into stepping stones. We also explore the TEAM framework, a game-changing strategy Marek developed to revitalize underperforming business units, showcasing the power of communication as a cornerstone of success. The conversation takes a futuristic turn as we dissect the impact of AI on sales, with frameworks like BANT, CHAMP, and MEDDIC offering foundational guidance in this evolving landscape. Marek offers insights into the philosophical dimensions of AI advancements, pondering their broader implications on the sales field. With AI's rapid evolution, epitomized by tools like ChatGPT-5, Marek's forward-thinking perspective challenges us to envision a transformed future where adaptability and team alignment become the keys to thriving in sales. Marek Wasilewski is a globally accomplished Revenue Leader with over two decades of experience leading high-performance teams and scaling multi-million-dollar growth across enterprise, SaaS, cloud, and service provider markets. From driving 28% growth in a major LATAM region to taking enterprise revenue from $0 to $5M in just 12 months, Marek has consistently delivered transformative results at scale. Currently based in Austin, Texas, Marek brings a powerful mix of boardroom credibility and field-tested resilience. He's the creator of the T.E.A.M. Leadership Framework—Talk, Evaluate, Action, Mentor—designed to inspire performance and build trust across global teams. His leadership ethos? “Business is like cycling—every climb builds strength, and success comes from preparation, endurance, and shared effort.” Named to CRN's Channel Chief list and a multi-time President's Club and Chairman's Inner Circle winner, Marek has held executive roles with some of the largest companies, leading teams across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. His expertise spans GTM strategy, recurring revenue models, AI-driven sales transformation, and customer-centric execution. When he's not leading global sales strategy, you'll find him on two wheels—contributing to Dallas-based cycling charity events and recharging through endurance sports that mirror his leadership style: focused, resilient, and purpose-driven. Quotes: Nobody grows up saying I want to be a salesman. I left school wanting to be a fashion designer, but sales found me, and it turned out to be my true passion." "Selling timeshares and novelty memberships taught me resilience. It's about understanding that you're one call away from success and learning to deal with rejection." "Effective communication is the cornerstone of success. Over-communicating both internally and externally can transform underperforming business units." "The TEAM framework is built on four principles: Talk, Evaluate, Act, and Mentor. It's about creating a consistent and disciplined approach to revitalizing teams." Links: Marek's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwasil/ Extreme Networks - https://www.extremenetworks.com Find this episode and all other Sales Lead Dog episodes at https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/
Episode 394 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Brian Stempeck, CEO & Co-Founder of Evertune. Think about how people search for things on the web now and GenAI's massive impact. A lot of people just go straight to different platforms like ChatGPT with the goal of just getting the answer to what they are searching for versus having to go to a website to find the details. This evolution matters and it matters a lot, especially if you are a brand or publisher. In the past, you had to worry about SEO to hopefully rank high in the Google search results. Now, the rules have changed and companies are trying to figure out what to do. Is your brand being mentioned in the LLMs? If so, what is being said? And if you ask multiple times, how does the response vary from the LLMs versus the consistency of the search results that you would get from Google. It's a wild wild west and this was the void that Brian recognized and led him down the path of starting Evertune, which helps companies build its brand presence for visibility in AI search. It's a category called GEO that being Generative Engine Optimization. The company recently announced a $15M Series A funding, led by Felicis Ventures, including returning investors Eniac Ventures, NextView Ventures, Roger Ehrenberg and others. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the shift in consumer behavior and how they are looking for information in the world of GenAI. * Brian's background and getting his career started as a journalist and then working in consulting at Bain after business school. * How he got involved in The Trade Desk as employee #8 even without adtech or sales experience. * The full lifecycle story of The Trade Desk to an IPO in 2016 and how they differentiated from the competition. * How Brian's role evolved through the years at the company and how he gained a board seat. * His biggest lessons learned from his experience at The Trade Desk. * The background story of Evertune and what led him and his co-founders down the path of starting the company. * All the details of Evertune and how they are helping brands and agencies. * Advice for building out your GTM strategy and a key piece of advice for hiring salespeople. * And so much more!
Host Chris Moody sits down with Jillian Lellis to explore how AI is revolutionizing account-based marketing and the critical importance of sales-marketing alignment in modern B2B strategies. The conversation dives deep into the practical challenges of building effective target account lists, the role of AI in account prioritization, and why data quality remains the foundation of successful marketing operations. Jillian shares real-world examples of how her team at Algolia successfully transitioned from SQL-focused metrics to ABX qualified accounts, emphasizing the change management and collaborative processes required for success. The discussion also tackles the balance between leveraging AI for efficiency while maintaining the human creativity and strategic thinking that drives competitive advantage.Listen to discover actionable insights on building unified account strategies and practical approaches to AI implementation in B2B marketing.Key TakeawaysTarget Account List AlignmentSuccess requires early sales involvement and approval before going live with any target account strategy.AI as Enhancement, Not ReplacementAI improves account scoring and prioritization but requires human oversight and verification to avoid costly mistakes.Data Foundation FirstYou cannot automate or AI-optimize broken processes - solid data quality and operational foundations are essential.Start Small with AIBegin with specific use cases rather than trying to automate everything at once.Sales-Marketing CollaborationRegular check-ins and clear communication remain critical, even as AI handles more routine tasks.Quotes"Trust, but verify. AI can be wrong, and you can't just blindly trust it."Best Moments (02:31) – Data Analytics Evolution Jillian's unique journey from heavy equipment to FinTech to marketing operations(05:49) – Target Account List Strategy The difference between ICP and TAL, and why sales alignment is non-negotiable(12:12) – AI in Action How predictive models and journey stages are transforming account prioritization(18:57) – AI Gone Wrong Real examples of when AI provides incorrect data and the importance of verification(25:11) – Sales-Marketing Collaboration A manager's creative AI pilot project for contact prioritization(29:33) – The Future of ABM How AI is changing account scoring beyond traditional data modelsTech Recommendations:Hex – Data analytics and coding platformChatGPT – AI assistance for documentation and workflow optimizationClaude – AI tool particularly effective for coding tasksResource RecommendationsPodcastsMorbid – True crime podcast (Jillian's personal favorite for non-work listening)Shout-OutsSarah McNamara - Founder @ #samsalesCarly Taylor - Field CTO, Gaming, Databricks.About the GuestJillian Lellis is a Data-driven GTM operator with 15+ years of experience spanning marketing ops, analytics, and data science. Jillian started her career building predictive models and experimenting with customer segmentation—and now she builds scalable systems that align GTM strategy, pipeline health, and operational excellence. Currently making AI-powered search smarter at Algolia.Website: www.algolia.comConnect with Jillian.
For Bill McDermott, work has never been just a job.On this Labor Day rerun of Grit, first published Jan 9, 2023, the ServiceNow CEO reflects on what he learned from his earliest jobs and how he carried those lessons from a deli counter in Long Island to the boardroom of an $80B software company.We cover:Why Bill bought a deli when he was in high school — and how he competed against 7-Eleven (04:00)Interviewing at Xerox and wanting it more than anyone else (08:17)Unwavering optimism and being a source of strength for others (12:34)How a love of work has shaped Bill as a person (16:44)Facing challenges and keeping a promise to his father (22:00)Enjoying the present and keeping an eye on the future (30:01)Leaving Xerox for Gartner and learning from a tough experience (33:29)Sloan Kettering and Father Michael Judge (39:22)Following the “original dream” vs. building something new at ServiceNow (44:59)Losing an eye and getting a pep talk from two Medal of Honor winners (51:15)Why Bill started and ended his book with quotes from two Kennedys (01:01:21)Connect with BillXLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
Most companies are flying blind at the most important stage in revenue creation. Decisions get made on gut feel, data lives in silos, and leaders can't answer the simplest question: what's really working, and what's not?On this episode of GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor are joined by their new co-host Amber Williams, Head of Revenue Operations at Passetto, to unpack why GTM leaders need to treat revenue like a science – bringing structure, data, and predictability to the go-to-market engine.The hosts dive into why leaders often make decisions based on instinct instead of data, how poor data architecture creates hidden risks for growth, and why building visibility into every stage of the funnel is critical for confident decision-making.The team also tackles the cross-functional blame game—why marketing and sales point fingers over handoffs and lead quality when the real problem is a lack of shared visibility. Without a unified view of the pipeline, every GTM function is forced to defend itself in silos instead of solving the bigger issue together.Key moments in this episode:[03:15] Why “more tech” in 2025 doesn't mean more clarity[08:42] The pipeline black box and what RevOps needs to uncover[16:30] Why gut-driven GTM decisions break down at scale[22:05] The hidden cost of poor data architecture on growth and trust[31:47] How systematic revenue visibility transforms executive decision-makingThis episode is powered by Passetto, a GTM advisory and software company with a solution that eliminates the Pipeline Black Box™, the critical data hidden inside every GTM engine where leaders are flying blind when it matters most.
Transforming breakthrough research into a sustainable company is never simple — especially in hard tech. In this episode recorded in December 2024, Zero Emission Industries CEO/founder Dr. Joseph Pratt and Chief Strategy Officer John Motlow share what it takes to move hydrogen power systems from the lab to the marketplace. We talk about raising money in tough conditions, why government grants can be both a blessing and a constraint, and how to build teams that thrive under pressure. Along the way, they offer candid lessons on funding, hiring, and navigating timelines that rarely go as planned. RUNTIME 51:52 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:11) “ I knew the path on how to solve it and knew that there was demand for it, and took the jump out of the national lab to start the company.” (6:36) “ I didn't jump into this with a big network of investors.” (8:57) How ZEI produced the world's first commercial fuel cell ferry. (10:56) Why the company's first hire was a Chief Strategy Officer. (12:53) John Motlow says he wanted to join ZEI “because it was incredibly risky.” (17:06) Crafting ZEI's GTM strategy for the FCV Vanguard, a hydrogen-powered, high-performance speedboat. (21:55) Is ZEI a transportation company, or a clean tech startup? (24:20) When it comes to deep tech, customer requirements are wayfinders for PMF. (29:47) “Government funding and their insights is sort of half the picture.” (35:30) “ To be clear, we talked to a lot of investors who did not agree with our TAM.” (39:09) Why they overindexed on hiring employees who have a background in motorsports. (42:19) Joe's advice for building specialized teams in a competitive market. (47:38) “ Don't slot someone in there and then forget about it: Where are their strengths?” (49:27) What's next for ZEI? LINKS Zero Emission Industries Dr. Joseph Pratt John Moslow FCV Vanguard — Live Demo (YouTube) ZEI Raises $8.75 Million in Series A Funding SUBSCRIBE
We're taking a little break this summer while Charlie and Crissy are out recharging on vacation, but that doesn't mean the content stops!While we plan some more episodes for when they return, we're revisiting some of our favorite podcast moments from the past. Whether you're new here or a longtime listener, it's a great time to catch up, reflect, and maybe even hear something you missed the first time around!GTM or GTFO: 5 "Best" ABM Stats?Hear more from us:Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8wSubscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletterFollow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/
The Era of AI Agents in Marketing // MLOps Podcast #337 with Joel Horwitz, Growth Engineer at Neoteric3D.Join the Community: https://go.mlops.community/YTJoinInGet the newsletter: https://go.mlops.community/YTNewsletter// AbstractWe're entering a new era in marketing—one powered by AI agents, not just analysts. The rise of tools like Clay, Karrot.ai, 6sense, and Mutiny is reshaping how go-to-market (GTM) teams operate, making room for a new kind of operator: the GTM engineer. This hybrid role blends technical fluency with growth strategy, leveraging APIs, automation, and AI to orchestrate hyper-personalized, scalable campaigns. No longer just marketers, today's GTM teams are builders—connecting data, deploying agents, and fine-tuning workflows in real time to meet buyers where they are. This shift isn't just evolution—it's a replatforming of the entire GTM function.// BioJoel S. Horwitz has been riding the data wave since before it was cool—literally. He spoke at Spark Summit back in 2014 and penned a prescient piece for MIT Tech Review on data science and machine learning before they became boardroom buzzwords. A former big tech executive turned entrepreneur, Joel now runs Neoteric3D (N3D for short), a digital design and data growth agency that helps brands scale with smarts and style. When he's not architecting next-gen growth strategies, you'll find him logging long miles on the trail or coaching his sons' soccer and baseball teams like a champ.// Related LinksWebsite: https://www.neoteric3d.com~~~~~~~~ ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ~~~~~~~Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://go.mlops.community/TYExploreJoin our Slack community [https://go.mlops.community/slack]Follow us on X/Twitter [@mlopscommunity](https://x.com/mlopscommunity) or [LinkedIn](https://go.mlops.community/linkedin)] Sign up for the next meetup: [https://go.mlops.community/register]MLOps Swag/Merch: [https://shop.mlops.community/]Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: /dpbrinkmConnect with Joel on LinkedIn: /joelshorwitzTimestamps:[00:00] Joel's preferred coffee[00:53] Agentic workflows in marketing[04:26] Agentic AI vs big data[08:24] Creative outreach automation[13:08] LLMs in marketing optimization[17:36] Traffic relevance[23:36] End-to-end AI workflow[28:10] AI in task automation[32:08] AI systems architecting[38:00] AI vs Thought Leadership[43:10] AI as sparring partner[45:22] AI shifts human roles[48:23] Wrap up
Podcast: CyberBytes: The PodcastEpisode: AI Meets OT: The New Frontier in Cyber Defence - Nozomi NetworksPub date: 2025-08-29Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationLive from BlackHat 2025, we sit down with Edgard Capdevielle, CEO of Nozomi Networks, the company leading the charge in protecting the world's most critical infrastructure. OT security has grown from an obscure niche into a global priority, and Nozomi has been at the center of that transformation.In this episode, Edgard shares his journey from data management and web security into the high-stakes world of industrial cybersecurity, where a single breach can cost hundreds of millions of dollars or even lives. He explains why AI has been in Nozomi's DNA from the very beginning, how the company scaled from just eight employees to more than a thousand customers worldwide, and what the future of IT and OT convergence really looks like.Whether you are a CISO battling alert fatigue, a tech enthusiast curious about the AI-driven future of cyber defence, or simply want to understand the invisible systems that keep our world running, this episode delivers rare insights from one of the industry's most influential leaders.Edgard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgardcapdevielle/?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAAAFkYBfxPianxXZTy82duLTUxc6z3fZ18Nozomi Networks - https://www.linkedin.com/company/nozomi-networks-sa/Ben's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-gascoigne-aa973317b/Aspiron Search - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aspiron-search/The BlackHat Edition of CyberBytes is proudly sponsored by Marketbridge - a unique blend of strategic growth consultancy and top-tier marketing agency. Marketbridge drives accelerated performance with zero signal loss, seamlessly connecting GTM strategy to in-market execution.Marketbridge: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketbridge/The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Powered by Aspiron Search, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies. In episode #37 of season 5, Tim Heicks talks with Dave Boyce, EVP Product at Winning by Design, a global B2B revenue consulting and training company that enables recurring revenue teams to architect sustainable growth.--------------Episode's Chapters----------------0:00 - Introduction and Guest Background1:11 - Early Days in SaaS and Entrepreneurship3:13 - Evolution of PLG and Enterprise Software6:13 - Joining Winning by Design9:11 - Writing the PLG Book for the Masses12:19 - Consulting and Value Add for Companies16:00 - New Perspectives on PLG and Freemium23:06 - AI's Impact on GTM and Human Touch31:16 - AI Search and the Future of Discovery36:03 - Evaluating Companies for AcquisitionDave - https://www.linkedin.com/in/boycedave/Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish twice a week - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-groupStay up to date:Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_groupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796
In this episode of Topline, hosts Sam Jacobs, Asad Zaman, and AJ Bruno dive into the question of whether we're currently in an AI bubble. We talk through key data points on valuations, venture capital's dry powder, and $3 trillion in projected data center investments. Is AI unsustainable hype, true long-term growth, or both at the same time? Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech. Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! 00:00 The AI Bubble + Banter 04:56 Deep Dive into AI Investments 08:18 Defining and Understanding Market Bubbles 21:16 The Role of CEOs and Operators in AI 25:16 Future of AI and Market Predictions 38:31 AI Has a Marketing Problem 38:56 The Bubble and Big Tech 42:41 Valuation Trends in Startups 48:45 Bridge Rounds and Investor Strategies 53:22 AI Performance Metrics 01:04:04 Concluding Thoughts and Random Questions
Unlock the secrets of hypergrowth in SaaS with Gaurav Bhattacharya in this electrifying kickoff of our podcast series, hosted by Lauren Hawker Zafer.
Is your team chasing growth or just chasing KPIs? In this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, titled “From Mission to Metrics: How to Build a Scalable Growth Engine,” CEO Ollie James shares the unfiltered truth: without a clear mission, your GTM strategy is just noise. You'll hear how Ollie went from RevOps and CRO roles to leading Attribution and how he rebuilt the company's growth engine from the ground up by anchoring around mission, vision, and values. His approach replaces the leaky funnel with a sieve model, turns onboarding into a revenue driver, and reframes trial periods into proof-of-value commitments that align marketing, sales, product, and finance around outcomes, not activity. This episode is a must-listen for leaders who are tired of misalignment, scattered growth, and pipeline that looks good on paper but leaks trust at every stage. What You'll Learn: Why chasing KPIs without clarity sabotages scale How to turn onboarding into your most powerful growth lever The “sieve model” that exposes your GTM blind spots Ollie's POV framework that filters out bad-fit leads and converts faster How to get buy-in from skeptical CFOs and unify your GTM team Who It's For: CEOs, CROs, CMOs, and RevOps leaders who want to scale smarter—not louder. In just 31 minutes, you'll gain a new blueprint for building a mission-aligned, revenue-resilient business. Stay to the end, where Ollie shares his narrative structure for winning executive buy-in and designing onboarding that creates trust from day one. Want growth that lasts? Tap play. Let's scale smart. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast. Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast gives you proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics to power your revenue engine.
Patrick Spychalski, co-founder of The Kiln, joins to unpack the growing role of go-to-market engineering. From his early work creating content for Clay to founding one of the first GTM engineering agencies, Patrick explains how GTM engineering differs from RevOps, the core tools and workflows driving efficiency today, and why companies should focus on doing more with fewer - but smarter - systems.
In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders Podcast, Vijay sits down with Maximilian Gartner, Head of Go-To-Market at Brightwave, to explore how GTM leaders can balance sustainable growth with predictable revenue, while staying rooted in authentic, founder-led perspectives.Max shares his journey from inside sales “boiler rooms” to leading GTM teams at high-growth companies, and how lessons from cold-calling, enterprise deal cycles, and sales leadership shaped his philosophy on customer-first GTM.They dive deep into:Why founder-led POVs are powerful in early stage, and how they must evolve as companies scale.The critical difference between predictable and sustainable revenue, and why ignoring sustainability leads to churn.Lessons from inside sales: why clarity and credibility in the first 10 seconds of a call are everything.A Brightwave GTM pivot that front-loaded product experience, shortened feedback loops, and tripled adoption.Why “knowing your customer” (KYC) at every level: user, manager, executive, is the ultimate GTM advantage.How doubt and imposter syndrome can be reframed as signals of growth.If you're leading sales, marketing, CS, or product, or simply curious about how GTM leaders scale customer-first strategies, this episode is packed with tactical insights and leadership lessons.Connect with Max Gartner on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximiliangartner/Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/Brought to you by: stratyve.com
#277 Growth | Dave is joined by Emma Robinson, Head of B2B Marketing at Canva, and Kristine Segrist, VP of Consumer Marketing at Canva. Together, Emma and Kristine lead the teams driving Canva's growth across both enterprise and consumer audiences, helping the company scale into a platform now used by over 95% of the Fortune 500.Dave, Emma, and Kristine cover:How Canva balances brand-building with pipeline accountability, and why they view brand investment as long-term growth.The playbook Canva uses to turn bottom-up adoption into enterprise deals, including how product signals guide upsell and expansion.How their team structure, data science investments, and creative bets (like the Love Your Work campaign) work together to scale B2B marketing without losing Canva's approachable brand identity.This episode offers a practical look at how one of the world's most recognizable platforms approaches B2B growth.Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro (03:48) - – Canva's marketing org structure (06:48) - – Blurring B2B and B2C (11:48) - – How Canva measures marketing impact (16:48) - – Turning free users into enterprise deals (21:48) - – Data science's role in marketing (24:48) - – Balancing brand bets with ROI (31:23) - – Inside the “Love Your Work” campaign (38:23) - – How Canva executes large campaigns (42:23) - – Building enterprise credibility and trust (45:23) - – FedEx case study on brand governance (49:23) - – Lessons from Google and Meta (53:23) - – Why creativity is a marketing superpower (55:23) - – Closing thoughts Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today's episode is brought to you by Walnut.Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?Come on, today's buyers don't want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.That's where Walnut comes in.Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond. That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what's actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA? Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
In this episode of Resilient Cyber, I sit down with Gianna Whitver and Maria Velasquez to chat about the state of marketing in the cybersecurity industry, as well as their popular event "Cyber Marketing Con"In this episode, we discussed:The background of the CyberMarketingCon and what led Gianna and Maria to co-found the event and communityWhere marketers typically fall short and what can be done to drive more effective marketing and selling to security practitioners and leadersWhat practitioners can learn their marketing peers when it comes to communication, empathy, story telling, and building relationshipsThe importance of marketing, brand and broader GTM for security vendors to stand out from their competitorsWhat to keep an eye out for at the upcoming CyberMarketingCon in December in Austin Texas
Pipelines are drying up. AI hasn't delivered the growth it promised. And the old playbooks like SEO and outbound just don't work the way they used to. We call it the great pipeline starvation, and in this episode we break down what's really happening, what it means for sales and marketing teams, and how companies are trying to adapt. This episode is brought to you by ZoomInfo, the Go-To-Market Intelligence Platform. ZoomInfo gives you high-quality B2B data and sales intelligence on in-market buyers across companies of all sizes, powered by AI-driven automation with integrated outreach tools to help your GTM teams build pipeline and close deals faster. Check them out at zoominfo.com/revenue-formulaWant to work with us? Learn more: revformula.io(00:00) - Introduction (02:10) - Pipeline starvation (05:22) - Breakout companies are dominating (06:50) - The cost of lead gen (15:54) - The role of AI in cost reduction (20:18) - The future of sales and marketing automation (27:10) - The impact of AI on job roles (31:05) - The limitations of AI in growth (35:21) - The augment Bucket: Enhancing roles (39:36) - Zero waste GTM (46:35) - Final thoughts (47:27) - Next week: Todd Busler on the rev tech industry
How do you win when your competitors are the biggest companies in the world?This week on Grit, Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston retraces the path from a bus-stop prototype to competing head-on with Google, Apple, and Microsoft.He explains why grit is “learning to run toward discomfort,” and the moments he realized founders keep going “for the love of the game.”Guest: Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of DropboxChapters:00:00 Trailer00:52 Introduction01:35 Towards full autonomy16:20 Coming back to school21:45 Golden ticket to California25:23 No one's born a CEO28:15 Y Combinator and a co-founder37:53 The craft of being a great CEO53:41 Metabolizing the stress1:10:14 Tactical advices and frameworks1:27:48 Who Dropbox is hiring1:29:35 What “grit” means to Drew1:32:10 OutroLinks:Connect with DrewXLinkedInConnect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.comLearn more about Kleiner Perkins
Rob Biederman has sat on both sides of the table — first as co-founder and CEO of Catalant Technologies, and now as managing partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners. In this candid conversation, he explains why so much of the conventional wisdom around startups is actually counterproductive. He breaks down why design partners don't equal traction, why headcount growth is a vanity metric, and why Silicon Valley should stop romanticizing failure. He also shares how Asymmetric evaluates founders, what investors really care about, and the simple test every startup should use to prove they're solving a real problem. If you're a founder chasing milestones that look good on a pitch deck but don't move the business forward, this episode of Fund/Build/Scale is a reality check you won't hear anywhere else. RUNTIME 43:43 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:46) “ We have a probably a couple points of differentiation with the broader market.” (4:46) “ Our happiest spot is kind of in the two-to-six million range for our first check.” (5:39) “ We want to get to know people probably a year or two before they're going to found so we can really see what they're about and really understand.” (7:20) “ I think we'd hire most of our founders as investors at our firm, if we had the chance.” (10:11) What makes a startup relevant, credible, or just differentiated? (11:32) An easy framework for self-auditing your startup idea. (13:09) “ I think our industry kind of worships at the altar of failure a little too much.” (15:08) “ We don't actually really love backing people directly from really big companies.” (17:00) Rob explains why design partners are a distraction, not a path to real traction. (21:23) “ If you're gonna get one career, why not spend it trying to trick the world into doing something differently?” (24:17) One metric founders love that does not predict success from an investor's perspective. (25:08) Inside Asymmetric Capital Partners' four-step pitch review process. (27:27) Why the best data rooms are simple: “they have no spin.” (29:46) Rob describes how his firm's advisor partner model works. (31:49) The first step in GTM: “ get to the bottom of why your customer is buying from you.” (35:18) At the start, tell investors “everything you haven't figured out” so you can start planning. (38:17) “ If you don't tell your doctor the truth, what can they do for you?” (41:02) What he would do differently if he were launching a startup today. LINKS Rob Biederman Asymmetric Capital Partners Asymmetric FAQs Catalant Technologies Democratizing Care: Announcing our Investment in Counsel Health EvolutionIQ Raises $21M Series A To Deliver AI Based Claims Guidance Across The Industry SUBSCRIBE
#276 Career Growth | Dave is joined by Kady Srinivasan, CMO at You.com, an AI-first company building infrastructure for enterprise agents. Kady has led marketing at some of the world's most recognizable companies, including Dropbox, Klaviyo, and Lightspeed, where she scaled teams, drove massive revenue growth, and navigated ICP pivots. Now, she's bringing that experience into the fast-changing world of AI.Dave and Kady cover:How to evolve as a CMO across industries, personas, and business modelsThe three core systems CMOs need to scale teams and drive alignmentHow AI is reshaping marketing roles, workflows, and the skills future CMOs will needYou'll walk away with lessons you can apply to your own career, no matter what market or role you're in.Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro (03:03) - – From engineer to reluctant marketer (05:37) - – Gaming years and “coolest mom” cred (07:52) - – The story behind You.com's domain (09:31) - – Why she jumped into AI (12:00) - – Reinventing yourself as a CMO (14:00) - – Fundamentals that never change in marketing (16:13) - – Aligning marketing with company strategy (19:24) - – Pivoting the ICP at Lightspeed (22:26) - – Lessons on cross-functional alignment (25:08) - – Letting go to grow as a leader (27:53) - – Systems every CMO should set up (34:43) - – Why no single playbook works (36:24) - – How AI is reshaping marketing roles (51:04) - – Building an AI-first marketing org and closing thoughts Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today's episode is brought to you by Walnut.Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?Come on, today's buyers don't want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.That's where Walnut comes in.Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond. That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what's actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA? Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
What does it take to steer a 3,500-person company into the age of generative AI? ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck joins us to unpack the company's journey from data powerhouse to AI-first GTM platform, the cultural shifts that enabled it, and the hard-won lessons any leader can borrow. We explore how they reduced teams from 26 to 2 people using AI agents, why 2/3 of employees now use AI daily, and the critical role of data infrastructure in AI success.Subscribe to The Neuron newsletter: https://theneuron.aiLearn more about ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com
We ran the biggest public study on YC company's successes and failures in history. This is what we learned about the most prolific startup incubator in history. Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech. Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! (00:00) - The Biggest Study on YC (00:40) - Personal Updates and Banter (03:47) - What Is Y Combinator? (04:24) - Our Research's Findings (06:26) - Advantages of Joining YC (10:40) - Challenges and Criticisms of YC (14:34) - Personal Experiences and Insights (29:47) - YC's Branding and Marketing Power (30:31) - YC's Expansion and Its Impact (31:16) - The Value of YC's Brand (34:04) - Dilution and Founders' Naivety (36:04) - Branding Lessons from YC (37:44) - Challenges and Opportunities for YC (46:17) - Chat GPT-5: Initial Impressions (50:31) - AI Companies and Market Dynamics (56:23) - Concluding Thoughts and Wins