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The GTMnow Podcast

GTMnowgtmnow.com

The GTMnow Podcast interviews well-known tech executive, VC, and founders - the expert operators in the trenches who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Sophie Buonassisi to dissect their stories, revealing expert insights around what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.

This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of GTMfund - sharing insight on go-to-market from working with hundreds of portfolio companies backed by over 350 of the best go-to-market executives. GTMfund is an early-stage VC fund focused on investing in the most exciting, up-and-coming B2B SaaS companies across the world. The LP network consists of VP and C-level Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success leaders from companies like DocuSign, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Snowflake, Okta, Zoom, and many more.

Visit gtmnow.com for more details and to sign up for our newsletter and other content resources.

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Episodes

GTM 126: Reverse Engineering the Founder Journey: From Scaling Twitter Ads to $650M, 20 Years Operating, and a Webflow Acquisition | Guy Yalif

Guy Yalif is a seasoned B2B SaaS executive with over 20 years of go-to-market experience. As the co-founder and CEO of Intellimize (acquired by Webflow), Guy brings a unique perspective from his journey through iconic companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, as well as his background in aerospace engineering. Guy holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University. Discussed in this Episode: Learnings from each majo...

Dec 17, 202453 minSeason 1Ep. 126

GTM 125: From Flip-Flops to a $500M Exit as CRO, Secrets to Scaling with Martin Roth

Martin Roth is the former CRO of Levelset, where he led the company from its first dollar in ARR to a $500 million acquisition by Procore in 2021. Currently, he's the founder of MartinRoth.com, specializing in helping startups scale from $1M to $10M in ARR. Martin brings a wealth of experience in building and scaling sales teams, developing effective go-to-market strategies, and navigating the challenges of startup growth. Discussed in this Episode: Martin's journey from selling flip-flops to le...

Dec 10, 20241 hr 3 minSeason 1Ep. 125

GTM 124: The State of Sales with Mark Kosoglow

Mark Kosoglow is the Co-Founder and CEO of Operator.ai, a company incubated by GTMfund. Mark was employee #1 at Outreach and former SVP of Global Sales, where he helped grow the company from zero to over $200 million in revenue. He is joined in this special edition podcast episode by Max Altschuler, Founder and General Partner of GTMfund. Discussed in this Episode: The fallacy of "what got you here won't get you there" in revenue leadership. The current state of sales technology and its impact o...

Dec 03, 202454 minSeason 1Ep. 124

GTM 123: Customer Experience Fuels Business Growth, Build a Customer-First Culture with Kim Peretti

Kim Peretti is an experienced Customer Success executive with over 25 years in the technology industry. Her most recent role was as Chief Customer Officer at Klaviyo, where she transformed the customer success organization during the company’s hypergrowth, and played a key role in preparing the company for its IPO. Prior to Klaviyo she was the Group Vice President of Customer Success at DocuSign, where she built and lead successful strategies that delivered key customer outcomes and results. Kim...

Nov 26, 202456 minSeason 1Ep. 123

GTM 122: The 4 Ps of Sales Success: People, Process, Platforms, Performance with Phil Hernandez

Phil Hernandez is the VP of Sales Services at TaskUs. He has spent the past 20 years skillfully building and transforming numerous Go-To-Market (GTM) teams. He possesses an unwavering commitment to mastering sales systems and demonstrates expertise in orchestrating organizational change aimed at cultivating high-performance revenue teams. His diverse industry background ranges from Tech/SaaS, Big Data, Adtech/Media, and CPG. He has implemented best practices in Startup, Scale Up, Public, and Pri...

Nov 19, 202444 minSeason 1Ep. 122

GTM 121: Listening to Your Customers Without Obeying with Crunchbase's CRO Neal Patel

Nealesh Patel is the Chief Revenue Officer at Crunchbase, an AI-powered platform that helps over 80 million dealmakers discover and prioritize the right opportunities using best-in-class company data. With over 25 years of experience in the tech industry, Neal has a proven track record of executing progressive growth strategies, landing innovative partnerships, developing revenue streams, and building winning teams. As the leader of Crunchbase's go-to-market functions, and the de facto general m...

Nov 12, 202454 minSeason 1Ep. 121

GTM 120: Avoid the AI Sales Skills Atrophy Trap with Peter Kazanjy

Pete Kazanjy is a serial founder, and seasoned early stage Saas executive, advisor, and investor. He currently leads Atrium, makers of sales performance management software to help organizations measure and improve sales performance. Previously, he founded TalentBin, a talent search engine and recruiting CRM that was acquired by Monster Worldwide in 2014. Pete also authored Founding Sales , a startup sales handbook, and established Modern Sales, the nation’s largest community for sales operation...

Nov 05, 202451 minSeason 1Ep. 120

GTM 119: Design Products Backwards From GTM: Lessons from Scaling to $1B+ with David Knight

David Knight is the Co-founder and CEO of Avarra, an AI-powered platform that simulates human-to-human interactions to accelerate sales onboarding and training. With over 30 years of experience scaling companies from tens of millions to billions in revenue, including WebEx and Proofpoint, David brings a unique perspective on the intertwined nature of product and go-to-market. Discussed in this Episode: The power of AI simulations in providing experiential learning for sales reps. Designing produ...

Oct 29, 202451 minSeason 1Ep. 119

GTM 118: 5 Must-Try PLG Tactics to Accelerate Growth with Kyle Poyar

Kyle Poyar is the Co-Founder and Operating Partner at Tremont, with over 8 years of experience at OpenView where he became a leading voice in the product-led growth (PLG) movement. Kyle shares his insights on the inevitability of PLG in an AI-driven future and reveals must-try tactics to accelerate growth using a PLG approach. Discussed in this Episode: Why PLG is becoming inevitable, especially with the rise of AI in software Creative ways companies can build out their PLG motion How social pro...

Oct 22, 202455 minSeason 1Ep. 118

GTM 117: From 0 to Acquisition in 3.5 Years Through Community-Led Growth with Cliff Simon

Cliff Simon is the CRO of Carabiner Group, a part of SBI Growth, an advisor, and fractional executive for several high-growth start-ups, where he utilizes his expertise in all things GTM and RevOps. He is an active leader in multiple GTM communities. With almost two decades of broad technology experience, he has anchored GTM teams in SaaS & Service industries including consulting, network & communications, software, e-commerce, and supply chain. Having worked in both Fortune 20 and High-...

Oct 15, 202450 minSeason 1Ep. 117

GTM 116: The Future of SEO and AI's Impact, with a $100M+ Product-Led SEO Framework with Eli Schwartz

Eli Schwartz is an SEO expert and consultant with over a decade of experience driving successful SEO and growth programs for both B2B and B2C companies. He has worked with major brands like Shutterstock, Gusto, WordPress, Quora, Mixpanel, and Zendesk to build and execute global SEO strategies that dramatically increase their visibility at scale. Previously, Eli led the SEO team at SurveyMonkey, growing organic search from nearly zero to one of the largest growth channels at the company. Discusse...

Oct 08, 20241 hrSeason 1Ep. 116

GTM 115: Lessons from CS to CRO and How Customer Stories are Your Most Powerful Growth Lever with Allison Metcalfe

A transformational leader who specializes in data driven GTM, Allison Metcalfe has had a non-traditional path to the C Suite - starting in Account Management, and being a leader in the evolution of Customer Success, Allison has held a variety of leadership roles across sales and operations in some of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies including Jigsaw (acquired by Salesforce), Demandbase, Quotient (NYSE: QUOT) and Liveramp (NYSE: RAMP), which went from $30M to $500M in revenue and IPO un...

Oct 01, 202454 minSeason 1Ep. 115

GTM 114: Audience-First GTM, Fueling Startup Growth via LinkedIn with Adam Robinson

Adam Robinson is the Founder/CEO of Retention.com and RB2B. Adam bootstrapped Retention.com to $22m ARR in 4 years by helping ecommerce stores identify their anonymous website visitors and send them triggered emails. He launched RB2B in March of 2024 to help SaaS companies identify anonymous website visitors and see their LinkedIn profiles in Slack for free! Adam lives in Austin, TX with his wife Helen and daughter Emma. Discussed in this Episode: Building demand and an audience before creating ...

Sep 24, 20241 hrSeason 1Ep. 114

GTM 113: Operator.ai, Solving the Great Ignore and GTMfund Incubating a Company with Mark Kosoglow and Max Altschuler

Mark Kosoglow is the Co-Founder and CEO of Operator.ai, a company incubated by GTMfund. Mark was employee #1 at Outreach and former SVP of Global Sales, where he helped grow the company from zero to over $200 million in revenue. He is joined in this special edition podcast episode by Max Altschuler, Founder and General Partner of GTMfund. Discussed in this Episode: The current state of sales and marketing tech, with too much automation leading to spam and prospects tuning out messages. The Great...

Sep 19, 202439 minSeason 1Ep. 113

GTM 112: The Ultimate MarTech Guide and the Great Contraction with Austin Hay

Austin Hay is the Co-Founder of Clarify, a new intelligent CRM built as a platform that developers love. He is also a Partner and MarTech Teacher at Reforge, as well as a MarTech Advisor and GTM Investor at HBE Ventures. With a background leading marketing technology teams at high-growth startups like Ramp, Branch, and mParticle, Austin brings a wealth of expertise on the evolving MarTech and RevTech landscape. Discussed in this Episode: The current state of MarTech and RevTech, and why we're he...

Sep 17, 20241 hr 12 minSeason 1Ep. 112

GTM 111: Behind the Scenes on Apollo.io's PLG Funnel, Leveraging AI, and Redefining Sales Success with Leandra Fishman

Leandra Fishman is the Chief Revenue Officer at Apollo.io , a leading go-to-market solution for sales and marketing teams. Apollo.io is one of the fastest-growing companies in SaaS, with 9x ARR growth since 2021 and currently valued at $1.6 billion. Leandra brings over 30 years of experience to Apollo.io. Most recently, Fishman was the CRO at Intercom, which during her tenure ranked No. 35 on the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100 List with over $200 million in annual revenue. Previously, as the SVP of Sales...

Sep 10, 202453 minSeason 1Ep. 111

GTM 110: Vertical SaaS Secrets and Unlocking Growth with Price's Law with Dennis Lyandres

Dennis Lyandres is currently an Advisor at Iconiq. Before that, Dennis spent 8.5 years with Procore during which time Procore grew from $10m to over $900m+ in revenue and went public on the NYSE. Dennis started at Procore as EVP of Sales in 2014, before moving to the CRO role in 2018 where he was responsible for driving revenue across all customer-facing functions including Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Rev Ops, Procore.org and Business Development. Before joining Procore, he held various ...

Sep 03, 20241 hr 4 minSeason 1Ep. 110

GTM 109: Behind the Scenes on Building Braze and Incubating 2 Companies with Mark Ghermezian

Mark Ghermezian co-founded Braze (BRZE) and led the company as it’s founding CEO, pioneering a new category. He is also the Founder and General Partner at m]x[v Capital, and Co-Founder and CEO of Gynger and Tildei, two companies that he incubated through the venture firm. He is a serial entrepreneur and successful investor with 20+ years of experience in founding, building, and investing in early-stage SaaS startups. Discussed in this Episode: Learnings from growing Braze . The behind the scenes...

Aug 27, 202455 minSeason 1Ep. 109

GTM 108: From CPA to CRO - Lessons from a 25-Year Software Sales Career with Matt Breslin

As Upland's Chief Revenue Officer, Matt Breslin oversees customer success, demand generation and communications, sales, revenue enablement, and revenue analysis, supporting our Shared Services Organization. Matt has 25 years of experience in the software industry, most recently leading a $700 million business at Infor. Prior to that, he held senior leadership positions at SAP and Oracle, driving incredible results across the board. Matt started his career as a Certified Public Accountant for Pri...

Aug 20, 202452 minSeason 1Ep. 108

GTM 107: Fueling Growth with AI-Powered Marketing Experiments | Adriana Gil Miner

Adriana Gil Miner is CMO at Iterable, the AI-powered customer communication platform. Passionate about customer engagement, her leadership has contributed to Iterable's success in helping brands like Redfin, Priceline, and Volvo deliver individualized, harmonized and dynamic communications at scale. Prior to her role at Iterable, Adriana held influential senior leadership positions at Tableau, where she significantly contributed to the company's remarkable growth from $250 million to over $1 bil...

Aug 13, 202445 minSeason 1Ep. 107

GTM 106: Mastering the Transition from PLG to PLS with Andrew Johnston

Andrew Johnston is currently the Head of Sales at Superhuman, where he leads the go-to-market strategy as part of the executive team. Previously, he built the Mid-Market and PLS motion at Scale AI and led the global sales team at SendGrid following its acquisition by Twilio and its IPO. Discussed in this Episode: The key differences between product-led growth (PLG) and product-led sales (PLS). When and why companies should consider transitioning from PLG to PLS. The challenges of combining disti...

Aug 06, 202451 minSeason 1Ep. 106

GTM 105: Scaling to $100M ARR with Creative Demand Gen and Hiring Discipline with Sam Blond

Sam Blond is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Brex, where he scaled revenue from $1M to hundreds of millions in ARR. Prior to Brex, Sam served as VP of Sales at Zenefits, growing revenue from $1M to $70M in just two years. After his operating roles, Sam joined Founders Fund as an investing partner before leaving to co-found a new startup. Discussed in this Episode: Why investing early in sales ops and rev ops is critical for scaling revenue. How to generate demand through creative campaigns a...

Jul 30, 20241 hr 9 minSeason 1Ep. 105

GTM 104: Winning with Systems and Relationships in Sales Leadership with Ralph Barsi

Ralph Barsi is the VP of Sales at Kahua, a leading construction management platform. Prior to Kahua, Ralph held executive roles at Tray.io and ServiceNow. While at ServiceNow, he built and led a team of 230 people across the globe, during thecompany’s growth from from $1 billion to over $4 billion in revenue. Prior to ServiceNow, Ralph was the VP of Field Operations at Achievers (acquired by Blackhawk Network) and the Manager of Sales Development at InsideView (acquired by DemandBase). Ralph ser...

Jul 23, 202452 minSeason 1Ep. 104

GTM 103: Blockchain's Impact on Finance and Investing with Annelise Osborne

Annelise Osborne is Chief Business Officer at Kadena, a Layer 1, POW blockchain where she is focused on upgrading finance. Annelise has 20 years of experience in traditional finance and seven years in digital assets. She is a thought leader, board advisor, university lecturer and author. Her book, From Hoodies to Suits: Innovating Digital Assets in Traditional Finance , hit shelves in June. Annelise holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from The College of William and ...

Jul 16, 202458 minSeason 1Ep. 103

GTM 102: Building Trust, Embracing Old-School Tactics, and Scaling Sales Teams with David Greenberger

David Greenberger leads CHEQ’s North America sales team. CHEQ is a cybersecurity platform primarily focused on protecting the Go-to-Market organization (preventing fake leads to sales team, skewed analytics from bots/malicious users etc). David is well-versed in building and perfecting Go-To-Market processes both from $0 and at 100 y/o companies. CHEQ is David’s 5th startup. Directly before CHEQ, David was in a leadership capacity at Hitachi Vantara, in the deep-enterprise Big Data / AI space. P...

Jul 09, 202453 minSeason 1Ep. 102

GTM 101: A Founder's Guide to Financing Environments and Navigating Venture Debt with Nick Dolik

Nick Dolik is a NYC-based investor, currently the Managing Director at TriplePoint Capital, and is focused on supporting founders and funding high-growth technology companies. Nick is passionate about entrepreneurship and has spent the past ~10 years backing various startups, including multiple unicorns. Discussed in this Episode: The current state of the financing environment for startups. Venture debt: what it is, how it works, and why it exists. Advantages of venture debt for founders and whe...

Jul 02, 20241 hr 7 minSeason 1Ep. 101

GTM 100: GTMnow, Building a Media Brand on Top of GTMfund

In this milestone 100th episode, Scott is joined by Sophie Buonassisi , VP of Marketing at GTMfund and GTMnow and a key architect behind the media brand's growth. Sophie leads media, marketing and community across the fund and the media company. Discussed in this Episode: The evolution of GTMfund's media strategy to multi-channel brand. Insights on building a profitable media company within a venture capital firm. Key metrics and growth strategies for the GTMnow brand and assets. Lessons learned...

Jun 26, 20241 hr 7 minSeason 1Ep. 100

GTM 99: Mastering Customer Success in the AI New Age with Jon Dick

Jon Dick is the Global SVP of Customer Success at HubSpot where he’s focused on helping millions of organizations grow better. Prior to customer success, Jon led marketing teams at HubSpot, Trunk Club, and Klout. He has a background in improvised comedy and earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. Discussed in this Episode: The rising importance of customer success in the age of AI and efficiency. Balancing proactive and reactive strategies to serve 200,000+ customers. The evolution of c...

Jun 18, 202455 minSeason 1Ep. 99

GTM 98: Going From IC to CRO at GitHub and Building a High-Performing Revenue Growth Engine with Elizabeth Pemmerl

Elizabeth Pemmerl currently serves as GitHub’s Chief Revenue Officer, where she oversees all facets of the company's go-to-market strategy and customer engagement, including sales, support, and operations. She joined GitHub in 2015 after a career in the public sector, and has since held leadership roles in nearly all aspects of GitHub’s enterprise business. Discussed in this Episode: The journey from individual contributor to CRO and the lessons learned along the way. The impact of AI on GitHub'...

Jun 11, 202450 minSeason 1Ep. 98

GTM 97: The Neural Network Training Approach to Enterprise Sales Process with Robert Brooks

Robert Brooks IV has spent 12 years leading sales, marketing and customer success at early-stage startups. Typically, he has served as the first sales (and first non-technical) hire reporting directly to a technical founder. Robert started his career at Charles Schwab but joined Stack Overflow ($1.8B exit), then Tempo Automation ($900M IPO) and is now part of the founding team and VP of Revenue at Lambda ($1.5B valuation). Robert is an advisor to several top-tier VC firms and some of the most hi...

Jun 04, 20241 hrSeason 1Ep. 97
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