How I Built Legora's GTM Motion To A $1B+ Valuation w/ Patrick Forquer, SVP Global Revenue @ Legora
Vibescaling Podcast
Pilots, immature markets, and proving ROI
Patrick explains why pilots are essential today to benchmark current vs. future state in vertical AI deals.
Episode Description:
Patrick Forquer is the SVP of Global Revenue at Legora, one of the leading players in the AI-native legal tech space, coming off a recent Series C raise to value the company at over a billion dollars.
Before Legora, Patrick spent 7 years at Braze (formerly AppBoy) from the early days through IPO, leaving as the AVP of sales. He started his career as a BDR at Yext during the 2008 financial crisis, worked at Intralinks, then moved to Cloud Sherpas, managing their Google Cloud relationship before the Accenture acquisition.
He was also CRO at Jacquard, an early generative AI company.
Pat is one of the more down-to-earth people I've met in the space; I really enjoyed the conversation + hope you do too.
Discussed in this episode:
- Why selling AI is fundamentally different than selling SaaS
- The "last mile problem" in vertical AI and why deployment is where deals are won or lost
- How deal velocity has accelerated - buyers are moving faster and expect sellers to keep up
- Why MEDDICC is not a sales process and how discovery has evolved
- The false tension between PLG and enterprise sales
- What Chris Degnan's book "Make It Snow" reveals about Snowflake's counterintuitive GTM & why they admire it
- Why the best time to be a seller is right now
Episode Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro & Pat's Background
(02:30) Meeting His Wife at Memory Motel in Montauk
(04:30) His Path: From BDR at Yext to SVP of Global Revenue at Legora
(06:50) Selling SaaS vs AI: Why It's the Best Time to Be a Seller
(12:00) The Last Mile Problem in Vertical AI Sales
(18:00) How Deal Velocity Has Changed with AI
(26:00) Discovery, Change Management & Why MEDDICC Isn't a Sales Process
(34:00) Chris Degnan's "Make It Snow" and Snowflake's GTM Playbook
(42:00) PLG vs Enterprise: The False Tension
(55:00) Basketball Talk: Jalen Brunson, the Knicks & NYC Sports
(58:00) Creative Ways to Break Through & Get a Response
About The Vibescaling Podcast:
The Vibescaling Podcast interviews GTM leaders and investors at top AI startups and early-stage companies.
Every week, host Chris Balestras, partner @ Vibescaling (an advisory, recruiting, investing, & media firm for seed through series C AI-natives & SaaS startups) sits down with GTM operators from the fastest-growing AI natives and SaaS companies to break down what's actually working in go-to-market today.
No fluff, no theory - just honest, tactical insights from people in the trenches building the next generation of AI breakouts.
About Vibescaling:
Vibescaling is an advisory, recruiting, media, & investing firm for seed through series C AI-natives & fast-growing SaaS startups scaling from 0 to $100M ARR.
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