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 major company in Guy's 20+ leadership career: Microsoft, Tradeweave (first employee and executive committee), Yahoo, Twitter, BrightRoll and Intellimize. 
• Building 'opinionated products' and the importance of customer intimacy
• Lessons learned from scaling Twitter's ad business from zero to $650 million in three years.
• The challenges and rewards of founding and growing a startup for nine years.
• Strategies for building relationships with PR outlets, reporters, and analysts.

Highlights:
(5:22) The power of customer intimacy in product development.
(15:41) Scaling Twitter's ad business and managing hyper-growth.
(26:54) The existential dread of being a startup founder.
(37:56) Building relationships with PR outlets and reporters.
(45:40) Debunking the myth of sacrificing personal life for startup success.
(49:07) The effectiveness of small group events in go-to-market strategies.
(31:55) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Guy thinks is bull$***
(49:07) One thing that is working for Guy in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Guy Yalif):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gyalif

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):
Website: https://gtmnow.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/SalesHacker
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_now
The GTM Podcast (on all major directories): https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/

Resource we Recommend:

• HG Insights. Feeling that AI FOMO? You’re not alone. That’s why HG Insights created The Next Generation of Sales AI report — to calm the FOMO and help you bring AI to your GTM teams. It includes a breakdown of the Sales AI landscape, adoption of GenAI and Sales software across buyer groups. Plus, an analysis of the top 75 trending sales AI tools. Why HG Insights? Simple. They’ve been writing market reports for years as the pioneer of tech adoption and market insights. Trusted by GTM leaders at the likes of Snowflake Five9 and Google Cloud to improve GTM efficiency. Thinking about AI for your sales team but unsure where to start?

The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.