The GTM Podcast

Daniel Weiner is a former agency executive turned Founder. He started YouShouldTalkTo in 2020 amidst the madness of the pandemic and 3 years later has turned it into a 7-figure business. He also hosts a podcast and private CMO dinners in Atlanta. Outside of work he enjoys all things food/cooking, playing basketball, and working on renovating his loft.What You Will Learn:How to assess what type of external support is the best fit is for you (agency/fractional/freelancer). Insight behind the story of founding a company during the 2020 pandemic. Why your network is your net worth and tactics for navigating business with this philosophy. Advice for posting on LinkedIn consistently. A playbook for vetting agencies upfront andmaking process as efficient as possible.Highlights:(3:18) Starting with a strong foundation in order to partner with external support.  (4:43) The danger of asking peers which agencies / fractional / freelancer partners they work with. (18:39) The two biggest mistakes that brands make. (22:22) The use case for fractional work compared to agency work. (28:04) Daniel's journey starting YouShouldTalkTo, which began in 2020.  (34:16) The biggest lesson learned in growing his business. (36:18) Advice for posting on LinkedIn, derived from three years of putting out content. (40:46) Tactical advice for vetting agencies upfront and how to make the process as efficient as possible. (48:16) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Daniel thinks is bull$***.(50:00) One thing that is working for Daniel in go-to-market right now.  Guest Speaker Link:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danielweinerPodcast: podcast.youshouldtalkto.comWebsite: www.youshouldtalkto.com Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisiNewsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.comSponsor:Today’s episode is sponsored by Flex, a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest. If your business growth is constrained by the cashflow you need for inventory, advertising, or something else, Flex could provide you with an interesting growth lever.The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

May Habib is CEO and Co-Founder of Writer, the full-stack generative AI platform for enterprises. Writer empowers your entire organization to accelerate growth, increase productivity, and ensure compliance. May has worked in NLP and ML for 10 years, and before Writer, she founded and built Qordoba, a localization software company. She is an expert in AI-driven language generation, AI-related organizational change, and the evolving ways we use language online.She sits on the board of TechWadi, an organization that bridges MENA-based entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley-based VC and talent networks, and is a MELI Fellow with the Aspen Institute.May graduated from Harvard University and spends her time between San Francisco, where Writer is based, and London, where her two children live.What You Will Learn:May's perspective on the economy now compared to that of 2008/2009. Writer's decision to make PLG table stakes and how they leverage their motion to secure enterprise customers. AI use cases - what they are and how they continue to progress. Tips for recruiting the best possible team members and how patience factors into that. Career insight from years of operating. Highlights:(6:12) May’s learnings from Lehman Brothers and the economic crisis of 2008/2009.(14:11) How much attention the average business leader should spend thinking about AI and how much of a near-term impact AI will have.  (25:17) Writer's PLG motion, including self-serve and sales-assisted, and how it's used to turn small downloads into big enterprise accounts.(31:07) A consultative sales process and messaging considerations. (36:56) May's strategy for recruiting A players. (42:55) Personal career learnings distilled by May.Guest Speaker Link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/may-habib/Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Sponsor:Today’s episode is sponsored by Flex, a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest. If your business growth is constrained by the cashflow you need for inventory, advertising, or something else, Flex could provide you with an interesting growth lever.The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

Ang McManamon is a tenured sales leader who puts culture first, helps build high-performing SaaS teams, and executes with urgency across all areas of an organization. She is currently the VP of Sales at Crunchbase, where she leads a high-growth team out of New York City. She previously served as a sales leader for Amazon, Knotel, and Stack Overflow.What You Will Learn:Retrospective sales career and overall career insight. Ang's 5 Ps: Professionalism, Preparation, Process, Performance, Play - and why they are important. Inspiration for women leaders and aspiring leaders.Go-to-market perspectives.Highlights:(9:28) Ang’s 5 Ps - 5 principles that make up her foundation, created to remind herself of who she wants to be and how she wants to lead to then expose team to them to make sure there is transparency and trust.(13:37) How to approach preparation, including in a remote-first workplace. (30:12) An impactful career story on becoming a strong woman leader. (38:43) Advice to women facing challenges with fellow women in the workplace. (40:28) What Ang would do differently now being able to reflect retrospectively on her career. (43:46) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Ang thinks is bull$***.(47:15) One thing that is working for Ang in go-to-market right now.  Guest Speaker Link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angenyc/Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Sponsor:Today’s episode is sponsored by Flex, a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest. If your business growth is constrained by the cashflow you need for inventory, advertising, or something else, Flex could provide you with an interesting growth lever.The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

Mike Vichich is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wisely, which he successfully sold to Olo for $187 million in 2021. Currently contemplating his next move, it will involve embarking on the journey of being a second-time founder. With the experience of building Wisely under his belt, he is looking to avoid making mistakes from his first venture and avoid common traps. He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife and three sons.   What You Will Learn:Insight on the behind the scenes to Mike’s journey building a company that sold for $187M. What worked and what did not in building Wisely. How to evaluate product-market fit from experience trying to find it for 4.5 years, including early indicators.  Tactics to encourage resilience and determination and how Mike maintained a strong mindset throughout the journey, even when times got tough. Highlights:(3:45) Evaluating entrepreneurial ideas, including Mike's process of moving from first-time to second-time founder.(6:33) Mike's entrepreneurial journey. (9:46) Differentiating product-market-timing fit from product-market fit.(14:58) The Wisely story - building and growing the company. (21:22) Balancing personal life and self-identity when cash is running out and times get tough. (28:54) Leveraging a network of decision making, rather than a hierarchy of decision making.(31:37) Defining moments and things that Mike got right while building Wisely. (38:41) First things Wisely did to accelerate growth once product-market fit was found. (47:05) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Mike thinks is bull$***.(51:49) One thing that is working for Mike in go-to-market right now. Guest Speaker Link:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mikevichich/Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Referenced Resource:Article by Jason Lemkin (SaaStr): The 48 Types of VP Sales. Make Deadly Sure You Hire the Right One. The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

During Sean's most recent operating role he spent 4.5 years as SVP, Global Sales at Klaviyo. He helped scale the sales organization from 15 to 300 people, while growing annual recurring revenue from $25m to over $450m.  Prior to Klaviyo, Sean served in enterprise sales roles at Localytics, Yammer (acquired by Microsoft for $1.2B) and SuccessFactors (IPO & acquisition by SAP for $3.4B). He was one of the first few reps hired at Yammer to sell into the Fortune 500, responsible for closing some of their largest, 7-figure contracts. In 2022 Sean made the switch from operator to investor, currently serving as Managing Partner at Perkins Cove Partners. Over the last few years he has advised and invested in many B2B SaaS companies, particularly focused on helping with Go-To-Market. What You Will Learn:The importance of leveraging your connections.Strategically pulling in every sales team within your org to orchestrate deals.How to hire the best AE’s for your company.How to be an effective storyteller.Optimizing different parts of your funnel in order to extract incremental dollars.Highlights:(2:57) Sean Marshall’s success attributor.(5:35) Moving up to enterprise from a PLG focused company.(9:36) Starting sales conversations - effectively positioning enterprise reps. (14:10) Knowing when you’re ready to go upmarket.(19:28) The makeup of enterprise pods that were set up at Klaviyo.(22:05) Why CSM’s should be apart of the early deal cycles and not just post sales.(23:45) A pivotal story that led Sean into Sales.(29:39) How to evaluate an AE effectively in an interview. (34:09) What it means to be a strong story teller.(39:00) How to create a more efficient sales engine. (47:35) Always offer your customers optionality.(50:18) The importance of leveraging your referrals in a sales cycle.Guest Speaker Links:Sean’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmarshall82/Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanMarshall1Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Referenced Resource:An article by Andy Raskin: The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever SeenThe GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

Scott Gifis is currently the CEO at NoFraud, formerly the President and COO at frame.io (bought by Adobe) and prior to that, he was the president at AdRoll for 6 years.  Scott is an experienced executive operator, investor, advisor, and board member with a proven track record of building and scaling great companies, globally, from near zero to $100M plus. Today Scott advises for nearly a dozen SaaS companies.What You Will Learn:Stop and celebrate your wins.The power of your influence.Unlocking team building successfully as a leader.Knowing when to part ways with your early employees.When to bring on a COO / Head of RevOps and the common pitfalls.Highlights:(4:51) balancing work / life priorities. (10:03) Impactful moments in Scotts career that led him to run large behemoths. (16:01) Flying back to his younger self.(22:18) Knowing where your influence affects your employees.(29:32) The best team building strategies. (42:48) When to bring on a COO / Head of RevOps. (54:37) The problems with hiring an enterprise leader to run your startup.Guest Speaker Link:Scott's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpgifis/Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/ Our SponsorToday’s episode is sponsored by Demandbase, Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources. How? By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. They combine your sales and marketing data with our validated B2B data and AI to create Account Intelligence that informs every step of your buyer’s journey. They deliver accurate company, contact, technographic, engagement, and intent data right where you work every day – CRM, collaboration tools, browsers, and more. Start spotting opportunities earlier and orchestrate smarter sales and marketing motions with Demandbase. See this live in action: https://www.demandbase.com/product-tour/sales-intelligence/The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

Sophie Buonassisi is the Vice President of Marketing at GTMfund, overseeing GTMnow - the media arm of the GTMfund brand - and the internal community. She’s passionate about empowering go-to-market leaders and founders with access to insight through GTMnow’s channels, like this podcast, the newsletter, and more. Before joining the GTMfund team, she built and scaled GTM at a predictive conversion optimization company. She enjoys advising SaaS companies as they build out and optimize their marketing and overall GTM strategies.What You Will Learn:How to be proactive with your references.The need for speed throughout your interview process.Showcasing skill and character effectively.Highlights:(3:45) Who’s Sophie and how she ended up at GTMfund.(6:31) How Sophie stood out during an application process of 400+ people.(11:15) How to be proactive about finding a new role when you haven’t identified what that role is exactly.(17:21) Knowing how to navigate the interview process systematically.(22:41) How to leverage your community to endorse you.(26:49) How to effectively nail a take home assignment.(32:30) The importance of understanding your future employer deeply.(35:35) How to hit the ground running before your start date.(40:05) Top tips for landing page conversion optimization.Guest Speaker Link:Sophie's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Sponsor:Today’s episode is sponsored by Demandbase, Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources. How? By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. They combine your sales and marketing data with our validated B2B data and AI to create Account Intelligence that informs every step of your buyer’s journey. They deliver accurate company, contact, technographic, engagement, and intent data right where you work every day – CRM, collaboration tools, browsers, and more. Start spotting opportunities earlier and orchestrate smarter sales and marketing motions with Demandbase. See this live in action: https://www.demandbase.com/product-tour/sales-intelligence/The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

Zach Lawryk is currently the Head of Global Solutions Consulting at Rippling, previously the VP of Solutions Consulting at Slack, Director of Sales Engineering at Box, and really began his career in tech at Salesforce as a Sales Engineer in 2005.What You Will Learn:The importance of building long-term relationships at work.The beginning of SaaS SE’s.How the SE/SC role will evolve with AI.Knowing when to bring in SE's as a founder.Highlights:(3:41) How Zach has successfully landed at powerhouse companies and how to identify those companies.(8:16) Zach’s snowball effect of building relationships in the workplace.(11:10) The energy you put out always comes back to you.(19:30) When the sales engineer role got pioneered.(21:43) The SE/SC role evolving with AI.(29:11) AI experiments that Rippling is currently running.(34:49) When to invest in solution engineers.(37:30) Benchmark for the bump in win rate after bringing in SC/SE’s.(42:07) Gauging the complexity high water marker.(44:35) Practicing transparency with the value you provide.(48:07) The power of video content that Rippling is currently leveraging.Guest Speaker Link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zlawryk/ Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Our SponsorToday’s episode is sponsored by Demandbase, Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources. How? By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. They combine your sales and marketing data with our validated B2B data and AI to create Account Intelligence that informs every step of your buyer’s journey. They deliver accurate company, contact, technographic, engagement, and intent data right where you work every day – CRM, collaboration tools, browsers, and more. Start spotting opportunities earlier and orchestrate smarter sales and marketing motions with Demandbase. See this live in action: https://www.demandbase.com/product-tour/sales-intelligence/The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

This week we have a special 2 guest episode, with the best hiring guru's in the game, Chuck Brotman & David Teichner.Chuck is the co-founder of Blueprint Expansion, a GTM roles recruiting firm that has helped over 50 VC-backed companies make amazing Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success hires. Prior to starting Blueprint in 2020, he worked for over fifteen years in various sales and sales management roles, building teams across presales, partnerships, SMB, Mid-Market, & Enterprise Sales. Chuck lives in the Bay Area with his wife and has two daughters, a junior at UCLA and a freshman at UC Santa Barbara.David has 25 years under his belt as a serial entrepreneur. Built and exited companies in MarTech, FinTech and Media. He's invested and advised for over a dozen companies, and launched AccelerateHC seven years ago to help companies think through the organization they need and ultimately help them recruit high performing talent.What You Will Learn:Understanding your business goals before expanding your team.Utilizing a ‘White Board’ exercise throughout the interview process.How to hire the most ethereal talent in an oversaturated market.Knowing which role to hire for when budgets are tight.How to avoid making a bad hire at the early stages.Highlights:(1:35) How Chuck initially started his career in recruiting.(4:40) How David got drawn into recruiting.(9:10) Generalists vs Specialists for Seed/SeriesA startups, which should you pick?(14:00) How to decrease the chance of making a bad hire at the early stage.(21:00) The importance of implementing a strong process when hiring talent.(22:38) Maximum number of skills/behaviours you can test for during an interview process.(25:27) Optimal length for an interview process.(30:05) How to test for ethereal factors that you can’t put on paper in an interview.(35:10) When budgets are tight, who do you opt in for, another AE or a sales leader.(38:29) How to navigate the ‘lead’ roles / player coaches.(40:50) Hot Take: The “Hire slow and Fire fast” mentality no longer serves us.(41:45) Hiring people for their titles and hot logo’s on their resume does not guarantee success.Guest Speakers Links:Chuck Brotman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbrotman/David Teichner's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dteichner/ Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Referenced Resources:If you're looking for any help with your hiring process, fill out This 3 Question Typeform and we'll connect you directly with Chuck and David.If you're a talented go-to-marketer on the job hunt, fill out The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.

We have a special episode this week, a community mashup with the best community leaders in the game! Pavilion's SVP of Marketing, Kathleen Booth, The founder of Salesforce's Trailblazer's Community, Erica Kuhl, and The Former Director of Community for Salesforce's Trailblazer Community as well as The Former Head of Global Community at Atlassian, Holly Firestone.What You Will Learn:The importance of community in 2023.How to stand out as a community in an oversaturated market.How to maintain quality members in the community as you scale.Centralizing user groups for the community: how to scale, track, and optimize for monumental growth.Highlights:(1:15) Kathleen Booth explains why community is more important than ever.(6:34) How to advise early-stage SaaS companies on how to leverage community to drive revenue and demand.(16:00) Erica Kuhl unpacks the oversaturation of community today and how to overcome that.(20:00) Maintain quality members as you scale.(25:07) Building Salesforce Trailblazers: walking through what worked and what didn't.(33:00) Holly Firestone's time at Atlassian: scaling, tracking, and optimizing for significant growth.(42:00) Some mistakes that Holly made as the Director of Community with Salesforce's Trailblazers.(46:20) Mistakes that Erica Kuhl made during her time at Salesforce.Guest Speakers Links:Kathleen Booth's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenslatterybooth/Erica Kuhl's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericakuhl/Holly Firestone's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollygfirestone/ Host Speaker Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/The GTM Podcast The GTM 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.