Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast
Hosted by GTMnow · EN
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.
58episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Will Salesforce Win the AI Era Like It Won Cloud? | Kris Billmaier
6d ago00:43:41Tap to summarizeIs Salesforce the dominant player in the AI platform shift, or the incumbent about to be disrupted? Kris Billmaier, EVP and GM of Agentforce Sales and Growth Products, sat down with Sophie Buonassisi at Salesforce Tower to answer that directly.Kris runs the business behind Sales Cloud's 26-year run and its rebrand into Agentforce Sales. He makes the case that CRM is becoming "agentic revenue orchestration," that the category needs a new name, and that the future is headless. For Salesforce, that means surfaced inside Slack, ChatGPT, Gemini, and wherever sellers actually work. He also shares the internal numbers, including an engagement agent that worked the leads Salesforce had always ignored and generated over $100M in pipeline in eight months.What you'll learn:- Why 60% of a seller's time goes to non-selling work, and which agents remove it- The case for renaming the category from CRM to agentic revenue orchestration- What "headless CRM" means, and why Salesforce integrated with ChatGPT and Gemini- How one leader manages 100 reps plus the equivalent of 400 agents- Why the Momentum acquisition matters: "memory fragments" that cut an 8,000-word meeting to the 800 words that count- Why Salesforce is hiring more sellers, not fewer- How hiring shifted from "what did you do" to "how do you build" (and why a PowerPoint is now a red flag)- Pricing in the agent era: seats, flex credits, and a coming leads-worked outcome metric- Why Kris says we're not in a SaaSpocalypse, and how a 70,000-person company still ships weeklyThank you to our sponsor:Primer unlocks B2C ad channels for B2B marketers with precision targeting and next-gen measurement. GTMnow Network exclusive offer: Extended 45 day trial and 15% off with code GTM15 - just apply the code when you go to upgrade from the free trial. See who’s really in your funnel: sayprimer.comChapters:00:00 Intro01:12 Welcome, and the Salesforce platform-shift question02:25 How Salesforce adapted across cloud, mobile, social, and AI03:32 Why Sales Cloud became Agentforce Sales05:17 Renaming the category: from CRM to agentic revenue orchestration06:56 Will anyone log into a CRM again?08:09 Agentforce in one line, and the seller's Monday morning09:08 Build vs. buy, vibe coding, and the context moat11:01 The Momentum acquisition and memory fragments13:04 Sellers managing teams of agents, and the $100M pipeline story15:03 The agent stack: prospecting, engagement, pipeline, quoting16:27 Efficiency, accuracy, and auto-generated forecasts18:03 Why Salesforce is hiring more sellers19:16 What the modern sales role looks like20:08 Sponsor: Primer21:34 How AI changed hiring: from "what" to "how"23:48 The window: shipping weekly, not on three annual releases25:13 What product-market fit means now26:05 Software vs. services, and the $10T question28:10 The complexity problem: easy by default, advanced by choice30:07 Go-to-market evolution and consolidating the stack32:07 Leading as a player-coach33:16 Being "chief repetition officer" and educating the field35:00 How a 70,000-person company stays agile36:48 The biggest lesson from Marc Benioff37:57 Pricing: seats, flex credits, and outcome-based metrics40:53 Are we in a SaaSpocalypse? The full answer42:08 Where Kris gets his learnings43:07 World Cup picksKris Billmaier (EVP and GM of Agentforce Sales, Salesforce)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisbillmaier/Salesforce Agentforce: https://www.salesforce.com/agentforceSophie Buonassisi (Host, SVP at GTMnow/GTMfund)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaAbout Kris Billmaier:Kris Billmaier is EVP and GM of Agentforce Sales and Growth Products at Salesforce, where he leads the business formerly known as Sales Cloud. He oversees the company's agentic sales portfolio, including its prospecting, engagement, pipeline, and quoting agents, and the Momentum acquisition that powers its conversational data layer.About GTMnow: GTMnow shares how the best in tech build, scale and invest. The media brand is owned and operated by venture firm, GTMfund.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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Inside Deel's $1M → $1.5B Sales Machine | Chris Lee
2w ago01:06:43Tap to summarizeChris Lee joined Deel at $1M in revenue. Now, it just hit $1.5B. He joined GTMnow to walk through the pivotal decisions behind that run, including the ones he's never discussed publicly.Chris (Head of Sales, Americas at Deel) breaks down the "five-star sales experience" framework he built by studying luxury hotels, why speed itself became a reason customers bought, how he's had zero regrettable director-level attrition in 5.5 years, and why they hire people with the job title "Ghostbuster" to keep a 7,000-person company moving like a 30-person startup. What you'll learn:- The five-star sales experience framework, and how to map your own process from three-star to five- Why every new sales leader at Deel spends their first 30 days taking inbound and selling- How speed became the reason Coinbase chose Deel over a legacy vendor with no references to show- The hire-slow, fire-fast principle behind zero regrettable director attrition in 5.5 years- Why "tell me about a time" interview questions optimize for the best liar, and the scenario-based alternative- What a "Ghostbuster" is, and how the role fights operational decay as you scale- Leading a sales team through public crisis: cry, quit, or fight- The trillion-dollar thesis: why 95% of the world's workers sit outside the US market- Why Chris went back to first-principles systems thinking instead of fiddling with AI toolsThank you to our sponsor:Primer unlocks B2C ad channels for B2B marketers with precision targeting and next-gen measurement. GTMnow Network exclusive offer: Extended 45 day trial and 15% off with code GTM15 - just apply the code when you go to upgrade from the free trial. See who’s really in your funnel: sayprimer.comChapters:00:00 Intro00:58 Welcome to GTMnow01:33 From Granular (agtech, employee #11) to a DuPont acquisition05:30 The failed recruiting startup he launched in January 202007:17 How he found Deel, and applying to the wrong role on purpose09:48 The first-30-days lesson from CEO Alex Bouazizi: go sell11:44 What Deel actually does today13:14 Scaling a distributed sales org remotely15:41 Building rapport on a global remote team17:35 From transactional SMB to multi-product enterprise20:16 Sales-led, not product-led, and why consolidation wins22:45 "Deel speed," and why speed is a reason people buy25:31 Sponsor: Primer26:57 Frank Slootman, Amp It Up, and outpacing competitors29:12 How he got Slootman to open the sales kickoff30:28 Zero director attrition in 5.5 years, and hire slow, fire fast33:54 Why "tell me about a time" fails, and the scenario-based alternative37:46 The five-star sales experience framework41:54 Bringing enterprise-grade experience to SMB with AI45:49 The trillion-dollar thesis: 95% of workers are outside the US47:22 Building 60+ payroll engines: the Amazon Prime parallel53:02 First-principles systems thinking for sales59:38 The problem-framing framework he gives his team01:01:09 The "Ghostbuster" role and fighting operational decay01:05:25 Where to find ChrisChris Lee (Head of Sales, Americas at Deel):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/techcontrarian/X: https://x.com/TechContrarianSophie Buonassisi (Host, SVP at GTMnow/GTMfund):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaAbout Chris Lee:Chris Lee is Head of Sales, Americas at Deel, which he joined as one of its first sales hires at $1M in revenue and helped scale to $1.5B. Previously he was employee number 11 at Granular, an agricultural tech company acquired by DuPont for $300M.About GTMnow: GTMnow shares how the best in tech build, scale and invest. The media brand is owned and operated by venture firm, GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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Inside Merge: The $75M Bet on Open Source AI (Powering OpenAI, Netflix & Uber) | Shensi Ding, CEO
4w ago00:47:18Tap to summarizeThe Co-Founder & CEO of Merge joins GTMnow to break down how she built a company that now powers integrations for OpenAI, Perplexity, Netflix, Uber, Mistral, and enterprise logos like Mastercard, JP Morgan, and Amex, backed by $75M from Accel and NEA.Shensi gets tactical on the GTM decisions behind that growth: why she went enterprise-first into greenfield, why she's now layering a self-serve motion back on top (20,000+ self-serve orgs, 400+ enterprise customers), how forward-deployed engineers turned a 1% edge case into 5 to 10x usage growth, and why she rebuilt marketing to run like an engineering team. She also gets candid on founder-led sales, the mercenaries-versus-missionaries hiring trap, the open-source model shift and the China question, and why every founder who started pre-AI should build one product 0-to-1 themselves.What you'll learn:- Why she reversed the standard GTM playbook (enterprise first, then PLG) and how to run both motions at once- How forward-deployed engineers close the 1% edge case that unlocks 5 to 10x enterprise usage- Why marketing now runs like an engineering function at Merge, and how it took her from 1 to 2 dinners a quarter to 3 to 5 a month- Why product got fast and go-to-market became the new bottleneck- How to know when to hire your first salesperson (hint: you should be "dying" first)- The mercenaries-vs-missionaries test, and the "anti-sell" she uses in hiring- The 2026 shift away from "token-maxing," and how model routing cuts AI spend- The truth about open-source (often Chinese) models: where they're built vs. where your data actually lives- Why founders who started pre-AI should build one product 0-to-1 to understand what's now possibleChapters:00:00 Intro01:14 What Merge does: products, workforce, and three core offerings02:05 Agent Handler, Gateway, and the new Embedded Routing Stack04:52 The 2026 shift away from "token-maxing"07:29 Open-source models, the China question, and where data really lives10:14 How Merge works with open-source model providers12:00 What she's learned as a first-time founder: get over your ego13:22 Reversing the GTM playbook: enterprise-first, then PLG15:50 Running both motions: 20,000+ self-serve, 400+ enterprise17:31 Why buyer behavior moved to Twitter and brand19:06 Founder-led sales, and what a real sales process taught her22:27 When to hire your first salesperson23:49 Forward-deployed engineers and 5 to 10x usage growth27:00 Keeping go-to-market up to speed with product28:33 Rebuilding marketing as an engineering function30:45 The dinner agent: 1 to 2 a quarter to 3 to 5 a month31:24 How AI buying reshaped the marketing org33:54 Maintaining agents: prompts over legacy builders35:02 Mercenaries vs. missionaries, and the "anti-sell"40:25 The market view: from hostility to collaboration42:06 Is a valuation reckoning coming?43:07 Why she stayed hands-on building Agent Handler and Gateway45:18 What's next: training your own models off open-source46:52 Where to find Shensi and MergeConnect with Shensi Ding:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shensiding/X: https://x.com/shensiMerge: https://merge.devHost: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaAbout the guest: Shensi Ding is the co-founder and CEO of Merge, a unified API platform that now spans product integrations, agent tooling, and LLM routing/governance. Merge powers companies including OpenAI, Perplexity, Netflix, Uber, and Mistral, and enterprise customers like Mastercard, JP Morgan, and Amex. The company has raised $75M from Accel and NEA.Thank you to our sponsor:Primer unlocks B2C ad channels for B2B marketers with precision targeting and next-gen measurement. GTMnow Network exclusive offer: Extended 45 day trial and 15% off with code GTM15 - just apply the code when you go to upgrade from the free trial.See who’s really in your funnel: sayprimer.comAbout GTMnow: GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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The Blueprint for a High-Performing Sales Team | Brian Le, Notion
Jul 900:45:54Tap to summarizeAre your sales compensation plans driving the right behaviors or causing your best reps to quit? In this episode of GTMnow, Brian Le (Global Sales Compensation Partner at Notion) breaks down how to build a scalable sales comp operating system.Brian shares his firsthand experience scaling Notion's sales comp from 80 to over 400 employees and explains why trust is the ultimate currency in revenue operations. If you are a founder, revenue leader, or sales professional, this breakdown covers everything from structuring pay mix to identifying the earliest signs of comp plan degradation. You will even hear what it takes for top AEs to pull in upwards of $1 million in a single quarter.In this episode, we cover:00:00 Intro01:15 Brian Le's journey through Salesforce, Carta, and Notion04:33 Why sales comp is the operating system for go-to-market07:07 Phase 1: Building a scalable comp foundation at Notion13:50 Transitioning from seat-based to usage-based pricing models18:15 The 3 core pillars of a successful sales commission plan22:09 Early warning signs your quota and comp structures are breaking31:41 The real cost of losing sales reps over bad commission payouts39:35 How to structure compensation for your first early-stage sales hires42:39 Will AI agents replace SDRs and sales compensation?Connect with Brian Le, :LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianhoangle/Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaVisit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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VC: How a 2-Person Fund Runs Like a Startup (Memos, KPIs, R&D) | Vanessa Larco, Premise (ex-NEA)
Jul 800:48:50Tap to summarize"Investing in companies that OpenAI won't kill." That's Vanessa Larco's thesis, and in this VC bonus episode of GTMnow she breaks down exactly how she decides what survives. Vanessa, founder and GP at Premise (formerly a longtime partner at NEA, where she backed Robinhood from seed to IPO), joins Max to get into the nitty gritty of how AI is rewriting venture, distribution, and the entire go-to-market playbook.She makes the case for why "it's just a wrapper" got a lot of VCs in trouble, why she only backs technical founding teams, and why the old GTM playbook is breaking fastest exactly where you'd least expect it. She also opens up about leaving a big platform to build a two-person fund from a blank canvas, and why she treats the fund itself like a startup.What you'll learn:- The "OpenAI won't kill it" framework for spotting durable AI companies (and why not everything OpenAI ships actually wins)- Why the "it's just a wrapper" dismissal cost VCs real deals, and the kayak/AWS parallels that explain why- Why Premise only backs technical founding teams, and the shipping speed that becomes the real early moat- How the old go-to-market playbook is breaking, especially in DevTools, and what replaces it- Why someone on the founding team has to "nerd out" on distribution, and why no-playbook moments are where you growth hack- How to run a conviction-based investment committee, and why big funds drift toward consensus whether they like it or not- Why running a fund is just running a startup: fundraising, product, and customer success by another name- The unanswered question Vanessa keeps circling: how to give experienced GTM talent space to rewrite the playbookChapters:00:00 Intro & OpenAI Moats01:12 GTMnow Intro01:51 Technical vs. Non-Technical AI Founders04:37 The Bottleneck of Hiring AI Talent05:15 Do Old Moats Still Exist?06:36 Cloud Era Lessons vs. Today's AI Layer09:18 The Shift to the Distribution Era11:38 Interview: Vanessa Larco (Premise VC)12:40 Companies OpenAI Won't Kill13:37 Consumer Habits vs. Enterprise AI15:05 Moving Beyond the "Wrapper" Stigma17:39 Thesis Building vs. Founder Curiosities20:11 Sourcing & The "Surreal" Community22:26 Learnings From NEA & Lightspeed24:06 Rethinking the Investment Memo26:43 Consensus vs. Conviction Investing31:26 Running a VC Fund Like a Startup35:04 Building Internal Automation Tools37:35 Distribution Moats & DevTools39:38 Sourcing New GTM Playbooks41:12 Parallel to the AWS Boom43:55 Human Psychology vs. AI Tools47:06 SF's Best Cookie Spots48:32 OutroConnect with Vanessa Larco:About the guest: Vanessa Larco is the founder and GP at Premise. Previously a partner at NEA, she backed consumer and fintech companies including Robinhood from seed through IPO. She started her career in product and engineering, was a computer science undergrad, and founded and sold her own startup before moving into venture.Connect with Max: https://x.com/hackitmaxhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler/Connect with Vanessa:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessalarco/https://x.com/veelarcoAbout GTMnow: GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market. This is the VC bonus series, where we host VCs and get into the VC ecosystem.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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Why a $1.2B exit felt like his biggest failure, and the customer-obsession thesis behind Agency
Jul 200:52:51Tap to summarizeA $1.2 billion exit is the dream. Elias Torres calls it his biggest failure. The Drift co-founder joins Sophie Buonassisi on GTMnow to unpack why the headline number felt hollow, what he learned in the quiet stretch afterward, and why he jumped straight back in to build Agency, an AI company that runs your entire customer organization.Elias gets honest about identity after the exit, the difference between chasing a title and building something enduring, and the operating thesis behind Agency: a billion-dollar company with fewer than 100 people, where 80 to 90% of the team are engineers and everyone talks to customers. He also gets into distribution as the hardest problem in the AI era, why he only takes money from investors who lead with value (Pat Grady and Brian Halligan back the company), and the two decades he's spent building alongside David Cancel.What you'll learn:- Why a $1.2B exit can still feel like a failure, and what "enduring" actually means- How to rebuild your identity when the title goes away- The Agency thesis: $1B with under 100 people, and how AI agents make it possible- Why Elias runs the whole company on Agency itself, with no CRM- Why sales may be the last role AI eliminates, and what that means for GTM- How to spot investors who lead with value instead of a pitch deck- Why distribution, not product, is the hardest problem in the AI era- What 20+ years building with David Cancel (Performable, HubSpot, Drift) taught him about partnershipChapters:00:00 Intro02:25 Time off, slowing down, and losing the title04:00 The inflection point and what comes after a big exit07:00 What Agency is and the problem it solves11:00 Why he brought people he's known for years11:40 Investors who lead with value (Pat Grady and Brian Halligan)17:30 Building with David Cancel for 20+ years23:00 The bold claim: $1B with under 100 people26:00 The go-to-market motion behind it28:30 "Sales is the last role AI will eliminate"36:00 High-agency people and how Agency runs itself42:00 Building distribution in the AI era51:00 Where to find Elias and AgencyAbout the guest: Elias Torres is the founder and CEO of Agency, an AI company that provides agents to run a company's customer organization. He previously co-founded Drift (acquired in a $1.2B deal) and held senior roles at HubSpot and Performable, building alongside David Cancel for over two decades. Agency is backed by Pat Grady (Sequoia) and Brian Halligan.Connect with Elias Torres:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliast/X: https://x.com/eliastHost: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaAbout GTMnow: GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
Transcribe →From DeepMind to 200 Customers in 20 Countries: Building the Execution Layer for Sales | Adam Liska, CEO of Airspeed
Jun 2500:32:22Tap to summarizeThe single most expensive sentence in sales is "I'll follow up on that." Adam Liska joins Sophie Buonassisi on GTMnow to break down the "execution gap," the space between knowing what to do in a deal and actually doing it, and why that gap is where most pipeline quietly dies.Adam left DeepMind's Gemini team in 2022, pre-ChatGPT, to build a native revenue execution platform now serving 200 customers across 20 countries (recently rebranded and fresh off a $20M Series A). In this conversation, he gets specific on what is actually changing in the sales role, what should be automated, and why he thinks this is about to be the golden age for sales reps.What you'll learn:- Why "I'll follow up on that" is the most expensive promise in revenue, and how the execution gap compounds from rep to manager to CRO- What parts of the rep workflow to automate now (research, CRM updates, business cases, follow-ups) and what stays human- Why AI is squeezing middle management, not reps, and flattening GTM orgs- How per-rep coaching changes when every call is recorded, shared, and analyzed for patterns- The "corrective action" approach to coaching deals on the job, in real time- How to sell globally when borders disappear but local-language talent still matters- Why in-person events drove 70% of early pipeline, and how that compounds with cold calling- How to keep your team at the AI frontier by never locking into a single model- Adam's #1 piece of advice for first-time founders (hint: it starts with your co-founder)Chapters:00:00 Why AI won't replace sales reps00:22 Leaving DeepMind's Gemini team pre-ChatGPT01:18 What airspeed does and the "execution gap"02:07 "I'll follow up on that": the most expensive promise in sales03:28 The $20M Series A and the rebrand from Glyphic05:30 Why walk away from frontier AI research at DeepMind07:17 Leading when the frontier models keep changing08:39 Buy vs. build, and keeping customers at the AI frontier11:03 Landing the first 200 customers across 20 countries12:41 Advice for first-time founders14:04 Selling globally and what AI changes about language17:07 What the sales rep role looks like in an AI-first world19:24 How reps and leaders should start automating today20:51 The channels driving results right now22:41 How AI makes per-rep coaching actually work25:14 Building an execution-first culture27:10 The DeepMind departure story28:51 Building in London vs. selling in the US30:43 Adam's favorite AI use case as a busy CEO31:26 The biggest misconception about AI in salesHost: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaGuest: Adam Liska, Co-founder and CEO at AirspeedX: https://x.com/adliskaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adliska/About the guest: Adam is the co-founder and CEO of Airspeed (formerly glyph), a native revenue execution platform that closes the gap between knowing what to do in a deal and executing on it. Before founding the company, he worked at DeepMind on the team that became Gemini. About GTMnow: GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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VC: How Benchmark Picks AI Winners - Max 10 Bets a Year, 5 Partners | Chetan Puttagunta (GP)
Jun 2400:59:24Tap to summarizeBenchmark's Chetan breaks down why the path from $0 to $100M has collapsed from five years to under two, and the one thing that is actually getting harder in the AI era: reaching your first million in revenue. In this VC bonus edition of the GTM Now Podcast, he sits down with Sophie Buonassisi to unpack how AI native companies are compressing 180 day sales cycles into 30 days, why direct sales is here to stay, and how value is shifting away from code toward the last mile of customer service.Using Legora (legal AI) and Manus as case studies, Chetan explains how Benchmark builds conviction fast, why the marginal cost of code trending to zero changes everything, and what separates the founders who win this window from the ones who miss it.What you'll learn:- Why the first $1M now takes longer than the next $99M in the AI era- How top AI startups compress a 180 day sales cycle into 30 days- The "trusted vendor" playbook for breaking incumbent distribution advantages- Why Legora embedded inside a law firm for a year before launching- How a magical demo plus a tightly scoped pilot collapses six month deals- Why value is moving from the product build to the service and outcome- What Benchmark actually looks for: technical insight that creates demand pull- Why direct sales and forward deployed engineers are exploding in AI- How buying one AI app triggers an enterprise to buy 100 moreChapters: 00:00 Intro01:13 Why Max + Paul were furious taking notes on this one02:10 Benchmark's $2B growth fund and the changing strategy04:57 POC to trial and the power of direct sales in AI11:33 Meeting Max early: $0 to $100M in 18 months15:05 Manus: 0 to $100M in eight months through PLG17:10 Will the AI native window close?19:09 Sizing the window: $40B software vs $1T services in legal21:50 How Benchmark picks the winners25:31 Turning a 180 day sales cycle into 30 days30:45 The Legora deep dive: research, pilots, legal engineers41:46 Why $0 to $100M keeps getting faster42:29 The harder problem: getting to your first $1M44:04 When code goes to zero, what do customers pay for?48:46 Sales led vs PLG in the AI era51:49 How to spot the right founder55:18 What company Chetan wishes someone would build56:48 Investors founders should follow57:40 Working with Jack Altman at BenchmarkConnect with Chetan Puttagunta: General Partner at BenchmarkTwitter/X: https://x.com/chetanpLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetanputtagunta/Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowFollow Sophie: https://x.com/sophiebuonaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/About the GTMnow Podcast:GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund, sharing the tactics and strategies behind how the best companies go to market. The VC series brings on top investors to break down what is actually working in go to market today.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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Ads in ChatGPT Are Coming. What B2B Marketers Should Do Right Now | Keith Delaney, CEO Primer
Jun 1700:45:43Tap to summarizeLinkedIn CPMs just hit $800. AI is flooding every channel with content. Outbound is dying. So where should B2B marketers actually spend their ad budget right now?Keith Putnam-Delaney, co-founder & CEO of Primer, joins Sophie to break down the complete state of B2B paid advertising, what's broken, what's working, and where the real opportunities are hiding in 2025.What you'll learn:- Why LinkedIn & Google search are hitting a ceiling (and what to do instead)- How to get 80% match rates on Meta and 70% on Reddit for B2B audiences- The only moat competitors can't copy: your targeting- Why you need to feed CRM conversion data back to ad platforms- Holdout groups, attribution, and what actually proves paid ROI- The truth about ads in LLMs (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok)- B2B influencer marketing: the most undervalued tactic right now- Founder lessons from 6 years and 3 pivots building PrimerChapters:0:00 – The paid advertising crisis no one's talking about2:40 – AI's real impact on ad costs4:06 – Google Search & AI Overviews: what still works5:04 – LinkedIn CPMs: $20 to $800 in 18 months6:39 – Why B2B brands need to be on Meta, Reddit & Instagram7:01 – What Primer does (80% match rates explained)9:29 – The device fragmentation problem & attribution11:16 – Holdout groups: the statistically proven approach13:30 – Which channel to start with (and minimum spend)22:18 – Paid ad creative: feed the algorithm with variants25:14 – B2B influencer marketing & thought leadership ads30:59 – Why you MUST push CRM data back into ad platforms33:31 – Ads in ChatGPT & LLMs: what's coming35:53 – Founder lessons, mental health & iterationConnect with Keith Putnam-Delaney: Co-founder, CEO of PrimerTwitter/X: https://x.com/kcpdelaneyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithputnamdelaney/Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowFollow Sophie: https://x.com/sophiebuonaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/About Keith Putnam-Delaney:Keith is the co-founder and CEO of Primer (https://www.sayprimer.com/), a B2B paid advertising targeting layer that helps brands unlock high match rates on Meta, Google, Reddit, and beyond. Former brand marketer turned data-driven growth leader.GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund, sharing go-to-market insights from the top 1% of revenue operators.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/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.
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He's Seen 300+ Sales Comp Plans. 90% Make the Same Mistake | Siva Rajamani (Everstage CEO)
Jun 1500:57:22Tap to summarizeMost sales comp plans are quietly broken, and the people running them have no idea. Siva Rajamani, CEO of Everstage, has visibility into 300+ enterprise comp plans, and he says 90% of companies make the same mistakes. In this episode he breaks down what's going wrong, how to spot it, and what a comp plan that actually drives revenue looks like.Siva explains why sales compensation is not a back office cost center but the single biggest lever in your go-to-market strategy. It's the glue between what a company intends and what reps actually do. If your reps aren't doing what you want, the answer isn't in a 1-on-1. It's in your comp plan.We get into the over-complication trap, the hidden math that makes reps refuse your best deals, the base-to-variable ratios that actually work, why your top reps should out-earn almost everyone, and how AI is about to blow open the gap between your best and average sellers.Chapters:00:00 Intro00:30 Siva's RevOps background at Freshworks04:00 Scaling RevOps from 1 to 2504:50 Why he left to build Everstage06:30 Why incentives drive revenue, not tools08:00 Comp as the glue between intent and action10:30 The 1 to 2 mistakes almost every team makes12:00 "If your comp plan needs FAQs, it's a tax code"14:00 The 60-second test for a broken plan15:30 Designing comp to retain top talent16:50 How AI widens the gap between top and average reps18:00 The $1M sales rep is coming19:30 Why optimizing for top earners is better on margins21:30 Quota to OTE ratios that actually work23:00 Base vs variable: the 50/50 rule and exceptions24:00 What Everstage does and who it serves25:30 How Everstage structures its own comp plan28:00 The rise of the revenue architect48:00 CPQ and connecting margin to commissions50:30 When should reps earn commission in the deal cycle52:30 Six month vs twelve month comp cycles54:30 The most a sales rep has ever made55:20 Where to find SivaConnect with Siva Rajamani: Co-founder, CEO of EverstageTwitter/X: https://x.com/siva_rajamaniLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivasrajamani/Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowFollow Sophie: https://x.com/sophiebuonaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/ABOUT GTMnowGTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/Subscribe for more conversations with the operators and founders behind today's best go-to-market teams.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.
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