In this episode of ThriveStack’s podcast, we speak with Marlena Sarunac, an award-winning CMO and co-founder of Company Advice. Marlena shares her GTM Growth Audit framework, a practical, systems-thinking approach to identifying hidden bottlenecks across product experience, website messaging, and go-to-market execution especially for early-stage and scaling SaaS companies.

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Key Insights

* Most growth problems are system failures, not traffic or UX issues

* Effective GTM audits focus on product experience, website messaging, and growth loops

* Onboarding fails when users aren’t guided to a clear first value moment

* Websites should help the right buyers say yes and the wrong ones say no

* Feature-heavy messaging kills conversion outcomes drive decisions

* One-off campaigns hide problems; loops reveal where growth breaks

* Misaligned ICPs across teams quietly create friction and churn

Actionable Takeaways

* Audit time-to-value, not just onboarding screens trace friction back to promises made before signup

* Write your homepage for one primary buyer ICP (not every possible user)

* Translate features into buyer-level outcomes, not technical specifications

* Replace one-off campaigns with repeatable marketing + product loops

* Align Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success on one shared narrative and activation goal

* Treat content as a growth asset only if it actively helps users succeed in the product

Resources Mentioned

* GTM Friction Finder Audit (Free) – Available via Company Advice

* User interviews, product analytics, and cross-team narrative alignment

* CRM-driven, branded lifecycle workflows (activation, nurture, expansion)

Marlena Sarunac is the co-founder of The Company Advice, a growth and design studio that helps SaaS companies remove hidden friction across product experience, website narrative, and go-to-market execution. As a fractional CMO, she works closely with founders and growth leaders to diagnose where momentum is leaking and turn clarity, design, and positioning into measurable growth. Marlena specializes in product-led and early growth-stage companies that want to scale without piling on complexity.

Thrivecast listeners can explore the GTM Friction Finder Audit, a lightweight scorecard that highlights the top friction hotspots across your company’s product, website, and funnel: https://www.thecompanyadvice.com/friction-finder-thrivecast

If you’re a B2B SaaS founder, growth leader, or product owner struggling with activation, conversion, or retention despite “doing all the right things,” this episode is a reminder: growth doesn’t break at the top of the funnel it breaks in the gaps between teams, tools, and promises.

Fix the system, and growth follows!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.hybridgtm.com