flux+flow

An agile revenue marketing agency that designs scalable demand generation strategies for B2B SaaS (Series B-D) companies. 

•	Develop scalable growth marketing strategies using sales and marketing automation software to measure, optimize, and improve overall performance. Generate qualified leads, increase revenue, and maximize ROI. Worked with over 25+ startups and SMBs in North America, Europe, and Australia. 
•	Develop and execute a clearly defined marketing strategy to drive rapid growth, focusing on creating scalable growth marketing strategies. 
•	Drove paid traffic via Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and twitter ads which led to increased website traffic YoY by: Users: +1,050%; Session: +1,089%; Bounce Rate: -54%; Session Duration: +154%.
•	Created a comprehensive inbound marketing content strategy (e.g., 25+ blogs, 30+ downloadable long-form assets, and 6 pillar pages).
•	Worked with a variety of clients using various sales and marketing automation tools ranging from basic email automation (e.g., MailChimp) to enterprise marketing automation platforms (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot).

Co-founder / Revenue Marketing Lead

Transfix

Named to Forbes’ “Next Billion-Dollar Startups” list, Transfix is the leading transportation solutions provider whose marketplace and technology offerings are helping transform the $800 billion trucking industry.

Recruited by Transfix in Q2 2022 as the 1st Demand Generation hire Series D funding/pre-IPO to help build a revenue marketing team while managing two direct reports, Senior Demand Generation Manager and Senior Marketing Operations Manager. 

💰  Revenue Marketing Impact: 
🔼 275% QoQ MQL volume increase
🔼 225% QoQ Opp volume increase
🔼 129% QoQ Pipeline increase
🔼  9.32% QoQ Revenue increase (lagging)

🎯  Developed a demand generation strategy to support 2 GTM motions: SaaS and B2B Marketplace, and 3 ICP segments with an estimated TAM of $800bn. 

📕  Adapted a proven Revenue Marketing Playbook to support the Enterprise ABM sales motion, leading to 54.66% LinkedIn engagement of Enterprise TAM accounts and 40.08% visiting the Transfix.io website.

💰. Oversaw six-figure digital annual ad spend to — ensure efficient capital deployment — support paid social and paid search while continually testing and optimizing targeting, messaging, and creative to increase CTRs, and decrease CPC and CPL. 

🤝  Part of a 17-person marketing team consisting of demand generation, marketing operations, product marketing, content, creative, and event marketing.  

⚙️. Operational Efficiency 

🏭.  Insights Factory 

💡. Ensured sales and marketing alignment by frequently collaborating with three sales teams and over two dozen AEs — providing valuable market insights to accelerate deal flow. 

🔎  Collaborated with product marketing and internal SMEs to uncover what messaging resonated with our ICP segments and buyer personas — helped jumpstart the VoC research process by leveraging the Wynter B2B message testing platform. 

🧭. Provided market and paid social/search experiment insights to the content marketing team to help guide the organic content strategy.

Director of Demand Generation & Marketing Operations

Refine Labs

Recruited by Refine Labs in Q2 2021 — the first cohort of Director of Demand Generation before scaling headcount to 125.  

Developed Demand Gen strategies for (4) high-growth B2B SaaS companies and managed $2.2M in total ad spend. 

Managed Sr. Performance Marketing Manager and collaborated with (4) Creative Directors, (5) Direct Response Copywriters, (6) Graphic Designers, and the marketing analytics manager. 

Developed frameworks to increase operational efficiency by 25% and reduced QBR reporting time by 75% — adopted by the broader Demand Generation teams. 

Series C SaaS Platform — $100M Funding Round

Designed a 9-month pilot revenue marketing program for the U.K. market — ran 18 experiments testing 54/18 message/creative variations to inform global demand strategy for 15 countries  

Advised in developing MarTech roadmap to efficiently scale Demand Gen spend by 185% after closing a $100M Series C

Increased website-generated leads by 120% and inbound demo requests by 166% in the first five months of the U.K. pilot resulting in a 148% increase in qualified inbound meetings booked 

Series B SaaS Platform — $40M Funding Round

Implemented a proven B2B SaaS Demand Gen playbook to jumpstart their revenue marketing engine
Scaled ad spend by 700% over three quarters, resulting in a 100% increase in marketing-generated ARR 

Series B SaaS Platform — $37M Funding Round

Scaled spend by 300% in Q3 2021 by implementing Demand Gen playbook and exceeded target marketing-generated SQO volume by 12%, resulting in a $2.7M total qualified pipeline

Accelerated marketing-generated deal velocity by 15% and increased the marketing-generated average ARR per deal by 44% resulting in 110% QoQ pipeline growth

Series A SaaS Platform — $9M Growth Round

Advised C-suite on Demand Gen strategy supporting a split GTM motion (sales-led and PLG) 

Increased marketing-generated pipeline by 93% QoQ resulting in a 67% increase in closed won deals

Increased PLG signups by 17% QoQ

Director of Demand Generation

Concentric

Prescriptive analytics for strategic decisions. What-if software to manage uncertainty and make informed decisions. Prescriptive analytics provides the most value to businesses hoping to optimize their actions. Each prior capability builds upon the other to provide businesses with the decision support they need the most: The ability to make forecasts come true.

• Responsible for managing and generating demand through content marketing and advertising
• Collaborate with the sales team to ensure that marketing is supporting the sales process by creating new content and digital experiences
• Manage and optimize the web experience (e.g., site performance, web enhancements, technical SEO, copywriting)
• Manage external resources (e.g., content agency, copywriters, freelancers, advertising partners) to help scale our marketing efforts 
• Manage the marketing automation platform (i.e., HubSpot) and ensure that the digital experience supports the customer journey

Demand Generation Manager

Codiscope (A Part of Synopsys)

An early-stage CyberSecurity SaaS startup, providing a suite of accessible security training and tools, streamlined tools for a broad population of developers. 

***Codiscope was acquired by Synopsys on 11/30/2016***

Smart, Secure Everything—From Silicon to Software. Synopsys technology is at the heart of innovations that are changing the way we live and work. 

•	Developed and executed a comprehensive B2B marketing strategy which increased traffic by 542% YoY. Focused on content marketing strategy, marketing technology (e.g., Marketo and HubSpot), SEO/SEM strategy, and analytics/reporting.
•	Managed the entire implementation process of Marketo marketing automation platform. 
•	Built an email database of 15,000 contacts through various customer acquisition strategies (e.g., SEM, SEO, paid social, targeted email campaigns via newsletters, guest blogging). Execute campaigns for acquisition, product marketing and customer marketing.
•	Built and scaled demand-gen and sales enablement capabilities across web, email, social media, advertising, and content marketing. 


✔ HubSpot Marketing Software Certified
✔ HubSpot Inbound Certified

Marketo Marketing Automation:

• Designed custom responsive Marketo email templates (HTML/CSS/Marketo Variables)
• Designed custom responsive Marketo landing page templates (HTML/CSS/Marketo Variables)
• Planned and developed persona specific lead nurturing campaigns
• Configured custom "Smart Campaigns"
• Lead scoring
• Salesforce.com data sync with Marketo
• Build and manage custom reports for lead attribution

Salesforce.com

• Campaign creation for tracking in Marketo
• Marketo sales insights and lead scoring
• Customized fields in SFDC to improve the accuracy of reporting metrics

• Paid Advertising: Google AdWords
• Google Analytics
• WordPress CMS Management
• Wista (Video Marketing & Analytics Platform)
• SEO/SEM intelligence reports (Moz.com & SEMRush)
• Technical SEO
• Website Optimization

Digital Marketing Manager

Universal Medical Inc

Provides medical and laboratory supplies for hospitals and private practices throughout the United States

• Increased web traffic by 1500% by creating compelling blog content educating potential buyers on the firm’s various products. 
• Developed an inbound marketing strategy to reduce UM’s dependency on paid advertising for customer acquisition — average monthly paid spend of $80,000 — reduced ad spend by 20%. 
• Researched and created unique buyer personas to drive the content marketing strategy. 
• Managed the entire creative process for over 350 product videos used to drive SEO/SEM.
• Oversaw Pardot marketing automation implementation and developed responsive email marketing templates, responsive landing and thank you pages, and forms. 
• Developed a program of repeatable lead generation activities that met revenue targets, achieving a 17% increase in sales. Designed a comprehensive email database segmentation strategy (e.g., 25,000+ contacts) to create 12 product category campaign.
 
Marketing Metrics/KPIs

✓ eCommerce Traffic ↑
✓ Blog Traffic ↑
✓ Social Media ↑
✓ Email List ↑
✓ Video Engagement↑
✓ Landing Page Conversions ↑

Marketing Skills Summary

✓ Copywriting
✓ Social Media
✓ Google Analytics
✓ Marketing Automation
✓ Adobe Creative Cloud
✓ HTML & CSS
✓ SEO/SEM 

Business Skills Summary

✓ Communication
✓ Relationship Building
✓ Project Management
✓ Goal Setting
✓ Adaptability

Inbound Marketing Specialist

Startup Institute

Selected by Startup Institute in a highly competitive process to attend intensive training program focused on developing the core skills in Digital Marketing. Startup Institute's digital marketing track provides relevant training to help students become a comprehensive digital marketer: performance and content marketing, plus a focus on generating actionable insights from data analytics. Modern digital marketers are tasked with designing campaigns that speak to multiple audience segments, inspiring them into action, and measuring the results to make data-fueled business decisions. 

Marketers in the innovation industry are scrappy, creative, and agile - able to drive big growth on a small budget and with limited resources. SIBs digital marketing track provides students with the experience and training necessary to become a self-sufficient marketer, whose aim is to help a company increase their customer base by a factor of 10. 

Curriculum: SEO, Google Analytics, paid media, inbound marketing, landing page creation, content marketing, email marketing, branding, social media audits, mapping customer segmentation, content management, and HTML/CSS.

Key Skills and Capabilities:

✓ Email marketing and landing page optimization
✓ Best practices for inbound and outbound marketing plans
✓ Working with analytics platforms and SQL
✓ Placing, testing, and optimizing paid advertising
✓ Improving website visibility through content development and targeted keyword usage

Digital Marketing Student

LidWorks - M&N Plastics, Inc.

The global foodservice industry’s premier lid manufacturer

• Oversaw the entire B2B marketing strategy, including advertisements in industry publications, Google AdWords and Yahoo/Bing PPC campaigns to drive search traffic. Worked with a 3rd party eCommerce platform (CyberStore for Syspro ERP software) to provide an additional sales channel.
• Helped grow the business through designing, developing, and pitching digital strategy for key clients and working on high level campaigns: Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, and Panera Bread
• Evaluated and reported results of web initiatives, including SEO, email marketing, and E-commerce.
• Increased unique visitor website traffic by 540% within one year of hire. 
• Product development team member tasked with researching and validating new items to add to the new product pipeline.
• Managed brand image, created product literature and advertising that supported corporate identity.
• Conducted market research focused on competitive analysis, strategic growth initiatives, and data analysis.
• Acted as a project liaison between sales and engineering to ensure successful collaboration and engagement.
• Gained a greater understanding of finance, IT, and engineering by collaborating with cross-functional teams to improve process efficiencies in product development and data collection/analysis.

Digital Marketing and Sales Enablement Representative 

UFP Industries

A multibillion-dollar, publicly traded, sales-and-manufacturing powerhouse, with approximately 5,000 people and 70 facilities across North America.

• Selected for the new business transition team to assist in the newly acquired Home Depot contract.
• Developed a comprehensive lead generation strategy to increase organic sales for the plant.
• Utilized Microsoft Dynamics CRM to streamline and improve the selling process.
• Collaborated with various departments in the plant to increase efficiency and sales margins.

Account Manager

A multibillion-dollar, publicly traded, sales-and-manufacturing powerhouse, with approximately 5,000 people and 70 facilities across North America.

• Developed a sales process and strategy by interviewing successful Account/Sales Managers to understand effective selling techniques within the industry.  
• Learned company products, policies and procedures, and performs basic sales and customer service activities.
• Assisted in sales, customer service and production activities as assigned by the General Manager.
• Attended and successfully completed intensive one-week boot camp of comprehensive studies. 
• Positive, team player that took a "roll up your sleeves" approach towards any challenge or obstacle that came my way. 
• Shadowed successful Account Managers to learn selling techniques and strategies.
• Self-managed worked well under little supervision.

Sales Trainee

Sherwin Williams

Sherwin-Williams is proud to be one of Fortune® magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2005, 2006, and 2008.

• Oversaw operations of a $1.9M branch, generating new business and growing existing account sales.
• Increased accessory sales by 29% in 2009 over previous year by cross-promoting products.
• Converted 500+ retail customers into DIY accounts in 2009 increased 2010 DIY sales by 21%.
• Utilized store reports and lead generation database to target opportunity accounts.
•Analyzed market conditions: competition, trends, issues and opportunities
•Worked with the Store Manager developing the annual sales plan and identifying KPI's to assist in revenue and margin growth
•Ensured the satisfaction of both wholesale and do-it-yourself customers and building positive long-term relationships
•Communicate effectively with customers, employees and other business partners
•Trained, coached and managed store employees
•Made decisions regarding pricing, credit and other customer issues
•Managed employees time and resources effectively

Operations Manager

Our Management Training Program has been named one of Princeton Review's® "Best Entry Level Jobs." 

Sherwin-Williams looks for specific traits in management trainees. We seek individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit, energy, a strong work ethic, integrity and flexibility.

• Built customer loyalty through friendly, efficient service 
• Built positive working relationships with managers, co-workers and other business partners 
• Worked as a member of the team, helping the store achieve its performance goals 
• Tapped into people, resources and information to make good decisions 
• Demonstrated strong time-management skills 
• Continued to learn the business and improve on industry, marketing and product knowledge

Management/Sales Training Program

Hi there!  👋 

As an experienced revenue marketing leader, I’m committed to helping B2B marketing leaders running Hybrid and Sales-led GTM motions at Series B SaaS companies increase qualified opportunities, develop sustainable marketing-generated pipeline, and hit revenue targets while spending less and listening more to customers.


The formula for B2B SaaS success:

🤝 People ➕ 📱Product ➕  ⚙️ Process 🟰 Efficient Growth 📈

What are you going to do about revenue?

Revenue Marketing's answer: 

1️⃣ Efficiently create and capture demand to deliver sales qualified leads to the sales team (low CAC Payback Period, LTV:CAC, etc.) 🎯

2️⃣ Accelerate qualified sales opportunities through the sales pipeline 📈

3️⃣ Design a resilient system to measure marketing based on repeatable, predictable, and scalable contribution to pipeline, revenue, and ROI ⚙️ (not MQLs) 

4️⃣ Transform marketing from a cost center to a PROFIT CENTER 💰

What motivates me? 

🟢 Help organizations transform their marketing department from a cost center to a revenue center by improving operational efficiency, identifying growth levers, and reducing customer acquisition costs.  

🟢 Help bring products and organizations to life by building meaningful connections and trust with humans — find out what they want/need by conducting VoC/market research and analyzing market feedback.

🟢 Help high-performing revenue-focused marketing teams get the respect they deserve as most companies view their marketing department as a cost center rather than a revenue center. 

What gets me up each day? 

As an Agile revenue marketing leader, I'm focused on building a repeatable, predictable, and scalable customer-first Revenue Marketing practice. 

Why it matters? 

B2B organizations need to stop thinking about the traditional and outdated (oversimplified, company-centric) sales funnel — it's time to rethink their entire GTM strategy and take a holistic approach to customer acquisition by adopting a new customer acquisition model that puts the customer and audience first. 

It's time to ditch the siloed thinking of the past and rally around one common organizational goal — 
increasing REVENUE. 

The Three Pillars:

1️⃣ Revenue Marketing (Strategy)

2️⃣ Operational Efficiency (Agile Marketing)

3️⃣ Insights Factory (Marketing Operations) 

Marketing's role has changed, and B2B SaaS companies now expect marketing teams to own a revenue number.  

Let's GO!

Kevin Jaquith (JAKE-with)

Vice President at Spiralyze | Optimization | CRO for B2B SaaS

Through GTMnow (the media brand of VC firm, GTMfund), I help share content to help companies grow revenue and individuals scale their careers. Subscribe to build, scale, and invest with the best minds in tech.

I host The GTMnow Podcast (top 1% global podcast) and write The GTMnow Newsletter (read by 50k+ operators, founders and investors). 

Tech moats are declining; distribution is the final remaining moat. Your go-to-market strategy and execution determine your outcome. 

--

Passionate people person. Passionate about global education. 
Life is short, and there are 1440 minutes in every day. Make the most of them, make a difference, and enjoy the ride.

Sophie Buonassisi

These are 30+ Claude Code use cases, organized by function, difficulty level, and time savings. 

It covers sales, marketing, customer success, product, personal admin, and some random wild use cases for inspiration of how creative you can get. 

For the full breakdown of each, the link to the newsletter is in the comments (free, ungated). 

--

In conversations with hundreds of founders and GTM leaders, one theme keeps surfacing: One of the biggest blocker to AI adoption is often the imagination of what's possible (vs technical barriers). This edition is designed to help unlock that💡

SVP Marketing at GTMfund | Host of The GTMnow Podcast

This is so incredibly well deserved. Paul Irving has been promoted to General Partner at GTMfund! 

To know Paul is to love Paul.

Another equally true saying is: to know Paul is to be constantly blown away at both the sheer volume of work he gets done and by the quality of that work. IYKYK. 

He is the definition of executional excellence. 

One of the things I’m constantly amazed by is that no matter what he’s got going on, if someone asks him a question, he responds with the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of someone who has had an entire weekend to reflect on it. I’ve come to realize that he simply has no other mode than the highest level of execution. And at the same time, he cares deeply about everyone. 

He’s helped build GTMfund alongside Max Altschuler and our team, and continues to lead through what feels like one of the most exciting chapters yet… though somehow, every chapter keeps feeling like that.

Congratulations Paul 🐐

BREAKING: Nooks launches Agent Workspace and AI Sequencing products. 

These are designed to operate across the full action set of a rep’s day — calls, emails, research, prospecting, and strategy. Meaning, they’re taking on legacy incumbent companies… an increasingly common theme across AI-native startups. 

I sat down with Dan Lee (Co-Founder & CEO at Nooks) to go deep on the launch and the impact that AI is having on sales. 

Key takeaways:

1️⃣ The shift is from systems of record to systems of intelligence.
CRMs capture structured data (accounts, contacts, activities). But they don’t capture how reps actually think (which accounts they prioritize, what signals they trust, and why they choose a strategy). The next layer encodes judgment and workflow behavior, not just fields.

2️⃣ AI disrupts the top of funnel first.
Research, list building, drafting emails, and prospecting are high-volume and process-driven… making them the most automatable parts of sales. Meanwhile, closing (trust, multi-threading, negotiation) remains deeply human, so pipeline generation is where AI creates the earliest leverage.

3️⃣ The winning wedge is the workspace.
Point tools optimize single steps (sequencing, enrichment, dialers). Owning the rep’s workspace — where they research, prioritize, call, and execute — creates a continuous feedback loop. Every action (calls, edits, prioritization decisions) trains the system and compounds intelligence over time.

4️⃣ First-party workflow data beats commoditized signals.
Job changes, funding alerts, and intent data are increasingly table stakes. In contrast, first-party data from calls, transcripts, objections, and engagement history provides richer context (budget, timing, org structure) that competitors can’t easily replicate.

5️⃣ Ruthless prioritization is a startup advantage.
“You can do anything, but not everything.” Winning a focused wedge (calling and top-of-funnel execution) before expanding horizontally enables depth, faster learning loops, and stronger differentiation against legacy, broad platforms built for a pre-AI workflow.

-

💚 Thank you to our incredible sponsors for supporting the podcast:

- HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale.

- Granola - the AI notepad that helps you get the doing done. Get an exclusive 3 months free through the link/code in the episode show notes. 

🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

NEW: The cloud covers 30% of the world. Armada is building the other 70%.

Armada builds modular AI data centers (called Galleons) that can be deployed anywhere on Earth. Saudi Arabia in the middle of summer. The Arctic. A US Navy ship. A C-17 in flight.

They are the hyperscaler for the edge, building infrastructure for the 70% of the world major cloud providers don't reach.

Here's why that matters right now: We are in a global AI race. The US and China are competing for AI dominance, and infrastructure is the battleground. The countries and companies that deploy fastest will compound advantages in ways that are nearly impossible to close.

Most of that data — on oil rigs, Arctic drones, Navy ships, manufacturing sites — is effectively stranded. The cloud can't reach it. Without compute on-site, connectivity alone doesn't solve the problem. That's exactly the world Armada was built for.

I sat down with Dan Wright (Co-founder & CEO of Armada) to go deep on what they're building, why the timing is now, and what it means for the future of AI infrastructure.

Key takeaways:

1️⃣ The cloud was built for a world before AI.

Every major cloud provider built their infrastructure 25 years ago, before large models, before sensors were on everything, before data lived on oil rigs or in the Arctic. The world changed. The infrastructure did not. That mismatch is a massive market opportunity.

2️⃣ Connectivity unlocked the edge, but without infrastructure it's useless.

Starlink changed the game for connectivity. But without compute, you just have faster access to a problem you still can't solve. Every time Starlink goes live in a new country, Armada is the first mover on infrastructure. Connectivity + compute = the edge finally works.

3️⃣ Sovereign AI is here and the US and China are in a global AI race.

For companies like Aramco and the US Navy, data sovereignty means the data cannot leave the site — by law, by security protocol, by necessity. You can't send classified sensor data from a Navy ship to a data center thousands of miles away. You need compute where the data lives. That's what Armada builds.

4️⃣ Category creation is about problems, not technology.

Nobody wakes up wanting to buy infrastructure. Dan's approach from day 1: Get specific about the problems and let the technology follow.

5️⃣ Write your manifesto first.

Before you hire. Before an office. Before raising a dollar. When you can articulate exactly why your company needs to exist, recruiting, fundraising, and partnerships all get easier. You're not selling a product. You're building a movement.

--

💚 Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the podcast:
- HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale.
- Nooks - the AI workspace for outbound teams.

🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

Something Emir Atli (Co-Founder & CRO of HockeyStack) said that stuck with me:

He’s moving executive interviews to in-person whiteboarding sessions. 

Too many “perfect” cases are now AI-generated. When everything looks right on paper, the only way to understand how someone actually thinks is to put them in the room, hand them a whiteboard marker, and watch how they work through a real problem.

How someone reasons…where they get stuck…what questions they ask when there’s no script…these are all factors that can only be surfaced through a live working session. 

To hire A+ people, you need to evaluate how someone thinks, not just how well they present.

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NEW: How HockeyStack is betting on the death of GTM sprawl by building an AI-native operating system for go-to-market.

The past few years have been characterized by teams jumping between systems. But the issue with that is AI breaks when data, decisions, and execution live in siloed tools that don’t share a single foundation.

I sat down with Emir Atli (Co-Founder & CRO) to go deep on this. 

Key takeaways:

1️⃣ A single data foundation is the prerequisite for effective AI agents.
When marketing, sales, and post-sales data are fragmented, agents become narrow copilots instead of end-to-end operators. Unifying the full buyer journey in one system enables agents to execute multi-step workflows (forecasting, win-loss, expansion) rather than just generate outputs.

2️⃣ Consolidation is really about workflow control, not just tool reduction.
Buyers aren’t only cutting tools, they want platforms that own decision-making and execution across the revenue lifecycle. Expect 2026–2028 to bring a consolidation wave where buyer-journey platforms displace siloed point solutions.

3️⃣ Durable GTM moats = data foundation + application layer.
The advantage isn’t just owning data, but letting teams build agents, workflows, and custom applications on top of it. This creates compounding lock-in versus tools that only provide analytics or surface automation.

4️⃣ Founder-led LinkedIn can drive pipeline earlier than expected.
HockeyStack’s first customers came from LinkedIn with <100 followers. Emir focuses on product, data, and personal stories — turning content into pipeline, trust, and deal acceleration.

5️⃣ Run GTM like an engineering org: weekly sprints over long plans.
Instead of quarterly planning, the team operates in weekly sprints and fast feedback loops. In AI markets, iteration speed becomes a core competitive advantage.

6️⃣ Do things that don’t scale before automating.
A core YC lesson: over-automation too early is a trap. Find a small group of users who deeply love the product first, then scale systems and AI on top of real pull.

—

💚 Thank you to our incredible sponsor for supporting GTMnow — Granola is the AI notepad that turns meetings into action by capturing context, decisions, and next steps automatically. Exclusive offer for 3 months free available with the link/code in the episode show notes. 

🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

If you use LinkedIn correctly, it drives revenue. 

HockeyStack’s first customers were from LinkedIn when Emir Atli (Co-Founder & CRO) had 100 followers.

Sales might be the most human job in the economy.

Dan Lee (Co-Founder & CEO at Nooks) on why that doesn’t change with AI.

NEW: 95% of the Fortune 500 uses Figma. This is Sheila Joglekar Vashee, the CMO behind one of the most beloved brands in software.

Before Figma, she was the second marketing hire at Dropbox, scaling through $1B+ in ARR. She's also held roles across consumer companies like Opendoor, and spent time on the venture side advising early-stage startups. She's seen brand building from every angle.

I sat down with Sheila to dissect the defining lessons from her career and how to build a world-class brand.

Key takeaways:

1️⃣ Brand is the sum total of every experience (not a logo or a campaign).
It's what people say about you when you're not in the room. It's how your support team talks to customers, how your salespeople engage buyers, and the experience your product delivers. Every person at the company is a node of brand. 

2️⃣ The PLG-to-enterprise leap requires an intentional, early investment.
Figma built an enterprise team far earlier than most PLG companies do and it paid off. It’s the reason 95% of the Fortune 500 now uses Figma. But optics matter more than you’d think: enterprise customers need to see you're invested in their success before they'll bet on you. 

3️⃣ Customer obsession is the new operating model.
Figma's founders flew to Nigeria to meet early users. Their product support team feeds insights directly back to product. They have 200+ Friends of Figma chapters running worldwide. And their user research sessions are open for anyone at the company to watch live. That closeness to the customer is embedded in the Figma DNA, and it shows up in the product. 

4️⃣ Measuring brand impact requires creativity.
Sheila ran match market tests at a previous company by fully treating one city with TV, billboards, and brand spend while keeping comparable cities at steady state. The ROI was clear. For brand skeptics who say you can't quantify it: design the experiment, isolate the variable, and let the data speak.

5️⃣ AI enables human creativity. Human taste will always win. 
Figma sees AI as a massive enabler. Tools like Figma Make let you generate 20 prototypes in 20 different directions. But the judgment on which path to take, the craft that brings it to life, that's still human. Sheila's push to the marketing community: don't fall into the AI slop trap. MAKE GOOD $h!t!

--

💚 Thank you to our incredible sponsors for supporting the podcast:
- HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale.
- Granola - the AI notepad that helps you get the doing done. Get an exclusive 3 months free through the link/code in the episode show notes. 

🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

This is a full decision tree for how to price your SaaS product. 

We recently published an edition outlining some pricing considerations, and the demand for more pricing information was overwhelmingly positive. 

We wrote this edition to answer that call and build out a true pricing model decision tree, along with a full guide to help you determine which pricing structure actually fits your product, buyer, and market.

One of the most common mistakes is starting with: “what should we charge?”
The right question is: "how should customers pay us, and why?"

At a very high level (full details in the comments), here's the decision tree:

Step 1: Does value scale with users?
→ Seat-based. Simple, forecastable. Use this when each user gets clear, individual value and the product becomes more valuable as more people join (e.g. collaboration or workflow tools like Slack, Notion, Salesforce). It’s simple, familiar, and creates a clean expansion path as teams add users. . Watch out as AI reduces seats needed.

Step 2: Does value scale with usage?
→ Usage-based. Use this when value scales directly with consumption, customers naturally use more over time, and the metric is simple and intuitive (e.g. API calls, messages, compute). It’s common in infrastructure, data, and AI products where cost and value rise in lockstep (e.g. Twilio, Snowflake).

Step 3: Is value tied to a business outcome?
→ Outcome-based. Use this when you can directly tie your product to measurable outcomes (revenue, cost savings, risk reduction) and prove the impact with clear data. Intercom priced Fin at $0.99/resolved ticket and went $1M to $100M ARR. 

Step 4: Is the product a system of record?
→ Platform/tiered. Use this when your product becomes core infrastructure used across multiple teams, with growing workflows, data, and integrations that increase switching costs over time. It typically combines a base platform fee, tiered plans, and add-ons that unlock as customer needs mature (e.g. HubSpot’s free CRM → Starter → Pro → Enterprise). Their NRR improved from 101.8% to 105% after they overhauled structure.

Most companies end up with a hybrid of the above. Hybrid pricing jumped from 27% → 41% adoption in just 12 months.

Important:
There is no “best” pricing model, only the one that best reflects how customers experience value. The right model depends on how value expands within an account (users, usage, outcomes, or platform adoption) and whether it matches your actual GTM motion and how deals close.

From all the pricing workshops we've run, content we've curated, and conversations we've facilitated, the biggest piece of pricing advice is this:

Treat pricing like a product: test, iterate, and refine it continuously. It’s a core part of your go-to-market, and what once had wiggle room is now a critical lever to get right.

The full pricing model decision tree guide can be found in the comments. Hope it's helpful! 

How are you evolving your pricing model in 2026?

🔊 EXCITING MARKETING ROLES. There are some incredible opportunities across the GTMfund portfolio right now, including: 

🚀 Founding Marketing & Growth Lead at Village [LA, CA - Hybrid]

Village is an AI-powered care orchestration platform for children with differences — a modern care coordination partner that helps families navigate complexity with confidence, and the practice infrastructure that lets providers focus on what they do best. 

Village is looking for a Founding Marketing Lead to own and drive their go-to-market across B2B, B2B2C, and B2C. You'll have real ownership, close proximity to leadership, and the ability to shape how Village shows up in the market.

For more details and how to apply: https://lnkd.in/gJzTfU5x 

🚀 Head of Marketing at Obvio [San Carlos, CA - Onsite]

Obvio is building a new category in traffic safety. They work at the intersection of technology, public trust, community partnership, and policy and believe safer streets come from better feedback loops, not just enforcement.

As a foundational marketer, it’s a GTM + narrative role for someone who wants to build the marketing foundation of a category-defining company.

For more details and how to apply: 
https://lnkd.in/gAchQJ-A 

🚀 Head of Marketing at Tavus [San Francisco, CA - Onsite] 

Tavus is a research lab pioneering human computing. They’re building AI Humans: a new interface that closes the gap between people and machines, free from the friction of today’s systems. Their real-time human simulation models let machines see, hear, respond, and even look real - enabling meaningful, face-to-face conversations.

As Head of Marketing, you’ll lead their go-to-market strategy during a pivotal inflection point. You'll own brand positioning, product marketing, and category creation as they introduce PALs and expand their Conversational Video Interface (CVI) API to developers and enterprises worldwide.

For more details and how to apply: 
https://lnkd.in/gT_h_vrv


Maybe I'm a tad bias, but there has never been a more exciting time to be in early-stage marketing!

The mistake most product teams make?

Skipping the one question Dan Lee (Co-Founder & CEO at Nooks) asks before building.

NEW: Inside ServiceNow's $10B go-to-market engine with Paul Fipps (President, Global Customer Operations).

ServiceNow powers over 80 billion workflows annually and has seen 20%+ growth for five consecutive years.

From CIO at Under Armour overseeing a 300 million-member connected fitness ecosystem, to now leading global sales, customer success, field marketing, and partners at a growing enterprise org, Paul has seen what it takes to scale on both the B2C and D2C sides.

I sat down with Paul to take you behind the scenes on ServiceNow's disciplined GTM engine.

Key takeaways:

1️⃣ At scale, complacency is a bigger threat than competition.
When you're growing 20%+ year over year, the danger isn't who's coming to eat your lunch. The internal drift that happens when you're adding thousands of people and hundreds of new processes is a much greater existential threat. Paul's job is to make sure every person stays oriented around one thing: making the customer the hero of their own story.

2️⃣ Customers should never feel your org chart.
ServiceNow unified global sales, customer success, field marketing, and partners under one motion, deliberately. When you do all the hard work of a complex enterprise sale and then an entirely new team shows up Monday morning asking "so what are we doing?" — you've already lost. The pre-sale and post-sale have to have one continuous through line.

3️⃣ Churn shows up in relationships long before it shows up in reports.
They monitor adoption daily. But the signal Paul watches most closely is behavioral: when a customer stops showing up to QBRs, when they disengage from meetings — you know something is already wrong. The best time to act on churn is before any data shows it's an issue.

4️⃣ The AI governance crisis is real and it's happening right now.
Paul spoke with the CIO of one of the largest healthcare companies in the world — who had 900 AI pilots running inside his org, then cancelled every single one. The security and governance risk outweighed the innovation benefit. For every company racing to deploy AI: can you govern pilots as fast as you can deploy them?

5️⃣ Consumer product thinking is still an unlock in enterprise B2B.
Most enterprise software companies hire from within enterprise software. Paul brought a different lens from Under Armour, where data from 300 million users surfaced unarticulated needs that led to product breakthroughs. In B2B, treating every buyer as an individual — not just a segment or persona — is still a competitive advantage most companies haven't fully captured.

💚 Thank you to our incredible sponsor for supporting the podcast:

- HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale.

🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

MARCH 20TH! We’re excited to be hosting the second GTMfund Founder-Led GTM Series this month, alongside our friends at Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) and Peter Kazanjy!

It’s a highly interactive workshop-style breakfast, where you’ll learn how to successfully generate early revenue before scaling a GTM team.

This event is for founders with technical backgrounds, who want to excel in selling. 

When: Friday, March 20th 8:30 - 10:00 AM PDT 
Where: Downtown San Francisco

Spots are highly limited - I’ll drop the event link in the comments. 

Please share with any technical founders you know :)

We often talk about AI, this is an ethereal thing, but in reality it's governed by the laws of physics. 

When an AI model is too far from a data source, it doesn’t work. 

The cloud was built 25 years ago: before large models, before sensors on everything, before data lived on oil rigs and in the Arctic.

So you can’t actually use AI where it matters most. 

Dan Wright and Armada are changing this.

Important startup advice from the co-founder of Twitch: 

If you’re not willing to do it for 10 years, you should quit right now.

The key is to think in decades, not funding rounds.

This was given to Emir Atli (Co-Founder & CRO of HockeyStack) early. 
After that, him and his co-founders made a promise to each other to do just that - 10+ years and see it all the way through.

Traditional channels are collapsing under AI noise. You can no longer rent attention with the same impact that could before.

So, how do you win?

More embedded “growth loops” that compound over time 📈 

We teamed up with Stefan Bader, co-founder of Cello, to create a guide that maps the 8 specific growth loops (Viral, Content, Community, and more) and the 5-layer architecture needed to replace fragile funnels with a resilient GTM engine.

Taking a Growth Operating System approach with loops (or “Growth OS,” as we call it), each function becomes a node in a connected network. A happy customer (customer success+ output) becomes a referral source (marketing input), sales objections feed directly into product improvements, etc. 

Think of it as five integrated layers, pictured here. 

Link in the comments to the full GTMnow edition that outlines every component of this image!

Being able to scale 1:1 customer service is now possible. 

Intercom’s AI is doing the work of ~6,500 humans every week.

From my conversation with Archana Agrawal on the GTMnow  podcast.

Garbage in, garbage out. The quality of your prompt dictates the quality of your output.

Here's the structure behind a great Claude Code prompt:

1. Context / Source - tell Claude where to find the data. 
A folder path, a file name, a URL. Specificity here eliminates the most common failure mode: Claude working on the wrong thing entirely.

2. Task / Extraction - be explicit about what you want pulled out. 
Don't just say "analyze this" - name the fields, patterns, or signals you care about. Precision here determines how structured and usable the output will be.

3. Analysis / Synthesis - this is where you ask for higher-order thinking: aggregation, ranking, pattern recognition. 
Skip this step and you get raw data. Include it and you get a story.

4. Format / Structure - Claude can output markdown, tables, JSON, HTML, plain prose, but it needs to know which. 
Define the shape of the output upfront and your deliverable arrives ready to use.

5. Output Location - tell Claude where to save it. 
Claude Code writes directly to disk, so a specific file path means the result lands exactly where you need it.

-- 

✍ More details on Claude Code, including 30+ prompt examples, in The GTMnow Newsletter (link in comments). 

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

Brand is accumulated experience.

“It’s what people say about you when you’re not there… the sum total of all of the experiences people have with your product and your company.” - Sheila Joglekar Vashee (CMO at Figma)

So much of a brand is shaped by how customers feel, how they talk about you, and whether they champion you when you’re not in the room.

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