Impact 11

Helping B2B startups accelerate their GTM efforts - specializing in engineering, automations, and AI-assisted GTM acceleration for Series A-B companies, as well as hyper-targeted zero-to-one market and sales channel establishment for Seed and Pre-Seed startups.

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Certified Expert

ApolloShield Counter-Drone Systems

Founded and led ApolloShield from idea to a profitable world-class drone detection and mitigation company.

Sold critical perimeter security systems to top-tier stadiums, prisons, militaries, critical infrastructure, law enforcement and government agencies worldwide.

Raised $3m from Y Combinator and prominent Silicon Valley funds.

Co-Founder & CEO (YC S16, Profitable)

Viggo Hotel TV

Led development and deployment of a hardware and software smart TV content system in thousands of hotel rooms worldwide.

Chief Architect

iOnRoad

Directed UX, branding, marketing, business development, and media activities for driving > 3m YouTube views and ~1m downloads one year after product launch.

iOnRoad won the CES 2011 Innovation honors award and was acquired by Harman Automotive and later integrated into Samsung

Head of Product Management (acq. by SAMSUNG)

Unit 8200 - Israeli Intelligence Corps

Led a critical part of an Israel Defense Prize winning system; Managed engineering teams and led innovative inter-organizational projects with dozens of participants across four associate units

Researcher, Team Leader, Project Manager

StartupGTM.com | I help b2b founders hack traction | Profitable founder (YC)

Transforming a startup from early to repeatable sales is HARD.

If you’re a B2B founder with early sales, then you've done many things right to win your first customers.

BUT - to raise a round A, your startup will need to have a product that's ready to scale because it can be 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮.

To get repeatable sales - there are four blockers. 
 
You'll need to change each one from "not working" to "working": 
 
1️⃣ Consistently creating a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of conversations with customers 
 
2️⃣ Converting these conversations into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of first meetings 
 
3️⃣ Converting these meetings into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of trials 
 
4️⃣ Converting trials into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of deals. 
 
These blockers need to be removed 𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 - i.e. one by one. 
 
💡 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀.

—

I'm a former co-founder and CEO at ApolloShield - a profitable YC startup.

I work hands-on with B2B founders on turning their early sales into repeatable sales through a combination of disciplines:

1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Understanding the market, identifying target customers, and analyzing competitors.

2️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Defining how the product fits into the market and crafting compelling messages to appeal to the target audience.

3️⃣ 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Developing strategies for selling the product, including choosing sales channels and partnerships.

4️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Creating and executing campaigns to build brand awareness and generate leads.

5️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: Managing discovery and commercial discussions with clients and partners to get their business.

5️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Gathering customer feedback and continuously adapting the product and strategies accordingly.

6️⃣ 𝗜𝗧 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Building support systems to holistically orchestrate and manage your GTM efforts.

7️⃣ 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Developing a method to move forward quickly, iterate and get market feedback - doubling what works and tossing what doesn’t.

🚀 Let's connect and accelerate your startup together!

Nimo Shkedy

Excited to announce the second (N)YC GTM+AI Masterclass! 🎉

📍 Same venue: Clay's NYC HQ
🕰️ Same time: Wednesday at 5:30 pm
📆 Date: November 19, in 2 weeks
👥 Same guests: YC founders, alumni, and friends
🎓 More mentors and speakers
💪 More learning & building!

👉 Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dKXuhw7K

This event will comprise of 2 parts:
1. TED talks + Expert panel
2. Hands-on masterclasses with mentors

Agenda:
• ​5:30-6:00 pm - Snacks, Drinks, Networking
  Music by Yotam Koren 
  
• 6:00-6:45 pm - Expert panel
  Topic: Value vs Fluff in the GTM+AI space
  David Ronen (Anomalo)
  Gal Fontyn (WalkMe)
  Ajinkya Nene (Trellus (YC W22))
  John DiLoreto (Knock2.ai)
  Avishai Sam Bitton (DemandBox)

• ​6:45-7:15 pm - TED talks
  Asaf Raz (Agora):
  AI-Powered GTM: From Hype to Action
  Maya Mandelbaum (Drata):
  Building global, multi-product GTM with AI

• ​7:15-9:00 pm - Hands-on masterclasses:
  ​AI hyper-targeted lists and signals,
  ​AI revenue operations, automations, and agents,
  ​AI outreach & sequences,
  ​AI content & SEO,
  Context aware GTM engines,
  ​+ Vibe-coded apps with the amazing Shira Luk-Zilberman 

Special thanks to previous mentors + speakers, as well as friends who helped & inspired this event: Omer Shkedy Boaz Descalo Nir Sandbank Keren Milman Adir Ben-Yehuda Keenan D. Williams David Pawlan Brittany Levy Aakash Shah Boardy Gil Birnboim 🐰 Shahar Sorek Nir Goldstein Arnon Sobol Augusto Ferreira🌴 David Goecke 

CCd + Mentors and speakers I wish would join our next events: Amos Bar-Joseph Matan Zamft Osnat Lidor Omer Maman Nima Gardideh Matthew Silberman Andreas Wernicke  Tom Granot Karthiga Ratnam Jared Robin  Ofer Hermoni, Ph.D.

B2B GTM | 2x Founder | YC | MBA | Former hacker (yes, for real)

Awesome masterclass this Wednesday at Clay's HQ! 😍

📆 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 (𝗡)𝗬𝗖 𝗚𝗧𝗠+𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀:
https://lnkd.in/dPTNjbHD (Wednesday, Jan 21, 5:30pm)

(I'll announce speakers & mentors soon. Let me know if you have experts to nominate!)

👑 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 & 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: 
• Asaf Raz ​Building and executing an organizational GTM engineering plan
• Maya Mandelbaum ​AI for enabling partnerships + A Hands-On Growth Workshop From Insight to Income
• Avishai Sam Bitton ​AEO mastery
• Shira Luk-Zilberman ​Vibe Coding Apps with Base 44
• Ajinkya Nene ​Building products with AI to compete with giants
• Gal Fontyn ​Org-wide AI project strategies for executives
• John DiLoreto ​Evaluating AI in GTM: Separating Real Revenue Economics Value from Fluff
• David Ronen ​Building context-aware GTM automations
• Randall Bennett ​Expert prompt-writing for agents and chats

💡 𝗔𝘄𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲:
Gil Birnboim Lior Meitar Boaz Descalo Andreas Wernicke Matthew Silberman Omer Maman Nima Gardideh Aakash Shah Adam Alpert Tom Granot Gil Dabah Tom Mes TJ (Tsion) Gonen Amit Yampolsky 🎏 Shoham Eckhaus Gadi Evron 

🤝 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 (𝗡)𝗬𝗖 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆:
https://lnkd.in/d2Drua36

It took me 7 years to hit $2M a year

Today I understand: I was learning too slowly

Homeland security sales cycles drag on for 12–24 months and many end up closed lost

It was part miracle, part design that we survived long enough to get traction

So now, I pivoted to B2B software and services - what a relief 😎

But even in B2B, here’s how to move faster:

𝟭. 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 >𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁<, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮.
↳ Volume is too low to wait for A/B tests that yield 5% improvement
↳ Five real conversations beat 5000 clicks with 0.1% conversion
↳ You’ll learn more in a week of calls than a month of dashboards & guesswork

𝟮. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘅𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀.
↳ If deals take months to close, find leading indicators.
↳ Second meetings. Proofs of value.
↳ Those tell you 𝘯𝘰𝘸 if you’re building something people want.

𝟯. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲, 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘀.
↳ Write down every hypothesis. Record every experiment.
↳ The faster you learn & adapt, the faster you move.
↳ Place bets that can have dramatic outcomes, not single digit improvements.

You don’t grow by doing more of the same.
You grow by learning & adapting faster.

Speed & magnitude of iteration is everything.

Inspired by Eytan Levit & David Katz's podcast episode (from 10 years ago!) about placing big bets + tips from YC, Ron Binder, Gil Dabah, Adir Ben-Yehuda, Erez Moscovich, Tobia De Angelis, Rob Snyder and Logan Gott 

--

P.S: I have space for 2 startups this month, to remove guesswork from their lead gen efforts

Using "PMF sprints" - a method I perfected while working with 30+ seed/A B2B startups

Want to learn the method? Book a meeting from my profile (it's free)

Want to see the best GTM+AI practitioners in NYC show their best work? 👇

Today's amazing mentors:

Asaf Raz on ​​building and executing an organizational GTM engineering plan

Maya Mandelbaum on the path from insight to income: A hands-on growth workshop

Avishai Sam Bitton on ​AEO mastery

Shira Luk-Zilberman on vibe coding apps with Base 44 (CC: Lior Meitar + Ofer Hermoni, Ph.D. @)

Ajinkya Nene on building products with AI to compete with giants (CC: Kaushik Tiwari + Beeri Amiel)

Gal Fontyn ​on org-wide AI project strategies for executives

David Ronen on building context-aware GTM automations

John DiLoreto ​on evaluating AI in GTM: Separating real revenue economic value from fluff

Randall Bennett on expert prompt-writing for agents and chats

---

In case you missed this event -

👉  𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗚𝗧𝗠+𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀: https://lnkd.in/dPTNjbHD

and join us on Wednesday, Jan 21, at Clay's office

Speakers & mentors on my wishlist: Jared Robin Amit Yampolsky 🎏 Nima Gardideh Andreas Wernicke Amos Bar-Joseph Matan Zamft Ron Binder Omer Maman Matthew Silberman Karthiga Ratnam 

💡 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀? Let me & them know in the comments :)

Last month, I ran a campaign I was 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 would crush it.

Tight copy. Perfect audience. BUT: No results.

I was baffled. What am I going to do now?

That’s when I realized something many founders miss:
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱. 𝗜𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆.

And that’s the trap I see so many founders fall into:

We stare at dashboards, trying to decode why one version wins and another flops.

But those numbers seldom tell us what we should do next.

So if you’re stuck in that loop, stop running “yes/no” experiments.
✅ Click / ❌ No Click
✅ Reply / ❌ No Reply

Instead, talk to 5 customers.
Say the same message out loud.
Watch how they react.

You’ll learn more in an hour of conversation than in a month of A/B testing.

This week, an investor in 500+ startups told me 95% of B2B founders fail at GTM.
 
Here's what he sees in the 5% who succeed:
 
𝟭) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗿-𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝗜𝗖𝗣
 
Not "CFOs at enterprise companies."
 
CFOs using Stack X, tried Solutions Y and Z (heard about them from Channel Q), failed because of Problems A, B, C.
 
If you can't describe your ICP in one breath with this level of detail, you're guessing.
 
𝟮) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲
 
Some founders are naturally good at GTM. Others are really well connected.

With B2B buyers already confused by the competition and still having sky-high expectations, GTM is a knife fight. Founders play in hard mode from day one.

Good founders who aren't experienced with knife fights get coaches or expert fighters, or both.

(Note: For proper founder-led sales, founders still need to lead. They keep ownership and accountability, and manage their coaches / experts while getting their own hands dirty too)
  
𝟯) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻
 
They find tricks to get to the right people. They read between the lines in every conversation.
 
They don't pitch. They don't get "happy ears." They don't fall in love with their solution.
 
They're IN the conversation - curious, wanting to help, but staying ready to adapt and open to learn what they got wrong.
 
---

P.S: I learned GTM solo. I made it work. But there was a shorter, better way.

Now, I get help to achieve my goals.

Expensive? Yes. Always works? No. Worth it? Absolutely.

If you're a funded B2B founder and want to talk GTM - book a quick meeting from my profile.

James Hanzimanolis

Erudite

Co-Founder

Signed.ink

Building the AI-powered DocuSign alternative.

ZoomInfo

Brand Ambassador

PhoneBurner

Director of Business Development

Mellie

Advisor

PAYARC

Sr. Business Development Manager

Business Development Manager

Lumaverse Technologies

pharosIQ

Business Development Representative

ActionLink

Sales Specialist

2020 Companies

Inside Sales Representative

Co-Founder @ Erudite | Content Marketing Agency | GTM Leader | Startup Advisor

Co-founder @ Erudite. We're a content marketing agency with the goal of driving more inbound leads and helping startups and small SaaS build a brand through social media.

If I were an SDR manager again, I wouldn't allow my reps to use tools like HeyReach, Prosp, 11x. These tools, in my honest opinion, are cancerous for growing teams.

Hear me out on this - every manager should be thinking about this.

If your reps automate 100% of their outreach, why even have the SDR at that point?

These tools make sense for small agencies/individual operators.

Single user = AI SDRs + heavy LinkedIn automation
5+ person team = Manual outreach + very light automation

Also going to throw this out there: If you have 5+ reps blasting 1,000 DMs each/mo, it looks bad on your org.

It's low converting, spammy, can get your account flagged; just overall problematic. Just sayin'.

Every team should have their reps either:
(A) Do everything manually
*OR*
(B) Use LeadDelta: This is the best example of non-spam SDR tech at the moment

- Lightweight CRM
- LinkedIn messaging
- Label leads with tags
- Oversight from admin account
- Waterfall data enrichment (emails, mobiles)
- Custom content feeds with prospect's LinkedIn content

I've bounced around from tool-to-tool over the past few years, but this one has been my go-to lately.

Fractional Head of Content for GTM Tech | Scaling UseOrbit.pro

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