Zachary Murray

Foreplay.co

Bootstrapping the fuck out of foreplay.co

Creative Director / Growth Design

Stephen Hakami

Co-Founder (Company Acquired, Nov 2020)

When I was 15 years old, I started my first software company. "Restaurant Solutions" was an iPad app that let you order food and get your bill without waiting on your server.

Ok, fine... it was never actually an app. I couldn't afford to get it developed, so for Christmas in 2012 I asked my parents for $500 to help me pay a designer to make wireframes.

Then, I went door to door at different restaurants in Toronto trying to sell them a subscription to my non-existent app with those designs.

Needless to say, it didn't work out, but starting things with little to no resources is comfortable for me.

12 years later, I'm bootstrapping Wiza.com into the most accurate contact data tool in the world.

Our amazing small team, has built a tool that outperforms billion-dollar companies by thinking a little differently.

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Wiza is a prospecting tool in a league of it's own, helping sales reps across the globe find thousands of valid leads. Learn more at www.Wiza.com

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The GTM Engineer role exploded out of nowhere in 2025 🤯

And everyone has had questions e.g. how much do they *actually* get paid? 👀

Fortunately for all of us, Garrett Wolfe has put together the first ever State of GTME report (sponsored by Wiza) covering that + literally everything else you need to know about this fastest-growing role.

Inside the 2026 report:

📩 228 respondents
🌎 30+ countries
📊 Data on compensation, tooling, scope, and revenue impact

If you’re building, hiring, or working alongside GTM Engineers, this is now the #1 resource for the space.

Excited to have contributed alongside so many incredible companies like Clay, Ramp, Vercel, Default, Unify, and all the rest! 

Give it a read (and check out our very own GTME Jack F.'s contribution!)👇

https://stateofgtme.com/ 

#StateofGTME

A lot of other founders have told me that they are terrified to step away for a week because they think everything will fall apart.

I just… don’t feel that.

If I’m gone for a week, the company runs pretty much the same.

And it’s always a little weird to admit that. It sounds like I’m saying I don’t do much.  

But it’s because I have such a strong team.

They make smart calls. They don’t wait for permission. They care about the outcomes.

If anything, stepping away just makes it obvious how capable they are.

Having a team you trust completely is a privilege.

And means I can take a vacation without monitoring Slack being the main activity.

Speaking of...drop some vacation recommendations in the comments 👇

Most of the best decisions don’t come from instant alignment. 

They often come from tension. 

From someone caring enough to push back.

If someone feels strongly, I want to hear it.

And most of the time, whoever cares more in that discussion wins.

Not emotionally “cares more” but intellectually. The person who’s dug in deeper. Thought through the edge cases and can defend the tradeoffs.

If you believe something should be done a certain way, say it. Push on it. Stress test it.

I don’t mind a tense five minutes if it saves us five months.

We shouldn't aim to agree fast.

We should aim to think through the problem properly.

Here’s the belief high performers have that most people would call unhealthy.

They don’t actually want to feel satisfied.

I was at a founders meetup recently and a recurring theme kept coming up.

I kept hearing some version of:

“I hit the goal I set for the year… and almost immediately I was focused on the next one.”

No victory lap.
Just… on to the next target.

From the outside, that sounds exhausting. 

We’re taught that happiness is supposed to show up when you achieve something, right?

But high performers aren’t wired that way.

They’re not chasing the goal because they think it will finally make them happy.

They’re chasing it because they love the chase.

The goal isn’t the point. The pursuit is.

There’s often this underlying voice:

“If I’m not growing, I’m falling behind.”

“If I’m not improving, I’m becoming irrelevant.”

It’s not always comfortable. In fact, a lot of research on successful people shows a common thread. A subtle (sometimes not so subtle) feeling of inadequacy. 

A sense that being “good” isn’t enough. You have to be great. You have to win. 

You have to raise the bar again.

Are these "strategies" actually killing your response rates?

I see them every day. They used to work. Now they're costing you deals.


1️⃣ The gimmicky subject line.

The fake forward. The "Re: Re: Re:" with no prior conversation. 

At this point, prospects have seen every trick in the book. And the moment someone feels manipulated, trust is gone before the conversation even starts. A gimmick might get you the open. It won't get you the reply.

2️⃣ The empty follow-up.

"Just touching base!"
"Circling back here!"
"Did I lose you?"

If you don't have something new or interesting to say, don't say anything at all. Every empty follow-up is a withdrawal from an account you haven't deposited into yet. You think you’re staying top of mind, but you're really just becoming noise.

3️⃣ The guilt trip 

"Did I say something wrong?"
"I'm starting to think you're just not interested..."
"I'll take your silence as a no 😔"


This is the fastest way to permanently close a door. Prospects don't owe you a response. Acting wounded or passive aggressive creates discomfort, not urgency. And nobody buys from someone who makes them feel bad.


The truth: bad outreach is just a symptom of a bigger values problem 

If you lead with something worth responding to, something truly valuable, you won't need any of these. 

Disagree with any of these? Tell me why i’m wrong ⬇️

We underestimate how powerful incentives are.

If you really want something to happen, it needs to be explicitly incentivized. 

Not suggested. Not culturally encouraged. Incentivized.

What’s interesting is when you break comp plans down by role, they often look pretty narrow.

But when designed well, each of those individual incentives interlock

Sales pushes revenue. Marketing drives pipeline. CS protects retention. Product ships impact.

That’s the beauty of incentive architecture.

People don’t rise to vague expectations.

They respond to clear incentives.

And when those incentives fit together, the company moves exactly where it was designed to go.

Which cold outreach are you most likely to open?

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

One principle I’ve come to believe strongly in:

👉 If you have 70% of the information you need, make the decision.

Chasing 90–100% certainty can seem like the safe move. In practice, it delays progress & stalls momentum.

I focus on two things:

✅ Speed to decision making

Speed shortens the path to results. Quick decisions generate action, action generates data, and data accelerates outcomes.

✅ Iteration over perfection

Most decisions aren’t permanent. You can adjust. You can refine. You can reverse. Progress > perfection.

For me, action will always beat analysis when the downside is manageable.

Some meetings exist because no one wants to be the one who cancels them.

But why? Serious question. 

Most meetings start with good intentions.

(A problem. A decision. A need for alignment.)

And then they become immortal.

No one knows why they’re still on the calendar.

No one wants to be the one who kills them.

👨‍💻 “What if we need it?” 
👨‍💻 “For what?”
👨‍💻 “…Just in case.”

If a meeting can’t clearly answer:

→ What decision are we making?
→ What changes because we met?

It’s just a REALLY bad subscription. 

Time to cancel.

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The Battle

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