The GTM Podcast GTMFund

Sophie Buonassisi is the Vice President of Marketing at GTMfund, overseeing GTMnow - the media arm of the GTMfund brand - and the internal community. She’s passionate about empowering go-to-market leaders and founders with access to insight through GTMnow’s channels, like this podcast, the newsletter, and more. Before joining the GTMfund team, she built and scaled GTM at a predictive conversion optimization company. She enjoys advising SaaS companies as they build out and optimize their marketing and overall GTM strategies.
What you will learn
How to be proactive with your references The need for speed throughout your interview process Showcasing skill and character effectively Highlights
(3:45) Who’s Sophie and how she ended up at GTMfund
(6:31) How Sophie stood out during an application process of 400+ people
(11:15) How to be proactive about finding a new role when you haven’t identified what that role is exactly
(17:21) Knowing how to navigate the interview process systematically 
(22:41) How to leverage your community to endorse you
(26:49) How to effectively nail a take home assignment
(32:30) The importance of understanding your future employer deeply
(35:35) How to hit the ground running before your start date
(40:05) Top tips for landing page conversion optimization
Links and Resources Sophie's Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi
Our Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Demandbase, Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources. How? By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. They combine your sales and marketing data with our validated B2B data and AI to create Account Intelligence that informs every step of your buyer’s journey. They deliver accurate company, contact, technographic, engagement, and intent data right where you work every day – CRM, collaboration tools, browsers, and more. Start spotting opportunities earlier and orchestrate smarter sales and marketing motions with Demandbase. See this live in action: https://www.demandbase.com/product-tour/sales-intelligence/
The GTM Podcast Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.

Zach Lawryk is currently the Head of Global Solutions Consulting at Rippling, previously the VP of Solutions Consulting at Slack, Director of Sales Engineering at Box, and really began his career in tech at Salesforce as a Sales Engineer in 2005.
What you will learn
The importance of building long term relationships at work The beginning of SaaS SE’s How the SE/SC role will evolve with AI Knowing when to bring in SE's as a founder Highlights
(3:41) How Zach has successfully landed at power house companies and how to identify those companies
(8:16) Zach’s snowball effect of building relationships in the workplace
(11:10) The energy you put out always comes back to you
(19:30) When the sales engineer role got pioneered 
(21:43) The SE/SC role evolving with AI
(29:11) AI experiments that Rippling is currently running
(34:49) When to invest in solution engineers
(37:30) Benchmark for the bump in win rate after bringing in SC/SE’s
(42:07) Gauging the complexity high water marker 
(44:35) Practicing transparency with the value you provide
(48:07) The power of video content that Rippling is currently leveraging
Links and Resources Zach's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zlawryk/
Our Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Demandbase, Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources. How? By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. They combine your sales and marketing data with our validated B2B data and AI to create Account Intelligence that informs every step of your buyer’s journey. They deliver accurate company, contact, technographic, engagement, and intent data right where you work every day – CRM, collaboration tools, browsers, and more. Start spotting opportunities earlier and orchestrate smarter sales and marketing motions with Demandbase. See this live in action: https://www.demandbase.com/product-tour/sales-intelligence/
The GTM Podcast Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.

This week we have a special 2 guest episode, with the best hiring guru's in the game, Chuck Brotman & David Teichner.
Chuck is the co-founder of Blueprint Expansion, a GTM roles recruiting firm that has helped over 50 VC-backed companies make amazing Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success hires.  Prior to starting Blueprint in 2020, he worked for over fifteen years in various sales and sales management roles, building teams across presales, partnerships, SMB, Mid-Market, & Enterprise Sales.  Chuck lives in the Bay Area with his wife and has two daughters, a junior at UCLA and a freshman at UC Santa Barbara.
David has 25 years under his belt as a serial entrepreneur. Built and exited companies in MarTech, FinTech and Media. He's invested and advised for over a dozen companies, and launched AccelerateHC seven years ago to help companies think through the organization they need and ultimately help them recruit high performing talent.
What you will learn
Understanding your business goals before expanding your team Utilizing a ‘White Board’ exercise throughout the interview process How to hire the most ethereal talent in an oversaturated market Knowing which role to hire for when budgets are tight How to avoid making a bad hire at the early stages Highlights
(1:35) How Chuck initially started his career in recruiting
(4:40) How David got drawn into recruiting
(9:10) Generalists vs Specialists for Seed/SeriesA startups, which should you pick?
(14:00) How to decrease the chance of making a bad hire at the early stage
(21:00) The importance of implementing a strong process when hiring talent
(22:38) Maximum number of skills/behaviours you can test for during an interview process
(25:27) Optimal length for an interview process 
(30:05) How to test for ethereal factors that you can’t put on paper in an interview
(35:10) When budgets are tight, who do you opt in for, another AE or a sales leader
(38:29) How to navigate the ‘lead’ roles / player coaches
(40:50) Hot Take: The “Hire slow and Fire fast” mentality no longer serves us
(41:45) Hiring people for their titles and hot logo’s on their resume does not guarantee success
Links and Resources
If you're looking for any help with your hiring process, fill out This 3 Question Typeform and we'll connect you directly with Chuck and David
If you're a talented go-to-marketer on the job hunt, fill out This Short Typeform to help get placed in your next perfect home!
Our Sponsor
Today's episode is sponsored by DemandBase, Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources. How? By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. They combine your sales and marketing data with our validated B2B data and AI to create Account Intelligence that informs every step of your buyer’s journey. They deliver accurate company, contact, technographic, engagement, and intent data right where you work every day - CRM, collaboration tools, browsers, and more. Start spotting opportunities earlier and orchestrate smarter sales and marketing motions with Demandbase. See this live in action: https://www.demandbase.com/product-tour/sales-intelligence/ 
The GTM Podcast
Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.

We have a special episode this week, a community mashup with the best community leaders in the game! Pavilion's SVP of Marketing, Kathleen Booth, The founder of Salesforce's Trailblazer's Community, Erica Kuhl, and The Former Director of Community for Salesforce's Trailblazer Community as well as The Former Head of Global Community at Atlassian, Holly Firestone.
What you will learn
The importance of community in 2023 How to stand out as a community in an oversaturated market How to maintain quality members in community as you scale Centralizing user groups for community, how to scale, track, and optimize in order for monumental growth Highlights
(1:15) Kathleen Booth explains why community is more important than ever
(6:34) How to advise early stage SaaS companies on how to leverage community to drive revenue and demand
(16:00) Erica Kuhl unpacks the oversaturation of community today and how to overcome that
(20:00) Maintain quality members as you scale
(25:07) Building Salesforce Trailblazer's, walking through what worked and what didn't
(33:00) Holly Firestone's time at Atlassian, scaling, tracking, and optimizing for signifcant growth
(42:00) Some mistakes that Holly made as the Director Community with Salesforce's Trailblazers
(46:20) Mistakes that Erica Kuhl made during her time at Salesforce
Links & Resources Kathleen Booth's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenslatterybooth/
Erica Kuhl's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericakuhl/
Holly Firestone's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollygfirestone/
The GTM Podcast Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.

Mark Cranney is an enterprise go-to-market operator and three-time unicorn creator. Most recently, he was the COO at Skydio. He's also a founding operating partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and has been involved in the acquisitions of Opsware and Aster Data Systems by HP and Teradata, respectively. Mark specializes in developing winning playbooks, cultures, and strategies that put his competition on the back foot.
What You'll Learn
 How to create a winning culture  How to keep your competition at bay How to hire talent that culturally fits your organization Episode Highlights
(03:48) The books that shaped Mark's winning culture
(10:39) How to keep your competition at bay
(14:10) Three questions to ask when scouting for culture-fit talent
(15:46) How to keep recruited talent motivated
(16:16) "Process triumphs heroics." How Mark created and used playbooks to create  winning cultures
(23:00) Why you need to get more granular in your competitive strategy
(35:17) How to create a winning culture without turning your team's culture toxic.(37:18) "If it's not a competitive environment, for me, that's toxic."
(39:09) Mark's parting advice
Quotes
"The winning general knows the outcome before the battle even starts."
"You got to go where you can win, particularly when you don't have a lot of arrows in your quiver. You've got to make sure you're spending time in the right places, from a segmentation and targeting standpoint, until you build up the muscle where you can expand into other scenarios."
"If it's not a competitive environment, for me, that's toxic."
"If you have eight hours to chop down a tree, are you going to spend eight hours hacking away with a dull axe? Or are you going to spend seven of them sharpening the blade and an hour chopping the tree down?"
"If you take a shortcut, there's always a consequence—and it's usually not a good one."
Links & Resources
Mark Cranney's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcranney/
The Hard Thing About Hard Things, a book by Ben Horowitz
What You Do Is Who You Are, a book by Ben Horowitz
The GTM Podcast
Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.

Dan Reich is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and writer and has been building companies since he was a teenager. Some of the companies that he founded include: TULA Skincare which was acquired by Proctor & Gamble - Troops.ai which was acquired by Salesforce - Spinback which was acquired by Buddy Media and then acquired by Salesforce. Dan is now a co-founder of Dibs Beauty, which is backed by LCatterton and is building more companies. He also invests through his family office, Reich Capital. He has a background in electrical engineering and volunteers as a member of national ski patrol.
What you will learn
The power of influencer marketing Leveraging b2c strategies for b2b companies Maintaining authenticity across all business plays The importance of building strong relationships in business  How to keep your team motivated when momentum takes a hit Highlights 
(6:33) Influencer marketing in b2b
(8:34) Tactics and strategies that b2b companies can steal from b2c companies today
(13:00) How Dan structured a designated BDR team for influencer marketing
(17:00) How to maintain authenticity when partnering with influencers 
(21:32) How to effectively compensate influencers: Equity vs Cash
(24:20) Dan’s experience with 2 M&A exits
(30:08) How to keep your team motivated in moments of momentum loss
(32:28) How each acquisition began its first conversations
(42:30) Why e-mail marketing is dead today
(44:50) Finding gratitude and happiness within yourself will ultimately lead you toward success
Quotes
“Companies don’t buy companies, people at companies buy companies”
“By grounding yourself with things that you’re really grateful for, when things don’t go well, it gives you perspective about what really matters and what doesn’t” 
“People that chase happiness will find success, and the people that chase success, most of the time, will never find happiness”
Links and Resources Dan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danreich/
Dan's Website: https://danreich.com
DIBS Beauty Website: https://dibsbeauty.com
The GTM Podcast
Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.