The GTM Podcast

Navin Persaud is the VP of Revenue Operations at 1Password, where he leads a 30+ person team supporting a GTM org of 450+. With over 20 years of experience across RevOps, SalesOps, and MarketingOps, including time at IBM and high-growth SaaS companies, Navin has built a reputation as one of the sharpest operators in the game. He’s known for building scalable systems, ruthless prioritization, and a clear-eyed view of how AI is reshaping operations.Discussed in this Episode:Why RevOps is the most essential team for scalable growthThe real signs that it’s time to hire your first RevOps leaderWhat AI is disrupting first in RevOps forecasting, enrichment, orchestration, and reportingThe rise of GTM Engineers and the shift toward intelligence-layer operationsTactical frameworks for combining AI insights with human judgmentHow RevOps should evolve from executor to strategic growth partnerHiring advice: what makes a great early-stage ops hire and how to test for curiosityHighlights:05:00 - The sports field analogy: building the GTM pitch, not just playing on it07:00 - AI is both the scariest and most freeing technology in ops today09:00 - GTM Engineers and the orchestration opportunity ahead11:00 - Product-market fit is the right time to invest in RevOps13:00 Forecasting, enrichment, and demand routing—where AI adds leverage17:30 -Why dashboards are dying and how ops will move to real-time insights27:00 - How RevOps became a central GTM function30:00 - Advice for founders on when (and how) to bring in ops leadership33:00 - “Perfection is the enemy of pace”—a RevOps mantraGuest Speaker Links (Navin Persaud):LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/navinpersaud/1Password:https://1password.com/1Password Careers:https://1password.com/careersHost Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter:https://substack.com/@sophiebuonassisiWhere to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website:https://gtmnow.com/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/Twitter/X:https://x.com/GTMnow_YouTube:@gtm_nowThe GTM Podcast (on all major directories):The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Mike Walrath is the CEO and Chairman of Yext, a publicly traded digital presence platform that helps businesses manage and synchronize their digital presence across search engines, maps, apps, and voice assistants by ensuring that information like locations, services, FAQs, and brand content appears accurately and consistently wherever customers search.He also co-founded WGI Group, LLC, to provide growth capital to early and expansion stage startups in enterprise software, consumer internet and digital media industries. Previously, Michael was co-founder and Chairman of Moat Inc. which was acquired by Oracle in April 2017. In 2003, Michael founded Right Media - the world's first open exchange for digital advertising. He served as Chairman and CEO of the company until its acquisition by Yahoo! in July 2007. At Yahoo!, he was responsible for the operation of the global advertising marketplaces organization.Discussed in this Episode:Why marketers must now structure content not for humans, but for machines.How Yext evolved from managing listings to powering AI-ready data pipelines.Actionable steps SaaS companies can take to optimize for AI agents and search diversification.The role of hyperlocal data, competitive analysis, and personalized content in GTM strategy.Why software innovation must start with intelligence, not workflow.The decline of seat-based pricing and rise of outcome-based models.Highlights:[00:07:30] – How the iPhone created geo-aware fragmentation, and how Yext was born.[00:10:00] – Why Google still checks MapQuest (and what that means for SEO today).[00:11:30] – “We have to rebuild the digital presence for machines, not people.”[00:14:30] – The new battleground: how AI engines like ChatGPT shape discoverability.[00:18:00] – Practical data strategies for local businesses and SaaS marketers.[00:22:00] – Why structured data is the foundation of AI-first marketing.[00:26:00] – Bespoke GTM: why no two locations (or campaigns) should be the same.[00:29:00] – The shift from product-led to intelligence-led SaaS development.[00:31:00] – Seat-based pricing is dying – how to move to value-based contracts.[00:34:30] – Mike’s advice: get radically honest about macro changes, not just tactics.Guest Speaker Links (Michael Walrath):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-walrath-b63166/Yext: https://www.yext.com/Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter: https://substack.com/@sophiebuonassisiWhere to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website: https://gtmnow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Marcy Campbell is the Chief Revenue Officer at AppFolio, where she leads sales and client services with a focus on delivering unified, end-to-end customer experiences. With over 30 years of experience scaling revenue teams across FinTech, SaaS, cloud computing, and communications, Marcy has held executive roles at Boomi and PayPal—where she led an 800+ person global team. Her deep expertise in aligning sales, customer success, and operations makes her a standout leader in the GTM space.What happens when a CRO owns the entire customer journeyDiscussed in this Episode:How AppFolio’s Unified Customer Experience (UCE) platform aligns marketing, sales, and customer service.The evolving role of the CRO and the importance of owning the entire customer journey.Why customer experience is a competitive differentiator in vertical SaaS.Tactical tips for early-stage startups on aligning go-to-market motion with product-market fit.The importance of cross-functional “stream teams” for accelerating GTM initiatives.How Marcy builds inclusive leadership cultures and mentors rising female leaders.Why how you make the number matters as much as making the number.Highlights:10:30 The Chief Revenue Officer's (CRO) responsibility to understand and optimize the entire customer journey.12:30 How the Unified Customer Experience (UCE) platform was formed and how it works.16:00 End-to-end GTM orchestration across sales, marketing, product, and CS.22:00 Results from the UCE initiative: accelerated deal velocity and customer retention.26:30 Advice for startups: identifying your ICP and fixing pipeline fundamentals.29:00 How to scale with customer empathy and GTM precision.31:00 Advocating for women in sales leadership and building inclusive teams.36:00 Marcy’s communication strategy for managing a 600-person org.39:00 Marcy's favorite business leadership tactic: “Take a beat” before reacting.40:00 What’s outdated: The belief that only numbers matter in sales.Guest Speaker Links (Marcy Campbell):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcyc/Appfolio: https://www.appfolio.com/Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter: https://substack.com/@sophiebuonassisiWhere to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website: https://gtmnow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/Twitter/X:The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Oji Udezue was most recently Chief Product Officer at Typeform, where he led product strategy across the company’s growing suite of tools. Previously, he was CPO at Calendly, where he helped scale one of the most beloved PLG tools in the market. Before that, he was Head of Product for Creation and Conversation at Twitter, leading core features like Tweets, DMs, and Spaces. At Atlassian, he led all communication products, including the launch of Atlassian’s first post-IPO product.Oji also spent years at Microsoft, building foundational experiences across Windows, Outlook, Hotmail, and Internet Explorer.In addition to his product leadership, Oji is the founder of Kernel Fund, an early-stage fund supporting startups across Africa. He writes about product, growth, and leadership at his newsletter Product Mind and is the author of the upcoming book Building Rocketships—a guide for high-growth product teams.Discussed in this Episode:When to hire your first PM (and what to look for).Why great product teams include marketing from day one.A framework for picking winning startup ideas.How AI is changing how we build (not just what we build).What product leaders can learn from Microsoft’s Longhorn failure.Why 3x better isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a must.Highlights:04:52 – Why marketing is essential to product leadership.12:02 – How AI is transforming the process of building products.17:07 – Common product mistakes founders make early on.24:16 – Building Rocket Ships: Why Oji wrote the book.31:08 – Framework: Where to fish for unicorns.33:17 – The “3x better” rule for product value.37:07 – The challenge of true product differentiation.39:22 – What Microsoft’s Longhorn failure taught Oji.44:51 – When (and how) to hire your first PM.48:31 – The importance of fast, early customer feedback.54:46 – How AI is changing go-to-market strategy.57:32 – Why marketers must master signal in a noisy world.Guest Speaker Links (Oji Udezue):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ojiudezue/Kernel Fund: https://www.kernelfund.com/Product Mind: https://www.productmind.co/Building Rocketships (Book): https://a.co/d/0HGjf18SubStack: https://ojiudezue.substack.com/Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter: https://substack.com/@sophiebuonassisiWhere to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website: https://gtmnow.com/LinkedIn: https:The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Harmony Anderson is an entrepreneurial marketing leader with deep expertise in building global GTM strategies at growth startups. She is currently the VP of Growth and Marketing at Superhuman, the most productive email app ever made for teams. She has also led high-performing teams at Armada, Engine, Outreach, and ThousandEyes.She is deeply passionate about creating world-class marketing campaigns, leveraging data-driven strategies to accelerate customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. She also drives extreme rigor around operational excellence and efficiency, ensuring GTM teams execute with precision using repeatable and predictable playbooks. Discussed in this Episode:How to develop unique positioning and messaging for an AI companyWhy UGC matters for your brand and how to get users to create content about your productThe impact of lightning marketing campaigns and follow-on 'thunder' campaignsThree core channels for launching a new B2B marketing programHighlights: 05:12 – The #1 mistake in AI messaging: sounding like everyone else. 07:24 – Use outcomes and data to differentiate your AI product. 11:06 – Why nailing 3-5 core use cases beats going broad or too niche. 12:38 – Turning website visitors into believers with demos and interactive content. 14:01 – How to keep up with a market that changes every week (hello, agentic AI). 15:08 – Building campaigns that fuel your narrative across every channel. 17:16 – Behind Superhuman’s most successful campaign ever: “New Year, New Inbox.” 20:04 – Unlocking 60% growth through user-generated content and affiliate advocacy. 21:38 – Why webinars and virtual events still drive real results (and feedback). 23:12 – How to keep your messaging fresh while staying focused. 25:11 – The difference between brand umbrella, campaign, and program — and why it matters. 27:02 – Harmony’s lean, high-impact program playbook for early-stage teams. 31:06 – Building a hype train: how to activate champions at launch. 33:01 – Hot take: marketing shouldn’t be measured by pipeline alone. 35:12 – Why NRR (not just pipeline) should be a marketing KPI.Guest Speaker Links (Harmony Anderson):LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/harmony-hickman-andersonSuperhuman: superhuman.comHost Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisiNewsletter: gtmnow.com/tag/newsletterWhere to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website: gtmnow.comLinkedIn: GTMnowX/Twitter: @GTMnow_YouTube: The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Udi Ledergor served as CMO during Gong’s rise from new SaaS startup to industry dominance. By building a playful, human-centric brand with a lighthearted tone, he captured buyers’ attention and dollars and turned them into raving fans. He helped Gong go from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue, while achieving a multi-billion-dollar valuation. His book Courageous Marketing is officially out and you can buy it below in the show notes. Discussed in this Episode:Why Marketing 'Best Practices' are broken for Brands that want to stand out.Marketers need to consider the long game and remember the 95/5 rule.When you should hire for experience versus potential.How to foster a culture of healthy risk-taking with your team.Highlights: 04:09 Udi's inspiration for writing his new book, Courageous Marketing.06:02 The four most common reasons why marketing fails.09:22 What marketers should be looking for when selecting a company to join.13:55 The Problem with 'playing it safe' in B2B marketing.23:07 How to market to both the 5% and the 95% of your buyers.38:13 The Three Team Operating Principles for leading a bold and effective marketing team.Guest Speaker Links (Udi Ledergor):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/udiledergor/Gong: https://www.gong.io/Udi's Book, Courageous Marketing: https://mybook.to/courageousmarketingHost Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter: https://gtmnow.com/tag/newsletter/Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website: https://gtmnow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/Twitter/X: https://x.com/GTMnow_YouTube:    / @gtm_now  The GTM Podcast (on all major directories): https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/Sponsor: ZoomInfo’s GTM25 Virtual Conference—a free, half-day event on hThe GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Jeff Perry is a truly iconic revenue leader and the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Carta, responsible for core software revenue across New Business, Upsell, Cross Sell, and Customer Success. Prior to Carta, Jeff led SMB Sales at DocuSign, and started his career at Oracle, where he rose from Strategic Account Manager to VP of Sales over a decade.Discussed in this Episode:How to turn coworkers into mentors—and why it matters.Moving from enterprise sales leadership to a startup environment.Why and when to build a solutions engineering team.The myth of the “18-month CRO lifespan.”Balancing empathy and accountability as a sales leader.Why automation isn’t always the best path forward.Highlights: 06:29 — Mentorship matters. Jeff breaks down how to find and approach mentors—even without a formal program.12:42 — Lessons from selling servers that still apply to modern SaaS sales15:02 — Leading through M&A: Inside the culture clash and how Jeff rebuilt a team post-acquisition.19:07 — Carta’s GTM evolution: How Jeff scaled from one rep selling one product to multiple teams across three business lines.28:34 — Scaling revenue from $20M to $450M: Advice for CROs entering growth-stage companies.33:20 — Why “big company” people can thrive in startups—if they leave their playbooks behind.36:15 — How to use PIPs to coach—not just cut—and what most orgs get wrong.43:13 — Why the best sellers are quarterbacks, not lone wolves.46:43 — Pick up the phone: Human connection wins in an era of AI and automation.Guest Links (Jeff Perry): LinkedIn: Jeff Perry Carta: carta.comHost Links (Scott Barker): LinkedIn: Scott Barker Newsletter: The GTM NewsletterWhere to Find GTMnow (GTMfund’s Media Brand): Website: gtmnow.com LinkedIn: GTMnow Twitter/X: @GTMnow_ YouTube: @gtm_now Podcast: The GTM Podcast (available on all major platforms)Sponsor: PursuitThe best talent isn’t actively job hunting. Pursuit helps companies hire elite go-to-market talent on a non-retainer basis. As a key GTMfund partner, they equip sales and marketing teams with top performers.If you're hiring for sales or marketing roles, reach out to Pursuit at pursuitsalessolutions.com/gtm or message a GTMfund team member.The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Hayden Stafford is the President and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Seismic, where he oversees the global go-to-market (GTM) organization, including pre-sales, sales, customer success, services, partners, and more. Prior to joining Seismic, he served as President of Global Field Operations at Pegasystems. Before that, Hayden was Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, leading Global Business Applications (Microsoft Dynamics 365) for six years. Earlier in his career, he was an SVP at Salesforce and spent nearly a decade at IBM, ultimately serving as VP and Managing Director on Wall Street.Discussed in this Episode:What Satya Nadella taught Hayden about culture, clarity, and transformation at Microsoft.The exact playbook to move from SMB to enterprise—including partner enablement, segmentation, and incentive design.Why retention isn't just a CS metric—and how to build a sales team that cares about it.How to win in vertical SaaS, from breaking into financial services to owning the category.What it takes to close a $600M+ deal in the middle of a financial crisis.Highlights: 05:19 — How Satya Nadella sold his internal vision and rebuilt Microsoft’s culture from the ground up 13:13 — The partnership blueprint: how to scale with partners, not just transact with them 28:18 — Going deep in verticals: why Seismic dominated financial services while others avoided it 34:44 — How Hayden closed a $600M+ deal with Merrill Lynch after the 2008 crash 42:40 — Why retention should be part of your sales comp—and how to make it work 49:15 — The “Value Continuum”: a framework for aligning sales, services, and CS around business outcomesGuest Speaker Links (Hayden Stafford):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenestafford/Seismic: https://seismic.com/Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):WebsiteLinkedInTwitter / XYouTubeThe GTM Podcast (on all major directories)The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Ray Smith is the VP of AI Agents at Microsoft. Previously, he was the Global VP of Product for SAP, CRM and Sales Cloud. Before that, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of DataHug, which was acquired by Calidus Cloud in 2016. Ray breaks down why the rise of AI agents is a tectonic shift, how businesses are already seeing ROI, and what it means for SaaS, team structure, and go-to-market strategies. He also shares real-world use cases from inside Microsoft and partner companies, plus how founders and operators can build or adapt in this new AI-native era.Discussed in this Episode:What exactly is an AI agent—and how is it different from bots or automation?Why traditional SaaS pricing models (like per-seat) don’t work in the agent era.How enterprise teams are already deploying autonomous agents in production.The emerging architecture of multi-agent workflows.Which skills will matter most in an agent-first world (hint: think like a GM or growth hacker).Highlights: 06:53 What makes an AI agent different from bots and automation—and why it matters now.15:33 How AI agents are changing the role of traditional software tools and UI.25:15 Why legacy SaaS pricing models don’t work for agents—and what comes next.31:12 Inside Microsoft CoPilot: Real-world agent use cases across sales, support, and strategy.37:42 The most valuable skills in the AI era—from delegation to agent orchestration.51:42 Why agentic AI makes customer relationships and long-term value even more critical.Guest Speaker Links (Ray Smith):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raycsmith/Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):Website: https://gtmnow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/Twitter/X: https://x.com/GTMnow_YouTube:    / @gtm_now  The GTM Podcast (on all major directories): The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

Jaleh Rezaei is the CEO & Co-founder of Mutiny, a company reimagining the B2B buying experience by transforming transactional relationships into meaningful connections through AI-powered personalization. Mutiny helps enterprises restore the human element in modern buying at scale, and is used by some of the fastest growing companies in the world including Amplitude, Snowflake and Qualtrics. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and CMOs of companies such as Uber, Condé Nast and Salesforce. Prior to Mutiny, Jaleh was the Head of Marketing and Business Development at Gusto, where she grew the company from 500 to 50,000 customers over 4 years. She was the Director of Product Marketing at VMware prior to Gusto. Discussed in this Episode:AI-powered personalization is reshaping B2B sales and marketingAI-driven lead scoring improves quality and targets high-value prospectsAI anticipates and overcomes sales objections in real timeSales & marketing alignment: why it matters and how to achieve itThe risks of AI-driven outbound and how to avoid common pitfallsScaling 1:1 experiences efficiently with AIAI-powered buyer interactions and their impact on GTM strategiesHighlights: 03:27 – Why AI innovation is game-changing for founders building and scaling companies. 06:49 – How 1:1 sales personalization drives 14x higher conversion rates. 10:45 – AI-powered hyper-personalization is reshaping enterprise sales. 16:30 – The biggest AI mistakes in sales and marketing. 20:55 – Scaling white-glove experiences across all target accounts. 24:45 – Why CRM data is a mess and how AI finally fixes it. 28:14 – A masterclass in sales & marketing alignment. 31:20 – The real reason sales and marketing clash (and how to fix it). 42:10 – The most valuable AI use cases for B2B sales teams. 47:30 – How AI is changing B2B buyer behavior and what sellers must do.Guest Speaker Links (Jaleh Rezaei):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalehr/Mutiny: https://www.mutinyhq.com/The State of Sales & Marketing Alignment Report: https://www.mutinyhq.com/reportHost Speaker Links (Scott Barker):LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Find GTMnow (GTMfund’s Media Brand):WebsiteLinkedInTwitter/X[YouTube]( / @gtm_now)PodcastThe GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.