Across the Funnel

Hosted by Hyperengage & Dextego

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Episodes

190

Latest episode

Jul 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Across the Funnel is a weekly, interview-style podcast series uncovering bits of knowledge from some of the greatest minds in tech. We dig into concrete GTM moves across sales, customer success, and account management so you can build revenue that lasts. Powered by hyperengage & Dextego Want to join in as a guest, drop an email at podcast@hyperengage.io

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 20, 2026Episode 19339 min

Ep # 193: A 75% Signal Correlation Nobody Is Tracking Yet ft.Mackenzie Smith (SVP, Customer Value, Backstory AI)

In this episode of Across The Funnel , Adil Saleh sits down with Mackenzie Smith , SVP of Customer Value at Backstory (formerly People.ai ), to explore how AI is reshaping the post-sales operating model inside enterprise revenue teams. Mackenzie breaks down Backstory's shift from a license-based tool to a consumption-based platform, and how her team uses their own product internally to stay close to what customers experience day to day. She walks through the "magic moment" framework her team uses to compress time to value, citing a customer example where engagement signal health showed a 75% correlation with deal outcomes. The conversation covers the build-versus-buy tension enterprises face with AI orchestration, why Backstory staffed its forward-deployed "Studio" team internally instead of outsourcing to professional services, and why she believes the traditional linear onboarding-to-support handoff model needs to be unlearned in favor of a drop-in, drop-out engagement structure.

August 18, 2026Episode 19237 min

Ep # 192: Speed Beats Capability in Every Build vs Buy Decision ft. David Karp (SVP, Customer Success, Billtrust)

In this episode of Across The Funnel , Adil Saleh sits down with David Karp , SVP of Customer Success at Billtrust , to explore how customer success teams can use better customer context, structured data, and AI to operate across larger books of business. David explains why measurable customer value starts with understanding the specific problems of each segment, and why Billtrust keeps renewals within the customer success organization. He breaks down how structured customer data can tell teams whether an account is on or off track without forcing CSMs to piece together information across multiple systems. The conversation also covers customer education beyond product navigation, build-versus-buy decisions, AI's role alongside people, and why CS leaders need to make AI adoption a team capability rather than an individual exercise.

July 15, 2026Episode 19142 min

Ep # 191: How A Non-Coder Replaced An Entire Product Team With One Agent ft. Mathias Biilmann (CEO, Netlify)

In this episode of Across The Funnel , Adil Saleh sits down with Mathias Biilmann , CEO and co-founder of Netlify, to explore why domain experts, not professional developers, are on track to build most of the software that matters over the next few years. He traces Netlify's addressable market shift from 17 million professional front-end developers to a base measured in the billions, and explains why that changes who the platform needs to serve first. Mathias walks through a real internal example: an HR business partner who replaced Culture Amp with her own sentiment-survey app, built alongside a single part-time developer, cutting out the product-manager-to-engineer translation loop entirely. He also unpacks Netlify's shift from buying point solutions to building homegrown go-to-market agents that watch signals like seat additions and trigger customer success outreach. The conversation closes on the three-part product philosophy guiding how Netlify builds in a world where AI agents keep getting more capable than the humans directing them.

June 9, 2026Episode 19042 min

Ep # 190: How to Catch a Bad-Fit Customer Before They Churn ft. Andrew Loomis (VP of Customer Success, Sisense)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Andrew Loomis , VP of Customer Success at Sisense , to explore how customer success leaders can rethink post-sales execution in an AI-shaped market. Andrew shares why CS teams need to move beyond cadence-based motions and focus more sharply on customer outcomes, predictive health scoring, onboarding risk, and multi-stakeholder alignment. He also breaks down how Sisense is using AI internally, why product expertise is becoming non-negotiable for CSMs, and how disciplined contracts can protect expansion while reducing churn risk.

June 4, 2026Episode 18943 min

Ep # 189: Why Post-Sales Messaging Matters More Than Launch Messaging ft. Fahad Aziz (Founder and CEO, PuppyDog)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Fahad Aziz , Founder & CEO of PuppyDog , to explore why product marketing is becoming one of the most important functions in SaaS growth. Fahad shares lessons from building and exiting Caremerge, explains why customer discovery still matters even in the AI era, and breaks down how faster product releases are forcing teams to rethink onboarding, adoption, customer education, and expansion. The conversation also covers why post-sale customer journeys deserve the same rigor as buyer journeys, how relevant content can reduce churn and increase usage, and why investors now care more about distribution speed than product ideas alone.

June 2, 2026Episode 18847 min

Ep # 188: The AI Metric Founders Should Stop Bragging About ft. Jeppe Schytte-Hansen (CEO & Co-Founder, Omnidocs)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Jeppe Schytte-Hansen , CEO and Co-founder of Omnidocs , to explore how enterprise documet automation is changing in the AI era, why complex industries like legal, recruitment, financial services, and public sector need deep workflow context, and how teams should think about AI pricing, customer success, implementation, and adoption when value is tied to usage, saved time, and business-critical output. They also discuss why customer success should sit across the whole company, how agent-to-agent workflows may reshape recruiting, why AI should help GTM teams identify the right accounts instead of flooding buyers with generic outreach, and why human connection, culture, curiosity, and physical events still matter more as automation becomes more common.

May 7, 2026Episode 18939 min

Ep # 187: 97% Trial-to-Paid, 21-Day Sales Cycles, and the New SaaS ROI Bar ft. Sara Wyman (CEO, Stackpack)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Sara Wyman , Founder & CEO at Stackpack , to explore how vendor management is changing as companies deal with AI spend, tool sprawl, renewal pressure, and the need for clearer ROI. Sara explains why finance teams are often the first wedge into an account, how Stackpack helps customers get fast visibility into contracts and spend, and why usage, engagement, and data under management are the clearest signs that a customer is getting value. The conversation also covers trial-to-paid conversion, close velocity, pricing shifts toward usage-based models, the growing messiness of the AI vendor market, and why human judgment still matters even as teams use AI to move faster. It is a practical episode on post-sale value, retention, expansion, and how modern B2B teams should think about software buying and customer adoption in an increasingly noisy market.

April 8, 2026Episode 18642 min

Ep # 186: Why Land and Expand Breaks Without Post Sales Discipline ft. Paige Tyrell (Chief Growth Officer & Co-Founder, Prefixbox AI)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Paige Tyrrell , Chief Growth Officer at Prefixbox , to explore how AI is reshaping e-commerce product discovery, why AI is not a substitute for broken go-to-market fundamentals, and what it really takes to make AI useful in sales and post-sales. They unpack the flood of AI tools hitting the market, the pressure on SaaS teams to drive efficiency instead of growth at any cost, and why strong positioning, messaging, ICP clarity, and focused workflows still matter more than any new agent. Paige also explains how Prefixbox is blending search, recommendations, and agentic experiences into a more conversational shopping journey, how customer education in e-commerce has changed over the last decade, and how her team thinks about land-and-expand growth, customer success ownership, experimentation, upsell signals, revenue impact, and long-term product stickiness in a noisy market.

March 25, 2026Episode 18844 min

Ep # 185: How Stronger Handoffs Create Better Retention Outcomes ft. Kelly McGuire (VP of Customer Success, Everstage)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Kelly McGuire , then VP of Customer Success at Everstage , to explore how revenue teams can turn commission management into better seller visibility, tighter operational discipline, and clearer board-level answers on what growth actually costs; Kelly explains why strong customer success starts before the handoff, why post-sales teams need “situational fluency” from sales context, why too many tools create noise instead of clarity, and how the best CS organizations stay grounded in a simple test: does the product help the customer make money, save money, or reduce risk, while using AI to cut manual work without losing the human connection that still drives trust, retention, and growth.

March 24, 2026Episode 18429 min

Ep # 184: How to Use Client Intelligence to Build Trust in Technical Sales ft. Julie Barberio (VP of Client Solutions, Sequence Inc.)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Ioanna Onasi sits down with Julie Barberio , VP of Client Solutions at Sequence Inc. , to explore how a 25-year marketing career, spanning McDonald's corporate PR to life sciences consulting, shapes a modern approach to client intelligence, trust-based selling, and brand loyalty. Their conversation covers relationship-driven sales in close-knit industries, the role of AI in pre-meeting research and buyer profiling, how Sequence built an in-house pharmaceutical training facility to solve the industry's looming talent gap, and why storytelling and initiative remain the most durable skills for young professionals entering a market increasingly shaped by AI.