Mark Kosoglow is the Co-Founder and CEO of Operator.ai, a company incubated by GTMfund. Mark was employee #1 at Outreach and former SVP of Global Sales, where he helped grow the company from zero to over $200 million in revenue. He is joined in this special edition podcast episode by Max Altschuler, Founder and General Partner of GTMfund.

Discussed in this Episode:

• The current state of sales and marketing tech, with too much automation leading to spam and prospects tuning out messages.
• The Great Ignore, the place we have reached where buyers are ignoring 90% of sales activity.
• How basic contact and account data has become commoditized and no longer provides a competitive advantage.
• The launch of Operator, its manifesto and mission.
• The founding story and team behind Operator, including Mark and Max's history of working together.
• Operator's unique approach to using AI for finding interesting insights to enable relevant, targeted outreach.
• Incubating a company within GTMfund.

Highlights:
(4:00) Mark's background at Outreach and the early days of sales automation.
(6:41) The problem with relying solely on basic contact and account data for outreach.
(8:41) How Operator uses AI to find unique insights for personalizing outreach
(14:01) The vision for Operator: going from 20 sales touches to book a meeting back down to 2.
(27:58) The founding story of Operator and how the team came together.
(32:47) Comparing Operator's approach to other sales tech tools and their shortcomings.
(38:00) The dangers of AI-powered spam and the need for more targeted, relevant outreach.

Guest Speaker Links (Mark Kosoglow):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkosoglow/

Host Speaker Links (Max Altschuler):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Sponsor:

• Brought to you by Attention. Attention’s AI-powered call recording platform ensures that your deals are executed flawlessly. It records your calls, generates next-step summaries, action items, and even creates scorecards for every single call, so your reps can continuously improve. But that’s just the beginning. Attention’s generalized insights allow you to ask any question across all of your conversations - think of it like ChatGPT for your sales calls. Attention also lets you build automated workflows tailored to your needs. For example, if a customer mentions they’re at risk of churning during a call, Attention can automatically loop in a sales director and solutions engineer to ensure that customer receives the full white-glove treatment, reducing churn and keeping your business thriving. Attention is helping companies onboard reps faster, increase the productivity of their existing teams, and giving revenue leaders unparalleled visibility into their pipelines—all while automating those tedious manual tasks.

The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders - the experts who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories - revealing what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.

This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund.
Visit gtmnow.com to see more content and subscribe.

Austin Hay is the Co-Founder of Clarify, a new intelligent CRM built as a platform that developers love. He is also a Partner and MarTech Teacher at Reforge, as well as a MarTech Advisor and GTM Investor at HBE Ventures. With a background leading marketing technology teams at high-growth startups like Ramp, Branch, and mParticle, Austin brings a wealth of expertise on the evolving MarTech and RevTech landscape.

Discussed in this Episode:

• The current state of MarTech and RevTech, and why we're headed for a "great contraction" after years of expansion.
• The future of CRMs and what a next-gen system should look like to unify data and provide more out-of-the-box functionality.
• Advice for founders and leaders on being selective with tools, focusing on a few things done well, and the importance of treating people with respect.
• Austin's journey building Clarify and his perspectives on brand, culture, and community.

Highlights:
(5:46) Why the MarTech and RevTech space is a "mess" right now.
(13:05) Fundamental building blocks for an effective GTM tech stack.
(21:15) The problem with how most companies are assembling their RevTech stack today.
(36:45) The future of CRMs as systems of action, not just systems of record.
(44:48) The most impactful lesson from Austin's career on how to treat people when they leave your company.
(52:25) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Austin thinks is bull$***.
(59:18) One thing that is working for Austin in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Austin Hay):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinahay/

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders - the experts who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories - revealing what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.

This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund.
Visit gtmnow.com to see more content and subscribe.

Leandra Fishman is the Chief Revenue Officer at Apollo.io, a leading go-to-market solution for sales and marketing teams. Apollo.io is one of the fastest-growing companies in SaaS, with 9x ARR growth since 2021 and currently valued at $1.6 billion. Leandra brings over 30 years of experience to Apollo.io. Most recently, Fishman was the CRO at Intercom, which during her tenure ranked No. 35 on the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100 List with over $200 million in annual revenue. Previously, as the SVP of Sales and Success for SendGrid, she led the company through a successful IPO and helped double its market cap in its first year as a public company. As an executive consultant, she has executed projects ranging from developing sales and marketing strategies for startups to creating business plans and serving in an advisory role for venture capitalist firms and board members.

Discussed in this Episode:

• Apollo's product-led growth (PLG) model and how it enables a great customer experience.
• Balancing self-serve and sales-assisted motions to drive growth across segments.
• The role of AI in enhancing sales productivity rather than replacing salespeople.
• Advice for salespeople on redefining success and being kind to yourself.
• Leandra's unconventional journey to becoming a CRO and lessons learned along the way.

Highlights:
(10:25) The power of Apollo's PLG model in driving growth.
(13:13) Balancing self-serve and sales-assisted motions.
(18:01) How larger deals can come through with minimal sales interaction in a PLG model.
(23:47) The future of AI in sales as an enhancement rather than replacement.
(29:46) Leandra's journey from starting in sales to becoming a CRO.
(44:15) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Leandra thinks is bull$***.(49:30) One thing that is working for Leandra in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Leandra Fishman):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leandra-fishman/

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Sponsors:

• Brought to you by Upland Altify. A leading provider of AI-enhanced sales solutions, Altify is designed to help revenue teams work smarter. This Salesforce-native suite of sales solutions empowers seller productivity, streamlines workflows, and uncovers hidden opportunities – all leading to significant revenue growth - learn more.
• Brought to you by IPS. Most recruiting firms fill an order, but IPS is a different breed of search firm. They dig into your business to understand its current state and the future vision and are relentlessly in pursuit of the very best leaders, sales people, marketers, and engineering talent out there.

The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders - the experts who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories - revealing what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.

This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund.
Visit gtmnow.com to see more content and subscribe.