The GTMnow Podcast

Emir Atli (Co-founder and CRO of HockeyStack) joins GTMnow to share how go-to-market is shifting in the AI era — from fragmented tools and GTM sprawl to unified, AI-native platforms built on a single data foundation.

Originally known for attribution and market intelligence, HockeyStack is evolving into a central operating system for go-to-market, spanning marketing, sales, and post-sales through AI agents, blueprints, and an execution layer.

We also explore weekly GTM sprints, founder-led content as a pipeline driver (even with <100 followers), and the long-game mindset behind building a generational company from age 20 after YC.

In this episode, we cover:- Why you can’t layer AI onto legacy GTM — you must rebuild GTM around AI
- The “sprawl crisis” and why siloed tools break without a single data foundation
- HockeyStack’s evolution from attribution to a unified GTM operating system
- AI agents, blueprints, and the shift from reporting to execution
- Why consolidation is moving from tools to full buyer journey control
- The case for a winner-takes-all GTM platform
- How AI increases leverage across reps, managers, and pipeline reviews
- Weekly GTM sprints and faster iteration cycles in the AI era
- Founder-led content as a core growth engine and pipeline driver
- LinkedIn as a top channel for MQL-to-opportunity and deal acceleration
- The 10-year mindset, YC lessons, and building a generational company

Guest links:
Emir Atli - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiratli/
- HockeyStack - Website: https://www.hockeystack.com/
- HockeyStack - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hockeystack/

Host links:
- Sophie Buonassisi - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/
- Sophie Buonassisi - X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuona
- Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com

Sponsors:Granola - the AI notepad that turns meetings into action by capturing context, decisions, and next steps automatically. Head to https://www.granola.ai/?via=gtmfund&dub_id=ytmcNnCjtlqCbgH5 and get three months free with the code GTMFUND.

Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/
Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! https://gtmnow.com/

Highlights:
00:00 – The GTM sprawl crisis and why AI breaks in siloed systems
01:50 – From attribution to a GTM operating system
02:41 – Launching AI agents, blueprints, and the execution layer in 2026
03:57 – Building a single data foundation across the buyer journey
05:09 – Why GTM must be rebuilt around AI (not layered with tools)
06:23 – Doing "more with more" and increasing management leverage
07:30 – Tool consolidation vs controlling the buyer journey
08:48 – 2026–2028: the great GTM consolidation wave
09:01 – The case for a winner-takes-all GTM platform
10:10 – Moat: data foundation + application layer
11:35 – Expanding horizontally across marketing, sales, and post-sales
14:28 – Running GTM in weekly sprints like an engineering org
14:46 – Content as a core investment and distribution strategy
15:26 – Why connected TV works for B2B brand trust
16:43 – Faster GTM iteration cycles in the AI era
17:47 – LinkedIn as the top pipeline and opportunity channel
18:12 – Product stories, personal stories, and data stories in content
21:02 – How founders carve out time to create content
22:43 – Generating first customers from LinkedIn with <100 followers
23:45 – Founding journey: pivoting into market intelligence
25:37 – YC lesson: make something people love before scaling
27:18 – The 10-year commitment mindset from YC advice
30:13 – Executive coaching and founder bottlenecks
31:53 – In-person culture and competing in the AI era
33:26 – Whiteboarding interviews vs AI-generated case studies
34:35 – Final advice: build a good business and enjoy the process

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]
GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/

Amanda “Robby” Robson (Founder of Modern Technical Fund) joins GTMnow to break down how she evaluates companies at the very earliest stages and why discipline matters more than ever in today’s market.

Amanda has spent over a decade in venture before launching Modern Technical Fund, investing across verticals ranging from security and compliance to developer tools at firms like Norwest and Cowboy Ventures. Her investment thesis is centered on backing elite technical founders early and helping them translate deep engineering talent into real products, real customers, and real momentum.

In this conversation, we unpack how Amanda thinks about founder quality, market timing, and risk when there’s limited data and plenty of noise, which is more critical than ever in an AI-heavy investing environment.

Guest Links
Amanda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-robson-7227685b/
Amanda’s Twitter: https://x.com/robby_mtf
Modern Technical Fund’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-technical-fund/
Modern Technical Fund website: https://moderntechnicalfund.com/

Host links:
Max - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler/
Max - X: https://x.com/HackItMax
Paul - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsirving/
Paul - X: https://x.com/PaulGTM
Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com

Brought to you by: AngelList
From starting as a small, operator-led rolling fund, to evolving to an institutional platform, AngelList has been a core partner in every phase of GTMfund’s growth. Their software-first fund admin infrastructure allowed us to scale without sacrificing agility — from onboarding hundreds of LPs seamlessly to handling compliance, capital calls, and reporting as our fund size evolved.

As we expanded from Fund I to Fund II, AngelList took care of the back-office operations, allowing us to stay focused on what matters most: investing in world-class founders and building the strongest go-to-market network in venture.
They’ve scaled with us across funds and into the future.
If your fund is growing in size or complexity, check them out at www.angellist.com/gtmfund.

Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/
Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! https://gtmnow.com/

Highlights:
00:00 – Why Modern Technical Fund exclusively backs technical founders
02:15 – What actually defines a “technical founder” beyond coding ability
03:45 – Why product judgment and customer instinct matter early
05:05 – How early teams split engineering and go-to-market roles
07:10 – When investor advice helps and when it gets in the way
09:05 – Why calibrating the hiring bar matters more than providing playbooks
12:40 – How network-driven support helps founders see what “great” looks like
15:45 – Why valuation discipline sets the bar in today’s market
17:10 – When first-time founders become too risky at certain prices
19:40 – How early-stage defensibility often comes down to the team
27:20 – Why TAM momentum matters more than static market size
30:30 – How small markets quietly turn into billion-dollar categories
39:55 – What separates real AI companies from AI theater
41:40 – Why infrastructure and data tools benefit most from AI tailwinds

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]
GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/

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Archana Agrawal (President of Intercom) joins GTMnow to share how Intercom (founded in 2011) successfully restructured its product, pricing, and go-to-market to become AI-native at a speed and scale most legacy SaaS companies haven’t achieved.

Their agent, Fin, now handles 80%+ of support volume, resolves 1M customer issues per week, and has grown from $1M to $100M+ ARR with a $0.99 outcome-based pricing model backed by up to a $1M performance guarantee if resolution targets aren’t met.

In this episode, we cover:- Why customer support is fundamentally a 24/7 business

- How Fin now handles 80%+ of customer queries through automation
- Why human empathy often breaks down in real-world support workflows
- How AI makes instant, individualized service possible for the first time
- Why Intercom put a million-dollar guarantee behind its resolution rate
- What it takes to confidently price software on outcomes
- Why the future of support is humans + AI

Guest links:

- Archana Agrawal - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/archana-agrawal/

- Intercom - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/intercom/

- Intercom’s Fin Agent: https://fin.ai/

Host links:
- Sophie Buonassisi - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/
- Sophie Buonassisi - X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuona
- Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com

Sponsors:

HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale. Learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com/

Granola - the AI notepad that turns meetings into action by capturing context, decisions, and next steps automatically. Head to https://www.granola.ai/?utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=gtmfund&utm_campaign=intercom-episode  and get three months free with the code GTMFUND.

Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/

Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! https://gtmnow.com/

Highlights:
00:00 – Why Intercom went all-in on AI
03:23 – What Fin is and how it changes customer support
05:27 – How Fin scaled to a 67% resolution-rate
06:38 – The thinking behind 99¢ outcome-based pricing
08:54 – Why customers don’t want to pay for activity
09:10 – How outcome-based pricing aligns incentives
09:57 – What changed for sales, success, and revenue operations
15:10 – How Intercom thinks about forward-deployed engineers
16:22 – Why the future is humans + AI
18:56 – The real moat: product feedback loops at scale
19:32 – Why Intercom put a million-dollar guarantee behind results
23:29 – Why enablement is now the GTM bottleneck
32:24 – From $1M to nearly $100M: what Fin’s growth reveals
38:26 – Hiring in a world with no playbooks
42:20 – How Archana learns from podcasts, books, and customers

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]

GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/

Lou Shipley (three-time CEO, Harvard Business School professor, and author of Unlikely Entrepreneurs) joins GTMnow to break down why most founders struggle to turn good ideas into great companies.

Lou has led companies through acquisitions, teaches sales and go-to-market at Harvard, and has spent decades studying what actually separates companies that scale from those that stall.

In this conversation, we unpack why understanding customer pain and learning how to sell are still the two most important founder skills, especially as product moats decline and go-to-market becomes the real differentiator.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Why understanding customer pain matters more than having a great idea

- Why early selling should optimize for learning, not revenue

- Why founders can’t outsource sales too early

- How distribution becomes a competitive advantage at scale

- What makes “unlikely entrepreneurs” outperform expectations

- Why small, high-quality teams beat large organizations

- Why churn is a symptom, not the root problem

- How product-market fit quietly changes as companies grow

- Why founders must evolve from heroic sellers to system builders

- How culture becomes a real go-to-market asset
Lou also shares lessons from teaching sales at Harvard, profiling 13 unlikely entrepreneurs, and working with founders who realized too late that they were building the wrong company for the wrong customer.

If you’re a founder, operator, or investor trying to avoid costly early mistakes and build a company that actually scales, this episode will give you a clearer mental model for what matters most.

Timestamps:

00:00 – What actually makes a company great

00:26 – Why early selling is about learning, not revenue

01:47 – Why founders misunderstand customer pain

02:06 – “If you build it, they will come” is a lie

02:33 – Distribution as the real moat

02:58 – What makes an “unlikely entrepreneur” succeed

06:15 – Why age and experience increase founder success

07:01 – Curiosity, coachability, and risk elimination

09:29 – Why founders can’t outsource sales too early

15:26 – Pattern recognition vs short-term ARR

21:10 – Founder-led sales vs scalable systems

29:12 – Leadership, culture, and delegation

33:18 – Founder evolution from $1M to $100M

38:24 – When product-market fit starts to break

39:15 – Why churn is a lagging indicator

39:54 – Why small teams outperform large ones

44:22 – Lessons from Unlikely Entrepreneurs

45:23 – Final advice for founders

Sponsors:
HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale. Learn more at hockeystack.com
Guest links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loushipley/X: https://twitter.com/loushipleyHost (Sophie Buonassisi) links:LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuonaNewsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.comHost (GTMnow) links: https://gtmnow.com
Follow us on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/
Follow us on X (Twitter):
https://x.com/GTMnow_
Follow us on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGQM23b5lZbcfLtHAe87J_A
Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_
Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/

Healey Cypher (multi-time founder and CEO of BoomPop) joins GTMnow to unpack one of the fastest growing channels for company growth: in-person events.

As AI floods digital channels with perfectly personalized messages, trust is becoming harder to earn online. Healey explains why events, dinners, and in-person experiences are becoming a premium GTM channel, not a nice-to-have, and how founders can use them intentionally for distribution, alignment, and acquisition.

In this episode, we discuss:
- Why in-person events are becoming a premium GTM channel in an AI-first world

- How founders can de-risk distribution before building the product

- The most common internal missteps that derail startups early

- Why offsites are the new HQ for remote and hybrid teams

- How to design offsites that drive alignment, not just fun

- What makes a dinner actually work — including overlooked details like acoustics

- How teams use events for customer acquisition and partnerships

- Why kindness and positivity can be a real leadership advantage

Healey also shares a powerful insight from Sam Altman that reframes how we should think about AI’s impact on trust and human connection.

If you’re interested in scaling events as a growth channel, this episode will give you all the details you need and an understanding of what is working in today’s world.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Why founders underestimate distribution

03:30 – Product vs distribution: what actually matters early

06:45 – Why most startups fail from internal misalignment

10:30 – Culture, communication, and focus as scaling constraints

14:40 – Hybrid work broke alignment

17:45 – Why offsites are becoming the new HQ

21:30 – Events as a go-to-market strategy

25:00 – AI, outbound fatigue, and inbox trust collapse

28:40 – “In-person experiences are becoming a premium”

32:30 – How to use events for customer and partner acquisition

36:15 – What makes a high-impact event vs a wasted one

39:50 – Dinners, summits, and unforgettable experiences

43:30 – Leadership, kindness, and “don’t be a jerk”

47:40 – Mental state as a competitive advantage

52:30 – Final reflections and advice for founders

Sponsors:

HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale. Learn more at hockeystack.com
Guest links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healeycypher/?hl=enHealey’s podcast: https://www.dontbeajerkpodcast.com/
Mentioned Resources:

Host (Sophie Buonassisi) links:
X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuonaNewsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.comHost (GTMnow) links: https://gtmnow.com
Follow us on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/
Follow us on X (Twitter):
https://x.com/GTMnow_
Follow us on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGQM23b5lZbcfLtHAe87J_A
Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_
Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/