David Fastuca

Growth Forum

We help you build pipeline and expand customers–faster. Growth Forum is a leading sales learning platform providing a continuous live learning solution for high-growth companies.
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The traditional education system has let B2B companies down, with a complete lack of formal, structured education in sales and go-to-market.
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It means 100 million+ people across the world are learning on the job, and every person responsible for revenue is at constant risk of missing their targets and often do.
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Growth Forum is solving this skills crisis by bringing together by teaching structured, live online courses with high learning design principles.

Growth Forum's "Sales OS" program has generated over 547 million in new deals for its members since launching in May 2023.

CEO & Co-Founder

"How To Sell" Podcast

I'm a proud co-host along with Luigi Prestinenzi of the "How To Sell" podcast, a top-rated business podcast. Each week, we discuss the world of B2B sales and how you can apply what's working to your business to win more deals.

Top 1.5% Business Podcast (Co-Host)

The Sales Playbook

A step-by-step playbook on how to create a sales operating system that creates a flood of qualified deals. Written By Luigi Prestinenzi & David Fastuca

The B2B Sales Playbook: Launching March 2025

Warmly,

Warmly is the first autonomous revenue orchestration platform purpose built for SMB sized revenue teams. The platform orchestrates metadata from sales enablement tools, B2B intent, and enrichment tools to identify, track, and connect with website visitors who are ready to convert. By automatically aggregating data and integrating insights from various platforms, Warmly orchestrates the most effective next step to drive qualified conversations for the sales team.

Investor & Advisor

Entrepreneurs'​ Organization

Board Member

Entrepreneurs' Organization, or EO, is one of the world's largest mastermind groups, enabling more than 13,000 like-minded entrepreneurs to learn from and help each other via online forums, events, and educational and leadership growth opportunities.

EO Member

The Startup Network

The Startup Network is Australia's largest startup network. No matter where you are in your journey as a startup founder, you can be sure to find the support you need with an amazing community of like-minded founders.

Sales Program Mentor & Coach

Locomote

Founding Shareholder

July 2020 - We aquired 100% of Locomote back from Travelport.com.

Locomote is a technology-led corporate travel agency. Streamlining everything to do with booking and managing business travel. Into one easy-to-use platform, backed by our 5-star travel agents.

CMO & Co-Founder

Post 100% sale in 2016 and staying on for a 2-year handover of Locomote to Travelport.com I left the business in 2018.

Post Acquisition

Travelport.com acquires the majority stake of Locomote and pivots business from a technology-led end-to-end travel company to a technology platform reselling it to travel agencies globally.

Locomote rebranded as Travelport Locomote and becomes a product within Travelport.com.

2015 - Travelport.com (NYSE: TVPT) acquires an additional 3% of Locomote.com.
2016 - Travelport.com (NYSE: TVPT) acquires the remaining 48% of Locomote.com.

Leading product strategy, technology, engineering teams, concept development and overall direction of the now Travelport Locomote.

Co-Founder / Chief Marketing & Experience Officer

2014 - Travelport.com (NYSE: TVPT) acquires 49% of Locomote.com.

Locomote was developed to change the current travel management landscape by empowering organisations to have complete control and visibility of their global travel programme and travel supply chain. 

A low cost, low touch solution which reduces the reliance on traditional bookings, Locomote creates a completely new automated and innovative solution for travel management.

With a global reach, built as a scalable platform, Locomote is the only truly corporate-specific travel platform in the market with access to the largest array of travel content.

Fathom (YC W21)

Founded by Richard White, Ex-Founder & CEO of UserVoice.com, Fathom is a free app that records, transcribes & highlights your calls so you can focus on the conversation instead of taking notes.

Advisor

Venezia FC

Investor & Shareholder

Melbourne Victory Football Club

CEO & Co-Founder, Growth Forum | Proven Sales Systems Add Up To 57% More Deals in 8 Weeks or Less.

I started my entrepreneurial journey at just twelve years old. 

Back then, I used the school computer lab to make my business cards, and I sold designs to friends and family.

I’ve been obsessed with turning pressure into productivity ever since.

As the CEO & Co-Founder of Growth Forum and former Co-Founder of Locomote, I’ve learned what it takes to scale a business under pressure.

I know the challenges founders face.

You’re juggling endless tasks while also being relied on to prospect new leads and close deals.

Sales is the lifeblood of your business, after all.

That’s why we built our Sales OS program.

It’s a step-by-step blueprint for rapidly growing your sales while slashing your working hours in half.

Our goal is to equip you with the strategies and tactics that have helped countless businesses grow and thrive, even amidst challenging economic conditions.

I bet you're thinking:

“Will these methods work for me? Are online courses and coaching actually effective?”

The short answer: Yes. Otherwise, I would be in trouble ;-)

Our tailored approach meets your unique challenges and delivers real, tangible results.

So if you’re a SaaS or B2B founder ready to overcome sales hurdles, build a repeatable system, and create an overflowing pipeline…

👉 Head to my Featured Section and book your Free Sales Audit

Your team won’t do what you say.
They’ll do what you repeat.

Sales leadership today is not about more pressure.
It is about consistent direction.

Most GTM leaders still believe performance drops because of low motivation.

In reality, it drops because there is no operating rhythm.

I worked with a VP of Sales who adjusted strategy every few days.

The team wasn’t resisting change. They were reacting to chaos.

No one knew what “good execution” looked like on a daily level.

We rebuilt the foundation.

Here’s the exact structure:
• One clear daily focus for every rep
• 3-minute morning syncs using deal signals from Coach Pilot
• Weekly 1:1s based on actual behavior, not anecdotes

Within 3 weeks, pipeline velocity increased.
Call quality improved.
Forecast accuracy stabilized.

Progress is not the result of big pushes.
It is built through daily repetition.

That’s what real sales leadership looks like.
Clarity. Rhythm. And the discipline to protect both.

If you want the exact framework we used, DM me or comment CLOSE and I’ll send it to you for free.

CEO @ Coach Pilot • 2 SaaS Exits (75M Value) • Building an AI Coaching Agent That Can Help You Do The Same.

You think your team is underperforming.
But it’s not about effort. Or talent. Or product knowledge.

Here’s what reps are actually missing:
1) Clear next steps
→ Most reps leave calls with vague ideas, not committed actions.
→ Your system should make “what happens next” painfully obvious.

2) Buyer signals
→ Deals don’t stall because buyers disappear.
→ They stall because reps miss what buyers actually do.

3)Timing alignment
→ You don’t lose to better products.
→ You lose to better timing.

4) Follow-up rhythm
→ Top reps don’t “remember” to follow up.
→ They operate inside a rhythm that never lets momentum die.

5) Not your product
→ They’re not buying your CRM, your deck, or your logo.
→ They’re buying a system that helps them move 𝘯𝘰𝘸.

Most B2B teams close just 1 out of 5 deals.

Not because reps don’t try, but because they operate inside broken systems.

In SaaS, high-ticket deals now take up to 6 months and hundreds of interactions.

Here’s what this could look like for you.
You close 1 out of 3.
Your sales cycle drops from 6 months to 3.
Your reps stop guessing and start following clear instructions at the right time.

If you want to apply this framework and system, comment CLOSE and I’ll show you exactly how to do it for free.

“Let’s regroup next week”
= buyer slipped away.

That one sentence has killed more deals than bad demos.

Calls end without direction or urgency.
Everyone assumes the deal is safe. It isn’t.
Teams miss small shifts in intent.

They don’t act when the buyer starts pulling back.
The deal stalls. Follow-ups get ignored.
By the time you react, it’s too late.

One team had 17 mid-stage deals.

Coach Pilot flagged 11 at risk based on live signals.

We showed them exactly when to shift the ask or change timing.

Half of those deals closed.

What made the difference was a simple shift in how they ran the calls:
• Detect hesitation early
• Shift focus mid-call
• Confirm next steps before the call ends

Close rate jumped from 19% to 38% in 21 days.

Comment Coach Pilot or DM me and I’ll show you how it works in your environment including which deals you can restart or re-engage that you don’t even realize are still alive.

Growth Ghost

Growth Ghost: the leading coaching program for aspiring freelancer writers, 9-to-5ers, and digital writers. Teaching writers how to land high paying clients, scale their online ghostwriting business, and build a life they no longer feel the need to escape from.

50+ students served. Multi 7 figures in revenue generated for students. 

https://www.growthghost.com/optin1736208224612

Partner

Ghostlii Inc

The leading ghostwriting agency for founders, coaches, and personal brands.
50+ clients served. 200,000,000+ total impressions. 7 figures of revenue generated through social media content.
https://ghostlii.com/

Co-Founder

Centre for Arts and Technology

College Instructor

College teacher turned ghostwriter | Scaling founders, coaches, and consultants to $100K+ /mo | Writing to build wealth and better self | 98,000 on Twitter (X)

Taylin John Simmonds

I didn’t start believing in myself because I had results. I started believing in myself because I ran out of reasons not to try.

Back in 2022, all I wanted was to make a living as a creative writer.

Not a novelist or a journalist.

Just someone who could write online and get paid for it (if it was even possible).

But everyone around me was saying the same thing:

"Writers don’t make real money."

Still, I kept seeing people on Twitter doing it, and a small part of me hoped that if they could pull it off, maybe I could too.

So I gave myself permission to write for one year straight.

After work.
On weekends.
After eight-hour days teaching college classes.

And I did all of that without earning a single dollar for 6 months.

No clients.
No validation.
Not even much traction on my posts.

Just a lot of self-doubt, 5-9 exhaustion, and the constant fear that I was wasting my time.

Then another ghostwriter referred me a client (thank god).

On the call, the client agreed to pay me fifty cents per follower.

When the Stripe invoice came through for $3,000, it pretty much broke my mind.
It was more than I made in a month as a teacher.

And that moment was all it took...

I finally had proof this path could work (for me).

Within 30 days, I landed two more clients and hit around $10K per month.

Looking back, the biggest shift wasn’t the money.

It was realizing that when you don’t have evidence something will work for you, you have to borrow evidence from people it already worked for.

That borrowed belief keeps you going long enough to get your own proof.

And once you get your first yes, it gets a lot harder to quit.

—Taylin

♻️ Repost. Follow Taylin John Simmonds for more on how to earn as an AI assisted ghostwriter without sacrificing income or your love of hard shell tacos.

College teacher turned AI assisted ghostwriter | Helping writers, creatives, and storytellers earn on the internet | 2 billion impressions | $4,000,000+ revenue generated | All in on Substack

In the last 60 days, I've gained 943 newsletter subs from organic content on Substack. No lead magnets. No trendjacking. Here's how I did it:

Most people on LinkedIn have no idea how f*cking incredible Substack is right now.

It's like LinkedIn 2023, only better because you attract subscribers instead of followers.

Imagine this:

You write a short social post—just like you would on LinkedIn—and it gets you 500 newsletter subscribers.

No lead magnet.
No DMs.
No funnels.

You write a newsletter that goes semi-viral, and it brings you new 80 subscribers, $1,000 in customer sales, and 2 podcast invites.

All from a newsletter that went viral on a social media timeline.

Then you launch a paid newsletter, where people happily pay you for your deepest work, and suddenly you’re earning $100 per day from content you’re already writing.

This isn’t theoretical.

Those are all real wins from my Substack.

I’m growing faster on Substack than I ever did on LinkedIn—just by repurposing my old content and adapting it to Substack’s culture.

My newsletters are going viral.

They’re attracting new clients, podcast invites, and collaborations every week.

My paid newsletter alone is on track to gross $4,000 this month.

This is insane.

If you’re a business owner, get on Substack.
If you’re a creator, get on Substack.
If you’re selling courses or digital products, get on Substack.

This platform is insane and it’s still early.

If you’re thinking about migrating, but aren't sure how Substack works, just comment "Substack" below.

I'll shoot over my free growth guide so you can make the most of Substack while it's easy.

Because once everyone figures it out, the easy growth window closes.

—Taylin

How to grow fast on LinkedIn. Don't. Just write on Substack instead. In 30 days, I gained 729 newsletter subs + $3,000 with a paid newsletter.

It got harder to grow fast on LinkedIn over the past year.

So I ran a five-month experiment to see what would happen if I went all-in on Substack, tried to grow, and launched a paid newsletter.

What happened surprised me.

Once I figured out how the platform worked, I started gaining 500–700 newsletter subscribers per month organically.

Think about that.

When was the last time you pulled 500+ newsletter subscribers on LinkedIn without a viral lead magnet or trendjacking?

This was all organic.
No lead magnets.

Just repurposed content from LinkedIn & X.

My most viral Substack post was literally a LinkedIn post I copied over. 
It brought in around 100 subscribers by itself.

If you’re already writing LinkedIn posts, there’s zero reason not to post them there and let the platform hand you free subscribers.

Then I launched a paid newsletter.

In 30 days, 48 people subscribed.

The dashboard says $6,260 annualized, and the actual cash received was around $2,000 USD.

But here’s the wild part:

People started DMing me asking for other things they could buy.

Now they want me to start a writing community.
I sold $1,000 worth of ghostwriting courses I don’t even have publicly available.
I booked 2 consulting calls worth $3,000–$5,000 each.

So in one month of a paid newsletter, I’ll probably end up with $3,000–$7,000 of additional revenue—completely outside of LinkedIn.

This is why I’m posting about Substack so aggressively.

It’s one of the best attention arbitrage opportunities on the internet right now.

It feels like early Twitter.
It feels like early LinkedIn.
And people on LinkedIn are completely sleeping on it.

They’re not growing on Substack.
They’re not using a paid newsletter as an intro product to sell courses, coaching, or services.

It’s insane.

And the excuse is always:

“I don’t have time. I’m focused on LinkedIn.”

That’s exactly what I used to say—right before LinkedIn got hard.

I’m not making that mistake again.

If you try Substack for 30 days, you’ll be shocked at how much faster you grow your audience and your business.

I put together a free Substack growth guide—you shouldn’t have to pay for the basics. 
I’ll link it at the bottom of this post.

I’m going to keep FOMO’ing you into existence until you finally get on this platform and take advantage of it.

You probably have 6–12 months.

Stop grinding on LinkedIn for 100 followers a month.
At least give Substack a shot.

Free Substack growth guide: https://lnkd.in/gffnDFcD

—Taylin

I just learned this crazy idea from a Harvard Psychiatrist: It’s called Cognitive Drain. And it’s why most people are exhausted 24/7.

Every single:

* Undone task
* Unrealized goal
* Unfinished project

Is causing your brain to leak mental energy.

Basically, your brain is a dusty PC running Windows 99 with 100 tabs open.

No wonder most people are so burnt out.

They're not tired because of working too much.

You’re tired because of *thinking* about too much.

Psychiatrist, Dr. K says there are only two ways to get your energy back:

1) Relieve - finish, delegate, or delete a task

2) Grieve - accept you'll never do it and let it go (goodbye my dream of being a famous DJ)

Grieving might sound dramatic, but it's what unburdens your mind.

If you’re still clinging to a version of yourself who “should” have achieved something by now, that’s energy trapped in a closed loop.

If you're still day dreaming about a goal you haven't worked towards in years, that's wasted focus and mental bandwidth.

Exhaustion doesn’t only come from doing too much.

It comes from carrying too much sh*t in your head.

You might not need to rest more.

Just try thinking less. Committing less. And grieving more (I recommend a weekly journaling practice).

It's the only way to free up bandwidth for what truly matters.

—Taylin

♻️ Repost. Follow Taylin John Simmonds for more on how to earn as an AI assisted ghostwriter without sacrificing income or your love of hard shell tacos.

I have 37,892 LinkedIn followers. I earn more per month from my 5,724 subs on Substack.

What? How?!

Too many people still believe the “big audience = big income” myth.

I did too.

I optimized for LinkedIn virality earlier this year.
I wrote posts I didn’t like.
I told myself the money would show up once the numbers got big enough.

Spoiler:
It never did.

I didn't realize what actually happens when you chase audience size:

You create content for dopamine, not depth.
You grow followers, not trust.

You’re “known,” but not believed.

And without belief, nobody buys.
Nobody invests.

Nobody respects you as an authority.

So I decided to try a different strategy on Substack and this is what I learned:

You don’t need a big audience.
You need high trust per follower.

Because one person who trusts you is worth more than a hundred who barely register your existence.

I have 100,000 followers on X. 
37,892 on LinkedIn.

I have 5,724 subscribers on Substack.

Guess where most of my money comes from?

Substack.

Because that’s where I write what I actually care about:
Creating your life's work.

That’s where I build trust instead of reach:
Publishing hour long podcasts (you might like them).

And trust converts at a level many “big audience” people never experience.

When someone trusts you, they buy the expensive thing.

They tell their friends.
They get excited to work with you.

You don’t need thousands of customers.
You need a few hundred believers.

Stop trying to get famous.
Start trying to get trusted.

That's the real game where you can actually win.

PS. In the past 30 days, I got 700 new newsletter subscribers from organic content on Substack.

If you don't want to miss out, here's a free guide on how to do the same:
https://lnkd.in/gffnDFcD

—Taylin

taplio

The Battle

David Fastuca

Taylin John Simmonds

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreDavid Fastuca's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTaylin John Simmonds's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

David Fastuca

Taylin John Simmonds

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}David Fastuca's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTaylin John Simmonds's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDavid Fastuca's LinkedIn Performance