StartupGTM.com | I help b2b founders hack traction | Profitable founder (YC)

Transforming a startup from early to repeatable sales is HARD.

If you’re a B2B founder with early sales, then you've done many things right to win your first customers.

BUT - to raise a round A, your startup will need to have a product that's ready to scale because it can be 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮.

To get repeatable sales - there are four blockers. 
 
You'll need to change each one from "not working" to "working": 
 
1️⃣ Consistently creating a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of conversations with customers 
 
2️⃣ Converting these conversations into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of first meetings 
 
3️⃣ Converting these meetings into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of trials 
 
4️⃣ Converting trials into a 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of deals. 
 
These blockers need to be removed 𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 - i.e. one by one. 
 
💡 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀.

—

I'm a former co-founder and CEO at ApolloShield - a profitable YC startup.

I work hands-on with B2B founders on turning their early sales into repeatable sales through a combination of disciplines:

1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Understanding the market, identifying target customers, and analyzing competitors.

2️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Defining how the product fits into the market and crafting compelling messages to appeal to the target audience.

3️⃣ 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Developing strategies for selling the product, including choosing sales channels and partnerships.

4️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Creating and executing campaigns to build brand awareness and generate leads.

5️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: Managing discovery and commercial discussions with clients and partners to get their business.

5️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Gathering customer feedback and continuously adapting the product and strategies accordingly.

6️⃣ 𝗜𝗧 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Building support systems to holistically orchestrate and manage your GTM efforts.

7️⃣ 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Developing a method to move forward quickly, iterate and get market feedback - doubling what works and tossing what doesn’t.

🚀 Let's connect and accelerate your startup together!

Nimo Shkedy

James Hanzimanolis

Co-Founder @ Erudite | Content Marketing Agency | GTM Leader | Startup Advisor

Co-founder @ Erudite. We're a content marketing agency with the goal of driving more inbound leads and helping startups and small SaaS build a brand through social media.

Founder

Today is my 30th birthday. I won't do a corny "30 things I learned" list, but I will say this:

Being 30 feels weird.

A part of me is bummed out.

I wanted to accomplish so much more by this point. I wanted to own my first home, crack my first $50K month, sign an enterprise client, speak at a big event, make Forbes 30u30, and purchase a car that costs more than an executive salary.

On the other hand, I'm pretty happy.

I moved my family to the nicest city in the country, I launched Erudite, created 80M impressions for clients, generated $1B in pipeline between all the roles I've held, all while having fun and making good money.

I've also become a girl dad of 2. Maybe that'll change with our 3rd on the way. But I try my best to be superdad and my kids love me for it.

So, like I said, mixed feelings.

Now I'm going to crush my 30s.

Excelsior!

Happy birthday to me 🎉

Generate 250K-1M impressions per month | Fractional Head of Content for GTM Tech

Fun news: I've been brought on as an advisor to The Swarm 🔆

When I first found out about The Swarm, I was a skeptic.

The idea of GTN (Go-To-Network) seemed stupid to me.

How far could relationship selling take me?
Should I spend time making it a complete pipeline channel?

My friend 🏄🏼‍♂️ Scott Leese thinks it's the future.

His words to me: "In 10 years, the easiest way to sell something to someone is by getting an intro through someone in your network."

Gave it a go for 30 days and compared the sales cycle from GTN to my cold calling, cold email, and cold DM campaigns. Here were the results:

- Cold call: 65 day sales cycle
- Cold email: 62 day sales cycle
- Cold DMs: 32 day sales cycle
- GTN: 18 day sales cycle

Know what this means?
Selling through your network will close deals 2x-3.5x faster.

Insane.

Every seller needs this in their arsenal.

S/O to Olivier Roth + David Connors. You built something special here. Excited to help you scale it.

Whenever you feel like you're failing, just think about my DoorDash delivery driver.

Not only did he deliver my froyo 12 miles in the wrong direction.

But he was running from the cops while doing it.

Things can always be worse.

It's 2:08AM and I'm grinding away.

In 4 hours, I'll be waking up to take 5 sales calls, 3,000+ cold calls, and getting through some client work.

For the past 2 weeks, I've been swamped.

Staying up after everyone else has fallen asleep is by best opportunity to get ahead. So that's what I'm doing - at least for tonight.

I don't take days off. And every day is 12+ hours of straight work.

Throughout the day, I still find the time to play with my kids, read books, study chess (I was f**king dominated by Shakir Nasim in Kade Hinkle's recent tournament), and make time for my wife.

Not sure who needs to hear this, but "work-life balance" isn't a thing when you're running a small agency.

Every day is full-blast.

A lot of my content is rage-baity and controversial. I'll fess up to it.

However...

The biggest lie on this platform are the mental health gurus. The ones who say things like:
- You should turn your phone off a 5PM
- You should get 8+ hours of sleep per night
- You should work out for 45min per day
- You should have a happy morning routine

Respectfully, screw you.
And f**k being happy.

You people aren't serious.

Little PSA to anyone thinking about starting a business: Bring the heat. Like 100%. Go ham.

It's impossible to make it any other way.

We're bringing hustle culture back in 2026, baby.

Agency owners, here's a scenario: Prospect says "We've tried out 3 different agencies and none of them worked out. You're a stronger fit and we'd like to work together." What do you do?

You've got a couple options.

1. Identify the red flag early and decline
2. Refer them to a friend
3. Accept

If you're like me, you've made the mistake (multiple times) and went with number 3. You accepted.

Bills need to pay themselves someway. And you start to convince yourself that maybe, just maybe, you'll be the first agency that works out.

Heads up: It never works out that way.

It's always the client who's the pain. And they will sabotage the work you do for them.

Why do they do this? I don't know.

But if you come to me and say you've worked with Nate Zroh, Caleb Lee, Logan Gott, Daniel Kading 🔶, Jeremiah Calica, or Frank Velasquez and tell me, "Yeah, they didn't do a good job."

I won't believe you. And I'll put you on my "DO NOT WORK WITH" list.

Little piece of advice: If every agency you work with sucks, it's definitely you.

Rant over.

I have a dirty secret: I've been "applying" to 100+ W2 marketing roles each day. But when I get into the interview... I sell my agency service instead.

Works like a charm.

Not to mention you can do it at scale to book between 10-25 meetings/wk.

Here's how it works:

1. Find accounts hiring for a specific role (Use Floqer for this)
2. Find the hiring manager for that role (Use Floqer again)
3. Find their emails through a waterfall (Use Floqer again)
4. Find relevant info and personalize the email (Use Floqer again)
5. Send the emails using Instantly + Maildoso (Use Floqer's API to automate)

The email usually reads like this 👇

Subject: The content marketing role for [REDACTED]
Body: Hey John,

Saw the open role on LinkedIn for the content marketer you're hiring for.

Looks like Joseph, Amy, and Von have all been more active on LinkedIn lately. The job description mentioned we'd be writing for some of the C-suite team. Have you already picked someone?

Would love to work with you guys if you were up for it. I've implemented content strategies across 15 orgs.

Up to chat?

**
That's an actual email. And it was written by AI inside of Floqer.

Absolute insanity.

I get how this could feel sketchy or unethical.

But the fact is that it works.

Would you run this playbook?

I’m building an entire GTM tech stack for Erudite to replace Notion, Outreach, & DocuSign. Here are 49 things you can build with Replit's new mobile app builder:

> LinkedIn post writer
> X post generator
> X automation tool
> Social content scheduler
> Social signal tracking
> Engagement alert system
> Viral post analyzer
> Comment reply generator
> Creator content calendar
> Founder ghostwriting tool
> Profile optimization tool
> Hook library manager
> Content idea generator
> AI content repurposer
> Newsletter writer
> Blog publishing tool
> Lead magnet builder
> Landing page builder
> Mobile lead capture app
> ICP grader
> Website visitor identifier
> Prospect research app
> LinkedIn profile scraper
> Company research tool
> Tech stack detector
> Job change alerts
> Buying intent tracker
> Contact enrichment tool
> Email verification tool
> Automated email tech
> Cold email writer
> Email personalization engine
> Email sequencing tool
> Follow-up automation
> Reply classification system
> Lead scoring engine
> Lead routing logic
> CRM-lite system
> Deal notes app
> Pipeline viewer
> Forecast dashboard
> Client portal
> Proposal builder
> Contract generator
> E-signature flow
> Client reporting dashboard
> Revenue attribution tracker
> GTM experiment tracker
> Internal ops dashboards

The ability to build for mobile will change everything.

Introducing Mobile Apps by Replit
   
Building mobile apps usually means learning a specialized stack, wrestling with Xcode/Android Studio, certificates, and submission workflows. That’s a huge barrier for many.
   
Today, we’re removing it.
   
Here’s how you can go from idea to App Store in minutes:
1. Describe your idea in chat & get a React Native mobile app in minutes.
2. Scan a QR code to test your app on your phone.
3. Create an Apple Developer account.
4. Publish to the App Store directly from Replit
   
Your mobile apps can be fully functional from day one. You can integrate:
- Database
- Auth
- Integrations (OpenAI, Stripe, Twilio etc) & more
   
This launch was made possible by our partnership with Expo. Support for Play Store coming soon.

How to break into tech in 2019:

- Be likable
- Read a Chris Voss book
- Sound good on the phone
- Write human-sounding cold emails
- Learn how to use Hubspot + ZoomInfo


How to break into tech in 2026:

- Be a GTM engineer
- Use Clay, Instantly, and Orum
- Build an online brand (LinkedIn and/or X)
- Setup website traffic and social selling signals
- Create internal tools with lovable, Cursor, Replit
- Send 100K emails, 500+ LinkedIn DMs, 5K X DMs, 10K calls/mo


Both of these roles pay $50K base, by the way.

I use 3 vendors for email infra/domains: Maildoso, pre-warmed ones from Instantly, and [RETRACTED]. Domains from Maildoso were 1.9x-3.3x MORE LIKELY to receive replies.

I didn't understand this - so I asked Maildoso's founder, Nikita MAILDOSO.

Most email infra tools, vendors, and resellers suck for 1 reason.

They sell domains + inboxes and simply don't care about deliverability.

For those of you unfamiliar with cold email infra, let me explain: 
- A sh**ty infra = low deliverability
- Low deliverability = landing spam
- Landing in spam = worse results from email campaigns

There are 3 parts to a good cold email infra:
1. SPF: authorizes sending servers.
2. DKIM: signs your emails.
3. DMARC: tells inboxes how to handle failures.

All of which need to be configured for max deliverability.

Know what [REDACTED] is doing with this?
Nothin'.

And while I get how tempting it is to use the cheaper guys... just know that you're reply rates can easily drop from 4% to 1%.

That isn't just a 3% difference, by the way. It's a 75% reduction in email performance overall.

I'm officially cancelling all of my other vendor subscriptions and moving EVERYTHING to Maildoso.

taplio

The Battle

Nimo Shkedy

James Hanzimanolis

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The Battle

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James Hanzimanolis

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Engagements

Likes

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