Sriharsha Guduguntla

CEO at Hyperbound (YC S23) | Helping marketing leaders build pipeline with AI at scale

Call me Sai! I'm the Co-Founder & CEO of Hyperbound. I'm a YCombinator Founder (S23) who's interested in startups and the intersection of AI and sales and marketing. Currently building next-generation GTM tools at https://hyperbound.ai. 🚀 

I'm a self-learned full-stack engineer and designer with experience building software for 12+ years.

http://sriharshaguduguntla.com

Member

🚀 Thrilled to welcome Ece Uyanik to Hyperbound as our Founding Mid-Market Account Executive.

It's only been a week, and she's absolutely crushing it.

She ran her first discovery call on her own just 3 DAYS in to the job!

A few fun facts about her:
- Ex-pro equestrian + show jumper (for 12 years) 🐎
- Amateur chef who's convinced she can cook pretty much anything at this point 👩‍🍳
- Proud rescue-pet parent to 2 cats and a border collie 🐱🐱🐶
- Moved from Istanbul to the U.S. at 18 🇹🇷

From Day 1, Ece impressed us with how quickly she understood both the product and the problems we’re solving for customers.

One week in:
- 3 new inbound deals already in her pipeline
- Running her first discovery call all on her own 3 days in
- Shadowed over 20 sales calls throughout the week
- Strategizing with our Account Managers on the sales to post-sales hand-off
- Getting ready to travel a ton with the team this year

This is exactly what founding AE energy looks like.

Can't wait to watch her continue to thrive and help shape how we sell and scale at Hyperbound.

👉🏽 Want to join the team? We're hiring for 2 Enterprise AEs to join us in our SF office right now! Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gEfuMHeh

CEO at Hyperbound (YC S23) | Building AI Sales Roleplay Simulations to upskill GTM teams

Last week, I made one of the most courageous marketing budget decisions in Hyperbound history: deploying the largest single marketing expense in 1 day, $280,000, as we double down on serving Enterprise and moving up-market. 

And this is just the beginning of a massive year ahead.

A year ago, spending this much on marketing in a single day would have been unthinkable. 

We were still earning trust, proving fundamentals, and making sure the product truly delivered. 

This year feels different. We're not afraid to make real bets.

We invested it into what will become the backbone of our 2026 marketing strategy.

Last year was about proving Hyperbound works in the real world. 

This year is about putting our customers at the center and letting outcomes speak because the outcomes are real.

Here are some of our top customer wins in the past year:

- Reduced ramp times by ~30–50%
- Increased meetings booked by nearly 300% for two customers within just 2 months of implementing Hyperbound
- Certified 2,500 reps on 27 new products across 5 different languages in a single month (vs ~6 months previously)
- Increased average win rates by ~7% across multiple customers
- Helped a Fortune 500 launched their biggest product in over a decade across 3,000 reps successfully
- Saved 10+ hours per month per manager for one of our earliest customers
- Cut sales hiring evaluation time by ~33% for a rapidly growing customer

These aren't vanity metrics. They're execution improvements that compound.

In 2026, it's all about how real teams, real operators, and how real results actually get built.

This investment isn't about being louder.

It's about being more confident in what our customers are accomplishing with us.

----
👉🏽 If you're curious about how enterprise teams are deploying Hyperbound at scale, DM me or book time with our team at https://lnkd.in/gGP-wTnW

Had a chance to speak at my alma mater yesterday, University of California, Berkeley at the quarterly UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) BMOE Bootcamp led by Gigi Wang!

4.5 years ago, I was sitting in those same seats, hoping to become an entrepreneur one day, trying to absorb as much as I could from others that were years ahead of me. 

It was surreal being back telling my story over the last 2.5 years building Hyperbound with my co-founder, Atul Raghunathan, and the roller coaster ride that it's been. 

Hearing how students are thinking about their future and the evolution of entrepreneurship in the world of AI was also very eye opening.

The theme of the talk was around the importance of motivation behind entrepreneurship.

The #1 reason why startups die is lack of motivation, the founders lose conviction and it falls apart.

If there's one thing I've learned since starting this company, your resilience during the lowest moments is what sets you apart. 

And we're just getting started, we have big dreams we're chasing here!

#GoBears #Cal #UCBerkeley #SCET

🚨 We’re kicking off the new year on the lookout for 2 Enterprise Account Executives in San Francisco: $300K OTE + quarterly accelerators + real upside at Hyperbound (not remote)

Our AEs, ☠️ Belal Batrawy and Isaac Hong, were already over quota this year with a quarter still to go. Both have put up $1M+ months, are closing the largest Fortune 100 logos of their careers, hitting accelerators, and taking home 6-figure bonus checks along the way.

Since launching Hyperbound 23 months ago, we’ve:

- Grown almost entirely through inbound + word of mouth
- Raised a $15M Series A
- Posted back-to-back $1M months last quarter
- Closed Fortune 10 and Fortune 100 customers on 1,000+ seat enterprise rollouts
- Gone from $0 → 7-figure ARR in 11 months (founder-led sales, team of 4)
- Won 90%+ of competitive head-to-head deals
- Built a brand-new category of sales tech that didn’t exist pre-2024
- Scaled from 9 people at the start of the year to 20+ today, with 30 in sight

Who we’re looking for:
- 5+ years of closing experience, with a proven enterprise track record (and strong mid-market wins)
- Someone hungry to land Fortune 1000 accounts
- A strategic seller who wants to help shape the sales motion directly with the founders (Atul and me)
- Someone excited to help define the next major category in sales tech
- Willing to relocate to San Francisco if not already in the Bay Area

⚠️ This is an in-office role: 5 days/week in our SF office. Not remote.

We plan to fill both seats by the end of this month. DM me and apply here → https://lnkd.in/gEfuMHeh

Excited to welcome Luke Quesnell to Hyperbound as a Founding Mid-Market Account Executive, and he’s already off to an incredible start!

He'll be helping us build strong relationships with customers, traveling a lot with the team this year, and playing a key role in shaping how we sell as we scale.

When I first met Luke, he was willing to go to lengths to work hard, and he had a strong track record at Edpuzzle as one of their Founding AEs there. 

What stood out immediately was how quickly he grasped our product and how driven he was to jump in, even with all the unknowns that come with an early-stage company.

He took his very first inbound discovery call on day 1 completely solo and crushed it.

Just days in, he already has 2 qualified deals in his pipeline that he's running end to end.

A few fun facts about Luke:
- First thing he did as a legal adult: went skydiving
- Backpacked the Wonderland Trail in one continuous trek
- Collects and shoots with film cameras 📸

Can't wait to watch Luke grow into an elite seller here!

When Atul and I started Hyperbound, we were just entering the ocean, learning and adapting as quickly as we could in an unknown environment. 

Josh Norris 🐦‍🔥 was the first person who showed up early—before there was a playbook, before there was momentum. He was one of the first people willing to get his hands on the product, give real feedback, and help us wire together early systems. He helped stitch together a top tier lead enrichment workflow that has driven nearly every inbound lead for us till date. And he was also pivotal in iterating the ICP for the product, especially when it was so nascent in the market.

At the time, “marketing” was more of a question than a function. Over a few months, Josh turned that ambiguity into structure: getting the fundamentals in place across SEO, ads, attribution, messaging, and experimentation, and building the internal workflows that still power how we operate.

He took on a messy, undefined problem and gave it shape. That work created leverage for the entire team, and we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in today without it. Although his project has wrapped, we’re incredibly appreciative of the foundation he set for Hyperbound as we move into this next phase of the journey. 

Looking forward to seeing where he takes all of this next!

It's Jianna Ursitti appreciation day! It's been just over a quarter since she joined as a Founding BDR here at Hyperbound and in just the last month alone, she crushed it with booking 15 meetings in 1 month!! 

When I met Jianna, what stood out more than anything was her humble, but confident attitude. 

She was just a year into her BDR career, and she was eager to make the move out from SoCal to the San Francisco to be in the heart of the startup world. 

She wanted to be part of a rocketship where she could learn a ton and grow as quickly as possible, and she made the move out to SF within a week of getting the job!

That was all I need to know how committed she was. 

Out of the 45 BDRs I interviewed, she had by far the best take-home assessment, hitting every point and delivering her thoughts confidently. 

I listened to her mock AI roleplay that she did as a part of her interview as well, and it was well executed and I could tell she was not afraid of the phones even when the bot through objection after objection at her. 

Her calm demeanor even in tough situations sets her apart.

It makes me so happy to see her crush it out of the gate! 

Can't wait to see what she does in the coming months. 

------
👉🏽 If you're interested in joining the BDR team here, we are hiring right now! DM me and I'd love to see if there's a good fit!

Today was a nailbiting end to our fiscal year (in a good way), more details to come soon 👀, but everything is officially in, and it's the best feeling in the world when you exceed the insane goals you set for yourself!

All I can say is the team we've built here at Hyperbound is phenomenal 🎤🫳🏽 

Watch out 2026, here we come!

We're intentionally building a company that a vast majority of people would *not* enjoy working at.

Why Hyperbound isn't for everyone:
- 5 days a week, in office, in San Francisco --> We believe speed, trust, and craft are built in person
- High-intensity, high ownership --> If you see a problem, it’s already yours. There's nowhere to hide behind a role
- Real responsibility early --> You'll own things that matter and feel the weight of them
- Strong opinions, low ego --> Debate is encouraged. Truth beats comfort
- High standards, constant feedback --> "Good enough" doesn't last long here

Some people will read this and think, "No thanks." That’s the point.

In fact, we turn down great resumes every day because of culture.

Last couple months, the team spent real time asking:
- If Hyperbound grew 10x overnight, what cultural behaviors MUST be present?
- What behaviors would destroy Hyperbound if present?
- What cultural behaviors frustrate us or slow us down?
- What trait(s) do each of us bring to the team that we want Hyperbound to amplify?
- What kinds of disagreements make teams better?

What came out was a shared standard, shaped by the people building with us every single day:

1) No Passenger Mentality
===================

See a gap? Own it and drive outcomes. We bias toward action.

"Proactively solve problems you find and share feedback even if it’s not your task." - Thiago Costa

2) Low Ego = Truth Seeking
====================

We prioritize getting to the truth over protecting ego or opinions.

"Love the no-ego, high-standards culture. Disagreeing helps us cover the gaps." - Isaac Hong

3) Know When Details Are Important
===========================
 
Details aren't cosmetic — they're leverage, and knowing when the details are important is what sets us apart.

"Attention to detail, high ownership, and the courage to speak up define Hyperbound." - Saswat Mishra

4) Do Right By Everyone Around You
===========================
 
We optimize for collective impact, not individual wins.

"We can see our work directly influence deals, users, and growth." - Eugene Reuka

5) Problem Obsessed
================
 
The problem is always the source of truth. No clarity on the problem means the feature doesn't matter.

"Ability to push back and ask why — multiple times." - Keshav Balachandar

6) Extra-Mile Mindset
================

We take pride in the unglamorous work. Doing things that don't scale matters.

"Understanding what customers are actually dealing with is where real impact comes from." - ☠️ Belal Batrawy

These values weren't written in a vacuum. They were debated, refined, and lived by the team.

-------
If you want comfort and predictability, this probably isn't the place.

If you want real ownership, high standards, new challenges, and a team that actually lives its values—we're hiring for more than 9 open roles right now!

👉🏽 Build with us and apply here: https://lnkd.in/g9tCwh85

Hyperbound Cultural Values

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 5x President's Club

Creating raving fans @ Gong. Founder of Closed Won. Dad to Monty 🐾 

Brian LaManna

"If you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you've got the right people, anything's possible."

You don't have to Google him anymore.

🌹 Rose Bowl
🍑 Peach Bowl
🏆 National Champions.

I debated whether or not to go to the last game. Grateful for the people that pushed me to 'take the trip.'

Will forever be one of the most special times in my life. 

We work to live, not live to work. 

Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!!! 🥹

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Until further notice, this is an IU Football + Mendoza fan account.

We are here in Miami and ready for the National Championship.

I have never anticipated a game more in my life.

Full butterflies. Pit in my stomach.

But confident as ever.

Predictions?


P.S. No matter how it ends… I’m sad this season will be over. A magical run and some of the most fun I’ve had traveling + reuniting with college friends. But we don’t go to war with warm milk & cookies. Time to win.

No alternative text description for this image

Flew into Boston to see one of my favorite -new- customers.

And man let me tell you - they are cooking up something SPECIAL for 2026 and beyond. 

Fun to sit in attendance and witness the complete transformation they are bringing for dealerships this year. 

Very special in-person culture and energy that every company should want to replicate. 

They are NOT a company you want to bet against. 

Thanks for having me!! Joe Kenneally Mike O'Hanlon Eric Richmond Matt McGarry Kurt Bolgen Peter Cullen Maria Walkley Tenley Kyle Mackenzie Josh Constantino Liddy Joseph Josh Annie Matt D. 🚘 


P.S. If somehow unfamiliar... CarGurus brings unmatched transparency to car shopping, using data-driven insights to show real market value and help buyers spot great deals instantly. With the largest selection, trusted reviews, and pricing you can actually trust, it saves people time, money, and stress. And dealerships love working with them.

For a final presentation in a multi million dollar deal, the President and COO wanted to weigh in. 

My champion shared that he’d be joining the conference room and for us to be on our game.  

He joined the meeting with a notepad and pencil, took copious notes, and listened intently to every single word we said. 

Never pulled out a laptop of his cell phone. Never even caught him looking away from the screen. 

Asked thorough questions at the end and referenced every detail of our presentation. 

Will never forget that feeling of him being 100% present and giving us all of his attention. 

If a President and COO of a Multi Billion $ public company, one of the busiest people ever, can be 100% present, why can’t we do the same?

It stuck with me and respected the heck out of it 🚘 


P.S. Announcement post from Friday launching Club: https://lnkd.in/gzCQKSk4

I now have 12 free resources built for 2026, all of them below.


𝟭. 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Organized way to keep track of all your prospecting efforts and people you're going after.

https://lnkd.in/gwjX9Nya


𝟮. 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆𝗺 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Terms I never knew existed until I got into tech sales. 

https://lnkd.in/g9R9WH53


𝟯. 𝗠𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 - Template to keep you and your champion fully aligned through a deal cycle. Also, helpful to navigate security, legal, and who the signer ends up being.


https://closedwon.xyz/msp/


𝟰. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 - Top 12 discovery questions to follow a typical first call flow.

https://lnkd.in/g75tkxRM


𝟱. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Agenda slide to cut the 2 minutes and show a visual instead. Buyers love visuals. This is it.

https://lnkd.in/gD5vaXf7


𝟲. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Grab a Google Doc template of my exact resume. 2 pages on other best practices, tips, and dos/don'ts.

https://lnkd.in/gESuWPBW


7. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 8 proven openers to get the call started hot.

https://lnkd.in/gdPP_D8J


8. 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 - Actionable sales tips (and some B+ memes) delivered to your inbox every Monday. Trusted by 11,200+ sellers and counting. Read in 2-3 min.

https://lnkd.in/gjeVd_U8


𝟵.  𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Quick reverses for the most common objections and methodology on how to 'handle' them.

https://lnkd.in/g36efdAw


10. 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 on Closed Won.

https://lnkd.in/gVY8Xpxc


♻️ Please consider resharing if it'd help others in your network.

📌 Sellers - what (free) resource should I build up next?

8 of my favorite in-demo questions to keep the discovery 🚂 rolling.

I have these in front of me on every presentation.



1. “What else comes to your mind when you see this in how you would leverage it?”

2. “What would this allow your team to do differently?”

3. “How important are these insights for you to have?”

4. “Tell me about your current process for this today?”

5. “How would you do this without *this feature*”

6. “What are the ripple effects of this challenge on the business?”

7. "How important is this problem to the organization?"

8. “How does this compare to what you are doing today?”



Be intentional with asking strong, open-ended questions

And ditch the "umm so... any questions so far?"

Keep discovery going, keep the deal going.


P.S. Favorite 1st call discovery cheat sheet here: https://lnkd.in/g75tkxRM

Joined Gong in 2021 to sell a -hot- product that (it felt like) everyone already knew. Then June 2023 happened...

We launched Gong Engage with 0 customers.

Suddenly, I wasn't selling just the #1 conversation intelligence platform anymore. 

I was selling an unproven sales engagement tool in a crowded market.

Here's the problem we hit immediately:

Every prospect asked: "Who else is using this?"

We had no case studies. Very few Beta references.

And burning through our early adopters on every single deal? 

Not sustainable when you're trying to get to 1,000+ customers fast.

That's when we started using UserEvidence.

Instead of manually tracking down customers for references, UserEvidence automatically captures product reviews, pulls verified stats, and creates battle cards we can actually use.

Now when a prospect asks "who else uses Engage?" - I can instantly share:
* Real customer quotes
* Specific use cases
* ROI metrics from similar companies

No begging customers for time. No stale case studies from 6 months ago.

As we've grown into a true multi-product platform, UserEvidence has become essential. 

Different products, different personas, different proof points - all organized and accessible.

If you're scaling a new product or expanding your platform, you need proof at scale.

Give UserEvidence a look: https://userevidence.com/


P.S. Will be partnering with them closely in 2025 to share other ways I am leveraging them. Thanks all for the support!

Brand partnership • AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Tell tale sign of junior sellers is trying to avoid risk in their deals. 

And getting defensive about risk in forecast / pipeline reviews.

Risk is uncomfortable and junior sellers often try to ignore it and 'hope' that it doesn’t come to fruition. 

When in reality the opposite is best.

Get comfortable knowing risk exists in every deal and it doesn't mean it's your 'fault.'


I write out the biggest reasons why I will lose the deal. 

Then 'the action' of how I will get in front of it.

Here’s a (real) scenario of a deal I had earlier this year:
-12 month evaluation and we were named vendor of choice. Fit perfectly to their initiatives. Great critical event with a competitor renewal in 2 months but we aren’t speaking directly with the decision maker on it (CRO). Have 5+ champions advocating for us.

What most sellers would think:
- Wow, we are in a really strong spot! We have so many champions and fit perfectly with their goals. Bummer the CRO isn’t more directly involved but my champ will get it done.


Here’s how I’d approach it instead.

Risk:
- Work/effort to migrate over to a new platform
- CRO not having direct involvement
- Their current vendor will try to save this renewal with aggressive pricing.
 
Action:
- Call out the risk of both next call
- Recommend a 30 min call with implementation to discuss migration
- Recommend a 2nd, 30 min call with CRO and main POC to review one-pager exec business case we will build for them.


For any fans of the book 'The Obstacle is the Way.'

'The risk is the way' in your deals cycles.

Don't avoid it, go through it.


P.S. Closed Won Club goes live 1/26. Be the first to hear about it here: https://closedwon.xyz/

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