Gautam Rishi's Linkedin Analytics

You can’t solve problems sat at your desk. Execute at your desk Problem solve away from it If your in a rut, step away from the desk, try these: Walk Gym Sauna  Drive Cook Come over, clean my house

Email is dead (I've probably said this in the last few months) I'm backtracking on it. These are responses for us, in the last 7 days, there were about 10 more. How? Intent - no Signals - no Just well-crafted AI emails. There is a lot of scepticism about email in general, and then AI emails, but the results do the talking, not opinion. Happy to show people the original mails too.

Money talks and BS walks. We have the best intent data, messaging, deliverability, team, tech, blah blah blah. Yet everyone is pricing the same way $x per month for their service. No one is guaranteeing outcomes  No one is promising results  No one is putting their money where their mouth is It’s because most AI products are just flashy demos, zero substance. We have spent 3 years going deep on AI outbound, we have 90% retention, we have happy customers because we deliver real results. So we now offer a MEETING GUARANTEE. That means guaranteed ICP meetings booked from month 1 or your money back (ALL of your money back) What I’ve learnt is that people don’t care about tech. They just care about RESULTS.

Start-ups are too quick to hire. Everyone tells them to hire faster and get more people. They see a problem and try to solve it with people; they think this magical person will solve the problem. They don’t sit in the pain of the problem for long enough. The solutions are in pain, the solution isn't more people. Fast forward 6 months, the problem is still there, now with the added people problem.

I’ve learnt more of my direct reports than I have of my leaders. Most of the time I’ve had more experience than my direct reports. More years More deals Wins / losses Ups / downs Chances are I’ve been in their situation and know how to navigate it. Ive also been lucky enough to work with the best AEs out there, consistent $750k+ annual earners. Talent - some reps just have a way with customers, the small talk, the ability to get them to open up, their tone on an email. - As a leader you get to watch this day in day out, basically sit back and watch GRIT - Deals that I assume are dead, I personally would have given up on I have seen close many a time - The grind of individuals where nothing is going there way - Watching someone who’s beat up and then starts winning is really quite a beautiful thing Negotiation - Pricing / Negotiation / Closing it can be a little awkward, you build this trusted consultative relationship to then slap down pricing and timelines, I’ve seen reps do this in such a way sat on the same side of the table as the prospect working out the plan together - The slightly aggressive close done in a way that nobody sees it as aggressive - Watching what I would find uncomfortable being totally comfortable Teamwork - Not just ‘being nice’ but actually working in a team, driving an outcome that works for everyone - I’ve seen the room where the ‘ nice and collaborative’ get nothing done over 2 hours, I’ve seen the energy from the room where someone really gets the team fired up and winning after 5 minutes As a leader you have a front row seat to watch high performers at the peak of their powers. Learn and absorb for them.

Actual deal mistakes I’ve made over the last 20 years… 1. Spent too much time on a killer pitch didn’t qualify any pain 2. Didn’t get to meeting venue early to see where the actually office was and ended up late  3. Didn’t prep with my team prior to meeting, all unaligned in front of customer  4. Never asked who’s in the meeting and got blindsided when the EB was in  5. Didn’t set objectives at the start of a meeting and confused the room  6. Blindly completing an RFP 7. Got caught showing too much product and features we ran out of time  8. Ended up competitor bashing and devalued my product  9. Poor time management and not agreed next steps 10. 3 day follow up, deal momentum lost  11. Too pushy to meet EB they never let me meet the EB 12. Discounting and undervaluing my solution without the need 13. Discounting without getting anything back from the customer  14. Not understanding timelines and why actually that date  15. Not understanding how many contracts legal have to review before ours 16. Committing a deal for the month because of gut feel / happy ears 17. Not asking if our champion has gone through procurement cycle before  18. Single threading deal  19. Assumed the customer can build the business case themselves  20. Doing a meeting over screen when should have been face to face The people who’ve had the misfortune of managing over the last 20 years would say that’s just his typical quarter.

People talk, others lie, OneShot.ai Delivers. Introducing the industry-first meeting guarantee.

These are all fully AI-generated messages. Every single one of these got a positive response. To the folks who requested to see the original mails, here you go. Dave Murphy, Siddharth Sharma, Komal Kothawale, Harry Leigh,Osman Lee, Vaibhav KVS, Katlego Craig Mzangwe, Manuel B., Michael Johnson

No AI in the world is going to fix shitty leadership and poor execution. Every data provider has the “cleanest, most accurate data.” Every outbound platform promises “unstoppable pipeline growth.” Every security tool guarantees “ironclad protection.” Every dev tool will “10x your team.” Every finance product “saves you millions.” Every HR platform “makes employees love their jobs.” So why is your company still a shit show? Because no one actually owns the problem. You don’t have a tech problem. You have a leadership problem. You don’t need more tools. You need just one person to step up, fix it and execute.

I’ve hired over 200 AEs. The best ones are both wildly optimistic and deeply paranoid. They believe they can win anything and close everything, but they’re also painfully aware of the thousand ways they can lose. They live in purgatory. Not too happy, not too sad. Just obsessively focused. That’s why top performers often seem a little crazy because they are.

I got told to put an AE on my team on a PIP. I've been told to put members of my team on PIPs several times over the years. CROs are pretty far removed from the AE, they don't see the: Daily work The effort The unlucky accounts The random prospect who moves job The constant improvement The shitty territory They see an underperforming AE who isn't delivering. If you justify the excuses, you start to look like a weak leader; you have a day-to-day relationship with them. Their failure reflects on you. Every time I've backed the AE, I haven't been let down once.

I bumped into a customer at the gym this morning, and their response caught me off guard. I asked Sam Farmer how things were going, expecting to hear the standard stuff "its great, the team loves it" Instead, he said: “It’s amazing, it’s allowed my team to go upstream.” “I’ve now got my smartest people working on the hardest problems.” Before, they were stuck in manual research and messaging. Top talent, degrees from the best universities, grinding through websites and spreadsheets. Now, with AI handling the repetitive work, they’re solving bigger challenges that actually move the needle. The impact, the whole business has changed. We look at AI and ask, “Where are the results?” The better question is: What happens to my business when I free up my smartest people from the worst jobs?

The customer isn’t always right—you are. You’re hired to be right. Trained to be right. Paid to be right. You’re the expert, not them. They’ve seen their problem once. You’ve seen it a hundred times. You know the outcomes they don't If we listened to our customers on outbound, we would be out of business: Their copy suggestions? Garbage. Their intent signals? Fantasy. Their activity metrics? Useless. Their tech opinions? Five years outdated. They know their world—nothing else. Their company. Their product. Their team. Their bubble. If they had the answers, they wouldn’t be talking to you. You live in their problem 24/7. Of course, you know more. So act like it. Be the expert. Don't nod. Be opinionated. Deliver real results.

Scaling $0-1m is the hardest, scaling $1-20m in EMEA is second hardest. We scaled OneShot.ai from $0-1m and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, product iterations, value props, ICPs, GTM engine, $1m sounds such an easy number but it’s not. I’ve also scaled EMEA for 2 companies: CDNetworks $1m > $30m CloudBees $2m > $15m Both of these companies already had decent presence in other markets US / Asia, they had a mature, decent product, a settled and good leadership team. But cracking EMEA meant: Landing first few lighthouse customers Hiring new team Supporting multiple languages and cultures Not having any product or legal resources No local pre-sales resources Zero brand in EMEA Setting expectations with US leadership (Europe is just slower)  Its very similar to a pre-PMF company but having a bit more muscle But once you crack EMEA you crack the world Access to the huge banks across every country Increased talent pool  A truly multi-national company  Very loyal customers Every US company when the raise their Series B, Europe is in it sights, its a very exciting time to be there.

I hate sales. Hate it when I get ghosted Hate it when they say yes but then go quiet Hate having to chase people 3x Hate having to get involved in petty negotiations Hate having to hit monthly numbers Hate external pressure Hate it when other people ask about my deal Hate doing loads of work and they don't buy Hate having to ask for deals because its my quarter-end Hate making up random scenarios in my head Hate checking my inbox every few minutes But really I love it all.

I take my almost 4 year old to the office every so often to learn about business, the problem is… It’s a WeWork so she thinks the office is where you go to play ping pong and drink beer.

As a CEO I find it absolutely disgraceful that people would use AI to create fake receipts to rip off their company. Here’s a much better use, rip off friends and family. Step 1 - Go for drinks Step 2 - Cover the bill Step 3 - Use chatGPT to create fake receipt Step 4 - Send receipt and await money Pro tip - Tell AI to crumple the receipt and add a little beer stain

Outbound is dead, Cold calling is dead, Email is dead, SEO is dead. OneShot.ai results for March, so far... --- Email - 28 meetings --- Cold calling - 18 meetings --- SEO - 13 meetings Revenue Closed - $270k ARR (from "dead" channels) I think I like dead.

Joseph Shehadeh started with us as an intern 11 months ago, he is now on VC calls with us, whilst leading a team of 10. When you hire good talent get out of their way, support them and see how high they can go.