Max Altschuler

GTMfund

GTMfund is an early-stage VC fund focused on B2B SaaS.

Our 350+ limited partners are the best go-to-market (GTM) executives in tech. Operators who have been there, done that at the world’s fastest growing SaaS companies - Salesforce, Okta, Tableau, Mulesoft, Procore, Snowflake, Segment, ServiceNow, Rippling, and many more.

GTMfund is more than capital. We have a flywheel of resources to support our portfolio companies grow revenue, hire, and build distribution:

GTMfund: The VC fund itself.
Community: Access to hundreds of the best GTM operators in tech.
Talent: Resources to help you recruit and hire the best operators to your team.
GTMnow: A media brand, including an industry leading newsletter, podcast and more.

We help you get from zero to IPO.

Founder & General Partner

Catalyst Software

Advisor

Pavilion

Member & Advisor

Outreach

Outreach is the leading Enterprise ready Sales Engagement Platform that accelerates revenue growth by optimizing every interaction throughout the customer lifecycle, all in one single pane of glass.

Outreach has received $489m in funding from top-tier investors including Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia, Premji, Sands Capital, Steadfast, Operator Collective, Sapphire, Spark Capital, DFJ Growth, Trinity, Floodgate, Mayfield, Lone Pine, and Microsoft. Outreach has won many industry awards such as the Forbes Cloud 100 (4x) and LinkedIn Top 50 Startups (3x), G2's #1 Top Sales Product of 2020, and named A Leader on the Forrester Wave for Sales Engagement. Over 4500 customers from hyper-growth startups to F500 companies rely on Outreach to power their revenue.

I took over Marketing in 2018 when Outreach acquired my company, Sales Hacker, and built an incredible team that helped the company 3.5x ARR in under two years, well into 9-figures, while building and becoming the leader in the Sales Engagement Category. Held various leadership roles across the Revenue org.

Vice President of Marketing

Sales Hacker, Inc.

Sales Hacker Inc. is a global digital media company that produces SalesHacker.com, the Sales Hacker Community, the Sales Hacker Series events, the Sales Hacker Podcast, and the Sales Hacker Conferences - Sales Stack, Revenue Summit, and Sales Machine.

Sales Hacker is the living, breathing, sales encyclopedia for the future of B2B Sales.

Our events have hosted hundreds of the leading voices in sales leadership like Aaron Ross, Jill Rowley, Mark Roberge, Dan Pink, Chris Voss, and other experienced sales thought leaders, CEOs, VCs, and Executives.

Our partners include over 180 of the top sales software vendors like Salesforce, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Adobe, DocuSign, Outreach, ZoomInfo, and many more. 

Follow us: @saleshacker

*Sales Hacker was acquired by Outreach.io in 2018 with over 170,000 active subscribers.

**Sales Hacker was acquired by my company, GTMfund, and relaunched as GTMnow in 2023.

Founder & CEO (acq. 2018) 

Hacking Sales, Career Hacking, and Sales Engagement 

I wrote 2 books published by Wiley on the topic of modernizing the Sales profession for everyone from Startups to Fortune 500 companies. 

1) Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High Velocity Sales Machine
2) Sales Engagement: How The World's Fastest Growing Companies are Modernizing Sales Through Humanization at Scale

My 3rd book is called Career Hacking for Millennials and shares my learnings and lessons from my entrepreneurial journey. 

All 3 books are available on Amazon and have made the Amazon Bestseller Lists.

Author

Forbes, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloane Review, Inc, Observer, Nasdaq

Contributor

Various

I invest in and advise startups that I can add significant value to. This includes all things GTM expertise and the ability to leverage my executive network. I love working closely with startups and mainly focus on B2B SaaS companies. On occasion, I will work with B2B companies in other areas of tech if it's a proper fit. 

I aim to be as early as possible, with the right founders and market. My portfolio consists of 65+ rapidly growing companies, many of which have raised significant subsequent funding or have multiple millions in annual recurring revenue.

My portfolio includes Pre-seed, Seed, or Series A equity in Outreach, Bombora, Gong, Drift, Carbon Health, Catalyst, Apollo, Troops, AtriumHQ, DataGrail, On Deck, Pavilion, Bevy, Maven, Metadata, Mindbloom, Multicoin, Spekit, Sonar, True Medicine, and many more up and comers.

As of 2021, I do most of my work here through the GTMfund.

Angel Investor & Advisor

University of Washington

Guest lectured classes for the Marketing MBA program while living in Seattle.
Courses: MKTG 511 and MKTG 579.
Topics: B2B Marketing, B2B Go-To-Market, and B2B Community.

Guest Lecturer

CMX Media

CMX Media is an online publication as events business for community builders everywhere. It's focused on bringing together sung and unsung heroes of the community profession to share their lessons and experiences with other community professionals.

*CMX was acquired by Bevy (BevyLabs) in 2019 as the premier media brand in the Community Management space.

Co-founder & Advisor (acq. 2019)

I spend almost 100% of my working hours helping people make money and build exceptional careers. 

⚒ In 2011, I broke into tech by joining Udemy as their 2nd business hire to build out the Sales/Supply side of their online education marketplace (IPO'd in 2021 at over $3bn).

💥 In 2013, I founded Sales Hacker, a global media company for B2B Sales professionals which currently boasts over 170,000 subscribers (rebranded as GTMnow). 

💸 In 2015, I started angel investing and advising startups on GTM. I currently have over 65 companies in my portfolio including Outreach, Bombora, Gong, Drift, Carbon Health, Catalyst, DataGrail, On Deck, Pavilion, Bevy, Metadata, Mindbloom, Multicoin, Apollo, and more.

🚀 In 2018, Sales Hacker was acquired by Outreach.io and I took over as VP of Marketing for the rapidly growing company. Outreach.io is the #1 Sales Engagement platform used by reps and trusted by execs at industry-leading companies. Outreach has raised over $489m in funding and is backed by Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia, Premji, Sands Capital, Steadfast, Mayfield, Sapphire, M12, DFJ Growth, Lone Pine, Spark, and more.

📈 In 2021, I started an early-stage VC firm called the GTMfund, solely backed by the world's best tech GTM Leaders, to invest in hyper-growth companies that needed Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success support. $50m+ AUM as of Aug 1, 2023. 

🥇 I’ve been published by Forbes, Inc., HBR, MIT Review, Time, Salesforce, and Nasdaq, and was named one of LinkedIn's Top Voices of 2018 for Sales and Crunchbase’s 25 Sales Leaders to Follow in 2020.

📚 I wrote 3 books and had 2 published by Wiley. Hacking Sales is my bestselling book from 2016, focused on building high-velocity sales machines by leveraging technologies, virtual assistants, empathy, and modern sales tactics.

I wrote a follow up specifically geared towards Sales Engagement in 2019.

I also wrote Career Hacking for Millennials to help young, ambitious, workforce-driven millennials have more success in less time.

🐾 I'm also passionate about supporting causes for those in need. Things like PushUpCharity.org, where startups do pushups for local charities. PUC raised over $30K in its first two events. A portion of the proceeds from all of our major events go towards these initiatives. I also host the Altschuler Family Fund endowment through the new venture challenge program at ASU.

Twitter: @HackItMax
www.gtmfund.com | www.gtmnow.com

My books - 
www.HackingSales.com | www.GetCareerHacking.com | www.SalesEngagement.com

I tried to buy software on Monday. The AE wouldn't let me. Here's how the convo went (mind-blowing how hard we make it to buy).


Me: I am an easy sell. I know my problem deeply. I understand the vendors. I have money. I can make the decision. This is an easy sale if you can help me understand a couple things I couldn't figure out on my own. 
→ Yes. I actually said that. I wanted him to know I was ready to buy.

AE: Great. We'll see how it does once I put paper in front of you. But I do need to ask some questions to make sure it's a good fit.
→ A little aggressive, but OK...maybe being funny. Cool. But we are about to go from me asking buying questions to you asking disco questions?! Sounds like a step back.


Me: Not being rude, but I don't need discovery done on me. I understand my problem. I have a couple questions to ask.
→ Maybe that was a little rude, but I only had 30 mins and needed info.

AE: No worries. What are you going to use our product for?
→ I'm getting annoyed. He ignored my request and is now asking me questions I know the answer to and he should know the answer to otherwise I wouldn't be talking to him. If this hadn't been so lazy a question, maybe I'd have been OK. Better question - You seem like you know what you want. Can you bring me up to speed so I'm in your headspace?


Me: We are going to XYZ. Do y'all do ABC?
→ I gave a 10 sec explanation bc I was forced to. It was lazy and generic. No info. 

AE: Before I answer that, why are you looking at us?
→ Annoyed going to upset. Could you answer my question? Does it matter why I'm looking at you? Not really. We could have closed by now.


Me: You are one of the solutions that had enough requirements for me to contact. I really need to understand if you do ABC. Do you?
→ Useless info to help close me. Question repeated.

AE: Depends. Who else needs to be in this decision?
→ 3 strikes and you're out. Asked 3 times. I need to consider this vendor so I can't just not talk to them. 🤷🏻‍♂️


Me: Question - are these questions in your CRM and you have to fill them out?
→ I'm sniffing a micromanaging sales leader who won't let reps sell.

AE: Uh. Ya, but these are things we need to know for our process.
→ Not true.


So what happened?

I gave in. I gave him a bunch of short, useless answers for his CRM and manager. He could have SOLD me if he'd let me ask questions for 5 mins. 

In the end, I was told I needed to go through a technical round to speak to people about how I would use their product.

Note: The solution I'm after is obvious, not complicated, and commoditized.

I may be a unique buyer, but when I'm waving money in front of you, please grab it and ask questions later.

We've made it so hard, put up so many barriers, and have made sales cycles so much about "us" that I wonder how many deals we are losing running the process that's supposed to help us win.


We re-acquired Sales Hacker last August, relaunched it as GTMnow, and have already driven 2x in revenue vs what we purchased it for.

After a few meaningful tweaks, subscriber and listener growth is strong and consistent.

Our podcasts are on fire (check out recent episodes with GTM legends - Katrina Wong,  Anthony Kennada, Bob Moore,  and Amanda (Elam) Cole. 

The newsletters have leveled up massively (don't take my word for it - it's getting reshared more than ever.)

Besides for sustaining itself as a profitable company, our media initiatives provide a ton of support for the fund. 

It allows us to drive community. We organize the dozen-plus dinners and events we do each year - plus the big GTMfund LP Retreat.

It also provides deal flow for the fund, candidates for our portfolio companies, and cash to allow us to invest in things that drive returns (like the hiring of our new VP of Talent, Leslie Schmidt). 

It's another way we're able to do more with less.

Major props to Sophie Buonassisi, our VP of Marketing. Not only has she done a fantastic job so far, but every 10x team member we bring on allows the rest of the team to remove parts of their focus from that area of the business, and refocus on other areas that support our investments and, ultimately, drive returns for our LPs.

So much more is in the works and yet to be announced. Stay tuned!

“So excited to announce I’m heading to {Open AI} / {Writer} to run {GTM role}!”

My entire newsfeed lately. 

It’s fun to see. These companies are loading up on some incredibly talented people.

We're announcing our most game-changing functionality yet for reps here soon and I'm hoping to find a few more reps willing to take a sneak peak and give us real, raw feedback on the user experience. 

If you're a rep with 15 minutes to spare to see something pretty neat and dream of a world where you spend less of your day searching for info, please comment or DM me 👀

We *think* it's pretty slick, but I want to hear you point out every flaw and share your wildest dreams with us around what your ideal experience would look like ✨

Thank you to Rees Bayba Leigh Tschirgi Nicolette Mullenix Logan Pike Ali Cooper and the many others who have helped with the design so far!

#FORTHEREPS #wastelesstime 

I wish I had done more of this as a marketing leader at Outreach.


As a General Partner at GTMfund, I've found that regular updates to our investors have been one of the most rewarding practices. 

Whether it was managing up to my superiors or managing down to my team - clear, concise writing leads to clear thinking. 

And clear thinking? 

That leads to great outcomes.

I encourage everyone to try this.

Start with a skeleton framework.

Highlight the top three things - what you accomplished last week, what's on the agenda this week, and a long-term goal that's on your mind.

Think of it as creating a personal newsletter for your internal network. It's a practice that can enhance your skills and keep you ahead of the game.

The transparency and communication fostered through these updates not only instill a sense of accountability but also demonstrate strong leadership. 

Give it a try.

I just led a successful fundraise for a company as an operator, not a VC. 

It was an interesting experience to be on the other side of the fence!

We incubated a company recently (more here soon) so I was deeply involved in the fundraise with the CEO.

It's super interesting to see the different approaches from similar-stage funds from the founder angle. 

Here's what I learned.

Hockey is the best analogy I could come up with.

Alex Ovechkin, one of the world's best hockey players, is known for his snipe of a shot from the top of the faceoff circle. It's his signature move, and scoring rate from there is about as high as you can get.

Some VCs are like Alex. They have one way to score and that's the only shot they take. They pass on other good scoring chances to only take the one shot they know they have a high chance of success at.

Other VCs will take all sorts of shots that they believe they can score on. Tap-ins, one-timers, etc. There's not just one way, but many ways. 

Spending some time on the other side of the fence helped me see the different strategies at play by a few of the different top tier firms out there. 

It's a good reminder that there's no one-size-fits-all approach, but it's necessary to have a strategy that works for your fund.

The number one pitfall of a company's first sales hire? 

Failing to manage up and keep expectations aligned. 

Leadership often forms expectations based on their own experiences or assumptions, which may not align with the reality of your role. 

Overcommunication is key in such a scenario. 

Keeping leadership in the loop not only aligns their expectations with reality but also ensures they're not breathing down your neck. 

This transparency can also provide you with a longer leash during tough times. They'll understand the challenges you're facing and the steps you're taking to overcome them. 

And when things are going well? 

They'll know exactly why and credit you for the optimizations you've made and the hard work you've put in.

Hiring the right talent at the right time is a game-changer. 

I mentioned providing a hiring strategy is one of the more popular value ads we provide our portfolio companies.  

Imagine your company is growing steadily, and suddenly, in Q3, you realize you need a Head of Demand Gen. 

If you had a solid plan in place, you would've opened the rec in Q1, hired and ramped up the right person by Q3, and they'd be off to the races. 

But now, you're scrambling. 

It'll take at least a quarter to find the right person, another quarter for them to ramp up. They won't be fully functional until next year. 

Where companies falter is rushing through the hiring process, settling for a less-than-ideal fit, and then repeating this cycle yearly because they didn't plan ahead. 

This snowball effect can be detrimental. 

The key takeaway? 

Be proactive, not reactive, with your hiring strategy. It's a crucial value add on the talent side of the house. 

Don't let your growth be stunted by a lack of foresight. 

Plan ahead, hire right, and win.

It's underrated, but every pitch needs an "aha" moment within the first 30 seconds. 

That instant where the listener goes from sitting back in their chair to leaning into your every next words. 

It's not just about delivering information - it's about creating a moment of revelation. 

But how do you create that moment? 

And more importantly, how do you measure it? 

It's not as data-driven as other aspects of your pitch. It's more about observing the reactions of your audience. It's about testing and refining your presentation until you hit that sweet spot that makes people sit up and pay attention. 

This is where the art of pitching comes into play. It's not just about the facts and figures. It's about delivering your message with the flair of a showman. 

And when you hit that "aha" moment, let it breathe. 

Give it a pause. 

Let the significance of what you showed them sink in.

Then test it again. 

Refine it again. 

And when you finally get a repeatable hit, make it the centerpiece of your pitch.

Choosing a venture capital firm? 
It's not just about the money. 

The top reasons anyone picks a VC firm are value add, relationship with the partner, firm's prestige, and valuation. 

But when you dig deeper, the number one factor is value add. 

Why? 

Because funding is a commodity.

If you've built something great, you'll be able to raise your next round. 

But the value add? 

That's where the magic happens.

Our portfolio companies tell us that the most valuable add-on we provide, even beyond customer introductions, is help with hiring. 

And it's not just about introductions to candidates.

It's about helping them understand how to interview, how to build a candidate list, how to create a hiring plan, and how to stay ahead of that plan. 

One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is not understanding the layering of their hiring plan. 

And hiring is just one of many value adds.  

Figure out what you need the most help with and then find the firm that's right for that function.

One quote that exemplifies good investing.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax" - Abe Lincoln

The two best things you can have when investing are 1) a unique insight or POV and 2) patience. 

Good investors spend a huge amount of time reading, writing, listening, and observing markets they know well. They're waiting for the right opportunity to develop a thesis around. 

The execution becomes a fraction of the time spent investing. Most of it comes through forming your worldview. 

Keep re-underwriting this thesis to check that the view still makes sense.

Anyone can invest and find winners. Just need to put in the work.

Any CROs looking for your next thing ($20m+ ARR and beyond range) ping me directly. Have a few opptys! 

Hot topic: Should a pre-seed or seed company that's fundraising have a financial plan? 

Yes. But before you go, "hey, but they don't know anything yet!"

Here's the nuanced answer.

You want to raise $2m? 

Great, what are you going to do with it? 

This should be an easy answer for anyone looking to fundraise and takes literally 30 minutes to create a spreadsheet around.

Here are the people working full-time, and here's what they'll be paid per month. 

Here are the contractors we think we need and what they'll be paid per month. 

Here are our other expenses and roughly when we think we'll incur them and how much they will cost. 

This is not a financial model with revenue forecasts, etc. At this stage, that's all made up anyway. 

No, I mean a financial model that demonstrates a clarity of thinking and responsibility around how you are approaching this as a business.

Where does this fundraise get you to? A product? A product and customers using it? 

We did this for the company we incubated and it took very little time and financial knowhow to get done. 

If you are going to ask someone for money, you should know roughly how you're going to resource against it.

"Max, will the markets come back this year?"

I don't think they really ever go anywhere TBH.

I was recently asked at an event in Arizona if I saw the market rebounding in 2024 and what opportunities that might present. 

The question got me thinking. 

In any given market, opportunities are abundant. 

Yes, even in the doldrums of 2022, when the stock market was down 18.8%  and Meta was at $93 a share. If you bought then, you'd be up 4x on your investment. 

The point? 

You need to be in the game, not fretting over whether things will go up this year or not. 

The notion that you can get a 5% return on your money is, in my opinion, for the uninformed.

Parking your money in treasuries and money markets may seem safe, but it's not where the real opportunities lie.

"Time in the market beats timing the market -almost always" 
-Kenneth Fisher, 2018

Super necessary LinkedIn feature for academy award style job announcements. 

ht/ Soren Iverson

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