Vice President at Spiralyze | Optimization | CRO for B2B SaaS

Through GTMnow (the media brand of VC firm, GTMfund), I help share content to help companies grow revenue and individuals scale their careers. Subscribe to build, scale, and invest with the best minds in tech.

I host The GTMnow Podcast (top 1% global podcast) and write The GTMnow Newsletter (read by 50k+ operators, founders and investors). 

Tech moats are declining; distribution is the final remaining moat. Your go-to-market strategy and execution determine your outcome. 

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Passionate people person. Passionate about global education. 
Life is short, and there are 1440 minutes in every day. Make the most of them, make a difference, and enjoy the ride.

He was the first sales hire and scaled Snowflake from 0 customers to $4B and an IPO 🤯 

The average tenure for a CRO is 18 months… and Chris Degnan led sales for 11 years through 4 different CEOs. 

Key takeaways from my conversation with Chris on The GTMnow Podcast:  

1️⃣ Build GTM before you have a product.

Chris joined before Snowflake had anything to sell. He started cold-emailing potential customers to test ideas and build trust. Those early conversations shaped the narrative and clarified positioning. Before product-market fit, find narrative-market fit.

2️⃣ Every great sales motion runs on rhythm.

Chris had one rule: eight customer meetings a week. That became his operating system. As Snowflake scaled, that cadence cascaded into the team, creating a culture of pipeline discipline.

3️⃣ Hire for grit, not polish.

Chris avoided “big-company” reps and hired scrappy sellers from resellers and startups—people who could prospect, build lists, and close. Early-stage sales is about resourcefulness, not pedigree. “If you need to tell someone what to do,” he said, “they’re not right for an early-stage company.”

4️⃣ Never stop acquiring new customers.

Every Snowflake rep had to land 4–8 new customers per quarter, even when expansion was easier. That discipline helped them outpace AWS and Google. When they got lazy on new logos, the numbers showed it.

5️⃣ Pay on the outcomes that matter.

Reps were compensated on consumption, not contract value. That kept sales engaged after the deal closed. They didn’t hand off accounts, they helped make customers successful.

6️⃣ Marketing’s job is sales-ready meetings.

When Denise Persson became CMO, she killed the MQL debate. She sat with SDRs, listened to reps, and rebuilt marketing around what sales needed: qualified meetings that drove revenue.

7️⃣ Leaders earn trust by doing the work.

Chris built the first lists. Denise worked alongside SDRs. The CEO rewrote contracts and interviewed engineers. It wasn’t micromanagement, it was credibility. When leaders stay close to the work, they move faster and inspire ownership.

8️⃣ Methodology equals consistency.

Chris used MEDDICC to give every rep the same language for deal reviews and coaching. A framework only works when it’s reinforced relentlessly.

9️⃣ Sales and marketing are one engine.

Chris and Denise operated as a single GTM unit. They attended board meetings together, shared KPIs, and solved problems side-by-side. They proved sales and marketing are just different levers in the same system.

🔟 Urgency beats perfection.

Snowflake made plenty of mistakes – outages, pricing debates, missed features. But the team moved fast, owned their gaps, and stayed customer-obsessed. Chris stayed 11 years because of that culture: low ego, high urgency, deep respect for the customer.

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🎧 Tune in and subscribe by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

Sophie Buonassisi

SVP Marketing at GTMfund & GTMnow | Host of The GTMnow Podcast

3 of the many moments of gratitude from running the Philadelphia marathon this past weekend:

- For both the body and the mind. There’s a quote that goes: “a healthy person has a thousand wishes, but a sick person has only one.” To have a body that can be pushed to new uncharted limits is a blessing. And a mind that can guide the goal. The body follows the story you tell it. Shift the mindset → shift the limits.

- The constant reminder that the process is the point. A marathon takes an average of 3.5–5.5 hours, but you train for around 4-5 months. The race is a moment, the process is a season. The cliché is true: the joy isn’t in the finish line, it’s in who you become getting there. The mountain top matters, but the climb is where life actually happens. And that’s why one of my favorite guiding principles is: Life is short, and there are 1440 minutes in every day. Make the most of them, make a difference, and enjoy the ride. 

- Getting to do it with Paul Irving. We signed up together back in March…and didn't train together once. Our schedules were tight, we’ve been scaling tons. I spent 7 weeks on the road consecutively leading up to it. Paul even got married during the training period. When it came down to the week of the marathon (last week), we hit the road together. It was a big one, including traveling to four different cities, hosting three events, launching a new podcast series - among other launches and milestones. Then, we kicked off the run with a sunrise start on Sunday to cap off the week. Despite never having trained together, we ran 20 miles of it side-by-side. In life, the “what” matters a ton, but the “who” you do it with is everything. Anyone who gets to do anything with Paul is a lucky human. I sure am fortunate to get to build with him day in and day out, to run the bigger race of life with him. 

Grateful. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating!

The last GTMfund dinner of the year was a special one. 
The energy in NYC is simply unmatched! ⚡

As usual, the room was buzzing. When the restaurant has to (politely) kick everyone out, it's a sign of some great connections being made. 

A huge thank you to our partners for helping to make this evening possible: 
💚 Stifel Bank
💚 BackEngine
💚 ZoomInfo

Thank you to everyone who came out, and to the entire community for being part of this journey. We're incredibly grateful.

Toronto! What a fantastic GTMfund dinner and evening. 

There is nothing that beats gathering in person. 
Last night 54 floors in the air looking out over the CN Tower, we got to do just that. 

Constantly blown away by the caliber of this community.

A huge thank you to our partners for helping to make this evening possible: 
💚 ZoomInfo
💚 Momentum.io

(next up: NYC!)

Cannot think of a better way to close out the year of events than going deep on GTM with an incredible group of founders 🙏  

The philosophy behind today was simple: value is created through people and perspective.

So here's how it unfolded:
We kicked off this Friday morning with an open networking breakfast.

From there, we broke into small-group conversations, which are one of the most effective ways to create from both people (connections) and perspective (insight). 

A huge thank you to our expert session facilitators: 
Dave Greenberger (sales and going upmarket)
Paul Mander (customer success)
James D. Wilton (pricing strategies)
Paul Irving (fundraising)

These were highly curated topical groups, creating space for deeper, more tactical discussions tailored to the stage and needs of each company - usually the kinds of conversations that happen 1:1 behind closed doors. 

And that's exactly why we do this. 

As tech moats continue to decline, it's your go-to-market that determines your growth trajectory. And democratizing access to GTM knowledge feels like a duty. So we try to do just that not only through direct support, but through events and media that help broaden access to meaningful GTM insight. 

A huge thank-you to 645 Ventures for co-hosting this event in their beautiful NYC office, and to everyone who chose to start their Friday with us. 

This was the last event of the year for both GTMfund and 645 Ventures! 
2026 events coming 🔜

Gamma just hit $100M ARR (profitably), crossed 70M+ users, and raised a Series B at a $2.1B valuation. 

We deconstructed the go-to-market behind Gamma's growth, as a third-part of our GTM Deconstructed series under GTMnow. 

These are some of the frameworks, mental models and playbooks from their journey:

1️⃣ Solve the first mile, not the last mile

Activation is the hardest part of PLG. The blank page is where almost every slide product dies. Gamma reframed the problem:
Solve the first mile (idea → draft) and the user will gladly handle the last mile (editing → polishing).

To apply this, identify the single highest-friction moment in your onboarding. Then, design the product so users skip it entirely.

2️⃣ Output is distribution

Every artifact created becomes a marketing asset.

Tips for implementing:
- Add subtle branding to every shared output.
- Reduce friction between viewing and trying.
- Instrument “view → signup” as a core growth KPI.

3️⃣ Experimentation is a culture, not a team

Gamma ran experiments on everything: Model selection, prompt orchestration, pricing, onboarding, templates, share flows.

Experimentation can (and should) be an operating system.

4️⃣ Monetize after the magic

Value first, price later.
Freemium → instant output → emotional “wow” → habit → conversion.

Tips for implementing:
- Delay paywalls until after the “aha moment.”
- Charge only for meaningful upgrades (collab, export, brand control).

5️⃣ The activation flywheel

Value unlocks virality:
Draft → Refine → Share → Return → Expand → Invite → Share → Expand

Activation is the upstream driver of virality and retention.

Tips for implementing:
- Instrument the activation path.
- Define the “first meaningful output.”
- Optimize time-to-draft relentlessly.

6️⃣ The three-horizon output strategy

Gamma’s layers of value:
Horizon 1: Presentations (core entry point)
Horizon 2: Documents (adjacent use case)
Horizon 3: Websites / microsites (expansion surface)

This increases TAM and reduces churn by spanning roles and formats.

Tips for implementing:
- Map 3 adjacencies to your core workflow.
- Build the next one only when retention holds.

7️⃣ The model efficiency ladder

AI costs drop as usage scales.
Gamma moved from expensive frontier models → more efficient models → hybrid orchestration → cost-effective API usage.

Tips for implementing:
- Score every model on 3 dimensions: Quality, Speed, Cost.
- Optimize for “intelligence per dollar,” not just intelligence.

8️⃣ Rapid creator loop for virility tracking

Gamma used creators, yes for impressions, but also for insight. Through creators, they could quickly test formats, hooks, angles and narratives.
They became a distributed R&D lab. 

Tips for implementing:
- Underwrite 20–30 micro-creators.
- Reward virility and document the patterns that work.

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✍ Full GTM Deconstructed in The GTMnow Newsletter (link in comments). 

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

NEW: We’re adding a VC series under The GTMnow Podcast! 

I have the extreme privilege of sitting down with the top 1% of operators and founders to dissect their stories of building and scaling. We're continuing to double down on this, and there are some really exciting conversations and guests coming up that I can't wait to share with you! 

This new series adds the element of “invest” under our media platform:
GTMnow: Build, scale, and invest with the best minds in tech.

People want the investing side (something to date we've shared privately with our community) because it helps them fundraise smarter, get career leverage, understand liquidity options, make better personal investments, and see the market through a different lens.

These monthly episodes will be hosted by GTMfund’s GP, Max Altschuler. 
Each episode starts with him and Paul Irving breaking down:
- What we’re seeing in the market right now
- Commentary and takeaways on the insights shared in the episode

A huge thanks to AngelList for all of these support across our funds and for partnering with us on this series.

And the first episode of the VC series is live! 
It's with Alex Clayton, GP of Meritech Capital and king of the S-1 tear downs. A few key takeaways:
- Two metrics matter more than any dashboard: GAAP revenue and cash burn.
- Secondaries have gone from edge case to mainstream liquidity strategy.
- The traditional 10-year venture fund is buckling under modern timelines.
- AI-native startups are smashing the SaaS growth curve and changing what “good” looks like.
The link to the full conversation will be in the comments. 

Subscribe to The GTMnow Podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to get the VC episodes when they go live. 

The VC series was added to the media platform in direct response to requests for access to more of the investing closed wall conversations.

Thank you, as always, for being on this journey 🙏

Super cool to see GTMfund featured in Entrepreneur Media’s November magazine edition!

Huge thank you to AngelList for highlighting us among the top emerging managers.

To create this list, they began with a dataset of several hundred venture GPs and then focused on sustained performance, portfolio quality, and consistent early-stage activity. They then prioritized reputation and founder credibility, strength of top investments, and deal-leading activity.

After reading dozens of newsletters every week, one theme across AI has become impossible to ignore:

Most AI traction today is experimental, not durable.
And the market is beginning to price that reality in.

Different leaders are approaching the space from different angles. But if you zoom out, a shared macro story emerges. 

A few standout pieces made that story especially clear.

Start with Jamin Ball (Partner, Altimeter Capital)'s analysis of ERR vs. ARR. He surfaces one of the most uncomfortable realities in AI revenue today: a massive amount of what startups report as “ARR” is actually ERR - Experimental Run-Rate Revenue. Teams are annualizing monthly spikes without commitment, buyers are testing multiple AI tools in parallel, and early categories are commoditizing before companies can even measure churn. Growth looks strong on paper, but most of it won’t survive a renewal cycle. 

That’s where Des Traynor (Co-Founder, Intercom)’s lens comes in. If ERR explains the instability of early traction, the "Four Horsemen of AI" explain what durable traction actually requires: 
1. Revenue backed by usage
2. Usage tied to real business impact
3. Deep, differentiated AI
4. Positive unit margins

Many AI companies only hit the illusion of the first horseman: revenue. 
But the moment you pressure-test that revenue across the remaining three, the gap between reported growth and retained value can become more obvious. AI’s revenue quality is being redefined not by velocity, but by durability.

And Cassie Young (GP, Primary Venture Partners)’s recent publication ties the bow on all of it. She shows how collapsing switching costs and compressed time-to-value are creating a retention crisis, and simultaneously triggering a customer-success renaissance.

Companies are adopting AI faster than they understand it, and churning faster than anyone projected. That means compressing time-to-value, proving ROI weekly (not annually), integrating directly into workflows, and running POC factories that accelerate adoption and reduce risk. Customer success becomes the operating system of durable AI companies.

Put these pieces together - ERR, the Four Horsemen, and the customer-success renaissance - and a unified story emerges:

AI’s early traction is inflated by experimental revenue.
Durability is becoming the filter through which all AI revenue will be judged.
And value delivery (not feature delivery) is what is necessary. 

The winners of the AI decade won’t be defined by how fast they grow, but by how long they can last.

Always play the long game.

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✍ Wrote a deeper dive, with links to these three great pieces, in the latest The GTMnow Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gAtrS9pR

3 GTMfund events next week! 

Dinner in Toronto. 
Dinner in NYC. 
Founder breakfast in NYC. 

We used to share attendee lists for events in a Notion lookbook or in Google Sheets. 

Earlier this year we upgraded to using Anything to create them.
They look better, the search functionality is improved for guests, and they're faster for us to make! 

We now type what we want to create into a sidebar, and whatever we write gets created. A few prompts and we get a beautiful event page. Anytime we want to make changes, we just prompt the chat (e.g. "make the top logo 25% smaller"). We then complete it with a custom domain. 
And it takes less than 10 minutes to create!

Shoutout to Dhruv Amin and the team behind Anything for elevating our events 🙏 

Pictured: a preview of one of the list pages. 

Lists being sent out soon. Buzzing with excitement!

In AI, your product won’t be your moat for long: your go-to-market will be. 

Features can get copied in days, hype cycles burn fast, and benchmarks have skyrocketed. Distribution has become the final remaining moat. The founders who understand this from Day 0 are the ones breaking out.

In a recent 𝘎𝘛𝘔 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 edition of The GTMnow Newsletter, we broke down the exact GTM decisions behind Gamma’s rise. Their creator-first strategy gave them a distribution advantage that became a catalyst for exponential growth.

It’s also one of the reasons why ecosystem-led growth is gaining important momentum. Emily Kramer just wrote a fantastic deep dive on it in Lenny Rachitsky's newsletter. Ecosystem partners are becoming one of the most effective distribution channels.

None of this changes the two rules every founder faces:
1. No customers, no business
2. No growth, no capital

But the source of defensibility has changed.
And the bar for breakout performance has never been higher.

Last week, in The GTMnow Newsletter, we published Part II of a series on 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘎𝘛𝘔 𝘮𝘰𝘢𝘵. Here’s what it covers: 
- Why distribution is outpacing product as the primary moat
- The “one-channel” strategy the best founders use to dominate early
- How to find the channel where your customers actually live
- The 5-step framework for building your GTM moat from day zero

-- 

✍ Read the full newsletter edition on Substack (link in comments). 

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

What if your top-performing seller doesn’t even work for you?...

Partner-led growth is one of the highest-leverage GTM plays (if you know when and how to use it).

Brian Weinberger is the CRO at Sisense and has 30+ years of GTM leadership. He’s built partner motions across every model – from VARs to SIs to global cloud marketplaces.

In this episode, he shares the playbook for building a partner ecosystem.

Key takeaways: 
 
1️⃣ Don’t start with distribution. Start with delivery.

Most founders want partner-led pipeline. But first, ask: who delivers your product best? If it’s complex, lean on experts. Great delivery builds stickiness and drives long-term retention.

2️⃣ Enablement speed is the best predictor of partner success.

Enablement is your early signal. How quickly can someone become fluent in your product and category? Invest in onboarding to compress time-to-value for every partner.

3️⃣ Partner ecosystems are not shortcuts, they’re systems.

You won’t see ROI in 6 months. But by year 3, compounding kicks in. A mature ecosystem drives pipeline, retention, and expansion (often outperforming internal teams).

4️⃣ Use both direct and partner models

Microsoft scaled through partners; Salesforce went direct. Today’s best SaaS companies use both: AEs for speed, partners for scale. Direct is your wedge and partners are your engine.

5️⃣ Sell on your own paper, even if you don’t do the work.

Early on, own the contract. Let partners deliver, but keep buying simple for customers. This gives you control while subcontracting trusted experts behind the scenes.

6️⃣ Use partners to extend coverage where you can’t hire.

New regions, verticals, or languages? Start with partners. The right one can be your seller, marketer, CSM, and architect - all in one.

7️⃣ The best partners hunt, not wait.

Most partner programs wait for inbound or expect the reseller to “bring leads.” Flip the script. Feed your partners a pipeline, offer meaningful margins, and give them a reason to care. Partners who market and close independently are the ones who scale with you.

8️⃣ Use integrations to gain leverage with giants.

Want attention from a cloud hyperscaler or dominant ecosystem? Don’t just build an integration, resell their product. Sisense white-labeled Snowflake, creating shared customers and shared incentives. Ecosystem selling builds political capital.

9️⃣ Want loyalty? Invest in in-person.

Remote is efficient, but in-person builds bonds. Whether it’s team offsites, co-selling sessions, or just dinners, the cultural glue that holds your partner network together is forged face-to-face. The ROI shows up in loyalty, learning speed, and long-term deal flow.

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🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

You can tell the difference between someone who is GOOD and GREAT. 

🎙️ Now live on The GTMnow Podcast: the most replayed moment from the full episode with Cristina Cordova (early Stripe, Notion and Linear). 

It outlines her framework and strategies for identifying exceptional talent early, and how to know when a team/company is truly worth betting your career on.

One of my key takeaways: 

If someone’s been exceptional in any domain, odds are they’ll bring that same intensity to leading GTM, building product or scaling a company.
Look for excellence you can’t replicate - skills outside your lane that you can still recognize as great.

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🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."

💡 GTMnow by GTMfund: Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

Always a blast speaking with him, and extra fun hitting record this time around!
Thanks for having me on the Lodestar Podcast, ☁️ Cliff Simon!

We cover the importance and strategy of media behind venture, including what it means to leverage AI to drive efficiency. 

Full episode in the comments 🎧

If I were a founder trying to get placed in TechCrunch, here are the 5 key things I would do.

Over the past year, at GTMfund we've helped dozens of startups navigate their first major press moment –  usually tied to a fundraise or product launch.

Here’s what I’d focus on if I were trying to land top-tier coverage today:

1️⃣ Start with the ‘why’, not the ‘what’

The best PR campaigns start with a goal. 
Ask: What do we want this announcement to achieve?

- Hiring → Broad tech outlets (e.g., TechCrunch) help you look legit to talent.
- Enterprise deals → Niche industry publications speak directly to your ICP.
- Fundraising → Tier I outlets add credibility with downstream investors.

PR is like jet fuel (not the engine), amplifying what you’ve already built.

2️⃣ Warm intros go a long way 

Think of PR like sales: cold outreach converts at a lower rate than warm outreach. 

If you haven’t built media relationships yet, ask your investors for help.

Here’s a simple message you could send: 
“Hi {{first name}} – excited to share we’ll be announcing our $XX round soon.
We’re targeting [Outlet] and [Outlet]. Do you have any contacts there that we should know before we kick off?”

Investors often have trusted connections with journalists, so it’s worth checking. 

3️⃣ Targeted reporter research beats spray and pray

Most journalists operate within a defined "beat" – a focused subject area such as AI, Fintech, or Enterprise SaaS. Focus on finding the right specific reporter. Search their past articles, read what they write, and meticulously align your pitch with their recurring themes to ensure genuine relevance.

Build a short list of 3–5 reporters who cover your space deeply. 
Quality > quantity.

4️⃣ Make it storyworthy

“We raised money!” is not a story. What matters is why now, why you, and why it’s different.

Use this filter (full credit to Jenny He, GP at Position Ventures on this framework!):

- Timeliness: Would this matter in 2 weeks?
- Impact: Who’s affected, and how deeply?
- Relevance: Why will this audience care right now?

Then, layer in your positioning – what makes you uniquely different?
Your product is the WHAT.
But positioning is the WHY US. It’s what makes a journalist care.

5️⃣ Offer exclusivity 

Want to 10x your chances of a feature? Offer the exclusive.

But use it wisely:
- Pick your no.1 reporter
- Offer them the scoop (with a deadline: “open until Tues 5pm PST”)
- If no response, move to the next on your list

This is a respectful and effective way of reaching out, particularly if you want Tier I conversage. 

PR is a process. Just like sales or GTM:
- You qualify your leads (reporters)
- You align your pitch (positioning)
- You build trust (credibility)
- You close (placement)

2 recent PR announcements that caught my eye being really well done: Gamma hitting a $2.1B valuation & Fastbreak AI raising a $40M Series A.

PS we documented this in the GTMnow newsletter - more details in the full edition.

taplio

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