Tamar Yehoshua

Yesterday, I ran a GTMsession for GTMfund portfolio company founders and their executive teams with the brand and content marketing legend, Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈. (🤔 GTM what now? GTMfund… GTMnow…) Yes, we have more words attached to the acronym GTM, though not widely talked about since they’re internal. GTMsessions are monthly private digital live sessions on various go-to-market topics, led by an executive operator who is an expert in the field. They’re available to GTMfund portfolio companies and their executive teams. Being closed-door and not open to the public, these sessions allow any and all questions to be comfortably asked, the conversation tailored to be hyper-specific to startups and their current concerns, questions, etc. We didn't even get through half of the moderated points that I had prepared because the questions for Udi just kept rolling in (a good thing, that's the point of these sessions). Udi dropped some 🔥 insights that we’ll share more on later, but for now, Stan Rymkiewicz nailed summarizing key takeaways on how Gong thinks about content creation and distribution that I've dropped in the comments. One key pain point discussed in the session was the challenge of keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of content marketing. It often feels like by the time one strategy is implemented, its effectiveness has already diminished. So, what’s next? How do you stay ahead of the curve? Since GTMsessions are private, their recordings aren’t shared openly. However, the feedback was so phenomenal that we knew other revenue leaders could benefit from the conversation. If you’re a revenue leader looking to understand the future of content marketing and stay ahead of the curve: Join me for a GTMnow digital live event with Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈 , Jon Miller, and Pete Lorenco. You'll learn from them how to stay two steps ahead and walk away with content tactics and inspiration. 🗓 June 18th at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST 👉 To register: https://lnkd.in/gsdsai23 (pictured here: two passionate hand talkers 👋 )

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🤖 Growth marketing agents 🤖 - they're getting smarter and more capable thanks to next gen tooling and infrastructure Just chatted with Isabelle Hughes and Vishal Khanna from Exa - they're building some awesome embeddings-based search tools. Here's a few of the top use cases I walked away with that are relevant for above-the-API growth marketers and cold emailers 1️⃣ Finding lookalike companies based on embeddings Exa claims to have the smartest lookalike search and deepest indexes of any company doing lookalike modeling I've talked to recently. What they've done differently is build a smarter 'looker-upper' (using more than just raw cosine-similarity), and not just a bigger database of things to look up 2️⃣ Finding recent company news Run API calls through Exa API to find nuanced articles related to your target prospects companies Pricing is a bit expensive if you're a volume maxie cannon loader, but for lower volume enterprise-y type stuff in Clay this might be a great substitute for other data providers 3️⃣ Automated newsletter generation Everyone wants a newsletter but nobody wants to actually read the news. Might actually build a product around this one, but pull in recent news using Exa about any topic, summarize with an LLM, feed it a template, and off you go with your shiny newsletter 4️⃣ Automated technical white paper creation This type of content can be tricky for marketers in technical industries Here's what I'd do: Scope the outline of a 60 page white paper using a best-in-class AI model, and instead of using the out of the box outputs for each step in the outline, loop in an Exa search for the top 10 technical content pieces (using Exa's nuanced embedding-based search) to provide RAG context for each section's prompt. The result should be a technically-informed, super relevant full length white-paper. (Might build that one myself too) Looks cool Exa keep it up

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Instacart is a market leader when it comes to leveraging AI tools to boost productivity at work. I had an amazing conversation with JJ Zhuang, Instacart’s Chief Architect, who has shepherded over 50 AI-driven initiatives to market across the org. We explored what catapulted Instacart to the forefront of AI integration, supporting radically diverse use cases across various functional areas. One striking insight (echoed by Ethan Mollick and others elsewhere) is that you often don't need specialized tools for specialized work. Frontier models like GPT-4 can seamlessly adapt to a wide range of functions and use cases. They're not just for engineers; they're incredibly versatile tools used by marketing, comms, and legal teams. From generating code to proofreading and ideation, GPT-4 empowers every department to leverage AI for enhanced productivity and innovation. By integrating LLM’s like GPT-4 into their workflows, teams can streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and unlock bandwidth for new creative possibilities. How can you harness the power of AI in your own work to boost productivity? Share your thoughts below 👇 Want to hear more insights from JJ? Check out the full podcast episode by clicking the link in the comments.

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New on First Round Capital Review, Will Larson digs into why common management practices have become anti patterns, and which ones engineering execs should lean into to sharpen their team strategy. Always fun to learn from old Stripe co-workers :)

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Winning early GTM via founder led sales is an essential step in building a consequential start up. 🎯 But, while there are countless conferences focused on scaling GTM once you've hit a couple million in revenue, to date there hasn't been a conference focused on FOUNDER LED SALES and nailing the earliest days of GTM. 👀 😅 That ends now. 🙌 Pear VC has helped 100+ founders learn how to sell, how to build their 0-to-1 sales engine, how to get from $0 ARR to $1M ARR -- and now we're introducing the first ever GTM CONFERENCE for EARLY STAGE FOUNDERS. ⭐ "Zero to $1M: Winning Early GTM" will be held in San Francisco, CA this September 5th! ⭐ If you're at the idea 💡, pre-seed 🌰 , or seed stage 🌱 , this is the GTM conference for YOU. Come hear from Pear veterans, industry leaders, and successful repeat founders like Sanjit Biswas (Samsara and Cisco Meraki Co-founder and CEO), and leave with actionable guidance to supercharge your startup’s revenue from day 1. ​ ➡ APPLY NOW! Space is limited, and the early application deadline is July 15th. Pepe Agell and I will review applications on a rolling basis. 🚀 CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU THERE! 🚀 #earlystageGTM #zeroto1M #founderledsales

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Maybe the most important skill for enterprise sales and CS is the ability to quickly connect the dots. The very best can hear or read disparate pieces of information and construct them into a coherent value narrative then make this relevant to different stakeholders. Often on the fly.

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Just finished an interview with CNBC at SuperReturn in Berlin, where we discussed opportunities in enterprise software and how GenAI will revolutionize the software sector. At Thoma Bravo, we see AI as an opportunity, not a threat, and software incumbents are in a great position to benefit from this technology. Over the years, we've seen enterprise #software evolve from the limitations of on-premise to the flexibility of SaaS, and now, GenAI is set to redefine business operations. We're actively embracing #GenAI's transformative power and are already seeing products emerge within our portfolio companies. Focusing on #AI is more important than ever, and we're excited and optimistic about what this means for the future of enterprise software. https://lnkd.in/ePHUTjNe

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Are we helping or hurting? That is a question many residents of San Francisco ask ourselves in the midst of a stark and increasing equity gap. As a parent, community member, and incoming board member of the Horizons at San Francisco Friends School, I’m keenly aware of the potential learning loss our public school students in the Mission District experience in the summer months without our support. Our city is undergoing another crisis - looming budget cuts threaten vital programs like Horizons at SFFS that provide equitable learning for Mission youth. We urgently need your support to secure bridge funding and ensure our summer enrichment continues. Our scholars and families are relying on Horizons' high-quality academics and social-emotional growth.  Horizons has been successfully leveraging the months when students are out of school to stem summer learning loss for children in San Francisco for ~10 years. The program has also intentionally increased impact by supporting their scholars through their educational journey during the school year and into High School. Last year, Horizons impacted 150+ scholars with targeted small classroom instruction, confidence-building, and joyful community enrichment experiences- thanks to our dedicated summer education workforce. But we can't continue without you. Please join me in supporting Horizons at SFFS today to expand partnerships, engage more crisis-impacted families, and grow our supportive community stronger. In past years, the SF Department of Children, Youth and Families has been a partner to increase access to education for our students. This summer, as we face a potential 40% loss to our summer program due to DCYF funding cuts that have impacted so many vital programs in our city, we’ve decided to celebrate Horizons Giving Day, the whole month of May. Please join me in our movement - your gift saves the summer for San Francisco scholars and helps bridge the educational equity gap in our city. Let’s help together. In gratitude, friendship and community, Aneesha #GiveTheGiftofSummer #SparkPassions #HorizonsGivingDay https://lnkd.in/gJAYnibC Links for reference: Horizons at SFFS: https://lnkd.in/gfsdugDX Impact Report: https://lnkd.in/gZc2jn85 Press Release on DCYF Loss of Funding: https://lnkd.in/gNprpSyB

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"Work-life balance: a myth in fastest-growing SaaS companies?" The snapshot below is from Avenir's report written by Jared Sleeper, Hannah Bao, and David Prilutsky on the State of SaaS. It highlights that the fastest-growing public companies in SaaS fare lower on work-life balance scores than their peers Data consistently shows that extraordinary outcomes demand exceptional efforts from every team member, not just the founders. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! This rings especially true for early-stage startups in India. Joining forces with smart, passionate, and driven individuals often means giving up some personal time each week (and it is worth it)!

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Great dinner and discussion on the cutting edge of outbound automation and signals. Two nuggets from the discussion: 1) Email deliverability is especially critical for GTM motions with large scale outbound automation (usually selling to SMBs and wide TAM). There doesn’t seem to be a silver bullet, and banking on one deliverability vendor / approach is risky. 2) Bulllish on signals and automation for up-market GTM motions, but needs to be done thoughtfully. Likely keeping reps in the driver’s seat and less end-to-end automation.

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Many SaaS solutions resonate most with directors/VPs/department heads. For the past 5+ years the approach for selling to these folks was to get them very excited about your solution and price in such a way that they could get a deal done with minimal sign off. In enterprise this could run as high as 500k. Now, there is scrutiny on 25k deals. Smart sellers realize this and are running a totally different play. A little different flavor of the traditional top down model. These folks are still doing well. Folks running the old playbook? In struggleville. P.S. - when times are hard it’s actually easier to do big deals…if you know how to sell transformations.

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We're launching the inaugural edition of Beyond Benchmarks, a deep dive into the metrics and trends observed across the early-stage enterprise cloud market. This is the first look at some of the business data around GenAI in SaaS. Some initial observations: 1) 60% of SaaS companies have already integrated GenAI into their offerings (60% of these as part of their current product and 40% as a new product), and an additional 20% are planning to do so this year. Almost half aren't monetizing these features. Those that are are primarily experimenting with both usage-based and flat fee pricing models. 2) Most companies are utilizing OpenAI as their primary LLM, but many are experimenting with multiple models - and we are noticing an early trend towards intelligently routing GenAI inference requests to different models based on cost, performance, and security. 3) Though we are in the initial innings of GenAI, we are seeing some positive signals - companies that implemented GenAI had 7% higher NDR than those that did not. Still early days, but we'll be doing this benchmarking report regularly to track and share how things progress in this new era. Link to report in comments.

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Product Market Fit (PMF) is a crucial yet elusive concept for many early-stage startups. Achieving it can make or break a company's long-term success. In the latest episode of the "Founder & CEO Podcast," Michael Viscuso and I discuss what PMF is, what it looks like, and what to do once it's achieved. Check out the podcast here: https://lnkd.in/g2fw7v9g

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If you're looking for inspiration and advice on how to grow your business from its early stages to scaling it at incredible rates, have a listen below. The Hiveway Inc. founders sit down with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine to discuss the highs and lows, and perseverance required - to take an idea to becoming a leader in a global partner ecosystem.

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Where should you get started with GenAI? Russ Somers’ insights have really stuck with me. His credibility implementing AI is unquestionable — he’s tripled his department’s effectiveness through cleverly deploying a “GPTeam” of collaborators is quite an accomplishment, for sure. (Link to podcast below) But what really struck me most were his insights on the personal aspects of getting started. I’ve argued for the importance of using AI for oneself, but Russ shed fresh light on the question of where to start. Rather than diving straight into work applications, Russ emphasized the importance of play, discovery, and starting from a place of personal intrigue. This approach is often overlooked, to the detriment of the explorer, and the organization. Many organizations are asking their people, “What can GenAI do for our business?” This is the wrong question! Not because GenAI is irrelevant to the business, but because most employees don’t even know what GenAI can do, period. The necessary first step is to open their minds to the power of the technology, in a way that sparks their imaginations. One of Russ's key insights was the importance of avoiding complacency in building confidence in the power of these tools. If a suboptimal outcome is acceptable for your chosen point of focus, it shouldn’t be a candidate for GPT-powered exploration. True innovation demands iteration and refinement borne of a restless longing for more. With routine work, it’s sometimes easy to get comfortable and settle into the groove, but that’s not where significant gains will be made. Because innovation is accompanied by many false starts and frustrating dead ends, I’ve often told teams this sense of mattering is the essential prerequisite to undertaking a new project — if you don’t care, don’t bother. For whatever reason — unless you’re in a start-up environment with tightly aligned incentives — folks tend to demand more excellence from solutions to personal concerns than to work-imposed ones. To discover the value of GenAI, start personal. Having observed countless professionals attempt to incorporate this technology into their lives, I can tell you that your biggest barrier is likely going to be summoning your own activation energy. You’ve got to find a project where you’ll be willing to push beyond mediocre outcomes. Starting with a personal project is an exceptional hack to invoke care.

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B2B Seed Stage Founders are meeting tomorrow night in SF to discuss a variety of topics around GTM. One topic Al Rey and I are most interested to learn about is what folks are spending on customer acquisition and what channels are working. Tight funding markets require creative approaches. Come learn from your peers and place smarter bets with your limited resources. We're at capacity but as the time approaches we're likely to get a few folks drop out so please jump on the waiting list and I'll communicate with you regularly leading up to tomorrow night. https://lu.ma/9e9ccv6e

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When I meet early stage Generative AI founders building B2B solutions for enterprises, one recommendation I share is to figure out end-user tolerance for error and back into how much humans should be in the loop. Details below and in this article https://lnkd.in/g4Dc_SgC where Matt, Vibhor, and I share additional thoughts. -- ❓ Copilot vs Human-in-the-loop vs Autopilot ❓ As excited as we are about GenAI’s potential to automate a wide range of human tasks, it still has a long way to go—the non-deterministic nature of LLMs makes it difficult to produce repeatable outputs, even when given the same input. Given many large enterprises’ low-risk appetite, we recommend creating a GenAI product that falls into one of the three categories below depending on the use case and the end-users error tolerance: ▪️ Copilot: So-called AI copilots are tools meant to foster collaboration between a human user and an AI system; the AI makes suggestions so the user can better perform their task (e.g., GitHub Copilot suggests code to developers as they type). Tolerance for error is high for AI copilots, as the human is still in full control. ▪️ Human-in-the-loop (HIL): In HIL tools, the AI does most of the work while the human oversees and makes final decisions—for example, an AI-based wealth management tool could draft a portfolio construction recommendation that the human wealth advisor would review and revise as needed before sending it to a client. Though there is some tolerance for error in HIL tools, the AI should be fairly reliable. ▪️ Autopilot: Here, the AI is fully autonomous and makes all the decisions, such as a customer service bot that converses with a user and can purchase products for them. At this stage of the GenAI adoption curve, we expect AI copilots and HIL tools to be the most common types available and your best bet in ensuring enterprises will be comfortable using your technology. However, we suspect this will change in the next few years as better testing and monitoring systems make autopilots more viable. Thanks Spiceworks for covering.

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A very helpful enablement tool that almost no one has? List of initiatives / tools / programs to steal budget from + WHY our solution is a better investment. In most orgs… There are 1000 one pagers about random features. Zero one pagers about initiatives that we could get $$$ from and how to position for it.

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