Moe Ali

To make enterprise agents work reliably, what do you need? semantic contracts, explicit rules? Both, but it’s only half the picture. The other half is the layer that runs enterprises but rarely shows up cleanly or coherently in systems of record: decision traces. These are the exceptions, overrides, precedents, and cross-system context that live in Slack threads, deal-desk conversations, escalation calls, and, most often, in people’s heads. You can’t reliably reconstruct them from your CRM or ERP. Rules tell an agent what should happen in general (“use official ARR for reporting”), but they fall apart on edge cases (“a VP approves a discount on a Zoom call”) where the action is logged but the reasoning is lost. When that happens, agents don’t know what they’re allowed to do next, or why. Systems-of-agents startups have a structural advantage because, when they sit in the execution path, they can see what inputs were gathered, what policy was evaluated, what exception route was invoked, who approved, and what state was written. If you persist and link those traces, you get what my partners Jaya and Ashu call a “context graph”: a living, queryable record of decision traces that links decision events to the why behind them. Our bet is that context graphs will power a new generation of startups and become the core asset behind the next trillion-dollar platforms, especially in workflows where “the AI decided” is not an acceptable answer.

71

21 Comments

Most PMs struggle aligning the company with their next feature launch. Launch tiers can help. There’s a strategy to launch tiers, and once you get it right, it changes everything. Here's a break down the 4-tier launch system that the best companies use to align PM with PMM and the rest of the GTM team: — First, let’s talk about what launch tiering really means. Not every product launch deserves a full-scale campaign with press releases and marketing blitzes. But most teams either overinvest in minor updates or underinvest in major ones. The solution? Launch tiers. — Tier 1: Major Launches These are the big ones: New product rollouts, major redesigns, or features that can redefine your category. They need: → Full company alignment (PMs, marketing, sales, PR, support) → A marketing campaign, press releases, and executive support. — Tier 2: Mid-Level Launches These are meaningful updates that improve the product or help expand market reach... But don’t require full-scale efforts. They involve: → Collaboration with marketing, but on a smaller scale → Blog posts, emails, and internal training for sales teams — Tier 3: Routine Updates These are your everyday product improvements. Small design tweaks, bug fixes, or iterative feature updates. Here’s what they need: → Simple announcements like release notes or in-app notifications → Minimal or no involvement from marketing and sales — Tier 4: Silent Releases These updates live behind the scenes... Things like backend optimizations, performance upgrades, or security patches. What they require: → Documentation for internal teams → No external communication or customer-facing announcements — But how do you decide which tier your launch belongs to? Ask these questions: → Business Impact: Will this update drive growth, retention, or revenue? → Customer Impact: Will it significantly change user workflows? The bigger the impact, the higher the tier. — Once you’ve categorized your launch, the next step is creating a playbook for each tier. For each tier, outline: → The key deliverables → Team roles and responsibilities → Lead times and budgets This way, there’s no confusion or last-minute scrambling. — If you treat every product launch the same, you’ll either burn out or miss key opportunities. Learn more about nailing launches here: https://lnkd.in/eB7s6umA And use this tier system to launch smarter, not harder.

23

1 Comment

Many startups structure their design partnerships to be frictionless. Logan Randolph, Sierra’s first GTM hire, took the opposite approach: “You need mutual investment and risk.” “We told partners upfront: ‘We'll give you dedicated engineers, direct access to our founders, and our cell phone numbers. But in return, we need real investment from you — payment, access to your systems, and weekly meetings to get candid feedback,’" he says. When building Sierra’s design partnership program, he: -Required a payment as a percentage of total contract value to disqualify “AI tourists” -Time-boxed the engagement to create urgency for both sides -Clear expectations around what partnership required: strict launch deadlines, access to partner systems, weekly meetings and shared Slack channels, and defined swimlanes The result was a 100% partner-to-customer conversion. To learn exactly how he created Sierra’s design partnership program from scratch, read more on The Review.

18

2 Comments

Great founders know where to focus. Bret Taylor knows how to break it down. We pulled some key insights from the Sierra co-founder and CEO's Frameworks for Growth episode—on customers, selling outcomes instead of features, and what some startups miss about pace, product, and predictions. 🧵 Highlights in the carousel 🎬 Watch the full ep: https://lnkd.in/g9WmVtzf

26

1 Comment

Reading Metronome’s Monetization Operating Model, I kept coming back to one idea: pricing has become product. Software now delivers outcomes, not access. Yet most companies still charge as if they’re selling seats or licenses. That disconnect creates friction: for customers, unpredictability; for companies, stalled growth. The paper’s argument is simple but sharp—monetization isn’t a late-stage decision. It’s strategic infrastructure. Pricing needs the same ownership and iteration as any feature. Treat it like a surface that customers touch, not a spreadsheet buried in finance. If value is continuous and dynamic, pricing must be as well. That means product, GTM, finance, and engineering working from one system of truth. How many of us still treat pricing as an afterthought—when it should be a growth engine? https://lnkd.in/gnH7WzYf #Monetization #ProductStrategy #AI

8

AI is changing the structure of most companies we see. Lots more coming from us on how startups can build faster, leaner teams -- and where we see all of this going. Great piece from Pete Flint to kick it off: https://lnkd.in/dcUebcJj

57

1 Comment

GTM goals for early stage technical companies: 1. Be referenced often in internal meetings of your prospects (exploratory phase of adoption) 2. Be referenced often in externally facing architecture diagrams of the top companies in your market (first path to production + PMF) 3. Be endorsed often in communities as experts/influencers see 1 + 2 appear without your promotion (your real ARR + NRR story happens here) 4. Be endorsed as the gold standard by communities (moat, hang on for dear life and keep shipping and making money) #2 is v hard as things shift often, but Founder time should be with customers to make this occur as often as possible. #3 + #4 become your roadshow focus over time so you can scale your company.

21

2 Comments

Stealth is not a long-term strategy. Aaron Harris built YC's Series A program and has helped founders raise billions. He argues that by Series A, building in secret means you're missing critical information on where investors are actually excited. Great founders decide if they truly need capital, run live-market reads, then jump into their fundraise when the wave is cresting.

13

2 Comments

The hottest role in AI startups right now isn’t Forward Deployed Engineers. It isn't GTM Engineers. It’s Deployment Strategists. Decagon calls it an “Agent Product Manager.” Harvey calls it a “Solutions Architect.” Palantir Technologies has had versions of this role for years. And the salaries are climbing fast: - Decagon: $200k–$285k - Palantir Technologies: $120k–$200k - Figma: $150k–$260k - Ramp: $100k–$180k - Harvey: $190k–$260k So who are these people? They are usually pseudo-technical -- CS or engineering majors, or folks with technical work experience. Many come from 2 years in consulting, IB, or PE, then jump into startups to get their hands dirty. They are young, hungry, polished, and comfortable being in front of customers. What do they actually do? They make sure enterprise AI deployments succeed. A $100k+ deal does not survive on a nice pitch or a self-serve onboarding flow. It survives if the customer sees value in the pilot. That means: - Embedding directly with the customer - Designing prompt logic for specific workflows - Working with engineering to align integrations and data flow - Helping exec teams define their AI roadmap - Running feedback loops into product and GTM Why does this role matter so much? Because enterprise AI is messy. Integrations, data transfer, and adoption make or break a deal. Most buyers are using AI for the first time, and each has unique workflows. Deployment Strategists bridge that gap. They own the outcome. They are accountable for making pilots successful, which often means millions in revenue down the line. At Conversion, Sam Bochner has been leading this work for us. We are now thinking about scaling it into a full team. Because a few successful pilots can fund an entire department, and the cost of failed deployments is too high to ignore. Is this just a rebrand of customer success? Not really. Success is about answering tickets and renewals. Deployment Strategy is about going deep with a few enterprise accounts, extracting maximum value, and ensuring the pilot closes into a multi-year contract. Call it Agent PM, Solutions Architect, or Deployment Strategist. Whatever the title, this is becoming one of the most important roles in AI SaaS.

655

91 Comments