From Founder Momentum to Systematic GTM Execution

When startups grow fast, chaos follows. I joined a fast-scaling SaaS startup where things were moving really quickly. There had been no time to put effective systems in place. Deals lived on a whiteboard (not ideal 😅), client info sat in inboxes, and the team were chasing details that should've been accessible to everyone. They were growing too fast to slow down and fix things but it was an impossibility that they would continue as they were. The team needed both a CRM and a central hub for their operations to have💡 all client data in one place (no more whiteboard), ⚙️ automated workflows and have 🤝 marketing, sales, and onboarding talking to each other. 💻 We landed on using HubSpot. Within weeks, the change was real: ✅ Everyone had visibility on every lead and deal ✅ Follow-ups just happened - nothing slipped through the cracks anymore ✅ Reports and insights were at everyone's fingertips But the biggest win wasn't just operational, it was human. The team went from reactive and stressed to structured and focused. They gained confidence from a system supporting them, and opportunities were no longer missed. Technology is only as effective as the mindset behind it. While a CRM isn't the right solution for every startup, in this case, it was. 🤔 I'd love to know what system or tool has made a surprisingly big difference in how your team works together! #BusinessGrowth #SustainableGrowth

Two Founders, Two Paths Sam built his SaaS in the shadows. Late nights, closed doors, zero social media updates. He launched with a product so solid he thought it would sell itself. Six months later? Crickets. His LinkedIn was a ghost town. Twitter, non-existent. He had an amazing solution but nobody knew he existed. The burning question kept him up: "Why isn't anyone buying?" Meanwhile, Jenny took a different path. She shared her journey openly. Weekly posts about what she learned. The bugs she fixed. The customer problems she solved. Her struggles. Her wins. People started paying attention. They engaged. They asked questions. They became invested in her success. When she launched, her audience was ready. They didn't just buy, they became her advocates. Here's what most founders get wrong: you can't hide your way to growth. Building in public isn't ego. It's a connection. When you share your journey, you're doing three things simultaneously: 1. Proving your expertise to people who need it 2. Building trust before asking for anything 3. Filtering your ideal customers naturally through authentic conversations Jenny's approach was strategic. Every post attracted the right people. Every interaction moved someone closer to becoming a customer. Why this matters now: The market doesn't reward secrecy anymore. It rewards founders who educate, share, and show their work. The founder who builds in public doesn't just get more leads. They get better leads. People who already understand the problem. People who believe in the mission. Here's the thing, Most founders know they should build in public. They just don't know how to do it consistently and strategically. That's where we come in. We help founder-led companies get visible to their ideal customers. Here's how it works: Step 1: We listen to your goals and understand your unique story. Step 2: We create and share content that actually speaks to your ideal customers (not generic startup fluff). Step 3: We nurture conversations until they naturally become leads. It's not complicated. It's just intentional. Your product is probably great. Your story probably is too. It's time to let people know about it.

Most founders don't realize they're being sold to. You think you're getting mentorship and wisdom from people who've "seen it all." But here's what's really happening. Your cap table isn't just a list of investors. It's a web of financial incentives that has nothing to do with your success and everything to do with theirs. When you take VC money, you're entering an ecosystem. A network of funds, portfolio companies, and partnerships that all feed each other. Your investors sit on boards of SaaS companies, they're LPs in funds that own enterprise tools and they have revenue-sharing agreements with platforms in their portfolio. Then come the introductions: "You should talk to the team at HubSpot." "Most of our successful companies use Salesforce by this stage." It's always casual. Framed as helpful guidance from people who've seen hundreds of companies scale. So you take the meetings. You sign up. And because these people just wrote you a $2M check, you listen. Here's what you don't see: That investor has $8M in HubSpot stock. Their fund is an LP in Salesforce Ventures. Their other portfolio companies sell *into* the enterprise SaaS ecosystem. You're not just a horse but one of twelve, and they've placed chips on all of them, plus the track itself. This isn't mentorship. It's portfolio optimization and you're paying for it. I've watched this six times in the last year. Founder raises Series A. Gets introduced to "the right tools." Twelve months later, spending $18k/month on software they barely use. I ask: *"Why'd you pick these?"* Answer: *"Our investors said this works at our stage."* Works for who? Not your burn rate or your team juggling three tools to do one job. It works for the ecosystem and the companies in their fund that need enterprise customers. They convince founders that expensive tools equal legitimacy. That custom systems "don't scale." And founders believe it, because the person saying it has a billion-dollar fund. Here's the structure: Big SaaS raises $500M from VCs. Those VCs invest in 40 startups. They introduce startups to the SaaS product. Company goes public. VCs make 10x on both ends. Everyone wins. Except the founder paying $4,800/month when a $7k custom tool would've worked forever. This isn't conspiracy, but incentives and they aren't aligned with you. When someone says you "need" a tool, ask: Do they benefit if I use this? Is this best for my business or theirs? You don't need expensive SaaS to be real. You need revenue, a product people love, and systems that don't bleed you dry. And just know that you're allowed to say no. Even to the people who wrote the check. If you're tired of paying for software you don't need- we help companies build tools they actually own.

After two intense conversations this week with companies I advise about trust and community-led growth, I revisited some excellent writing from Bessemer Venture Partners on these topics. Their insights landed differently after hearing the same questions from two founders: "How do we build trust with buyers when we're not embedded in their world?" Here's what BVP gets right-and what I'm seeing work in practice: On building trust when you're not the recognized expert: BVP highlights that founders need to get visible on LinkedIn and share thought leadership in their market. But here's the part that resonates after this week's conversations: repetition isn't a weakness—it's the strategy. One founder I'm working with was hesitant: "I don't have anything new to say." I told him what BVP's research confirms: you don't need new content. You need consistent themes. Your personal account will outperform your company account for the first year. So show up repeatedly with the same frameworks, the same insights, the same point of view. That's how you become the person buyers think of when they think of your problem. On borrowing credibility: BVP shares a case where a founder partnered with a podcast influencer in their space - guesting on podcasts, contributing to newsletters, co-hosting webinars. The result? Night-and-day difference in their sales process. This matches exactly what I'm advising: borrow trust while you build your own. Partner with voices your ICP already respects. Bring in advisors who can speak buyer language in sales conversations. They provide social proof you can't manufacture overnight. On community-led growth: BVP's DataHub example is the perfect case study. They launched a Slack community around their open-source data catalog in 2020. By 2021, organic adoption at Netflix, Visa, Etsy. Engineers weren't just using it—they were evangelizing it, shaping it. Nearly 14,000 Slack members became their GTM engine. Word-of-mouth in the data practitioner community drove growth better than any sales team could. They just raised a $35M Series B. My take after this week's conversations: Trust doesn't scale through traditional sales anymore - especially in technical or specialized markets. It scales through: Visibility + Consistency → Personal credibility compounds when you show up repeatedly with clear POV Strategic Partnerships → Borrow distribution and trust from voices your ICP already follows Community as Engine → Give people a place to gather, learn, contribute—they become your champions The founders I'm working with aren't waiting for permission to be thought leaders. They're building trust one post, one partnership, one community interaction at a time. It doesn't happen overnight. But it happens. How are you building trust with buyers who don't know you yet?

I'm resetting my strategy. Again. Here's what nobody talks about: It’s been 118 days since we started building our startup, but progress has been slow. Wayyyy slower than we’d like. Given that we’re a bootstrapped startup, we don’t have much room for slow growth. We need things to work, fast. So last week, I decided to try a new acquisition strategy - cold calling. The rationale was to get a faster feedback loop because when I don’t get responses from emails and LinkedIn messages, I don’t get any feedback. However, it’s been a while since I did cold calls, and I’m BAD at it. I’m overthinking things and doing too little dials. I thought I’ll get better at it faster, but it’s not a skill I can develop overnight. Then Justin called me out — “I don’t think you should continue doing this… it’s not your strength” I thought about it, and what he said is true. Why am I starting a new acquisition channel when I haven’t even mastered our existing one? Furthermore, I’ve got better results from other channels. I should be doubling down on those instead of starting a new one. After reflecting on it, I believe this is the right way to go. I shouldn’t obsess over what’s the “right channel” to focus on, but more so what’s the “right channel FOR ME”. At this point in time when we need things to work FAST, I can’t afford to waste time learning and mastering a new channel. I need to leverage what I already know to get things off the ground before I try something new. That’s why we’re getting back to basics and adopting the “allbound” methodology: ↳ LinkedIn content to drive awareness and eyeballs — “inbound” ↳ Warm “outbound” to those who engage with our content to spark conversations and book meetings Instead of building a new skillset around cold calling, I should focus on: ↳ Improving quantity + quality of my LinkedIn content ↳ Improving quantity + quality of my LinkedIn DMs Anything else is a distraction. I also realised I haven't actually talked much about how we’re different, our story or inspiration for starting our startup, and what we stand for as a company. It basically means one thing — at this point, we’re just blending into the crowd. We’re not standing out. As a startup, that's the worst thing that can happen to us. That’s why I’m going to put more attention into creating more valuable content and more importantly, sharing stories of how we’re helping our customers in a differentiated way from our competitors. Time to stay focused and execute on this new strategy!

“We hired people who were discontented with where they were, not in a bad way, but in a good way. They had something to prove, a chip on their shoulder. The ones who were undervalued elsewhere but ready to show the world what they could do.” That’s one of the many lessons from my conversation with David Cummings, one of the most influential entrepreneurs and investors in the Southeast. David has founded 10 companies, including Pardot, which he bootstrapped and sold for nearly $100 million. He’s the founder of Atlanta Tech Village, the fourth largest tech hub in the United States, and through Atlanta Ventures he’s backed some of the city’s most iconic startups including Calendly, Salesloft, and Greenzie. And now he’s taking on his most ambitious project yet, redeveloping South Downtown Atlanta (SoDo Atlanta, LLC) into a startup district for the next generation of founders. Here are five lessons from our conversation: 1. Culture is the ultimate competitive advantage. David built Pardot around two simple ideas: be the best place to work and the best place to be a customer. Everything else flowed from that foundation. He believes culture isn’t something you talk about, it’s something you prove through every interaction, process, and decision inside the company. 2. Have an opinionated product. You can’t please everyone. Pardot won by focusing on the high end of small business and saying no to everything that didn’t fit that vision. Clarity about who you serve and what you stand for is what keeps a company from chasing every shiny object. 3. Hire the discontented. David looks for people who are positive, self-starting, and supportive, but also a little restless. The ones with something to prove often go on to build great things. They’re the people who want to grow faster than their current environment allows, and a startup gives them that outlet. 4. Be the shock absorber. Great CEOs steady the team through the highs and lows. He sees his role as translating chaos into calm so the company keeps moving forward. The best leaders don’t eliminate stress, they absorb it so their teams can stay focused on building. 5. Liquidity is rare, don’t count on it. After decades of building and investing, David knows liquidity is the exception, not the rule. The best founders play the long game. They build enduring companies instead of chasing quick wins, knowing that true success comes from persistence over time. Listen to the full conversation with David Cummings, founder, investor, builder, and one of the key architects of Atlanta’s startup ecosystem on Not Another CEO Substack (https://lnkd.in/eQMfV2MH). Links to Spotify, Apple and YouTube in the comments. This is a timely episode because the Venture Atlanta Conference is this week. It's amazing to see how big and vibrant the Atlanta tech ecosystem has become since I started my career there more than 20 years ago.

Having built and sold a bootstrapped SaaS, I used to think our way was the only way.  I was wrong. The VC-funded playbook has a superpower bootstrappers ignore. But funded founders consistently burn cash by forgetting one critical bootstrapped lesson. It all boils down to your GTM's "Operating System." There are only two: → The Bootstrapped: Uses time & focus to earn cash. Profitability is king. → The Funded: Uses cash to buy time. Growth rate is king. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both is crucial for any founder. Here’s why. 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 Master Founder-Led Sales before you hire a sales team. The goal of your first 20 customers isn't revenue; it's data. You are personally de-risking your entire GTM by validating pain points, messaging, and pricing. A hired salesperson's job is to close deals. A founder's job is to learn. Hiring a VP of Sales on day one isn't scaling sales. It's scaling your assumptions with expensive fuel. 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗜𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲 Invest capital to create a market, not just compete in one. HubSpot didn't just try to sell "content marketing software." They spent capital to create and own the entire category of "Inbound Marketing." This feels terrifying when cash is tight, but one strategic, forward-looking investment can build an untouchable moat around your business. It’s the difference between owning a niche and leading a market. --- 𝗨𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹. The best founders understand both playbooks deeply. They know when to apply the bootstrapper's capital discipline and when to deploy the funded founder's market-shaping ambition. What side are you on? And what would you love to learn from the other?

The best time to build your founder-led GTM was yesterday. The second best is right now. if you’re not investing in founder-led GTM from day one, you’re already behind. In early-stage startups, the founder is the go-to-market. Not the CMO. Not a campaign. The founder. Because at that stage, the market doesn’t buy your product, it buys your clarity. Your conviction. Your ability to explain why this matters. This isn’t content. It’s infrastructure, the foundation of how trust, momentum, and pipeline are built. As the company grows, your role changes, from doing everything, to leading the narrative that drives everything. The real asset isn’t just the audience you build, it’s the fact that the market learns to see your company through your lens. That early trust compounds, shaping how every SDR, marketer, and executive communicates the story. Once this stage is done right, it compounds fast. A founder-led GTM doesn’t just move deals, it moves people. When the market knows your company through your voice you’re no longer chasing attention. You’re leading the narrative.   The market listens when the founder speaks.

Founding AEs face one of two challenges early on: You’re either creating a category - selling against the status quo… Or entering one - selling against established players. Each requires a different mindset, motion, and message. This week’s issue of Justin Dorfman's The Founding AE dives into how early sellers adapt to each scenario and why understanding which game you’re playing changes everything about how you sell. Check it out here 👇 https://lnkd.in/e6GKP952 #sales #accountexecutives #startups