If you're immersed in the world of GTM and startups like we are, you know there's no shortage of opinions circulating on the internet. Every month I share a handpicked collection of things I’m reading/listening to in the GTM world that are worth your time. If you’ve come across something cool that I’ve missed, send it my way.
“Nobody cares that you shipped.”
Shipping a product doesn’t mean customers will use it. Many product orgs conflate releasing something with delivering value, but the release is only the beginning. Bruno Aziza breaks down how teams can successfully launch a product and make sure it actually lands.
Nobody Cares That You Shipped.
“How Anthony Pierri helps B2B companies with razor-sharp positioning”
Some people’s ideas are so brilliantly simple that they make you say, “Dang... I wish I’d thought of that.” If you’ve ever had an Anthony Pierri post come across your LinkedIn feed, you’ll know the feeling. We hosted Anthony at a recent Scale Marketing Council to shake up the stodgy positioning traps many B2B companies fall into. Here’s a deeper dive into how and why he zeroed in on homepage positioning for B2B SaaS companies as his One Thing.
How Anthony Pierri picked one thing to be known for
“Why ‘traction’ can hurt your first round”
You have pilots in progress, paying customers, some early revenue, and a credible team investors can believe in. Surely that should make raising your first round easier. Not necessarily. Maria Rotilu of Openseed VC explains the “€50K ARR trap”: the uncomfortable middle where you have too much traction to be evaluated purely as a conviction bet, but not enough to make the growth story undeniable.
Why “Traction” Can Hurt Your First Round
“The mistake GTM teams are making with AI is very familiar”
If you’ve also heard enough about the “importance of the foundation before you even attempt to build agents for GTM” and wondered what that “foundation” really is, Crissy Saunders explains it in detail, including how it changes based on the job an agent is meant to perform.
SubstackThe mistake GTM Teams are making with AI is very familiar…
“AI anxiety in sales: what you can actually control”
Across a dozen conversations with founders, CROs, senior executives, and reps, John Barrows found that the common sentiment around AI is full-blown ANXIETY. If AI has you excited and worried in equal measure, John’s Substack speaks directly to that tension.
AI anxiety in sales: what you can actually control | JB Sales
John also came to Scale’s Sales Council to tell us what will tank outbound (hint: relying on AI without human judgment is a big part of it) and how to revive your sales messaging:
Sales-Ready Messaging in the AI Era | Scale Sales Council
“Win the answer, not just the citation”
Speaking of AI citations, Tim Sanders (Chief Innovation Officer at G2) nailed it on our Transaction podcast. One of the sharper takeaways:
Marketers need to write answer-shaped content, not message-shaped content. Content structured as problem-solution-feature-benefit-CTA reads as “vendor speak” and lowers model confidence, while FAQ-style, conversational content that mirrors real Reddit-thread discussions earns more citations.
Win the AI Answer, Not Just the Citation with Tim Sanders, Chief Innovation Officer at G2 - Ep 85
And ICYMI, the latest issue of How We Scaled This belongs somewhere on this list too, or so I’ve heard from the people who’ve read it: Launching a company out of stealth
Craig Rosenberg is the Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners, where he works with portfolio companies on GTM strategy and execution. He was the co-founder of TOPO, which was acquired by Gartner, and the host of The Transaction podcast.
Curious which of these lands hardest for people, since they pull at pretty different threads. And the "send it my way" line is sincere. If you've read something recently that belongs in the next one, drop it below.
The Anthony Pierri session was one of the best I've seen in a while!