Episodes

  • The New Playbook – Alignment, AI & Profitable Growth

    The New Playbook – Alignment, AI & Profitable Growth
    Feb 21 2025
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart grabs a few minutes with Nishant Taneja, a GTM and product marketing expert and thought leader to discuss how B2B SaaS leaders can align to drive profitable growth. Nishant shares his insights based on previous go-to-market experience with public and PE-owned companies like Barracuda, Wrike, Tata, and RingCentral. Nishant and Mike dive into a crucial but overlooked factor: The companies that will win aren’t just adopting AI—they’re building learning organizations. Key Takeaways from this Episode Include:  AI levels the playing field – human expertise is the differentiator  Retention & expansion are more valuable than new logos  Leaders must invest in upskilling their teams About Nishant Taneja Nishant is a Senior Marketing Executive with 12+ years of experience in B2B tech, specializing in cutting-edge cloud, SaaS, and AI solutions across cybersecurity, communications, and collaboration space. He has a proven track record of defining and executing GTM strategies and driving growth for startups, public and PE-owned companies like Barracuda, Wrike, Tata, and RingCentral. Nishant also advises Silicon Valley and Bengaluru-based tech startups on GTM and product marketing. To learn more about Nishant to go - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishant/
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    40 mins
  • Growth and Revenue Architecture

    Growth and Revenue Architecture
    Dec 27 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart meets with Roee Hartuv, a Revenue Architect at Winning by Design, a global B2B revenue consulting and training company. Roee shares insights from his work at Winning by Design, successfully implementing the "bowtie” framework and using a model driven approach scale SaaS companies no matter what stage they are. Roee and Mike unpack the critical challenges and opportunities facing SaaS companies as they emerge from the “crash” and shift to a more sustainable retention-first growth strategy. Key Takeaways:  How to transition from acquisition-focused to retention-driven growth.  Leveraging data models and the "bowtie" framework to unify the go-to-market teams  Overcoming the legacy mindset to achieve sustainable growth  The importance of building industry-wide standards to mature the SaaS space. Roee’s Bio: Roee Hartuv is a Revenue Architect at Winning by Design (WbD), working with SaaS scale-up companies to help them drive sustainable revenue growth. Hartuv is a B2B startup executive with more than 18 years of experience working at high-growth SaaS companies. With a penchant for accelerating business growth through optimizing sales strategies and customer success strategies, Hartuv is passionate about helping companies work toward better revenue. Previously, Hartuv held executive positions in sales and customer success at four different startups at various stages and segments. He helped growth-stage startups raise capital and implemented growth strategies. Throughout his career, Roee has built and managed sales, CS, and marketing teams. Hartuv holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya in Israel. Roee is based in Berlin, Germany. To learn more about Roee to go https://www.linkedin.com/in/roeehartuv/
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    32 mins
  • Customer Success Growth Strategies

    Customer Success Growth Strategies
    Dec 10 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart and Rod Cherkas, author and CEO of HelloCCO explore how customer success has evolved into a key driver of growth in SaaS businesses. Rod draws on his extensive experience as a customer success leader at companies like RingCentral, Marketo, and Gainsight to inform the discussion. He shares insights from his new book, REACH, and explains how SaaS companies implement this framework to fuel top-line growth and generate expansion revenue. Key Takeaways from this Episode Include:  Leveraging Customer Success as a Growth Engine  Adopting the REACH Framework  Utilizing AI as a Transformational Tool for Customer Success About Rod Cherkas Rod Cherkas is a highly regarded consultant to CEOs, CCOs, CROs, and their customer-facing leaders. He has held post-sale executive roles at several customer-centric organizations, including Intuit, RingCentral, Marketo, and Gainsight. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of HelloCCO, a strategy consulting firm that collaborates with innovative companies across various industries to develop, execute, and scale strategies for their customer-facing functions. Rod's work focuses on improving customer retention, increasing profitability, and optimizing productivity. He is the author of the bestselling books, "The Chief Customer Officer Playbook" and "REACH: A Framework for Driving Revenue Growth from Your Existing Customers." To learn more about Rod to go - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodcherkas/ or https://rodcherkas.com/
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    37 mins
  • Strategies for Scaling Sales

    Strategies for Scaling Sales
    Nov 20 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart connects with Peter Ahn, a Sales Performance Coach, to explore the growth challenges and opportunities facing executives at early-stage and SMB companies. Together, they discuss strategies for scaling revenue, aligning teams, and driving growth in today’s dynamic markets. Peter highlights common sales challenges faced by both product-led growth (PLG) and sales-led growth (SLG) companies, regardless of size. He explains that buyers, no matter how they engage with a company, are primarily interested in understanding the company's vision and perspective on the future. Peter emphasizes the importance of thought leadership and aligning philosophically with buyers, advocating for a focus on solving buyer problems rather than overemphasizing vendor solutions. Key Takeaways from this episode include:  Building resilience during economic uncertainty  Achieving cross-functional sales alignment  Developing an authentic sales strategy  Adopting buyer-centric approaches About Peter Ahn With over 15 years of enterprise sales experience, Peter Ahn has worked at industry-leading companies such as Google, Dropbox, Slack, Front, and Twingate. His expertise extends beyond corporate giants; he has collaborated with over 40 founders to help build sales teams and strategies from the ground up. As a Korean American tech sales coach, Peter is an active voice in promoting full inclusion and representation of Asian Americans in leadership. His unique superpower lies in transforming strategic frameworks into actionable steps that drive results while fostering an inclusive and diverse environment. To learn more about Peter Ahn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ahn-47538511/
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    33 mins
  • The CPO role in PE Backed Companies

    The CPO role in PE Backed Companies
    Nov 11 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart is joined by Marlon Davis, a Fractional Chief Product Officer with over 25 years of product management and product executive experience in healthcare, Insurtech, edtech and environmental sustainability. Marlon breaks down the unique demands of product leadership in private equity- owned companies. He shares why understanding the type of PE firm is crucial for role alignment. Marlon offers his perspective on how CPOs succeed by balancing customer-centricity with financial outcomes. He also shares his insights on how to support critical business impact metrics, maintain agility and work with an investor minded approach. Key Take Aways from this episode include:  Value Creation Time Constraints  Strategic Business Planning  Focus on Profitable Growth  Adapting to PE Firms for a better fit Marlon’s Bio Marlon Davis is a product management executive with over 25 years of experience across various industries, including healthcare, insurtech, edtech, and environmental sustainability. In the last 15 years, he has focused on private equity-owned companies and startups, driving transformative product strategies, and introducing cloud-based and mobile-first solutions at Zywave, BenchPrep, MHC, and Brady. Notable launches include MHC NorthStar, BenchPrep Engage, and Brady LINK360, an innovative cloud-based EHS&S platform. His expertise in customer discovery, team leadership, and portfolio optimization has consistently improved product-market fit and operational efficiency. To Learn more about Marlon to go - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlondavis/
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    58 mins
  • Balancing the Cost: Being Late vs Being Wrong

    Balancing the Cost: Being Late vs Being Wrong
    Oct 15 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart reconnected with Scott Sehlhorst, a product strategy expert leveraging over 30 years of product management, engineering, and software development experience helping companies improve product decision-making and producing valuable outcomes for the business. Scott shares his views on how to use the “product trio” to balance speed with strategic precision in an environment of high uncertainty. The conversation also tackles the importance of business acumen, where product leaders must balance engineering execution with market strategy to avoid costly mistakes and optimize for long-term success. Key Take Aways from this episode include:  Embrace the "Product Trio" Model  Adopt Hypothesis-Driven Strategy  Master Risk Management and Uncertainty Scott’s Bio Scott is a product management and strategy consultant, leveraging over 30 years of product management, engineering, and software development experience to drive change in organizations. Scott helps companies transform the way they make decisions and deploy strategy to be more competitive and more effective. Scott has been teaching Competitive Product Strategy in Masters programs since 2012. In addition to improving organizations to better develop and utilize good product management, Scott is passionate about helping product managers develop the skills and practices needed in modern competitive environments. Scott started the Tyner Blain blog in 2005 to help people become effective at agile product management. To Learn more about Scott to go - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sehlhorst/
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    40 mins
  • The Power of Partner Market Fit

    The Power of Partner Market Fit
    Oct 1 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart meets with Barrett King, Sr. Director of Revenue at New Breed, an Elite HubSpot partner. In his role Barrett leverages his previous 9 years of successful partner leadership roles at HubSpot. Barrett shares his insights on the power of partnerships in driving business growth. He explains how the best partnerships in the SaaS space can go beyond immediate revenue generation delivering the key ingredients for long term growth and hyperscale. King also highlights the impact of investing in partnerships, advising that the level and type of investment is linked to the company’s go-to-market maturity as opposed to a company’s size. Key learnings from this podcast include:  Leveraging Partner Market Fit  Partners as Customer Experts  Shift Toward Intent-Focused Marketing Barrett’s Bio: Barrett King is the Sr. Director of Revenue at New Breed, an Elite HubSpot Solutions partner agency. Passionate about partnerships, innovative Go-To-Market strategies and high-performing teams, Barrett has more than 15 years of first-hand experience driving exceptional results for organizations of all sizes. A HubSpot veteran and six-time HubSpot President’s Club recipient who’s laser-focused on growth for both his team and the business he’s in, Barrett is an accomplished leader, featured speaker, and podcast host for ‘Outcomes,’ where he interviews industry leaders across the Go-To-Market space. With his diverse background, Barrett brings a uniquely fresh perspective to the GTM practice. To Learn more about Barrett to go https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrettjking
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    41 mins
  • Elevating Sales Efficiency in a Disrupted Market

    Elevating Sales Efficiency in a Disrupted Market
    Aug 29 2024
    GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart sits down with Suresh Madhuvarsu , a 4X founder and currently CEO of SalesTable, a revenue enablement and sales readiness platform. Together they explore the critical challenges facing modern sales teams and how to navigate them. Suresh shares his insights from conversations with 100’s of C-Suite executives on the strategic shifts that must be considered to maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly evolving market. Key Take Aways from this episode include:  Enhancing sales performance through real-time feedback  Building a learning organization – the impact of continuous improvement  Harnessing AI tools for Real Sales Impact  Revolutionizing Sales Management through data-driven insights Suresh’s Bio Suresh Madhuvarsu is a 4x founder and a product builder with a passion for innovation. He has over 20 years of experience in scaling businesses from startup to successful exits. He currently is CEO at SalesTable, a revenue enablement platform to stop quota misses. Suresh is also co-founder of Product 10X Accelerator, a mission-driven accelerator that backs founders building startups in HealthTech, EdTech and HRTech. To Learn more about Suresh to go - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sureshmadhuvarsu/
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    39 mins