Mihir Nanavati

🚨 Last Call for the Nektar Buzz Boat: Just 2 Days to Go! 🚨 Nektar.ai, DocketAI and RevOps Co-op are bringing you an exclusive GTM leaders Cruise in NYC(5th Sep), Boston(10th Sep), Chicago(12th Sep). Our GTM Leaders NYC Cruise is setting sail in just 48 hours, and we’ve got a couple of exclusive passes left. Don’t miss your chance to join an elite group of GTM pioneers for an evening of strategic insights and high-impact networking—right on the water! 🌊 Here’s why you need to be there: 🎯 Cutting-Edge Discussions: We’ll be diving into how AI is transforming sales, how to turn customer engagement into actionable data, and the latest GTM tactics that are driving real growth. 💡Discover how to operationalize Buying Groups: We’ll be diving into how AI automates capturing & tracking engagement with your buying groups on auto-pilot at scale. 🤝 High-Caliber Connections: This is your chance to network with fellow leaders who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the GTM space. 🍸 Unwind & Recharge: Kick back with some great drinks, delicious bites, and amazing views on the cruise while you chat and chill with fellow leaders in a laid-back, exclusive vibe. With only a couple of spots left, this is your last chance to secure a seat on the Nektar Buzz Boat. If you’re serious about elevating your GTM strategy, you won’t want to miss this. Register on the link or DM me to grab one of the final passes. Let’s make waves together! 🐝🚢 #GTM #Sales #AI #Networking #Leadership #Nektar #BuzzBoat https://lnkd.in/g59Sxa6Z

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"System of Intelligence" is the category I’m most interested in right now (and have been, for the last 5 years). It's the biggest opportunity in GTM tech. AI only exacerbates the need (and likelihood) of a “System of Intelligence” being built and adopted in GTM teams around the world. (Think: no more data silos, ability to use unstructured data, ai agents to do autonomous research, and so much more)  → Where does it sit in the current tech stack? I put together a simple visual to show how I see a “System of Intelligence” fits into the existing tech stack — see image below. (In fact, I think it has the opportunity to dethrone CRM.) The question a “System of Intelligence” answers is what humans do today—knowledge work. But, slowly… when I squint—I can start to see a path for AI to actually start making 6-figure jobs obsolete. SDRs? Yes. CSMs? Yes. BUT, I don’t think AI replaces the best reps. I do think reps using AI will replace reps. Imho, the most important question a GTM Leader can ask is the following: “What Company/Person are you reaching out to this week?” Ask 20 reps at the same company that question. You’ll get 20 different answers. This is obviously not efficient, or scientific. Everyone knows it. But there still isn’t a solution. Sales engagement was an attempt to OpErAtIoNaLiZe a reps workflow. But, SEPs don’t have all the data required to train a model to be “intelligent” (sorry SEPs). CRM (sorta) and data warehouses (increasingly so) have the most data in them. GTM teams need a “System of Intelligence” (a machine) that answers this question for them. Magically. I don’t want to go into “solution mode.” (If I knew the right solution, I’d be building that right now — I don’t). But, I do have incredibly strong (and increasing) conviction that this is the biggest opportunity in GTM tech. How to execute those actions is a whole other can of worms. I think there will be several ways that emerge — when it comes to the execution/workflows. (See also: The New Playbook for Pipeline Generation is Emerging)  → How will AI impact this space? Tomasz Tonguz recently published a piece that speaks to this concept a little bit. His focus is on the CRM being disrupted based on the new workflows of AI agents, compared to humans. In the article he says: > "When AI products are sold as services, they replace in-house labor. This changes internal processes. When the internal processes change, the opportunity to replace the system of record arises because the existing workflows are no longer relevant. I think this is right. As AI Agents become more prevalent, there will be a need/opportunity to rethink the CRM and the applications."  →Who is building this? Innovation will happen in this space, and I’m excited to see who is building here. I’m always trying to learn. Reach out if you’re using a product that you think is a “System of Intelligence.”

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A lot of board directors don't understand marketing -- much less the art and science of it. This isn't surprising since only 4% of Fortune 1000 board directors have marketing roles in their bio. This dissonance can make it difficult for CMOs to engage effectively with their board and harder still to secure a board seat themselves. Join me on Thursday at 1pm ET along with an amazing group of executives, investors, and board directors (Steve Byrne, Sandra Lopez, Matan Hazanov) to share insights on how CMOs can successfully manage the board expectations and nail every single meeting. Link to RSVP in the comments. #CMOLeadership #BoardroomStrategies #Mavuus

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Are you going to re:Invent this year? Is AI strategy top of mind? I’m carving out time for 1:1 conversations with technology and business leaders who are ready to run. Whether you're building, scaling, or strategizing, let's discuss. 🎲 Also open to discussing best practices to identify and exploit +EV table games without getting banned 🎲

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🚀 Today, Vendr launched new features focused on pricing transparency, powered by AI and Vendr’s pricing insights. Now, anyone can get instant price estimates for future software purchases, verify current pricing for over 20,000 products, and receive low-price quotes from 100+ Verified Sellers — all for free. Head to vendr.com and check it out!

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Who owns your end to end GTM system? What about the Bowtie data model? This was a key question during our two-day Revenue Architecture Summit in Santa Cruz. Marketing owns awareness. BDRs or equivalent own education. Sales owns selection. Finance oversees the mutual commit/contracting. Professional services do onboarding. CS helps with retention. Account managers focus on expansion. So do we even need somebody to own and optimize the overall #bowtie process and data model? YES! "But my marketing is great at increasing leads and sales is increasing close rates, so why worry about an overall owner?", you might say. What if the new leads are low quality and sales is rushing through the sales cycle, ultimately yielding high onboarding and ongoing churn? Whether you like it or not, revenue production is a closed loop system. Something you do on the left side of the bowtie impacts the right side and the other way around. Best to assign an unbiased data owner who does that personally have anything to gain by making the data tell any particular story. The most likely owner for the overall system, or at least for the overall data model, lives in operations or finance. We see new titles around GTM Strategy and Operations. We also see RevOps moving from CRO to COO or CFO. So hence my question: In your company, who owns the end-to-end revenue production system? Who owns data definitions and brings together your teams to decide on next actions to improve revenue production based on the data? #revenuearchitecture #bowtie #revops Photo courtesy Jill Guardia (she/her)

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A poorly executed #customersuccess strategy will kill your #NRR for years to come. I've seen it first-hand too many times over the years. Here is how you deliver a well-executed CS strategy to drive great NRR and ultimately, business growth: 🛣️ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 & 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 The first step in any customer success strategy is understanding the full & dynamic revenue & customer journey. This means not just knowing what your customers do, but why they do it. How and why did they buy your services? How do they move through their journey with you (rarely ina straight line!)? By understanding their motivations, you can better anticipate their needs and deliver solutions that truly add value. And don't forget, the old-school customer journey is not the standard anymore, you need to use the full, dynamic revenue & customer journey to get the full picture. This stretches from pre-sale to post-sale and allows for the customer to move in and out of journey phases/stages dynamically. 📈 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Customer success is not a reactive function. It's about being proactive, anticipating customer needs, and addressing them before they become issues. You have to ensure that your strategy is aligned around, and fosters, a proactive CS culture and process that allows your team to execute effectively. This not only improves customer satisfaction, but also reduces churn, and creates more expansion opportunities. Both key factors in improving NRR. 📊 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 In the #SaaS & #CS world, we have access to a wealth of data. By leveraging this data, we can make informed decisions that drive customer success. This could be anything from identifying usage patterns to predict churn, to understanding which features drive the most value for customers and beyond. And it needs to go beyond telemetry, usage etc. Also capture, track and understand customer goals and other qualitative data points. One problem is that this data is often siloed or hard to access, so make sure you have systems (like RevSetter) that can bridge that gap and allows CSMs to effectively action the data & insights. 🤝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Customer success should not be the responsibility of a single department. It should be ingrained in the company culture. When everyone in the organization understands the value of customer success, it becomes a strategic priority that drives business growth. This is why the dynamic revenue & customer journey, the engagement focus, and the proactive mindset are so important. When those are present - and a strategic & customer-centric approach is adopted by the CEO & leadership - the sky is the limit. Leverage these four building blocks and your CS strategy and execution will thank you for it ✅ *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network

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Jason calls it out again with real life data. Organic growth using outbound GTM motion in SaaS is less efficient effcient. It's just reality of customer spending pullback across the whole sector. SaaS companies are either pulling back in GTM spend which is causing slower growth (and significant loss in valuation). The valuation death spiral that makes funding and exit even more difficult- and bootstrapping a whole lot less fun. Or they are investing MORE to maintain growth, but it's not working. That means less efficiency and poor return on capital. Thankfully most SaaS is seemingly living at a break even state. Well most. But this is only a survival and hope strategy. The Ostritch strategy if you will. I talk to a lot of Ostritch CEOs, happy to just have a job. Bold CEOs have strategy game. Partner up to find customers, use M&A to expand product lines and tap new markets, combine with competitors to unlock synergies that can be reinvested at higher scale. Do it when valuations of everyone are down. https://lnkd.in/gACnmMyc

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Thanks to Dave Rigotti and team for a wonderful #PLGTM conference in SF. I had great discussions with sales and marketing leaders and here are some observations on how PLG has evolved. Part 1: Time to rethink PLG practice ✔ While the core idea of PLG revolves around self-service adoption and user-driven growth, the practice has evolved, and companies are recognizing the need for a hybrid approach. ✔ For a lot of practitioners, PLG means self-service and users adopt the product without sales support. In practice, PLG leads to increases S&M costs increasing CAC. So, it no more just about building a product but putting the marketing $ behind it. ✔ Enterprise buyers are researching on their own and have good information before they come to the call. Huge number of prospects want sales help in navigating the value prop but want to try out themselves. ✔ PLG does lead to execution speed driving the awareness, showing the value, decreasing sales cycles and enabling simple and faster expansion. ✔ There is a myth that only startups or B2C companies use PLG and has to be bottom-up approach. While many of the companies we know and products we use might be B2C, lot of enterprise B2B companies are PLG as well. e.g. users can simply signup and start using Calendly, Canva or Airtable. teams can start using the products like loom, figma and datadog. ✔ Bringing customers need a hybrid approach in 2024. You need to provide user value created by the product and buyer value created by sales teams. Think about product market fit and product customer fit - leading to greater number of happy customers ✔ Every KPI you are measuring should drive an outcome. If you collect data, ask "what is it used for? " and "how does it help customer or adoption?" ✔ As the PLG model continues to evolve, companies must adapt and embrace a balanced approach that leverages the power of self-service adoption while providing sales support to drive customer success and long-term growth. Thanks to David Yockelson and Dave Boyce for providing engaging discussion on the core of PLG. #productledgrowth #productledsales #salesledgrowth #startups #salesleadership #productmanagement

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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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if you know, you know Salesforce 'hard pivot' to auto ai agents. hmmmmm. now this is exciting. marc benioff. bestie to sam i am whatev you say i am sam (alt)man. owns TIME. surprise surprise. sam i am whatev you say i am (alt)man makes the cover as ceo of the year. wonder if that helped the bottom line for OpenAI. me thinks not. or perhaps this helped elevate others outside of silicon valley to shed light on this worldly (un)known. we forget about our navel gazing. either way marc has the president of the u.s. on speed dial. is a friend to the wef. not sure why. except to be wherever his customers are. he is a consummate deal maker. overall super friendly guy. and to boot his Salesforce tower is an iconic sf building. marc loves status. he does. and why not? marc also loves tech. hello. salesforce was a play to create the ultimate sales tool. right. focus on the sales. the customer. how do we upsell. what's changed in terms of behaviour. keep a lot of smart people on speed dial. and hopefully you'll manage to create your own billy. and he did. so this 'ting about (ai) agents means he is going hard. why. well. of you haven't noticed a combination of the 2008 great financial crisis coupled with the 2020 global pandemic impacted his customer's customers. which means that's a prob. a big prob. benioff represents the very best of being an entrepreneur. he is affable. he is committed. he is loyal. he is political. he knows how to throw a great party. he does. not that i have been to one. just checkout how they splash out the marketing budget. it's the cost of doing business. Salesforce without question much like Tesla and a few other companies will reap a large windfall from (ai). ultimately it looks like first productivity. then perhaps becomes strategic. this will take years in the making. the tech, weeks. the culture. months. although we anticipate that Salesforce to win big. 25 years. $ 34.9 billys in fiscal year '24 revenue. up 11% year over year. the crm (customer relationship management). said another way the data we find, evaluate, store to know about our customers and how we are doing ....is about to become t.o.a.s.t. with (ai). this old a** sh^ts tons won't be required. marc knows this. and so it's not so much that this is a hard pivot as much as this is a wake up reality check. the numbers speak for themselves. watching the stock price since nov 5 2021 Salesforce has been getting back to it's footing. and is navigating the financial engineering of walls street, client budgets. if sf is the center of the world for (ai) startups. and it is. if sf is the hq of mr. sf ... benioff. and it is. then expect whatev happens to Salesforce to be a leading indicator as it applies to agents. and the every changing way we inform and communicate about ourselves & customers. source: https://lnkd.in/eFExGq_A source: https://lnkd.in/eJRywTiD

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Why is top-line growth the holy grail for SaaS success? Because it implies everything else is functioning well: product/market fit, retention, customer acquisition. Plus, it drives the highest equity value. And yet, it’s not the only important metric:

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Have you ever looked for theory that can answer - how to approach investors - what kind of product to build first - how you’ll defend the company against competitors This new article from CDA partner, Kevin Maney extends Steven Johnson's writing from the book Emergence to #CategoryDesign. All #Startups and #VentureCapital teams should dig in. (link to article in comments)

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A lot of tools are leaving the self-hosted space, but we're choosing to double down on it. Going fully SaaS and not supporting on-prem/private cloud feels like missing out on something that’s objectively important for lots of teams. There's been a massive shift to the cloud for a long time, but there’s also a quiet shift back from SaaS to private cloud/on-prem. People are bringing things back into their infrastructure because they need security, resiliency and control over the tools they use. e.g. Flagsmith is tied to release management, so control over infrastructure is so important. Our goal from day one has been to make Flagsmith really flexible and simple to deploy, so people can choose how they set it up. This means keeping self-hosting. How? Intentionally building a simpler tech stack to support things like on-prem. A lot of companies have tech stacks that are too diverse to spin up a cluster for, so we’re lucky we can do it!

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"Every SaaS product is headed towards becoming an SDK that is orchestrated by AI." - Paul Ford on the Aboard podcast (called Reqless). Highly recommended. Customers don't pay for erratic or unpredictable outcomes (except in Las Vegas…I guess?). What doesn't make sense (and, I think, will lose you customers): 1️⃣ Every piece of your business is software created JIT by an employee using AI/LLM where every task/problem is solved in different way every time it comes up. ("We need order fulfillment now! Ask GPT!") or 2️⃣ An AI/LLM black box is my interface with your company and I ask it something and it gives me your "value" back. 👉 You, as a company, don't need to exist if that's where you're heading. What does make sense: The same thing that has always made sense: adapting systems that allow you to serve your customers better. 1 million people/businesses each building their own anything (CRM, billing, logistics) from scratch "with AI" is not better then 1000 people focused on building a great AI enabled version of that thing with 👋 SDK capabilities via AI 👋 that those 1 million people/businesses can adapt to get from 80% fit to 100% fit.

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As an advisor to early-stage enterprise startups at Greylock, I see companies struggle with all types of GTM challenges during growth periods. Many of the challenges stem from the same issue: trying to do too much at once. Understandably, most companies don’t believe they have the luxury to focus on just one or two things at a time. But without that discipline, you risk driving down standards across every aspect of your GTM process. In this post, I’ve shared some advice for early-stage startups when building a cohesive GTM strategy. This first part focuses on building the foundations, from establishing a set of Leading Indicators to team alignment and establishing a development culture that prepares people for leadership. Stay tuned for the second part, where I’ll explain best practices for startups when executing during the sales process. https://bit.ly/3ReTdmK

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Great insights Greg Head! I completely agree that SaaS is far from dead—it’s evolving, and the complexity you pointed out is what keeps things dynamic in the space. The market maturity is pushing companies to be more strategic, focusing on long-term sustainability rather than chasing valuations. I especially resonate with your point about how software is easier to build now but harder to differentiate, given the rise of AI and copycat competition. This shift is making product innovation and customer-centricity more important than ever. Another major change I’m seeing is how B2B buyers are increasingly looking for solutions tied to clear outcomes and measurable value for their companies. It’s no longer just about buying software, but about how it directly impacts business growth, efficiency, and scalability. While this demand might lead to new pricing models—likely more outcome-based or tied to specific performance metrics—it feels like old wine in new barrels. At the core, companies are still buying a service that relies on trust, value, and ongoing support. The trend toward subscription models isn't going away either. Consumers, including the ultimate end customers—us—have become accustomed to, and in many cases prefer, not owning everything outright but subscribing to more and more services in their daily lives. This cultural shift in how we consume products and services reinforces why SaaS will continue to grow. Looking forward to seeing how AI will continue to reshape SaaS products and GTM strategies. It’s definitely a challenging but exciting time to be in this space! Curious to hear your thoughts on which areas of SaaS might see the biggest disruption in the next few years.

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Perfecting your product and GTM strategy are surely important. But Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie argues there's one factor that outweighs all others in startup success: recognizing and capitalizing on tech and macro tailwinds. Fighting against them? You're setting yourself up for failure. Our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gEAPFR-A

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How do you build trust with co-creator partners? "When creating a new category of product, patience and persistence are key. You must iterate with partners who believe in the impact." —Fengmin Gong, CEO of Metafoodx This episode is packed with lessons on turning big challenges into SaaS opportunities. 🎧 Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gCddveUw Are you a SaaS founder? What’s the biggest challenge you've overcome in the last 6 months? Comment below or, better yet, come share your story on SaaS Founder Stories! Book in here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gwBw-zqm #SaaSAdvice #CategoryCreation #CustomerTrust #FoodTechSolutions #StartupJourney

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