Top-of-funnel iceberg: above vs below the surface

Dan Lee (Co-Founder & CEO of Nooks) joins GTMnow to give a behind the scenes on how Nooks is launching a new Agent Workspace and AI Sequencing layer designed to operate across the full action set of a rep’s day — calls, emails, research, prospecting, and strategy.

The conversation explores why top of funnel is changing the fastest, why traditional sequencing tools optimize the “move” but not the strategy, and how AI systems that learn from rep behavior can compound advantage over time. As adoption deepens, automation can move from ~40% of outbound execution toward 70% and beyond, while switching away resets that intelligence.

We also discuss the broader category shift: customers pushing AI-native tools to take on incumbents, the rise of agent workspaces as the new interface for GTM teams, and why calls remain the most data-rich channel in outbound compared to silent email non-responses.

Guest links:

Guest - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan9lee/

Guest company - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nooksapp/

Guest company website: https://www.nooks.ai/

Host links:

Sophie Buonassisi - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/

Sophie Buonassisi - X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuona

Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com

Sponsors:

HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale. Learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com/

Granola - the AI notepad that turns meetings into action by capturing context, decisions, and next steps automatically. Head to https://www.granola.ai/gtmfund and get three months free with the code GTMFUND.

Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! https://gtmnow.com/

Highlights:

00:00 – Announcing the Agent Workspace and AI sequencing product

01:25 – Why sales is fundamentally human (even in the AI era)

02:39 – The Agent Workspace as the human–AI interface

02:56 – Why legacy sequencing tools were built for a manual world

04:14 – The sales chess analogy: understand the board before making the move

05:02 – Reps spend too much time "making the move"

06:00 – Nooks as a simulation engine: suggesting the next best move

07:07 – The reason for the email isn't in the email

07:45 – Signal vs. noise: reasoning like a rep

10:00 – Why calls are the most data-rich outbound channel

10:25 – Using calls to move up the org chart

13:12 – The sales iceberg analogy: what's above vs. below the surface

13:38 – Don't pay enterprise reps to find phone numbers

14:15 – Doing more with less vs. doing more with more

15:00 – Why sales remains competitive even with full automation

16:38 – Owning the end-to-end prospecting workflow

18:53 – How Nooks learns from rep decisions over time

19:15 – The path from 40% → 90% AI-written emails

19:58 – Reimagining sequences with org chart intelligence

22:17 – Evolution from virtual classroom to virtual sales floor

25:11 – Pivoting into the sales use case before ChatGPT

26:08 – Near-death experiences and surviving the pivot graveyard

27:03 – Nooks' six core values

27:57 – "Ask why" as a core operating principle

28:39 – Ruthless prioritization as a startup advantage

29:25 – AI literacy as a hiring filter for GTM roles

30:07 – Making sales sexy for top engineers

31:31 – Hiring across the board in 2026

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GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/