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/
The GTMnow Podcast