The GTMnow Podcast

Tyler Hogge, General Partner at Pelion Ventures and former VP of Product who helped scale Divvy to a multibillion-dollar exit. He argues software is being commoditized by AI. He talks per-seat pricing collapsing, the shift to outcome- and consumption-based business models, how Pelion doubles down on winners, and why founder intensity and reputational capital matter more than ever.

Steve Lucas, three-time enterprise software CEO and current Boomi leader, explains why 2026 will push AI from pilots into production. He warns that fragmented data will stall progress. He outlines three quick readiness checks for agentic AI and shares a candid story about internal pushback when Boomi launched a CSM agent. He also describes building contract agents with Claude to boost sales workflows.

Jon Addison, Okta's CRO who led the company's revenue turnaround and launched Okta for AI Agents. He unpacks the AI agent governance gap and why rapid agent adoption creates security risk. He explains the GTM changes—specialization and partner-first motion—that drove higher ACV. He describes using AI internally and a new sales methodology for the AI era.

Jennifer Li, General Partner at a16z who led their $1.7B infrastructure allocation and backed ElevenLabs early on. She breaks down why AI infrastructure is being rebuilt from storage to orchestration. Short takes on why voice agents scale, what makes founders investable, and how open source and new model modalities will reshape creative tools.

Kyle Parrish joined Figma as the first-ever sales hire when the company was doing $2M in ARR and helped scale it to $950M ARR. Figma then went on to IPO (FIG). But the path there was anything but smooth.In this episode, Kyle breaks down what it actually took to build Figma's enterprise sales motion from scratch, including the no-discount rule that made procurement teams furious, the 40-hour interview weeks when hiring felt impossible to keep up with, and what it was like to lead a 300-person team through a failed $20B Adobe acquisition, and then have their best year immediately after.We cover:- Why Figma refused to discount, even when Microsoft pushed back- How to hire the right first sales rep as a founder- The PLG to enterprise transition most companies get wrong- What the Adobe deal collapse actually felt like from the inside- How Figma went from 3 products to 8 overnight and launched into an IPO- What great sales look like in the AI eraTimestamp:0:00 – Intro 1:02 – Guest intro: Kyle Parrish 1:35 – Joining Figma at $2M ARR in 2018 5:01 – First meeting with Dylan (Figma CEO) 6:13 – How to find your first sales hire 9:05 – Stage alignment in early hiring 11:43 – Early-stage operators need "scar tissue" 13:19 – Northstar metric at Figma 14:13 – Obsessing over customer conversations 16:44 – Building Figma's brand through community 17:31 – Scaling the "unscalable" 20:08 – In-person GTM vs. digital 22:47 – Was there a moment Figma might not make it? 24:48 – Pivoting after the Adobe deal collapsed 28:10 – Figma's no-discount rule 31:05 – Enterprise ELAs replacing discounting 34:47 – What makes a great salesperson in the AI era 36:56 – Missionaries vs. mercenaries in AI-era GTM 39:47 – Spotting the next Dropbox or Figma 43:46 – Kyle's post-Figma investing focus 45:58 – Family, travel & what's nextGuest: Kyle Parrish, former VP Sales at Figma LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kparrish8/X: https://x.com/KyleHParrishHost: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP Marketing at GTMnowLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X: https://x.com/sophiebuonaVisit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/Sponsors: Nooks - the AI workspace for outbound teams: https://www.nooks.ai/gtmfund.Tech - Domains, where the next generation of builders is planting their flag. Secure your .tech domain today from any registrar of your choice. Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! https://gtmnow.comFor inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email gtmnow@gtmfund.comGTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/The GTMnow PodcastThe GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other intereThe GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content. 

AI isn't just changing how we sell. It's changing how buyers make decisions before they ever talk to you.Sam, Founder and CEO of TestBox, joins Sophie on GTMnow to break down exactly what's happening to the B2B software buying process right now, and what go-to-market leaders need to do about it immediately.If you're a founder, CRO, or AE wondering why your pipeline feels different, this conversation will give you a clear framework for what's happening and what to do next.What we cover:Why 70-80% of purchase decisions are already made before the first call (and it's accelerating)The shift from discovery calls to validation calls, and how to prepareCEO (AI-version of SEO): how LLMs are shaping what buyers believe about your productThe "day one shortlist" shrinking from 3-4 vendors to 1-2 vendorsAgent-to-agent procurement: Sam's timeline for when AI agents fully take over buyingWhy the mid-funnel is actually getting longer, not shorterThe "Fake Nothing, Prove Everything" campaign that went viral post-Series AHow TestBox runs 15 AI experiments per week across the entire companyUsing Google Vertex video analysis to read prospect body language on sales callsHow to build an AI-first culture without burning out your teamBooks: The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, No Ego, Courageous Marketing, Good to GreatTimestamps:0:00 - Cold open1:09 - What TestBox does2:43 - How buying has changed5:48 - What founders/CROs should do now7:05 - GEO: AI version of SEO9:02 - Why mid-funnel is expanding21:17 - Agent-to-agent procurement26:02 - All procurement by agents in 3-5 years29:09 - How vendors differentiate beyond product33:30 - The croissant campaign breakdown45:50 - 15 AI experiments per week47:10 - Analyzing prospects via video AI48:29 - Building AI culture in your team52:39 - Book recommendationsGuest: Sam Senior, Founder and CEO TestBoxLinkedin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelsenior/⁠TestBox:⁠ https://www.testbox.com⁠Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP Marketing at GTMnowLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter:⁠ https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com⁠Visit us on:⁠ https://gtmnow.com⁠Follow us on LinkedIn: / gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter):⁠ https://x.com/GTMnow_⁠ Follow us on YouTube: / @gtm_now Follow us on TikTok: / gtmnow_ Follow us on Instagram: / gtmnow_  The GTMnow PodcastThe GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.The GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content. 

Auren Hoffman (Flex Capital) joins the GTMnow podcast to share some of the most contrarian takes in tech today, from why AI moats are gone, to why your next VC meeting will be with a bot, to why AI is secretly going to trigger a baby boom.In this episode:- Why Auren runs 500+ AI agents to source deals, and what that means for founders raising capital- The "agent-to-agent" meeting prediction: by end of 2026, first VC conversations will be fully automated- Why every software moat has been "blown up" and what Salesforce, LinkedIn & DocuSign need to do to survive- The OpenAI x The Hustle acquisition breakdown: why it's the smartest (and cheapest) distribution play in AI- Why missing a great deal is 10x more painful than making a bad one, Auren's honest VC mistake framework- The baby boom thesis: why AI, IVF, self-driving cars & cheaper energy could reverse the fertility decline- Why companies won't sign yearly SaaS contracts anymore, and what that means for every B2B founderAuren Hoffman is the founder of Flex Capital, SafeGraph, and LiveRamp. He's an early backer of Replit, Perplexity, Rippling, Vercel, Coinbase, Chime, and AppLovin.Connect with Max: https://x.com/hackitmaxhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschulerConnect with Auren:https://x.com/aurenhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/auren/https://www.youtube.com/@summationpodGTMnow shares how the best in tech build, scale and invest.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes, The GTMnow Newsletter editions, and other content.GTMnow is run by GTMfund - we are an early-stage venture firm made up of 350+ go-to-market executives from the fastest-growing companies.Chapters:00:00 - Intro01:05 - GTMfund Q1 recap 02:38 - OpenAI x The Hustle breakdown 06:18 - Redpoint's optimal VC deployment period 11:24 - Auren Hoffman intro 13:04 - Why am I seeing this deal? 26:26 - Sizing up founders at Replit, Perplexity & Rippling 28:49 - What separates great founders 32:10 - 500+ AI agents for deal sourcing 33:40 - Agent-to-agent VC meetings by 2026 45:13 - Every software moat is blown up 49:09 - Who kills Salesforce next? 51:30 - Why no one signs yearly SaaS contracts anymore 51:50 - AI will trigger a baby boom 56:22 - Thinking generationally#AI #VentureCapital #GTM #StartupFunding #AurenHoffman #FlexCapital #SaaS #ArtificialIntelligence #Founders #SalesVisit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/The GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content. 

Wade Foster is the CEO of Zapier, a company that sits between 7,000+ apps and runs millions of automations every single day. That gives him a front-row seat to how companies are actually adopting AI, not just talking about it.In this episode, Wade breaks down the exact decisions he made at Zapier to go from 10% AI usage to 97% company-wide, why agents and workflows are not the same thing, and what most leaders are getting completely wrong about AI fluency.What you'll learn:The difference between agents and workflows (and when to use which)What triggered Zapier's internal "Code Red" after GPT-4 launchedThe one-week hackathon that took AI adoption from 10% to 50% overnightThe AI fluency rubric Zapier built: Unacceptable, Acceptable, Adaptive, TransformativeWhy leaders who aren't using AI are the biggest bottleneck in their companiesHow to measure AI ROI: floor raisers vs ceiling raisersHow AI now handles 50% of Zapier's customer support ticketsWade's personal "advisory council" of AI sub-agents he uses for every major decisionWhy building a company today is 10x cheaper but distribution is 10x harderThe truth about fundraising: you're selling your company, not raising moneyHow Zapier stayed profitable by only hiring when it hurtGuest: Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefoster/Company - Zapier: https://zapier.comHost: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP Marketing at GTMnow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.comEpisode highlights0:00 - Intro1:13 - The Seinfeld Quote & Kanye Text story3:16 - Workflows vs. Agents: What's the difference?6:09 - Zapier's Code Red moment8:55 - The hackathon that moved AI adoption from 10% to 50%12:06 - Making AI fluency a hiring requirement13:47 - Building the AI fluency rubric16:40 - Why leaders are the biggest AI bottleneck18:12 - Revenue impact of going AI-first22:09 - Would Wade build Zapier differently today?23:20 - Is Zapier's moat at risk from agents?24:59 - Staying profitable with minimal capital28:37 - The riskiest contrarian bet that paid off31:52 - Wade's 3 personal AI workflows36:53 - Favorite books for foundersGTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund, sharing go-to-market insights from working with hundreds of portfolio companies backed by 350+ of the best GTM executives. Subscribe for weekly episodes with the operators, founders, and investors behind the fastest-growing software companies.The GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content. 

Ed Sim, Founder & GP at Boldstart with 30 years in venture capital and early bets like Snyk and Clay. He explores how AI is collapsing old moats and creating AI-native opportunities. He outlines the Five P's for inception investing and the autonomous enterprise thesis. He also tells the Clay origin story and why leadership that understands agents is now essential.

Teresa Anania, a leader who built customer success and go-to-market operations at high-growth software firms, including Sophos and Zendesk. She discusses scaling success for 600,000 customers in a 24/7 cyber threat world. Topics include AI-accelerated attacks and defensive automation. She covers predictive response timelines, outcome-driven touchpoints for retention and expansion, and the move to AI-powered self-serve journeys.