GTMnow

How do you scale a company 17x in two years? This is what it takes 👇 17x is an impressive multiple, and breaks the traditional growth model. Gaurav Agarwal is the COO of ClickUp and former Chief Growth Officer. He shares how ClickUp cut CAC by 3x, built a fully integrated GTM system, and transitioned from PLG to hybrid sales. All this done while scaling into the nine-figure revenue range! Top takeaways from the conversation on what it takes to go 17x: 1️⃣ Culture is the foundation of GTM efficiency. Gaurav slashed CAC by 3x not just through tactics, but by building a culture of intellectual honesty. Leaders raised the bar, surfaced waste, and played for the company, not their silo. 2️⃣ Define roles clearly to avoid the “8-layer cake.” Early on, ClickUp had overlapping teams and inconsistent handoffs. Aligning teams around one unified customer journey reduced bloat, confusion, and payback periods. 3️⃣ Treat GTM like a system of systems. Growth isn’t just a marketing function. It’s about connecting levers across PLG, sales, post-sales, and services – all working toward shared business outcomes. 4️⃣ Harvesting demand is 4x more efficient than creating it. ClickUp tags GTM activities based on whether they create or harvest demand, then sets ROI targets accordingly. Most companies misallocate budget because they skip this lens. 5️⃣ Use incrementality testing to find what works. Forget attribution hacks. ClickUp runs tests (e.g. exposed vs. control group) to measure what actually drives lift (whether it’s ads, sales touchpoints, or outreach signals). 6️⃣ PLG becomes the top of funnel, but not the end. ClickUp evolved its motion from PLG to sales-assist to full SLG. Hand-raisers got 10x LTV with sales support. The next frontier: outbound driven by signal + ICP, not just product usage. 7️⃣ Test every signal, don’t over-optimize. ClickUp doesn’t overthink scoring models. It tests 10+ usage signals, tracks which convert to pipeline, then doubles down. Speed to learn beats perfect modeling. 8️⃣ Build a Constellation view of the customer. ClickUp maps data across the full journey (from ad to expansion) to allocate the right resources at the right time. Internally, they call this their “Constellation” system. 9️⃣ Input metrics drive output. Teams are accountable to activity KPIs (e.g. one “win” per week per squad). That creates the reps and volume needed to hit output goals. 🔟 AI amplifies motion, it doesn’t replace it. ClickUp uses AI across content, sales, analytics, and workflows. What wins is giving AI the right context. Teams are coached to 10x themselves, not wait for top-down tooling. -- 🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast." 💡 GTMnow fuses go-to-market strategy, venture capital and media. Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

Most B2B teams are still optimizing for the sale. Canva optimizes for loyalty. Rob Giglio has helped scale Adobe, DocuSign, HubSpot, and now leads GTM at Canva as Chief Customer Officer. His playbook borrows from CPG, centers on simplicity, and puts loyalty above leads. In the latest The GTMnow Newsletter, we break down Rob’s playbook for building trust, not just pipeline. 🟢 Apply CPG discipline to de-risk your GTM Before launching, test your messaging and product concepts, just like CPG brands test packaging before printing a million cans of soup. Thoughtful beats reactive. 🟢 Build a loyalty engine, not a sales funnel At Canva, the journey doesn’t end at conversion. It’s designed for long-term adoption, retention, and advocacy, not just a booked meeting. 🟢 Focus on humans, not logos If your team can’t explain what your product does in one simple sentence, your customers won’t either. Substance and simplicity beat jargon and flash every time. Whether you sell SaaS or soap, loyalty compounds, and Rob shows how to earn it. ___ 📖 Full breakdown in the latest The GTMnow Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gGbGSQWE 💡 Join 50k+ GTM leaders and founders in GTMnow by subscribing on the website or Substack.

Learn how to architect a B2B marketing org that is truly accountable for revenue. 🚀 John Fernandez, SVP Global Demand Gen at Datasite (prev GTM leader at Glia, Contently, Diligent) joins The GTMnow Podcast this week! We break down his full‑stack “Value Chain” GTM framework, the “4 Whats” measurement engine, what’s broken with attribution, why GEO is replacing SEO, and how to harness AI without sacrificing authenticity. 🎧 Links for your eardrums in the comments.

A few years ago, a typical seed round was ~$3M. (and it still is - for most startups, that hasn't changed) But something strange is happening in parallel. Some AI startups are raising $20M+ at the seed stage. It's like watching a two-track system emerge: 🛤️ The Traditional Path: - $3M–$4M Seed round - 18–24 months to find PMF - Series A at ~$10M with $1M–$2M ARR 🤖 The AI Fast Track: - $10M–$30M Seed rounds, with outliers hitting $100M+ - Often pre-product, pre-revenue - Series A rounds jumping to $50M, even $200M+ Most of these mega-rounds are going to AI-native and infra startups (deep technical expertise, solving foundational problems for technical buyers). We’ve been tracking these rounds. Time will tell. We’ll see if it continues to be a two-track system or is more of a temporary gold rush fuelled in part by the novelty of AI. -- 📖 Full breakdown in the latest The GTMnow Newsletter (in the comments). 💡 Join 50k+ founders and GTM leaders in GTMnow by subscribing on the website or Substack.