Trinity Nguyen 💎

For software startups, most tariff impacts will be indirect—but make no mistake, these indirect effects can still significantly disrupt your business. If your customers sell physical goods, prepare for: 1. Lengthening sales cycles 2. Increased churn risk 3. Purchasing hesitation similar to early COVID uncertainty The impact extends beyond direct sellers. If your customer's customers sell physical goods, expect similar downstream effects as the economic ripples spread through supply chains. This is not the time for a passive "wait and see" approach. It's worth revisiting the customer management framework Gillian Heltai and I developed for navigating downturns (in comments): TLDR: Segment your customer base into strategic quadrants and implement tailored retention strategies for each. The customers most vulnerable to tariff impacts will need different approaches than those in more insulated positions. A systematic triage now will strengthen your retention regardless of how long these tariff conditions persist. While we can't predict the duration of this tariff regime, we can predict that proactive companies will weather it better than reactive ones. What steps is your company taking to prepare?

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The GTM playbook is being rewritten — and CROs are leading the charge. Last week, Scalestack co-hosted an unforgettable CRO Roundtable in San Francisco with our friends at The CRO Collective. 👥 20 revenue leaders 🌆  An iconic venue at the Transamerica Pyramid 🔥 Real, unfiltered conversation No panels. No pitches. No filler. Just honest conversation around what’s working, what’s not, and where we go next as GTM continues to shift beneath our feet. Some themes that stood out: 🚨  Misaligned incentives are killing revenue strategy 🎯  Marketing ≠ just lead gen — it’s about brand, education, and long-term growth 🧠  Millennial buyers demand a new approach 🤖  AI is non-negotiable — but hard to navigate 🏗️  CROs aren’t just sales leaders — they’re system architects Scalestack is building revenue engines that work with the GTM stack, not around it. That’s why these spaces matter: they cut through the noise and make room for clarity, curiosity, and collaboration. Big thanks to the leaders who showed up ready to challenge assumptions and push the conversation forward — and to our partner Warren Zenna, and the team at The CRO Collective for making it all happen. Looking forward to the next one! #Scalestack #CROCollective #AutonomousRevenueEngine #RevenueEngineMasters #CRORoundtable

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Your next big DTC hire isn't another marketer. It's a tech leader. The reality in 2025 is that every biz needs to be a tech company. For years, brands have avoided hiring tech people; they scare them, they're expensive and "we're not a tech company". Technology can cut operating costs in half...minimum. Manual processes that don't truly enable creativity. 12 people in customer support? That's an AI agent. This isn't a future talk; you can do it today with DigitalGenius. Ecommerce assistants, translators and copywriters waste time collating information and copying/pasting across stores. Don't need them if you design the process right. The craziest part is the quality actually goes UP with these solutions done right. Whatever your revenue per head is right now, double it to be conservative. The new wave will be 5-10Xing it. The brands that scale fastest will be tech-first. Combining the roles of CTO and COO into one tech-enabled leader allows quicker, more effective decision-making that aligns innovation with everyday operations. A tech-savvy COO can spot and implement automation, allowing the business to scale without a huge cost increase. This creates operational leverage and gives the company the agility to respond to market changes faster than competitors. Our fastest-growing client will cross $100M this year - CTO/COO joined at $25M three years ago. Linchpin. Are you worried about the budget? Start small, hire a Business Systems Manager. Take someone who has worked on the vendor side or has entry-level coding skills. It'll bring a whole new perspective to your business. Target them on saving admin, reducing waste and saving you money. The right person will be all over this brief. #ecommerce #operations #techstacks

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🎙️ Excited to share this gem of a podcast episode! If you’re curious about how to build, scale, and grow a world-class product, Gong’s very own Eilon Reshef offers a masterclass in this conversation with Lenny Rachitsky. Here are a few critical takeaways: - How the Gong product team maintains a sharp focus on delivering value to customers — and how that clarity powers growth - Eilon’s lessons learned from being an early #AI adopter and why operational rigor around LLMs is key - The secret to scaling, from hiring exceptional talent to maintaining company culture Whether you're a product leader, founder, or someone looking to level up your strategy, this episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiration. 🎧 Give it a listen here: https://lnkd.in/gigzrcVE 

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This episode is a SPECIAL one, and packed with tactical advice on scaling vertical SaaS companies. Just last week, we hosted GTMfund’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM). I had the honor of hosting a session with a prolific leader (and one of the kindest people in SaaS). The feedback was too good not to share, so we turned it into a special edition podcast episode! Dennis Lyandres (Advisor, ICONIQ) helped scale Procore from $10M to $900M+ and take it public. In this episode, he breaks down how to do the same across any vertical. Key takeaways: 1️⃣ People, product, and GTM must integrate to drive scale. The best vertical SaaS companies don’t just optimize one function, they align all three. Look for 1+1=3 integration from day one. 2️⃣ Start in a wedge, then own the value chain. Begin in one workflow, then expand by following the money and pain to new stakeholders. 3️⃣ Strategy before tactics (always). Growth isn’t about shiny features. Map a clear strategy before you execute—or risk misalignment. 4️⃣ GTM leaders need to speak fluent product. You can’t build trust cross-functionally if you don’t understand how product teams work. 5️⃣ Hybrid customers unlock your next expansion. Every vertical has customers that straddle segments. Use them to prove out your next move. 6️⃣ Customer relationships are your most underleveraged strategic asset. Top exec teams embed customer ownership across functions—so references handle objections before sales even shows up. 7️⃣ “T30 programs” are your retention edge Identify the few who drive outsized impact. Build programs to keep them in the boat. 8️⃣ AI-native doesn’t mean lean only, it means leverage. AI can 10x output per FTE or augment human performance. Either way—redesign core workflows. 9️⃣ Treat AI transformation as a maturity curve: crawl, walk, run. Start by sharing usage (crawl), adopt embedded tools (walk), then rebuild key motions from scratch (run). 🔟 Build for where AI is going, not where it is. If your GTM or product strategy isn’t designed for the next 18 months, you’re already behind. 🎧 Listen to the full episode on GTMnow or wherever you get your podcasts by searching "The GTM Podcast." This is a different style of conversation than you're probably used to hearing, with live audience interaction and a few fun questions in the mix. Catch it on YouTube for the full effect, including a few laughs on stage.

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