Matt Van Loan

Kyle James makes a great observation about how GTM teams are approaching platforms like Gainsight today. What looks like hesitation is often discipline. Teams are taking time to pressure test workflows, data, and ownership before committing to a platform. That behavior does not diminish the value of Gainsight. In many cases, it increases it. When teams arrive with clearer intent and operational readiness, adoption improves and outcomes compound faster. The signal here is not about building instead of buying. It is about earning the right to scale with the platform once the foundation is actually in place. https://lnkd.in/emF9ZvCQ

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Leading product teams in regulated environments requires a different kind of discipline. In this episode of the HTD Agile Leaders Podcast, I sat down with Melissa Douros, CPO at Green Dot Corporation, to talk about how product leaders can move faster without sacrificing trust, governance, or customer safety. I enjoyed this conversation on product delivery, AI done responsibly, and what it really takes to lead transformation at scale.

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Over the past decade, we’ve run one of the leading talent marketplaces, helping the world’s top companies access independent talent to power their most critical work. Along the way, we’ve learned what modern staffing firms need to succeed: speed, automation, digital candidate experiences, and fewer manual, repetitive tasks.  We’ve been quietly building our own proprietary technology to solve these workflow challenges and improve our own productivity as a company. Today, we’re bringing that technology to the broader industry with the launch of GraphiteOS, an AI-powered recruiting operating system that we believe will fundamentally transform how staffing firms operate in the years to come. This isn’t just a product. It’s the technology infrastructure staffing firms need to operate faster and more effectively in an AI-driven, “agent-first” world.  We believe this technology will enable levels of recruiter productivity and client satisfaction that have never been seen before. Recruiters shouldn’t be stuck juggling disconnected tools and performing repetitive tasks. With GraphiteOS, we’ve built an all-in-one platform that connects the dots - sourcing, matching, screening, onboarding and billing - so teams can focus on what matters most: the high-value work that drives placements. I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built and, more importantly, what it will enable for our early customers where the platform is being deployed as we speak! Learn more at www.graphiteos.ai #GraphiteOS #StaffingTech #FutureOfWork #AIRecruiting #StaffingInnovation

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one of the most common questions founders ask us at vibescaling : "when should i hire my first sales leader?" some thoughts on this from the episode with Kyle Parrish he's seen the PLG-to-enterprise playbook work at some of the best companies out there his take: don't hire that leader until you have conviction you're going to build a team of 4-5 reps reasons why: 𝟭) 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 their instinct is to hire and scale. if you're not ready for that, you're setting them up to fail & some might be too far removed from holding a bag deal execution/closing might be what you want to solve for first, which it's best to hire AEs for that 𝟮) 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 you need a repeatable motion before you hand it off. a couple early reps figuring it out alongside you is the move 𝟯) 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 once you're directly coaching 4-5 salespeople, you start to hit bandwidth drain. that's when you need the leader the pattern he's seen work: founder + 5 reps find something repeatable → bring in a leader who knows how to build from early stages → plan for 5-10 reps links to episode in comments

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Manual quote creation, no oversight, and no guardrails. Sound familiar?  SecurityMetrics is the latest success story, leaving behind unnecessary ops complexity for DealHub.io's AI-powered CPQ. The impact: 🎯 Quotes out 2× faster 🎯 100% sales-team adoption 🎯 3-month implementation—accelerating revenue operations What brought it all together? ✅ Innovative Digital Sales Rooms streamlined digital quoting.  ✅ Full custom implementation went live within only 3 months.  ✅ Built-in guardrails accelerated reps' autonomy without compromising governance. ✅ Actionable insights provided unprecedented visibility into customer interactions. How are you weeding out complexity on your team? 👉 Read the full success story: https://lnkd.in/dPDiDB9R

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The missing key to explosive growth: true leadership alignment. 🔑 On the GTM Made Simple Podcast with host Sangram Vajre, ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck revealed why Go-to-Market excellence depends on a rock-solid leadership trifecta. Without tight alignment between the CPO, CRO, and CMO, product teams risk building what sales can’t sell — and marketing messages fall flat. 🔗 Link below for the full episode.

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Pipeline Isn’t a Volume Problem. It’s a Precision Problem. If you're leading a SaaS company in the US market, you already know the environment has changed. Buying cycles are longer. Committees are larger. CAC is rising. And generic outreach is being ignored. Yet many GTM teams are still operating on outdated volume-based models. At Velmatrix Consulting, we work with SaaS leadership teams to solve a more strategic challenge: How do you consistently enter buying conversations before competitors do and with stronger context? Our approach is structured around five core principles. First, we define and validate the Ideal Customer Profile with precision. Not just industry or ARR but growth triggers, tech stack alignment, hiring patterns, and buying committee structure. Precision at this stage directly impacts conversion velocity. Second, we analyze intent signals across multiple behavioral sources. We identify which accounts are actively researching, comparing, or evaluating solutions in your category. Timing is leverage. Engaging when buyers are already in motion changes the entire dynamic of the conversation. Third, we apply human verification. AI surfaces signals, but leadership conversations require context. We validate authority, relevance, and use-case alignment before outreach begins. Fourth, we develop channel-specific messaging tailored to executive-level buyers. Email is structured differently from LinkedIn engagement. When appropriate, we deploy personalized AI-based outreach videos that demonstrate specific product capabilities aligned to the prospect’s environment. Not generic demos targeted capability previews. Finally, we execute in a coordinated multi-channel sequence email, LinkedIn, and relevant social platforms designed to maintain strategic visibility without creating noise. The result isn’t more activity. It’s better conversations. Higher response rates. Stronger MQL to SQL alignment. Shorter sales cycles. More predictable pipeline performance. For SaaS CEOs and revenue leaders, the objective isn’t to increase outbound volume. It’s to improve precision, timing, and relevance. Growth doesn’t come from louder outreach. It comes from entering the right conversation at the right moment. If pipeline predictability is a board-level priority this year, it may be time to rethink how intent, ICP precision, and personalization are being leveraged inside your GTM engine. Trusted Intelligence. Precision Pipeline. #B2BSaaS #SaaSGrowth #USStartups #GoToMarket #RevenueOperations #RevOps #DemandGeneration #PipelineGrowth #SalesLeadership #CMO #CRO #AIinSales

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"How can CS be a revenue-driver when I can fire half my team and NRR stays the same?" Until Customer Success can find quantifiable evidence that they have a higher ROI than another AE hire, they'll always be a cost center. That's what happens when you solve for churn. You start playing not to lose. You meet with every account regardless of tier. You fret over each escalation, not by the amount of ARR at stake, but by how angry the account seems. Fear of conflict drives your decision-making. You have every customer insight at your fingertips. You have 360-degree customer intelligence. You reach out proactively at the first sign of trouble. But it doesn't make a difference. And it won't. Because the people who make CS tools are ALSO solving for churn. And CS can't be accretive with tools made for support and risk reduction. Just listen to the man himself: "Customer Success has gotten worse over the years. Much worse…We're seeing a fundamental shift where CSMs are expected to be revenue generators, but they're using systems designed for customer support." - Jason M. Lemkin If I'm honest, I'm kinda over Customer Intelligence. And I'm not even 100% sure what Commercial Intelligence is. We need Expansion Intelligence. #customerexpansion #nrr #customersuccess

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