Ryan Corey

Most startups don’t have a marketing problem. They have a product-market-fit problem. Udi Ledergor (Gong’s first marketer, now Chief Evangelist) joins Josh Schachter and Lauren Olerich to break down what actually matters when you’re building a brand and trying to create (or evolve) a category. In this episode: • The real indicators of product-market-fit • When you should hire your first marketer (and when you absolutely shouldn’t) • How Gong evolved from conversation intelligence → revenue intelligence → AI operating system • Why “brand as person” is the consistency cheat code • Why leaving raving fans > chasing titles If you’re building a category, a content engine, or a team that needs to stand out in a crowded market — this one’s a masterclass. 🎧 Listen or watch here 👉 https://bit.ly/46zU9cN

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Most agencies depend on referrals or the occasional inbound lead. Unfortunately, it’s unpredictable and keeps growth out of your control. That’s why we built something different: Account-Based Podcasting. In this Scrappy ABM episode, I sat down with Joseph Lewin, our Head of Podcast Strategy, to break down exactly how we generated $2M in revenue in two years from a podcast that started with zero listeners. We walk through the 3 questions every agency should answer before launching a show and a 30-day framework for turning guest outreach into pipeline.
 Grab the tips: https://lnkd.in/gx5xH5xk

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Every company passes through three distinct phases of market fit. Most don't realize they've entered a new one until revenue stalls. These are three transition points highlighted and documented in the GTM OS™ (see graphic, below). They are critical junction points that require acknowledgement and adjustment. Problem market fit. You're testing everything - messages, segments, use cases. The proverbial spaghetti against the wall. It's necessary, it's messy, and it is difficult to scale efficiently. But it works well enough to get you moving. Product market fit. You've found a segment that sees real value, can articulate ROI, and doesn't require heavy customization on every deal. Win rates improve. But CLV is low, leaving money on the table. Platform market fit. You have customers. Good ones. But the "expand" in land-and-expand isn't materializing. Expansion revenue requires a completely different motion - and most companies haven't built it. Here's where it gets painful: as mentioned above, revenue stalls almost always happen at the transition between phases. The company is still running the previous playbook that worked at the time. This is what I meant in a prior post when I said it can be prevented and predicted. Two patterns I've seen repeatedly: A founder-led sales motion is essential in problem market fit. The founder knows the product, reads the room, and closes on instinct. But in product market fit, that same motion becomes a bottleneck. The founder is everywhere, closing deals, salvaging customers - and nothing works without them. Revenue hits a plateau. (I had a CRO once tell me that they couldn’t get anything done because the founder and all the execs were out.) Or this scenario: Strong product market fit execution - the customer base is growing but they do not engage past the initial sale (or acquisition). Cross sell and upsell consistently disappoint. The team is running the product market fit motion that built the business - but nobody has built the platform market fit motion needed to unlock expansion revenue. It just sits there. "We've always done it this way." One of the most expensive sentences in business. The next several posts are going to provide real-world examples - real situations, real consequences, and what it took to get through them. Caveat emptor - They will all be mash ups of real scenarios (to protect the innocent).

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Atlanta isn’t just participating in the AI revolution—it’s leading the way with a unique focus on how humans and technology actually work together. 🚀 Great to see Sean Wood and the #AtlantaAIWeek community highlighting the startups and innovators making this happen. It’s not just about the code; it’s about the culture and the talent building the future right here in the South. 🍑 Which Atlanta AI startup is on your radar right now? #AtlantaAI #AIStartups #FutureOfWork #Innovation

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Effective GTM strategies depend less on driving initiatives in silos and more on fostering deep alignment across leadership, product, sales, and marketing. Cheryl Robinson underscores how unified leadership—not fragmented execution—ensures that GTM efforts land strategically and consistently. It's a vital reminder that every team must not only understand their own metrics but also how those metrics support shared objectives and customer outcomes. A practical takeaway: GTM alignment may benefit from an “alignment dashboard,” a shared, real-time view where all teams monitor unified goals and signals, helping drive accountability and tighter execution. #GTMStrategy #Leadership #Alignment #B2BMarketing #RevenueOperations #MarketingLeadership https://lnkd.in/grMRSmCD

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"Creative" marketing is a boardroom liability. Investors don't fund voodoo tactics and guesswork... The best CMOs don't act like artists, they operate like GTM engineers. I used to sit in board meetings trying to justify my budget with fluffy brand metrics. It felt hollow and the CFO tuned out. But everything changed when I stopped defending creative spend and started engineering predictable revenue. When you do that, the board listens. Not because your ads are pretty, but because your marketing acts as a mathematically proven growth engine. Here are the steps to build that exact growth architecture: 1. Pull The Pricing Lever Stop obsessing over volume and fix your pricing power. → Don't build first, price later. → Test willingness to pay upfront. → Guard against margin erosion. 2. Kill "Marketing Mary" Personas Demographic fluff is statistically insignificant noise in B2B. → Use concrete customer profiling. → Extract real-time buying signals. → Build proprietary, off-market lists. 3. Capitalize On The 95:5 Rule Only 5% of your market is actively buying today. → Stop fighting in red oceans. → Target the "window of dissatisfaction". → Catch buyers before RFPs happen. 4. Deliver Permissionless Value Gated eBooks are depreciating assets that prospects ignore. → Do the heavy lifting upfront. → Diagnose their exact problem freely. → Prove competence, skip the pitch. 5. Track Share of Search (SOS) This is your leading indicator for future market share. → Don't wait for lagging sales. → Measure your mental availability. → Own situational buying triggers. Market dominance gets easier when you abandon artistic improvisation and align identity, timing, and value algorithmically. If you want to transition your marketing from a black-box cost center into a high-precision revenue machine, subscribe to my newsletter. Each week, I share strategic frameworks to help you engineer market share and impress your board.

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