Michael Ghattas

Massive week for agent launches and funding. Here is everything that you need to know.🧵 1/ Mendable released teams, 2x rate limits, map endpoints, a more reliable and developer friendly API, and more. Nicolas Silberstein Camara + Caleb Peffer https://lnkd.in/gv9x8wmf 2/ Salesforce Marc Benioff + Clara Shih Agentforce launch. https://lnkd.in/gd2JTpf3 3/ Adept Workflow Language (AWL) launched to simplify the creation of AI workflows. https://lnkd.in/gkssiYUa 4/ Cohere launched an improved version of Command R/R+. It has a performance boost on agentic tasks. Sandra Kublik, Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst, Jay Alammar https://lnkd.in/gcRZqF3E 5/ Magic launched a 100 million token context window. That’s 10 million lines of code, or 750 novels + a recent investment of $320 million https://lnkd.in/gbtVmVxU 6/ Bland AI announced $22M in funding.  Their phone agent can talk in any language, handle millions of calls, and never hallucinate. Isaiah N. Granet https://lnkd.in/g99-QgHt 7/ Jack Altman announced $4.4M in funding for Retell AI https://lnkd.in/gg_uXhtd 8/ $2.6M in funding for Agency! We’re building AI agents that are safe, reliable, and accessible to everyone. Alex Reibman shared how thousands of developers, startups, and enterprises rely on Agency every day. https://lnkd.in/gSbfx_2a 9/ Softgen AI has made building websites easier than ever! Marko O. Kraemer https://lnkd.in/gc_ViK3w 10/ An agent that will roast your website built with Composio, Agency, Browserbase, Ollama https://lnkd.in/gC-3yW9e 11/ AI Newsletter Summarizer: Karan Vaidya https://lnkd.in/gYzfsAxb 13/ MattVidPro AI about Lindy. https://lnkd.in/gR3xiCu2 14/ Mert Deveci ✊ shared a video I did with David Ondrej about the best AI Agents https://lnkd.in/ggKtB_Gv 15/ Abacus.AI AI showed off its software planning agent. https://lnkd.in/gq6FfXKR 16/ Angela Strange from a16z "Every white collar role will have an AI co-pilot. Some roles will be near fully automated with AI agents.” https://lnkd.in/gZpbMexe 17/ Klarna's AI support agent does the work of 700 employees, reducing average resolution time from 11 minutes to 2 minutes. https://lnkd.in/gq-ZZjmg 18/ Box CEO Aaron Levie on why AI agents are a $1 trillion opportunity https://lnkd.in/gujCcgAR Follow Agency and Adam Silverman (Hiring) for all things AI agent-related. Last weeks updates: https://lnkd.in/gkcVwyrX

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𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱—𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗅 (here is how 👇) More than half of startups fail due to co-founder conflict. Unspoken expectations, unclear roles, and misaligned goals can derail even the best ideas. The solution? Build your co-founding team with intention. Before you dive into your business, align on the critical aspects of your venture and working relationship. A founder agreement is a great tool to guide these essential conversations. Here is a framework to get started: 1️⃣ Personal Goals & Vision What motivates us to start this company? What does success look like, and are we aligned on timelines and growth aspirations (e.g., Unicorn vs. sustainable business)? 2️⃣ Roles & Responsibilities Are roles clearly defined, or do we have skill gaps? How will decisions be made, and how will conflicts be resolved? 3️⃣ Personal Situations Are we financially ready for this journey? How will we manage other commitments and distractions? 4️⃣ Trust & Relationships Have we worked together enough to understand our dynamics? Can we communicate openly, honestly, and constructively? 5️⃣ Equity, Vesting & Investment How will we handle equity, funding, or co-founder changes in the future? 6️⃣ Commitment Are we all ready to go all-in, and what are our timelines? Building the right team and aligning on these areas can make all the difference. 💡 Full Founders Agreement framework available in the comments! (credit to @Talentkick)👇

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My love letter to Canadian tech 🍁: here's how we unlock our true potential. After building companies in both Canada and the US, I've realized something about our startup ecosystem: We're sitting on a gold mine of talent that we're not fully unleashing It's not about ability – we have some of the brightest minds in tech. It's about creating an environment where founders feel empowered to swing for the fences. Here's what needs to change: //1. We need more investors willing to bet on potential rather than perfect data + sure bets. Typically when early-stage founders pitch in the US, investors focus on the founder’s capabilities and dreams. In Canada, investors (who often have insane leverage) require more data and less risk. Without apt funding and support, the Canadian way often creates "zombie companies" – stuck between survival and scale. //2. We need experienced founders actively mentoring the next generation. Not just government grants. We need networks of operators who have been there before. Ideally with an incredible outcome and willing to bet on the next generation. Real mentorship from people who've taken the hits and lived to tell about it. The US has this in spades – it's time we expand beyond siloed pockets of this in Canada. //3. We need to celebrate and amplify our success stories more publicly. Success breeds and inspires success. I remember when I first pitched to VCs in the US – they weren't just betting on me, they were betting on a pattern they'd seen work before. Same with founders who see people just like them take the unconventional path and take risk. We need a foundational, mindset shift to celebrating and supporting startups in Canada. //4. We need to stop rewarding safe bets and start celebrating big swings. Stop optimizing for base hits. Start celebrating home runs. The talent is here. The ambition is here. We just need to build the cultural infrastructure that makes big swings feel possible. // I've seen both sides of this story. And I'm more optimistic than ever about Canadian tech. Canada will always be home. To every Canadian founder reading this: Your ambitions aren't too big. Big outcomes are achieveable. The next wave of iconic tech companies can be built in Canada. But first, we need to unleash it. #startups #canada #entrepreneurship #tech

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💎 When I launched my first startup, I was convinced our product was revolutionary. I poured my heart and soul into building the perfect app, certain that users would flock to us once we went live. I had dreams of millions of users, hockey stick growth charts and our servers overloading. Man, was I in for a rude awakening 💔. The most dangerous assumption founders can make is to think that if you “build it, they will come”. Far too many founders believe that creating an amazing product is enough - that users will magically discover and adopt it. The truth? It's far more challenging. Your users don't just appear, you have to fight for every single one. 1️⃣ Building a great product is only the first step. There's a vast graveyard of products that were built but never properly distributed. These were potentially game-changing products that faded away in obscurity, not because they necessarily lacked quality, but because they lacked visibility. 💯 Founders must commit significant time, money, and energy to attracting (and retaining) users. This means leveraging multiple channels: ▪ Email marketing ▪ Content marketing ▪ Social media ▪ Influencer marketing ▪ Events ▪ PR ▪ Partnerships ▪ Community building ▪ Paid ads Each channel requires its own strategy, setup and ongoing optimization. 🔥 So to all the founders out there, don't fall into the trap of neglecting user acquisition. Start planning your growth strategy from day one. Make it as big of a priority as your product. Test different channels and approaches, double down on what works, and be prepared to pivot when needed. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to hustle for growth 🚀. It’s the only way. What hard lessons did you learn while building your startup? How did you acquire your first 100 users? What user acquisition channels worked for you? Share your experiences and insights in the comments below! 👇 #startups #growth #marketing #founders

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One of the biggest BS rules in VC is the requirement for SaaS companies to scale to $10M ARR in 18 months. UiPath: $500K 10 years in. Klaviyo: $1M ARR 3 years in. Lightspeed: $10M ARR 8 years in. Great products take time. The road to the start line can be long. It means defensibility is being built. Be patient, remain lean, always stay super close to the customer. #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

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Great things take time to build. If your growth trajectory doesn’t follow the so-called ‘rules,’ don’t worry—focus on creating a sustainable business that’s loved by your paying customers. Stay patient, stay lean, and keep building.

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Hire a "Customer Obsessed Engineer" – Like seriously. We've got ours at Rasayel → Amr Nashaat 😉 So what's this seemingly made-up title all about? 🤔💭 Yeah, they're kinda like a Customer Support Engineer but way more startup-y. ⚒ They're legit engineers! 👥 They feel energised working closely with customers 🐞 They can dive deep into technical issues, investigate, and troubleshoot 🪛 They whip up internal tooling for support 💊 They do technical onboarding for customers ⛺️ They act as solutions engineers on sales calls 📜 They craft killer technical docs Most importantly – they work independently and can swim across product, engineering, sales, and support to unlock more value for the prospect or customer. Oh, and BTW, our engineers dabble in this stuff too 👆 Your engineers will be even more empowered knowing that there is a generalist hero backing them up. #hiring #customersupport #softwareengineer

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Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google), another showcase of Canadian politicians bending over for a big US corp, with ZERO tangible results 💩 Roxana and I attended a "private investor demo" session in 2019. A block of wood was passed among the audience, supposedly the NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH in urban development! Demo concluded, by observing a piece of wood! Building blocks of future skyscrapers! The promise? With this, Google will build a "Smart City" for us, the peasants of Toronto, in Queens Quay 🏖️🏢 Sidewalk Labs' website now points to a newer Google scam, it reads: "Build Sustainably with Google Earth"! Bait and switch, but let enough time pass so no one remembers 🤢 https://lnkd.in/gd3B-a6m Guess now the investors and Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario have shit loads of these wooden blocks, ready to shove up somewhere, to find a use for! All because the name "Bloomberg" sounds authoritative enough to our ears? Surely that's capital well spent, instead of investing in local talent! 🤔 Will Canada's tech ecosystem ever crawl out of Silicon Valley's shadow, and stand on its own? ⌚👀⛔

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You have a great job, working with smart people, things going really well... But you're unhappy and want to move on? 🙃 Had a lot of fun on the Builders podcast with the lovely folks Proxify! I shared what it is like leaving a great job at Intercom to figure things out. I dive into the story of my first venture, Octopods, and how it paved the way for Rasayel where we are inventing the way to sell on #WhatsApp. So many ups and downs building two tech startups, the lessons I've learned along the way, and the exciting future of WhatsApp as a business platform. 😉 Thank you SO MUCH Lee Haynes, Stefanija and Miodrag 😊🙏 #startups #entrepreneurship #careers #WhatsApp

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Are you ready to unlock the full potential of Product Operations? 🔍 Only 2 weeks left until Product Ops: 101 - Getting Started with Product Operations on October 30, 2024, led by Denise Tilles! With only 2 spots left, this hands-on workshop will give you practical tools to implement and scale Product Ops strategies. By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap to drive better outcomes within your organization. Secure your spot now: https://lnkd.in/exBcs2V5 🎟️ #productops101 #productoperations #productmanagement #workshop

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SaaS tools focus on product differentiation so much they forget the one thing that actually matters... Distribution advantage. In today's Whiteboard [Thurs]day, I'm diving into: 1. How the launch of our FRMT couture line highlighted the difference in distribution advantage opportunities between DTC and SaaS. 2. How SaaS can achieve high growth using its distro opps. [ICYMI: We launched FRMT, our luxury couture line called "Style As A Service," taking ordinary pieces of clothing and blending them with timeless craftsmanship. Link below to check it out.] Aside from being an experimental marketing campaign sold through FERMÀT funnels, this venture accomplished the hardest thing in the sea of software: Being memorable. How? "Moonshot marketing" - Rabah Rahil, CMO of FERMÀT. Within DTC, the distribution advantages are a dime a dozen. You've got: ➝ Meta ➝ Influencers ➝ Riding the wave of cultural moments ➝ And so on... Within SaaS, you have fewer options: ➝ Truly fresh ideas (like an outlandish couture line) ➝ Product-driven distribution trick (+1 product that makes you want the primary)  ➝ Partner-driven distribution trick (I.e. what eBay is to Paypal) Our FRMT line has taught me SaaS has these 3 major options. So experiment within these to figure out your distro advantage and product differentiation (aside from good engineering). It's how you'll be top of mind and make a high-growth company grow even faster. For us, it's so far so good on FRMT. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Community is everything. Just got off a call with Marion Siboni who's building La Creme de la STEM ™ - female founders support system, and we kept coming back to this point. Looking for a new tool/platform? 👉 we ask our community Deciding on a new agency? 👉 we ask our community Hiring for the team? 👉 we ask our community Looking for #inspo? 👉 we ask our community Need a new nail salon? 👉 we ask our community Everything comes down to people we trust. ^^ something to remember when planning GTM '25 strategies, too. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐓𝐌? 🧡 build a product people love and talk about with their peers 🧡 foster a community amongst our customers and audience 🧡 genuinely help our customers, audience, and partners 🧡 PARTNERS - build relationships with peer brands and gtm together 🧡 get to know all of these people (customers, prospects, partners, peers, etc) BEYOND work, outside of our to do lists. As people. At the end of the day, building trust and relationships is what drives impact (and hey, revenue is nice too). #tbt to last week @ Pavilion's GTM2024. Misssss you all! 🧡

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Exciting news! Our commerce arm at Lazer Technologies is growing and we're hiring! 🎉 We're looking for strong, full-stack engineers, who LOVE Shopify and LOVE building exceptional commerce experiences for some of the world's leading brands! 🛍 🚀 Over the past years, we've been busy helping brands, enterprises, and commerce platforms build the best experiences... everything including: - Leading Shopify development and building a true omnichannel experience for some of the largest brands across Canada and USA - Migrating large brands from Magento/Salesforce/BigCommerce onto Shopify - Architecting and building Shopify apps for some of the fastest growing Seed + Series A venture-backed startups - Designing and crafting experiences for celebs and thriving beauty, apparel, food, pharma, and automotive brands, both from a headless and native platform approach - Creating new commerce experiences for celebrities, TV shows, and more that push conventional boundaries - Integrating key commerce tools and frameworks into storefronts, such as Klaviyo, Ordergroove, and more - Optimizing UX and conversions on storefronts by digging deep into checkout, B2B, Retail, and more - Building tokengated commerce experiences for some of the most popular NFT communities - And so much more ❤️ If anyone is interested or knows anyone that's interested, please reach out to myself or tag them below 👇🏾🙏🏾

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i want to talk about "admin flavors", something i start to notice, is how Shopify is secretly replacing many business and ops tools. many brands we worked with at Autrement, have one way or another a business tool, a custom built technology that reflects team expertise, some brands use ERPs, some have it in-house, some use both, especially in b2b, or retail. a tool that unifies many aspects of the business, each business is unique thus each business stack has its own challenges, its own flavor i call it. what's the relation between this and that? good question. the concept of "admin flavors" is a key outcome of this approach. a flavored admin is a customized version of Shopify (operating commerce system and backoffice), tailored to meet the specific needs of different businesses especially verticals. - for instance, fashion retailers might have integrated size guides and lookbook and e-merchandising management tools inside shopify. - while food and beverage businesses could benefit from recipe databases and nutritional information blocks. - electronics retailers might have specialized warranty management and technical specification tools built into their admin interface. these customizations improve operational efficiency and allow brands to maintain their unique workflows. shopify is an open and extendable platform at its core, they give you the building bricks (extension components and apis), a map where you add them (extension points) these blocks act as bridges between shopify and other business tools, enabling seamless integration of various operations. as this process unfolds over time—an admin extension here, another there—you end up with a unified operational system. a tool that centralizes everything you use across different platforms. instead of switching between tools, which can cause significant issues, especially regarding privacy and permissions at scale, you have a single, controlled environment. in a disjointed system, a staff member might be denied access to a resource in one platform but inadvertently granted it in another for a specific task, leading to potential security breaches. a unified system helps mitigate these risks, that will ported by shopify. looking to the future, we may see the emergence of industry-specific apps offering pre-configured admin flavors for different verticals. I've personally observed this in fashion, where some solutions have moved outside Shopify to build this up, because Shopify's current admin extensibility state isn't yet mature enough to fully accommodate these tools. However, it's only a matter of time before it will be.

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Today, I had the privilege of attending a meeting with Omer K and HASSAN AYUB and the incredible team at Maida.Co. The conversation was packed with actionable insights on app growth strategies that I’m excited to implement. Here are two key takeaways: 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. Retention is just as important as acquisition—delivering value consistently keeps users coming back. 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. Understanding user behavior and iterating quickly is the key to staying ahead in the competitive app market. At NextSalution, these strategies align perfectly with our mission to innovate and scale our apps, which are already serving millions of users. As we prepare to launch our upcoming solutions, these insights will be invaluable. Grateful for the knowledge shared by Omer K and HASSAN AYUB—conversations like these fuel progress. What’s one app growth strategy you’ve found effective? Let’s share ideas in the comments! #AppGrowth #Innovation #Leadership #NextSalution #Networking

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How to spot the BEST early-stage opportunities? (Yes, you want to join a very early-stage startup as the first employee... but not just any startup.) 2 weeks ago, I posted on LinkedIn to share how I met Lucas and joined Hyperline. Long before this (lucky) meeting, I had made my "wishlist" for the ideal early-stage project to join - influenced by my short venture into VC. I highly recommend doing this exercise. Why? • To focus your search - there are SO many startups out there!  • To figure out what's important to you, and what's not • To reduce risk exposure - even though the risk is minimal as first employee In my case, I ideally wanted to join... 🥷 A stealth-mode startup, yet to be announced 💻 Building a complex tech product, preferably B2B SaaS 💸 Backed by a top-tier VC fund 💼 Founded by someone who was among the first operators in a successful scaleup OR a repeat founder ready to start a new ambitious project 👾 Led by a founder with a strong tech background (ideally) - to ensure complementarity and be as useful as possible  🌍 With international ambitions from day one 1️⃣ …and of course I wanted to be among the very first employees Beyond these, of course, my #1 criteria was a good personal fit and the promise of an exciting (and fun!) adventure. When I mention these criteria to people, they say I was looking for a needle in a haystack (ou le fameux "mouton à 5 pattes" 🐑 😂). 100% true. I was probably ready to compromise on some of them... but Hyperline ticks all the boxes. (Just because the project meets these criteria doesn't guarantee its long-term success - important to keep this in mind 😉)

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Two weeks ago I ran a 2-hour deep dive on AI for pipegen with our lead investor at Lightspeed. Investors at large VC firms see a LOT of GTM tech. Their job is to separate the wheat from the chaff. Even then, the market of GTM AI tools is incredibly confusing. The tools that you hear a lot about often don’t actually drive any meaningful ROI. Then a tool that is driving ROI for one company won’t translate to another, because of nuances in each company’s GTM motion. All of this gets glossed over in the headlines. And it’s confusing as hell for both investors and GTM teams who are trying to make an informed decision. The deep dive with our investor was a huge success in cutting through the noise and driving clarity. Inspired by this, I’ve been running similar 2-hour white-boarding workshops with GTM teams on their AI strategy for pipegen. We’ve already done 3 and it’s been incredibly high leverage for everyone involved. During the sessions we: 1) Build a first-principles framework of the customers’ outbound motion, highlighting the highest leverage points where AI can make a big impact. 2) Define realistic goals to measure ROI, anchored to what similar GTM teams have actually implemented and achieved. 3) Call out the traps of AI specific to their business, and help them make sense of the landscape of AI tools and which might be a great fit. 4) Make sure each function responsible for pipegen is involved and walks away more aligned than before. As a founder, I also see these workshops as a high leverage use of my time. Every day I get to talk to cutting-edge GTM teams across verticals. From my vantage point, I see patterns of what’s working and what’s not, and can contextualize this for customers so they can move faster with fewer debilitating mistakes. Going to lean into this. Look forward to running more white-boarding workshop on AI and GTM!

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What's the key to closing the * best * talent? 🤔 Deeply understanding motivations. Effective outreach and closing * all * start with knowing motivators. So we analyzed 2,500+ interviews for candidate motivation trends. 🔍 There are * clear trends * by function Prod/Eng/Data (PED) vs. Sales/Mkt (GTM). Some of the 🤯 findings... 1) Interest in the company's product is the 3rd most frequently cited motivator, ahead of company culture, reputation, mission and values, work-life, etc. 2) GTM candidates are 185% more likely to note the company's culture vs. PED (23% of candidates vs. 8%); 450% more likely to note company's reputation 3) GTM candidates are 12x more likely to note the compensation & benefits vs. PED candidates (12% vs. 1%), likely due to the variable comp but still... 4) PED candidates are 47% more likely to cite the role's alignment to their experience than GTM candidates (25% vs. 17%), their #1 cited motivator 5) PED candidates are 2x more likely to cite impact and purpose as a motivator, albeit from a surprisingly low base overall (6% vs. 3%) Here's a detailed breakdown 👇 🔵 GTM candidates are way more likely to cite a specific motivator: * Sales/CS/Marketing = 86% cited a specific motivator * Eng/Product = 68% 🔵 Overall, the top motivator was career growth opportunities * Career Growth Opportunities = 25% * Aligns with Experience = 20% * Product Interest = 19% * Company Culture = 18% * Business Momentum and Growth = 14% * Company Reputation = 9% * Compensation and Benefits = 8% * Technological Innovation = 5% * Impact and Purpose = 4% * Mission and Values = 3% * Team Dynamics = 3% * Work-Life Balance = 3% * Other = 2% * Leadership and Management = 2% 🔵 GTM candidates = career growth vs. PED candidates = role fit Career Growth Opportunities = 29% (GTM) vs. 17% (Prod/Eng) Company Culture = 23% (vs.) 8% Product Interest = 20% (vs.) 18% Aligns with Experience = 17% (vs.) 25% Business Momentum and Growth = 13% (vs.) 15% Company Reputation = 13% (vs.) 2% Compensation and Benefits = 12% (vs.) 1% Work-Life Balance = 4% (vs.) 1% Team Dynamics = 4% (vs.) 2% Technological Innovation = 4% (vs.) 7% Impact and Purpose = 3% (vs.) 6% Mission and Values = 3% (vs.) 3% Leadership and Management = 2% (vs.) 1% Other = 2% (vs.) 2% ❓❓ QUESTIONS ❓❓ * Do any of these data points surprise you? * How can we use this to shape outbound / closing approaches? CC Hayli Thornhill Suzy Hathaway Hung Lee John Vlastelica Joel Cheesman JESS VON BANK Mike Radice Derek Scott Michael Brown Leslie Chanpong Becky McCullough Amy Schultz Tracy St.Dic Darren Bush Next post we'll explore some * FASCINATING * gender breakdowns... Thanks to William Leeds for the analysis support!

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