Justin Foster

Hot Take… RIP #PLG, Long Live #SLG But before you throw shade, let me explain… 🔹 There are undoubtedly exceptions, I’m sure many will highlight monday.com, Freshworks, etc. 🔹 PLG works well for low ACV deals with low CAC… think SMB and mid-market customers. Target CAC payback <12 months 🔹 PLG is a fantastic top of funnel marketing channel for enterprise sales ⭐ But for 6-figure enterprise sales, you need enterprise salespeople pressing the flesh with customers

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As a Fractional CMO, I found this article insightful on AI's potential to reshape sales tech. Thank you for sharing this Venkateswar Gopisetti Key takeaways: - AI may disrupt incumbent CRM players (salesforce, Hubspot), creating opportunities for new entrants. - Multi-modal data integration could provide deeper customer insights. - AI-driven automation of time-consuming tasks could dramatically increase sales efficiency. - The blending of sales, marketing, and customer success functions may lead to more cohesive customer experiences. - Dynamic, AI-enabled go-to-market strategies could allow for more personalized approaches. A shift from per-seat to outcome-based pricing models could disrupt SaaS pricing norms. The article effectively outlines how AI might transform sales processes, organizational structures, and technology stacks. While optimistic, it provides a valuable roadmap for sales leaders preparing for an AI-driven future. The implications for existing vendors (Salesforce, Hubspot, etc.,) and their partners could be profound - it's crucial to keep a close eye on these developments as they unfold in the coming months.

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At most networking events… Business owners shake hands, exchange business cards, and go home. HumanX has a different approach. You’ll be paired together in 1:1 conversations with investors & AI startups. You’re not just adding people to your rolodex. Deals will be made.

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Perfecting your product and GTM strategy are surely important. But Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie argues there's one factor that outweighs all others in startup success: recognizing and capitalizing on tech and macro tailwinds. Fighting against them? You're setting yourself up for failure. Our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gEAPFR-A

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One realization we've made at Convoi is if we hear something 50+ times we need to build it for the Utah Startup Community. We've built three things so far, and just about to launch number 4 in a couple of weeks. First, we started Convoi Ventures to bring more capital to the earliest stage of startups. ~2.5 years in, we've backed 40 companies, 2/3 that are pre-revenue and 50% are first-time founders. Second, we started Utah Tech Week to create a grassroots event that will be forever focused on Utah and it's early stage startup community. The first year there was 114 events, and this past January, there were 197 events and 15k attendees. Third, we started a program for early stage founders that we think is going to be the flagship program for early stage founders in Utah. Our alpha program was a big success, and beta this summer will be even better. We'll announce after we're out of beta. :) Fourth, we constantly hear of folks at the largest companies we have in Utah that want to support our early stage startups. We're going to be pretty quiet about this one #IYKYK, but if you're a VP or above at a tech company (public, or Utah based series A/B) company, please DM if you'd like more details. Thank you for letting me interrupt my social media fast for this post. Back in my cave for a couple of months.

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Pierson Krass and I hosted a subscription workshop yesterday with some strong and growing brands in Utah. A few takeaways: 1. This format was more intimate, allowed for more questions, and a deeper understanding of how to better acquire and retain subscribers. 2. No matter the subscription platform you're using, brands are trying to figure out how to get more of them and enable the right sales funnels and retention motions. 3. In awe of Pierson talking to brands under $1m and over $10m in the exact same way. Whenever he recommended a tool it was completely sincere. Disclosed if he's invested in the app (or not). Recommended an app that wasn't his because it would work better for the brand that needed it. I love that. We will definitely be doing more of these! Thanks to those who came out and to our wonderful Utah ecommerce ecosystem. (Yes that's my food on the seat I was taking the pic!)

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Rolling into another day of the Primary Summit. Hit me up if we should connect onsite. Kudos to the Primary Ventures team so far, as yesterday’s Pre-Seed Summit was on point. Mar Hershenson, Benjamin Sun, Chris Douvos, Zach Weinberg, and Graham Pingree all dropping helpful nuggets for fund managers. Some paraphrased highlights: - Chris Douvos (AHOY Capital) - Most fund decks are terrible. Start with your people (not your strategy) and know you have about 6 slides of his attention. - Zach Weinberg (Curie.Bio ) - beleives SF’s AI talent is a significant advantage over NY, wouldn’t build AI in NY. Also questions if VC exits can keep up with VC expansion (generally hilarious and smart Twitter follow) - Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) - VC is so much more competitive now. It’s not enough to be an ex-founder with a great network and domain expertise. Have a better “why you are different” or do something else! - Benjamin Sun (Primary Venture Partners)- still sees arbitrage in going long NY venture (vs. SF). Do the work to keep various influential networking nodes aware of what you’re doing and how you think.

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Team San Diego! I though you may find this as surprising as I did...we are not alone. Read this quick article from Jon Prentice's (Silicon Valley Bank) interview with with James Newell (Voyager Capital), published in GeekWire on Seattle's innovation ecosystem....they lament the SAME issues as we do in San Diego: * Lack of angel investors, (Especially, it calls out, given the local giant tech co's) * "We need low-conviction check writers." * Lack of "cachet associated with being an angel investor" - We have similar efforts (as described in the article) to drum up angel activity: NuFund Venture Group and, Interlock Capital (read the article and you'll see why the Interlock effort is tops as relates to "paying back into the ecosystem") Connect.org strives to 'connect' innovative companies with investors of all types (angel, VC, PE...) - just see "Innovation Day". Their Springboard program provides another great way for experienced entrepreneurs to give back through mentorship...as for the companies going through Springboard: "Ask for advice, and you often get $$" Your thoughts on the article or San Diego innovation ecosystem? https://lnkd.in/gfwq6mfq

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SF Tech Week just started this morning! LA Tech Week will be here SOON. What events are you attending? Let's sync up! Dreamore is hosting the very last event on Oct 20 In collaboration with Michael Ronen's VR/immersive community And our broader network of founders, investors, and startup leaders At my 10 acres of land, top o' Topanga, Breaking ground next year, And til then... private hiking trails, picnic spots and sunset views. Particularly excited to attend women's events and of course AI. If any of you want your event highlighted in our next Dreamore, Grow More newsletter please connect with Lydia Thompson. Will pop a couple of links in comments - share freely! The IRL authentic connections we can make with each other these next couple of weeks will make a real difference for our future growth together. Building trust, learning from each other, clarifying goals, and having fun. As a firm, we are bringing humanity back to hiring. This is what it looks like 😁 Our fair city has had a rough couple of years, for sure. Being an entertainment AND tech town, we've felt the one-two impact of strikes and layoffs more than many other metropolitan areas. But... silver linings.... We are finding strength and resilience more than ever. We are community-building and supporting each other more than ever. Phoenix from ashes energy, not only from the Malibu Dream House (but yeah, that too). Much appreciation for Katia Ameri TECH WEEK by a16z and all the other investors and community builders including WeAreLATech Espree Devora 🎙️Justin Gordon Kate Lynch Zach Sekar and I'll stop now because the list of events for Tech Week is really long and exciting so that would be way too many tags. Just like that last sentence was way too long hehe. Still reading? Glad you're here 😍 #inspiration #womeninbusiness #womeninleadership #femalefounders #investors #startups #recruiting #hiring #purposedriven #founders #technology

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As Hugh Hopkins and I are building 42ai, we're acutely aware that up until recently the trajectory in GTM tech has been veering exclusively to "market consolidation". Acquisitions like Hubspot -> Clearbit, Clari -> Groove or companies like Gong going full DIY are aimed at winning more wallet share and 'proving' market leadership... But more wallet share + market leadership for vendors doesn't always translate into whats good for the end customer and there are a lot of things we're not so keen on about this approach: 🔴 These companies want to own as much of their particular GTM Activity/Process as possible making them incredibly sticky 🔴 They roll out/acquire more functionality to achieve this and let's face it, it's rarely as good as the initial product 🔴 This not only locks you into their way of working, but is likely wrapped up in expensive per seat billing 🔴 And for a long time after implementation the data and insight these platforms capture only benefits the target persona in their own "walled garden" 🔴 Quickly these tools become inflexible and adapting them to the nuance of your business requires data and ops resources or manual workarounds 🔴 And maximising results is often about adding more headcount and functionality/features For post-sale productivity software in particular (gainsight, catalyst et al) these problems are particularly challenging because by this stage of the customer lifecycle, every company operates very different internally. That's why there are a gazillion top of funnel software tools out there today and just a few post-sale platforms. But there is another way... 🤠 There are a growing number of companies who believe in a different approach (Clay, Attio, 42ai as examples). A way where low cost of ownership gives access to highly adaptable workflows (AI or otherwise), leverages real-time data, and integrates with best in class tools so you can make the most out of your existing stack. All without tying you in to paying for seats or functionality you don't need. For the next phase of GTM Tech, more consolidation is not the default way forward - it has many downsides. While change may be slow initially, for some use-cases and segments of the market, value will shift away from these platforms into usage-billed workflows that address a wider number of vertically integrated problems - at a fraction of the cost of traditional saas. Try as they may, incumbents will struggle to go there...

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🚀 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 Clay 🚀 ✨ Clay just secured their Series B funding, and it's a game-changer for B2B sellers everywhere! 🎉 Join me in congratulating Peter Kang, Varun Anand  🦾Eric Nowoslawski,  and the entire Clay team on this monumental achievement! Their innovative platform is revolutionizing lead generation and outreach. With their latest round of funding, Clay is set to further enhance their automation, data enrichment, and personalized outreach capabilities. This means even more powerful tools for B2B sellers to streamline their sales processes, manage pipelines efficiently, and achieve remarkable growth. 👥 Kudos to Clay for their relentless pursuit of excellence and innovation. Here's to many more milestones and continued success! 👏 Let's show our support! Drop a comment to congratulate the team and share how Clay has impacted your business. If you haven't tried them out, this is definitely something you dont' want to miss https://lnkd.in/gyH2zgie #SeriesB #FundingSuccess #B2BSales #LeadGeneration #SalesAutomation #CongratsClay

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Today at Tropic we’re announcing a 40-person reduction in force and a restructuring. Our vision is to make technology a buyers’ market, and the changes below will accelerate a period of rapid growth in the SaaS product we built to enable this vision. At the same time, we need to somberly acknowledge the importance and incredible quality of the impacted people that helped us get to this point. The world should know that these headcount changes were in no way performance-based. Every company would be incredibly lucky to hire someone who worked at Tropic. We will do everything we can to help the impacted employees land somewhere great. Here is some context on the decision and the changes we’re making. We have been in the midst of an evolution from a service-led business to a SaaS business. The approach we took allowed us to gain a large data advantage with compounding benefits that will help our customers for years to come. After debuting our standalone SaaS platform early last year and building around it, we have seen the platform revenue growth required to enter our second act with both feet. We are now positioned to operate as a leaner, more focused team, which requires a variety of changes in how we operate. The result will make us nimbler, faster and more effective in our ability to deliver value to the market. But turning this corner comes at the cost of 40 extremely talented people. We never could have gotten to this moment without them, and all of their fingerprints will be on this business forever. We are grateful. Later I will publish more of our learnings gathered on the journey of transitioning from services to SaaS. In the meantime, I can recommend 100% of the people impacted - and I would be happy to put you in touch with any of them if you are hiring.

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There's gold in these hills: 👉 Investments in retention can double as acquisition vehicles 👉 Customers do all of the selling to the prospects who join the events 👉 You can do no wrong by doing right by your customers Timeless lessons, Drew Neisser.

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"How many CSMs do we need?" "How many customers do my CSMs manage"? We've dug into our nearly $2 billion in client revenue data, analyzed industry standards like the Jason M. Lemkin and Gainsight suggestions, and crafted our own Infinite Renewals approach. Whether you're managing too many accounts or wondering how many CSMs you need, this is for you. A sample is below, but the good stuff is in the full report. The Infinite Renewals team of Kate Mazzini, Kristine Vallila, and Renee Murphy really dug in, and also put together a "choose your adventure" approach, which accounts for ACV, ARR, and allocated time per account. Next Thursday, October 3rd, from 1-2 PM EST, we'll be hosting an exclusive Ask Me Anything session. 📈 Drop "REPORT" in the comments to get the report. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain invaluable insights! 🗓️ Spread the word!

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The future of sales isn't just about automating as much as we can—it's about augmentation and balance between tech and human capabilities. 🤖🤝 In the latest post on the Clarify‎ blog, my co-founder Austin Hay‎ dives into the why and how behind this need for balance. ⚖️  As our tools have become more advanced, they've also become less effective. Why? Because everyone's using the same AI-powered playbook.  Our customers are more aware of–and more burnt out by–over-used AI strategies than ever. This means more outreach ends up in spam every day. 😬 So, what's the solution? It's not about abandoning technology, but about using it more intelligently.  Here are some of the key insights Austin shares: 🧠 Context is king: We need AI that understands deep patterns in customer behavior, not just surface-level personalization. 🔄 Rethink CRMs: Imagine systems that actively provide insights without manual input, freeing us to focus on relationship-building. 💡 Quality over quantity: Use AI to identify the most promising leads and craft genuinely valuable interactions. 🤝 Enhance, don't replace: The goal is to use tech to amplify our human skills, not substitute them. 📊 Redefine success metrics: It's not just about volume anymore—focus on engagement quality and long-term relationship building. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities for founders and product builders. How do we create solutions that leverage AI while preserving that crucial human element? How do we build tools that enhance, rather than replace, genuine human connection? 🤔 The answer: Use AI not as a replacement for human interaction, but as a powerful tool to augment our capabilities. It should handle routine tasks and provide deeper insights, freeing up our teams to do what humans do best: Understand nuanced needs, provide strategic value, and build lasting relationships. ❤️ I’ll link Austin’s blog in the comments for folks who want to learn more. 🔗 I’d also love to hear your thoughts: How are you navigating the balance between automation and human touch in your business?

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Hey RevOps - here's a hack for you to eliminate all the time and money you are spending on your sandbox environment 👇 Test in production. 😏 Follow me for me RevOps hacks...and have a good weekend y'all ✌️ #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #sfdc #salesforce #salesforceadmin #sfdcadmin

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Plenty of GTM math is getting more and more complicated, but one metric has always served me well by keeping it dead simple. Shoot for 3X pipeline coverage, 4X if you want to err on the conservative side. That's it. Anything under that means you're likely leaving too much good pipeline on the shelf. Anything over that implies either a qualification problem or a conversion problem. And that is NOT a sales problem, because you all own that together as part of a unified go-to-market team. The problem(s) could be any of a number of things - lead quality, imprecise buying journey mapping, sales process management, buying committee multi-threading, etc. I imagine even this simple math will stir up some debate for you internally. Better to have that conversation now in pre-fiscal year planning than mid-year when it's harder to course-correct.

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Very cool to see the hyper-growth in companies like Artisan and 11x who are building AI agents to disrupt the traditional BDR/SDR model and drive new efficiencies in the GTM stack. It’s the perfect use-case for AI - take time-consuming tasks that can be automated and done more reliably with AI agents to generate instant productivity gains for top-of-funnel, tool consolidation, and lower CAC. As a result, it's making the things that only humans can do - judge, trust, persuade, and build relationships - even more important as part of the overall sales process and GTM motion. Chamath Palihapitiya said it best in his interview with Joe Rogan a couple of weeks ago... "I think the computer, in a lot of cases, can't express judgment. It'll learn. But today it's not going to be able to the same way that humans can. It's going to have different tastes. So the way that we interpret things, the same way that you motivate people, like all the psychology, all these things that are like these softer skills that allow humans to cooperate and work together. That stuff becomes more important when you have a fleet of robots" In other words, as top-of-funnel production becomes more automated and commoditized with AI, trusted relationships (which require soft skills) and access to decision makers for mid-funnel conversions will take center stage. At SmallWorld we are focused on this "last mile" - providing our customers with access to target prospects through an expanded network of real relationships so they can amplify the benefits of AI throughout their stack.

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To scale from $1M to $10M ARR, you need to turn your ad hoc GTM efforts into a well-oiled machine. This means creating repeatable processes across your entire GTM - from lead gen to sales to customer success. The good news for technical founders is that they're experts at solving complex engineering challenges with precision, efficiency, and structure. At this stage of startup growth, they need to apply that same systems-oriented mindset to GTM - which, for B2B startups, can be approached more as a science than an art. More in the May edition of B2BaCEO: https://lnkd.in/emsvFN9q

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