Show Notes
n the season finale of Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen sits down with Paul Irving, Partner and COO of GTMfund, to discuss go-to-market strategies for the AI era. Paul shares specific, actionable advice on how early-stage startups can win even when facing well-funded competitors who iterate at lightning speed. He also explains why distribution has become the final remaining moat when technical advantages disappear in months instead of years, and why every company needs a unique go-to-market motion tailored to their specific ICP.
If you just can’t get enough AI-native GTM strategies, check out this episode of the GTMnow podcast: Build your AI Outbound Machine with ChatGPT
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Meet Paul Irving - GTM Fund
04:02 Finding Competitive Edge in Specific Channels
07:34 Matching Operators to Startups with AI
12:08 The End of the B2B SaaS Playbook Era
14:09 Creative GTM Strategies
16:18 The Power of Warm Introduction Mapping
23:04 Success Stories: Ryder and Vanta
25:25 Red Flags in Go-to-Market Strategy
27:29 Advice for Resource-Constrained Founders
31:22 When to Start Hiring a GTM Team
34:57 Outro
Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And a special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.
More from Build Mode
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For years, crowdfunding had a reputation as the place founders went when they couldn’t raise venture capital. Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor thinks founders should look at it very differently.
Ashley Tyrner-Dolce spent more than a decade building FarmboxRx without taking a single dollar of venture capital and ultimately exited the company while still owning the majority of it.
Building flying taxis takes billions of dollars. So instead of relying on traditional venture rounds, Archer Aviation went public just a few years after it was founded.
Robotics is having an AI boom, but don’t expect it to have a ChatGPT moment.