In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders Podcast, Vijay Damojipurapu speaks with Akshay Doshi, SVP of Sales at SpotDraft, about building repeatable value in B2B SaaS—and why great go-to-market is ultimately about elevating customers, not just closing deals.

Akshay shares his journey from SDR to sales leader, including formative lessons from customer success, enterprise account management, and scaling sales teams during uncertainty—most notably, building SpotDraft’s GTM engine just as the pandemic reshaped buying behavior worldwide.

The conversation explores how modern GTM leaders can design sales motions that mirror the customer experience, create trust through expectation-setting, and build systems that scale culture—not just revenue.

They dive into:

• Why Akshay defines GTM as go-to-repeatable value, not just pipeline or quota.
• How experience in customer success makes sales leaders more credible and effective.
• Designing sales processes that reflect the onboarding and delivery experience customers will actually receive.
• Building trust by saying “no” to the wrong customers—and why it pays off years later.
• Scaling a sales culture through values, micro-wins, and cultural carriers.
• How sales and marketing must operate as a single orchestration layer, not separate functions.
• Lessons from scaling SpotDraft through outbound, word-of-mouth, and customer love during COVID.
• Why AI in legal tech requires careful expectation-setting, not hype-driven positioning.
• Advice for aspiring GTM leaders: learn adjacent functions early and think like an operator, not just a seller.

This episode is a deep, practical look at how modern sales leaders can build durable GTM systems by aligning value, culture, and customer outcomes.

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn

Connect with Akshay Doshi on LinkedIn

Brought to you by: stratyve.com

In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders Podcast, Vijay Damojipurapu sits down with Gamiel Gran, Partner at Mayfield, to explore how decades of GTM experience—from IBM and Oracle to BEA Software and now venture capital—have shaped his philosophy on customer-centric growth and founder leadership.

Gamiel shares timeless lessons from building sales teams, scaling enterprise software in the early internet era, and coaching today’s AI-first founders through the next great technology shift. His message is simple but profound: it’s not about you—it’s about them.

They dive into:

• How curiosity and empathy separate great salespeople from quota chasers.
• Lessons from IBM’s legendary consultative sales training and Oracle’s “win at all costs” culture.
• The importance of founder clarity—why every word you say shapes how your team sells.
• How defining who not to sell to creates stronger product-market fit.
• The discipline of persona mapping: knowing your buyer so well you could do their job.
• Why AI isn’t just another wave—but a complete redesign of the IT and GTM stack.
• How agentic workflows will change selling, buying, and business process itself.
• Why founders must balance open-mindedness with focus—clarity is leadership.
• And the advice Gamiel gives every entrepreneur: Be your own North Star.

From fax-era product-led growth to AI-native go-to-market design, this conversation is a masterclass in how technology, empathy, and leadership evolve together.

Connect with Gamiel Gran on LinkedIn

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn

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In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders Podcast, Vijay Damojipurapu sits down with Alon Ahronberg, VP of Customer Success at Atera, to explore how customer success drives sustainable revenue and long-term retention in modern B2B companies.

From his early career in engineering and BI consulting to leading customer success at global SaaS startups, Alon shares lessons from scaling teams, building onboarding frameworks, and transforming a PLG motion into a hybrid sales-led growth (SLG) strategy.

Together, they unpack:

• How to define go-to-market holistically across product, sales, marketing, and customer success.
• The critical role of onboarding and re-onboarding in improving renewal rates and product adoption.
• Why internal collaboration between CSMs, marketing, and sales determines customer lifetime value.
• The cultural shift needed to elevate customer success from “call center” to strategic growth partner.
• How AI will reshape customer success, bridging high-touch strategy with scalable automation.

Whether you’re a founder, go-to-market leader, or customer success professional, this episode offers a masterclass on aligning post-sale execution with growth.

Connect with Alon Ahronberg on LinkedIn

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn

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In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders Podcast, Vijay Damojipurapu sits down with Cy Khormaee, co-founder of AegisAI, to explore his journey from computer science research and early Microsoft days to entrepreneurship, Google, and eventually building AegisAI. Cy shares insights into curiosity-driven sales, the challenges of scaling security solutions, lessons from pivots like reCAPTCHA, and how entrepreneurs can stay ahead of technological and market shifts while remaining grounded in customer problems.

They dive into:

• How curiosity and problem-solving shaped Cy’s GTM approach from Microsoft through startups.
• Lessons from Contastic and Google that informed AegisAI’s AI-native solutions.
• Why focusing on real customer pain is the foundation of entrepreneurship.

The role of referrals, trust, and customer success in scaling GTM motions.
Practical advice for young professionals entering sales and go-to-market career.

Connect with Cy Khormaee on LinkedIn

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn

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In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders Podcast, Vijay sits down with Maximilian Gartner, Head of Go-To-Market at Brightwave, to explore how GTM leaders can balance sustainable growth with predictable revenue, while staying rooted in authentic, founder-led perspectives.

Max shares his journey from inside sales “boiler rooms” to leading GTM teams at high-growth companies, and how lessons from cold-calling, enterprise deal cycles, and sales leadership shaped his philosophy on customer-first GTM.

They dive deep into:

• Why founder-led POVs are powerful in early stage, and how they must evolve as companies scale.
  
  
• The critical difference between predictable and sustainable revenue, and why ignoring sustainability leads to churn.
  
  
• Lessons from inside sales: why clarity and credibility in the first 10 seconds of a call are everything.
  
  
• A Brightwave GTM pivot that front-loaded product experience, shortened feedback loops, and tripled adoption.
  
  
• Why “knowing your customer” (KYC) at every level: user, manager, executive, is the ultimate GTM advantage.
  
  
• How doubt and imposter syndrome can be reframed as signals of growth.

If you’re leading sales, marketing, CS, or product, or simply curious about how GTM leaders scale customer-first strategies, this episode is packed with tactical insights and leadership lessons.

Connect with Max Gartner on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximiliangartner/

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/

Brought to you by: stratyve.com

Use cases, not just features.

That’s how Simon Ooley, co-founder of Veles, a YC-backed startup reshaping how enterprise sales teams engage buyers, and former sales leader at Procore and Builder, reframes the future of enterprise sales. Instead of selling products, he helps teams sell outcomes—anchored in urgency, ROI, and the real problems customers are trying to solve.

In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders podcast, Simon joins Vijay to unpack his journey from BDR to founder and YC-backed entrepreneur.

They dive deep into:

• Why traditional sales roles are merging under the GTM umbrella.
• How can large teams eliminate inefficiencies in quoting and deal desk processes?
• The power of use case-based selling to drive urgency, personalization, and long-term customer success

Simon breaks down why founder-led sales isn’t just about hustle, but about curiosity, experimentation, and relentless clarity on what your buyers actually care about. You’ll learn how Velus is shifting sales conversations from product features to business cases—and why that shift might be the most important evolution in GTM strategy today.

Whether you’re scaling a sales team or starting from zero, this conversation is packed with tactical insight and a whole lot of heart.

Connect with Simon Ooley on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonooley/

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/

Brought to you by: stratyve.com

In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders podcast, Vijay sits down with Karthik Suresh—co-founder of Ignition and DoubleO.ai—to explore his unconventional journey from high-frequency trading to building one of the fastest-growing platforms in the AI agent space.

Karthik shares how early career lessons in finance shaped his product mindset, why user empathy became his north star, and how doubling down on positioning and messaging turned go-to-market into a product strategy.

You’ll hear how Ignition was born out of a gap in product marketing tools, why the team pivoted to DoubleO when GenAI exploded, and the exact steps they took to validate product-market fit—from leveraging community partnerships to gating product access behind payments.

Other topics covered:

• How to break into startups without prior experience
  
  
• The secret to founder-market fit and team dynamics
  
  
• Why most AI tools are vaporware (and how to tell the difference)
  
  
• Building brand trust through market education
  
  
• Why “pay if it works” is the next frontier in SaaS pricing

Whether you're navigating an early-stage startup, experimenting with agents, or refining your GTM playbook, this episode delivers tactical insight with startup grit and product clarity.

Connect with Karthik Suresh on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthiksureshlbs/

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/

Brought to you by: stratyve.com

Modern B2B sales success lies in shifting from scripted selling to strategic listening—by elevating discovery calls and building trust through thoughtful messaging, Leslie’s approach turns reps into advisors and conversations into conversions.

Dive into the latest episode of the B2B Go to Market Leaders podcast, where Vijay interviews Leslie Venetz, a B2B sales strategist and founder with deep experience navigating outbound sales in enterprise environments. Leslie unpacks her journey from learning the ropes in sales to helping SaaS companies refine their go-to-market strategies with bold, focused tactics.

She emphasizes that real progress comes not from hustling harder but from selling smarter—prioritizing meaningful discovery conversations, segmenting accounts with care, and aligning messaging with executive-level pain points. Leslie’s methods helped one team double their close rate and trim nearly two weeks off the sales cycle by simply reworking their approach to AE discovery.

The conversation explores everything from the mechanics of outbound strategy to why building your personal brand on social media is essential, not just for visibility, but for attracting talent and creating credibility. Leslie challenges the myth of company loyalty and shares why, in today’s landscape, your reputation is your leverage.

Connect with Leslie Venetz on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramsba

Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/

Brought to you by: stratyve.com