Don’t Become A GTM Engineer In 2026 ft. Enzo Carasso

In today's episode, I chat with Enzo Carasso, founder at C17 Lab, about why he's actively steering away from B2B SaaS clients and going deep on professional services, manufacturers, and logistics—industries that represent 80% of US GDP but get ignored by most outbound agencies chasing the same SaaS slice. The campaign story is one of the best on the show: a client getting 500 leads a month but converting at 5% because their prospects—traditional business owners—were responding to emails at 6-7am from their phones, then disappearing into the field all day. The fix wasn't better copy. It was switching device: email replies triggered an SMS prompt that moved the conversation to the SDR's phone, where these owners were already comfortable. The result was a dramatically higher show rate. Enzo has since built SMS and iMessage directly into the post-reply funnel and is pulling heavily from B2C info product playbooks—abandoned cart logic, newsletters for anyone who replies regardless of outcome, multi-channel nurture sequences—and applying them to B2B. His background is corporate outbound at Booking.com and Square, where he was leading acquisition records quarter over quarter before deciding at 29 he wasn't going to be working for someone else at 30. His prediction: the mid-tier agency charging $4-7k is going to get squeezed out—what survives is either the high-volume factory model or the genuinely high-ticket strategic partner, with software-like fulfillment on both ends. His advice is the most contrarian on the show: don't become a GTM engineer. The tools are becoming commoditized fast, and what actually matters now is the strategic thinking that connects them to ROI—study other industries, find alpha, and think like a business owner first. Enjoy 🙂(0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards (0:20) What C17 Lab Does: Full Funnel Revenue Engineering From Lead to Booked Call (1:09) Why Enzo Is Running Away From B2B SaaS—And the GDP Argument Behind It (4:00) The Device-Switching Campaign: 500 Leads a Month, 5% Conversion, and the SMS Fix (7:15) Building SMS and iMessage Into the Post-Reply Funnel (9:20) What B2B Can Learn From B2C: Abandoned Cart Logic, Newsletter Retargeting, Multi-Channel Nurture (10:43) Enzo's Journey: Booking.com, Square, Crushing Acquisition Records, Going Solo at 30 (12:25) Predictions: The Mid-Tier Agency Dies, Two Models Survive—Factory or High-Ticket Strategic Partner (16:56) Advice: Don't Become a GTM Engineer—Become Someone Who Thinks Strategically About ROI🔗 CONNECT WITH ENZO 👥 LinkedIn  💻 Website 🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV🎥 YouTube Channel🐦 X (Twitter)📸 Instagram💻 Website👥 LinkedIn📧 Email - [email protected]🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.