All Episodes
Topline — 266 episodes
How To Make Your ARR 20% More Valuable To Investors | Keenan, CEO @ A Sales Growth Company
SPOTLIGHT: AI Isn't Just Faster Translation, It's a $40B Tug-of-War for Global Attention. | Bryan Murphy, CEO @ Smartling
The Unwritten Rules of CRO Survival | Rick Smolen, CRO @ ShipHero
SPOTLIGHT: He Missed Quota 5 Times in 25 Years. Here's the System Behind That.| Mike Carpenter, CEO & Co-Founder @ Xfactor
Sales Millionaires Are Back… Wasn't AI Supposed to Destroy This Job?!
SPOTLIGHT: He Said No to Bad-Fit Customers. Growth Got Better. | Snehal Nimje, CEO & Co-Founder @ Outdoo
The (Painful) Pivot To AI-Native: What They Don't Tell You | CEO @ Mutiny, Jaleh Rezaei
Meet The World's Most Advanced AI Sales Team | Amanda Kahlow, Founder & CEO @ 1mind
SPOTLIGHT: AI Is Making Sales Reps 60% Faster to Revenue | Justin Shriber, CEO & Co-Founder @ Terret AI
World's #1 Banking CMO: How AI Is Changing Billion Dollar Banks Today | Tim Rutten, CMO @ Backbase
SPOTLIGHT: Why 80% of B2B Buying Happens Without You | Alexander Kesler, CEO @ INFUSE
SPOTLIGHT: The AI category GTM teams are about to converge on | Adam Liska, CEO & Co-Founder @ airspeed
AI Marketing Master: The 'AI CMO' is a Beautiful Lie | Marc Ferrentino, CEO @ Quotient
SPOTLIGHT: Why High Performers Underperform Under Pressure | Kevin Bailey, Co-Founder & CEO @ Dreamfuel
$300M Operator: "70% Of The Executive Playbook Is Obsolete" | Katie Bullard, Board Member & Strategic Advisor
What It's Really Like To Scale To $1 Billion | CRO @ Replit, Ghazi Masood
The Godfather of Modern GTM: This Is How To Measure AI Impact | Mark Roberge, Co-Founder @ Stage 2 Capital
The $1M Employee Is Here: Why ClickUp Replaced 22% Of Its Team With AI | Gaurav Agarwal, COO @ ClickUp
"Dead AI Startups Keep Landing On My Desk!" | CEO @ Clari + Salesloft, Steve Cox
$100M+ Profit. Stock Down 72%. CEO Explains Why | Michael Walrath, Chairman & CEO @ Yext
Build The World Class Team That Anthropic Won't Steal | Craig Rosenberg, CPO @Scale Venture Partners
AI Marketing Has A Disease. Can The Cure Be Bought, Taught, or Caught? | Kyle Lacy, CMO @ Docebo
Playbook: AI-Era Customer Success For Hyper Growth | Sam Slevin, Global SVP CS @ AlphaSense
AI Cyber Exec: Vibecoding Is A Security Time Bomb | Ryan Burke, VP Worldwide Sales @ Crogl
Top Investor: AI Killed Most Moats. These 4 Still Work | Liz Christo, Partner @ Stage 2 Capital
VC Whisperer: There Will Be No Exits For... | Peter Walker, Head of Insights @ Carta
The #1 GTM Engineer In The World | Jordan Crawford, Founder @ Blueprint GTM
How Top VCs Pick Winners In 2026 | Cassie Young, General Partner @ Primary Venture Partners
What World-Class AI in GTM Looks Like | Kyle Norton, CRO @ Owner.com
Is This The End of Sales As We Know It? (CEO @ 1mind, Amanda Kahlow)
Why Intercom Destroyed Its Predictable SaaS Revenue
Do SaaS Teams ACTUALLY Need AI?
This is How Tech Executives Will Get Hired in 2026
Citrini Needs to Chill (but SaaS DOES Need to Change)
SPOTLIGHT: Raising $55M When You're Not "AI-Native" | Nick Turner, CEO @ Dreamdata
"SaaS is Dead!" - So What Do We Do Now?
The Business Case for Robot Overlords (Or At Least Robots That Unload Trucks) | CEO AJ Meyer
Mark Roberge (Ex-HubSpot CRO): "AI Startups Will See the Highest Failure Rate in History"
AI Talent Wars: OpenAI, Thinking Machines & Meta Fighting For Breakthroughs
The Job Market Just Completely Flipped (Nobody's Talking About It)
These Charts Explain 2026
The 13 AI Agents Inside a $90 Billion Machine
He Built a SaaS Monster with $1 Million (And Refused to Raise More)
$50k vs $500K vs $50M Sales People - How to WIN In Modern Sales
How AI Killed the Ivy League Advantage
The $7 Trillion AI Buildout Has a Problem
The Ranking Expert: How to DOMINATE AI Search in 2026 (ChatGPT, AI Overview)
Big Tech Will Lay Off 1M People In 2026. Are You One of Them?
99% of AI Leaders STILL Don't Know How to Keep Us Safe
The Inevitable Rise of 72-Hour Work Weeks, Explained
AI Cults? The Most Popular ChatGPT Uses Are Not What You Think.
The Most Surprising Companies Private Equity is Buying
The Fastest Way to Make $1M in 2025 is Not What You Think
If You Want $100M FAST, Copy These Startups
This Controversial Industry is Secretly Creating Billionaires
We Obsessed Over Palantir's $370B Strategy (Nobody Talks About THIS)
'Every Person On My Team Codes Now' - Inside $250M Founder's AI Coding Experiment
Meet The 27-Year-Old Building $1.5B AI Employees (Decagon CEO)
The AI Bubble Is Going to Burst In…
We Analyzed EVERY Y Combinator Company (1,000+)
How To Spend Your 20s in The Super Intelligence Economy
SPOTLIGHT: AI Isn't Just Faster Translation, It's a $40B Tug-of-War for Global Attention with Bryan Murphy of Smartling
We Run $1m+ Businesses. These Are The Jobs We're Giving to AI
SPOTLIGHT: Surviving the Inbox Apocalypse with Evan Huck of UserEvidence
What does the future of tech look like when it costs $0 to switch software?
Kyle Norton on Decoding Churn: Enhancing Retention in High-Growth Businesses
E119: What Public SaaS Can Learn from Private Equity
Asad Zaman's Take: Rethinking Key Person Risk and Business Growth
E118: Did Windsurf Screw 200+ Employees for $2.4B ft. Carta's Peter Walker
AJ Bruno's Journey: Balancing Growth with Sustainable Revenue
E117: How AI Native Orgs Are Reshaping RevOps and Post Sales
Elaine Zelby on AI and Marketing: Lessons in Operational Scaling
E116: Why Adaptation Is the Only Strategy That Works in AI
E115: The Cultural Divide Between AI Startups and SaaS
SPOTLIGHT: Skipping the SMB Trap and Building for Big Brands with CEO Matt Allison
E114: How Apollo Plans to Grow From $150M to $1B+ in ARR
SPOTLIGHT: What It Takes to Step into the CEO Role with Eric Anderson of Walnut
E113: Are CRMs Becoming Just Another Database for AI?
E112: Is AI the End of Entry Level Roles?
E111: How Bolt Hit $40M in Four Months and Why It Took Eric Simons Seven Years to Get There
E110: How CEO Michael Walrath is building Yext for a world beyond Google
E109: Burnout, Breakthroughs & the New Reality of GTM Leadership
SPOTLIGHT: How CEO Sam Jacobs Is Redefining Pavilion's Identity
E108: Unpacking Ebsta's Benchmarking Report with Guy Rubin
SPOTLIGHT: How Rick Smolen Built Confidence Leading Outside of Sales
E107: Scaling ClickUp to 10M+ Users with COO Gaurav Agarwal
SPOTLIGHT: Untangling Tech Debt and Finding Product-Market Fit with Russ Mikowski of SurePeople
E106: AI-Driven vs AI-First vs AI-Native with Eric Wolford of Accel
SPOTLIGHT: Solving SaaS Pricing Challenges with Pricing I/O Founder Marcos Rivera
E105: AI-Native CRMs and Early Stage Resilience: Scaling in Economic Uncertainty
SPOTLIGHT: Resilience and Growth with LucidLink CEO Pete Thompson
E104: Tariffs, Turbulence, and Tough Calls: Operating in an Era of Economic Whiplash
SPOTLIGHT: Optimizing Growth in B2B Tech with Mike Dzik
E103: AI Agents and the Future of Enterprise Tech with Box CTO Ben Kus
SPOTLIGHT: How to Master Multi-Threading in Complex Sales
E102: Why Sales Hiring Fails and How to Fix It
SPOTLIGHT: Instilling Operational Rigor in a Growing Business with Anna Talerico, CEO of CFI
SPOTLIGHT: How CEO Kevin Smith Turned Snipd's Monetization Struggles Into a Sustainable Business
E101: Why Rippling and Deel Are a Warning to Every Tech Company
E100: Driving Business Growth When Uncertainty is the Only Constant
SPOTLIGHT: Shifting ICPs Without Breaking CS with Demetra Anagnostopoulos of SurePeople
E99: How GTM Revenue Leaders Are Operationalizing AI for Growth with Kyle Norton of Owner.com
SPOTLIGHT: Alon Talmor, CEO of Ask-AI, on Why Most AI Solutions Fail to Prove Their Worth
E98: Ryan Burke on Zilla Security's $175M Aquisition and the Realities of M&A
SPOTLIGHT: Kyle Lacy of Jellyfish on Improving Pipeline Quality and Forecasting Predictability
E97: Dead or Alive? The Great Outbound Sales Debate
SPOTLIGHT: Shensi Ding of Merge on the High-Stakes Search for a Stage-Appropriate CRO
E96: The B2B Marketing Identity Crisis
SPOTLIGHT: How Josh Guttman Landed Investors for SELLIT9 by Being Himself
E95: Growth vs. Efficiency in 2025
SPOTLIGHT: Co-CEO Alina Vandenberghe on Taking Over Marketing to Scale Demand at Chili Piper
E94: Navigating AI Challenges in Established Tech Companies
SPOTLIGHT: Keith Frankel of Totango on Creating a Unified Culture in Mergers
E93: Dissecting Carta's 2024 State of Startups Report
SPOTLIGHT: OrgChart's Tom McCarty on Narrowing Total Addressable Market to Drive Growth
E92: Kyle Norton of Owner.com on How Great CROs Drive Enterprise Value
SPOTLIGHT: Jenny Podewils' Strategy for Aligning Teams in Dynamic Environments
E91: Investor Tomasz Tunguz on AI's Breakout Year and What Comes Next
SPOTLIGHT: Lessons and Insights on Leading Through Layoffs from AJ Bruno, CEO of QuotaPath
E90: Quality vs. Quantity - The AI Dilemma in Product Development
E89: 2024 Reflections and 2025 Go-To-Market Predictions
E88: Navigating Business Pivots with Scoop Analytics' Janet Gehrmann
E87: Balancing Compliance, Culture, and Business Growth with Roxanne Bras Petraeus, CEO of Ethena
E86: How Customer Success Drives Business Growth with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta
E85: Carta's Peter Walker on the Role of AI in Early-Stage Funding
E84: Exploring the Effects of Q4 Economic Shifts
E83: Understanding How the 2024 Election Impacts Business
E82: Salesloft's Path to Profitability with David Obrand
Untold Strategies of High-Impact Sales Recruitment with Asad Zaman
E81: Bizzabo's Alon Alroy on Reinventing Event Experiences
Mark Niemiec on Steering Business Transformation
E80: David Spitz on the Evolution of SaaS Metrics and GTM Efficiency
Mark Roberge on Redefining Sales Leadership in the AI Era
E79: Understanding AI's Place in Tech with Benedict Evans
Dini Mehta on Mastering Multi-Product Strategy & Building High-performance Teams
E78: CRO Kyle Norton on Executive Fear, Boards, and the CRO Journey
CRO Kevin "KD" Dorsey on creating, developing, and deploying playbooks
E77: Is Go-To-Market Broken?
SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin on Why Revenue Leaders Must Run Towards Bad News
E76: GTM Efficiency and the need for a "Chief Go-To-Market Officer"
TOPLINE HOTLINE: As I think about 2025 planning, how do I set the right growth target?
E75: Two ways to win… Product Velocity OR GTM Excellence
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What do I do? I have a board member that isn't as engaged as they should be.
E74: Mark Kosoglow Introduces Operator.ai and The Founder Mode Debate
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Is gifting the most effective way to incentivize customer engagement?
E73: Balancing Growth and Free Cash Flow in Today's Market
TOPLINE HOTLINE: As a CRO, how should I approach annual planning?
E72: Growth vs Profitability, CAC Tolerability, & Choosing The Right Business Model
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Should you report ARR before or after discounting?
E71: Google's Anti-Trust Ruling, SaaS Performance Updates, and The Future of Venture Capital
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Is there a way to more efficiently prepare for board meetings?
E70: Navigating Market Volatility: Recession Fear, Jobs Report, & Resiliency
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How can I establish a performance-driven culture among my sales team?
E69: Cold Calling Sucks, and That's Why it Works with Armand Farrokh
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I make the most of conference season without overspending?
E68: How to Build the Right Executive Team to Reach $100M
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I swiftly transition my company from inbound to outbound sales?
E67: How Clay's Co-Founders Built a $500M Series B Company
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What should a CRO communicate to their board about pipeline?
E66: Sales Tech Mayhem - Gartner Analyst Dan Gottlieb's Insights on B2B Market Shifts
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do you balance getting the best deal with choosing the right product?
E65: Bob Moore on Crossbeam's merger with Reveal & Peter Walker on the M&A landscape
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How can a CEO advocate for a raise without appearing greedy?
E64: Lessons from Q2, Crossbeam/Reveal merger, and the importance of adaptability
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I incentivize my AEs to outbound?
E63: Insights on Brand-Led Growth with Kathleen Booth of Pavilion
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I learn the skills to become a CRO as a young, top-performing sales rep?
E62: From Operator to Investor: Insights from Liz Christo of Stage 2 Capital
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I go about exiting an executive from our organization?
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Should I trust references when hiring if someone has not listed a direct manager?
E61: What does Salesforce's revenue miss mean for SaaS?
E60: The impact of loneliness in the workplace
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I handle an AE who is creating a toxic work environment?
E59: NRR vs GRR, usage vs seat-based pricing, and how to announce a product release
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How can you avoid burnout as an executive?
E58: Q1 2024 Market Update
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How will the role of venture adapt as companies reach profitability more cost-effectively?
E57: Finding and maintaining product-market fit
E56: Exploring Sales Team Dynamics with Ryan Walsh of RepVue
E55: The State of AI in GTM with Mark Roberge of Stage 2 Capital
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How can we improve sales for our second solution?
E54: Why are more CMOs becoming CROs?
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I build a pipeline of VCs as I try to start my business?
E53: Understanding software engineering as a non-technical founder
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do you address the pricing gap between early adopters vs new customers?
E52: David Obrand of Salesloft on Successfully Navigating the Everchanging GTM Landscape
E51: How Adam Robinson Bootstrapped Retention.com to $22M ARR
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What creative initiatives can I implement to secure a better Q2?
E50: Improving Your CAC-to-LTV Ratio with Help Scout CRO Andrea Kayal
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What are the deadly sins of win-loss analysis?
E49: A sneak peek into Pavilion's 2024 B2B Compensation Benchmarks
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What's the optimal way to structure my comp plan?
E48: Kevin Knieriem, President of Clari on expanding their serviceable addressable market and building a unified platform
Steal the new model for the anti-bloated, recession-proof sales team
E47: Does the practice of co-CEOs actually work?
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How can I establish a new operating cadence?
E46: A New Era in CS - Catalyst CEO Edward Chiu on their Merger with Totango
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do I pick the right lead qualification methodology?
E45: Crossbeam CEO Bob Moore on Leveraging Partnerships to Grow Your Business
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Should I stay or should I go?
E44: The 2024 M&A Landscape and How to Attract Acquisition Interest
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How to get feedback as an executive
E43: Recap of Pavilion's CEO Summit
TOPLINE HOTLINE: So, what's the deal with variable comp plans?
E42: Carta's Peter Walker on Fundraising, Valuations, and Shutdowns
Topline Hotline: Where should account managers sit within the organization?
E41: Unicorn Companies, Venture Capital Landscape, and Executive Hiring Insights
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What percentage of demand should be driven by the sales team?
E40: The Carta Controversy, Cloudflare's Viral Moment, and The Death of Growth at Any Cost
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do you revamp a performance improvement plan so it's effective?
E39: Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures on AI, 2024 Predictions, and Metrics That Matter
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What's the future of fractional leadership in 2024?
E38: Decision Making: Speed vs Consideration
E37: Fed updates and the fallout from the cancellation of the Adobe-Figma acquisition
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Does gift giving build psychological captial?
E36: Further Reflections on 2023
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How do you stay informed on the global economy?
E35: Lessons from 2023
TOLINE HOTLINE: I want to transition my top AE to Team Lead. But is it worth the risk?
E34: The Flaws of the Four-Day Work Week
TOPLINE HOTLINE: When can startups establish and enforce a sales process?
E33: Valuations, Investing, and Market Dynamics with SaaStr's Jason Lemkin
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Can I transition back to a CRO role after serving as a CEO?
E32: 2024 Market Predictions
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What does a solid first quarter look like as a new CRO?
E31: The State of the Job Market
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Re-engaging lost opportunities
E30: The Truth about End User Spending
TOPLINE HOTLINE: So, a client offered my star employee a job...
E29: Navigating the Software Industry's Evolution
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Addressing early termination requests from customers
E28: State of the Market, and Balancing Efficiency with Innovation
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How should SaaS companies be thinking about price increases for 2024?
E27: Recap from GTM2023
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How Do You Forecast Churn?
E26: Kelly O'Halloran Shares Results from the QuotaPath Compensation Study
TOPLINE HOTLINE: What should sales teams be doing to increase inbound lead flow?
E25: Peter Walker on the Findings from Carta's State of Startup Compensation H1 2023
TOPLINE HOTLINE: How much experience does an SDR actually need?
E24: 2024 planning, forecasting, and trends
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Which SaaS metrics should I present to the board?
E23: New CPI report, the impact of retention, and how to leverage CS
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Acquiring your first B2B customers
E22: Positive Economic Signals, Seasonality of Software Sales, and Aligning Objectives with Compensation
TOPLINE HOTLINE: Moving From Incentive-Based to Fixed Sales Compensation Models
E21: The Return of the IPO Market, Why Early Stage Execs Should Study the Public Markets, Cultivating an Efficient Growth Mindset
E20: Go-To-Market Alignment, the Role of the CMO, the Return of Events and Anxiety
E19: Doug Camplejohn on Building Culture and the Future of People Query Language
E18: Building a Performance Driven Culture, Are SaaS Fundamentals Flawed?
E17: Immaculate Disinflation, Surviving a Down Market, and The VC Reset
E16: CEO Lessons from HubSpot, What Causes Burnout, and the State of the IPO Market
E15: State of the Market, Twitter v. Threads, and The Value of Taking a Pause
E14: Kris Rudeegraap on the Journey from $0 to $100 Million
E13: Q2 Wrap Up, the State of US Politics, and the Outlook
E12: Mark Roberge on the Implications of AI For GTM Teams and Inflated VC Valuations
E11: PLG Valuations, Softbank's Counter Offensive, Lessons from the Tight Economy
E10: State of the Market, Employee Disengagement, Burnout
E9: Lessons from Bezos, Selling Outside of Tech, and Fostering a Culture of Innovation
E8: Business Performance in a Down Economy, AI-Driven Career Opportunities, and Side Hustles
E7: Regulating AI, Technology as a Distraction, Using Data to Make Decisions
E6: The Ideal Profile of a Seller, Hiring Market Updates, and Being More Data-Driven
E5: Jamie Barnett on How GTM Leaders Should be Thinking About Generative AI
E4: Growth Stage Risks, Bridge Rounds, Bare Minimum Mondays
E3: Andrea Kayal on the Move from CMO to CRO, What's Driving Growth, and Expectations for 2023
E2: Is Tech the Canary in the Coal Mine, AI as the Singularity, What Makes a Great Board Meeting
E1: Recession or No, Changing Valuations, and Managing Mental Health in Turbulent Times