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GTM is complex and encompasses a broad range of activities. These expand exponentially as your organization grows. Success depends on some but not all of these components working well together. Our structured assessment sheet helps CEOs break down success (or failure) into smaller pieces, so that you can find what is working and do more of it–and stop wasting time on what isn't working.

GTM Assessment

If you’re a founder with institutional backing, you’re probably doing a lot right. But if you’re a technical founder, you might be in unfamiliar territory. Building the product is one thing, but now you need to sell and market it—or hire and manage those who do. In short, you need to nail go-to-market (GTM). To succeed, founders need to figure out GTM early because everything hinges on it. Not only does more revenue mean more cash and less dilution, it also means better metrics and higher valuations–for each round, and for your exit. It’s hard to trust or invest in what you don’t understand. Many technical founders learn GTM on the job, leading to critical mistakes. This course aims to prevent that by tactical and practical knowledge–learned and practiced in a group setting with your peers. WHAT TO EXPECT This course combines live lessons, interaction, peer activities, and in depth discussion. You'll receive 9 hours of live instruction over 2 weeks, plus have 4 hours of unstructured, live time with the instructor for your own specific questions. All of it will be recorded and available after the course is over. You'll participate in fun, small group or 1:1 activities, such as practicing negotiating a contract, pitching a sale, or asking questions of a prospect. Every major skill taught in the class will be practiced at least once. You will leave knowing:• How to find prospects, nurture them through the sales process and close sales• How to transition from founder-led to professional sales and marketing• How to hire and manage sales and marketing teams• What terms are typical for sales of various sizes, from self-serve to enterprise, and how to negotiate them• How to find and manage lawyers• How to break GTM challenges into smaller, sprint-sized&nbsp;experiments• What metrics to follow to keep your team on track• How to conceptualize and build a financial model for your GTM efforts• How to communicate with investors, advisors and your board• How and where to leverage outsiders to drive your GTM processes forward (agencies, advisors, partners, lawyers, etc.) COURSE CONTENT• The customer-centric approach to marketing and sales• How to understand your customer's journey and reach them where they are• How to drive top-of-funnel leads and nurture them to be ready to convert or engage with sales• How to create awareness and build a brand• How to nurture relationships with potential acquirers early in your company's journey–without being distracted or giving away the secret sauce• How to run effective campaigns in cold outbound email, social, and other tactics• How to structure partnerships for success• How to structure your customer agreements to increase your chances of closing, retention and growth while reducing sales cycle• How to price at every stage of growth to drive higher close rates and better net revenue retention (NRR) The course also includes:• The top-of-mind questions you&nbsp;and your peers have on GTM• Specific tactics, scripts and questions you can ask to uncover willingness to pay and pains your customers have• Things you can do right now to drive additional leads–without sending a single cold email• Detailed how-tos on things like the Customer Advisory Board hack and other strategies employed by veteran founders• Hands on&nbsp;exercises reviewed by your instructor• Detailed metrics on key channels so that you know if what you're doing is working• Pitfalls and risks to be aware of so that you're never caught in a rut• Optional homework or projects to help retain learnings–that are also useful in your business. If you follow my writing, listen to my podcast, or have been through my sessions at the Alchemist Accelerator, you'll find this course draws on all of it so that you can internalize it and put it to practice. Founders don't have to do everything themselves. You'll learn what you need to DIY everything GTM, but you'll also have the&nbsp;confidence to hire and manage others in various GTM roles. WHO WILL BENEFIT MOST FROM THIS COURSE While the course is open to all, the people who will get the most out of it:• Are founders of technology companies, especially those launching novel products such as deep tech or AI companies• Have a background in product, engineering, design, etc.• Have raised institutional capital (Series Seed or later)• Are at a company with a product either in development or already in market WHO THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR • Junior sales people or people trying to get into sales for the first time. The material is focused on management and board-level issues as much as it is on being good at sales; there are better courses for you if you're learning basic tech sales skills.• People who think their product is perfect and have all their GTM problems figured out. Participants will benefit the most if everyone comes with a beginners' mindset and a curious approach. Nobody knows all the GTM answers (not even your instructor).• People looking for the GTM magic bullet that will solve all of their sales or marketing problems. Sorry, no magic bullets here. But you will learn tactics, approaches, and strategies that might help you solve your problem without a magic bullet.• People looking for a 1:1 coach or advisor, though there will be Q&amp;A sessions, and you will definitely get to know your instructor and peers.

Get GTM right early to create the best outcome with the least stress

Course syllabus

Three live, interactive courses per week covering all things GTM.

Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays

Optional office hours, two days a week including a time Tuesday that works for many global timezones.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Take home projects for your business enable you to apply learning and get live feedback in class and at office hours.

Weekly projects

Course schedule

Founders who come from a technical background–engineering, product, finance

First time CEOs and anyone who is in charge of bringing something new to market for the first time

Leaders of companies with a new or novel product that hasn't been sold before, such as deep tech or artificial intelligence

Founders hiring or managing GTM individual contributors for Series Seed and later companies

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Understand how to tell quickly the future customers from the time wasters. Build a customer-centric funnel that drives the right customers to your product or sales teams.

Identify and target your ideal customers and customer personas

Become more than proficient at the key channels most startups use to get their first 10-100 customers–from board intros to cold email, paid advertising, social, events and more. Model how you can scale this into your next milestone–whether breakeven, funding round or acquisition.

Implement and test different GTM channels to fill your funnel with quality leads

Details are what lead to more customer conversions. You'll know what details matter and you'll even fill in many of them during the course–like high-performing&nbsp;sales decks, landing pages, or funnels.

Build a killer sales deck, landing page or funnel to convert prospects

With a superior understanding of GTM you'll be better positioned to hire and manage a team. Whether you already have a team, and want more confidence and gravitas, or are still doing founder-led selling, you'll leave armed with a hiring plan, dashboards, and interviewing tips.

Build your GTM team and know how to lead them with confidence and authority, from a place of knowledge

Know the right type of agreement for your goals, so you can create fast, low friction sales cycles–or go toe-to-toe with enterprise procurement and legal teams to maximize the value of each deal.

Structure and negotiate sales agreements that close quickly and drive real revenue

Learn how to build partnerships that support your strategy rather than distract from it. Know how to identify and court potential future acquirers–without ever looking desperate.

Build partnerships that create real value  and possibly lead to M&A

Effectively plan your company's GTM strategy and oversee its execution with confidence and without doubt

Alexander Shartsis

Create Your Ideal M&A Exit

M&A at Opendoor. Former AI Founder & CEO.

Learn how to prepare your startup to appeal to acquirers (or the IPO market) from the very beginning

How to position your company to be the most valuable

You can get people to think about buying your company without ever even implying it is for sale–and get the best outcome

How to leverage partnerships to get inbound offers

If you need to sell, you can still snatch victory!

Tactics to sell your company when you're down to 6 mos cash

Some mistakes are meh, some mistakes kill deals. Know where the dangers lie so you can get your deal across the finish

What kill deals

Hacks to Close Your First 10 Customers

Led GTM at 10+ startups including Drawbridge from 0-$10mm in 13 months

Proven processes and tactics to build a pipeline of prospective leads–even if you've never sold anything before

How to find the right prospects using inexpensive tools

Proven hacks from subject lines, deliverability tools, and more to get open rates of 50%+ and book meetings

Tactics to reach out to your leads such as email & LinkedIn

Get a playbook for events so you can position yourself as a leader and your company as a hot company from the start

Learn directly from Seed to Sequoia

Seed to Sequoia

Courses

Sell and Scale Confidently

Lightning Lessons

Create Your Ideal M&A Exit

Hacks to Close Your First 10 Customers

Resources

GTM Assessment