Shaun Clowes

A common misconception I’ve heard over the past few weeks is that engineering teams should build native integrations to "keep the IP in-house”. A sizable integration library is a competitive advantage. If there’s a well defined product strategy backing the integrations you build, they can be a force multiplier for your GTM teams. There are a few reasons to build native integrations, but treating them as part of your product's secret sauce by default isn’t one of them. Offloading cumbersome integration tasks via unified APIs, iPaaS products, or even contractors specializing in integrations is often the optimal choice that fast-growing product companies could make. I recently listened to Lenny Rachitsky's podcast with Shreyas Doshi and learned about his framework for optimizing work for opportunity cost vs. ROI. The gist of his thesis is that several teams fall into the trap of committing to tasks that are a good use of their time vs. the best use. This is especially true of those in high-leverage roles (founders, product, engineering, and design). Working on individual integrations for your customers is almost always going to yield a positive ROI, but they are unlikely to be high leverage features that result in an impact that’s an order of magnitude higher than the required effort. Features that are difficult to replicate, and that double down your product's core value proposition are higher leverage tasks worth having your product and engineering teams focus on. The few scenarios in which it is worth building native integrations are: ✅ Your product requires a handful of shallow integrations ✅ 1-2 strategic partners drive a significant amount of your revenue and deep integrations with their platforms make your product stickier & increase co-selling opportunities ✅ Integration platforms don't support your specific integration requirements and contractors lack the expertise to build them What are other considerations for building integrations in-house vs. leveraging products or service providers to build them?

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A lot of tools are leaving the self-hosted space, but we're choosing to double down on it. Going fully SaaS and not supporting on-prem/private cloud feels like missing out on something that’s objectively important for lots of teams. There's been a massive shift to the cloud for a long time, but there’s also a quiet shift back from SaaS to private cloud/on-prem. People are bringing things back into their infrastructure because they need security, resiliency and control over the tools they use. e.g. Flagsmith is tied to release management, so control over infrastructure is so important. Our goal from day one has been to make Flagsmith really flexible and simple to deploy, so people can choose how they set it up. This means keeping self-hosting. How? Intentionally building a simpler tech stack to support things like on-prem. A lot of companies have tech stacks that are too diverse to spin up a cluster for, so we’re lucky we can do it!

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Last Friday, Vinay Hiremath, founder of Loom (USD 900M exit to Atlassian), shared on his blog about leaving Loom, leaving $60M payout, breaking up with his girlfriend, dealing with insecurities, a brief stint at DOGE, and how he is now in Hawaii self-studying physics. I, along with a few founders I know who had substantial exits at a fairly young age (late 20s to early 30s), experienced something similar. Post-acquisition, most of us underwent—and many are still going through—a self-discovery phase largely centered on finding a 'purpose' and determining the best possible use of our time at this point in life. Does it mean taking risks that nobody else can, building more companies, accumulating more wealth, reaching the pinnacle of mental and physical health, building a family, getting involved in social impact, or leaving everything behind to sit on an isolated island? Capital does give you freedom and excessive optionality in life choices, especially if you're still unmarried. However, it is difficult to find your anchor, and most of the time, the abundance of choices becomes overwhelming. I was fortunate to meet a few exited founders who had gone through the acquisition process, and they were kind enough to share what worked for them. In one of my conversations with David Haber, he said: "As entrepreneurs, we build companies, but while we do that, we can't discount life. And life is what happens outside our companies." That thought has stuck with me. Today, three years after exiting Recko | A Stripe company to Stripe, I feel there are multiple ways to make life more fulfilling. It is not just the single-minded, unidirectional professional pursuit, which more often than not is driven by a chase for external validation rather than an internal desire to become better at your craft or to do something that uplifts people around you. Until the time you find that burning desire, restlessness, or drive to pick up the shovel again, take that family trip, get in shape, try something that you always wanted but never could, embrace the nothingness, enjoy the boredom, and keep exploring!

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Great insights Greg Head! I completely agree that SaaS is far from dead—it’s evolving, and the complexity you pointed out is what keeps things dynamic in the space. The market maturity is pushing companies to be more strategic, focusing on long-term sustainability rather than chasing valuations. I especially resonate with your point about how software is easier to build now but harder to differentiate, given the rise of AI and copycat competition. This shift is making product innovation and customer-centricity more important than ever. Another major change I’m seeing is how B2B buyers are increasingly looking for solutions tied to clear outcomes and measurable value for their companies. It’s no longer just about buying software, but about how it directly impacts business growth, efficiency, and scalability. While this demand might lead to new pricing models—likely more outcome-based or tied to specific performance metrics—it feels like old wine in new barrels. At the core, companies are still buying a service that relies on trust, value, and ongoing support. The trend toward subscription models isn't going away either. Consumers, including the ultimate end customers—us—have become accustomed to, and in many cases prefer, not owning everything outright but subscribing to more and more services in their daily lives. This cultural shift in how we consume products and services reinforces why SaaS will continue to grow. Looking forward to seeing how AI will continue to reshape SaaS products and GTM strategies. It’s definitely a challenging but exciting time to be in this space! Curious to hear your thoughts on which areas of SaaS might see the biggest disruption in the next few years.

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⏰ ICYMI: Our Book is Coming Soon! Accelerating Revenue: Your Definitive Guide to the Theory and Practice of Go-To-Market Enablement is designed for those looking to master the core of GTM Enablement. Whether you're new to the field or a revenue leader aiming to boost team productivity, this book offers practical insights and proven strategies. Curious to learn more about transforming your approach to Enablement? 👉 Head to the Level213 website for more details! www.level213.com/services #book #revenue #enablement #GTM

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Our partnership with Brex now gives us unparalleled insight and breadth in SaaS purchasing reports

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Inefficient meetings, unnecessary meetings, meetings for the sake of meetings... It's so prevalent that books, workshops, articles and trainings are constantly being offered on how to effectively manage meetings. An entire industry is built around it. One common principle, though, to helping make meetings more efficient is that of leveraging data in order to focus the attention and effort on the issues/initiatives that matter. StrtifyPro is a differentiator when it comes to collecting, managing and providing the data that enables real-time insights. These insights empower collaboration and guide us toward the best solutions. All of which results in more efficient use of our time and efforts. No more guessing games - collaborate effectively with data as your compass! Learn more about StratifyPro and watch your meetings transform! Get a demo today https://lnkd.in/gt2CjFTV #collaboration #meetingsthatmatter #StratifyPro #Strategy #Vision-to-Outcomes

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Real time Ai for CCaaS and more with Dialpad

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Josh & I get to have insightful discussions with RevOps leaders each week. We want to give back by sharing this wisdom more broadly. We are launching our webinar series, Aim for Excellence (see what we did there?). Each episode is an interview with RevOps and GTM leaders we admire about their advice on GTM ops, strategy, and career paths. We had the great pleasure to kick this off with Katherine Zhang recently. Katherine has led RevOps teams at sizable companies like Project44, Relativity, Cognex, and Dell EMC. A few of my favorite highlights from our conversation: - A clarifying definition of RevOps that helps teams ensure they are always working on impactful initiatives - How to turn RevOps from being “order takers” into a strategic function - The importance of trusted (but not perfect!) data - How to get a seat at the table as a RevOps leader Take a listen to our discussion (links in comments) and let us know what you think!

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Are you going to re:Invent this year? Is AI strategy top of mind? I’m carving out time for 1:1 conversations with technology and business leaders who are ready to run. Whether you're building, scaling, or strategizing, let's discuss. 🎲 Also open to discussing best practices to identify and exploit +EV table games without getting banned 🎲

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🚀 Today, Vendr launched new features focused on pricing transparency, powered by AI and Vendr’s pricing insights. Now, anyone can get instant price estimates for future software purchases, verify current pricing for over 20,000 products, and receive low-price quotes from 100+ Verified Sellers — all for free. Head to vendr.com and check it out!

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Operators are change agents - and most people hate change. Check out this segment of The Ops Drops where VP of RevOps, Julia Kim, shares how to make organizational planning lean and easy by creating tiger teams and building trust. Full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eFn7fkPb

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Amplitude Announces Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results: - Third quarter revenue was $75.2M, up 6% year-over-year - ARR was $298M, up $8M from the end of the second quarter - We now have almost 3,500 paying customers, with 567 of those representing more than $100k or more per year Q3 was all about winning the enterprise. We are starting customer conversations differently, reaching key decision-makers, and demonstrating fast value in ways we weren’t before. The result is a higher-quality book of business, with better attach rates, longer contracts, and bigger expansions (we had multiple expansions exceeding 7 figures in Q3). Consolidation is another big theme that's been playing out for several quarters. It’s clear that our customers are looking for an all-in-one platform, and they are finding that in Amplitude. And we've continued to make our platform better. In Q3, we launched Amplitude Made Easy, our completely redesigned platform experience that takes the difficulty out of analytics. We also deepened our partnership with our friends at HubSpot, launched Web Experimentation, and acquired Command AI (fka CommandBar). To our Ampliteers, partners, and customers—we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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"System of Intelligence" is the category I’m most interested in right now (and have been, for the last 5 years). It's the biggest opportunity in GTM tech. AI only exacerbates the need (and likelihood) of a “System of Intelligence” being built and adopted in GTM teams around the world. (Think: no more data silos, ability to use unstructured data, ai agents to do autonomous research, and so much more)  → Where does it sit in the current tech stack? I put together a simple visual to show how I see a “System of Intelligence” fits into the existing tech stack — see image below. (In fact, I think it has the opportunity to dethrone CRM.) The question a “System of Intelligence” answers is what humans do today—knowledge work. But, slowly… when I squint—I can start to see a path for AI to actually start making 6-figure jobs obsolete. SDRs? Yes. CSMs? Yes. BUT, I don’t think AI replaces the best reps. I do think reps using AI will replace reps. Imho, the most important question a GTM Leader can ask is the following: “What Company/Person are you reaching out to this week?” Ask 20 reps at the same company that question. You’ll get 20 different answers. This is obviously not efficient, or scientific. Everyone knows it. But there still isn’t a solution. Sales engagement was an attempt to OpErAtIoNaLiZe a reps workflow. But, SEPs don’t have all the data required to train a model to be “intelligent” (sorry SEPs). CRM (sorta) and data warehouses (increasingly so) have the most data in them. GTM teams need a “System of Intelligence” (a machine) that answers this question for them. Magically. I don’t want to go into “solution mode.” (If I knew the right solution, I’d be building that right now — I don’t). But, I do have incredibly strong (and increasing) conviction that this is the biggest opportunity in GTM tech. How to execute those actions is a whole other can of worms. I think there will be several ways that emerge — when it comes to the execution/workflows. (See also: The New Playbook for Pipeline Generation is Emerging)  → How will AI impact this space? Tomasz Tonguz recently published a piece that speaks to this concept a little bit. His focus is on the CRM being disrupted based on the new workflows of AI agents, compared to humans. In the article he says: > "When AI products are sold as services, they replace in-house labor. This changes internal processes. When the internal processes change, the opportunity to replace the system of record arises because the existing workflows are no longer relevant. I think this is right. As AI Agents become more prevalent, there will be a need/opportunity to rethink the CRM and the applications."  →Who is building this? Innovation will happen in this space, and I’m excited to see who is building here. I’m always trying to learn. Reach out if you’re using a product that you think is a “System of Intelligence.”

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 🌟 Exciting Announcement 🌟 Upflex is honored to be a part of MatterMore Bringing Work Back to Life: Redefining Leadership in the Age of AI on November 14th at the New York Times Building as a key sponsor, alongside brilliant leaders who are shaping the future of work, AI, and culture design. In a time of rapid tech innovation, alongside challenges in well-being and connection, this event brings together founders, investors, and change-makers dedicated to creating more resilient, trust-based, and human-centered workplaces. Together, we’ll explore essential questions, such as:  How can leaders prioritize well-being and collective thriving?  What skills are essential for leadership in a world reshaped by AI?  How do we build systems that support trust, resilience, and collaboration at scale? Join us for an evening of deep discussion and connection with inspiring thinkers, including Elizabeth J. Sandler (futurist + workplace transformation), Anthony Onesto (Gen Z + HR innovation), Fabiola Cazares (early-stage growth + FoW investor) - hosted by MatterMore Coo+Co-Founder Matt Shenker Why Attend? This gathering is more than a conversation – it's a call to action to rethink leadership for a tech-driven future. Whether you’re a founder, executive, or investor, this is an opportunity to:  Connect with like-minded visionaries dedicated to transformative change  Discover how to lead with purpose and adapt in a world where tech reshapes our identities and workplaces  Gain actionable insights for designing work environments where people can truly thrive When: November 14th, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM  Registration required:  https://lu.ma/3vqynbi7 I look forward to seeing you there as we collectively chart a path toward a future of work that brings life back into the workplace.

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🔈 PSA for my start up folks trying their best to plan the next quarter 🔑 Spreadsheets are great and all but startups are built by people 🔑 Spend as much time getting folks bought in, aligned and excited about the plans as you do creating it. 🤗 The earlier the company is in their journey, the more this applies. ^^ Happy building 💪 #startups #spreadsheets #planning #peoplefirst

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🚨 Last Call for the Nektar Buzz Boat: Just 2 Days to Go! 🚨 Nektar.ai, DocketAI and RevOps Co-op are bringing you an exclusive GTM leaders Cruise in NYC(5th Sep), Boston(10th Sep), Chicago(12th Sep). Our GTM Leaders NYC Cruise is setting sail in just 48 hours, and we’ve got a couple of exclusive passes left. Don’t miss your chance to join an elite group of GTM pioneers for an evening of strategic insights and high-impact networking—right on the water! 🌊 Here’s why you need to be there: 🎯 Cutting-Edge Discussions: We’ll be diving into how AI is transforming sales, how to turn customer engagement into actionable data, and the latest GTM tactics that are driving real growth. 💡Discover how to operationalize Buying Groups: We’ll be diving into how AI automates capturing & tracking engagement with your buying groups on auto-pilot at scale. 🤝 High-Caliber Connections: This is your chance to network with fellow leaders who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the GTM space. 🍸 Unwind & Recharge: Kick back with some great drinks, delicious bites, and amazing views on the cruise while you chat and chill with fellow leaders in a laid-back, exclusive vibe. With only a couple of spots left, this is your last chance to secure a seat on the Nektar Buzz Boat. If you’re serious about elevating your GTM strategy, you won’t want to miss this. Register on the link or DM me to grab one of the final passes. Let’s make waves together! 🐝🚢 #GTM #Sales #AI #Networking #Leadership #Nektar #BuzzBoat https://lnkd.in/g59Sxa6Z

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For folks in my Bay Area network... Join me next week at HIGHER’s The State of TA breakfast briefing on Tuesday, June 18th at Chief Clubhouse San Francisco! I'm looking forward to catching up with a bunch of other TA leaders to discuss the challenges we’re all facing across the industry. It still feels like we are navigating uncertain times, but we'll do our best to make sense of it. I hope to see you there!! HIGHER’s The State of TA is grounded in detailed analysis from interviews with TA leaders across the US and Europe, alongside additional context provided by the panel. Here’s some of the topics we’ll cover: - Hiring and turnover: is this holding steady? - Talent quality: can this be defined and what key metrics do others use? - Talent teams: are we reaching the threshold for capacity and how do you bridge the gap between technology, efficiency, and capacity? - DEIB: is this falling down the priority list? Register today to secure your place: https://lnkd.in/gFd7TSE6 [eu1.hubs.ly] 

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Some highlights from my interview with Stanford University School of Engineering Lecturer Stan Christensen. Lessons from the trenching of engineering management.

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