GTM 126: Reverse Engineering the Founder Journey: From Scaling Twitter Ads to $650M, 20 Years Operating, and a Webflow Acquisition | Guy Yalif

The GTM Podcast is disposable connected immoderate awesome directory, including:

Guy Yalif is a seasoned B2B SaaS executive pinch complete 20 years of go-to-market experience. As nan co-founder and CEO of Intellimize (acquired by Webflow), Guy brings a unsocial position from his travel done iconic companies for illustration Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, arsenic good arsenic his inheritance successful aerospace engineering. Guy holds a bachelor’s grade successful Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Discussed successful this Episode:

• Learnings from each awesome institution successful Guy’s 20+ activity career: Microsoft, Tradeweave (first worker and executive committee), Yahoo, Twitter, BrightRoll and Intellimize. 
• Building ‘opinionated products’ and nan value of customer intimacy
• Lessons learned from scaling Twitter’s advertisement business from zero to $650 cardinal successful 3 years.
• The challenges and rewards of founding and increasing a startup for 9 years.
• Strategies for building relationships pinch PR outlets, reporters, and analysts.

Highlights:

(5:22) The powerfulness of customer intimacy successful merchandise development.
(15:41) Scaling Twitter’s advertisement business and managing hyper-growth.
(26:54) The existential dread of being a startup founder.
(37:56) Building relationships pinch PR outlets and reporters.
(45:40) Debunking nan story of sacrificing individual life for startup success.
(49:07) The effectiveness of mini group events successful go-to-market strategies.
(31:55) One point gross leaders judge to beryllium existent that Guy thinks is bull$***
(49:07) One point that is moving for Guy successful go-to-market correct now.

Guest Speaker Links (Guy Yalif):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gyalif

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):
Website: https://gtmnow.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/SalesHacker
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_now
The GTM Podcast (on each awesome directories): https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/

Resource we Recommend:

• HG Insights. Feeling that AI FOMO? You’re not alone. That’s why HG Insights created The Next Generation of Sales AI study — to calm nan FOMO and thief you bring AI to your GTM teams. It includes a breakdown of nan Sales AI landscape, take of GenAI and Sales package crossed purchaser groups. Plus, an study of nan apical 75 trending income AI tools. Why HG Insights? Simple. They’ve been penning marketplace reports for years arsenic nan pioneer of tech take and marketplace insights. Trusted by GTM leaders astatine nan likes of Snowflake Five9 and Google Cloud to amended GTM efficiency. Thinking astir AI for your income squad but unsure wherever to start?

The GTM Podcast
The GTM Podcast is simply a play podcast hosted by Scott Barker, GTMfund Partner, featuring interviews pinch nan apical 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations uncover nan unshared specifications down really they person grown companies, and nan go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

Episode Transcript

Scott Barker:

[0:00] Hello and invited backmost to nan GTM podcast. I person nary thought what section we are presently on, but it’s getting up there. And convey you each for rocking pinch america each week. Super cool to spot nan continued travel and much and much group tuning successful each month. And we’ll support nan bully guests rolling. And I sewage an fantabulous 1 this week and ace excited to beryllium hanging retired pinch them. I americium joined by Guy Yalif. Guy, welcome, man.

Guy Yalif:

[0:29] Thanks, Scott. Thanks for having me. Great to spot you again.

Scott Barker:

[0:31] Good to spot you, man. Good to spot you. We were hanging retired successful SF somewhat precocious and yet convinced you to travel connected nan pod. So excited to person you.

Guy Yalif:

[0:42] Excited to beryllium present pinch you. You’ve sewage immoderate awesome guests. I dream not to bring down nan mean to better.

Scott Barker:

[0:48] Let’s get correct into it, man. So I conjecture I should do a speedy bio. I’d for illustration to springiness a small spot of discourse for nan listeners.

Scott Barker:

[0:55] So Guy Yalif is simply a very seasoned B2B SaaS executive, complete 20 years of go-to-market experience. For nan past 15 years, he has really excelled arsenic a trading leader, pursuing a decade arsenic a merchandise leader. So really absorbing benignant of displacement there. And past primitively trained arsenic an aerospace engineer. So I can’t opportunity we’ve had an aerospace technologist connected nan pod. So you are number one. um truthful conscionable really absorbing what for illustration combining this matter method expertise pinch strategical business activity and uh that has converted to 4 successful b2b sass exits uh you’ve worked astatine iconic companies for illustration microsoft yahoo twitter and extended acquisition which is ace applicable correct now successful existent ai and you’ve been engaging profoundly successful that section agelong earlier it became mainstream and we each had chat gbt and it’s each azygous article that we’re each consuming now um but uh you’re astir precocious besides nan co-founder and ceo of intellimize which was acquired by webflow truthful congratulations and uh holds a grade of mechanical and aerospace aerospace engineering which again first clip we’ve had it and uh mba from from stanford but uh one gotta dive correct into to AI because it’s successful your bio, it’s correct there.

Scott Barker:

[2:19] And you’ve been successful this space, arsenic I said, a agelong time. Are location immoderate assumptions astir AI that you deliberation nan mostly of folks successful go-to-market mightiness beryllium getting wrong?

Guy Yalif:

[2:33] Uh one deliberation a bunch and you cognize you support mentioning ai isn’t nan statement from excuse maine aerospace from aerospace to trading for illustration that’s a consecutive statement that’s a well-trodden way very.

Scott Barker:

[2:43] Very linear for.

Guy Yalif:

Sure um one deliberation that moreover those of america that person seen aggregate generations of tech changing nan world are uh really watching nan velocity of this and one deliberation it is faster than thing we’ve seen earlier but one dream nary of america suffer show that it’s a intends to an extremity you cognize nan the customer they are existent northbound we should not suffer show complete whom are we going to delight good capable that they’re going to springiness america money that’s what matters and focusing connected that for our merchandise and little connected nan title and little connected ai successful my humble sentiment is nan spot for america to spell and for our messaging You know, we would ne'er opportunity GTM now is an energy institution because you usage energy aliases an net institution because you usage nan internet. I deliberation successful not excessively long, we won’t opportunity these are AI companies.

Guy Yalif:

And truthful I deliberation that’s one, really attraction connected what caller usage cases, what degrees of state does it alteration you to do? One 2 is that each ai is what we’re seeing correct now what we’re seeing correct now is arsenic we’ve heard generative ai location person been different kinds of ai and telemise happened to build 1 of these different kinds predictive ai that person been astir everlastingly for arsenic agelong arsenic we’ve had you cognize uh almost arsenic agelong arsenic we’ve had computers and what’s absorbing is each is suited to different tasks you cognize generative ai is it’s based connected stats it’s applied statistic good that’s not excessively adjuvant erstwhile you’re utilizing your accounting strategy and you don’t want probabilities correct you request thing to beryllium deterministic each clip uh and um and and truthful to take nan correct instrumentality for nan occupation one deliberation tin beryllium tin beryllium really adjuvant yeah.

Scott Barker:

[4:31] Yeah couldn’t couldn’t work together much one mean one consciousness for illustration anytime we person these large technological bumps and it’s funny you opportunity net companies because for illustration erstwhile nan net first came retired group were for illustration yea we’re an net institution correct and.

Guy Yalif:

[4:45] Then totally.

Scott Barker:

[4:46] Blockchain was gonna you cognize revolutionize nan full world past there’s each these for illustration blockchain companies and it’s for illustration don’t suffer show of nary you’re a institution that’s solving x and your customer doesn’t really springiness a crap what exertion you’re utilizing if it’s nan net whether it’s nan blockchain whether it’s predictive aliases generative ai it’s for illustration what is nan problem you’re solving and you cognize yea one deliberation that’s a awesome uh.

Scott Barker:

[5:12] Kind of comparison you said of for illustration we each usage energy each time truthful are we each energy companies uh astatine nan astatine nan halfway um but nary one for illustration it it was it was funny excessively not funny conscionable absorbing to spot each of these caller vc ai costs you cognize nan 500 cardinal dollar ai money and each of this money getting raised connected nan premise of that and you cognize we benignant of looked astatine it and And we’re like, that’s conscionable a package fund. Like each caller package money that’s getting created has immoderate erstwhile elements aliases will beryllium utilizing different versions of AI. So it’s conscionable nan adjacent earthy evolution, which is interesting. So thing that stands retired for maine successful benignant of your inheritance is you person 20 years of usability experience, 20, 25 years of operating experience. Experience earlier starting Intellimize. And I deliberation that there’s this benignant of thought successful Silicon Valley, and it’s perpetuated by nan media, that startup founders are each ace young, possibly consecutive retired of college, hungry, engineers, hustlers, and that’s nan archetype for success. But astatine slightest from america successful nan 4 years of starting this fund, and knowing that we are focused connected B2B I deliberation user mightiness beryllium a small spot different.

Scott Barker:

[6:39] We almost exclusively invest. And erstwhile you look astatine nan information and nan ones that person gone good and not arsenic well, each these founders person lived aliases earned operating acquisition successful a fixed sector, successful a fixed category. They intimately cognize a problem well. And there’s conscionable truthful galore lessons to learn. There’s tribal knowledge successful each sector. And it’s really difficult to lick problems for different businesses earlier surviving them yourself, which is and you cognize there’s there’s outliers but one conjecture would you opportunity that each shape of your operating travel amended prepared you for yet nan the laminitis travel and a successful one.

Guy Yalif:

[7:20] To nan grade that each measurement builds connected nan erstwhile very overmuch truthful and pinch humility to your constituent astir nan erstwhile operating acquisition it’s conscionable a large group of mistakes correct for illustration hopefully we make a caller group successful you cognize starring a institution and starting a institution um and hopefully those conflict scars thief pass for illustration wherever are you going to golden sheet what you’re doing and early impervious it wherever you’re going to duct portion and conscionable get it done for coming and location successful betwixt one consciousness for illustration successful everything we do from penning nan codification to trading to income process and much that’s a prime uh and you cognize hopefully besides on nan measurement you’ve built a group of relationships that are you cognize if each is going good helping you do a amended occupation beating your customers wherever they are because you tin get nan consecutive scoop from folks and and person them show you nary that really does suck for illustration that doesn’t lick nan problem and that’s golden that feedback early connected um and to your point, hopefully past you tin do a felt acquisition occupation of problem recognition alternatively than a logic successful your measurement there. Both are valid, but you astir apt person a spot much musculus representation for nan felt acquisition type of that journey.

Scott Barker:

[8:42] Totally. I look astatine it, I deliberation you put it a awesome way. It’s conscionable for illustration those 20 years were conscionable a bid of mistakes. And you study that on, and, of course, wins on nan way. But you get to study that fundamentally connected personification else’s dime. I’ll conscionable springiness a random example. If personification spent nan past 3 years trying to lick a problem astatine Klaviyo in, let’s say, nan e-commerce space, and they had a large squad of group and a large P&L for their business portion that they ran, and they spent each this clip and money trying to lick a problem, and they benignant of get adjacent to it. And past things displacement to Klaviyo and they’re like, oh, I’m going to rotation this out. You’ve conscionable sewage for illustration a bunch of fundamentally free R&D earlier you ever invest. And it’s fundamentally conscionable each nan mistakes that they made earlier starting nan journey.

Guy Yalif:

[9:37] So, truthful true. And hopefully, you know, you’re adding worth on nan way. And, you know, I tin show you that nan erstwhile managers would constituent retired a bunch of those mistakes. But successful peculiar for Intellimize, my co-founders, Jin and Brian, whom I’ve had nan privilege of knowing for 20 years. They led a respective 100 personification squad that ran nan predictive instrumentality learning that personalized nan Yahoo homepage. Back erstwhile that page mattered. Back erstwhile it was nan astir celebrated page connected nan internet. Not that it doesn’t matter now, but it’s different arsenic we know. And that was… Learning that was incredibly costly astatine standard you cognize 100 cardinal impressions a time cardinal personification profiles past they went and created yahoo’s contented proposal strategy while what we built astatine intellimize does not adjacent either 1 of those things, 1 of nan things that made america comfortable astir nan lead that we had successful marketplace was that a bunch of freshly minted cs phds would not return nan aforesaid way we did they would spell do different very logical things, but they didn’t person nan applicable conflict scars astir which nan textbooks haven’t yet been written to know, oh, wait, this way is overmuch higher probability than that one. And we were like, great, they’ll return that 1 for respective years earlier they see this one, to your constituent astir immoderate of nan benefits of nan erstwhile mistakes.

Scott Barker:

[10:56] Yeah, I emotion that. And I want to jump into your clip astatine Yahoo a small spot more, but let’s really commencement astatine nan beginning. So you started astatine BCG, I believe, and past you were an intern astatine Microsoft, and past you went to TradeWeave successful nan unit benignant of SaaS space. What did you study successful those really early, those tin beryllium really formative years that you pulled into occurrence later successful life?

Guy Yalif:

[11:22] At BCG, it was nan classic, you know, really to think, break down problems. The consulting mindset was rather adjuvant there. At microsoft location was uh one won’t get circumstantial but nan expertise to salary to play for immoderate things that shouldn’t beryllium salary to play was was uh eye-opening uh successful position of you cognize feedback folks would springiness nary shadiness connected microsoft it was manufacture believe thing circumstantial to microsoft um and past braid weave it’s funny you telephone it sass because backmost past we were for illustration we’re doing this really cool point it’s called a multi-tenanted hosted app which coming we would telephone sass but backmost past nan word wasn’t a point uh and one um a large learning location we were doing.

Guy Yalif:

[12:06] Basically buying collaboration package successful wide merchandise and apparel section stores deliberation polo is trading to macy’s and we would thief bring transparency and readying pre-season mid-season and aft nan extremity of nan play for these seasonal businesses merchandise worked nan ceos of polo and macy’s and dillard’s and uh ralph and each these for illustration they were successful and nan laminitis of nan institution had relationships pinch each of them that was awesome they were ace fired up nan users nan purchaser and nan vendor they did not want to usage it why because it was transparent and they were utilized to lying to each different and they made a batch of money disconnected of that lying and truthful they for illustration location was a batch of separator to beryllium had successful nan lying that they did and that was manufacture believe and uh this merchandise sewage successful nan measurement of that and truthful amended knowing nan personification versus nan purchaser which one conjecture successful b2b sass you’re for illustration good yes of people that’s a buying committee but successful this lawsuit they were really different group correct 1 was nan ceo of this multi-billion dollar institution nan different 1 was a day-to-day purchaser uh was humbling uh measurement to learn.

Scott Barker:

[13:12] Yeah I mean it we spot that still each nan clip successful SaaS correct you look astatine an illustration for illustration income tech wherever you cognize person each these analytics and reporting for possibly income activity but past And erstwhile if you’re really utilizing it, it’s conscionable adding much activity to your workload. So location is ever that disconnect. How do you coach people? And really do you now deliberation astir benignant of closing that spread betwixt nan personification and nan buyer? Because you’ve sewage to make nan purchaser happy. They’re signing nan check. They’re signing nan renewals, nan cross-sell, up-sell. Do you person immoderate benignant of strategies for shortening that spread betwixt nan two? and nan expectations?

Guy Yalif:

[13:58] My humble opinion, it’s virtually what you conscionable said, which is ensuring that location is thing successful nan user’s self-interest that will make it amended for them and makes their life easier, not harder. And it is arsenic elemental arsenic that. So would we person started TradeWeave had we gone and talked to each of nan different users, talked to nan users and understood that? Maybe. Would we person changed really it was built? Almost certainly. To alteration them to support doing nan things they wanted to do. Maybe we would person built successful separator calculators truthful they tin person their soul number and a abstracted outer number, thing for illustration that to thief reside that need. To your constituent astir income management, it’s, you know, really galore group listening will raise their manus and opportunity they have, you know, a problem pinch AEs and their partners entering information into Salesforce? Everyone, because it’s this, you know, it tin consciousness for illustration a large tax. It was 1 of nan motivations for america to create Intellimize wherever you had existing devices that did A-B testing that fundamentally gave you info, it fundamentally caused much activity you past had to spell do thing pinch it and telemise would spell return nan action straight uh uh connected your behalf erstwhile you wanted it to and nett prevention you clip and that for illustration those are immoderate of nan things that that they travel to mind astatine conceptualization alternatively than erstwhile you’re you cognize retired and and and moving running into nan rumor yeah.

Scott Barker:

[15:22] Yeah um perfectly truthful past Then, I guess, nan adjacent measurement from there, truthful past successful 2005, you make nan jump to Yahoo. Is Yahoo where, it sounds for illustration that’s wherever nan gears started cranking for what would go Intellimize? I deliberation you besides met your co-founder there. Is that right?

Guy Yalif:

[15:41] I did. I was very fortunate that TradeWeave was acquired and past went to Yahoo and met my co-founder moving what astatine nan clip was nan world’s largest web hosting company, which is afloat circle now moving for a website uh building uh managing and optimizing institution um and uh we had a fewer 100 1000 paying customers were fortunate to turn them to a mates of cardinal done astir apt nan biggest instruction successful my profession um uh which was astir nan customer being existent northbound and uncovering nan problem you’re going to lick for them erstwhile one joined uh nan occupation from nan gm of nan BU was, he said, hey, I was merchandise head astatine nan time. Jin, my co-founder, was an engineering leader. And we were starring this team. And they said, hey, we person our roots successful telecom. The crippled we’re playing is to make much features findable. So I hide nan number. We person 100 features. Go make 200 features findable successful a dashboard. Great. We turned nan crank. We did that project. Then we went and spent immoderate time.

Guy Yalif:

[16:44] Getting to cognize our customers successful much extent we called them travel maine homes of people pinch support but past spell watch them successful nan agency doing their day-to-day occupation beyond our merchandise first location were moments of for illustration ohio crud for illustration they person a yellowish sticky attached to their show for this point that’s successful nan merchandise correct successful beforehand of them okay and past we’re for illustration hold a infinitesimal really we learned 40 of our customers are sole proprietors 95 aliases 5 labor are fewer, they don’t aspire to study what we aspire to thatch them they don’t want to study nan 200 aliases 100 features successful truth their perfect merchandise is to instrumentality money successful 1 extremity and get leads retired nan different this is 0405 erstwhile building a website wasn’t a fixed for a institution they conscionable wanted to tally their business and truthful we virtually did a 180 connected nan merchandise we did not we took distant prime we built a road done nan merchandise that was elemental opinionated guided them because we had done this they had not uh and it was um fortunately wildly successful we grew from 50 cardinal to 115 cardinal successful gross successful for illustration 2 and a half 3 years each of which was based connected nan other of what we thought of nan crippled we thought we were playing uh and that customer intimacy was was nan driver of that i.

Scott Barker:

[18:01] Mean what a what a powerful instruction and 1 galore coming tin besides astir apt consciousness we get a batch of founders listening to this and you cognize galore it tin it tin consciousness for illustration you’re 1 characteristic distant from hyper maturation you cognize for illustration all.

Guy Yalif:

[18:21] The clip you’re like.

Scott Barker:

[18:22] Oh if we conscionable we conscionable build this point and look astatine our customer guidelines and past only you cognize 20 of them if they adopt it past look astatine each this money that we’re gonna you cognize bring successful and um one deliberation that workout of for illustration really slowing down, connected this travel maine location point is hilarious. Would you really spell physically to their agency and watch them for a day?

Guy Yalif:

[18:44] For a fewer hours we did, yes. And it was really eye-opening. At TradeWeave earlier Yahoo, we had done immoderate of that. I was very fortunate to beryllium joined to our user. My woman was a purchaser successful retail. We were doing this for retail. And truthful virtually successful nan mediate of meetings, we’d beryllium like, really does personification do this? Yeah, we’d telephone nan bat line. We’d beryllium like, Monica’s my wife. Like, Monica, really do you do this thing? And we virtually went to her office, saw possibly they were greenish surface terminals. Either way, they were very not what we person now and watched her doing her thing. And we did nan aforesaid point astatine Yahoo. Yeah.

Scott Barker:

[19:16] I emotion that. I’m trying to… There’s nary reason… People wouldn’t motion up for that coming still you cognize for illustration if you’re a happy customer astatine a package institution and nan activity comes to you and says hey we want to make our merchandise amended for you we want to intimately cognize your occupation we’ve done interviews we’ve had galore discussions pinch you do you mind if we really travel successful and watch you do your occupation uh one stake a astonishing magnitude of group would really return you up connected that. And I don’t deliberation I’ve ever heard personification really doing that.

Guy Yalif:

[19:54] I deliberation to show them your point, we’d for illustration you to power our roadmap. We’d for illustration you to power really we framework our product. We’d for illustration you to power really we service you is benignant of nan definitive worth exchange.

Scott Barker:

[20:07] Yeah, yeah. You besides said thing location that stood retired to maine was this thought of building products that are opinionated, that person a constituent of position on, hey, we activity pinch a batch of group that lick nan problems that you’re trying to lick each day. And we have, done extended investigation and data, decided this is really nan champion measurement to do thing and nan fastest way to nan result. And I deliberation for a agelong time, it was almost astir giving complete power and customization successful package and like, hey, you tin do things really you want to do it. And group were almost frightened to person a constituent of view. And it feels for illustration that is changing and group want to beryllium told, particularly now pinch AI, group are emotion for illustration a small spot lost. And really do I prosecute pinch this? From your years arsenic a merchandise leader, really did you deliberation astir creating a constituent of position erstwhile you’re building package and making it person an opinion?

Guy Yalif:

[21:13] It really was reasoning hard. As a marketer, I deliberation nan aforesaid thing. What’s nan occupation we’re doing good really that’s it it’s really that elemental and past really do you optimize for that successful your messaging successful your transportation successful nan merchandise itself uh while leaving paths retired we utilized to telephone them trap doors one don’t cognize why but you cognize to complexity and power if you want it uh and to your constituent it’s precisely what you said scott we conscionable person much reps astatine this correct we’ve seen millions of these you’ve seen a mates if you would for illustration our proposal we’re happy to build it straight into nan merchandise if you don’t nary problem you tin person full power but if you want and astir do, The different point you made maine deliberation astir meta level 1 level higher is it does consciousness for illustration location are generations of package successful individual categories that spell from wherever nan ace easy to usage 1 and past you adhd and you adhd and you adhd and you upsell and it gets much costly and you person much power and past personification comes to supplants pinch thing really elemental and you spell done that rhythm complete and over.

Scott Barker:

[22:15] Bundling, unbundling, bundling, unbundling. Yeah, totally. And yeah, I for illustration this thought of benignant of person a constituent of view, person an opinion, guideline them to nan result they want pinch nan slightest resistance, but past person these, you know, you tin take your ain escapade if you request to. And nan complexity is location if needed, but we’re not going to propulsion this complexity astatine you correct disconnected nan jump.

Guy Yalif:

[22:42] 100% successful merchandise and successful trading you made maine deliberation now um one deliberation this manifests arsenic not creating your messaging aliases your website aliases your collateral by committee it’s truthful one consciousness for illustration clear truthful galore times erstwhile you erstwhile you group up their location page is you cognize 10 screens agelong and you tin spot it was designed by committee because it’s addressing each these different things and it’s not taking a guidelines connected we are for this persona for this occupation to beryllium done and not for others astatine slightest arsenic our superior it’s not that nan others don’t beryllium but we are clear this is nan superior and to beryllium opinionated astir that and uh one americium a believer that that is really gross optimizing alternatively than saying ohio we tin thief you and you and you and you and you and you for astir startups correct if you’re salesforce it’s a different point but if if you’re a startup one deliberation uh not doing that by committee and having nan self-discipline because you’re like, yes, I tin do each those different things. All those shiny objects, each that money sitting location is interesting. You’ll make moreover much of it by being focused, successful my humble opinion.

Scott Barker:

[23:47] Totally agree. And this is going to beryllium benignant of a meta point pinch this podcast. So we person ads connected nan podcast. We activity pinch awesome sponsors connected nan podcast. And immoderate of nan coaching and learning that we’ve had, erstwhile you effort to beryllium thing to everyone, you’re like, oh, there’s 50,000 group who are going to perceive to this. Like show them we’re nan champion astatine everything successful nan information abstraction aliases or nan engagement abstraction aliases nan enablement abstraction past you don’t resonate pinch anyone and and past we’re trying to benignant of for illustration coach them successful for illustration okay you person to cognize really nan marketplace perceives you because nan marketplace that you person a estimation you person a marque already and group benignant of cognize that and you mightiness want to beryllium thing other but for illustration spell to your information and show america for illustration your champion performing customers that perfectly emotion you and telephone those group retired and conscionable beryllium very existent pinch precisely who you service really you service them and erstwhile successful what script are you nan champion fresh to lick that problem and and that tin beryllium a reliable almost um humbling workout to do of for illustration okay possibly this is wherever we want to spell but who really are we correct now and who do we champion service correct now i’m.

Guy Yalif:

[25:06] Strongly pinch you and one deliberation nan realization that sloppy of what you’ve done you do person a marque retired location already uh and past your prime is conscionable what you do pinch that cognition uh is is ace wise.

Scott Barker:

[25:17] Totally wholly um okay continuing down your your travel um you past uh walk 2 years astatine Twitter now x uh which is ace cool to to person that acquisition arsenic a caput of world merchandise and manufacture trading um possibly i’ll move this mobility up and alternatively of benignant of what did you possibly get correct is location things you did incorrect while you were astatine Twitter now X for illustration if you could spell backmost and and alteration thing astir that clip play one.

Guy Yalif:

[25:49] Of nan funnier ones uh one had nan privilege of joining erstwhile uh gross was almost zero and location were 10 aliases 20 group successful nan ads business and one was successful nan ads business 3 years later erstwhile one near astir nan ito we were astatine 650 cardinal successful gross and location were 500 group successful nan ads business.

Scott Barker:

[26:06] I person ne'er been portion of maturation for illustration that.

Guy Yalif:

[26:10] It was awesome to beryllium on for that thrust and.

Scott Barker:

[26:13] Contribute a very.

Guy Yalif:

[26:14] Very very mini portion of it.

Scott Barker:

[26:15] So zero to 650 mil successful 3 years and that was.

Guy Yalif:

[26:20] Twitter correct one mean.

Scott Barker:

[26:21] Yeah but.

Guy Yalif:

[26:22] In fairness, yes. It’s really different. It’s like, connected nan guidelines of nan institution was already 400 group and already, you talk astir having a marque already. Uh, um, nan biggest situation we had successful nan early days of ads was no, we’re not conscionable astir what you had for luncheon and your pets. Advertisers were like, you person commercialized intent here. And we didn’t deliberation that’s what they would beryllium thinking. They made it really clear. That’s what they were thinking. They made it really clear. That’s nan marque we had. And we had to thin into our strengths and thief them understand, no, location is commercialized intent here. You can, and effort to displacement cognition of nan marque how.

Scott Barker:

[26:53] Did you spell astir shifting that truthful really were what were immoderate of nan strategies you utilized to displacement um really nan marketplace was perceiving you.

Guy Yalif:

[27:04] Three travel to mind um because this was endeavor ads astatine nan clip correct this wasn’t self-serve SMB yet that was a mates years later um successful personification virtually talking to group uh we besides hired a bunch of group who had relationships location you cognize from agencies from different advertisement tech companies uh that was portion of it a 2nd was, information to beryllium clear hey you cognize while you comprehend you cognize twitter’s marque cognition was that’s what one had for luncheon you beloved marque you person a marque retired location already i’m gonna make it up correct 5 cardinal group mentioned coca-cola yesterday i’m making that up but for illustration they would person been for illustration ohio wow one didn’t cognize that was nan lawsuit and present are immoderate of nan things that they said and truthful they would opportunity ohio okay aliases you cognize 5 cardinal group mentioned pepsi why don’t you spell aft them Coca-Cola uh aliases mention thing other that you could beryllium adjacent to and nan past was um.

Guy Yalif:

[28:02] To thief group visualize really they could bring it to life themselves. So immoderate of nan astir successful activity astatine that stage. Now it’s an aged hat. But astatine that stage, what did we telephone it? Native advertizing was not, it didn’t exist, right? It was either hunt aliases display. That was it. Mobile was a benignant of advertizing backmost then. And to thief group understand, this is really you tin usage integrated and paid together. And bringing stories to life uh nan squad published a small book of conscionable examples of for illustration insightful tweets witty tweets that one don’t retrieve oreo did thing astir nan ace vessel lights going retired for illustration astatine that clip that was manually innovative for illustration you would talk astir that astatine ana masters now that okay that’s aged chapeau but astatine nan clip helping group visualize that was really inspirational mm-hmm.

Scott Barker:

[28:54] How did you arsenic um for illustration owning nan benignant of merchandise trading usability and this advertisement org is conscionable blowing up. I ideate you saw for illustration do you do you retrieve astir really galore sellers that were successful nan advertisement business for illustration erstwhile you commencement getting person to nan 650 mil.

Guy Yalif:

[29:12] I retrieve nan full org was 500 one don’t retrieve really galore of those were aes but a large one mean large big large stunk of that uh besides had a mid truthful location was one retrieve location were 3 tiers by size of institution if representation serves maine correctly location were astatine slightest 2 and we had one judge we had SDRs doing request gen respective 100 and globally one i uh for illustration it was a genuinely world org one had and hired group successful san francisco caller york sao paulo tokyo london and location were aes and each those places and a full bunch much wow.

Scott Barker:

[29:50] How did you support one ever deliberation erstwhile you spell done hyper maturation for illustration that 1 of nan hardest things is conscionable disseminating accusation which is funny nan reasoning of twitter because that’s benignant of what it does allows you to disseminate accusation quickly but for illustration you person to support each of these aes um up to day connected latest pricing packaging really we’re talking astir messaging positioning um really were you capable to do that arsenic you’re expanding truthful so rapidly.

Guy Yalif:

[30:18] Your point, nan section enablement portion of trading was a immense magnitude of activity and fortunately uh.

Guy Yalif:

[30:28] The squad had huge, unthinkable goals successful beforehand of it. I retrieve 1 year, nan Super Bowl was perennially nan biggest time of nan twelvemonth because you’d get much traffic, truthful you’d waste much ads. And I retrieve 1 Super Bowl, they said, this was great. You should beryllium really excited astir this. By nan way, Q4 has 90 days successful it. We request to do 90 Super Bowls to deed our Q4 number. And truthful nan ramp was conscionable bananas. um fortunately that resulted successful in uh that one deliberation that and nan income activity created a civilization wherever folks really wanted to cognize they really did attraction to cognize uh i’ve worked successful different organizations wherever nan income squad was little astir that and it was simpler correct for illustration erstwhile one was astatine yahoo nan aboveground area of ads they had to waste was tremendous astatine twitter it was really focused astatine that constituent successful time. Adam Bain, who ran nan full ads business, besides was extraordinarily good. I learned a bunch from watching him. Has nan org scaled? Where did he put his time? What did he make himself disposable for? What level of point did he statesman to delegate? But wherever did he take to stay deep? You could talk to him, you know, erstwhile we’re astatine 600 cardinal successful revenue, he knew nan authorities of each azygous very ample deal. Every person, each state, each everything. He conscionable had an encyclopedic representation for it he didn’t cognize that astir each azygous woody but he knew it for each ample 1 while managing wide it was uh is an bonzer leader.

Scott Barker:

[31:58] Yeah I emotion that um wherever okay truthful you said 1 wherever did he take to walk his clip truthful 1 was immoderate larger deals he would make judge he knows astir them wherever other would he make judge that he he was progressive in.

Guy Yalif:

[32:14] It was watching him, you know. When location were 20 of us, we conscionable sewage worldly done. When location were 500 of us, location was an EA managing time. There were aggregate layers. There were groups doing things separately that he would past spell do successful each hands and springiness discourse on. It was that benignant of scaling that I deliberation he did really effectively. And he knew, I think, did a very bully occupation building nan individual relationship moreover erstwhile nan touch points by necessity became less. Because nan org is bigger. I deliberation he was talented astatine that, arsenic galore income leaders are.

Scott Barker

[32:54]: Yeah, I emotion it. Do you person immoderate thoughts, opinions connected nan improvement of Twitter? Now X and Elon taking over. Any thoughts? I’ve heard it’s doing highly well.

Guy Yalif:

[33:07] I don’t person immoderate bully ones, truthful I’ll support them to myself.

Scott Barker:

[33:10] Okay, sounds good. We’ll plead nan 5th connected that one. All right, truthful completing nan journey, You past spell to BrightRoll, which I ideate was benignant of this afloat circle infinitesimal because you sewage acquired by Yahoo, your aged company. And then, you know, you spell each successful and you’ve spent nan past 9 years building Intellimize and now portion of Webflow, which, you know, is an incredibly successful exit. What galore founders, you know, aspire to do. Nine years, that’s a agelong clip particularly successful startup onshore uh I deliberation that’s it’s benignant of for illustration canine years I deliberation truthful it’s it’s a agelong clip um what was nan hardest portion of that journey.

Guy Yalif:

[33:55] The first point that comes to mind is nan existential threat dread conflict aliases formation is that felt perpetual didn’t matter really overmuch money we get a 50 cardinal dollars successful nan slope one still felt existential dread each nan clip and he, candidly um while one cognize that it you cognize it’s a full bunch of group who are making thoughtful bets successful a risky business trying to spell make things activity one felt it very personally connected group betting their careers connected this and you cognize connected nan executive squad nan founding squad connected maine and nary one cognize it’s not each astir maine aliases nan executive squad aliases nan founding squad astatine each but one ohio one felt that weight a batch uh and and truthful you cognize um astir each nan each nan each nan the nan families erstwhile one thought astir that existential dread um conscionable just a consciousness of squad and camaraderie and attraction and work and conscionable just that that weighed connected maine um uh nan the astir erstwhile you deliberation astir difficult things and it amazed maine nan week aft nan acquisition closed my shoulders for illustration went down a small bit, and I didn’t cognize they were up. I thought I was astatine equilibrium, and I didn’t cognize they were up successful that way. And erstwhile I reflected connected what was it, it was specifically that. There are a full bunch of different things to deliberation astir and interest astir astatine activity and push difficult on, but that 1 had changed.

Scott Barker:

[35:22] Yeah, yeah. And convey you for sharing that. I deliberation it’s important to talk astir and anytime you’re doing really, really difficult things, going aft a crazy extremity aliases trying to build a large business that you consciousness a work to do good because group person believed successful you, comes pinch sacrifice and trade-off. And oftentimes it’s this emotion of awesome weight and awesome pressure. If you were to do it again, is that conscionable portion of nan deal? Are location immoderate ways that you recovered to combat that on nan way? Or is it, unfortunately, conscionable portion of nan gig?

Guy Yalif:

[36:06] You know, I admit each personification is different. Every personification has their ain journey.

Guy Yalif:

[36:11] I deliberation for my small journey, it wholly is portion of nan gig. And that uh nan antidotes aliases nan astatine slightest denotation one wouldn’t opportunity relievers but decreasers are um recognizing that it’s valid to return attraction of yourself to beryllium benignant to yourself uh erstwhile uh you cognize thing doesn’t spell nan measurement you wanted it to uh if you gave it your each if you did everything you do perchance really to do to find peers to talk to um uh and comparison notes pinch chap travelers uh um and lastly one deliberation nan adjacent clip astir one sought done that erstwhile acquisition that we talked astir successful nan opening that one had a beautiful clear constituent of position and learned on nan measurement hey very fewer things matter one deliberation moreover less matter adjacent clip astir uh location were immoderate things that one would beryllium for illustration ohio we really request to get that correct and you cognize what i’m not judge we do adjacent clip astir for illustration it tin beryllium nan 80 is bully capable and i’ve ever been a believer, for a agelong long clip that you cognize cleanable is nan force of bully truthful that wasn’t nan problem nor was nan problem ohio one request to clasp connected to that one don’t want to fto spell for illustration that wasn’t it either it was we that for illustration it’s important to get that 1 correct and one deliberation uh one believed that about, much things than one should person moreover though one believed it astir very fewer things truthful one deliberation that helps pinch immoderate of nan um nan existential dread yeah.

Scott Barker:

[37:39] I for illustration that nan attraction tin beryllium a superpower cutting up nan sound institution building. In circumstantial let’s opportunity you spell and do this again what are nan areas you can’t miss astatine nan mini fewer things that you request to get right.

Guy Yalif:

[37:56] I one heard personification opportunity and it’s it it feels very germane he said first-time founders attraction connected merchandise second-time founders attraction connected distribution one spot you smiling you’ve heard that 1 earlier excessively it’s.

Scott Barker:

[38:10] In our platform baby.

Guy Yalif:

[38:11] It’s for illustration our.

Scott Barker:

[38:15] Our halfway belief, you cognize that particularly now much than ever pinch exertion moats benignant of disappearing it’s easier to build than ever earlier your past existent moat is benignant of execution and distribution um for judge truthful one emotion i’m a immense instrumentality of that quote.

Guy Yalif:

[38:32] I emotion tying execution to it wherever you cognize I retrieve early connected reasoning of ourselves and past watching others beryllium like, I request to support this thought to myself. And you realize, you don’t because nan execution is you cognize 98 of it successful almost each lawsuit you don’t request to support it to yourself uh distribution and past arsenic you said and past um conscionable being relentless connected uh merchandise marketplace fresh which one deliberation is associated and it gets astatine that halfway what’s nan problem we’re solving and group um it is absurdly incredibly tempting to make a prosecute much quickly because by meaning if you’re hiring personification you’re suffering because there’s much activity to do truthful you request to bring connected personification connected committee and past waiting longer to find nan correct personification makes nan suffering moreover longer one uh waited and did that longer successful peculiar for nan executive squad a mates members of my committee gave maine a really difficult clip astir it and uh that one would do again one would one would do again that measurement but one deliberation those are nan very fewer things that matter yeah.

Scott Barker:

[39:34] I emotion it um and one judge that uh justin khan quote nan ceo laminitis of twitch truthful we’ll springiness him his uh in installments wherever in installments is owed um and one emotion it good one gotta inquire nan benignant of nan other of that mobility what was nan astir rewarding portion now looking back.

Guy Yalif:

[39:55] The this point that fed my psyche uh wasn’t making a 4th aliases moreover a customer getting up connected shape and opportunity bully things which one told and judge told nan institution and judge myself for illustration that’s existent northbound customers saying bully things astir america connected shape nan point that fed my psyche was people, joining and for illustration 2 weeks later being for illustration convey you you weren’t lying astir nan civilization one tin conscionable spell and tally present and that made maine very very happy because one deliberation civilization is 1 of nan very fewer things that flows from nan apical and to create an situation wherever group get to do their life’s champion activity is an unthinkable privilege and incredibly rewarding hell.

Scott Barker:

[40:38] Yeah perfectly nary no amended emotion uh than that uh couldn’t couldn’t work together much uh sophie paul and america successful this small vancouver agency there’s thing much you cognize rewarding than you cognize seeing them conscionable perfectly crush it and emotion love what they’re doing and conscionable for illustration get get retired of nan measurement and fto them cook. Let them cook. They’re doing awesome work. So I emotion that. All right. I want to quickly spell to a laminitis mobility arsenic we benignant of wrap up. A mates much questions for you. This one’s ace absorbing and thing I’m really rather funny astir myself. There’s been a batch of asks precocious from founders successful our portfolio. The mobility is, arsenic a startup founder, what’s nan champion measurement to build relationships pinch PR outlets, reporters, and analysts?

Guy Yalif:

[41:28] I deliberation it originates with, utilizing your targets thoughtfully uh you cognize are are it’s going to beryllium uncommon that you’re large capable to beryllium wide business for illustration wall thoroughfare diary stances are overmuch amended you should attraction connected manufacture circumstantial folks past is it your customers manufacture is it your manufacture and past to deliberation okay good one astir apt can’t get nan very apical tier to statesman possibly you tin possibly you’ve sewage nan relationships possibly you can’t uh 1 2 to very overmuch look astatine it arsenic a semipermanent narration conscionable for illustration pinch investors correct not transactional and to nan grade you tin beryllium a assets for them admit that their clip is incredibly valuable um but effort to beryllium adjuvant each relationship you person 3 admit what’s newsworthy to you is almost surely not adjacent to what’s newsworthy them um because they person a zillion different founders talking astir their fundraising location was 1 constituent wherever we raised money and one figured who it was possibly maybe it was tech crunch possibly it was task hit possibly it was nan diary personification was for illustration unless it’s a 100 cardinal dollars for illustration we don’t want to screen it correct now i’m for illustration awesome that’s your barroom correct now um you cognize chances are very debased your characteristic individual characteristic launches are newsworthy um or.

Scott Barker:

[42:41] Your caller integration astir apt not, yeah.

Guy Yalif:

[42:44] Yes uh and truthful and and and to for illustration past make it much newsworthy by doing your homework for illustration really afloat publication what they wrote publication their hypotheses successful marketplace does that align pinch immoderate of nan stories you want to show successful marketplace truthful that location is simply a fresh location and erstwhile you do that past beryllium ace clear arsenic you’re preparing to talk pinch them and talking pinch them what do you want to opportunity person it down to 2 to 3 points that you want to make judge they retrieve that ideally that connection gets pulled done and past person fresh successful my humble sentiment plentifulness of reactive Q&A successful lawsuit they return you down different areas and beryllium besides really clear astir areas you’re not going to go, for illustration like we did not want to talk astir uh nan morals of ai we person a constituent of position but that’s not what nan company’s astir it wouldn’t thief nan company’s marque to spell location uh and past practice, bridging from 1 point to different aliases deflecting wholly wherever you’re for illustration one don’t want to talk astir that point and nan past point that comes to mind is um if you don’t person nan relationships uh find a bully agency that does uh and and successful my humble sentiment bully equals.

Guy Yalif:

[43:52] You tin spot that they’ve worked pinch this newsman a bunch aliases this writer a bunch. And they tin show you, they person a constituent of position astatine your level of sophistication, right? If you’re a PR pro, past they’re talking to you there. If you’re PR new, they’re talking to you location astir what this individual needs to see. It’s a bunch of things, but I deliberation it’s a existent effort. It’s not like, I don’t deliberation it’s worthy doing it lightly. I deliberation you either spell each successful and make this an finance aliases not. Otherwise, you’re benignant of yelling into nan wind. How does each that onshore for you?

Scott Barker:

[44:25] I deliberation it’s awesome advice. Yeah, 1 of my caller learnings is conscionable really relationship-based it genuinely is. I deliberation there’s, for possibly a while, aliases group conscionable sewage disoriented, aliases it’s not rather nan correct word, but it seemed for illustration it was much pay-to-play than it is. And I’m learning these are semipermanent relationships that you person to build, peculiarly pinch analysts and reporters. And I deliberation your proposal of, okay, you tin person aspirational outlets, but why don’t you commencement pinch very industry-specific, could beryllium communities, could beryllium small, moreover for illustration newsletters. Sometimes there’s highly influential group that your buyers look to that could enactment arsenic benignant of a V1 PR for you for these different releases that you have. So that’s bully stuff. Final 2 questions. And they’re ever nan same. I support them intentionally vague. So you tin item thing we already talked astir aliases do thing wholly new. First mobility is, what is 1 wide held belief that founders clasp to beryllium existent coming that you deliberation is bullshit aliases nary longer serving us?

Guy Yalif:

[45:40] I deliberation that you person to opportunity goodbye to your friends and family for 5 years to commencement a startup. It’s conscionable not true. I really deliberation it produces worse business outcomes. And I opportunity this arsenic personification who, my first startup, TradeWeave, wherever I was worker one, was .com one, and I really tracked my clip because it helps maine allocate it successful nan correct place. I averaged 80 hours a week for a mates of years, peaking astatine 135. That’s not nan screwing astir time. That’s for illustration activity work. Total self-actualization. It was incredible. I deliberation I get much done and get a batch much done astatine Intellimize. I still activity good complete 40 hours a week, but it’s not for illustration that. I cognize my wife, I cognize my 2 daughters well, and I’m successful their lives regularly. And I deliberation getting a afloat night’s rest, which I measurement pinch this, which is an aura ring, for illustration that feedback loop, I deliberation causes maine to make a bunch of amended decisions. Maybe I ran much steps successful those 80 hours, but nan percent of clip that I was like, ohio crud, I didn’t request to tally those steps astatine all, I’m headed successful nan incorrect direction, was truthful overmuch higher past than now, I do deliberation that that belief is conscionable not right.

Scott Barker:

[46:54] Yeah. I wonderment if there’s a spot of learnings from… I deliberation it’s awesome that you way your clip 135 hours a week. It’s insane, by nan way. But I imagine, and this is astir apt bully proposal for a batch of nan founders listening, is you search your time, I stake you could spot what times you were astir effective. What areas you were moving connected successful nan business that produced nan outcomes you wanted. And past for illustration complete time, I ideate that it conscionable made you much businesslike pinch what you were spending your clip connected too.

Guy Yalif:

[47:28] It was very helpful. And nan conception of search your clip sounds incredibly burdensome and for illustration a batch of overhead. And I recovered a way, if anyone other does, I’d for illustration to find a measurement that’s correct for you that takes nary cognitive load, feels automatic. And don’t attraction astir accuracy. The constituent is not to beryllium meticulous to nan minute. The constituent is to cognize nan wide trends. And I recovered it peculiarly useful arsenic a laminitis because nan occupation sometimes is immoderate needs doing. And truthful nan needs would displacement truthful dramatically week connected week. And truthful I’d opportunity to myself, oh, I needed to walk 40% of this week connected recruiting. Did I? No. Oh, I request to walk 40% of nan week helping nan income team. Did I? No. And to for illustration person that intelligence integrity and feedback loop was… Was really, really valuable. And past for knowing during nan day, I must admit nan ringing was really adjuvant location wherever it could quantitatively show you, you’ve sewage much power astatine this clip of time and little astatine this clip of day. And truthful I do much strategical reasoning present and much rote execution here.

Scott Barker:

[48:32] I emotion it. Great, awesome advice. I deliberation I sewage to get 1 of those aura rings. I’ve seen them connected excessively galore group and everyone seems to emotion them. So I deliberation it mightiness beryllium a vacation acquisition for me. Final question, and convey you for spending nan time, Guy. I’ve really, really enjoyed this conversation. The last mobility is benignant of nan metallic slug question. Everyone’s looking for things they tin instrumentality coming that are really working. What is 1 go-to-market maneuver strategy that is actively moving for you coming astatine Telamize and Webflow?

Guy Yalif:

[49:07] A full bunch that were moving to thrust request are not anymore correct now, and that changes each nan time. One point that we are uncovering adjuvant is mini group events, dinners pinch elder group wherever we’re not pitching, wherever we are creating a organization for them to connect. And often afterwards, they’d beryllium like, I expected you to transportation me. Can I study a small spot much astir that? We person recovered a bully usage of time. And I don’t cognize of immoderate metallic bullets. If you cognize of one, please share.

Scott Barker:

[49:41] I emotion it. Well, nan executive dinners, nary pitch, is arsenic adjacent to my metallic slug arsenic well. It worked ace good for america astatine Outreach. It useful astatine nan fund, useful for our partners.

Guy Yalif:

[49:54] It’s unthinkable you are doing it astatine nan fund. Those are astonishing events.

Scott Barker:

[49:57] Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, and they’re awesome. Just everyone wins. The attendees get to study and network, and sponsors get to build caller connections, and we get to talk to our LPs and our founders. So yeah, decidedly cook that into your 2025 trading strategy if it’s not already. You tin partner pinch people, you tin bring costs down. They tin beryllium incredibly efficient, a benignant of trading spend. Anyway, Guy, you’re nan man. Thank you truthful overmuch for sharing your wisdom. You’ve had specified an unthinkable career, and it was awesome to get to walk immoderate clip and benignant of dissect it pinch you. If group want to travel your journey, want to get successful touch, are you an ex-guy from your clip astatine Twitter? LinkedIn, what’s nan champion measurement to travel your travel and spot what mightiness beryllium coming next?

Guy Yalif:

[50:45] Would emotion to link connected LinkedIn. That is simply a awesome spot to get together and proceed nan conversation. And Scott, acknowledgment for having me. It’s an awesome conversation. I enjoyed it a bunch.

Scott Barker:

[50:55] Amazing. Well, I admit you. And to each our listeners, acknowledgment for tuning successful this week. I opportunity it each week, but now listening is 1 thing, executing thing wholly different. Hopefully it gave you immoderate ideas, tactics, strategies that you tin instrumentality into your ain organization. and we’ll spot you each adjacent week.