December 17, 2024

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

53 minutes

Guy Yalif is a seasoned B2B SaaS executive with over 20 years of go-to-market experience. As the co-founder and CEO of Intellimize (acquired by Webflow), Guy brings a unique perspective from his journey through iconic companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, as well as his background in aerospace engineering. Guy holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Discussed in this Episode:

Learnings from each major company in Guy's 20+ leadership career: Microsoft, Tradeweave (first employee and executive committee), Yahoo, Twitter, BrightRoll and Intellimize.
Building 'opinionated products' and the importance of customer intimacy
Lessons learned from scaling Twitter's ad business from zero to $650 million in three years.
The challenges and rewards of founding and growing a startup for nine years.
Strategies for building relationships with PR outlets, reporters, and analysts.

Highlights:
(5:22) The power of customer intimacy in product development.
(15:41) Scaling Twitter's ad business and managing hyper-growth.
(26:54) The existential dread of being a startup founder.
(37:56) Building relationships with PR outlets and reporters.
(45:40) Debunking the myth of sacrificing personal life for startup success.
(49:07) The effectiveness of small group events in go-to-market strategies.
(31:55) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Guy thinks is bull$***
(49:07) One thing that is working for Guy in go-to-market right now.

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

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: 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 all major directories): https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/

Resource we Recommend:

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The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

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