The GTM Engineer Podcast

In today's episode, I chat with Eishan Deshwal, GTM operator and consultant, about working with Series A to Series C startups experiencing growing pains - account territory mapping, data validity, CRM cleanliness - taking full ownership of projects rather than just advising, and segmenting by pain (Sandler sales philosophy: disqualify first) rather than static personas. 

We explore his creative Firecrawl campaign scraping privacy policy update dates from websites (getting 92% coverage after failing with AI agents that hallucinated and hitting bot protection walls), and his Doc.us campaign layering customer and prospect logos onto product screenshots using DynaPictures - testing "effort as a proxy for trust" by sending a clean-up email first before the image email to avoid bouncing image-heavy messages. Eishan shares his journey from engineering student in 2022 reading sales books on Reddit's r/sales list, interning at Trika Equity where he first saw CSV-to-HubSpot sequences generate deal flow ("free money"), using cold email to land his first job at Safety Wing (Y Combinator), going founding SDR at Hatika to learn email deliverability (DKIM, SPF, CNAME), joining Remote.com and realizing bad data kills velocity everywhere regardless of team size, and going fully freelance to help teams fix data quality - working with people like Brendan Short (Signal newsletter). He predicts GTM engineers will keep growing because startups want velocity over titles, tooling will shift toward terminal-based LLMs with interoperable context-saving across different models (lower cost, faster calls, deterministic results), and everything eventually becomes SaaS because someone always needs to maintain the code. Eishan's advice: if you're from sales, automate things inside your own company first; if you're new, start small with projects that eliminate annoyances, jump into Clay's Slack answering support questions, and stay curious about edge cases - slightly better reliability compounds into something game-changing. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards 
(00:54) What a GTM Operator Does: Ownership Over Expertise 
(02:09) Segmenting by Pain (Sandler Sales Philosophy) 
(04:28) Creative Campaign: Firecrawl for Privacy Policy Update Dates 
(07:01) Doc.us Campaign: Layering Logos onto Screenshots (Effort as Proxy for Trust) 
(09:45) Journey: Engineering Student, Reddit r/Sales Reading List 
(10:55) Interning at Trika Equity ("Send Emails, Get Money") 
(11:48) Landing First Job at Safety Wing via Cold Email 
(12:09) Founding SDR at Hatika: Learning Email Deliverability Deeply 
(13:09) Remote.com: Bad Data Kills Velocity Everywhere 
(14:30) Going Fully Freelance to Fix Data Quality 
(15:27) Future Prediction: GTM Engineers Here for the Long Term 
(16:12) Interoperable Terminal-Based LLMs Replacing Locked Paradigms 
(18:49) Everything Becomes SaaS Because Code Needs Maintaining 
(19:25) Advice: Automate Inside Your Own Company First 
(20:39) Jump into Clay's Slack, Answer Stranger's Questions 
(21:14) Stay Curious About Edge Cases and Slightly Better Reliability 
(22:09) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH EISHAN

👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Shawn, GTM engineer at RevPartners, about being their first GTME hire to build an all-bound motion alongside their core RevOps/HubSpot practice - serving both early-stage companies needing email infrastructure before their first SDR hire and mature companies sitting on goldmines of unactioned CRM data. 

We explore his champion tracking play pulling Salesforce opportunities to check if past champions moved companies (auto-sending Slack notifications to reps saying "your champion moved, reach out today"), his web reveal play de-anonymizing website visitors via Midbound/Vector, sending data to Clay via webhook to qualify and enrich in real time, and cross-referencing visitors against target account lists to identify high-intent patterns months later. Shawn shares his remarkable journey from running a plumbing company with his father for 10 years, moving to Israel and pivoting into tech, landing at hyper-growth DealHub as an SDR under mentor Jeremy Levine, consistently hitting quota through cold calling and mining old Salesforce records for low-hanging fruit, learning Clay through Nathan Lippe's Clay Bootcamp course one year ago, posting his learning journey on LinkedIn, taking a founding BDR role to get a clean-slate experience, coaching startups one-on-one on Clay implementation, and eventually joining RevPartners where he's now operationalizing playbooks and hiring the next wave of GTMEs. He predicts the future is about better signal quality, cleaner CRM feedback loops, and AI used for reasoning not just generation - with SDRs and RevOps people best positioned to win because they already understand business logic and just need the technical leverage. Shawn's advice: build your own HubSpot motion, push data live, break things and fix them - you don't become a GTM engineer by watching videos, you become one by shipping things. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards 
(00:30) What RevPartners Does: RevOps + All-Bound Motion 
(01:37) The Process: Building Email Infrastructure Before First SDR Hire 
(02:53) Creative Campaign: Alumni Champion Tracking Play 
(05:51) Web Reveal Play: De-Anonymizing Website Visitors in Real Time 
(07:28) Cross-Referencing Website Visitors Against Target Account Lists 
(09:00) Clay Gets Stereotyped as a Cold Email Tool (It's Much More) 
(09:56) Journey: 10 Years Running a Plumbing Company 
(10:19) Moving to Israel, Pivoting to SDR at DealHub 
(11:15) Hitting Quota by Mining Old Salesforce Records 
(12:27) Learning Clay Through Nathan Lippe's Clay Bootcamp 
(13:09) Coaching Startups One-on-One After Leaving Founding BDR Role 
(14:10) Joining RevPartners as First GTME Hire 
(15:44) Future Prediction: Signal Quality, CRM Feedback Loops, AI for Reasoning 
(16:29) SDRs Best Positioned to Win (Business Logic + Technical Leverage) 
(17:44) Advice: Build Your Own Motion, Ship Things, Break and Fix Them 
(19:24) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH SHAWN

👥 LinkedIn
💻 Website

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Olivier, founder and CEO of Outbound Catalyst, about building sustainable GTM systems for B2B SaaS companies ($1M-$15M ARR) starting with a go-to-market scan to diagnose actual constraints before launching evergreen campaigns in 14 days. 

We explore his creative Clay table for construction companies that scraped websites to semantically categorize sub-verticals (swimming pool builders vs general contractors vs gardeners), scored digital maturity, and generated hyper-local copy referencing nearby clients - and his event-based campaign scraping LinkedIn for SaaS conference keywords and auto-connecting with attendees at near 100% acceptance rate. Olivier shares his journey from discovering commercial fluency during a Romanian IT internship, prospecting via phone (calling 50-60 people in two days to find what resonates), using Lemlist to automate follow-ups while calling engagers, outperforming entire 5-person SDR teams by booking 20 meetings weekly alone, realizing companies always want closers but never have pipeline systems, and finally starting Outbound Catalyst in late 2023 after seeing Clay multiply his leverage. He predicts end-to-end automation of list building in five years (only true engineers who understand full systems will remain), warns against thousand-node n8n workflow FOMO (like Instagram six-pack abs giving companies "AI image issues"), and says winners always start with the constraint not the tool. Olivier's advice: stop asking "how can I use this tool?" and start asking "what is actually costing me time and creating real business impact?" 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards 
(00:33) What Outbound Catalyst Does: GTM Systems for SaaS ($1M-$15M ARR) 
(02:14) The Process: Go-To-Market Scan Before Launching Campaigns 
(03:27) Creative Campaign: Semantic Sub-Vertical Categorization for Construction 
(05:46) Event-Based Campaign: LinkedIn Keyword Scraping for SaaS Conference 
(07:35) Rebuilding Trigify's Core Functionality Without the Tool 
(09:07) Journey: Romanian Internship, Discovering Commercial Fluency 
(10:21) Prospecting via Phone (50-60 Calls, Then Putting It in Email) 
(12:03) Outperforming 5-Person SDR Teams Booking 20 Meetings Weekly Alone 
(13:11) Realizing Companies Need Pipeline Systems Before Salespeople 
(14:18) Starting Outbound Catalyst in Late 2023 After Discovering Clay 
(17:01) Future Prediction: List Building Fully Automated in Five Years 
(18:30) Warning Against Thousand-Node n8n Workflow FOMO 
(20:54) Advice: Start With the Constraint, Not the Tool 
(22:34) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH OLIVIER
 
👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Anirudh Gupta, a GTM engineer at Instantly, about heading outbound by sending 10,000+ emails daily with thousands of replies handled by AI Reply Agent, launching VIP done-for-you campaigns, and building internal apps using Cursor to help sales reps close deals. 

We explore his intent-based approach focusing on new role signals (best performer because people need to prove something), scraping entire TAM from Apollo/Crunchbase/Clutch, doubling down on lead magnets and short two-liners after testing, and his philosophy of sending 5,000-10,000 emails minimum before drawing conclusions. Anirudh shares his lead magnet framework breaking services into microservices (give lead list free to create demand for infrastructure and sequences), automating creation with n8n/SERPA/Perplexity API, using pain-point CTAs like "if price is right, would you sell?" instead of "can we get on a call?" (worst CTA unless you're Elon Musk), and his journey from viral LinkedIn post (3-4M impressions) to ghostwriting, discovering cold email while searching for lead gen, starting with 50-60 emails daily, closing Confluencer (India's biggest influencer marketing agency), pivoting after high churn, learning Clay from Eric Nowoslawski's YouTube, failing badly for first clients, joining RevGen Labs as junior GTM engineer and leaving as head of GTM, and posting Udemy courses not for revenue but client inquiries. Anirudh's advice: focus on volume and relevance over crazy personalizations, break services into microservices for scalable lead magnets, and test minimum 5-10K emails. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:25) Anirudh's Role at Instantly: Heading Outbound
(02:14) Testing Creative Angles at High Volume
(04:02) Scraping Entire TAM from Multiple Directories
(06:17) Fully Automated New Role Workflow
(09:06) Building Internal Apps with Cursor
(12:11) Copy Testing: Pain-Point CTAs vs Lead Magnets
(14:25) Lead Magnet Framework: Breaking Services into Microservices
(19:15) Three Types of Sequences Tested
(22:19) Test Minimum 5-10K Emails Before Conclusions
(23:08) Journey: Viral LinkedIn Post to Ghostwriting
(26:03) Closing Confluencer and Hitting Stagnation
(28:43) RevGen Labs: Junior to Head of GTM
(29:32) Posting Courses on Udemy for Client Inquiries

🔗 CONNECT WITH ANIRUDH
 
👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW
 If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Youssef, a GTM engineer, about automations that drive revenue beyond just outbound - including pre-call prep, automatic CRM updates, and reducing no-shows with AI calls 15 minutes before appointments. 

We explore his creative campaigns for a German web agency targeting health professionals by scraping Google Maps data with SerperDev API, testing personalized outreach with reviews that flopped initially (2-3% reply rate), pivoting to automated videos (10% reply rate, 30-40% positive), and his brilliant forwarded email simulation from the founder's dentist dad asking colleagues to check out their work - getting so many positive replies they had to stop because they couldn't handle volume. Youssef shares his evergreen automation workflow monitoring Gmail newsletters like TFN for recently-raised startups, using N8N to parse company names and funding proof, sending data to Clay via webhook to waterfall domain verification (Clearbit, SerperDev), finding founders on LinkedIn, and automatically launching personalized campaigns with perfect timing, and his unconventional journey from French master's studying consulting (hating slide-making), joining Jellyfish running YouTube campaigns, moving to growth marketing at PayFit (HR unicorn), discovering outbound at fintech Silver before marketing got laid off, betting on AI to start his business, initially using Make (breaking every 2-3 days), switching to self-hosted N8N (zero operating costs), and discovering Clay by accident. He predicts 100% automation for signals and intent, the space evolving to sync inbound/outbound into one big marketing engine, and Clay becoming a real-time listening layer beyond just cold email. Youssef's advice: skip certifications, find a mission even for free because learning happens by doing - you gain experience faster when you're the only one responsible. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:26) What a GTM Engineer Does: Automations That Drive Revenue
(02:12) Use Cases Beyond Outbound: Reducing No-Shows with AI Calls
(03:04) The Process: Auditing Existing Stack Before Adding Tools
(04:25) Testing with 1K-2K Leads, Focusing on Deliverability First
(05:49) Creative Campaign: German Web Agency Targeting Health Professionals
(06:49) Scraping Google Maps with SerperDev API
(07:56) Initial Campaign Flopped (2-3% Reply Rate)
(08:44) Automated Videos Increased to 10% Reply Rate
(09:46) Forwarded Email Simulation from Founder's Dentist Dad
(11:52) Evergreen Automation: Monitoring TFN Newsletter for Raised Startups
(13:05) N8N to Clay Webhook, Waterfall Domain Verification
(15:17) Journey: French Master's, Consulting (Hating Slide-Making)
(16:26) Jellyfish Display/Video, PayFit Growth Marketing
(17:06) Discovering Outbound at Silver Before Marketing Layoffs
(18:29) Self-Hosting N8N/NoCodeDB (Zero Operating Costs)
(19:27) Discovering Clay by Accident with Client
(20:39) Future Prediction: 100% Automated Signals and Intent
(22:06) Clay Evolving Beyond Outbound (Real-Time Listening Layer)
(23:42) Advice: Skip Courses, Find Free Mission and Learn by Doing
(24:36) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH YOUSSEF

👥 LinkedIn
💻 Portfolio Website

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW
 If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Parth Nagda, founder at Valcat.co, about pivoting from lead gen company to GTM engineering agency after realizing lead gen is never sustainable with limited scope and impact - now plugging in fractional GTM engineers into B2B SaaS companies (HR tech, FinTech) to solve deeper GTM problems beyond email outreach by looking at website visitor data, analytics on what campaigns worked, and subject line performance across 10-20 segments simultaneously. 

We explore his process reaching entire TAM in under three months using three-step cadences (email, cold calling, LinkedIn), scoring prospects based on look-alike criteria to last 10 wins or new leadership positions (pushing top 10-20% to LinkedIn and cold calling), launching 8-15 campaigns by month two including evergreen workflows and niche segments like people evaluating competitor tools in last 90 days, and sharing insights between day 60-90 like "you thought 200-500 employees in APAC was ideal but actual highest demand is 500-1000 in US" - becoming a better company because you understand who buys and why. Parth shares his creative campaign offering free custom leads plus the Clay table walking prospects through the mini GTM engine they built so they could push in more qualified leads with signal hits, getting tons of responses and becoming overbooked (missing replies for 4-5 days, violating the golden 30-minute reply rule), and his unconventional journey as founding SDR at Attentive (cyber security company), scaling from zero revenue to $1.5M with his team over two years, quitting on his 25th birthday wanting to do it for himself, starting directionless as lead gen company for few months realizing any agency could do this with maybe an edge on copy, implementing Clay and RevOps tools for seed-stage technical founders not thinking GTM-first, and shifting from booking meetings to engineering outcomes and enabling sales teams. He predicts production getting so easy that GTM teams will build custom solutions inspired by Clay rather than copy solutions for everyone, products mattering less over time because competitive features can be replicated by lunch, and the only winning strategy being very strong GTM to catch customers in their tracks when any digital cookie/trail/signal hits pointing to solution needs. Parth's advice: stop YouTube binge watching tutorials after one clear video (you don't need 5-6 courses), get your first client even free or make yourself the client, build automation for yourself like an n8n bot tracking every GTM engineering opening worldwide that automatically reaches out - help yourself first then you'll be good enough to help others. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:27) What Valcat Does: Pivoting from Lead Gen to GTM Engineering
(02:34) The Process: Reaching Entire TAM in Under Three Months
(03:39) Three-Step Cadences: Email, Cold Calling, LinkedIn
(04:19) Scoring Logic Based on Look-Alike Criteria and New Leadership
(05:31) Launching 8-15 Campaigns by Month Two
(07:45) Insights Between Day 60-90: Who Actually Buys and Why
(08:24) Creative Campaign: Offering Free Custom Leads Plus Clay Table
(09:33) Getting Overbooked, Missing 30-Minute Reply Golden Rule
(10:10) Golden Rule for Outbound: Give First, Give Value
(10:25) Journey: Founding SDR at Attentive (Cyber Security)
(11:01) Scaling Zero Revenue to $1.5M Over Two Years
(11:38) Quitting on 25th Birthday, Starting Directionless
(12:30) Realizing Lead Gen Has No Edge Beyond Copy
(13:07) Consulting Seed-Stage Founders Not Thinking GTM-First
(14:50) Future Prediction: GTM Teams Building Custom Solutions
(16:00) Products Matter Less, Competitive Features Replicated by Lunch
(16:35) Only Winning Strategy: Catching Digital Trails and Signal Hits
(17:51) Advice: Stop YouTube Binge, Get First Client (Even Free)
(18:37) Make Yourself the Client, Build Automation for Yourself
(19:18) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH PARTH
 
👥 LinkedIn
💻 Website 

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW
 If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Shubham Sharma, a GTM engineer at Outreachify (recognized as Clay key partners in India), about building scalable cold outbound systems across diversified clientele from agencies to SaaS companies to local businesses - focusing on finding message-market fit in the first 60 days by testing different ICPs and signals before introducing RevOps systems to repurpose and score existing leads once there's enough data. 

We explore his creative campaigns including an e-commerce client targeting German companies where he compared competitors' SEO performance and ad data to pitch beating their competitor's views, solving the web traffic data problem by using Apify's SimilarWeb scraper instead of expensive native integrations to build a 50-column table, and surviving an AWS crash that wiped validated emails from a 50,000-row table after credits were exhausted - experiencing the chaos of agency life beyond MRR screenshots. Shubham shares his unconventional journey running his own agency for two years with unsupportive peers questioning why he wasn't making money despite putting in effort, accidentally landing a full-time role after commenting on Harsh's Twitter post about the easiest 2025 job hunt strategy (get 14-day Clay trial, build workflows, post in Slack), his LinkedIn getting banned at that exact moment while he'd just bought X premium a week prior (everything was calculated), working for free for one month to learn before getting an offer in 18 days because his agency experience meant he understood fulfillment, lead generation, operations, and management - and being a third-year engineering dropout from commerce background with 6-7 backlogs who realized God was giving signs to do his own thing when Indian parents forced him into engineering during pre-COVID 2020 when Varun Mayya and Aman Dhattarwal were buzzing. He predicts cold email getting tougher eliminates competition and keeps only serious folks who understand GTM motion isn't just cold email but building complete orchestration from base to CRM automation connecting SDR, CS, product, and design teams - excited about one GTM engineer building entire scalable systems for companies like Sam Altman's prediction of one-billion-dollar one-person companies. Shubham's advice: go deep into Clay after learning basics and get hands dirty (no replacement for work ethic), focus on system building as the most powerful skill for companies, take responsibility and remove hours from founders to get rewarded, and remember skills can be taught but work ethic can't - degrees don't matter. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:25) What Outreachify Does: Scalable Cold Outbound Systems
(01:17) The Process: Finding Message-Market Fit in 60 Days
(03:17) Creative Campaign: E-commerce Competitor SEO Comparison
(04:17) Using Apify SimilarWeb Scraper (50-Column Table)
(06:01) Agency Life Story: AWS Crash Wiped 50K Validated Emails
(07:39) Journey: Running Agency for Two Years with Unsupportive Peers
(08:28) Accidentally Landing Full-Time Role via Harsh's Twitter Post
(09:27) LinkedIn Banned, Just Bought X Premium (Everything Calculated)
(10:10) Working Free for One Month, Offer in 18 Days
(11:17) Future Prediction: Tougher Space Eliminates Competition
(12:00) GTM Beyond Cold Email: Building Complete Orchestra
(13:00) One GTM Engineer Building Entire Scalable Systems
(13:21) Advice: Go Deep into Clay, Get Hands Dirty
(14:06) System Building as Most Powerful Skill
(15:46) Interruption: Engineering Dropout Story (6-7 Backlogs)
(16:17) Pre-COVID 2020, God Giving Signs to Do Own Thing
(17:10) Skills Can Be Taught, Work Ethic Can't
(17:37) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH SHUBHAM
 
👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW
 If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Supriya, a GTM engineer at Growth Today, about working across multiple niches providing Clay tables and B2B outbound services - recently generating 83 responses (30 positive) for a manufacturing client by combining AI-powered personalized copywriting with an incentive offer inviting manufacturers to share their journey in an interview, proving that valuing their time and providing upfront value makes campaigns work. 

We explore her approach building evergreen Clay campaigns for e-commerce clients that run automatically after one-time setup, saving what SDRs were doing manually, and her philosophy that winning campaigns depend on multiple factors (lead list, copy, table, targeting, ICP) not just the offer - reaching the right person with content that doesn't explain why they should invest time won't work. Supriya shares her unconventional journey from literature master's student to content writer freelancing in 2020, transitioning to email copywriting then inbox manager, joining Clay's cohort program, and now working with AI all day while bringing copywriting, sales ops (email deliverability, domain masking), and lead enrichment expertise - proving GTM engineering isn't just building Clay tables but understanding the entire B2B outbound ecosystem. She predicts Clay is the next HubSpot (every 20 years brings a revolution), Clay is only 3-4 years into its initial phase and will dominate for 5-10 years minimum, people wrongly connect GTM engineering only with Clay when it's the whole ecosystem, and real value comes from the whole mindset - comparing it to HubSpot specialists still working today and Salesforce/AWS spawning billion-dollar consulting ecosystems. Supriya's advice: learn B2B outbound basics first (different from email marketing), use Clay University resources and free community, join Clay cohorts for 2000 free credits, work on real projects with experienced people even unpaid if you're a beginner with no responsibilities (lifetime learning beats materials). 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:26) What Growth Today Does
(01:36) Real Client Story: 83 Responses for Manufacturing Client
(04:46) Evergreen Campaigns Saving SDR Time
(06:22) Journey: Literature Student to GTM Engineer
(09:33) Future Prediction: Clay is the Next HubSpot
(13:05) Real Value Beyond Clay Tables
(14:43) Advice: Learn B2B Outbound Basics First
(18:32) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH SUPRIYA

 👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW
 If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Vlada, a self-employed GTM engineer, about working with Clay and lead generation agencies to architect creative multi-channel outreach that's precise in segmentation rather than spray-and-pray - deciding between email, LinkedIn messages, or voice notes based on available prospect data and context. 

We explore her creative campaigns including the hardest table she ever built for a company offering US-trained legal talent offshore, using Court Listener (after extensive research to find a cost-effective tool) to scrape newly filed cases with private attorneys, pulling contact information and normalizing case names before launching outreach, and her experience working with small teams where she owned everything from finding tools and APIs to building flows versus large agencies where segmented work (client-facing person, copywriter, executor with playbook triggers) produced fewer results because execution requires understanding the whole interconnected process. Vlada shares her unconventional journey originally from Russia, moving to Italy nine years ago (applying for European passport next year), completing a master's in innovation and entrepreneurship at a top business school, getting offered great jobs but hitting visa sponsorship bottlenecks, returning to Milan and meeting a founder who brought her on as go-to-market manager 2-3 years ago when tools weren't as hot and reply rates on Instantly were much higher, starting freelancing after two founders split ways (not her decision), and learning most from individual clients and small teams while exploring tools beyond Clay and Instantly like Gumloop for automating LinkedIn posting and now building MCP agents. She predicts the timeline is weeks not years, Clay's Sculptor will improve eventually, individuals should explore Instagram DMs/Reddit/WhatsApp Business API and ask ChatGPT for differentiation strategies, companies face harder client acquisition and dropping email deliverability (except experts deeply in the space), LinkedIn voice notes are performing well now, and success means reaching the right person at the right time through creative architecture and exploring unknown APIs and undersaturated markets like the Emirates versus oversaturated American companies. Vlada's advice: don't be afraid - explore new tools, channels, and markets. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:25) What a Self-Employed GTM Engineer Does
(01:30) Rise of Independent GTM Engineers Supporting Agencies
(01:54) Creative Campaign: Court Listener for Newly Filed Legal Cases
(03:17) Emotional Attachment to Clay Tables (Putting in the Work)
(04:23) Finding Underrated Data Sources Nobody Else Uses
(04:40) Small Teams vs Big Teams (Ownership vs Segmented Work)
(05:22) Why Segmented Work Produces Fewer Results
(06:15) Three Pillars: Lead List, Email Infrastructure, Copy
(06:39) Real-Time Data Over Apollo (Right People at Right Time)
(07:25) Journey: From Russia to Italy Nine Years Ago
(07:51) Master's in Innovation, Visa Sponsorship Bottlenecks
(08:11) Starting as Go-to-Market Manager (Tools Weren't Hot Yet)
(08:40) Freelancing After Founders Split Ways
(09:18) Exploring Tools Beyond Clay: Gumloop and MCP Agents
(10:25) Wanting More Than Just Automated Lead Generation
(11:05) Future Prediction: Timeline Is Weeks Not Years
(11:43) Clay Sculptor Will Improve Eventually
(11:57) Advice for Individuals: Learn New Tools and Channels
(12:28) Ask ChatGPT for Differentiation Strategies
(12:45) Companies Face Harder Client Acquisition and Dropping Deliverability
(13:07) LinkedIn Voice Notes Performing Well Now
(13:25) Don't Be Afraid of Unknown APIs and Markets
(14:00) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH VLADA

 👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW
 If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

In today's episode, I chat with Mark, about how Instantly grew from solving the "extra domain charges" problem in 2021 to becoming a bootstrapped household name sponsoring El Clasico alongside BMW and Nike - tripling client results, doubling ARR, and scaling from 3 to 10 GTM engineers in under six months by focusing on offer creation as the strongest psychological lever. 

We explore his creative campaigns including scraping German-speaking YouTube channels (spirituality coaches, niche content creators) by building a custom Python script that scraped channel URLs with Instant Data Scraper, extracted about section content overnight into a massive TXT file, converted to CSV, then enriched with Clay - and a Google 360 recording service retargeting campaign in Germany that generated 300 opportunities from 20K sends. Mark shares his unconventional journey changing three elementary schools, two high schools, and four universities across Croatia and Austria, moving to Vienna at 18 for his first sales recruiting event, going from college dropout to Oxford Brookes alum (top 15 digital marketing program) after a professor with a grudge failed him, training kickboxing professionally and fighting on TV at age 20 against a 27-year-old Austrian champion with 15 years experience (lost but conquered fear of worst-case scenarios), transitioning from phone sales to strategic campaign building at a Swiss AI startup, and starting his own agency that failed but enabled him to "fail forward" into GTM engineering. He predicts convenience and simplicity will dominate as complicated things become digestible for average users, AI tools become essential for processing ungodly amounts of data, and everything merges into a singularity where the GTM space follows the same physics as AI's general direction. Mark's gem: focus on offer creation - conduct business intelligence reports on competition/customers/pain points, synthesize mini offers that speak to recipient pinpoints (making them no-brainer replies), because offers optimized for cold traffic must be 10x better than warm traffic offers. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards
(00:26) What Instantly Does: Done-For-You Service Growth Story
(02:45) Scale Advantages and Team Growth (3 to 10 GTM Engineers)
(04:46) Sponsoring El Clasico Alongside BMW and Nike
(06:05) Education and Community as Retention Strategy
(07:14) Creative Campaign: Custom Python Script for YouTube Channel Scraping
(10:54) Google 360 Recording Service Campaign (300 Opportunities from 20K)
(12:24) Journey: Curious Kid Who Changed Three Schools
(13:54) First Sales Recruiting Event in Vienna at 18
(14:41) From College Dropout to Oxford Brookes Alum
(16:04) Starting Agency That Failed but Enabled "Failing Forward"
(17:11) Training Kickboxing Professionally and Fighting on TV
(18:01) Conquering Fear of Worst-Case Scenarios
(19:20) Future Prediction: Convenience, Simplicity, and Singularity
(21:40) Gem: Offer Creation as Strongest Psychological Lever
(23:11) Cold Traffic Offers Must Be 10x Better Than Warm Traffic
(25:10) Closing and Contact Information

🔗 CONNECT WITH MARK

 👥 LinkedIn

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

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👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH
 You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.