The Search For Growth

Alfie and Chris read a lot of newsletters. Here are some of our favorites and why you should subscribe to them. (01:33) Axios - A collection of newsletters across news, tech, and various industries (06:49) Not Boring - Deep dives into industries and his Weekly Dose of Optimism (10:46) Other VC Newsletters - Chamath, Marc Andreessen, Fred Wilson, Paul Graham (11:30) Matt Levine's Money Stuff - Learn complex topics in finance, law, and regulations easily  (15:23) Bits about Money - About modern financial infrastructure (16:31) The Diff - Inflections in finance and tech (17:29) Thomas Tunguz - Data-driven blog about startups (18:24) Climate newsletters - Build in Climate, CTVC, Keep Cool (18:57) Marketing Examples - Explaining how marketing works through screenshots (19:50) Wait But Why - Long-form content on our past, present, and future. Other: Morning Brew The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

Alfie (and Chris) listen to a lot of podcasts. Here are some of our favorites and why you should subscribe to them. (02:59) Nathan Latka - Evaluating bootstrapped founders' numbers (09:04) Conversations with Tyler - Interviewing smart people with specificity (15:08) Tim Ferriss - Daily habits of top performers (16:21) Hacks to read non-fiction books quickly (20:06) Founders - Book summaries so you don't have to read them (22:01) Misc - Men In Blazers, The Pod has Spoken Other All In Knowledge Project The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

On today’s episode, we are joined by an incredible sales leader, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience in the field. After starting his career in sales, he went on to found the highly successful sales training and coaching firm, Vorsight, in 2005. But that's not all - he also had the vision to build one of the first conversational intelligence platforms, making him an early competitor to the likes of Gong and Chorus. Later, he sold ExecVision to Mediafly and now serves as the SVP of Sales Excellence. In today's episode, we dive deep into his journey from employee to self-employed sales trainer, and the transition into running a successful service business that later became a software company. We cover everything from the life of a solopreneur to competing with the biggest names in the game and lessons learned from being acquired. (02:14) Starting an appointment-setting business (05:22) Idea behind conversational intelligence business  (09:42) Getting customers (12:01) Value of creating a training business - scaling your time (15:12) First hires, the first office (18:51) Pricing, revenue per month, margins (19:56) Building your own business with significant profitability (22:21) Building a curriculum (27:02) Why there is more to building a business than an exit (28:20) Building ExecVision and learnings from Vorsight (30:54) Value of a technical cofounder (34:18) Building two businesses at once (43:06) Splitting responsibilities with another cofounder (43:44) Process of acquisition (46:12) Learnings after acquisition - being so focused on product (51:51) Should salespeople build a software business or a service business (54:16) Don't be a destination island (55:13) Rapid-fire questions Steve Richard's LinkedIn Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Catcher in the Rye The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

On today’s show, we are joined by Will Ross the CEO & Co-Founder of Federato. After previously being an AI researcher at Stanford working on climate and atmospheric modeling, Will came up with the idea for Federato alongside his co-founder. They recently raised a $15M Series A in 2022 to help insurance carriers execute better decision-making at all levels of the underwriting process.   On today’s episode, we’re going to dive into how Federato was born, lessons from the insurance industry, and Will’s frameworks for entrepreneurs. (00:41) Federato origin story (03:33) Optimization vs classification (06:21) Meteorology and business at Stanford (09:46) How Federato helps insurance companies (16:54) Federato's MVP and first-paying customer (19:18) Targeting first customers (22:29) Why insurance companies can't do this themselves (24:03) Insurance sales hacks and using 10-ks (29:21) Pricing Federato (34:28) Federato's moat (36:32) Federato's "unreasonable hospitality"  culture   Will Ross' LinkedIn Federato Website Unreasonable Hospitality Double Blind The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

Kevin Blake is one of the top entertainers in the country. He’s a San Francisco Bay Area magician and mentalist who has been featured on America’s Got Talent and Penn and Teller’s Fool Us. You can watch him at his weekly show, the Illusionist at the Palace Theater (in San Francisco), or at his in-person and virtual corporate events. In addition to magic, he’s a big swimmer and has competed in the US Olympic Team trials twice in the 50 freestyle. In this episode, we discuss how Kevin got into magic, the business dynamics of magic, what it was like to perform on national tv, and his current performances. (00:44) Getting into magic (06:31) Ethical frameworks for mentalism (08:27) First time getting paid to do magic (09:34) Doing magic as a side-gig (11:49) Moving into magic full-time during COVID (16:43) How to get audience feedback to improve (17:15) Magician pricing and distribution strategies (19:01) Impact of VC on distribution (20:44) His ideal customer profile and personal brand (24:33) Magician competition (26:17) Where magicians make money (30:41) Where magicians buy tricks (35:10) How magicians spend their time (37:55) Are magicians lonely? (39:17) Going on America's Got Talent and Penn and Teller's Fool Us (47:44) Kevin's show the Illusionist at the Palace Theater in SF (49:26) Relationship with theater and producers in regard to distribution (52:54) Rapid fire - favorite books, advice that is incorrect in magic (56:36) Where to find Kevin Book Kevin for Corporate Events The Illusionist at the Palace Theater in SF  Favorite Books Absolute Magic by Derren Brown Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(01:16) Background (04:26) Learnings from his first startup (06:11) Finding co-founders (09:18) Learnings from Spendesk (12:03) Pitching tent framework (17:56) Defacto (23:31) Importance of distribution (30:05) Macro interest rate trends on Defacto (33:49) Defacto geography (34:29) Rapid fire questions - Favorite books, advice that is wrong Jordane Guily LinkedIn The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:55) First business in Toronto (03:12) Building a zero-emissions landscaping business (06:35) Value of door-to-door sales experience (08:32) Prospecting with LinkedIn, selling to CRO of Shopify (10:41) Using the Sphere of Influence in sales (14:05) Why the first 100 days of a new hire is so valuable in sales (18:05) Think of your CRM as an iceberg (22:51) The biggest problem in sales quota attainment (27:21) How relationship signals can give you insight into your customer success strategy (33:12) Top recommendations for SDRs (36:46) How to spot job changes, where Pipeline Signals gets its data (40:31) How data is insufficient. You need sales enablement to get the full value of relationship signals (43:22) Value of outsourced labor. Building multiple businesses at once (50:13) Why picking a lane in your career is important (52:54) Rapid fire questions - favorite books and advice that is wrong Jamie Shanks’ LinkedIn Pipeline Signals Sales for Life Get Levrg Books Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire Social Selling Mastery: Scaling Up Your Sales and Marketing Machine for the Digital Buyer SPEAR Selling: The ultimate Account-Based Sales guide for the modern digital sales professional The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:50) Starting at Beacon, a YC-backed crowdfunding journalism company (03:03) Pivoting to Chargehound (09:01) Using tech stack to get the idea for Chargehound, chargeback overview (13:53) Getting first YC customers (17:04) Identifying the correct types of customers (22:10) Identifying which is easier to sell to - customers using alternatives or ones without a solution (27:53) Leveling sales up over time (28:33) Distribution strategy and using puppies as a marketing hack at a conference (36:48) Getting acquired by PayPal - timeline, process (39:29) Getting ideas for new companies (42:20) Hiring insights (44:13) Challenges at Chargehound (45:44) Rapid fire questions - Books and pieces of advice   Pallavi Kuppa-Apte's LinkedIn Chargehound Books Mentioned The Messy Middle Making of a Manager When Breath Becomes Air The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:00) Remembering vs Experiencing Self - What is it (03:22) Peak-End Rule (05:29) Duration Neglect (14:36) Emotion in Demos (20:14) Why Journaling is Important Books Mentioned Thinking Fast and Slow The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:00) Intro - Daniel Kahneman Thinking Fast and Slow (00:58) Defining System 1 and System 2 (04:22) Cognitive friction (06:23) Pattern matching in sales and hiring (07:36) System 1 as heuristics (08:34) System 2 takes energy (10:05) Narrow vs broad framing (12:19) Narrow framing in life and the availability heuristic (15:24) Framing when making business decisions (19:45) Framing in sales (23:58) B2C as System 1, B2B as System 2 implications (29:56) Interplay between System 1 and System 2 - illusions and traps (31:38) Loss aversion and EV (34:12) The biggest competition in sales is the status quo Books Mentioned Thinking Fast and Slow The Chimp Paradox The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:00) Intro - Founder & CEO @Lempire, Guillaume Moubeche (01:33) Growing up in Paris, first business (3:55) Starting a business with his dad (10:22) Raising $30m as a publicity stunt (15:07) Reasons for bootstrapping (16:53) Quickly profitable, early strong growth (19:36) Using community as a strategy (24:31) Deciding to take VC (29:25) Mission, narratives, and stories (36:35) Financially supporting himself in France while bootstrapping (42:42) How to measure success (45:59) Pressure of last 12 months (51:20) What's next (52:44) Rapid fire questions - books, advice Guillaume Moubeche Twitter Guillaume Moubeche LinkedIn Lemlist YouTube The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:53) Wavelength Overview (02:09) The Idea - How to better map user networks using organization data (06:02) Why Wavelength was bootstrapped (07:55) Reason for alumni networks. Importance of donations (10:37) Why Wavelength focused on data. What it does with the data (14:47) Why focus on schools (17:17) Problem of focusing on product vs distribution (19:55) Colleges vs high schools. Endowments and how they work (27:52) Importance of domain expertise (32:06) Cofounder dynamic (39:43) First customer strategy (45:30) Motivation of building Wavelength. (53:29) Major takeaways Wavelength The Search For Growth Podcast Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory Alfie's Newsletter "Rocket GTM" Chris' Newsletter "Content I Consumed" Alfie's LinkedIn Chris' LinkedIn

(00:00) Intro to Alexa (04:15) When did Alexa know she wanted to be an entrepreneur  (06:20) Problems experienced at Dataminr that inspired Pocus (08:30) Stanford's "Lean Launchpad" program designed to help you launch your idea (12:15) How to choose your co-founder (20:30) Only 2.4% of VC money went to solely female founders. Alexa's tips for female founders (24:30) Importance of having the right people on your cap table (30:10) Community driven category creation (33:30) Category creation

In today's episode we discuss generative AI: (1:33) Generative AI - What it is, how it works (7:31) Market landscape (13:18) Data vs models (28:22) Text vs images vs video - Where are we with generative AI across data types (33:47) How will AI impact interviews, art (39:23) Natural language interfaces and how work will evolve (45:17) Dynamic content - video games and sales (49:16) Cool AI companies Chris Gibson - Founder of Wavelength LinkedIn Twitter Newsletter Alfie Marsh - Head of US Go-To-Market at Spendesk LinkedIn Newsletter The Search For Growth website www.thesearchforgrowth.com Episode links discussed Sequoia Generative AI: A Creative New World Sequoia Market Map - See here for complete list of companies discussed Ben's Bites

(00:00) Intro  (00:50) Feedback from listeners (03:00) Podcast starts - intro to Alfie's journey (06:00) Three takeaways  (06:30) Customer Development vs Acquisition Go-To-Market motions (14:00) Who to send abroad for international expansions (16:00) Speed of feedback (18:15) Identifying whether you're lacking PMF vs Go-To-Market fit (20:00) The email we used to get our first 50 customers (21:45) Leveraging your strengths to finding your first customers (24:00) The PSP framework to pivots: Product / Segmentation /Positioning  (27:50) How to know which pivots you need to make (29:00) The flaws of A/B testing (33:00) Framework for learning: 70% doing 20% self-directed 10% asking others (34:50) The cook vs chef dynamic (37:00) Why Chris disagrees with the 70/20/10 learning framework (40:00) Context of advice is more important than the advice itself (42:00) Customer development process in more detail (43:00) Three key takeaways of the pod  (43:30) Links to newsletters and where to find us (The email that got us our first 50 customers) (Four Steps to an Epiphany) (The chef vs cook principle) 

(00:00) Intro  (01:40) Feedback from listeners (03:55) Best books on storytelling for entrepreneurs  (05:20) Chris' company Wavelength (06:40) Storytelling basics (09:10) The 7 part framework summary (11:00) How to use the framework in your own story (13:10) The Hero has a problem (22:55) Everyone needs a villain (26:50) The Hero vs The Guide: How Jay-Z messed this up with Tidal (30:55) Guide offers a plan (40:00) Demonstrate the consequences of failure: Superbowl Ad example (46:00) The promised land  (47:35) Our newsletters In todays episode we discuss seven key takeaways from the book Storybrand and how you can build a strategic narrative for your startup. The framework we’ll be discussing is as follows: A Hero has a problem who meets a guide and gives them a plan which compels them to act and helps them avoid failure which ends in success Resources discussed (Storybrand) https://www.amazon.com/Building-StoryBrand-Clarify-Message-Customers/dp/0718033329/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=IRR035L975GP&keywords=storybrand+donald+miller&qid=1669675221&sprefix=storybrand%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFRU09BMkwxM0NGTUwmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA3MTkyMTU4SEpMR1Y5U0M0V1ImZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDA5MzQ1OTJKRkc4MTY4TVo5S0Imd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl (Crossing the Chasm) https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=crossing+the+chasm&qid=1669675152&sr=8-1 (Traction) https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Guide-Getting-Customers/dp/0976339609/ref=sr_1_4?crid=21BEYZOZ9B04K&keywords=traction&qid=1669675180&sprefix=traction%2Caps%2C220&sr=8-4&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.08f69ac3-fd3d-4b88-bca2-8997e41410bb (Alfie's Newsletter)  https://alfiemarsh212.substack.com/ (Chris' Newsletter) https://chrisgibson.substack.com/

In today's episode we discuss tech layoffs: (01:33) Layoffs.fyi database on who's laying people off (02:50) Why tech layoffs are happening - inflation, interest rates, covid, war  (06:00) Interest rates impact on investors  (07:00) Net Present Value of future cash flows (08:00) Powerball lottery example (10:25) How tech startups dealt with the changing landscape (11:20) Extending runway (13:00) Good & bad examples of layoffs (14:15) Stripe's memo on laying off staff (16:13) Should CEOs have been able to predict the market and prevent over hiring (20:40) The financial decision behind joining a startup (23:00) How joining a startup now could make you rich (24:15) Is Elon the new Steve Jobs (27:30) Impact of layoffs for H1-B visa holders (30:35) Tips for finding a new job Alfie Marsh - Head of US Go-To-Market at Spendesk (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfie-marsh-0a435a69/ (Newsletter) http://www.rocketgtm.co/ Chris Gibson - Founder of Wavelength (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgibson14/ (Twitter) https://twitter.com/chggib (Newsletter) https://chrisgibson.substack.com/ The Search For Growth website www.thesearchforgrowth.com Episode links discussed https://layoffs.fyi/ (Stripe's memo on layoffs) https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/ceo-patrick-collisons-email-to-stripe-employees (Openview's 2022 Benchmark Report) https://openviewpartners.com/2022-saas-benchmarks-report/ (Techcrunch article for H1-B visa holders) https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/answers-for-h-1b-workers-whove-been-laid-off-or-think-they-might-be/

In today's episode, we interview Evan Gelfand. Evan’s LinkedIn Super F**king Simple event page This election's proposition guide Evan Gelfand is the founder of Super F**king Simple, an organization that simplifies civic engagement by hosting events to discuss contentious topics.  He started it in 2018 as a nonpartisan way for voters to make sense of city and statewide ballots. On October 25th, they had their Super F*cking Simple ballot event at Manny's, a community and learning cafe in the Mission in San Francisco. In addition to building Super F**king Simple, Evan is the Head of Experience at Mystery, an employee engagement platform that builds connection through curated virtual experiences. Previously, he was a Chief of Staff within YouTube. On this episode we talk about: How ballot propositions work Why voting on ballot propositions is important The only way to change the outcome of a proposition Simplifying complex and contentious propositions The challenge with ballot guides What Evan learned over the last four years of organizing the event The importance of non-partisan conversations How Super F**king Simple could be used as a safe place to discuss other contentious topics like climate change How influencers are leveraged to encourage people to vote Understanding financial incentives behind politics Evan’s favorite books and other quick-fire questions Links & resources discussed on the pod The Search For Growth Receive short video clips and summaries for each episode via our newsletter here For everything else, check out our website Alfie Marsh: Head of US Go-To-Market at Spendesk Alfie’s newsletter Rocket GTM 🚀 Alfie’s LinkedIn Chris Gibson: Founder of Wavelength Chris’ newsletter Content I Consumed Chris’ LinkedIn

The Search For Growth is brought to you by: Alfie Marsh (Head of US Go-To-Market at Spendesk and founder of Rocket GTM newsletter) Chris Gibson (Founder of Wavelength) Like short video snippets with the key points? Sign up to our newsletter. For everything else go to our website. ———————————————————— In todays episode we discuss Morgan Housel’s book “The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness” Feedback from listeners about our last episode Why we chose the name “The Search For Growth” Why Chris loved this book Summary of key takeaways (see details below) Announcements ———————————————————— Summary of key takeaways: 1. No one’s crazy People who make financial decisions based on their own personal context, it may relevant to them, but it may not be relevant to you. Chris & Alfie give examples of how they and their wives handle money differently. VCs investment during a 0% rate environment compared to normal times. 2. Compounding is important $81.5bn of Warren Buffet’s wealth came after his 65 birthday. Impressive things are achieved through compounding small habits over long periods of time. 1% improvements over step function growth. 3. Be financially unbreakable Making good investments is not about good decisions, it's about consistently not screwing up. Be financially unbreakable. Stick around long enough to make wonders happen. Planning is important but assume things won’t go to plan. How VC firms are set up asymmetrically for success and default unbreakable. De-risking the downside. 4. Power Law You can be wrong a lot of the time and still make a fortune. 65% of companies within a fund lost money, 2.5% made 10-20x, 1% made 20x, and 0.5% made >20x. Therefore, you can lose a lot, but still come out on top. Optimize for exposure to opportunity. Meeting one person can change your life, optimize for the long term exposure not short term. 5. Freedom Controlling your time is the highest dividend money can pay. Tim Ferris’ “4 Hour Work Week”. The highest form of wealth is being able to choose how you spend your time. The problem with the story about the rich banker and the fisherman. The hedonic treadmill problem. Trades off between bootstrapping vs venture backed startups. 6. Reasonable over rational decisions Better to be mostly reasonable than coldly rational. Being reasonable doesn’t always mean rational, example choosing stocks you enjoy following may not be the best financial decision but it’ll keep you in the game long enough to learn how to execute a good strategy. 7. Beware of taking financial cues from people playing a different game  Example, momentum traders trading the tech stock boom. The danger of advice without context. Searching for context not advice. ———————————————————— Links & resources discussed on the pod. Our website - The Search For Growth Alfie’s newsletter - Rocket GTM 🚀 The Woof Gang Shop - Bow ties for dogs

On this week's episode we discuss: Lessons from burnout  The CAM Framework for dealing with underperformance  Trident Skillsets - why UFC fighter Conor McGregor is so unique Why "Motivation Stories" are a powerful tool in enduring hardship How personality traits guide career choice Your hosts Chris Gibson: Founder @ Wavelength Alfie Marsh: Head of US GTM @ Spendesk

Rocket GTM is brought to you by  Alfie Marsh (Head of US Go-To-Market at Spendesk and founder of Rocket GTM newsletter)  Chris Gibson (Founder of Wavelength) In todays episode we discuss:  Annie Duke's book called "How To Decide" and taking lessons from poker into the startup world  How Chris view's professional poker playing as an analogy for starting a company Chris' journey across the 3,000 mile Continental Divide Trail and how the lessons he learned apply to company building How Spendesk used fake WIFI to hack a startup event