GTM Motions, Models, and Teams

GTM Motion Choice

1. Sales-led: Complex product, long sales cycle, high ACV.
   
2. Product-led (PLG): Users self-serve and find value before talking to sales.
   
3. Hybrid: Most modern enterprise startups go sales-led for senior buyers and offer self-serve trials and content to drive user adoption. 

Build the motion that aligns with how your customers want to buy, not how you wish they would.

Hire builders, not managers

The first GTM hires should mirror your best founder behaviors and provide leverage. They must be curious, scrappy, and comfortable with ambiguity. We recommend hiring one AE, one CSM, and one pure pipeline generator.

First GTM hire checklist

• Can they run discovery and demo independently?
• Do they understand the ICP and user pain?
• Have they sold in a startup (<$10M ARR) before?
• Would you trust them to represent your story on stage?

Organize for alignment

Hold a weekly GTM sync that includes product, sales, and marketing. Use a single shared metric (e.g., activation rate or pipeline coverage) to measure progress. The goal is a company that sells together, not a collection of departments.