“I turn the ringer off on my phone and ignore all email unless it comes from someone I already know very, very well.”

During our Go-To-Market Product Showcase last week, we hosted a candid panel conversation about the reality senior GTM operators face: they are literally inundated with requests for intros and product demos. Here’s what top leaders and buyers from Databricks, Airtable, Orrick, Invisible, Heard, and Entrust said about what works, and what doesn’t.

Outbound that works

The ONLY successful outbound attempts came through trusted referrals. Full stop. One of our Operator LPs at a billion+ company said that she took exactly two introductions in the last 12-18 months (one was from us, and that company is in a POC 😊). OpCo PortCo Common Room's founder & CEO Linda Lian shared that email reply rates went from 10% a decade ago to sub 1% today, and call connect rates have dropped from 30% to around 2.5% today.

Getting budget approved

Every single leader mentioned having to retire 2 tools to buy 1 new one. The consolidation phase is real. Your ROI case better be bulletproof because they're asking "what existing solution are you replacing?"

Build vs buy

A split here, but many enterprise companies default to building first - and will often take a startup intro just to see what kinds of useful features are out there. Everyone experiments extensively before committing, and expects to churn most tools they are trying.

The AI reality check

"AI isn't working in the enterprise right now" was one hot take. Why? Data infrastructure problems, not model problems. The transformation isn't about fine-tuning models - it's about getting the right context to the AI.

What actually influences them

Peer networks and trusted connections over everything else. Internal email lists, hackathons where they test tools hands-on, and small dinner events with 8-12 carefully curated attendees and stellar content (if you can get them there that is; they are, as you might imagine, inundated with dinner invites). LinkedIn influencer posts? "Just noise."

No champion, no sale

The message for founders: stop spray-and-pray outbound. Start building genuine relationships with folks who can refer you when the timing is right. Your product demo means nothing without a champion inside the organization, and especially for enterprise, knowing how to identify, navigate, and build relationships with multiple stakeholders within the organization.

A huge thank you to Orrick for partnering with us, SVB for hosting us, and to our incredible Operators for keeping it real - as always! -Harini Gokul, Heather Akuiyibo, Jules Gsell, Angela Winegar, Cait Keohane, Kristin Kaiser Mulligan, Ellen Ehrenpreis, and our fantastic moderator and Founder in Residence, Kieran Snyder.