Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto): The Biggest Mistakes Startups Make When Scaling into Enterprises | E1115

Martin Gontovnikas, a.k.a Gonto, is a software engineer at heart who moved to the “dark side” to focus on Marketing. With this career transition, he found a way to combine his 2 passions by applying his “engineering thinking” model to Marketing. He is now a B2B SaaS Advisor to Vercel and Airbyte among others and Co-Founder & GP of Hypergrowth Partners. Previously, he was SVP of Marketing and Growth at Auth0. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:44) Entry Into the World of Growth (01:46) Lessons from 7 Years at Auth0 (03:48) Importance of Taking Risks (04:34) Creating a Culture of Risk-Taking (05:37) Learning from Failure (06:52) Essence of Growth (08:10) Role of Data in Growth (10:11) Budgeting for Big Swings (10:46) Timing the Introduction of a Growth Team (11:54) Building a Growth Team (14:07) First Impression in Product-Led Growth (14:55) Integrating Growth Team in the Organization (16:00) When to Start Building a Growth Team (17:14) Role of Founder in Finding Product-Market Fit (18:41) Creating a First Impression in a PLG Motion (19:38) Designing Effective Product Tours (21:20) Addressing the Needs of Horizontal Products (22:41) Mastering Bottoms-Up Motion (32:03) Scaling in Enterprise and mastering Top-Down (37:03) Delivering Effective Demos (42:46) Challenge of High Cost Base & Low Revenue (44:39) Misunderstandings in Scaling to Enterprise (48:09) Role of CTMO in Marketing & Product Alignment (54:06) Hiring & Embracing Diverse Perspectives (01:02:57) Learning from Growth Tactic Mistakes (01:05:53) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto): 1. From No Idea to Growth Leader: How Gonto made his way into the world of growth when it was not a thing? What does Gonto know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of growth? Why does Gonto believe product and marketing is more important than sales and marketing? 2. Growth: What, When and Who: What is growth? What is it not? What do people misunderstand most with growth? When is the right time to hire your first growth person? What is the right profile for the right first growth hire? Junior? Senior? 3. Mastering PLG and Enterprise: What are the single biggest mistakes startups make when scaling into enterprise? Why does Gonto believe that all PLG companies should start with 6-8 design partners? Is it possible to do enterprise and PLG at the same time? How does one provide enough value in a PLG motion to convert enterprise buyers? 4. Data vs Intuition: Art vs Science: Is growth more art or science? Why does Gonto believe qualitative data is more important than quantitative? How does Gonto think about psychology when selling and marketing? What do so few startups? understand about the psychology of their customers? How does Gonto approach messaging and what is truly great product marketing? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Martin Gontovnikas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mgonto Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #harrystebbings #20vc #venturecapital #business #podcast #youtuber #gonto #martingontovnikas #hypergrowth #marketing #auth0 #software #founderstories #founder #vercel #airbyte