We’ve watched the same moment play out across founder-led companies. It usually happens right after a board meeting.
Pipeline is “okay,” growth is “promising,” and the product demo still makes people lean forward. But the numbers are choppy. Forecasts feel like unpredictable weather. A few deals are doing all the work. And someone says the sentence that sounds obvious but is dangerously vague:
“We need GTM.”
Sometimes that means “hire sales.” Sometimes it means “marketing isn’t working.” Sometimes it means “customers aren’t getting value fast enough.” Sometimes it means “we have no idea who we win with.” Most of the time, it means all of the above—and the company is about to make a “big hire” that’s actually a bet on the wrong problem.
This is the first article in a series about GTM roles—not GTM as a concept, but GTM as a set of capabilities carried by people. We’ll break down the roles, how AI is changing the mix, and how to hire “precision” value-add operators who create leverage quickly.
So, what is GTM?
The simplest definition: Go-to-market is the system of people and processes that turn product value into repeatable revenue and retention.
For scale-ups specifically it’s important to remember: GTM is not a department. GTM is the collection of roles that cover your growth capabilities well enough to scale.
That is an important shift. When someone says “we need GTM,” the job isn’t to hire a title—it’s to identify the missing capability and staff it with the smallest number of people who can make it repeatable.
Why role clarity matters more now.
Two forces are pushing “GTM roles” to the top of founder priority lists:
Buyers are changing how they buy—faster than org charts. B2B buyers have rapidly adopted generative AI and use it across the buying process, reshaping how they self-educate and evaluate vendors. At the same time, research from Forrester and Gartner suggests that in complex sales, buyers still value human interaction at critical moments—meaning GTM needs to blend efficiency with trust, not replace it.
Translation: the old model of “marketing warms them up, sales closes them” is less reliable. The roles need to match how influence actually happens now.
GTM work is getting more technical. As AI and automation reshape revenue execution, technical expertise is increasingly embedded into GTM—through roles like GTM engineers and more technical delivery overlays. Operating-model research emphasizes aligning people, processes, and technology around value creation — not scattered experimentation as companies aim to scale AI beyond pilots into real workflows.
Translation: if you’re selling something that touches workflow, data, governance, or adoption, GTM isn’t just persuasion. It’s execution.
Missing Capabilities: Which gap are you hiring for?
Avoid expensive mistakes by identifying the gap(s) you need to address before you hire. Instead of hiring a generic GTM role, align on three key points.
- Choose the one capability currently breaking repeatability
- Write down what success looks like in 90 days (in outcomes, not activity)
- Hire for that capability—not for a title
Knowing which capability to hire for is critical. We’ve identified four key gaps that can be addressed through tailored GTM roles.
Gap 1: Clarity
What is your company’s ICP and narrative? Challenges surfacing are likely to include:
- Lots of activity, low conversion quality
- Mass market appeal. “We sell to everyone”
- Messaging feels generic
Likely priority hires: Product Marketing / GTM Strategy strength
Gap 2: Pipeline
Challenges related to potential distribution engine issues can include:
- Feast-or-famine pipeline
- One channel carries the quarter
Likely priority hires: Growth/Demand/Partnerships (depending on motion)
Gap 3: Conversion
Signs that the challenges may be related to sustaining momentum to close because proof points are missing the mark:
- “Great calls,” slow closes
- Evaluations stall
- Security/technical proof derails momentum
Likely priority hires: Strong account executive leadership with sales engineering/solutions overlays.
Gap 4: Adoption
Challenges that can emerge when needing to demonstrate time-to-value can include:
- Finalized/Closed doesn’t go live
- Churn risk appears before value is realized
- Expansion is theoretical
Likely hires: Customer Service/implementation and when needed customer engineering/FDE-style capacity to deliver outcomes.
What about a “head of GTM”?
We’re not anti–Head of GTM. Sometimes it’s the right hire.
But in many scale-ups, “Head of GTM” becomes a proxy for “we want someone to fix our growth ambiguity.” Ambiguity is rarely fixed by a single charismatic operator—because GTM is cross-functional and scaling complexity increases as motions and segments multiply.
If you’re going to hire a GTM leader, hire them with the same precision you’d hire a VP Engineering:
- What capability are they responsible for making repeatable?
- What changes in 90 days?
- What does “good” look like in metrics—not vibes?
Sources reviewed for this insight: A16Z, Iconic Capital, Columbia Business, “The Future of Sales: How AI and Automation Are Transforming Go-to-Market Strategies.” Prof. Michael Brown. Forrester, McKinsey, HighSpot, Gartner