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BLOG · NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Paid Media Notes
from an operator who still runs the spend.

Notes from a 15-year growth operator who still runs the spend. $50M+ in managed paid ad spend behind the method. The paid-media calls most B2B SaaS founders are guessing at, written down. When you want it run on your own account, The Smart Bidding Report is one read-only connect away.

01 · DISPATCHES · 49 POSTS

The dispatches.

  1. 01 · August 18, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What the AI fashion founder story misses about GTM

    A solo founder launched a fashion brand with AI and no engineers. Here's what B2B SaaS founders should actually take from that story.

    Read →
  2. 02 · August 17, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Why the same rep hits 70% there and 0% at your company

    Jason Lemkin's 0% quota club thesis reveals a truth most Series A founders ignore: your GTM system is the variable, not your reps.

    Read →
  3. 03 · August 16, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Lenny's community wisdom reveals about competitor analysis

    The community wisdom thread on running competitor analysis reveals a positioning gap most post-PMF B2B SaaS founders don't see until pipeline slips.

    Read →
  4. 04 · August 12, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Grace Clarke's admin rebuild should tell B2B founders

    When a service business collapses 20 weekly admin hours into one AI pipeline, post-PMF SaaS founders should ask why their GTM still runs on gut feel.

    Read →
  5. 05 · August 10, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What demo conversion rates actually tell you about your channels

    The SaaStr 10-20% demo-to-paid benchmark is a channel quality signal. Here is how post-PMF founders should read it.

    Read →
  6. 06 · August 2, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    AI SDRs can't figure out your GTM for you

    AI SDRs multiply output, but if your ICP, positioning, and channel logic are wrong, you just scale the wrong thing faster.

    Read →
  7. 07 · August 1, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What multi-year deal comp tells you about your channel mix

    Jason Lemkin's take on paying reps full commission upfront on multi-year deals signals which growth channels are actually closing enterprise-grade buyers.

    Read →
  8. 08 · July 28, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What SaaStr AI 2026 means for your B2B GTM motion

    Agents are already in the revenue org at Stripe, Gamma, and Salesforce. Here is what their war stories mean for post-PMF B2B SaaS founders.

    Read →
  9. 09 · July 19, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What 2026 sales quota benchmarks mean for your GTM

    ICONIQ's 2026 GTM benchmark data puts top-quartile AE quotas at $750K to $2.25M. Here's how to use those numbers to set your pipeline and paid media targets.

    Read →
  10. 10 · July 18, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    B2B SaaS marketplaces are a real channel now

    Indie hackers finding distribution through B2B SaaS marketplaces signals where intent density is highest and which channels post-PMF founders should score next.

    Read →
  11. 11 · July 15, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Your pricing gap is a GTM motion problem, not a product problem

    SaaStr's Riverside example exposes a pattern post-PMF founders miss: when price misaligns with sales motion, deals die before they should.

    Read →
  12. 12 · July 14, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Your reps will never call these leads. AI will.

    SaaStr's case for deploying AI on neglected leads hides a GTM lesson most B2B SaaS founders will miss.

    Read →
  13. 13 · July 11, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    When per-seat breaks, your GTM strategy breaks with it

    The SaaStr spotlight on Willingness to Pay shows why pricing confusion is almost always a GTM positioning failure in disguise.

    Read →
  14. 14 · July 6, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Sam Blond got right about AI and outbound

    Sam Blond says outbound isn't dead, just transformed by AI. Here's what that means for B2B SaaS founders rebuilding their GTM motion.

    Read →
  15. 15 · July 5, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What AI-powered outbound actually demands from your GTM

    The Lenny's community wisdom on AI-powered outbound and quarterly planning skips the real question for post-PMF B2B SaaS founders: channel strategy.

    Read →
  16. 16 · July 3, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Vercel's 10-to-1 SDR move means for your GTM

    Vercel's COO collapsed a 10-person SDR team to one rep for $5K a year. Here is what post-PMF B2B SaaS founders should take from it.

    Read →
  17. 17 · July 1, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Monaco's monthly brand engine and what it teaches about GTM sequencing

    Sam Blond's SaaStr breakdown of Monaco's viral moment machine reveals why GTM sequencing beats volume for post-PMF B2B SaaS.

    Read →
  18. 18 · June 29, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Feeling like a pest on outbound is a positioning problem

    That feeling of being a pest on outbound is almost always a signal your ICP, pitch, or channel is misaligned.

    Read →
  19. 19 · June 28, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Lightfield's live GTM loop demo means for B2B SaaS

    Lightfield's SaaStr demo turned one stalled deal into 10 new prospects. Here's what the closed GTM loop reveals about the attribution gap most founders ignore.

    Read →
  20. 20 · June 25, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Adobe blinked on pricing. Here's what it means for your GTM

    Adobe deferred its annual price increase. For post-PMF B2B SaaS founders, that signals a window to reposition around competitor pricing fatigue before it closes.

    Read →
  21. 21 · June 21, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Snowflake's CMO taught me about starting with data

    Denise Persson interrogates her data before she touches a dashboard. Here's what that discipline means for post-PMF B2B SaaS founders.

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  22. 22 · June 19, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Your sales calls are the richest GTM data you own

    Attention.com's SaaStr talk reveals why sales call recordings are the most underused first-party signal in B2B SaaS go-to-market.

    Read →
  23. 23 · June 18, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Stripe, Canva, and Cloudflare's 2026 GTM reveals for founders

    SaaStr AI 2026 showed real org charts, pricing models, and failures from six companies. Here is what post-PMF B2B founders should take from it.

    Read →
  24. 24 · June 17, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Your competitor got acquired. Here's what it signals.

    A rival's acquisition is a positioning signal, not just news. Here's how post-PMF B2B SaaS founders should act on the 90-day window it opens.

    Read →
  25. 25 · June 15, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What raising prices actually tells you about your channels

    A B2B SaaS price increase is a live channel quality test. Here's how to read what your retention data is telling you.

    Read →
  26. 26 · June 14, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What 200 pricing pages reveal about B2B SaaS channel strategy

    A founder built a gallery of 200 B2B SaaS pricing pages. Here's what that collection actually signals about which growth channels are winning right now.

    Read →
  27. 27 · June 13, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What AI SDR ramp time reveals about your GTM readiness

    SaaStr's hard lessons from deploying AI SDRs in 2026 expose a more fundamental problem: most B2B SaaS GTM stacks aren't ready for execution automation.

    Read →
  28. 28 · June 12, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What AI killing SaaS tells you about which channels work now

    When AI dismantles a SaaS category, the channel mix that built it breaks first. Here is what that signal looks like and how to act on it.

    Read →
  29. 29 · June 10, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Your 2021 GTM playbook is decaying. Here is what replaced it

    A $40M ARR revenue leader told SaaStr their 2021 playbook works worse every quarter. Here is what actually changed in GTM by 2026.

    Read →
  30. 30 · June 9, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    SaaStr runs on 3 humans and 20 AI agents. What that means for your GTM

    SaaStr's latest episode revealed real costs and commit counts behind a full GTM agent stack. Here's what post-PMF B2B SaaS founders should actually take from it.

    Read →
  31. 31 · June 8, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What SaaStr's 3-person, 20-agent team reveals about GTM in 2026

    SaaStr runs their entire GTM operation with 3 humans and 20+ AI agents. Here is what the actual numbers mean for post-PMF B2B SaaS founders.

    Read →
  32. 32 · June 7, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Vercel's AI agent playbook means for your GTM

    Vercel absorbed its SDR team into AI agents and automated 96% of marketing. Here's what post-PMF B2B SaaS founders should actually take from it.

    Read →
  33. 33 · June 6, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What 1000 sales calls reveal about B2B SaaS messaging gaps

    A deep read of 1000 B2B SaaS sales calls exposes the positioning failures founders keep shipping and what to fix before the next campaign launches.

    Read →
  34. 34 · June 5, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What an AI VP of Marketing still can't own

    SaaStr built an AI VP of Marketing. Here's what that reveals about where post-PMF founders still need a human operator in the room.

    Read →
  35. 35 · June 4, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Vercel's AI-run GTM tells you about what to staff vs. automate

    Vercel runs 96% of marketing and 93% of support on AI agents. Here's what that signals about which GTM motions B2B SaaS founders should own vs. hand off.

    Read →
  36. 36 · June 3, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    What Anthropic's GTM stack tells you about your own

    Anthropic runs Salesforce, not a custom AI CRM. The lesson for post-PMF SaaS founders is where the real advantage actually lives.

    Read →
  37. 37 · June 2, 2026
    Paid Media

    The 12 Best B2B SaaS Google Ads Agencies and Audit Tools in 2026

    An operator's honest breakdown of the best B2B SaaS Google Ads agencies and audit tools for 2026, ranked by fit, pricing, and model. Includes a how-to-choose framework and FAQ.

    Read →
  38. 38 · May 29, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Fractional CMO Rates Jumped Again. The Math Stopped Working in 2025.

    Fractional CMO retainers hit $8K to $15K per month in 2026, up 5 to 10 percent. The B2B SaaS founders paying it are about to be displaced by software.

    Read →
  39. 39 · May 29, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    When PLG channels stop working: what Dropbox signals

    Dropbox hit $1B on freemium. Then growth flatlined. Here's what that tells us about which channels work post-PLG.

    Read →
  40. 40 · May 28, 2026
    Paid Media

    LinkedIn Ads 2026: Stop Optimizing for CPL. The Metric Just Changed.

    Cost-per-company-influenced just dropped 54%. The 272-day B2B journey is now the dataset. CPL is no longer the number that matters for Series A SaaS.

    Read →
  41. 41 · May 27, 2026
    MarTech

    HubSpot Bought XFunnel. MarTech Consolidation Just Hit the Strategy Layer.

    HubSpot's XFunnel and Starter Story acquisitions reveal the 2026 endgame: the orchestration layer wins. Most of your other tools are about to disappear.

    Read →
  42. 42 · May 26, 2026
    SEO

    Google AI Overviews Broke Your SEO Channel. Here's the GTM Move.

    AI Overviews now appear on 70% of B2B technology SERPs and drop CTR by 58%. If SEO is in your GTM, the model just changed under you.

    Read →
  43. 43 · May 25, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    Agentic AI for Marketing Is Glue Work. GTM Is Still Yours.

    Salesforce just shipped Agentforce Operations and Gemini-powered reasoning. None of it answers the question every B2B SaaS founder is actually asking.

    Read →
  44. 44 · May 25, 2026
    GTM Strategy

    SaaStr built an AI VP of customer success. Your GTM needs the same thing.

    SaaStr's AI CS agent ran 1.1M sessions. B2B SaaS GTM needs continuous intelligence infrastructure, not quarterly spreadsheets.

    Read →
  45. 45 · August 20, 2024
    AI Automation

    The AI Automation Revolution: How Smart Businesses Are Scaling in 2024

    Discover how forward-thinking companies are leveraging AI automation to reduce costs by 40% while increasing productivity. Learn the exact strategies that separate winners from laggards.

    Read →
  46. 46 · August 15, 2024
    Facebook Ads

    Facebook Ads Strategy That Generated $2.4M in Revenue (Complete Breakdown)

    Step-by-step breakdown of the exact Facebook ads strategy we used to generate $2.4M for a client. Includes campaign structure, targeting secrets, and optimization tactics.

    Read →
  47. 47 · August 10, 2024
    AI Development

    Building AI Tools for Marketing: Lessons from Creating 4 Successful Products

    Behind-the-scenes look at building StudentAIDetector, Media Buy AI, and DocDoctor.ai. Learn the framework for identifying opportunities and building solutions.

    Read →
  48. 48 · August 5, 2024
    Google Ads

    Google Ads Optimization: The 90-Day Framework That Tripled Our Client's ROI

    Complete Google Ads optimization framework used to take a struggling campaign from 1.2x ROAS to 3.6x ROAS in 90 days. Includes actionable checklists and templates.

    Read →
  49. 49 · July 30, 2024
    Email Marketing

    Email Automation Sequences That Generated $500K+ (With Templates)

    Breakdown of our highest-performing email automation sequences. Includes complete templates, timing strategies, and performance metrics from real campaigns.

    Read →