Episode 79

Go-To-Market Strategy & Sales-Led Growth with Rafael Oezdemir, CEO at Zendog Labs

Rafael Oezdemir

Rafael Podcast Cover Image

Rafael has built and scaled 7 start-ups as a Principal at Roivant and as a Co-Founder at Eatearnity and Maison Baum. Roivant is an operator-investor that deploys $3B+ from investors like Softbank Vision Fund, Founders Fund, and Peter Thiel’s Palantir. Before starting Zendog Labs, he led Demand Gen & Channel Partnerships at Roivant’s enterprise SaaS Lokavant, where they took the start-up from 1M to ~5M ARR and 10 to ~50 FTEs in < 2 years.

Here are some of the key topics that Paris and Rafael discussed in this episode:

•  Full-stack go-to-market (GTM) framework of Zendog Labs
• The set of challenges you can face with regard to growth when entering a new market
• The seller journey vs the buyer journey
• Should a startup lead with ICP First or Product First & when a startup should choose an ICP
• How marketing helps with establishing a product-market fit
• Sales-led growth approach & what are some outbound tactics which work for a startup ➝ To succeed with an outbound approach, Rafael shares that you need to capture existing demand through an outbound sales motion rather than generating the demand.
• Blue ocean vs red ocean strategies
• 3 tips on how to raise more investments as a startup in the current environment

Guest:
Rafael Oezdemir
Zendog Labs

See more:
Paris Childress
LinkedIn PTM Page

Rafael’s experience led him to believe that most startups die because they can’t grow. Listen to the episode to find out more about building and executing growth strategies for start-ups with Rafael.
And don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for more practical tips and stories! ⏳

Want to chat about SaaS growth with Paris?