GTMfund has rewritten the distribution playbook for the AI era

Summary

Building software products has never been easier, so why are so many well-funded startups failing to take off no matter how good their product is? In this season finale episode of Build Mode, our guest has an answer: Startups have focused too much on product development and not enough on distribution excellence. Paul Irving is partner and COO at GTMfund, which operates under the thesis that distribution is the final moat in the AI era. The traditional go-to-market playbook lays out a one-size-fits-all approach to hiring and scaling that may have worked in the days of traditional enterprise SaaS but won’t cut it in the crowded, AI-driven startup era of 2025. Innovation cycles are moving faster than ever, and what used to take several years can now be achieved in just a few months. So Irving and the GTMfund team advise their portfolio companies to differentiate in their distribution rather than their product. “The aperture for how you build your go-to-market or revenue engine and the decisions you make to get there have never had more unique and specific pathways depending on your company,” Irving said. In this episode, Irving dove into several specific examples of what he’s seen work for startups. The main takeaways: AI can help small teams hone their data-driven approach and find direct lines to their customer base through creative means; in the early days, founders can’t tackle all distribution channels at once; hiring should be approached thoughtfully without a traditional mindset; and building a team of trusted advisers should be a top priority. Early-stage investors, at least at GTMfund, aren’t looking for startups that have spent half their budget on paid ads or hired a full sales team. They want to see founders get creative with how they reach their unique customers. Irving laid out an example of one startup that became an active participant in several relevant Facebook groups. “If you think about it in the framework of, okay, it’s a thousand people, but 700 o...