Scaling Beyond the Founder: Channels, Budgets & Pricing Power
Our first GTM session got a fantastic response: a packed room, conversations that ran long past the official end time, and a wave of requests for a follow-up. So here it is.
Welcome to session #2 of the GTM Series.
Founder-led growth got you your first customers. But somewhere between $500K and a few million in ARR, the founder's calendar, not the product, becomes the bottleneck. Meanwhile, every growth channel is getting noisier: AI-generated cold emails have cratered reply rates, paid channels burn cash before they prove anything, and rising model and infra costs quietly eat the margin your growth was supposed to build.
This time we're bringing together founders and GTM operators who have actually made the 10→100 transition, to talk about what worked, what was a false positive, and what they'd do differently.
This is not a panel of platitudes. Expect real numbers, real budget ranges, and real mistakes.
What we'll discuss
1. Scaling Founder-Led Growth from 10 → 100
When the founder's calendar becomes the bottleneck, how do you turn founder instincts into team capability? What gets standardized first, and what still needs the founder in the room?
2. Picking Channels & Sizing the Budget
Media, outbound, PLG, community, or partnerships: how much do you spend, and how long before you can call a channel dead or alive? Real budget ranges, time-to-signal, false positives, and where high-quality attention comes from now that AI outreach has killed reply rates.
3. Pricing & Moats When Switching Costs Are Low
How do you price when users can churn in an afternoon? How do you design a moat instead of hoping for one, and keep rising AI costs from eating your gross margin?
Format
Guest talks
Moderated Q&A
Open networking
Agenda
6:30 PM: Doors open, drinks and light bites
7:00 PM: Panel discussion & Q&A
8:00 PM: Room discussion
8:30 PM: Networking and curated introductions
9:30 PM: Close
Who's in the room:
Founders and early GTM leads at companies that have found early traction, roughly seed to Series A/B, who are deciding where the next growth dollar and the founder's next hour should go. If you joined session #1, this picks up right where we left off. This session assumes you already have revenue.
Every registration will be reviewed so the room stays relevant and useful for everyone attending. The room only works if every seat holds someone worth learning from.
A note on RSVPs:
Seats are limited, and the value of the room depends on who is in it. Please register only if you are likely to attend. If your plans change, let us know early so we can offer the spot to another founder or operator.
Please bring your ID for check-in — entry is verified against the guest list.
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building invitation-only conversations for researchers, founders, and technical leaders across the Bay Area.