 |
InProdAuthor: Laura Hamilton and Wil Hagen
InProd (fka Partner Path) is a podcast exploring the venture and startup ecosystem through the lens of trailblazing founders and operators building the next wave of AI companies. We feature candid conversations with early-stage leaders, offering practical insights on product execution, GTM, and the messy middle of scaling teams and navigating growth. Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
E68: Automating the Modern GTM Engine with Buğra Gündüz (HockeyStack)
Episode 68
Thursday, 26 March, 2026
This week, we’re joined by Buğra Gündüz, Co-Founder and CEO of HockeyStack, an AI-native GTM platform that unifies data and deploys agents to execute across sales and marketing.Buğra breaks down why the future of GTM is shifting from dashboards and attribution toward systems that can actually take action. As companies accumulate more fragmented data and increasingly complex workflows, visibility alone is no longer enough. Teams need infrastructure that understands their pipeline, identifies what matters, and automates execution across the revenue org.We discuss how HockeyStack went from a single product to a multi-layer platform spanning data, intelligence, and workflow agents, why owning the underlying data layer is critical before introducing AI, and what it takes to convince organizations to move off legacy GTM stacks. Buğra also shares lessons from scaling from $1M to $11M ARR, how they approached early distribution, and why the real moat in GTM may come down to data gravity and workflow dependency rather than features.Episode chapters:1:55 - Dropping Out of College3:27 - Acquiring Early Users6:50 - Building a Single Source of Customer Truth9:20 - Product Marketing Strategy14:35 - Enterprise Deals and Security17:07 - Building a Generalized Platform20:18 - Choosing the Right LLM22:28 - The Future of the Sales Org26:21 - Hiring at HockeyStack29:10 - Building Company Culture32:50 - Learning Through Trial and Error34:44 - Quick Fire Round This episode is brought to you by Grata, the leading deal sourcing platform for private equity. Grata’s AI powered search, investment grade data, and intuitive workflows help you find and win the right deals faster. Visit grata.com to book a demo.This episode is also sponsored by Overlap, the AI powered app that uses LLMs to surface the best moments from any podcast. Overlap reads full transcripts, finds the most relevant clips, and stitches them into a personalized stream of insights. Tap into podcasts as a real information source with Overlap 2.0, now available on the App Store.
