Essay · ~15 min read

Growth+Sales: The New Era of Enterprise Go-to-Market

Peter Lauten & Martin Casado · Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Free Advanced

A16z's framing of how modern enterprise software is sold: bottom-up product adoption layered with top-down sales, using companies like Slack, Stripe, and Atlassian as evidence. Essential context for deciding when and how to add real enterprise selling on top of a product people already use.

  • Winning GTM today combines organic bottom-up adoption with layered top-down sales
  • Don't force enterprise sales onto a product that lacks genuine organic pull
  • Watch engagement data, not just traditional sales metrics, to know when to layer sales
  • The best B2B companies are product-led first and sales-augmented second
Open on a16z.com ↗

It answers 3 questions

  1. How long is a B2B sales cycle and how do I not run out of money waiting?
  2. How do I survive procurement, legal, and security reviews as a tiny startup?
  3. How do I price my very first enterprise deal without leaving money on the table or scaring them off?

Read with it

  1. The authoritative handbook on founder-led sales, written for technical/first-time sellers building B2B SaaS. Readable free... foundingsales.com Book · book (~400 pages) Founding Sales: The Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook Peter Kazanjy
  2. The uncomfortable truth of enterprise sales in one line: the shorter the sales cycle, the likelier the win, and this piece... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read The Most Surefire Way I've Found to Win Enterprise Deals Anand Chopra-McGowan
  3. A seasoned enterprise sales leader gives a crash course on selling into complex organizations like the Fortune 500, including... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Video · ~45 min Go-to-Market Boot Camp for Startups: Field Sales Mark Cranney
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