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InProd
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.
InProd
E68: Automating the Modern GTM Engine with Buğra Gündüz (HockeyStack)
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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 College
- 3:27 - Acquiring Early Users
- 6:50 - Building a Single Source of Customer Truth
- 9:20 - Product Marketing Strategy
- 14:35 - Enterprise Deals and Security
- 17:07 - Building a Generalized Platform
- 20:18 - Choosing the Right LLM
- 22:28 - The Future of the Sales Org
- 26:21 - Hiring at HockeyStack
- 29:10 - Building Company Culture
- 32:50 - Learning Through Trial and Error
- 34:44 - Quick Fire Round
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