A Go-To-Market Perspective

About A Go-To-Market Perspective

B2B tech marketers must deliver on the fundamentals: build a trusted brand, develop differentiated positioning, and generate qualified demand that sales can convert into revenue. At the same time, we must harness rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to improve marketing scale and efficiency. Do more with less before being asked. The core idea behind the A Go-To-Market Perspective podcast is simple: reinforce the foundational best practices across every go-to-market discipline while discovering the hype-free AI innovations delivering real impact today. Each episode features in-depth conversations with experienced marketing leaders across product marketing, demand generation, brand, content, PR, analyst relations, customer advocacy, sales enablement, and more. We go deep into what consistently works: the frameworks, tradeoffs, and operating models behind high-performing teams. Critically, guests will also share how they are thoughtfully leveraging AI to evolve their specific functions and processes, with a focus on practical, responsible applications that enhance execution without compromising results. Hosted by Rob Karel, a seasoned B2B SaaS marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience across product marketing, go-to-market strategy, brand, and executive storytelling. Rob brings a practitioner-first perspective shaped by leadership roles in enterprise software, analyst research, and consulting—focused on what actually works to drive relevance, differentiation, and growth in complex B2B markets.

Publisher

Robert Karel

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Feb 2026

Latest episode

29 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Lights, Camera, Differentiate: Using Video to Cut Through the B2B Sea of Sameness

   Video has always been a valuable B2B marketing tool for breaking through and building credibility. But the rules have changed. AI has made video easier and cheaper to produce than ever, and that's created a new problem. Buyers have become wary of AI-generated content in their feeds, and attention spans continue to shrink, so the skills required to plan and produce an impactful video have become more critical than ever. In this episode, Rob sits down with Barry Epstein, President and Co-founder of Ovation Solutions, to navigate the fast-changing B2B video production channel. Barry brings decades of experience producing video for B2B tech companies across every stage, from pre-seed startups to global enterprises managing complex portfolios, and he has a clear perspective on how and when to effectively leverage video without breaking the bank as part of a balanced content strategy. The conversation covers the types of video that matter at each stage of the funnel and each stage of the company, why the message always has to come before the medium, how AI is changing the production process without changing what actually makes video effective, and why the companies that win with video aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets.

2. 

   19 Sept 2026

   Your First Product Launch Isn't a Process. It's a Hypothesis

   There are plenty of best practices available to help operationalize a repeatable launch management process: Tiering frameworks, launch readiness scorecards, go-to-market checklists. Most of them assume you have established product-market fit, plenty of customers, a validated message, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a market that’s heard of you! But what about the very first launch? The one where none of that exists? Where the product is untested, the market is unproven, and what you're really doing is placing a bet on a set of assumptions every founder must make that have yet to be validated at scale? In this episode, Rob sits down with Shannon Kearns, a product marketing and go-to-market strategy consultant, to talk about bringing a brand new product to market for the first time. Shannon has worked on both sides of the GTM spectrum, from launching direct-to-consumer mobile apps via product-led growth motions to launching enterprise B2B products with high-touch sales cycles. She’s brought nearly 20 products to market over her career and brings a unique perspective on how early-stage companies can go about winning their first several customers. If you're a founder, early-stage marketer, or GTM consultant working with companies at zero-to-one, give this episode a listen.

3. 

   31 Jul 2026

   Stage Before Strategy: How PMM and AI Priorities Shift as B2B Companies Scale

   AI promises to help early-stage founders move faster and to help scaling companies do more with less. And it can, but only if there’s a solid GTM foundation to start. Without strong product marketing fundamentals, AI doesn't accelerate good work. But it can definitely accelerate bad work at scale. In this episode, Rob sits down with Jonathan Pipek, Founder of Blue Manta Consulting, to explore how product marketing and AI look fundamentally different depending on a company’s stage. Jonathan works across both worlds, and he's seeing very different failure patterns at each stage. This conversation covers what product marketing needs to get right before AI can be useful, how AI usage should evolve as a company scales, and why the strategic decisions around positioning, packaging, and ICP still require human judgment that no model can replicate. If you're a founder, PMM leader, or GTM executive trying to figure out where AI helps and where it quietly makes things worse, this episode is a grounded reality check from the front line.

4. 

   22 Jul 2026

   Can the CRO Trust the Data? RevOps, AI, and the Insight Gap

   RevOps has always been the team that produces the dashboards. And CROs don't just want data. They expect insights and recommendations. They want to understand pipeline health and velocity, sales rep performance, and forecast accuracy. And RevOps is expected to use AI to deliver these insights at scale. The problem is that AI alone isn't delivering on that promise. Sales leaders are uploading spreadsheets to AI tools and getting different answers every time. Agents and bots are being built on top of a data infrastructure that was never designed to support them. And RevOps teams are caught in the middle - under pressure to deliver intelligence while working with data that's inconsistent, ungoverned, and increasingly coming from everywhere at once. In this episode, Rob sits down with two guests who have lived this problem from different angles. Darwin Singson, Global Revenue Enablement and Sales Automation Lead from former companies: Salesforce, Informatica, Automation Anywhere, Eventbrite. He has spent years building the AI-driven workflows and automation systems that RevOps teams need but rarely have. Naresh Govindaraj, CEO and Founder of AIdeaBlocks, is building infrastructure specifically designed to address the trust and data quality gap that sits between AI tools and the reliable insights GTM leaders actually need. If you lead RevOps, Sales Ops, revenue intelligence, or GTM strategy - or if you're a CRO who's still not sure whether to trust what your ops team's AI is telling you - give this episode a listen.

5. 

   17 Jul 2026

   Operationalizing AI in Marketing: Reality vs. Hype

   Sure, everyone says they're operationalizing AI for marketing, but inside most B2B organizations, there’s a lot less transformation going on and a lot more chaos. Shadow AI, talk of AI governance without an understanding of the processes being improved, and board pressure to show efficiency gains before anyone has figured out what good looks like. In this episode, Rob sits down with John Schneider, VP of Platform and Ecosystem Marketing at UKG, to separate the reality of AI-driven marketing transformation from the hype surrounding it. John brings a practitioner's lens to what it takes to move from experimentation and shadow AI to a genuinely empowered, AI-forward marketing organization - and why the heart of that transformation has less to do with tools and more to do with people enablement, process redesign, and a strong partnership with IT. If you're a marketing leader navigating board pressure, shadow AI sprawl, and the very real challenge of building an AI-forward org without losing what makes great marketing great, be sure to tune in to this one.

6. 

   26 May 2026

   Product Management in the Age of AI: Master It or Get Left Behind

   Product management is the connective tissue between company strategy, customer insight, engineering, and go-to-market. From early-stage startups trying to find product-market fit to scaling enterprises managing complex portfolios, the PM is the role most responsible for ensuring the right things get built for the right reasons and are brought to market effectively. But the role is being disrupted. AI is accelerating engineering velocity, adding pressure for PMs to move faster on customer research and discovery, and creating new expectations from boards, investors, and leadership about how product teams should operate. The PM's job hasn't gotten smaller, but it's getting more complex and urgent. In this episode, Rob sits down with Chris Mann, Founder of GrokAI and a seasoned product leader with experience at LinkedIn, 1Password, You.com (http://You.com), and Bizo, to discuss why product managers must embrace and innovate with AI every day, and figure out how to smartly apply it when aligning product strategy with company objectives, driving inbound research and customer discovery, and working cross-functionally with engineering, sales, and marketing to activate and launch. If you're in product management, product marketing, or leading GTM strategy, this episode is a grounded look at what it means to be a high-impact product leader today in the face of AI transformation.

7. 

   26 Apr 2026

   The Trust Gap: Why Most B2B Brands Play It Safe, and Lose

   In B2B marketing, everyone talks about differentiation, bold storytelling, and building memorable brands. Yet scroll through your LinkedIn feed, and it’s hard to tell one company from another. In this episode, Rob sits down with Skott Bennett, Senior Director of Brand at Qlik, to unpack what may be the most overlooked constraint in modern go-to-market strategy: trust. Not trust in data or dashboards, but trust in people. Specifically, the willingness of leaders to empower experienced brand and creative teams to take risks, make bold decisions, and stand out. The conversation explores the narrative tension between brand and product marketing, the fatigue with the “measure everything” era, and why an overreliance on metrics may be driving B2B marketing toward a sea of sameness. If you're a CMO, founder, or go-to-market leader trying to break out of safe, forgettable marketing, this episode is a candid look at what it takes to build a stand-out brand.

8. 

   20 Apr 2026

   Beyond Translation: What International Expansion Really Demands of Marketing

   No matter what country your B2B business is based in, there will come a time in your growth journey when you must evaluate regional or even global expansion as part of your go-to-market strategy. In this episode, Rob speaks with Angela Troccoli, head of marketing at Revecore, who shares real-world insights from her experience as an American marketing leader working for companies headquartered outside the U.S. and helping organizations expand across borders in both directions. Angela explores the cultural and organizational challenges of international marketing, from being expected to unlock the U.S. market to translating strategy, expectations, and execution across global teams. She explains why international expansion is never just about translating content. It’s a full cultural and operational shift that requires the right marketing foundation, investment, and leadership alignment.

9. 

   8 Apr 2026

   Event ROI for Early-Stage Startups: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

   There's no single right way to do events. But after three years of experimenting with conferences, dinners, and online community gatherings, Philippe Boutrous has found plenty of wrong ones. In this episode, Rob sits down with Philippe, cofounder of GetWhys, to get candid about what early-stage startups get wrong when they bet on events as a growth channel - from expensive conference sponsorships that go nowhere to in-person dinners that miss the mark. The conversation gets practical fast: whether to sponsor or skip major conferences, how to design events that generate real pipeline, who to bring from your team & who to leave at home, and why online community events are more valuable than most founders think. If you're a founder or early-stage marketing leader trying to figure out where events fit in your go-to-market, this episode will save you time, money, and at least a few awkward dinners.

10. 

    2 Apr 2026

    Leveraging AI to scale marketing from 0 to 1

    AI is rapidly changing how marketing teams are built, but scaling from zero to one still requires judgment, creativity, and human leadership. In this episode, Rob speaks with Jakki Geiger to explore how she is using AI as a force multiplier across the earliest stages of building a modern B2B marketing organization, from brand and messaging to demand, competitive intelligence, and thought leadership. The conversation looks at practical ways Jakki and her team are using AI to synthesize voice-of-customer insights, sharpen ICPs and positioning, support distinct executive POVs, and augment SDR capacity - while keeping humans firmly in the loop. Rather than chasing an “AI-first” mandate, it’s all about an AI-forward opportunity: designing lean teams where AI and people work together to move faster, learn quicker, and scale impact without replacing the roles that matter most.

11. 

    1 Apr 2026

    Attribution: Post-mortem or Second Act?

    Attribution has always been one of marketing and sales' favorite ways to argue. The age-old debate of first touch, last touch, multi-touch, and everything in between hasn’t quieted down. In this episode, Rob sits down with Nadia Davis, VP of Marketing at CaliberMind, to cut through the noise on one of B2B marketing's most overcomplicated topics. Nadia challenges the all-too-common pattern of companies calling themselves data-driven while using attribution to hunt for answers rather than validate a strategy they should be defining in the first place. From the customer journey’s dark funnel of indirect touchpoints to the question of whether multi-touch attribution is nirvana or a rathole, this conversation gets honest about what attribution can and can't do, and where human judgment still has to lead before AI and technology can accelerate anything. Nadia also shares the findings of a comprehensive market study (2026 State of Attribution Report) conducted by Scott Brinker, the father of MarTech, and Frans Riemersma from MarTech Tribe - the two prominent MarTech gurus - on the state of attribution in 2026. If you're in demand gen, marketing ops, or leading GTM strategy, this episode is a grounded reality check on where attribution stands today.

12. 

    23 Mar 2026

    AI Can’t Build Relationships: Rethinking Analyst Relations Amid Market Disruption

    Analyst Relations has always been a relationship business; it’s not all about dot placement. In this episode, Rob sits down with Alyssa Stone to unpack what actually makes AR effective in 2026: earning analyst trust, building real executive relationships, and knowing which individual analysts truly influence buyers and sales cycles. They explore how AI is reshaping AR workflows (from research to briefing prep), where automation genuinely helps, and why AI can’t replace experience, intuition, or human connection. Alyssa also shares a candid look at the disruption hitting the analyst ecosystem itself, including declining market values and layoffs at firms like Gartner and Forrester, alongside the rising relevance of independent and second-tier analyst firms. If you lead AR, comms, product marketing, or GTM strategy, this conversation offers a grounded, real-world playbook for navigating both AI transformation and analyst market upheaval.

13. 

    8 Mar 2026

    Product Marketing: So much responsibility, so little authority

    Product marketing touches so much, from positioning and product launches to sales enablement, competitive intelligence, and analyst relations. Yet, many product marketers often feel they have little direct ownership of execution and results. In this episode of A Go-To-Market Perspective, Rob Karel sits down with Beth Barach, VP of Product Marketing at Brinqa, to explore how to build and scale a product marketing team empowered to drive meaningful results. They cover where product marketing fits in modern GTM orgs, the most common cross-functional challenges they face, what skills matter most at different company stages, and how leaders should think about building (or evolving) the function. Beth also shares how AI is reshaping her day-to-day work and what that means for product marketing teams in 2026 and beyond.

14. 

    4 Mar 2026

    Introducing Marketing’s Newest Role: the AI GTM Leader

    What happens when marketing stops waiting for tools and starts building them instead? In this episode, Rob sits down with Amanda Wilson, VP & Head of Marketing and AI GTM at Tellius, to unpack how she’s redefining modern marketing leadership by operationalizing AI across the entire go-to-market engine. Amanda shares how her team is leapfrogging traditional workflows by turning projects that once took months into hours, and rolling out internal AI capabilities without chasing elusive headcount. You’ll hear how she’s creating space for innovation, why “AI GTM Leader” is becoming a real role inside forward-thinking companies, and what it looks like to build marketing systems that scale faster than your org chart.

15. 

    21 Feb 2026

    The Product Marketer’s Path to CMO

    There is no straight-line path from product marketing to CMO. Each winding and twisting journey is wildly different. Join Rob as he sits down with Thomas Brence, Chief Marketing Officer at Collibra, to describe the steps he took as his role evolved from head of portfolio marketing. With a product-first mindset, he approached org design differently with the goal of tight GTM alignment and transparency. We'll unpack how that transition reshaped the team around customer retention while balancing demand generation with long-term brand building. The conversation explores what changes when a CMO deeply understands the customer, the product, the personas, and the buying journey - and how clear priorities, ownership, and operating models can turn marketing into a balanced growth engine. A must-listen for product marketers, marketing leaders, and anyone designing modern B2B marketing organizations.

16. 

    20 Feb 2026

    How to land that senior-level marketing role in 2026

    The market for senior-level marketing roles is changing fast. In this episode, Rob sits down with executive marketing recruiter Michael King to unpack what it really takes to land a senior marketing role in 2026. They dive into today’s buyer’s market realities, a growing bias prioritizing AI skills over marketing experience, and how founder, board, and investor expectations to do more with less are reshaping marketing leadership roles. If you’re navigating a senior marketing search (or building your next leadership bench), this episode offers an honest look at what’s changing, what’s not, and how to adapt.

17. 

    17 Feb 2026

    Customer engagement levers that drive cross-sell and retention

    Customer engagement is not simply a support function. It’s increasingly a primary driver of cross-sell, retention, and long-term account growth in B2B go-to-market strategies. In this episode, Rob speaks with Ashley Swift, Director of Customer Marketing and Advocacy at Druva, to explore how she is intentionally designing engagement across the customer lifecycle, aligning community, events, advocacy, product alignment, and loyalty programs to support expansion and sustained value. Whether you’re looking to reduce churn, increase net retention, or strengthen internal champions, this conversation offers practical perspectives on turning customer engagement into a repeatable, revenue-impacting growth lever.

18. 

    14 Feb 2026

    The Disruption of Pricing and Packaging in the Age of AI

    Pricing and packaging have always sat at the intersection of product, go-to-market, and finance, but AI is fundamentally reshaping how B2B SaaS companies think about value, monetization, and growth. In this episode, Rob chats with Ismail Madni, Sr Director of Product Pricing Strategy & Business Operations at Mimecast, to unpack how AI is disrupting both what we charge for and how we get there. This isn’t just a strategy conversation; it’s a practical look at the real-world processes companies are using to price AI-driven products, redesign packaging, and adapt to new buying behaviors. Whether you’re launching AI-powered features, rethinking your monetization model, or trying to modernize a legacy pricing approach, this episode delivers practical frameworks, cautionary lessons, and clear guidance for navigating pricing and packaging in the age of AI.

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