You Can Start a Startup with $500. Growing It? That’s War.
This GTM NewsDesk episode pulls no punches. Mark Kilens and Nick Bennett lay into the startup carnage of 2024–25, where overfunded SaaS companies from the 2021 hype cycle are crashing under bloated valuations and busted growth models. Why? The old channel-led GTM playbook is broken.
The solution? Network-first thinking. That means leveraging people, brands, and real communities—not just paid channels—to build attention in an oversaturated AI-screaming market. Mark calls it: the age of application-layer innovation, not infrastructure. LLMs are the electricity. What matters now is how you use them.
They also torch the shady privacy practices of Chinese AI players like DeepSeek, warning founders not to chase hype from untrustworthy sources. Nick’s blunt: “If you didn’t buy the Nvidia dip, sorry.”
Segment three shifts gears: Josh and Daniel from EMC3 unpack how experiential events must evolve. Forget vanity flagship conferences. Real ROI comes from strategy-first design, smaller formats, and content that’s conversational, not performative. Events aren’t just marketing—they’re infrastructure for trust.
🧠 Takeaways:
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Move from channel to network thinking. Growth is relational now, not transactional.
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AI fatigue is real. Infrastructure hype ≠ business value.
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Events without purpose = wasted spend. Strategy, sequencing, and shared alignment are the real differentiators.
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Experiential means emotional. Don’t just host. Connect.
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
