The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Tim Rutten, CMO at Backbase, runs a 35-person marketing team against a book of business north of $350 million in ARR, and joins Kyle Norton to break down the AI-native go-to-market operating model he built from the ground up. Topics include what AI-native actually means as an architecture principle, throwing out the org chart to rebuild around the real work, and building GTMOS, an in-house go-to-m...

Kevin Bailey, CEO of Dreamfuel, returns to The Revenue Leadership Podcast for part two of his conversation with Kyle Norton on mental performance. This time they dial in on how revenue leaders cascade these practices through their organizations. Topics include the Greenlight Guru breakthrough story (one breathwork session that converted a skeptical co-founder), the pre-call warmup protocol Kevin u...

Ghazi Masood, CRO at Replit, joins Kyle Norton to break down how Replit went from $2 million to over $150 million in revenue in less than a year, is tracking to a billion-dollar run rate by the end of 2026, and is hiring 200+ people over the next 12 months while rebuilding GTM from scratch in the AI era. Topics include the AI-native GTM tech stack (Salesforce as system of record, internally vibe-c...

Cassie Young, General Partner at Primary Venture Partners, joins Kyle Norton to break down exactly how CROs must master P&L management to survive the new AI-driven go-to-market reality. As the era of software bloat ends, revenue leaders must adapt their GTM strategy to maintain investor trust and drive capital-efficient growth. This episode details the financial metrics, board expectations, and AI...

Adrian Rosenkranz, CRO at Webflow, joins Kyle Norton to break down exactly how to rebuild your GTM motion for AI bot traffic and scale internal AI agents. As AI bots reshape enterprise pipeline generation, revenue teams must master AEO (Agentic Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to capture high-intent search traffic. Adrian shares how to optimize your technical SEO for a...

Kevin Bailey, CEO of Dreamfuel, joins Kyle Norton to break down exactly how to manage executive physiology and eliminate inconsistent performance. Mastering your mental state is the ultimate go-to-market tool for navigating high-stakes sales motions and enterprise pipeline generation without burning out. This episode breaks down the applied neuroscience of executive performance, giving GTM leaders...

Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com , is interviewed by Everett Berry to break down exactly how to scale pipeline generation using applied AI and GTM engineering. Scaling an SMB sales motion requires ruthless efficiency and a modern outbound automation stack. This episode covers how to integrate applied AI into your GTM strategy to dramatically increase decision-maker connect rates, streamline pipeline...

Aviv Canaani, CRO at DataRails, joins Kyle Norton to break down exactly how to build a highly predictable, inbound-led revenue machine. This episode details the transition from a purely outbound sales motion to a scalable inbound engine driven by demand generation and organic brand building. You will discover how to align marketing and sales, engineer an efficient B2B SaaS GTM strategy, and levera...

Most revenue leaders see a missed number and immediately jump to a solution: more training, new SPIFFs, or pricing changes. Product leaders isolate variables and solve for root causes. Usha Iyer (Chief Customer & Growth Officer, President - US @ Hivebright) brings a developer's rigor, and a product leader's clarity to GTM. She explains why you should treat your GTM strategy like a product roadmap:...

Crescendo went from zero to $100M ARR in under two years. And today's guest, CRO Michelle Donnelly, is leading the revenue team. In a market where every AI competitor claims the exact same capabilities, Michelle argues that "trust me" sales tactics don't work anymore, and what her team is doing instead. She explains why she banned traditional sales demos in favor of building functional prototypes...

As EVP of Sales and CS at Insight Partners, Jeremey advises over 500 B2B SaaS companies. In this episode, he reveals why the top 10% of performers are actually expanding their outbound teams, not cutting them. And we cover a ton, including: The Outbound Paradox: Why winning companies are doubling down on SDRs while everyone else pulls back. Build vs. Buy: Why purchasing point solutions right now i...

Jordan Crawford (Founder @ Blueprint GTM) returns with a reality check for GTM leaders: The ChatGPT era is over. We're entering the season of Claude Code. That means you can move past static prompts and brittle workflows. We are now in a world where autonomous agents write code, execute complex goals, and learn recursively. Jordan breaks down how to set up local environments where context compound...

Tyler Will (VP RevOps, Intercom) breaks down how Intercom overhauled its go-to-market engine after shifting to AI-first products. What we cover: - Why too many revenue leaders obsess over success metrics but ignore the inputs that actually drive them - The specific comp plan changes Intercom made when moving from seats to usage-based pricing... including giving reps MRR credit for overages without...

Jason Lemkin (Founder & CEO @ SaaStr) returns to talk about replacing his sales team with 20+ AI agents. What you'll learn in this episode: - Why Jason stopped paying six-figure SDRs who ghost—and what he built instead - The 70,000 AI-sent emails that drove 15% of SaaStr London revenue - How to pick your first AI tool (hint: do a 2-vendor bakeoff, not 10) - Why Salesforce is suddenly the hub every...

Hiring a VP or CRO has never been tougher (or more important). Asad Zaman, CEO of Sales Talent Agency - and one of the most trusted voices in GTM recruiting - joins host Kyle Norton to talk about how GTM leadership hiring is changing fast.   They dig into:   - Why AI broke the traditional interview process, and what they do now instead  - How to build a robust hiring scorecard that performs miles...

Allison Metcalfe's path to CRO was built on systems thinking, multiplier leadership, and a journalist's instinct for "why." In this episode, Kyle and Allison talk through what separates good revenue leaders from great ones, and how to actually lead peers and execs, not just manage them. And maybe we shouldn't tell you this, but… Allison even reveals her hardcore alter-ego that helps her better rid...

Peter Grant helped take Siebel from $39M to $2B in revenue and was employee #9 for Salesforce in Europe. He knows exactly what a platform shift looks like. Now, as the CRO of You.com, Peter argues that the AI wave is moving 30x faster than the internet era—and your current sales playbook is already obsolete. In this episode, Peter strips away the hype to focus on the operational reality of running...

Bolt.new blew past past $40M ARR in just one year with only 50 people. In this episode, Bryan Adams, VP Sales at Bolt.new sits down with host Kyle Norton to break down how go-to-market operates at a hyper-growth AI company. Bryan shares some of their tech stack, and gets real about leadership—hiring "adults," firing fast, and focusing on what reps actually need to win.   If you're leading a modern...

Clio's SVP of Global Sales, Jenny Dingus, joins Kyle Norton to talk about why the "people × quota" revenue planning model is terrible, and what they're using instead. Jenny shares how Clio's $1B acquisition flipped their planning model, how they forecast in high-uncertainty markets, and what "drawing the owl" looks like in real life. If you run revenue and you're tired of spreadsheet fantasy plann...

How do you stand out when your feature list looks like everyone else's? In this episode, Jonathan Leaf, CRO of BambooHR, joins host Kyle Norton (CRO at Owner.com) to break down how he's built competitive edge in undifferentiated markets—from Softchoice to AWS, RingCentral, and now BambooHR.     Jonathan shares how to:   - Win when products look the same  - Stay maniacally focused on a specific seg...

Kyle Norton (CRO at Owner.com) sits down with JD Saint-Martin, President of Lightspeed Commerce, to unpack how he went from startup founder to public-company executive. They discuss scaling Lightspeed from $75M to $1.2B in recurring revenue, and the leadership lessons behind that growth. The conversation covers building high-performance sales cultures, promotion systems, enablement investment, RTO...

Tara DiCristo-Schmitt (CRO at Houzz) joins host Kyle Norton (CRO at Owner.com ), to explore how elite sales leaders build culture, trust, and clarity. Drawing lessons from her time at ADP and HubSpot, Tara explains why vision beats velocity, why recognition is an underrated tool, and why forecasting is more about trust than it is about simple numbers. A candid, tactical conversation about getting...

Head of GTM Engineering Everett Berry returns to join Kyle Norton (CRO at Owner.com) for a rapid-fire Q&A on how Clay structures its ops, automates everything from QBR decks to redlines, and experiments with the next wave of AI-native sales tools. Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Wednesday.  Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast , the #1 podcast for founders, ope...

In this episode, Kyle Coleman (Global VP Marketing @ ClickUp) joins Kyle Norton (CRO @ Owner.com) to unpack the evolving marketing landscape.  The double Kyles dig into: The growing problem of "work sprawl."  The rise of AI-powered marketing teams How to get better results with lower headcount Why the best leaders today focus less on empire-building and more on process-building And a whole lot mor...

In this episode, Kyle Norton, CRO of Owner.com, is interviewed by Sophie Buonassisi from the GTMnow Podcast. He shares the decisions and frameworks that helped take the company from $2M ARR to over $50M and a billion-dollar valuation. Kyle breaks down the bold early moves—like letting go of half the sales team in his first 45 days—alongside the pivotal role of setting a high talent bar, investing...