Overview
You're building GTM infrastructure and strategy for Crescendo.ai, an early-stage AI company. This isn't traditional rev ops - you're helping figure out what the GTM motion should be, not optimizing an existing one. You also work on M&A deals to acquire market share, which means evaluating targets and integrating their GTM systems.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | Strategic Rev Ops / GTM Strategy hybrid |
| Sales Motion | Building it - likely outbound-heavy early stage |
| Deal Complexity | N/A - supporting sales, not selling |
| Sales Cycle | N/A |
| Deal Size | N/A |
| Quota (est.) | N/A - measured on project delivery and strategic impact |
Company Context
Stage: Early-stage (likely Seed/Series A based on "building" language)
Size: Small team, 1 employee listed for parent consulting entity but likely larger for Crescendo
Growth: Actively building GTM team from scratch, pursuing M&A strategy
Market Position: Unknown - new entrant in AI space, using M&A to accelerate growth
GTM Reality
Pipeline Sources:
- Unknown - you'll help figure this out
- Likely starting with outbound given early stage
- M&A may bring acquired customer bases
SDR/AE Structure: Being defined - you'll influence this
SE Support: Unknown - likely limited given stage
Competitive Landscape
Main Competitors: Unknown without product clarity
How They Differentiate: AI-native approach, M&A-fueled growth strategy
Common Objections: Likely category education challenges ("why AI for this?")
Win Themes: To be determined - you'll help identify these
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Strategy Projects (40%) | Systems/Data Work (30%) | M&A Support (20%) | Internal Meetings (10%)
Key Activities
- GTM Process Design: You're building sales processes, defining stages, creating playbooks. This means lots of whiteboarding with founders on "should we do PLG or pure sales-led?" or "what's our ICP?" Not optimizing existing funnels - creating them.
- Data Infrastructure: Setting up the tech stack (CRM, analytics, BI tools). You're making build vs buy decisions, integrating systems, and ensuring clean data flows. Expect to get hands-on with Salesforce configuration, API integrations, and data modeling.
- M&A Diligence & Integration: When they evaluate acquisition targets, you assess their GTM operations. Post-deal, you integrate their CRM, migrate customer data, and merge sales processes. This is messy - duplicate records, incompatible systems, conflicting methodologies.
- Pricing & Packaging Strategy: Analyzing market data, competitor pricing, and unit economics to recommend pricing models. This is strategic work that directly impacts revenue, not just spreadsheet maintenance.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- You're building in a vacuum - limited historical data, no established best practices to follow, lots of uncertainty about what will work
- M&A integrations are chaos - you inherit technical debt, mismatched data, and resistance from acquired teams who liked their old way
- Early-stage means constant pivots - the GTM strategy you build in Q1 might be obsolete by Q3, requiring rework
- You're balancing strategic thinking with tactical execution - one day you're presenting pricing strategy to the board, the next you're debugging a Salesforce workflow
- Ambiguous scope - "GTM Strategy & Ops" means you'll get pulled into random projects that don't fit neatly in a job description
What Success Looks Like
- You ship a functioning GTM infrastructure that scales - CRM that actually gets used, dashboards that drive decisions, processes that don't break as headcount grows
- M&A deals close faster because your diligence is thorough and integration plans are credible
- Sales leadership treats you as a strategic partner, not just the "Salesforce person" - they ask for your input on territory design, comp plans, and market strategy
Who You're Working With
Key Stakeholders:
- Founders/Leadership (likely reporting directly here given strategic nature)
- Future Head of Sales/CRO (partner closely on GTM design)
- Finance team (pricing, forecasting, M&A modeling)
- Product team (packaging, go-to-market readiness)
What They Need From You:
- Founders want strategic recommendations backed by data, plus execution to make it real
- Sales leadership wants infrastructure that makes their job easier, not more bureaucratic
- Finance wants clean data for board reporting and accurate forecasting
Requirements
- 4-6 years in rev ops, sales ops, GTM strategy, or management consulting with GTM exposure
- Experience building (not just optimizing) sales processes and systems - you've set up CRMs from scratch, not just administered existing instances
- Strong analytical skills - SQL, data modeling, financial analysis. You're comfortable in spreadsheets and BI tools.
- M&A experience is a plus - due diligence, integration planning, or post-merger systems consolidation
- Comfort with ambiguity and rapid change - early-stage environment means priorities shift weekly
- Strategic thinking with tactical execution ability - you can present to executives and also fix broken automations
- Salesforce or similar CRM expertise - you understand objects, workflows, reporting architecture