Cracking the Code: Proven Enterprise GTM Strategies for AI Startups from Industry Insiders

As AI reshapes the enterprise tech stack, startups face a unique challenge: selling transformative technology to organizations still defining their AI strategy.

Building on our exploration of SaaS Pricing strategies, we’re now zeroing in on mastering your AI Enterprise GTM strategy. The traditional SaaS GTM playbook needs significant adaptation for AI solutions, so what is the newest established formula for success?

To answer that question and cut through the noise, we've interviewed GTM experts from leading AI companies both in and outside the Speedinvest portfolio including Hugging Face, Asana, Autone, Complyance, and Prewave to uncover the strategies that have proven to work so far.

It's important to remember that AI is still so new for enterprises that it often resists easy categorization.

Let’s dive in.

Why Founder-Led Sales Is Your Secret Weapon

Here's a truth that might surprise you: Your early enterprise customers aren't just buying your product — they're buying into you as a founder. Harald Nitschinger, co-founder of Prewave, puts it brilliantly: "My personal philosophy is the founder should never be completely out of sales. Especially in the earlier stages, founder-led-sales is crucial until you achieve product-market-fit”.

That being said, don't make the mistake of thinking you can completely delegate sales once you hire a VP of Sales.

The founder's involvement should still be present even after building out the sales team. Why? Because enterprise customers want to see the vision, feel the commitment, and trust that their strategic investment is in good hands. Harald adds, “really what they are buying is you as a founder. To a certain extent, you are the product they are buying so you need to learn and engage directly with your customers.”

Your presence as a founder sends a powerful message about your company's dedication to their success.

Adil Bouhdadi, CEO and co-founder of autone also adds that it's important to “​​hire the right people, people that have gone through the stage that you’re at, for the right stages of the company”.

The Power of a Laser-Focused ICP

Let's be honest, people pleasing never served anyone. 

Trying to serve too many Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) can be the kiss of death for an enterprise AI startup.

Christoph Schink from Asana suggests focusing on just two or three ICPs in the early stages, which helps maintain direction and builds early traction. This isn't just about focus - it's about survival. Mike Killen from Complyance explains that “in the earlier stages when thinking about building a GTM from scratch, with a low client base, you really have to determine, where are we in this market? Who is our competition? How do the clients within this market think and from those personas, what are those recurring testimonials we're seeing? And based on those trends clearly delineate who those key personas/organizations are.” 

Take Prewave's success story as a prime example of the power of focused targeting. They didn't try to boil the ocean. Instead, they zeroed in on the automotive space for sustainable sourcing, landing giants like BMW and Porsche rather early on. The result? They built credibility in a specific vertical before expanding their scope. This isn't just strategy — it's smart business. 

The Buyer-User Divide: Your Most Critical Strategic Decision 

Here's a painful truth many AI startups learn too late: In enterprise sales, understanding the distinction between users and buyers is essential. As Harald notes, 'Users and buyers are two different personas... You want to optimize for value for the buyer.”

While users advocate internally, buyers must clearly see strategic value to sign the check. Aligning these interests ensures your product resonates across the organization.

But here's the catch - you need both to succeed.

Think of it this way: Your users must love your product enough to advocate for it within their organization, while your buyers need to clearly understand the strategic value clearly enough to sign the check.

It's not about prioritizing one over the other - it's about orchestrating both roles so that they seamlessly land at the same conclusion. 

Pricing: The Art of Value-Based Confidence

Pricing an enterprise AI solution is a known nightmare. The key takeaway from our experts? Price for value, not for competition. When you're offering something unique in the AI space, you have more flexibility than you might think. But here's the crucial part — your pricing needs to be crystal clear and tied directly to value metrics that resonate with enterprise buyers.

Mike emphasizes transparency: "Make your pricing clear and transparent... put it in a way that’s easy to digest so that if someone gets a pricing proposal via email, they need to be able to understand the value associated with that pricing." This isn't just about numbers — it's about communication and confidence in your value proposition. 

Orion Penner, a machine learning engineer at Hugging Face, stresses that AI solutions require high-touch, in-depth support to align with an enterprise’s technical and political structures. Therefore, your pricing should reflect this high-value engagement.

He also explains that selling AI to enterprises requires a high-touch approach, as it involves not only adapting to their technical systems but also navigating their internal politics - factors that justify a higher price point.

The AI Narrative: Beyond the Buzzword

Here's a reality check: Simply slapping "AI" onto your product isn't enough anymore (or was never enough to begin with).

Hugging Face’s Orion stresses that AI solutions require high-touch, in-depth support to align with an enterprise’s technical and political structures. Therefore, your pricing should reflect this high-value engagement.

Most enterprises are still figuring out their AI use cases, he adds, and what they think will be useful are often not the ones that they end up pursuing long term. So how do you shift their perspective? This can be rather delicate because integrating AI into enterprise environments isn't always straightforward: “AI doesn’t fit in a box that nicely when it comes to enterprise implementation. Within an enterprise, once a decision has been made to pursue a specific use case, it wasn’t something that came to one person in one day... it's something that has been discussed heavily internally.”

Orion emphasizes that to add value, AI providers should align their solutions with the enterprise’s immediate priorities:

“The only way to really divert things towards where value can better be generated is to come in through the opening that they've created for you and what they've identified as being the next step, and then developing trust through providing a good solution to that or good advisory around that. Then over time, using that trust, helping them understand what the real next steps are—the value-based use cases are."

This insight highlights the importance of meeting enterprises where they are rather than trying to force a particular AI vision. Mike reinforces this approach, cautioning against using AI as a mere buzzword: "It can't just be jewellery... it has to really have core functionality." Instead, focus on:

• Demonstrating how AI solutions fit into existing workflows
• Quantify the value of automation for specific use cases
• Make AI capabilities accessible and understandable
• Show clear ROI through clear and reduced manual work

"If you're in SaaS, I think you need an AI story today. But it needs to be genuine and tied to real value creation,” Prewave’s Harald added.

Partnerships: Timing Is Everything

Think partnerships are your fast track to enterprise success? Think again. While partnerships can be powerful growth drivers, timing is crucial. Harald advises against having a heavy reliance on partnership before achieving PMF: "You need the direct customer conversations... Only once you have a clear product that has product-market fit, then you can enable partners."

This is not to say to avoid partnerships altogether - it's about sequencing them correctly in your growth journey. Start with direct relationships, build your proof points, and then leverage partnerships to scale. Asana’s experience clearly shows how partnerships can be leveraged effectively in different ways: 

• Implementing customer onboarding
• Geographic expansion into new markets
• Technology integrations that add value
• Sales channel partnerships with established players

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The Enterprise Sales Cycle: A Marathon, Not a Sprint

Enterprise sales cycles are often long, complex, and even frustrating at times. But, with the right strategies in, they're also manageable. Mike emphasizes the importance of maintaining momentum through regular check-ins, and multiple stakeholder relationships, “there are a million different priorities going on within the (enterprise) organization and you're just a blip on their radar”.

It's also important to set clear value milestones throughout the process to “understand what's going on with the deal" and to drive the process forward.

Practical tips to manage your sales cycles include:

• Setting up regular check-ins with key stakeholders
• Maintaining multiple points of contact within the organization i.e. User + buyer
• Providing clear value milestones throughout the process
• Using calendar-based incentives to create urgency e.g. discounts only available until the end of Q4.

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The Strategic Path Forward for AI Startups

Enterprise AI GTM is still such a novel topic that there is still no rigid playbook to follow. It all boils down to making smart, strategic choices based on your market signaling. 

Start with founder-led sales, maintain a laser focus on your ICP, carefully bridge the gap between the buyer-user divide, price with conviction, craft an authentic AI narrative, effectively time your partnerships, and strategically manage your sales cycles.

Remember: Your GTM strategy isn't set in stone. The most successful AI startups continuously evaluate and adjust their approach based on market feedback and changing customer needs. So get out there, start implementing these strategies, and make your mark in the enterprise AI market.

After all, the opportunity is massive - but only for those who get their GTM strategy right. If pricing is the lifeblood of your business, then your GTM approach is the driving force that propels it forward.

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