We have seen interest in go-to-market (GTM) technology surge recently — and for good reason. Applied AI is reshaping every function within companies, and sales is no exception. With the explosion in AI-driven sales tools, many have been left grappling with a pressing question: How do modern GTM teams need to transform in order to thrive in the AI-native era?
As we see it, SaaS companies have confronted several secular shifts over the past few years, yet the software they rely on to manage revenue hasn’t kept pace. One such shift – from traditional upfront committed revenue to usage-based revenue models – has exacerbated the limitations of existing software. Data related to GTM exists in various silos across an organization, from CRMs to ERPs to ticketing systems for customer support and, ever increasingly, in data warehouses. In our view, the best companies have been forced to invest millions to rebuild their revenue operating systems in-house in order to remain competitive.
One of the first examples of software operating systems within GTM were CRMs, starting with Siebel (acq. by Oracle) in the late 90s, succeeded by Salesforce and Hubspot. These systems of record helped sellers track and manage prospects and led to huge productivity gains. Their extensive application and integration ecosystems reinforced lock-in.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen a rise in systems of engagement – software in which sellers spend the majority of their time day-to-day to conduct work. For example, sales engagement platforms, conversational intelligence platforms and data enrichment platforms.
We believe the next generation of software in GTM will be systems of intelligence. To combat the sprawl of systems of engagement, we think enterprises are looking to consolidate on fewer, more intelligent platforms. Rather than simply replacing existing point solutions, systems of intelligence will act more like central nervous systems powering GTM workflows. As they mature, they will take over an increasing share of work so that sellers can focus on what they do best – sell.
In Rox, we found a team obsessed with bringing this vision to life. Rox is building a new revenue operating system for the applied AI era. Rox unifies relevant data into a single source of truth and uses public and private data to power agentic workflows that help secure and grow revenue. Prioritizing, researching, engaging and managing prospects and customers can now all happen in a single place – Rox. Account executives, account managers and others are already saving hundreds of hours per week collectively with Rox.
With his experience as a second-time founder and former Chief Growth Officer at New Relic, Ishan brings a deep understanding of what it takes to ‘own the number’. Alongside Chris Re, Avanika Narayan, Diogo Ribeiro, Shriram Sridharan and other team members, Rox has made incredible progress since they started building in stealth nine months ago. 35+ of the best performing enterprise sales teams have virally adopted Rox, including MongoDB, Confluent, Ramp and many others. As part of Rox’s public beta, every enterprise in the world can now start using Rox for free.
We’re proud to lead Rox’s Series A and to partner with Ishan and the entire Rox team as we welcome them to the GC Famiglia.
