In this episode of Sound Bites, host Bill Binch from Battery Ventures talks with Marcus Holm, President of LaunchDarkly, about how the company used AI tools, from avatars to intent platforms to forecasting engines, to dramatically improve rep productivity, pipeline generation, ramp time, deal size and overall sales performance.

Key Takeaways/Key Moments:

(00:00) Tackling Productivity and Pipeline Through AI

Marcus outlines LaunchDarkly’s challenge with inconsistent rep productivity and pipeline generation, and how the team turned to AI tools to create more prescriptive ICPs and better territory management.

(02:41) Using AI Avatars to Increase Reps’ At-Bats and Ramp Faster

AI-driven avatars became a core part of sales training, helping AEs, SEs and SDRs simulate objections, refine pitches, improve demo and POV certifications; all resulting in faster and more consistent ramp times.

(03:07) Major Performance Gains: Faster Ramp, Bigger Deals, Stronger Conversion

Across segments, AE ramp time dropped by 27 days, average deal size nearly doubled and intent-based tooling accelerated conversion from cold calls to first conversations.

(05:25) Achieving 5% Forecast Accuracy with Gong Forecasting

By layering AI-driven analysis on qualification frameworks like MEDDIC, LaunchDarkly now forecasts within 5% of actual results, giving leadership far greater predictability for planning and budgeting.

(06:20) Transforming Rep Productivity: From 18% to 48% at Quota

Two years ago only 18% of reps hit quota; today, 48% do and 80% reach at least 70%. Marcus attributes this shift to AI-driven enablement, better intent prioritization and a more disciplined operating rhythm.

Disclaimer: This material is intended for an audience of entrepreneurs and provided for informational purposes, and it is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by Battery Ventures or any other Battery entity. The information and data are as of the publication date unless otherwise noted. Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this post nor notify its readers in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate. The information above may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or expectations. Predictions, opinions and other information discussed in this video are subject to change continually and without notice of any kind and may no longer be true after the date indicated. Battery Ventures assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. For a full list of all Battery investments, please visit https://www.battery.com/list-of-all-c...

In this episode of Sound Bites, host Bill Binch from Battery Ventures talks with Yezi Peng, Former VP of GTM Ops at Pendo, about the product-oriented shift happening across GTM teams, the rise of GTM engineering and how Pendo is building, governing and rolling out AI-powered workflows to transform productivity and reduce operational friction.

Key Takeaways/Key Moments:



(00:44) The Shift Toward Product Orientation in GTM Teams

Yezi describes how rapid product cycles and new agentic AI tools are pushing sellers and RevOps teams to think like product managers, through experimenting, by understanding the ICP deeply and building tailored workflows.

(01:58) RevOps Is Evolving from Buyers of Tools to Builders of Tools

Instead of only purchasing software, modern RevOps teams now build internal apps, automations and AI-driven workflows such as Pendo’s internally built book-building tool powered by Lovable, N8N and Clay.

(05:32) Pendo’s Core AI Deployment Principles

Yezi outlines the five principles behind their AI rollout: remove manual tasks first, enable self-serve where possible, minimize the rep-facing tech stack, eliminate institutional knowledge risks and stop requiring 100% adoption for new tools.

(08:48) Using AI to Eliminate Single Points of Failure in GTM Ops

Pendo now asks departing Ops team members to create a GPT of themselves by capturing processes, tribal knowledge and workflows, so the knowledge persists after they leave.

(11:41) Defining the GTM Engineer Role at Pendo

Yezi explains how Pendo hires early-career builders with strong curiosity to own tools like Clay and develop outbound/inbound automations, including pipeline engineers sourced from within the BDR team.

Disclaimer:

This material is intended for an audience of entrepreneurs and provided for informational purposes, and it is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by Battery Ventures or any other Battery entity. The information and data are as of the publication date unless otherwise noted. Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this post nor notify its readers in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate. The information above may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or expectations. Predictions, opinions and other information discussed in this video are subject to change continually and without notice of any kind and may no longer be true after the date indicated. Battery Ventures assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. For a full list of all Battery investments, please visit https://www.battery.com/list-of-all-c...

Description:

In this episode of Sound Bites, host Bill Binch from Battery Ventures talks with Matt Peloso, Head of Global Revenue at TheyDo, about how his team used journey mining, AI-enriched call and CRM data and improved qualification to dramatically shorten sales cycles, increase deal sizes and elevate overall rep productivity.

Key Takeaways/Key Moments:

(00:00) Identifying Deal Stage Bottlenecks Through Journey Mining

Matt explains how TheyDo analyzed Gong calls, Salesforce notes and internal insights to map their sales journey and uncover stage-level weaknesses slowing down deal progression.

(03:09) Using AI to Spot Qualification Gaps and Surface Deeper Pain

By aggregating and enriching data inside TheyDo, the team identified where reps weren't digging deep enough into business-level pain, leading to better qualification and earlier “qualify out” decisions.

(03:38) Coaching Reps on True Pain vs. Surface Pain

AI-driven insights revealed when reps were dealing with coaches rather than champions, enabling targeted coaching on follow-up questioning and linking technical pain to executive-level business outcomes.

(05:40) Major Impact: Deal Cycles Cut in Half While Deal Sizes Increase by 3x

Negotiation-to-close shrank from 101 days to 54 days, overall deal cycles dropped from 5.5 months to 71 days and average deal size jumped from ~20K to ~65K.

(08:55) Why the Inspection Started: A Need for Scalable, Productive Growth

Matt shares that TheyDo’s shift from PLG to sales-led growth, and board pressure to scale efficiently, prompted a deep inspection into productivity models, exposing wasted cycles and long-stalled deals.

Disclaimer: This material is intended for an audience of entrepreneurs and provided for informational purposes, and it is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by Battery Ventures or any other Battery entity. The information and data are as of the publication date unless otherwise noted. Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this post nor notify its readers in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate. The information above may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or expectations. Predictions, opinions and other information discussed in this video are subject to change continually and without notice of any kind and may no longer be true after the date indicated. Battery Ventures assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. For a full list of all Battery investments, please visit https://www.battery.com/list-of-all-c...