Sean Whiteley is a three-time founder and the Co-Founder of Qualified, the AI pipeline automation platform purpose-built for inbound GTM teams. Previously, he founded GetFeedback (acquired by Campaign Monitor) and Kieden (acquired by Salesforce), where he also served as SVP & GM. With over two decades at the forefront of tech’s biggest transformations—from on-prem to cloud to AI—Sean offers a rare, long-term view on how to build companies and go-to-market engines in the face of massive disruption.
Discussed in this Episode:
Why the speed of AI adoption outpaces every previous tech wave
How the role of RevOps and team design is being reshaped by agentic systems
Why today’s buyer journey is nonlinear, AI-assisted, and fully in control
Tactical breakdown: how Sean mapped and tagged every task at Qualified for AI automation
Why success teams must sit at the core of GTM strategy, not as an afterthought
The most common GTM myth Sean is seeing today—and why it’s outdated
The characteristics Sean looks for in long-term co-founders and GTM hires
Highlights:
02:00 Sean’s journey through on-prem, cloud, and now AI
05:00 Ops leaders as the new AI orchestrators inside GTM teams
08:30 From workflows to autonomous agents: how org charts are shifting
10:30 The “two-way doors” mindset for fast experimentation
13:30 The future of GTM: agents, trust falls, and buyer-led journeys
15:00 From personalization to “relevance at scale” in modern marketing
18:00 AI unlocks speed and efficiency—how that reshapes CAC payback and TCO
24:00 How Qualified created internal AI blueprints across every team
28:30 Inside the AI SDR: replacing manual inbound sales with 24/7 automation
32:00 Success is not post-sales—it’s the center of the GTM experience
36:00 Reinventing yourself as a founder through three companies
39:30 What still hasn’t changed: customer value and trusted partnerships
47:00 GTM myth: “We control the buying process”—why that’s dead
51:00 Where Sean learns about AI: customer conversations > thought leadership\
Guest Speaker Links (Sean Whitely):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanwhiteley
Qualified Website: https://www.qualified.com
Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):
Newsletter: https://substack.com/@sophiebuonassisi
Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):
Website: https://gtmnow.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow
Twitter/X:
The GTM Podcast
The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.
Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.
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