James Isilay founded Cognism a B2B sales intelligence company together with Stjepan Buljat in 2015. James had previously worked as a quantitative trader and analyst and studied Information Systems Engineering. Cognism helps you identify your ideal customers globally, find others like them, and reach out when they are most likely to buy.
What You Will Learn:
The power of networking as you build your career.
The importance of making top-tier hires when scaling your business.
Scaling internationally is how you win in today's market.
Why SDRs should be working in the office.
Highlights:
(3:05) James’ career journey that led him to become a founder.
(8:09) Factors that drew James into being a financial trader early on in his career.
(14:55) James’ inflection point quitting his 9-5 to start Cognism.
(18:12) James’ learnings from his early days building Cognism.
(20:33) How James calibrated excellence across his team.
(27:08) Cognism's take on in-office vs remote work.
(31:28) Listener question: The “need to haves” on a go-to-market tech stack.
(36:40) Hot take: Every company should be expanding and building a sales capacity globally.
(42:38) Value loops and ungated content are the way to succeed.
Guest Speaker Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-isilay/
Cognism's Website: https://www.cognism.com
Host Speaker Links:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/
Referenced Resource:
Book by Alice de Courcy (Cognism): The Diary of a First Time CMO.
The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with well-known tech executive, VC, and founders - the expert operators in the trenches who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories, revealing expert insights around what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.
This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund - sharing insight on go-to-market from working with hundreds of portfolio companies backed by over 350 of the best go-to-market executives.
Visit gtmnow.com for more details and to sign up for our newsletter and other content resources.
Share this post