Go to Market Best Practices by Chris O'Neill

On July 28th 2021, Xoogler.co hosted a Q&A session on GTM best practices led by Chris O’Neill (Google 2005-15) and moderated by Karim Temsamani (Google 2007-19).?

Over the course of his career, Chris has had the opportunity to take part in many GTM operations. As Managing Director of Google Canada from 2010-2014, Chris was responsible for all of Google’s operations in Canada and grew its annual revenue from $600 million to over $2 billion. At Evernote, Chris served as President & CEO from 2015-2018 where he worked to revitalize Evernote’s brand and double its subscriber count. Chris has served on the boards of other companies like Tim Horton’s and Gap Inc. during his career, and recently wrote a GTM handbook which you can find here.?

Key Insights

Chris believes that GTM should be thought of as a system, like an engine. From his perspective, GTM is the combination of many different components that come together to drive your business. In order to really succeed in GTM, Chris thinks that it isn’t enough to simply focus on individual components such as marketing, sales, customer retention, etc. Rather, it is important to make sure that all of the components of your business really synergize with each other in order to drive your “GTM engine.”?

Chris also emphasized the importance of having a clear vision for your product and business. When you’re just starting out as a founder, before you can even begin to think about GTM, you need to gather a team and build your product. In these early stages, Chris says that what you’re really selling is your vision. It is essential in his eyes to take the time and craft a vision for your product that will capture the attention of the people who you want to help build it. For more established companies, Chris still believes that it is important to stay intentional about pursuing the original vision that drove the company from its inception. Much of his work at Evernote had to do with reconnecting to Evernote’s original vision of being a digital extension of your brain. From his perspective, Evernote had gotten involved in too many different things and had lost sight of that original vision. In situations like this, Chris described pursuing Evernote’s original vision like sculpture. Sculptors don’t carve into a block—they free the sculpture that is already inside.

What led you to write your GTM handbook?

When asked about what led him to writing his GTM handbook, Chris said he noticed that there was a lot of confusion among companies and founders surrounding GTM. He wanted to dispel some of that confusion while also figuring out more clearly for himself what were the essential components of GTM.?

What did you learn from your time at Google?

Chris responded to this question by saying that Google is a “once-in-a-generation company” where “it’s all about the people.” Google was very intentional and regimented about its hiring process, and Chris took this to heart. From his perspective, “The team you build is the company you build.” Focusing on talent and determining fit is extremely important to him. He also noted that while he still does OKRs, he tries not to do too many. Chris thinks it’s important to focus on the “north star” of your business and optimize for that. He used nights booked for AirBnB and notes in Evernote as examples to further this point.?

How do you find your market and balance supply and demand?

Chris stressed to always be mindful that this is a balancing act, but successful marketplaces tend to aggregate demand first and then build supply. He pointed to HipCamp, which started out by simply offering parking spaces for RVs, as an example of “boiling a thimble instead of boiling the ocean.”

How do you do GTM when you are launching internationally??

Chris started by noting that in regulated industries like fintech, the nuances involved with operating internationally are real and can be costly. It’s important to be very familiar with local laws and regulations that may impact your business. Looking back on his time at Evernote, Chris also said that it’s important to figure out which markets to prioritize, as people often go too far too fast when launching internationally. The things he looked for to determine which markets Evernote should prioritize were similar languages, similar regulations, and similar demographics to Evernote’s home market. Chris said that starting small and doing things iteratively are very important in order to succeed in not only international launches, but in simply growing your market as well. He pointed to how Uber and Lyft launched on a city-to-city basis as an example of this.

How do you define visions that can be conveyed across cultures?

Chris said he believes that great visions capture universal truths. Everyone wants a better life, everyone wants to boost productivity, everyone wants to make their jobs easier. Chris thinks that if you can tap into these universal truths, you shouldn’t have problems conveying your vision across cultures.

How do you make sure your vision doesn’t become too disconnected from reality on the ground?

Chris said he thinks that the real disconnect happens when you say one thing and do something else. He pointed to Elon Musk as an example of someone whose visions might seem to be as disconnected from the reality on the ground as they come but maintains his credibility because he is always working towards his vision.

Do you have any insights on compressing sales cycles?

Chris described himself as a big fan of cross functional teams. When going to sales, he emphasized the importance of making sure all teams are at the table from the very beginning because going back and forth between teams during the sales process is one the biggest contributors of delays in sales cycles.

Any career development advice?

Chris first recommended The Career Manifesto by Mike Steib to help with this question. He then stated that you should “be as intentional about your career as a company is about its brand.” Where do you see yourself? How do you want to get there? Chris said you’re going to have to be creative about how you get there because it won’t always feel good and it won’t be as simple as going from point A to point B. He also said that you’ll have to filter opportunities based on your ultimate goal and put your ego aside—sometimes you will have to take a step sideways or backwards before taking a step forward.

I’m having lots of convos with US companies looking to get into Australia, what advice would you give your past self about internationalizing?

Chris used his experience at Google Canada to help answer this question. He said that people think Canada is the 51st state when it’s not, so it was important to learn the local nuances of the region. They didn’t have YouTube in French in Canada at the time, so instead of waiting for approval from higher-ups in the US Chris and his team just ported the French code to French Canada. He noted this got him into trouble and created some new problems, but reiterated that adapting to local nuances is vital when it comes to internationalizing.?

Do you have advice for dealing with businesses that have been around a very long time and are risk averse? I’m speaking from my experience with companies in Singapore who do not want to expand outside Singapore.

Chris responded by saying,? “In Canada we really tried to evangelize the power of the internet and get corporate Canada into the game.” He noted that many companies at the time were similarly risk averse and reluctant to invest heavily in the internet. Chris said that what worked for him was finding the smaller group of people who were interested in making a change and trying to tap into them and amplify their voices. When dealing with people who aren’t tech-savvy, he also said he has found success encouraging them to get “reverse mentors” to help them get up to speed on the latest trends and technologies.?

How often do founders have to revise their vision?

Chris started off with a Mike Tyson quote: “Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.” Getting your vision to the point where you can get people’s eyes to light up while sharing it requires criticism and iteration. According to Chris, visions and ideas are inherently fragile, and that’s ok. Just try not to be fragile yourself.

Closing Thoughts

Chris covered a lot during his session on GTM best practices, offering his advice and expertise on GTM as well as giving his thoughts on other topics like defining vision and career development. Below are three main takeaways that I got from his session.

1. GTM is a system. Rather than thinking of it as a task you do once, try to think of it as a process that you are constantly tweaking and improving.
2. Hone your vision and stick to it. A lot of companies fall into the trap of losing sight of their vision and trying to do too many things at once.
3. When starting something new, whether it's figuring out how to expand into a new area or simply building up new functionality, start small and iterate.

What do you think about how Chris thinks of GTM? Did you find his other advice helpful? Interested in staying involved with this conversation? Let us know by commenting below or emailing [email protected]. Xoogler/Googlers - be sure to check out other events in our monthly Xoogler.co newsletter that goes to over 10,000 ex-Googlers.

Written by Jacob Moore, rising Junior at Harvard University. Xoogler School Student Fall 2020.