Post by Vertical

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 01 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬' 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 Our Senior Consultant Dana Gamburg attended Maria 01's inaugural Builders' Breakfast with Kristo Ovaska (Taito.ai founder, scaled Smartly €100M+ revenue). At Vertical, we learn from the field, not just textbooks. Here's what's changing: The new competitive edge isn't product - it's GTM. In the AI era, building great products is table stakes. Differentiation lives in brand, go-to-market strategy, and community. Example: Lovable runs 50-100 hackathons weekly globally. Their product is comparable to competitors, but their ecosystem is the moat. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬: ✔️ Everyone needs to be more technical (yes, even founders and sales) ✔️ Founder personal brands cut through marketing noise ✔️ Cold calling and curated events are back ✔️ Customers optimize for AI discovery over search 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Whether you're exploring startup partnerships or refining your own strategy, the playbook has changed. Success today is community-driven and founder-led, with "slightly more offline" strategies than previous years. At the same time you also need to get more technical and know how to use AI in your daily work. These insights shape how we guide both innovation programs and corporate strategy - because the best consulting comes from continuous field learning. Want to discuss how these trends impact your strategy? Let's connect. #StartupCorporateCollaboration #ProductMarketFit #GTMStrategy #CorporateInnovation