How We're Scaling Vercel's GTM Motion Through A 9B Valuation w/ Nick Bogaty, CRO @ Vercel

Nick Bogaty is the CRO at Vercel, and he got there on one of the least linear paths in enterprise software. He spent roughly a decade in open source, including helping create the book file-format standard behind modern e-readers, and then ran product teams at Adobe. He moved into go-to-market at App Dynamics, first running post-sales, then stepping into the CRO seat after the company's acquisition by Cisco, where he helped scale the business from roughly $120M to $700M in ARR. It was at App Dynamics, that a self-described product guy (and history major) fell in love with the craft of sales. After a few CRO runs, he landed at Vercel six months ago to help answer the two questions he cares most about: how people will design, and how people will build, in the AI era.

Discussed In This Episode
The non-linear path from open-source product guy to enterprise CRO
The App Dynamics SKO that made him fall in love with sales
The "value pyramid": why great sellers talk about the customer's company, not their own
How App Dynamics scaled from $120M to $700M ARR without the best product
The operational cadence behind predictable pipeline (and why two customer meetings a day is the floor)
"Show me the receipts" and how to test whether a candidate drove the growth or rode the wave
The coachability red flag he watches for in the first interview
Why he joined Vercel: how people will design and build in the AI era
Signal-based GTM and turning plug motion and open-source momentum into enterprise deals
Building Athena, Vercel's homegrown GTM engine
Why the most creative way into a company is to build something and show it

Timestamps
(0:00) From product guy to CRO: Nick's non-linear path
(4:31) The App Dynamics SKO that converted him to sales
(6:53) The value pyramid: make it about their company, not yours
(10:48) The operational cadence behind $120M → $700M ARR
(12:16) Winning enterprise with the 4th-best product
(14:24) "Do you have a mole in my company?"
(17:20) The hardest part of sales: discipline
(18:04) Why Nick joined Vercel: how we'll design and build next
(21:03) Adobe's font team and why taste now wins
(24:24) Collapsing GTM headcount with AI agents
(26:50) Was it the rep, or the rocket ship?
(29:30) "Show me the receipts"
(33:42) Selling the mission to someone who isn't looking
(35:32) The coachability test in every first interview
(37:39) Weekend warriors and signal-based GTM
(39:23) Turning ground-up momentum into enterprise deals
(41:18) Usage vs. commitment in a consumption world
(43:56) The sales team Nick admires most: Datadog
(45:36) Building Athena: Vercel's homegrown GTM engine
(47:45) The most creative way to get a sales team's attention

About The Crew Podcast
The Crew podcast interviews GTM leaders and investors at top AI startups and early-stage companies.
Every week, host Chris Balestras, partner @ Crew (an advisory, recruiting, investing, & media firm for seed through series C AI-natives) sits down with GTM operators from the fastest-growing AI natives and SaaS companies to break down what's actually working in go-to-market today.
No fluff, no theory - just honest, tactical insights from people in the trenches building the next generation of AI breakouts.

About Crew
Crew is an advisory, recruiting, investing, & media firm for seed through series C AI-natives & fast-growing SaaS startups.

Where to Find Crew
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crewgtm
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecrewgtm
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Website: https://www.withcrew.ai/