SaaStr 856: AI-Native GTM 101: The 5 Decisions Every Founder Has to Get Right with Owner's CRO
Owner.com is approaching $100M ARR selling to independent restaurants and their GTM team is producing numbers that shouldn't be possible. $150K AEs closing $2M+ ARR per year. Outbound BDRs generating $100K in closed-won ARR per BDR per month. 4X the ARR per rep compared to direct competitors.
None of that happens by accident.
In this session, Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com, breaks down the exact AI-driven GTM playbook that got them there, including 5 decisions he believes every SaaS company needs to make right now before the gap between AI-native and AI-curious companies becomes impossible to close.
What you'll learn:
1. Centralized vs. decentralized AI: why letting a thousand flowers bloom is probably killing your results
2. Build vs. buy: the 5-question framework (hint: buy your infrastructure, build your intelligence)
3. The AI sophistication ladder — Levels 0 through 4, where most companies are stuck, and exactly how to move up
4. The "5 P" prioritization framework for deciding which AI projects to tackle first
5. Agentic vs. assistive: how to think about human-in-the-loop and why chaining too many generative steps is the #1 cause of AI slop
6. Why your personal compounding AI stack is your most underrated competitive asset
This isn't theory. This is what $100M ARR in a notoriously difficult SMB market actually looks like when you go all-in on applied AI.
SaaStr 838: The Present and Future of AI in Sales and GTM with SaaStr's CEO and Owner's CRO
SaaStr 838: The Present and Future of AI in Sales and GTM with SaaStr's CEO and Owner's CRO
Jason Lemkin on Going All-In on AI Agents: 20 Agents, Zero SDRs, and the Death of Mid-Pack Sales
Jason Lemkin, Founder and CEO of SaaStr, sits down with Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner, to share the raw story of how frustration with sales team turnover pushed him to deploy 20 AI agents in under a year, and why we'll never go back.
In this episode, we cover:
→ Why Jason stopped hiring SDRs after two senior reps ghosted him right before SaaStr Annual → The real reason most AI agent deployments fail (hint: it's not the technology)
→ How to pick your first AI vendor: "Talk to your forward deployed engineer before you sign"
→ Why Salesforce is having a Renaissance as the hub for AI agents
→ The brutal truth about mid-pack sales jobs being in "terminal decline"
→ How to get started with AI agents when your CFO won't give you budget
→ AgentForce vs. the hot startups: what actually works in production
→ Why the $250K SDR is coming, but only for the truly elite
Jason's advice for revenue leaders: "Roll up your sleeves. If you haven't trained an agent yourself, you'll be utterly ignorant in the age of AI."
🔗 See the AI agents SaaStr uses: saastr.ai/agents
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Hey everybody, the biggest B2B + AI event of the year will be back - SaaStr AI in the SF Bay Area, aka the SaaStr Annual, will be back in May 2026.
With 68% VP-level and above, 36% CEOs and founders and a growing 25% AI-first professional, this is the very best of the best S-tier attendees and decision makers that come to SaaStr each year.
But here's the reality, folks: the longer you wait, the higher ticket prices can get. Early bird tickets are available now, but once they're gone, you'll pay hundreds more so don't wait.
Lock in your spot today by going to podcast.saastrannual.com to get my exclusive discount SaaStr AI SF 2026. We'll see you there.
20Sales: From $2M ARR to $40M ARR: The Playbook | How to Use AI To Supercharge Your Sales Team | Why Pipeline Reviews are BS | The Sales Call Script that Closes 99% of Prospects and How to Hire the Best Sales Reps with Kyle Norton, CRO @ Owner
Kyle Norton is the Chief Revenue Officer at Owner.com, where he scaled revenue from $2M to $40M ARR in under 3 years while selling to one of the toughest markets: SMB restaurants. Before Owner, Kyle led sales at Shopify, where he helped architect one of the most operationally elite GTM orgs in SaaS.
Agenda:
00:00 – From Shopify to $40M ARR at Owner.com
06:40 – Why Founders Who Skip Sales Get Burned
11:50 – 90% Inbound, Then 70% Outbound — And Why Neither Is Enough
17:40 – How to Use AI in Sales to Massively Increase Outbound
24:30 – BDRs Don't Get Paid for Demos. Only Closed Revenue.
30:50 – The 3-Part Sales Scorecard That Replaced My Gut
36:20 – I Posted a Job on LinkedIn and Got 1,200 Applicants
42:15 – I Fired a Rep on Day 11. Here's Why.
49:40 – We Don't Do Pipeline Reviews. The Secret...
55:00 – The One Call Close Script That Wins in 99% of Cases
1:03:10 – Why YouTube Is Our Underrated Growth Weapon
1:14:30 – Sales Is a Personal Development Exercise Disguised as a Career
1:20:45 – The Night We Closed Until 1AM and Hit the Number
SaaStr 803: AI, Sales + GTM in 2025/2026: This Really Changes Everything with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin and Owner CRO Kyle Norton
SaaStr 803: AI, Sales + GTM in 2025/2026: This Really Changes Everything with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin and Owner CRO Kyle Norton
In this engaging session, we dive deep into how AI is transforming the sales landscape, featuring a conversation between SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin and Kyle Norton, the Chief Revenue Officer of Owner, a company recently valued at over a billion dollars.
The discussion covers Kyle's background and his insights into implementing AI in sales operations, the challenges and benefits of using AI tools, and the critical importance of a curiosity-driven approach to technology among sales leaders. Key topics include the integration of AI in SMB sales, the future of sales professional roles, and the necessity of continuous improvement and adoption of AI tools. The conversation also touches on the need for creating a seamless customer journey through AI and human interface, managing hybrid teams of AI and sales reps, and the potential for AI to close deals. Essential for anyone interested in the intersection of AI and sales, this session offers practical strategies and forward-looking perspectives.
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SaaStr 781: The RevOps Playbook: Owner.com CRO's Secrets to Scaling
SaaStr 781: The RevOps Playbook: Owner.com CRO's Secrets to Scaling
Join Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com, as he dives into the fundamentals of operating a revenue team with excellence. In this 40-minute session, Kyle outlines his SaaS-focused 'revenue operating system,' inspired by analogies of the Iron Man suit. Learn about the four key components crucial for predictable revenue growth: measuring, managing, planning, and communicating. Kyle shares practical tools, metrics, and rhythms designed to streamline business operations, turning chaos into order and accelerating organizational growth. Gain insights from his extensive experience and take away actionable steps and templates to implement immediately in your own business.
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SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet.
Hey everybody - thanks to the 10,000 of you who came out to SaaStr Annual. We had a blast and big news -- we'll be back in MAY of 2025. That's right, the SaaStr Annual will be a bit earlier next year, May 13-15 2025. We'll still be back in the same venue, in the SF bay area at the 40+ acre sprawling san mateo county events center. Grab your tickets at saastrannual.com with code JASON50 for an extra discount on our very best pricing.
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SaaStr 737: How to Build Go-to-Market Efficiency in SMB Sales with Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton
SaaStr 737: How to Build Go-to-Market Efficiency in SMB Sales with Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton
How do you build GTM efficiency in SMB sales? The CRO at Owner.com, Kyle Norton, shares his learnings and strategies for building better efficiency into your GTM motion.
While this title is SMB-oriented, the advice applies to Mid-Market and Enterprise, too. The three topics we'll cover in today's podcast are:
The importance of staying focused and how to say no.
Ways to scale that don't include rampant inefficiency and burn.
How to build operational excellence into your organization at different stages of the growth curve.
Full playbook, video and recap of this session here on saastr.com.
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SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet.
Join us in 2024 at:
SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on final Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20
SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20
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This episode is sponsored by Pendo, the all-in-one product experience platform.
Pendo helps your users do the things you really want them to do. You can try Pendo for free at Pendo.io/saastr and check out Mind The Product, the community for product people like… us.
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