Doug Camplejohn
(00:01)
Hello everyone, and welcome to Revenue Renegades. I’m Doug Camplejohn, your host. This week, I’m pleased to welcome AJ Gandhi to the show. AJ is a veteran of private equity sales, most recently an operating partner at Marlin Equity Partners. He’s also had senior roles at companies like RingCentral, Salesforce, and Lattice Engines. AJ, welcome to the show.
AJ Gandhi
(00:30)
Hey, Doug, great to see you. Thanks for having me.
Doug Camplejohn
(00:32)
Great to have you. Let’s start with your most recent role at Marlin. Tell me a bit about the company and your role there.
AJ Gandhi
(00:42)
Sure, Doug. Marlin Equity is a buyout-oriented B2B SaaS investor. We have about 50 companies in the portfolio, ranging from $10 million to $500 million in ARR, mostly B2B SaaS, with two-thirds in North America and one-third in Europe. My job was to partner with management teams to improve go-to-market strategies, focusing on growth and efficiency. I spent about 20% of my time on diligence, 70% on portfolio company improvement, and 10% on community building and best practice sharing.
Doug Camplejohn
(01:41)
You must get a unique perspective from that role. Many guests on this show are focused on their own company, but you see across a wide range. What patterns did you notice about what was working, what wasn’t, and how to improve things?
AJ Gandhi
(02:03)
What’s most interesting, Doug, is that despite all the market factors—AI, changing technology, crowded categories—the key is nailing the fundamentals of go-to-market. Every company had opportunities to improve. Even when the buying environment was hot, there was always more to do to strengthen the business. Another big realization for me was how fragmented go-to-market functions can be. Marketing, sales, partners, professional services, customer success, and support often don’t understand how to work together. The CEO and CFO, under the board, are responsible for aligning these functions, but there’s often room for improvement.
Doug Camplejohn
(04:00)
The sales and marketing divide is a classic problem. It’s remarkable that in 2025, we’re still having this conversation. How does that get fixed?
AJ Gandhi
(04:17)
It starts with being disciplined about what you’re going after. First, define your market and the problem you solve. Once you’ve developed your product for that market, ask where the growth opportunity is. For example, if you’re a $25 million or $100 million company, where do you want to be in three years? What are the sources of growth—new logos, upsell, cross-sell, retention, expansion? Once you know where growth should come from, especially for mid-market companies, you need to be focused with your ideal customer profile and data-driven segmentation and targeting. After that, it’s about engaging the right buyers and guiding their journey—even those not fully aware of the problem or solution. Marketing, sales, customer success, and implementation all need to be aligned to go after those opportunities together.
Doug Camplejohn
(07:11)
I’ve seen companies try to fix alignment by changing the org chart, like having the CMO report to the CRO. But unless everyone agrees on the ICP and metrics, it doesn’t work. How do you ensure all functions are running in the same direction?
AJ Gandhi
(08:20)
It requires time together and step-by-step work. Many management teams are geographically distributed now, so you have to orchestrate alignment and nail down the basics operationally. Realistically, the CEO has to own this. It would be great to have a CRO who understands all aspects of sales, marketing, product marketing, professional services, customer success, and support, but those people are rare. The CEO needs to understand and guide all these functions, which isn’t easy.
Doug Camplejohn
(09:49)
More CEOs need to step up to that challenge.
AJ Gandhi
(10:13)
Exactly. Many CEOs, CFOs, and boards don’t fully understand the market, and as a result, marketing is often under-invested. For example, buyers now complete about 80% of their journey before contacting sales, yet most go-to-market spend is still heavily weighted toward sales. Management teams need to get together and decide who they’re targeting and measure progress through the buyer’s journey, not just pipeline. Most companies don’t do this today.
Doug Camplejohn
(12:36)
This ties back to the idea from Winning by Design: the whole organization should think about the buyer’s journey and how to help at every step, including after onboarding.
AJ Gandhi
(13:24)
Exactly. In a recurring revenue business, you rarely win the entire deal upfront. It’s a seed-and-grow world. If you don’t deliver value quickly, you don’t grow. Time to first value is an underappreciated metric. The buyer, or champion, is betting on your solution, and until they see value, they’re under pressure. Many companies are weak here. Value selling isn’t just for late-stage deals; it should happen throughout the customer journey—from prospecting to advocacy. You need to communicate value early, build the business case with the customer, and then measure and recognize value after the sale.
Doug Camplejohn
(17:29)
Value can be subjective. How do you measure it? Is it just product engagement, or are there other metrics?
AJ Gandhi
(17:40)
Product engagement is part of it, but value is the language of the customer’s business—cost reduction, revenue growth, risk reduction, efficiency, and their key KPIs. You have to show the baseline, how your solution helps, and then measure performance afterward. If you do this well, you move the conversation from price to the value you deliver, which gives you pricing power, retention, and expansion potential.
Doug Camplejohn
(19:52)
That makes sense for hard cost scenarios, but what about products like Calendly or a CRM? How do you convey value there?
AJ Gandhi
(20:17)
You need to get to the “why.” For salespeople, time and talent are their assets. Scheduling burns both time and emotional energy. If you can quantify how much time is saved and how that time can be repurposed, that’s a business case. Not everything can be perfectly quantified, and there are soft value points, but you can still demonstrate tangible benefits.
Doug Camplejohn
(22:11)
So even for intuitive products, it’s important to quantify value for customers who want to see the data.
AJ Gandhi
(22:48)
Absolutely. But remember, there’s also an emotional component to decision-making. Often, the real competition is for executive attention. Is this a big enough problem to prioritize? If so, you need to guide them on why it matters and how to think about solving it, leading them to your solution.
Doug Camplejohn
(25:54)
You mentioned PE and VC are in a tricky spot. Can you elaborate?
AJ Gandhi
(26:08)
Both private equity and venture capital firms have assets they’ve held longer than they’d like, and their LPs want distributions. As a result, there’s a bit of a freeze—LPs don’t want to put more money in, and firms are sitting on expensive assets from 2020–2022. Go-to-market value creation takes time—18 to 36 months—whereas cost reduction or pricing changes show results quickly. There’s pressure to drive exits, but growth takes longer to yield.
Doug Camplejohn
(29:10)
What about productivity in go-to-market?
AJ Gandhi
(29:27)
Go-to-market spend is about 40% of revenue for public software companies, down from 45%. Growth has dropped from mid-30s to mid-teens. Sales performance distribution is very skewed—20% of sellers drive 80% of bookings. There’s a big cost reduction opportunity in go-to-market, and companies need to be smarter and more efficient, focusing on higher-quality revenue and avoiding low-fit customers.
Doug Camplejohn
(31:28)
Let’s talk about growth and then overlay AI on top of all that.
AJ Gandhi
(31:53)
For growth, you need to set up the next phase for potential buyers—improve go-to-market strategy, launch new products or segments, and show there’s room to grow. Fundamentals like positioning, ICP focus, talent discipline, value selling, expansion selling, and cross-functional alignment are often lacking. If you’re a PE firm, there are always opportunities to improve these areas.
Doug Camplejohn
(36:56)
Let’s touch on AI. How is it affecting go-to-market and the funding environment?
AJ Gandhi
(37:52)
AI is a major disruptor. AI-native companies can replace SaaS, and incumbents have an advantage because customers want fewer tools in their tech stack. The responsible approach is to look at what major platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot offer before adding more tools. There’s too much bloat and “swivel chair” inefficiency. AI is collapsing categories—forecasting, sales engagement, conversational intelligence—and driving prices down. The key is to focus on use cases and minimize the number of tools. Platform solutions are more enduring than point solutions.
Doug Camplejohn
(43:36)
Usability at scale is key. Some tools are great for super-users but not for everyone.
AJ Gandhi
(43:54)
Exactly. Adoption and usability at scale matter. Some companies are features, some are products, and a few are enduring companies. For example, conversational intelligence is now table stakes, so differentiation is key. AI-based coaching and role-playing are exciting areas for improving sales performance distribution.
Doug Camplejohn
(46:18)
Let’s shift gears and talk about your GTM Leader Society and your philanthropy work.
AJ Gandhi
(46:51)
GTM Leaders Society started as a way to connect executives as the pandemic receded. Go-to-market got harder, and executives wanted to share experiences. I began with paella parties and now do more structured dinners. As a private equity operating partner, I needed to learn more about marketing, so I brought people together for structured conversations. It’s been a hit, and I now have councils for marketing and sales leaders, as well as events for operating partners and CEOs. It’s about generosity and helping each other tackle tough problems.
Doug Camplejohn
(49:38)
In the age of AI, personal connections are more important than ever, and your events are fantastic.
AJ Gandhi
(50:02)
Thank you. The goal is to create FOMO-worthy, invitation-only events. It gets better every quarter.
Doug Camplejohn
(50:11)
Tell us about your philanthropy work and the Father of the Year award.
AJ Gandhi
(50:26)
My principles are significance and contribution. After a personal challenge, I became a single dad to two daughters and focused on family. I also got involved with a cause supporting middle school kids from disadvantaged neighborhoods, placing them in apprenticeships at companies like Salesforce and LinkedIn. It was transformational for them. Someone nominated me for Father of the Year in San Mateo County in 2015, which was very meaningful after a tough time.
Doug Camplejohn
(52:02)
Thank you for sharing that. Let’s wrap up with a few quick questions. What do you like to do for fun?
AJ Gandhi
(52:17)
I love throwing dinner parties, being around good people, and enjoying good food. I try to make every experience special, whether it’s rare Japanese whiskey, paella, omakase, or unique venues.
Doug Camplejohn
(52:51)
Is there something else we’d be surprised to know about you?
AJ Gandhi
(53:09)
Twelve years ago, I was very disconnected. I later discovered I had severe sleep apnea, which impacted me for 20 years. Once I addressed it, my energy improved, and I became more purposeful about making a meaningful contribution.
Doug Camplejohn
(54:11)
What’s one product you personally use and love?
AJ Gandhi
(54:21)
I’m really digging into copy.ai right now. I want to learn all the AI use cases for go-to-market, and I hope for a Swiss Army knife tool rather than gluing a bunch of things together.
Doug Camplejohn
(54:50)
How can listeners stay in touch with you?
AJ Gandhi
(54:55)
If you’re interested in my events, go to gtmleadersociety.com and register. We’re intentional about who we invite, aiming to bring together top people from every business function to collaborate and learn from each other.
Doug Camplejohn
(55:36)
We wish you luck getting into one of AJ’s dinners. AJ, this has been fantastic. Thank you for your time. I look forward to raising a glass of Japanese whiskey with you soon.
AJ Gandhi
(55:58)
Thanks for having me, Doug. Great to see you. Cheerio.
