In this episode, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman break down the data behind Kyle’s new 2025 B2B Go-To-Market report, covering what’s actually working in sales and marketing right now — and what’s not. They discuss why most companies are spreading their marketing budgets too thin, how focusing deeply on a few proven channels drives better ROI, and why founder-led content on LinkedIn is outperforming everything else. The crew digs into the rise of AI search, the surprising durability of SEO, and the death of AI SDRs. CJ also explains his “analytics escalator” framework, showing how teams can evolve from basic dashboards to predictive and prescriptive analytics. The episode wraps with their favorite “business blunders” and a nostalgic dive into LimeWire’s bizarre Web3 comeback.
Get Kyle's GTM Report here: https://www.growthunhinged.com/Timestamps:00:00 Beyoncé and the Hot Sauce Reference01:42 Welcome to Mostly Growth02:10 Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew & Fall Banter03:02 The Problem with Startup Swag04:32 The Best Swag Ever: Runway’s “Burn Rate” Hot Sauce06:12 Beyoncé Callback & Yeti Self-Portrait Water Bottle08:32 Transition to GTM Discussion08:42 What’s Actually Working in GTM09:15 Too Many Channels, Not Enough Focus10:05 The Power Law of Marketing Spend11:44 F1, Downforce, and Channel Focus13:15 Double Down on Winning Channels14:11 The One-Trick Pony Fallacy15:07 Inbound Isn’t Dead — It’s Just Personal16:14 The LinkedIn Effect: People vs. Brands17:48 Why Founder-Led Content Wins19:09 The GTM Scorecard Framework20:00 What’s in the Top-Right Quadrant20:14 The Failure of AI SDRs21:03 The Rise of AI Search (AIO)22:02 AI Hype vs. Real Adoption22:43 Finance Teams Taking Over Analytics23:11 Who Should Own Analytics25:00 The Analytics Escalator: Four Levels Explained28:49 From Dashboards to Diagnosis31:08 Avoiding Useless Analysis33:07 Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics38:03 Why Analytics Needs More Than Software39:39 Should CFOs Really Own Analytics40:08 Business Blunders: The Dreaded Catch-Up Email41:25 How to Say No Gracefully43:00 The LimeWire Comeback44:20 LimeWire Buys Fyre Festival Rights45:00 Nostalgia, Scams, and Brand Value in 2025Links:https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7387167459633504257/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate_cityhttps://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard-01gyvn3sxrv2dzjp7a94ea738y/episode/brad-pitt-01jydvce50ysyercfshbdgtanvhttps://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/cfos-are-taking-over-the-analytics-departmenthttps://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-say-nohttps://nftnow.com/news/lmwr-limewire-is-back-from-the-dead-as-a-web3-brandhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/us/limewire-crypto-fyre-festival.htmlhttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/fyre-festival-musical-taika-waititi-rita-ora-1236362629/https://getplanta.com/
In this episode, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman dive into the concept of “sloponomics”—a tongue-in-cheek look at the overwhelming flood of mediocre AI-generated content and what it means for creators, startups, and investors. They discuss how unique voices and genuine creativity will stand out in an AI-saturated landscape, the economic parallels between modern content creation and startup growth, and the tricky dynamics of building sustainable momentum in a world of noise. The trio also unpack the “$10K MRR” meme, pricing psychology, and the difference between chasing vanity metrics and building lasting value. With humor and real-world insight, they explore how AI, distribution, and early-stage investment are reshaping what success looks like in tech and media.
Timestamps:
00:00 Preview and Intro
01:37 Being Mean to AI and Early Banter
05:00 The Rise of AI-Generated “Slop” Content
07:15 The Creator “Haves and Have-Nots”
09:00 Losing Credit to AI Models
11:20 Feeding the Beast: 400 Posts Later
12:00 “Slop Talk” and Pop-Culture References
13:00 The $10K MRR Meme and Startup Momentum
15:20 Pricing Psychology and Product Traction
17:10 Hunting Mice, Buffalo, and Elephants
18:45 The Ideal Customer Profile and Early Adopters
20:15 Venture Funds, Bubbles, and Ecosystem Investing
23:45 When Startups Invest in Startups
26:40 Slack, Lattice, and the Platform Play
29:05 Wrapping Up and Late-Night Insights
Episodes Referenced:
Slop Talk (coming soon)
https://www.youtube.com/slackerstuff
Why Only 2% of Startups Make It
When startups burn cash faster than they learn | Ivan Makarov:
996 Culture, Exploding AI Bills & SaaS Chaos
Links:
https://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit07/internet07_02.phtml
https://futurism.com/altman-please-thanks-chatgpt
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/over-50-percent-internet-ai-slop
https://www.axios.com/2025/10/14/ai-generated-writing-humans
https://www.economist.com/business/2025/10/16/sloponomics-who-wins-and-loses-in-the-ai-content-flood
https://x.com/madhuraaa_/status/1978390720881819884
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/eat-what-you-kill
https://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-ways-to-build-100-million-business.html
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-build-your-early-gtm-strategy
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/startups-investing-in-startups-peak-bubble-behavior
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/10/10/are-barefoot-shoes-good-for-runners
https://x.com/ivanomaksf/status/1978852000298320068?s=46
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/is-ltv-to-cac-the-nickelback-of-metrics
https://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-ways-to-build-100-million-business.html
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ben-horowitz-hires-jensen-vercel-starts-venture-fund
In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ, Kyle, and Ben start with Carl’s infamous “AWS from the car” rant before diving into a sharp, funny breakdown of corporate title inflation and the slow death of middle management. From “Founding BDRs” to self-proclaimed “VPs of vibes,” the crew dissects why org charts are flattening and how that changes leadership, accountability, and hiring. Then, in a classic Pricing Model Roast, they unpack why hybrid and usage-based models are both brilliant and broken, what outcome-based pricing gets wrong, and why take rates might secretly be the future. The trio closes with thoughts on momentum, AI urgency theater, and how to manage teams without burning them out—or yourself in the process.
Timestamps:
00:00 Carl from the Car on AWS
01:04 Mostly Growth intro theme
01:27 CJ’s flight back from LA (and the fake Wi-Fi warning)
02:00 “I finally learned where Mississippi was”
02:45 LA traffic and Nobu dinner with Ben
04:08 Ben’s history lesson: why LA is a transportation nightmare
06:34 “Clip it down” — segue to the main topic
07:20 Title deflation and the death of middle management
09:12 “Founding BDR” and generic LinkedIn titles
11:00 The problem with VP title inflation
12:31 The vanishing middle manager
14:03 “Bonfire of the Middle Managers” and why it matters
15:52 Shout-out to good managers everywhere
18:00 Pricing Model Roast — lightning round
19:49 Why hybrid pricing is the “best worst” model
22:12 Usage vs. commitment pricing in the AI era
25:09 Outcome-based pricing and cash-flow pain
31:23 Take-rate pricing and marketplace dynamics
33:29 Momentum is not a moat — but maybe it’s a boat
36:22 How fast companies really move in AI
38:38 Building urgency without burning out your team
41:10 Business Partners: The LinkedIn follower illusion
42:46 The optimal number of direct reports
45:24 Pricing in the Real World — why book publishing is a scam
Episodes Referenced:
The $1 Trillion AI Bubble: Nvidia, OpenAI, and the Feedback Loop
Decoding the Psychology of Price in the Age of AI | Michael Stanisz
996 Culture, Exploding AI Bills & SaaS Chaos
Links:
https://x.com/shamusmadan/status/1978471423522840643/photo/1
https://www.economist.com/business/2025/10/05/bonfire-of-the-middle-managers
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/7de0e352-fd0f-4f75-bc70-f1adaa483a4a
https://investing101.substack.com/p/momentum-moat
https://www.amazon.com/Formula-Universal-Laws-Success/dp/0316505498
In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman dive into the question on everyone’s mind: are we in an AI bubble? What starts as a lighthearted riff on the U.S. Postal Service launching a podcast quickly spirals into a sharp, funny breakdown of today’s AI hype cycle — from Nvidia, OpenAI, and AMD trading money and GPUs in a trillion-dollar feedback loop, to startups burning cash chasing “AI-powered” everything. The trio share real examples of when AI helps and when it backfires (including one newsletter that totally tanked), debate whether companies are over-optimizing for automation, and laugh through the absurdity of the hype while grounding it in practical insights on product, finance, and growth.
Timestamps:
00:00 Preview and Intro
00:14 Are We in an AI Bubble?
00:44 The AI Money Loop: Nvidia, OpenAI, AMD
01:00 Perplexity, We Caught You
02:18 The Postal Service Launches a Podcast
04:24 How the Team Uses AI (and When It Fails)
06:07 CJ’s DIY Dunning Disaster
08:38 What AI Is Good At — and Where It Breaks
10:49 Perplexity Tries to Gaslight Kyle
13:27 AI vs. AI: Hacking Resume Screeners
16:09 How Recruiters View AI-Generated Resumes
17:17 CJ’s Chief of Staff Hiring Story
19:15 The Data: Is AI Adoption Already Slowing?
22:42 Crossing the Chasm: Early Adopters to Early Majority
26:22 The Streaming Analogy and Forced AI Bundles
28:49 The Circular AI Economy (Everyone Funding Everyone)
31:15 Betting It All on AGI and Data Centers
34:09 The Margin: AI Erotica and the Peak of the Bubble
35:23 Business Blunders: OpenAI’s Token Leaderboard
41:43 What Kyle Tried This Week: Building an AI Agent
44:52 Wrap-Up and Outro
Episodes Referenced:
5,762 Job Applications. Zero Offers.
Why Only 2% of Startups Make It
The War for Talent is just getting started | Joe Floyd
Links:
https://usps-mailin-it.simplecast.com/
https://i.imgflip.com/a92oy5.jpg
https://tabs.inc/webinar/tabs-agent
https://substack.com/@kylepoyar/note/c-159017468?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/business/ai-chatbot-prompts-resumes.html?_bhlid=1b5906cdc6781a738a150d9c32f846ebf11fc318
https://substack.com/home/post/p-175615945
https://ramp.com/data/ai-index?utm_source=econlab.substack.com
https://medium.com/@samuelvandeth/crossing-the-chasm-162802d1cf27
https://x.com/TrungTPhan/status/1922669292929024017/photo/1
https://kyla.substack.com/p/ai-is-the-market-and-the-market-is?r=cxcvo&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1977902195472322620?s=42
https://topline.beehiiv.com/p/the-era-of-haves-and-have-nots
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd2qv58yl5o
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cj-gustafson-13140948_imagine-getting-called-into-your-cfos-office-activity-7381681514532458496-NOqa/
https://fortune.com/2025/10/01/red-lobster-ceo-damola-adamolekun-comeback-plan-bankruptcy/
https://fortune.com/2024/11/13/red-lobster-ceo-damola-adamolekun-says-endless-shrimp-is-never-coming-back/#
https://www.relay.app/
CJ and Kyle kick things off celebrating their global rise to fame (#10 in Croatia) before diving into what it really takes to grow a podcast from scratch, why second place doesn’t matter in a winner-take-all world, and how only 2% of startups ever make it to $25M ARR—plus a Business Blunders detour into panels nobody wants, children’s play-place pricing gone wild, and the strange genius of The Wonder.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro: Croatia & Rankings
01:10 #10 in Croatia
02:30 Growing the Pod
04:05 Building an Audience
05:22 Why Most Pods Die
06:30 Finding Audience Fit
07:42 Breaking Into the Top 4
09:15 No Guests, No Problem
10:20 LinkedIn Beats TikTok
11:18 Apple, Spotify, YouTube
12:32 Top of Funnel Focus
14:05 Referral & SEO Plays
16:00 Second Place Doesn’t Count
17:25 Winner Take All Economics
19:10 Uber vs Lyft Example
21:05 The 2% That Make It
23:12 Be Niche or Die Trying
25:00 Pick Fewer Channels
27:50 Harder Than Harvard
30:40 Business Blunders
41:55 Pricing in the Real World
46:00 Wrap Up: Mostly Memberships
Episodes Referenced:
How to Give a Killer Keynote (Without Having a Panic Attack)
996 Culture, Exploding AI Bills & SaaS Chaos
Why Founders Are Posting Sad Dinners
Cowboy Forecasting: The Power of Fast Informed Estimates on the Back of an Envelope
5,762 Job Applications. Zero Offers.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting
https://www.patriots.com/audio/unfiltered-podcast-archive
https://topline.beehiiv.com/p/the-era-of-haves-and-have-nots
https://substack.com/@kylepoyar/note/c-159017468?
Conference season is back, and CJ and Kyle are swapping stories from the stage—how to nail a keynote, whether conferences are worth the money, and why your walkout song matters more than you think. From there, they dig into a new a16z report revealing where AI startups are actually spending their dollars, and CJ shares results from his summer survey showing that CFOs talk a big game about measuring AI ROI—but nobody knows how to do it. The crew also unpacks how SaaS companies like Slack are bundling AI into their products and hiking prices, before spiraling into a late-night “potentially reliable” rabbit hole featuring a Soviet pole vaulter, beat-and-raise forecasting, and J. Edgar Hoover. They close with lessons on pricing in the real world (yes, Amsterdam’s architecture is involved) and one experiment CJ tried this week.
Timestamps:
00:00 Preview and Intro
01:28 Walkout Songs & Kicking Off Conference Season
03:39 How To Give a Great Keynote and Not Bore the Room
10:10 Are Conferences Worth the Money
14:21 What AI Companies Are Actually Paying For — The a16z Report
20:08 Summer Survey Results: The Elusive ROI of AI
25:45 Why No One Knows How To Measure ROI on AI
29:03 SaaS Companies Forcing AI — Bundling, Pricing, and Pushback
33:57 A Potentially Reliable Thing I Read at 2 AM
35:00 Soviet Pole Vaulter, Beat-and-Raise Forecasting & Hoover’s Borders
39:20 Pricing in the Real World — Lessons from Amsterdam’s Skinny Houses
42:56 Something I Tried This Week — Fixyer
Episodes Referenced:
Are You Bad at LinkedIn… or Is the Algorithm Lying?
Why Founders Are Posting Sad Dinners
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrqSrpOfhWs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmH4iWoJfTo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1tl66trXTQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPmAf5O8cro
https://a16z.com/the-ai-application-spending-report-where-startup-dollars-really-go/
https://d1lamhf6l6yk6d.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/250923-B2B-Top-50-ILG-A-r6.png
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-nail-your-next-big-talk
https://www.leahtharin.com/p/113-vincent-pierri-how-to-deal-with
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/it-was-the-summer-of-25
https://www.clearspaceliving.com/blog/why-dutch-stairs-are-so-steep/
https://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/amsterdams-taxing-narrow-houses/
Kyle officially joins the solopreneur ranks — and immediately finds out that freedom comes with invoices, admin, and double LLC fees. CJ welcomes him to the chaos before breaking down Wealthfront’s IPO, a masterclass in efficiency with 46% EBITDA margins and a Rule of 71. From there, the crew dives into take-private season in SaaS, unpacking why companies like Couchbase and PagerDuty are retreating from the public markets. Then it’s onto LinkedIn chaos — the algorithm, the pitch-slaps, and the mystery of why everyone’s engagement tanked. They close with a tangent only this show could pull off: a Japanese man’s world record sprint on all fours, the surprising Guinness origins, and a lightning round on Waymo’s taxi empire and trying out Stripe.
00:00 – Intro
04:40 – Kyle Goes Solopreneur: What Could Go Wrong?
10:16 – The Wealthfront IPO Breakdown
22:33 – Take-Private Season
27:27 – Private Equity: Efficiency or Exploitation?
32:27 – Are You Bad at LinkedIn, or Is the Algorithm?
43:17 – The LinkedIn Pitch Slap
46:33 – Obscure World Records
48:01 – Lightning Round: Waymo & Stripe
Links
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/a-new-chapter
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/wealthfront-ipo-s1-breakdown
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/netskope-ipo-s1-breakdown
https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/navan-ipo-s1-breakdown
https://www.lookingforleverage.com/p/take-private-szn
https://tuck.dartmouth.edu/news/articles/where-did-all-the-public-companies-go
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/31/vista-equity-pluralsight
https://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Private-Equitys-Pillage-America/dp/1541702107
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/business/youth-sports-private-equity.html
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/recent-activity/all/
https://x.com/Patticus/status/1456266281833746445
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Records#History
https://web.archive.org/web/20120225172648/http://guinness.book-of-records.info/history.html
https://www.stumbeanos.com/wpress/the-story-of-gus-comstock-worlds-coffee-drinking-champion/
AI may be rewriting the playbook for growth, but it’s also leaving behind some of the old startup gospel. CJ and Kyle (with Ben jumping in) dig into what happens when the “rules” no longer fit — from dead frameworks and disappearing SEO traffic to board members quietly checking out.
Is T2D3 Dead? Did AI Kill It?
The “triple-triple-double-double-double” path to $100M ARR worked in the old SaaS world. But what happens when AI companies blow past $100M in less than a year — often with questionable margins and pass-through revenue?
SEO Down 20–40%: Is AEO the Savior?
Google traffic is tanking. ChatGPT is rewriting recommendations. Is “AI Engine Optimization” the new growth channel, or just SEO with a different wrapper?
The Brutal Tech Job Market
CS grads face unemployment rates double those of art history majors. With 5,000+ applications going nowhere, does anyone get hired without networking or Loom videos anymore?
Is Your Board Quiet Quitting?
When growth slows and AI isn’t your story, some VCs go ghost. From missing intros to pushing for M&A, boards are quietly exiting stage left.
Business Blunders
Hospital Bed LinkedIn Photos: Hustle so hard you end up in the ER (and still post about it).
The @Company Non-Tag: Execs copy-paste updates but forget to actually tag anyone. Peak passive-aggressive LinkedIn.
Ramp’s Y-Axis Crime: A 0.4% bump in weekend meals turned into a chart that looked like the apocalypse. Two burritos never looked so big.
Pricing in the Real World: Bob’s Barricades
It’s not Bob, it’s Happy — and he’s quietly running a barricade rental empire. Fifty cents per cone, thousands per site, tens of millions a year. The most Florida business model you’ve ever heard.
Something We Tried This Week
Kyle runs a test with Typeform — what worked, what didn’t, and what it says about the state of survey tools today.
AI may be changing how we work, but it’s also changing how we interact with software — and not always for the better. CJ and Kyle Poyar dig into the growing pains of product design, IPOs in weird markets, and the unexpectedly depressing world of startup networking.
Navan IPO: Why a $613M company burning $80M is still pushing for an $8B valuation — and what it says about the state of software IPOs.
Prompt Bars Are Everywhere: The rise of “blank box” UX, why every app suddenly looks like ChatGPT, and how that’s giving users prompt anxiety.
Referral Programs: Ponzi Scheme?: Incentives are up, CAC is down — but is this growth channel actually sustainable or just marketing MLMs in disguise?
When to Disclose AI-Generated: If your calendar link feels cold, wait until your AI avatar shows up in an ad. We debate where the ethical (and strategic) line is for AI transparency.
Business Blunders:
• Sad Dinners (CJ): Why every LinkedIn dinner photo looks depressing — and what it says about startup culture.
• ChatGPT Bad Chart (Kyle): An incredible dataset ruined by a rainbow mess of tiny fonts and meaningless categories.
Potentially Reliable Thing at 2AM:
• Arnold Twins Revenue (CJ): The wild deal behind Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comedy debut — and how it made more money than Terminator.
• Reese Witherspoon Book Club (Kyle): Viral influence, middle-of-the-night decisions, and what media we trust half-asleep.
Pricing in the Real World:
• CJ: Iced Coffee Variable Pricing: Starbucks, cold brew, and the surprising economics of how product pricing actually works day to day.
Something We Tried This Week:
• Kyle: Fyxer Virtual Assistant: A hands-on experiment with offloading operational drag — what worked, what didn’t, and what Kyle’s still skeptical about.
AI was supposed to make software cheaper and companies more efficient. Instead, costs are exploding, CFOs are getting squeezed, and founders are pushing their teams harder than ever. CJ and Kyle Poyar dig into the economics behind AI, usage-based pricing, and what all of this means for SaaS growth.
Usage-Based Credits: Why they’re supposed to save SaaS margins but often trap customers in bad deals.
996 Hustle Culture: The rise of 9 a.m.–9 p.m., 6-days-a-week work schedules — and why it’s both romanticized and unsustainable.
SaaS Payback Periods: Public companies now take 3+ years to recoup CAC, with growth slowing and margins tightening.
Go-to-Market Engineers: Hype vs. reality of the “unicorn hire” role meant to automate GTM motions.
Consumer Businesses: Are we sleeping on DTC plays like Blue Apron and ButcherBox while chasing AI trends?
The “Cracked Engineer” Archetype: Why the most impactful hires might be the failed founders who love solving cross-functional problems.
Subscription Carwashes: What they teach us about predictable revenue and retention psychology.
More RVs Than EVs: What this surprising stat says about adoption curves and how we misread “the future.”
This Week’s Growth Experiments: The tools, tactics, interview questions, and hacks we tried — what worked, what didn’t, and why Kyle is disillusioned by some of them.
Mostly growth brings together go-to-market strategist Kyle Poyar and CFO CJ Gustafson who swap smart takes on growing revenue and running a company. From pricing and packaging to unit economics, AI trends, and the day-to-day realities of leadership, they share candid insights for CEOs, CFOs, and CROs who want to grow and operate at a high level. Serious topics tackled with a light touch for leaders who keep the trains on time.
