Latest news with #ZachVidibor
Forbes
13-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Most Startups Are Torching Their Marketing Spend
Every startup pitch sounds the same. Every sales email feels like it came from the same script. Every product demo promises to be 'AI-powered,' 'blazing fast,' and 'revolutionary.' That's because, in many cases, they were- thanks to generative AI tools like ChatGPT. AI was supposed to give companies a competitive edge. Instead, it triggered a conformity crisis—flattening differentiation and flooding the market with lookalike messaging. And that sameness is expensive. According to Rakuten Marketing, companies waste 26% of their marketing budgets—about $130 billion annually—on efforts that don't drive results. Sales teams aren't faring much better. Bloated prospect lists, recycled messaging, and unclear value props are dragging down deal cycles. Companies are pouring time and salaries into outreach strategies that barely move the needle—dozens of reps chasing the same stale leads with the same tired scripts. Customer acquisition costs are rising across nearly every sector, yet many teams keep expanding headcount instead of rethinking the model. The shift is already underway: 'The most effective teams are cutting through the noise—not by scaling up effort, but by scaling up precision,' according to Zach Vidibor, CEO and Co-founder of Octave. With AI handling the heavy lifting—identifying real buyer intent, automating workflows, and tailoring outreach—teams are closing more with less. But two startups: Clay and Octave are rewriting the rules. Clay, backed by Sequoia and now valued at $1.3 billion, is betting on signal-based sales. Instead of guessing who might be interested, Clay tracks over 100 real-time data points—like job changes, funding rounds, or new tech adoption—to tell companies when someone is actually ready to buy. It's the difference between cold outreach and timely engagement. In one example, Rippling used Clay to build over 50 workflows that replaced mass emailing with high-signal targeting. The result? A 30% response rate from a small number of qualified leads and triple the pipeline with 90% less noise. If Clay solves for "who," Octave solves for "what." Founded by GTM veteran Zach Vidibor (ex-LinkedIn, Dropbox, DocuSign), Octave uses AI to test dozens of message variants in parallel—helping companies learn what actually converts. "AI-powered" vs. "human-first." "Revolutionary" vs. "reliable." Instead of guessing which messaging resonates, Octave helps companies discover the phrasing that fits their specific customers, not just market trends. A SaaS company in the business travel space was competing in an increasingly crowded market. Rather than using generic pitches, they deployed Octave to personalize messaging for every prospect interaction. Their sales reps receive customized talking points before each call, powered by AI agents that research prospects and match them to relevant value propositions and use cases. The company has integrated Octave directly into Salesforce and calls their agents thousands of times per week. The financial results were clear: more demos booked, faster sales cycles, higher close rates. Their go-to-market engine finally matched the velocity of their competitive landscape. Vidibor's approach reflects a broader shift in how companies compete. When product features can be replicated quickly, the sustainable advantage lies in how fast you can test and adapt your messaging. The companies winning today aren't just building better products—they're optimizing their narrative faster than competitors can copy their innovations. In markets where everyone has access to similar tools, speed of message iteration becomes a critical differentiator. Success goes to companies that can reshape their story faster than others can replicate their features. This isn't just a marketing story—it's an economic one. When every company sounds the same, buyers can't tell the difference. That drags out decisions, drives up costs, and pushes even strong products into obscurity. The startups solving this problem aren't just improving efficiency. They're giving companies a way to stand out in a market that rewards speed over substance. Strategic AI is creating new competitive moats—not through features, but through faster learning cycles and message adaptation. AI leveled the playing field in how companies write, pitch, sell and even how they build. Code, content, and product delivery are now faster and more accessible than ever. That means the only real edge left is how quickly you can differentiate before someone else copies you. For companies watching their GTM costs soar while conversion rates stagnate, the solution isn't generic AI tools that speed up misfires. It's precision platforms that restore competitive advantage. The teams winning today aren't scaling volume. They're scaling insight. They know who to target, what to say, and when to move. They're not chasing trends; they're setting them. Clay and Octave function as go-to-market operating systems. Clay transforms guesswork into actionable signals. Octave converts noise into message discipline. Octave's CEO, Vidibor, elaborates, 'Used together, they don't just reduce costs; they rebuild competitive moats that actually matter.' Hundreds of companies have already deployed both Clay and Octave as a combined system, proving that in a world where every company sounds identical, clarity becomes currency. And adaptation speed determines survival. The next wave of growth isn't about more automation. It's about sharper targeting, clearer messaging, and real-time narrative control. That's what Clay and Octave are building.
Business Insider
29-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
See the 12-slide pitch deck AI marketing-tech startup Octave used to raise a $5.5 million seed round from Bonfire and a LinkedIn alumni fund
Marketing tech startup Octave has raised $5.5 million to grow its AI-powered go-to-market platform. The San Francisco-based startup helps companies build ideal customer profiles and decide their marketing campaign strategy. The startup says it was born out of frustration with existing inbound marketing and sales tools like HubSpot and Salesforce. "I spent 15 years on all these sales teams and the tools, they just suck energy from you, they don't help you," said Octave's cofounder and CEO, Zach Vidibor. "Our mantra was really about being a battery-included experience." Vidibor, who has worked on sales teams at LinkedIn, DocuSign, and Dropbox, met his cofounder, Julian Tempelsman, at an internet safety startup that was acquired by Twitter in 2018. "Think of GPT and Claude and Gemini and DeepSeek," Vidibor said about how the platform harnesses AI. "Those are the engine, and we've built a car around it that drives on a very specific track." The round was led by Bonfire Ventures, with participation from Unusual Ventures, Bee Partners, inVest Ventures — a fund focused on LinkedIn alumni — and angel investors. The seed round is Octave's second cash injection, following a $2.9 million pre-seed round in 2022, which was led by Craft Ventures and Tidepool Labs. The company launched publicly in February 2024 and works on a subscription-based freemium model. It offers customers a forever-free tier, and paid plans start at $150 a month and scale depending on usage, Vidibor said. With the cash infusion, the startup said it would ramp up hiring in its go-to-market team, including engineers, product designers, and a head of growth. The CEO said AI and the string of coding tools now available to engineers are playing a role in these hiring decisions. Octave is "really trying to focus on people that have domain experience and building in areas that are close to our problem space," he said. "Maybe you are not the rockstar, change the world engineer, but you can balance that out now, a little bit, with some of these tools." Check out the pitch deck Octave used to secure the fresh funding.
