In this episode, Amanda Puzin, Head of Sales for Fathom, dives into her journey from her early days in sales to leading a team at an AI-driven startup. Amanda shares her unique path, starting with her introduction to sales at Yelp and her time at UserVoice, where she built a strong foundation in customer-facing roles. This early experience prepared her to take on her role at Fathom, where she was instrumental in helping shape the product, user onboarding, and eventually the go-to-market strategy as the company scaled.

Amanda discusses the practical steps she took to ensure Fathom’s product evolved based on real user feedback, starting with a small group of beta testers. Her approach included creating effective feedback loops that ensured the product met customer needs and avoided common challenges that SaaS companies face when they bring new products to market. She emphasizes the importance of listening closely to users, which enables Fathom to quickly identify pain points and rapidly improve features and user experience. For instance, her team integrated features like AI-generated meeting recaps that reduce post-meeting tasks for users, enhancing the tool’s value and usability.

Throughout the conversation, Amanda shares insights on how Fathom built and leveraged “virality loops” to encourage user-driven growth. She explains that by encouraging users to refer others and share their experiences on social platforms like LinkedIn, Fathom was able to build a powerful form of social selling. Amanda also talks about their rewards program, which incentivizes users to refer others, adding a fun, gamified element that supports Fathom’s organic growth and helps create strong word-of-mouth recommendations.

Looking to the future, Amanda outlines her goals for Fathom as AI capabilities expand. Her team aims to continually improve how the product supports collaborative work, making it an essential tool across entire organizations. Additionally, she touches on the challenge of scaling a lean team while keeping up with growing demand. Amanda also offers advice for professionals in sales and SaaS, including the value of reaching out to industry mentors and using tools like ChatGPT to gain perspective on solving business challenges.

Anyone wanting to connect with Amanda can reach her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/amandapuzin/. To learn more about marketing and AI-driven solutions, visit nextgengrowth.com.