Shows
Code to MarketThree Levels of Ad Landing PagesYou spent real money. The ad worked. They clicked. Now what?In this episode, we break down how Vercel, Claude, and Statsig handled their Acquired podcast sponsorships and what happened after the click. From custom landing pages to mismatched CTAs, we dissect what worked and what didn’t.Then we shift to launch videos. Cursor mailed it in. Sentry nailed the joke. And we explain why knowing the vibe of your product matters more than just production value.Share with someone running ads or making a launch video.2025-06-1217 min
Code to MarketClark, Cringe, & Counterpositioning: Retool vs SuperblocksTwo agent platforms launched within 24 hours (Retool Agents and Superblocks’s "Clark"), but only one nailed the launch & positioning. We break down why naming your AI sucks, what Superblocks did right with counterpositioning, and how Retool missed the messaging mark despite a solid(?) product. Plus, a rant on why launch videos are now table stakes and what you need to do beyond them to stand out.2025-06-0622 minCode to MarketPLG isn't Passive: Multi-Product Startups + AI Distribution WarsWe explore how Clerk nailed its self-service, multi-product strategy without chasing enterprise customers. Hank breaks down why great second products should eclipse your first, while Gonto highlights Clerk’s clever integration with Stripe and strategic funding. Plus, Bolt's "Unleash the Vibes" event sets the stage for their massive hackathon, and OpenAI’s leaked strategy reveals why Meta, not Google, is their biggest threat due to unmatched distribution.2025-06-0124 minCode to MarketMeeting Haters at React MiamiIn this episode Hank and Gonto dive into Hank's experience at React Miami, where online beefs turned surprisingly civil and a "Family Feud" parody stole the show. They also discuss Figma's head-scratching trademark battle over "DevMode," a move that ended up being less strategic genius, more meme fuel.2025-04-2523 minCode to MarketHard Times for Developer MarketingWe share the wild projects, crazy constraints, and innovative pivots that turned panic into progress.2025-04-1436 minCode to MarketHow to Hire Marketers Like Vercel, Auth0, & LaravelEvery startup struggles with this—even the best founders and teams we’ve worked with. How do you actually hire great people, build trust, and scale without turning into a slow, bloated mess? In this episode, we share the hard-earned lessons that helped us grow high-performing teams at Auth0, Vercel, Laravel, and more.2025-04-0922 minCode to MarketHats, Haters, & HackathonsLevels.io is turning vibe coding into a full-blown distribution engine—shipping fast, selling hats, running hackathons, and pulling others into his orbit. We break down what B2B founders can learn from his playbook, then dig into the Rippling vs. Deel spy scandal, Vercel’s drama with Cloudflare, and Supabase’s documentary on Bolt.new. It's founder mode, for better or worse.2025-04-0726 min
Code to MarketDid Laravel do a PERFECT developer marketing launch?This week, Hank's in the hot seat. Gonto grills him on Laravel’s latest launch - what was great, what wasn't, and what pissed him off.We cover:- Why bundling launches > launch weeks- The secret power of using other people’s audiences- Tips to improve marketing & pricing pages- How Gonto wishes Hank positioned harder against launch weeksOne of our most tactical episodes yet!2025-03-2125 minCode to MarketRaycast launches the future while Bybit fights for survivalRaycast just launched AI Extensions, and we break down why their approach to marketing and UX is what Apple Intelligence should have been. Then crypto story time with Gonto as he talks about the biggest crypto hack in history—$1.4 billion stolen from Bybit—and why their response was a masterclass in crisis communication. We talk about speed, transparency, and how to turn disaster into brand strength. Plus, some thoughts on owned media, launch strategy, and the rise of B2B video marketing.2025-03-0321 minCode to MarketEnablement Beats Collateral & Credit Card GatesWe discuss why sales enablement is more powerful than sales collateral and how to get them to stop relying on PDFs and case studies and instead focus on understanding the product and delivering answers in real time. We also discuss credit card gates on products. After gathering insights from DigitalOcean, MongoDB, and PlanetScale, we break down the trade-offs between frictionless sign-ups and filtering for serious users.2025-02-2620 minCode to MarketTraffic from AI Chat is Growing Faster Than We ThoughtAI chatbots are driving more traffic than you think, and it’s happening fast. Hank and Gonto break down the latest data on AI-driven search, why it matters for businesses right now, and how companies should adapt. They also dive into a heated database debate between Neon, Planetscale, and Prisma, discussing how to handle trolls and bad benchmarks. Plus, a look at Laravel’s unconventional approach to conference pricing and a marketing experiment that had developers DMing their AWS bills.2025-02-1721 minCode to MarketStop EXPLAINING your SaaS; SHOW why it's great insteadIn this episode ofCode to Market, Hank and Gonto break down thetrade-offs of fast follows—whyspeed gets you attention, but differentiation wins you customers. They explore the psychology of AI adoption (why the less people understand AI, the more they use it), and how devtool founders shouldsell the WOW first, then the HOW to drive real adoption.They also dive into the rise ofAgent Experience (AX)—whyAI agents will soon be your biggest users, how SEO is shifting away from Google rankings, and whyyour API matters more than your UI in an AI-driven world.2025-02-1212 minCode to MarketDeveloper Marketing lacks VisionMost devtool founders and marketers focus too much on launches and not enough on vision. In this episode, we break down Andrew Chen’s take on viral launches—are they a waste of time or always worth it? Hank defends the power of going big, while Gonto argues for a more targeted approach. We also dive into the real reason technical founders struggle with storytelling, why Elon Musk’s never-ending vision keeps people engaged, and how to craft a marketing narrative that actually works.2025-02-0919 min
Scaling DevToolsFour tips for early stage DevToolsIn this episode, I pull out some of the key DevTools lessons I've learned in the last 120 interviews. Including:The importance of deeply understanding the problem you're solving by talking to developers directly, as emphasized by Adam Frankl.Ant Wilson's advice on experimenting with different go-to-market strategies and channels rather than relying on conventional wisdom. Zeno Rocha's emphasis on the importance of the last mile—packaging and presentation. He shares how spending more time on documentation and onboarding materials helped his open-source project gain massive traction.Gonto's perspective that "it's better to be different than better," and...2025-01-2319 minCode to MarketDevin AI, SF Dinners, & Raycast Ad
Questions answered:
What could Devin have done differently in their marketing? Are Devin's VC's stupid?
How can you run small dinners/meetups?
What's brilliant about Raycast's ad? (and what would we change?)
2025-01-2222 minCode to MarketThe Perfect First DevRel Hire for Devtool StartupsWhat makes a great early marketing or DevRel hire? In this episode, we break down why hunger for glory drives experimentation, why first hires should be generalists, and whether founders should test marketing channels before hiring. Plus, we discuss the different types of DevRel and analyze a great example of educational marketing from Resend.
🔹 When to hire your first DevRel
🔹 Charisma vs. content: What matters more?
🔹 Why experience can sometimes hold people back
🔹 A simple framework for building a DevRel team
Let us know your thoughts in the comme2025-01-1918 minCode to MarketMaster AI + New Media in 2025 with UsHank & Gonto share their work and personal themes for 2025. 2025-01-1423 minCode to MarketIs attention & amplification more important than money now?In this episode, we discuss if attention and amplification is better than money now. We dive deep into organic and paid influencer marketing, and affiliate marketing.2025-01-0315 minCode to MarketObsessing over Competitors & Blaming Marketing (Devtool Founders)In this episode we discuss frameworks on competitors, GitHub's "free" Copilot plan, and the bastardization of PLG
2024-12-2819 minCode to MarketSell to Developers' Human NeedsDevelopers make decisions with emotion, not just logic and rational thinking - you can use that! Also, Shopify's boring launch was a masterclass.2024-12-2018 minCode to Market2 fights, 1 booth, and 0 cookiesThis week we discuss about 2 online fights: Supabase vs Levels & EDB vs PostgresWeekly, how to be creative with your booth and conference strategy, and how real "building in public" is.2024-12-1219 minCode to MarketThe Rippling Effects of a Week LaunchWe discuss Rippling crossing the line with their comparison page mischief, a simple hackathon by Vercel, and our thoughts on "Mega Launch Week"3:35 PM2024-12-0617 minCode to MarketObsessed with Service as Software (with Marcel Santilli)We discuss a new term on the rise, "Service as Software", and what it means for marketers and knowledge workers.
Admittedly less devtool-focused than normal - let's blame the election news cycle for that :P
Service as Software: https://x.com/JayaGup10/status/1852148821389934921
Marcel:
LinkedIn
Twitter
GrowthX
2024-11-1912 minCode to MarketMore Launches and Cool Dev Tools WebsitesThis episode discusses launches from GitHub Universe, Browserbase, Neon.tech Deploy, and Prisma Serverless Database. We also discuss PlanetScale's new website, Jina's new docs, and website's easter eggs2024-11-0826 minScaling DevToolsGonto - Auth0 Employee #6 shares developer marketing secretsGonto (Martin Gontovnikas) was the 6th employee at Auth0 and helped them grow fast and sell for $6.5billion to Okta. Now he is the founder of Hypergrowth Partners and helps DevTools grow fast.We discuss:What Auth0 did to become so valuable so fastWhat the best founders do (Guillermo Rauch)Different is better than better People follow people not brandsWhy bleeding edge mattersResourcesWhy Technical SDRs are the Future of DevToolshttps://playbooks.hypergrowthpartners.com/p/product-advocates-technical-sdrsGonto's website https://gon.to/Gonto's Twitter https://twitter.com/mgontoHypergrowth Partners https://www.hy...2024-11-0737 minCode to MarketNext.js Conf Marketing Breakdown + Disguised DuckDB AnnouncementWe discuss hits and misses from Next.js Conf 2024, plus how MotherDuck disguised a feature announcement in a post about design.2024-10-3015 minCode to MarketPre-PMF Ads & Design Partners Done RightWe discuss the biggest wastes of money for devtool startups, plus how to think about design partners vs contractual commitments. Bonus topic: another boring launch.2024-10-2420 minCode to MarketBoring Launches & Bad Names | Code to Market 03We discuss how we'd improve the messaging around a "boring" launch (like Deno's v2 launch), plus bad and confusing names of companies and products.2024-10-1618 minCode to MarketShow-don't-tell Launches & Fighting to (not) PersuadeWe discuss how launches like bolt.new do a good job of showing instead of telling and gettting users to a moment of "wow!" faster. Plus thoughts on whether debating people on Twitter has any persuasive power.2024-10-1117 minCode to MarketDevtool Influencer Sponsorship and WordPress Scorched EarthWe discussed Theo dropping Vercel as a sponsor and some general thoughts on content creator sponsorships, and the beginning of Automatic vs WP Engine.
2024-10-0819 min
CHURN FME248 | How Anti-Retention Metrics and Next Best Actions Boost Retention with Martin GontoToday on the show we have Martin Gonto, the Co-Founder and GTM advisor of HyperGrowth Partners and interim CMO at Vercel.In this episode, Gonto shares his experience in identifying and leveraging anti-retention metrics to optimize product strategies.We then discussed the concept of next best actions and how these strategic steps can significantly enhance user retention.We wrapped up by exploring practical examples from Gonto's work with various companies, highlighting actionable insights for startup growth.Mentioned Resources:HyperGrowth PartnersDeepgramAshbyRetoolAuth0VercelVueCursorGitHubCoPilotSiriusChurn FM is sponsored by Vitally...2024-06-0536 min
The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | InvestorsSaaStr 725: Mastering High-Volume, Low-CAC Marketing: Strategies from Gorgias, Vercel, and Hypergrowth PartnersSaaStr 725: Mastering High-Volume, Low-CAC Marketing: Strategies from Gorgias, Vercel, and Hypergrowth Partners In today’s world, there’s a clear shift in what founders, boards, and investors are all after — scalable, low-CAC (customer-acquisition cost) growth strategies. In a panel, Guillaume Cabane (G) and Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto), co-founders of HyperGrowth Partners, Axelle Heems, Senior Director of Growth Operations at Gorgias, and Morgane Palomares, VP of Marketing at Vercel, share real-life examples of how demand generation, growth, and marketing strategies have been executed to scale beyond 2x ARR each year, even on a low budget. Let’s de...2024-02-2033 min
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch20Growth: How to Master Product-Led-Growth, The Biggest Mistakes Startups Make When Scaling into Enterprise, How to Assess "Bets" in Growth; Which to Take and Which to Not with Gonto, Interim CMO @ Vercel Martin Gontovnikas, a.k.a Gonto, is a software engineer at heart who moved to the “dark side” to focus on Marketing. With this career transition, he found a way to combine his 2 passions by applying his “engineering thinking” model to Marketing. He is now a B2B SaaS Advisor to Vercel and Airbyte among others and Co-Founder & GP of Hypergrowth Partners. Previously, he was SVP of Marketing and Growth at Auth0. In Today's Episode with Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto) We Discuss: 1. From No Idea to Growth Leader: How...2024-02-141h 10
The False 9135 - Champions League Final Group Games | EPL Breakdown | Rest of EuropeThis week it’s the final matchday of the Champions League group stage where the group of death gave us a thrilling finale as Dortmund and PSG share spoils to advance while Milan get a late winner to get into Europa League! In England Aston Villa scrape past Arsenal with an early goal allowing Liverpool to go top with a last minute Elliott winner over Palace! Girona are the story across Europe as they gonto Barcelona and hang four one them to go top, Atalanta get a late winner over Milan with some magic from Muriel, and Frankfurt smash Ba...2023-12-141h 48
The GTM PodcastGTM 28: How Auth0 Took Big Risks To Avoid Pipeline Plateau with Martin Gontovnikas‘Thinking more out of the box instead of just following playbooks is something that I think is important.’ - Martin Gontovnikas. In this week’s episode, Scott Barker chats with Martin Gontovnikas ‘Gonto’ about taking big risks in marketing, Generative AI, and understanding customer behavior while making marketing strategies.Gonto is the founder of Hyper Growth Partners. He previously worked with Off Zero where he started in branding relations and ended up in marketing and growth, growing with the company in revenue from 20 dollars to 20 million average revenue.What You Will Learn:The...2023-03-1447 min
Korn ar brezhoneg / Le coin du bretonEus ur remziad d'egile / D'une génération à l'autre"Eus ur remziad d'egile" a gas ac'hanoc'h war hentoù breizh da eskemm gant an dud o deus stourmet evit ma chomfe bev hor yezh deus mae 1968 da hiziv an deiz. Bep a rann a gonto deoc'h un tamm eus hon istor dre strolladoù ha darvoudoù o deus merket ar vro.« Eus ur remziad d'egile » ou « D’une génération à l’autre » c’est le nom de la première série de podcast en breton du Mur des podcasts de Ouest-France. Cette série vous plonge dans la lutte qui a redonné sa place à la langue bretonne, de ma...2022-09-0100 min
REAL MARKETERSDebunking Misconceptions Around Product-led GrowthThere is no viral button for marketing or product-led growth (PLG). Fortunately, there are a number of ways to get users to feel that "aha" moment from your product. In this episode, we chat with Martin "Gonto" Gontovnikas, Co-Founder and General Partner at HyperGrowth Partners. Gonto is a software engineer turned marketer and has made a career of combing his passions to create an "engineering thinking" model to marketing. Prior to his current role, Gonto led the marketing team at Auth0 for seven years. We’re talking about the mist...2021-09-1336 min
Better Done Than PerfectMarketing Experiments with Martin “Gonto” GontovnikasHow can we use data and experimentation to improve marketing for our SaaS? In this episode, we speak with Martin "Gonto" Gontovnikas, co-founder and growth advisor at Hypergrowth Partners. We discuss how to run marketing experiments, learn faster and unlock growth growth. You'll hear practical tips such as figuring out what to test, at what cadence, and much more.Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.Hypergrowth Partners — a “sweat equity advisor” co-founded by GontoAuth0 — Gonto’s previous place of work, acquired by OktaGong, Chorus — call recording softwareFollow Gonto on TwitterGonto’s blogFollow Hyp...2021-07-1938 min
CapitaineGloomy.comLa légende de Xantah / Ep 9 - Xantah EP9 – DAVEPitch : Plusieurs semaines se sont écoulées depuis les événements de GREEN-18 et nos héros sont encore et toujours traqués par les Forces Terriennes. Engagés dans une course poursuite spatiale et sans Hyperespace, Rosten, Kannitsh et Gonto font leur possible pour survivre. Gloomy, quant à lui, découvre la nature de Farra et la raison de sa présence à ses côtés.2021-06-2200 min
The Entrepreneurial Coder Podcast#45 - Gonto - Billion Dollar Marketing PracticesGonto is a software engineer turned marketer who is a strong proponent of the “engineering approach to marketing”. He spent seven years at Auth0 where he led marketing and helped grow the company to 9 figures before it’s sale to Okta for $6.5b. Gonto is now running his own company as co-founder of Hypergrowth Partners, a sweat equity advisor that invests time and knowledge into startups to help them achieve Hypergrowth.Gonto's LinksHypergrowthGonto's WebsiteGonto on Twitter2021-04-2841 min
Tracción012. Martín Gontovnikas (Auth0/Hypergrowth) | Activación y el método científico para marketingLa era de Mad Men y Don Draper ya es historia. Hoy en día, el proceso es más importante que la táctica en sí. Cómo buen científico, el trabajo de un marketer es descubrir, a través de la experimentación, las pistas y lecciones que te van a llevar al resultado deseado. Martin Gontovnikas, mejor conocido como Gonto, es un ingeniero de formación que se sintió atraído por "el lado oscuro". Por lo tanto, ha desempeñado su labor como VP of Marketing & Growth dentro de Auth0 con un acercamiento bastante científico y...2021-04-2049 min
La ArcanaESPORTS LATAM: Perdidos, no acabados | La Arcana Podcast 🎧📚Hay muchos mitos y mucho humo. Latinoamérica parece estar estancada eternamente si hablamos de la escena competitiva de videojuegos pero ¿es tan así? Hablamos con Gonto, ex caster y proplayer acerca de la proyección que tenemos los que queremos vivir de los jueguitos.
SPOILER: Hay buenas y malas noticias.2021-04-151h 17
Fun Tech Club's Podcast038 - Martin Gonto [Auth0 - HypergrowthVC]Hoy charlamos con Gonto sobre growth marketing, la importancia del método, el síndrome del impostor y como crecer el equipo junto con el proyecto. ¡No te lo podés perder!2021-04-0830 min