In this episode of the B2B Go-To-Market Leaders podcast, Vijay sits down with Karthik Suresh—co-founder of Ignition and DoubleO.ai—to explore his unconventional journey from high-frequency trading to building one of the fastest-growing platforms in the AI agent space.Karthik shares how early career lessons in finance shaped his product mindset, why user empathy became his north star, and how doubling down on positioning and messaging turned go-to-market into a product strategy.You’ll hear how Ignition was born out of a gap in product marketing tools, why the team pivoted to DoubleO when GenAI exploded, and the exact steps they took to validate product-market fit—from leveraging community partnerships to gating product access behind payments.Other topics covered:How to break into startups without prior experienceThe secret to founder-market fit and team dynamicsWhy most AI tools are vaporware (and how to tell the difference)Building brand trust through market educationWhy “pay if it works” is the next frontier in SaaS pricingWhether you're navigating an early-stage startup, experimenting with agents, or refining your GTM playbook, this episode delivers tactical insight with startup grit and product clarity.Connect with Karthik Suresh on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthiksureshlbs/Connect with Vijay Damojipurapu on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijdam/Brought to you by: stratyve.com

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related