Choose a starter GTM stack

Before you achieve PMF, your stack should be lean and flexible. Go for off-the-shelf tools and minimal integrations. You’ll also need to adopt a willingness to experiment, iterate, and discard what doesn't work, because every unnecessary tool slows you down and creates complexity you don't need.

The three-pillar “PPT” framework

Most founders think "tech stack" only means software tools, but it actually has three components:

AI tools are a great case in point: Everyone's racing to implement AI Sales Development Rep (SDR) agents and automated outreach, but getting the best results still requires humans in the loop.

Sequence, a London-based RevOps startup, adopted an AI-powered SDR tool for automated LinkedIn outreach but found that their team’s personalized notes to prospects performed much better. Co-founder Riya Grover says the “human element” cuts through the noise of so much automated outreach and generates higher-quality leads.

Pylon’s Marty Kausas took it even further. Rather than automating anything, he and his two co-founders bought licenses for LinkedIn Sales Navigator and manually sent 40 cold outreach messages every day. Because they were unknown in the customer support space, this was needed to generate 5 meetings every week.

The tools you select are important, but the people using them and the process around them are even more important.

The minimum viable stack

Here's what you actually need early on:

1. CRM

This is your database to track customer relationships and outreach—it’s non-negotiable for B2B. A CRM is a snapshot of data—who you've talked to, what stage they're in, what you've learned. It's not streaming real-time behavior (that's a CDP), it's your organized record of relationships.

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  What to look for

A good CRM offers simple data entry and basic organization. A great CRM eliminates manual data entry through AI-driven enrichment and real-time updates. The best CRMs achieve a "no-touch" experience, seamlessly importing and maintaining data without constant babysitting, and surfacing opportunities for your team.

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  Options

We like Clarify. 😉

2. Call recorder/notetaker

You need to analyze unstructured data and spot patterns across calls. (More on that in Pattern match). To do that, you’ll want a notetaker or call recorder, so you can focus on the call rather than taking notes.

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  What to look for

At a minimum, you want transcription to extract insights. Better tools layer on AI-generated summaries and templated insights across your call library, helping you spot trends without manually reviewing every recording.

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  Options

Gong, Chorus, or built-in call recording in modern CRMs. Granola provides templated AI insights and transcripts. If you choose Clarify as your CRM, call recording is included.

3. Outbound platform

In the early days, you’ll need to be proactive to generate leads, and the fastest way to do that is to send outreach to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). (Here’s the skinny on what channels worked for nine successful startups). Once you’ve found the channels that show promise for you, you’ll want to invest in a platform to help manage and automate that outreach.

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  What to look for

Look for tools that let you build and manage sequences across channels that work for you, with enough automation to scale without losing the personal touch.

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  Options

LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a basic email sequencer, or tools built into your CRM—like Campaigns in Clarify.

4. Enrichment tools

Enrichment tools take a name or company and fill in the gaps—job title, company size, funding stage, tech stack, contact details. Instead of spending 20 minutes researching each prospect on LinkedIn, you get a complete picture in seconds, so you can focus on reaching the right people with relevant context.

“I never show up for a call, even the first call, without having looked up what this company actually does. If it's a space I know nothing about, can I wrap my head around it?... I think doing that builds a lot of goodwill," says Elaine Zelby, co-founder of Tofu.

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  What to look for

Look for tools that pull from multiple data sources and can slot into your existing prospecting workflow rather than creating extra steps.

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  Options

Clay is the standout here—it pulls in data from multiple sources and lets you build prospecting workflows on top of it. Apollo combines enrichment and outreach on a single platform. Or consider a CRM like Clarify that has built-in enrichment.

5. Knowledge management

This is where wisdom lives—the stuff that's in your head but hasn't been written down yet. Product positioning, FAQs, objection handling, competitive intel, and customer examples for each vertical you serve.

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  What to look for

The tool matters less than the habit of actually writing things down—but bonus points if your knowledge lives close to where your deals do.

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  Options

Notion is the most popular choice for early-stage teams. Slite and Slab are lighter-weight alternatives, while Coda works well if you want your docs to also function as lightweight apps and databases. Google Docs works fine, too. Modern CRMs, including Clarify, let you attach knowledge directly to customer records so your context lives where your deals do.

Balancing the use of AI tools

It's very tempting to assume that AI can handle everything and you won’t have to worry about the messy reality of closing customers. But here are the applications of AI we know to be most effective, and what to avoid.

What doesn't work yet

• Fully automated AI SDRs that send cold outreach with no human review. The quality isn't there. The personalization falls flat.
• Fully automated reporting without human review for accuracy. AI makes mistakes too.

What works today

Automated enrichment and qualification
Analyzing leads, scoring fit, and extracting key information from conversations. Dedicated enrichment tools include Clay or Apollo, while Clarify has waterfall enrichment for every record in your CRM.

Call analysis and pattern spotting
Transcribing calls, identifying common objections, finding action items, analyzing win/loss patterns, and assessing deal health.

Dynamic workflows
Instead of, "If this field equals X, do Y," you can now say, "Analyze this email and suggest next steps."

AI has completely upended the static data model paradigm. You can create dynamic workflows that adapt in real time based on the prompt, the available data, and what's possible.

At the end of the day, we recommend you keep humans in the loop and use AI to augment and amplify, not replace them.

The 3 revenue priorities

Even as your stack gets more complex, every tool should map to one of these three phases:

Generate (Inbound & Outbound)

This phase focuses on lead generation and initial engagement. Inbound includes channels like website forms, chatbots, and CDPs for data collection. Inbound also typically includes marketing activities that drive organic site traffic. Outbound involves email outreach, targeted B2B ads, events, and other campaigns to attract and qualify new prospects.

Close

This phase centers on converting leads into opportunities and then into customers. CRMs typically sit here, managing deal stages, pipeline, and customer interactions. Tools like scheduling software, contract management, and call insights help speed up and streamline the closing process.

Report

After closing deals, you need to measure performance. Data warehouses, BI tools, product analytics, and attribution platforms help track metrics and inform future strategy. Reporting is where data converges for analysis, insights, and decision-making.

Each startup's stack will look different depending on its stage, market, and goals—the key is understanding the core principles and building a flexible system that can change as your company evolves.

For detailed examples of actual stacks used by startups at different stages of their development, check out our RevTech Essentials course.

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