Jacco van der Kooij

AI isn’t disrupting GTM... It is exposing its weakness. It's revealing what we should’ve fixed in 2018, 2019, 2020…
- Outdated processes,
- Bad execution,
- Disconnected data systems,
- Lack of an operating model,
and so on and so forth.

The good news? AI can help us rebuild GTM the right way.

Let me rephrase what I said earlier:

AI didn’t disrupt GTM; it revealed how unscientific it was. And that points to a solution. Today's hypergrowth doesn’t come from doing more campaigns or hiring more people.

It comes from faster feedback loops.
It comes from outputs fueling inputs.
It comes from happy customers generate pipeline and usage.
It fuels acquisition and expandsion.

That’s behind a compound growth engine. And that is not new. What is new is the velocity it operates at! AI-Natives growth operate at 2x–10x the speed of traditional SaaS.

Get this: AI-Natives are doing to SaaS what SaaS did to On-Prem/Perpetual Software.

And when speed becomes the differentiator, systems become the solution. Let me elaborate with an example:

Over a century ago, Amelia Earhart flew her first solo-flight in an airplane that obeyed the same laws of lift, drag, thrust, and gravity as the ones flying today. But today we fly at 10x the speed, not because the laws changed or humans operate faster, but because they are the result of advanced systems that operate faster.

Growth works the same way. The laws of compounding, feedback, and decay they still govern growth. What’s changed is our ability to design systems that operate at 10x the speed.

So the question is no longer “How do I do more?”

The real question is “How do I do it faster, with greater precision?”

It is the physics of growth that governs the future - not effort.

We see it every day.  Our clients operate anywhere from $10M to $10B. Those operating on incremental tweaks applied to broken process fail, those that are based on network effects (closed loops) succeed, and they do so faster and bigger!

What our successful customers have in common is that they all adhere to growth principles rooted in science.

This is why we are introducing the Growth Institute —to formalize growth as a discipline that can be taught, not as something a few lucky ones are gifted with.

Join the Growth Institute.

Let's Grow!!!!

Most of you have figured out what’s broken — and over the past months gotten an idea of how to fix it. It’s simple really:

→ All growth follows an S-curve.
→ If you’ve taken on funding, you’re expected to grow really fast.
→ To grow really fast, you need exponential growth.
→ Exponential growth requires compounding, e.g. turning outputs into inputs.

Come to think of it, it’s simple science really! That means, 2026 will likely reward those who design and architect beautiful growth machines around the following scientific principles:

1. Growth powered by Growth Loops, e.g. designing systems where outputs become inputs, e.g. where users help grow pipeline organically.

2. Stacking S-Curves before the current one peaks. We will see lots of M&A in 2026, as it is the fastest way to reignite momentum (when done right).

3. Systems must be designed for SPEED. The systems of the past were designed for volume. And... when speed becomes the goal, systems become the solution!

4. Macro Volatility is a design requirement. Everyone has to deal with the same volatility in this crazy world. Thus, resilience to it must be designed-in from the get-go.

5. We can't have compounding cost without compounding growth (and that is true for SaaS and AI-natives). Growth Efficiency will tell us if revenue is Earned or Bought. And bought growth won't scale.

6. Operational Discipline will be the ultimate differentiator. Simply put heroics by one leader don't compound; but working as a coherent team does. So that problem in the lack of communication between marketing and sales, and that absence from the CS leader on the exec team? Yeah that's now a critical growth inhibitor.

Folks, the future of growth is no longer a gamble being chased, it is built. And in 2026 we will build beautiful growth machines (in addition to fantastic products).

Let’s Grow.