Chatbase Founder Yasser Elsaid's GTM Manifesto for B2B AI

Key Takeaways

• Yasser Elsaid, founder of the $10M ARR AI customer service company Chatbase, runs his entire GTM from a Notion document he calls his “go to market manifesto.”▶ 26:15 He credits its principles for Chatbase's recent surge.
• Elsaid says too many young founders chase B2C-style virality in B2B. His core advice: first, master the unsexy B2B basics like sales calls, demos, and cold outreach. Experimentation comes after you prove the fundamentals.
• Forget content for content's sake. Elsaid argues a consistent content strategy doesn't just go viral; it builds a strong brand, making every other GTM effort, even paid ads, significantly more effective.
• Chatbase's edge comes from "Employee-Generated Content" (EGC). This means every team member actively posts online, fostering constant brand visibility because, as Elsaid puts it, “people want to follow, you know, people rather than brands.”▶ 30:37
• The blueprint for Chatbase's sustainable growth is found in their Go-to-Market Manifesto for B2B AI Startups, a step-by-step guide to finding and scaling your repeatable growth engine.

The Chatbase's Go-to-Market Manifesto for B2B AI Startups

Here's the framework Yasser Elsaid and his team at Chatbase use to drive their B2B AI growth:

• Find the 'Equation': You want to find the equation where if you put like $1 in, you get more out and you just basically like continue putting more money in until it doesn't work anymore. So that's like the end goal.
• Do the B2B Stuff: If you're in B2B just do the B2B stuff. I think B2B stuff means you need to go the demos, you need to do the sales calls, you need to do the outbound, you need to do the cold emailing, you need to do the outreach. This is like obvious probably to people who have been building companies for a while. But I think to like younger founders that who want to experiment with new things... they need to do this first and then experiment.
• Consistent Content Strategy: Content is interesting because like of course everyone knows you should do content. But I think the reason and like how you extract value out of the content is what's not very obvious. So, I see a lot of founders, they do like good content, they post it, it gets viral, but then there's no good CTA, there is no like good follow-ups, there's no like story they're building... How you make content work is you need to realize that content helps like all other aspects of go to market because when you have good content like consistently you have a good brand and then paid ads work because like people have seen your your brand before people have seen these people in ads before they're more likely to click on it.
• Employee-Generated Content (EGC): EGC. Yeah, that's very important... part of the job of everyone on the team is to post and you want to be seen by people like every time they open LinkedIn and every time they open, you know, Twitter, they want to see something from you. And I think people want to follow, you know, people rather than brands. And I think everyone has like something interesting to say just like you know your twist on like whatever is happening from your like position or your side of a story.
• Warm Outbound: Warm outbound is people who have seen your brand or maybe interacted with your company. you want to like cold call them or like maybe warm call them because they know you... you put people in an email flow and in a calling flow where if they sign up even if they don't subscribe or if they like like one of your posts, you reach out to them and say, “Hey, like we want to build you a demo.”▶ 37:18 And that's yeah, that's been working incredibly well because it makes sense, you know, like they already know you and then you're just like giving them the last push into using your product.

When This Works (and When It Doesn't)

This manifesto really shines for B2B startups, especially those building in AI, who are past the raw idea phase and ready to chase sustainable, repeatable growth. Elsaid explicitly states this approach “has been working very well for us especially like the last few months,”▶ 26:23 after he shifted his focus from 50/50 experimentation to an 80/20 split of proven methods versus new tests. It's for founders ready to commit to consistent, often unglamorous, GTM work that builds a real business, not just a viral demo.

However, this framework is premature if you're still searching for product-market fit. You need a compelling offering before scaling your GTM. Also, the EGC component assumes a team willing and able to contribute regularly; a highly introverted or disengaged team might struggle to implement this effectively. It's not a silver bullet for every company, especially those in purely B2C markets where different viral loops apply.

What to Do With This

Let's say you're a founder of a 7-person B2B AI startup, selling an analytics tool to marketing agencies. You're ready to scale. Here’s how to apply Chatbase’s manifesto this week:

1. Find the 'Equation': Review your last quarter's customer acquisition. Did three clients come from a specific cold email sequence? Double down. Can you spend an extra $500 on ads to that audience and see a clear ROI? Prove your $1-in, $X-out loop before anything else.

2. Do the B2B Stuff: This week, personally block out two hours daily for outbound. Schedule five sales calls with agencies you've never spoken to. Send twenty highly personalized cold emails. Don't delegate this yet. “If you're in B2B just do the B2B stuff,”▶ 27:25 Elsaid insists.

3. Consistent Content Strategy: Instead of chasing virality, map out a 6-week content plan. Focus on evergreen topics for marketing agencies, like "3 AI Tools Every Agency Needs Now." Post a short, practical insight on LinkedIn three times a week. The goal is to build a brand presence that makes your sales outreach feel less cold.

4. Employee-Generated Content (EGC): At your next team stand-up, introduce the EGC initiative. Ask each team member—even engineers—to share one unique insight from their role on LinkedIn once a week. It could be a technical detail, a customer interaction story (anonymized), or an industry observation. Encourage them to be authentic, not salesy.

5. Warm Outbound: Set up a simple automation. Anyone who watches your product demo video on your website (even if they don't sign up) gets an automated, personalized email from an SDR within 12 hours, offering a custom integration plan. This turns passive interest into an active push, leveraging their existing awareness of your brand.