The Execution Gap: Why "I'll Follow Up on That" Is the Most Expensive Sentence in Sales | Airspeed Webinars
The Execution Gap: Why "I'll Follow Up on That" Is the Most Expensive Sentence in Sales
Adam Liska joins Sophie Buonassisi on GTMnow to break down the execution gap — the space between knowing what to do in a deal and actually doing it — and why that gap is where most pipeline quietly dies.
From DeepMind to 200 Customers: Building the Execution Layer for Sales
From DeepMind to 200 Customers: Building the Execution Layer for Sales | Adam Liska x GTMFund
Speakers
Adam Liska
Co-founder & CEO, Airspeed
Sophie Buonassisi
SVP, GTMnow
The single most expensive sentence in sales is “I’ll follow up on that.” Adam Liska joins Sophie Buonassisi on GTMnow to break down the “execution gap” — the space between knowing what to do in a deal and actually doing it — and why that gap is where most pipeline quietly dies.
Adam left DeepMind’s Gemini team in 2022, pre-ChatGPT, to build a native revenue execution platform now serving 200 customers across 20 countries, recently rebranded and fresh off a $20M Series A. In this conversation, he gets specific on what is actually changing in the sales role, what should be automated, and why he thinks this is about to be the golden age for sales reps.
What you’ll learn
- Why “I’ll follow up on that” is the most expensive promise in revenue, and how the execution gap compounds from rep to manager to CRO
- What parts of the rep workflow to automate now (research, CRM updates, business cases, follow-ups) and what stays human
- Why AI is squeezing middle management, not reps, and flattening GTM orgs
- How per-rep coaching changes when every call is recorded, shared, and analyzed for patterns
- The “corrective action” approach to coaching deals on the job, in real time
- How to sell globally when borders disappear but local-language talent still matters
- Why in-person events drove 70% of early pipeline, and how that compounds with cold calling
- How to keep your team at the AI frontier by never locking into a single model
- Adam’s #1 piece of advice for first-time founders (hint: it starts with your co-founder)
Chapters
- (00:00) Why AI won’t replace sales reps
- (00:22) Leaving DeepMind’s Gemini team pre-ChatGPT
- (01:18) What Airspeed does and the “execution gap”
- (02:07) “I’ll follow up on that”: the most expensive promise in sales
- (03:28) The $20M Series A and the rebrand from Glyphic
- (05:30) Why walk away from frontier AI research at DeepMind
- (07:17) Leading when the frontier models keep changing
- (08:39) Buy vs. build, and keeping customers at the AI frontier
- (11:03) Landing the first 200 customers across 20 countries
- (12:41) Advice for first-time founders
- (14:04) Selling globally and what AI changes about language
- (17:07) What the sales rep role looks like in an AI-first world
- (19:24) How reps and leaders should start automating today
- (20:51) The channels driving results right now
- (22:41) How AI makes per-rep coaching actually work
- (25:14) Building an execution-first culture
- (27:10) The DeepMind departure story
- (28:51) Building in London vs. selling in the US
- (30:43) Adam’s favorite AI use case as a busy CEO
- (31:26) The biggest misconception about AI in sales
About GTMnow
GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market.