Hunters and Unicorns

Introducing ’Hunters and Unicorns’ – Your Gateway to Tech Leadership Insights!Are you hungry for the inside scoop on what it takes to lead in the dynamic world of technology? Look no further than our celebrated interview series, ’Hunters and Unicorns’! Join us as we dive deep into the journeys of the trailblazers who are shaping the future of the tech landscape.🎙️ Unveil the Playbooks of Tech Titans!🚀 Revealing strategies of tech leaders driving growth.🔍 Dive into pivotal past experiences.🌐 1M+ global downloads – a community of tech enthusiasts.🎯 Insights from thought leaders, entrepreneurs, execs.🔥 Ignite innovation, leadership, extraordinary achievements.🦄🎉 Subscribe for transformative tech insights!

Hunters and Unicorns is a business podcast hosted by huntersandunicorns, with 100 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

huntersandunicorns hosts Hunters and Unicorns, a business show with 100 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #169

  The REAL Reason Your Sales Team Is Only Selling 25% of the Time — And What Fixes It

  Aug 20, 20261h 5m

  What separates a productive sales team from one buried in operational work? For Srinivas Bandi, it comes down to eliminating the endless toil that keeps sellers away from actually selling. In this episode of Hunters and Unicorns, Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne sit down with Srinivas Bandi, Co-Founder and CTO of Aurasell, to explore how AI is reshaping the modern go-to-market stack and changing how sales teams work. They discuss why most sellers spend less than 25% of their time selling, how AI agents can automate everything from prospecting to forecasting, and why the future of sales is about letting humans focus on high-value conversations. The conversation also explores AI-native software, data ownership, the fragmentation of today’s GTM stack, and why companies need to focus on business outcomes rather than simply adding more tools. In this episode: • Why sales reps spend less than 25% of their time selling • How AI can move selling time from 25% to 75% • Why the future of sales is AI agents + human conversations • The problem with fragmented GTM stacks and 50+ tools • Why high-fidelity data is becoming a competitive advantage • How AI is changing product development and customer success • Why speed and execution are becoming critical moats • What the future of the GTM stack could look like About Srinivas Bandi Srinivas Bandi is the Co-Founder and CTO of Aurasell, with previous leadership experience at VMware, Nutanix, and Harness. He has spent his career building enterprise technology and scaling products across cloud, infrastructure, and AI. Subscribe to Hunters and Unicorns for conversations with the leaders building, scaling, and transforming high-growth technology companies. About Our Sponsor: Big thanks to Aurasell for sponsoring this episode. Aurasell is an AI-native GTM platform that replaces the 15+ disconnected tools your sales team is juggling — prospecting, deal management, forecasting, and coaching all in one place. Available as a layer on your existing Salesforce or HubSpot, or as a standalone AI-native CRM. https://www.aurasell.ai/ #HuntersAndUnicorns #SrinivasBandi #Aurasell #SalesAI #AIAgents #GTM #B2BSales #SalesLeadership #RevOps #RevenueGrowth #ArtificialIntelligence Timestamps: 0:00 — Trailer 1:09 — Welcome & Introduction 2:17 — Career — VMware to Nutanix to Harness 6:02 — Identifying a Company's Real Moat 9:09 — Creating Real Differentiation in a Crowded Space 15:38 — What Drew Him to Solving This Problem 20:28 — Building for the Future With Aurasell 26:33 — The Nutanix Product & Its Impact 30:41 — Balancing Customer Feedback With Product Vision 35:14 — Staying Ahead When Innovation Moves Fast 38:51 — Will the Founder Profile Change in the AI Era 41:34 — The Future GTM Stack 44:33 — Will AI Make the Market Too Noisy 47:35 — How the Seller Profile Will Change With AI 49:31 — Could Salespeople Ever Be Fully Replaced 52:02 — Aurasell's Impact on Sales Rep Productivity 56:04 — Is Customer Success Being Replaced by AI 58:02 — Closing

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  Episode #168

  This is why Every Company's Partner Strategy Is Broken From Day One

  Aug 13, 20261h 15m

  What separates a good partner strategy from a truly transformational one? For Akshay Rao and Tom Henderson, it comes down to one thing: turning partner strategy into real field execution. In this episode of Hunters and Unicorns, Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne sit down with the co-founders of a stealth startup and two of the most experienced leaders in partner and channel alliances, with experience at companies including Wiz, Zscaler, AppDynamics, and Skytap. They break down why companies struggle to capture their Partner Total Addressable Market (PTAM), why strategy often gets disconnected from execution, and how organizations can use partnerships to accelerate growth rather than simply generate sourced revenue. The conversation explores what a gold-standard partner strategy looks like, how to measure the true value of partner relationships, why focused partner ecosystems outperform “everything to everyone” approaches, and how field teams can turn individual deals into long-term partner momentum. In this episode: • The missing link between PTAM and field execution • Why partner strategy cannot live only on a PowerPoint deck • How to calculate the real value of a partner relationship • Why focused partner strategies outperform broad ecosystems • How deals can become “currency” for building partner momentum • The difference between sourcing revenue and accelerating TAM • How companies can unlock growth they couldn't achieve alone About Akshay Rao & Tom Henderson - Akshay Rao and Tom Henderson are veteran partner and channel executives who have worked together for more than 11 years across companies including Wiz, Zscaler, AppDynamics, and Skytap. They are now co-founders of a stealth startup focused on rethinking how companies build and execute transformational revenue through the channel ecosystem. Subscribe to Hunters and Unicorns for conversations with the leaders building, scaling, and transforming high-growth technology companies. #HuntersAndUnicorns #PartnerStrategy #ChannelSales #B2BSales #RevenueGrowth #GoToMarket #SalesLeadership #Partnerships #SaaS #techleadership Timestamps: 0:00 — Trailer 1:23 — Welcome & Introductions 3:06 — What Does Gold Standard Look Like? 5:20 — TAM & the Missing Link to Field Execution 8:18 — Opportunity Cost Across Company Sizes 9:28 — Strategy vs Execution — Where It Falls Apart 10:30 — How to Practically Identify Your Partner TAM 16:01 — Executive Sponsorship — The First Gate 20:40 — What Being Easy to Work With Actually Means 25:00 — Why Aren't More Reps Doing This? 31:50 — Multi-Party Attribution — The Real Problem 37:51 — How the Cisco Model Changed Partnering 42:27 — Can You Build Channel-First From Day One? 51:59 — Doomed at Every Size — The Core Frustration 1:00:12 — Why Would Anyone Work in Channel 1:02:20 — Why Tom Turned Down Jobs to Found Mobilize 1:05:30 — What Is Mobilize & How Does It Work 1:11:30 — Who Is Mobilize Built For & What's the Outcome 1:13:25 — Closing

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  Episode #167

  7x World Record Holder: Stop Chasing Motivation — Here Is the System That Actually Works

  Jul 15, 20261h 15mS0

  <p>What if motivation is actually the thing holding you back? In this episode of Hunters and Unicorns, hosts Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne sit down with Sean Conway, an eight-time world record holder, extreme endurance athlete, keynote speaker, and performance coach—to unpack the mindset behind sustained high performance. Sean explains why motivation is an unreliable energy source, how world-class performers build systems instead of relying on willpower, and why consistency always beats intensity over the long run. </p> <p>From breaking endurance records to coaching high performers, he shares practical lessons that apply just as much to software sa...

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  Episode #167

  7x World Record Holder: Stop Chasing Motivation — Here Is the System That Actually Works

  Jul 15, 20261h 15m

  What if motivation is actually the thing holding you back? In this episode of Hunters and Unicorns, hosts Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne sit down with Sean Conway, an eight-time world record holder, extreme endurance athlete, keynote speaker, and performance coach—to unpack the mindset behind sustained high performance. Sean explains why motivation is an unreliable energy source, how world-class performers build systems instead of relying on willpower, and why consistency always beats intensity over the long run. From breaking endurance records to coaching high performers, he shares practical lessons that apply just as much to software sales, leadership, and business as they do to elite sport. In this episode: Why motivation is overrated The system that creates consistent performance How to build discipline that lasts Lessons from breaking eight world records Why ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results Endurance principles every sales leader should know How to perform under pressure without burning out Building habits that outperform talent Subscribe for more conversations with the world's top founders, operators, and GTM leaders sharing the playbooks behind exceptional performance. With thanks to our sponsor Aurasell AI. #HuntersAndUnicorns #SeanConway #SalesLeadership #Performance #Motivation #Discipline #SystemsThinking #Sales #Leadership #highperformance 0:00 — Trailer 1:17 — Introduction & Sponsor 3:01 — How Many World Records 7:49 — Elite vs Average Iron Man Time 9:20 — Was He Always Innately Motivated 12:50 — Was He a Sporty Kid 15:00 — Why Has He Been Able to Achieve This 16:55 — Community Within the Pillars 24:44 — From a Low Point to an Audacious Goal 31:55 — Practical Implementation of the Plan 36:28 — Getting Up Every Morning for 105 Days 39:33 — The Power of Having a Plan 41:24 — Factoring in Distractions and Life 43:18 — Mentally Dealing With Derailed Plans 44:25 — Was There a Point He Wanted to Quit 47:20 — End Goal vs Breaking It Into Segments 49:30 — Being Present in the Now 51:47 — Parallels to Business and Sales 56:50 — Motivation Levels Through the Journey 1:01:37 — Work Outside of Endurance 1:03:39 — What He Looks for in Coaching Clients 1:12:23 — Closing

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  Episode #166

  Scaled MongoDB From $35M to $2B — Why He HATES the Word Playbook

  Jun 24, 202656 minS0

  <p>What does it really take to scale a software company from $35M to $2B ARR? In this episode of Hunters & Unicorns, Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne sit down with Dan Barrett, SVP International at Figma and former MongoDB leader, to unpack the lessons behind one of SaaS's most remarkable growth stories.</p> <p>Dan shares why he hates the word "playbook," how MongoDB evolved through multiple sales transformations, and why the best leaders focus on developing people—not following a rigid process. The conversation explores authenticity in leadership, building high-performance teams, scaling PLG and enterprise sales motions, customer success, AI...

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