Michael Fertman · Product Marketing and GTM Launch Leader

I lead go-to-market for new products.

I'm Michael Fertman. In more than 25 years, I have led product management, pricing, sales enablement and demand generation at business software, data and fintech companies. Today I make sure new products are ready to sell, through a consulting engagement or as a full-time executive.

Let's talk Request my résumé

The short version

I lead the go-to-market side of new product launches: who buys first, how the product is positioned and priced, and whether the sales team is ready and willing to sell it.

I have led each of the four parts of marketing a new product needs: the product, pricing and packaging, sales and partner enablement, and demand.

At Dun & Bradstreet, I more than doubled the growth rate of four product lines. As Guidepoint's first chief marketing officer, I grew revenue from $30M to $50M in a flat market.

Today I am working with a $750M fintech to put into practice the go-to-market launch process I redesigned for it, working directly with its executive team. I also led the go-to-market launch of a new product for a $25M Series B AI software company.

I take full-time executive roles and consulting engagements.

Who owns a new product's revenue?

At most software companies, a new product's revenue sits between three leaders. Product owns what gets built. Product marketing owns the messaging and the launch assets. Sales owns the number, and the number is mostly the core product.

Nobody owns whether the new product makes money.

“There's a lot of coordination across the teams, but no one owns it end-to-end. It's a lot of cat-herding.”

From my launch interviews.

That is the job I take. The titles vary: head of go-to-market, vice president of product marketing and pricing, chief marketing officer at a company whose growth plan depends on new products. The work is the same: make the new product sell.

A new product needs all four parts of marketing at once, and I've led each one.

Marketing has four parts: the product, its price and packaging, sales and partners ready to sell it, and demand from the market. A new product is the one place in software marketing that needs all four at the same time, which is why I work on launches.

A launch also needs support, onboarding and customer experience teams ready, and billing and customer relationship management systems set up. The person who leads the launch needs expertise in all four parts of marketing. My strongest areas are positioning, packaging and pricing, and sales enablement.

The product

Product management

I launched software-as-a-service products as a director of product management at two startups, LivePerson and ScreamingMedia.

Price and packaging

Product marketing and pricing

At Dun & Bradstreet, I led pricing and packaging for products from $5M to $500M, including a $500M subscription business. I tripled the transaction price of one risk decisioning product.

Sales and partner enablement

Product marketing

At Dun & Bradstreet, a 1,000-person sales organization across six channels sold my products alongside many others, so my job was to make mine easy to sell. At Guidepoint, I built a sales enablement suite for four products and five customer segments.

Demand

Chief marketing officer

I built three marketing teams from the ground up to create and capture demand. One was at Guidepoint, where I was the first chief marketing officer and revenue grew from $30M to $50M in a flat market.

I launched products in every one of these roles.

I recently benchmarked how 15 software companies run their launches

I interviewed launch leaders at 15 business software companies with $600M to $20B in revenue.

I learned what works, which problems even well-run launch processes still hit, and which blockers a team can see coming and deal with early, such as a target customer list nobody has named or a demo environment that isn't ready.

More than half named sales compensation as a launch risk.

Now I use one approach at large companies and small ones

The steps stay the same, and the team changes with company size.

At a large company, a small team of top sellers works the first deals before the whole sales team.

At a smaller company, the sales team is the whole team, so the research happens before the first call, and we decide in advance what the team needs to learn and share.

Results by company

B2B Marketing Group
2014 to 2020 and 2025 to now
My consulting firm

Led the go-to-market launch of a new product for a $25M Series B AI software company serving enterprise consumer brands: positioning, buyer personas and an upsell sales process.

Redesigned the go-to-market launch process for a $750M fintech, working directly with its executive team, and now working with its teams to put it into practice.

Fractional chief marketing officer for 12 or more venture-backed software and fintech companies.

A white-label crypto exchange platform: more than $8M in sales opportunities in four months, and weekly leads up 138%.

A venture-backed ecommerce software company: unbranded organic traffic tripled, and inbound leads rose from 5 a month to 5 a week.
Apex Fintech Solutions
2023 to 2024
Vice President of Product Marketing

Pitched the company's first software-as-a-service product for enterprise financial institutions, then led its positioning, packaging, pricing and go-to-market: more than $5M in pipeline before launch.

Built the company's first product marketing team.
Apifiny
2020 to 2022
Vice President of Global Marketing

Built marketing from scratch for a seed-stage institutional crypto trading platform, through the company's filing to go public.

$2B in monthly trading pipeline within one year.
Guidepoint
2010 to 2013
First Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to the founder and chief executive

Grew revenue from $30M to $50M in a flat market by taking share from competitors.

Built the marketing function from scratch.
Dun & Bradstreet
2003 to 2009
Senior Director to Vice President of Product Marketing and Pricing

Led $200M to $500M businesses for four continuous years, with teams of 10 and 11 people.

$500M subscription business: annual growth from $14M to $30M.

$200M sales and marketing data suite: growth rate from 6% to 12%.

$30M analytics portfolio: retention from 70% to 90%, and growth from 0% to 20%, by moving clients to a new platform.
Earlier

Director of product management at LivePerson and ScreamingMedia, and consulting associate at Booz & Company.

Navy, rowing and school

Navy

I served as a US Navy officer and was navigator of a 950-person nuclear-powered cruiser during the First Gulf War.

Rowing

In college I was a coxswain. A coxswain does not row. The job is to get everyone pulling in sync, steer the shortest course and say no to anything that slows the boat. A go-to-market launch needs the same job done.

School

Wharton (B.S. in Finance, cum laude) · Chicago Booth (MBA in Marketing, high honors) · Phi Beta Kappa

For reporters and podcast hosts

Topics I speak on: why new products launch on time and then do not sell; the difference between a product launch and a go-to-market launch; why sellers skip new products, and how to pay them to sell; how to price a product before anyone has bought it.

What I can share: findings from my interviews with launch leaders at 15 software companies, from $600M to $20B in revenue.

Press inquiries

Work with me

Full time: I lead go-to-market for new products at business software, data and fintech companies, roughly $50M to $500M in revenue, backed by venture capital or private equity.

Consulting: I lead the go-to-market launch for one new product, from the approved business case through the first quarter of sales.

Let's talk