In this episode of ThriveStack’s podcast, we speak with Marlena Sarunac, an award-winning CMO and co-founder of Company Advice. Marlena shares her GTM Growth Audit framework, a practical, systems-thinking approach to identifying hidden bottlenecks across product experience, website messaging, and go-to-market execution especially for early-stage and scaling SaaS companies.
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Key Insights
Most growth problems are system failures, not traffic or UX issues
Effective GTM audits focus on product experience, website messaging, and growth loops
Onboarding fails when users aren’t guided to a clear first value moment
Websites should help the right buyers say yes and the wrong ones say no
Feature-heavy messaging kills conversion outcomes drive decisions
One-off campaigns hide problems; loops reveal where growth breaks
Misaligned ICPs across teams quietly create friction and churn
Actionable Takeaways
Audit time-to-value, not just onboarding screens trace friction back to promises made before signup
Write your homepage for one primary buyer ICP (not every possible user)
Translate features into buyer-level outcomes, not technical specifications
Replace one-off campaigns with repeatable marketing + product loops
Align Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success on one shared narrative and activation goal
Treat content as a growth asset only if it actively helps users succeed in the product
Resources Mentioned
GTM Friction Finder Audit (Free) – Available via Company Advice
User interviews, product analytics, and cross-team narrative alignment
CRM-driven, branded lifecycle workflows (activation, nurture, expansion)
Marlena Sarunac is the co-founder of The Company Advice, a growth and design studio that helps SaaS companies remove hidden friction across product experience, website narrative, and go-to-market execution. As a fractional CMO, she works closely with founders and growth leaders to diagnose where momentum is leaking and turn clarity, design, and positioning into measurable growth. Marlena specializes in product-led and early growth-stage companies that want to scale without piling on complexity.
Thrivecast listeners can explore the GTM Friction Finder Audit, a lightweight scorecard that highlights the top friction hotspots across your company’s product, website, and funnel: https://www.thecompanyadvice.com/friction-finder-thrivecast
If you’re a B2B SaaS founder, growth leader, or product owner struggling with activation, conversion, or retention despite “doing all the right things,” this episode is a reminder: growth doesn’t break at the top of the funnel it breaks in the gaps between teams, tools, and promises.
Fix the system, and growth follows!
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