How AI is Rewriting Startup Growth Playbooks

Most AI pilots fail because founders layer features onto old playbooks instead of rebuilding revenue architecture. Mark Roberge, co-founder of Stage 2 Capital and former founding CRO at HubSpot who scaled from $0 to $100M revenue, explains how AI compresses traditional sales cycles and enables systematic growth. He breaks down the four-phase abstraction from AI-supported reps to full revenue automation, details how selling time can jump from 25% to 75% of a rep's week, and reveals why sustainable moats now depend on owning the point of work rather than systems of record.