This page is for Carnegie Mellon Swartz Center founders looking for free GTM feedback from a B2B SaaS marketing operator with five startup VP of Marketing roles.

For CMU Swartz Founders

You built something technically remarkable at CMU. Now you need a B2B marketing advisor to help you build the GTM motion around it.

Free 30-60 minute GTM session for Carnegie Mellon Swartz Center founders. Honest feedback on your positioning, messaging, and early pipeline. No prep required. No pitch from me.

Request Your Free Session
Why this exists

I got help early. This is how I return it.

I have been VP of Marketing at five early-stage startups. Every one of them was built by people sharper than me on the technical side. What I could do that they couldn't, at least not yet, was take a complex product and turn it into a message that made a buyer say yes.

People gave me their time when I needed it most. That changed where I ended up. These sessions are how I build the bridge behind me.

The session is free because I think the right way to work with early-stage founders is to be useful before anything else. Some of those conversations turn into ongoing work. Most don't, and that's fine. The goal is that you leave with something you can act on that week.

If you're a Swartz founder trying to figure out how to sell what you've built, that's the conversation I want to have.

Who this is for

Built for the Swartz founder profile

If you're a Swartz founder and at least two of those land, this session was built for you.

What we cover

30-60 minutes. One problem. Real feedback. Really free.

01

Positioning and messagingWhy your current language isn't turning technical depth into buyer urgency, and what to change first.

02

ICP sharpnessWhether your ideal customer is actually buyable at your stage, or whether you're aimed at a segment that can't move fast enough to matter right now.

03

Early pipeline structureHow you're generating demand, where the drop-off is, and what a realistic first GTM motion looks like with what you actually have.

04

First marketing hireWhether you're ready to hire, what to look for, and how to avoid the hire that looks right on paper and sets you back six months.

05

Your specific questionBring the thing that's been sitting on your whiteboard for three weeks. That's usually where we start.

No prep required. No slides. No pitch deck. Just show up and we'll dig in.

The Swartz ecosystem

A few companies that came out of Project Olympus

The Swartz Center has launched some of the most technically ambitious startups in the country. These are a few you may recognize.

Duolingo
Language learning platform built on adaptive AI. One of the most successful consumer edtech companies to come out of Carnegie Mellon.
CMU Alumni
Astrobotic
Lunar payload delivery company spun out of CMU's Robotics Institute. Commercial space logistics for NASA and private customers.
Project Olympus
Cognition Factory
AI-driven industrial automation spun out of CMU engineering research. B2B SaaS for manufacturing operations.
Swartz Alum
Near Earth Autonomy
Autonomous flight technology for helicopters and aerial vehicles. Deep tech commercialization from CMU's robotics labs.
Project Olympus
About Tom

Five startups. Marketing Leadership.

Tom Berger

I'm a CMU alum, which means I know the kind of founder Project Olympus produces: technically exceptional, deeply committed to the problem, and often the last person in the room to think about how to market what they've built. That was me too.

I've been VP of Marketing at five B2B SaaS startups, from pre-revenue through Series B. The job was always the same: take a technically strong product, figure out who actually needs to buy it, and build the smallest marketing motion that proves the thesis before you scale it.

I now run a Portfolio CMO practice with a small number of Series A and B companies. The free sessions sit outside that. No sales agenda.

More about my background
What comes after

Most sessions end at the session.

The session stands on its own. You'll leave with feedback you can act on. No follow-up pitch, no invoice.

A small number of founders want to keep going after the session. Some are trying to hire their first marketing leader and want a thought partner through that process. Some are a few months from a Series A and need someone in the room while they build the GTM motion. For those conversations, I work as an advisor or a senior marketing leader embedded in the business on a part-time basis, without the overhead of a full-time executive hire.

If that's relevant after we talk, I'll tell you what it looks like. If it's not, the session still stands. More on how I work with founders.

Common questions

Frequently asked

Yes. Fully free. No invoice at the end, no discovery call disguised as a session. I do a small number of these specifically for founders coming out of programs like Swartz because I find the conversations genuinely useful. They keep me sharp on what early-stage technical founders are actually dealing with. The only thing I ask is that you show up with a real question, not a test of whether I'll pitch you.
Pre-seed is usually the best time. The positioning decisions you make right now, who the customer is, what problem you're solving, how you describe it, are harder to undo once you've been repeating the wrong story to 50 prospects. If you're still building and have one or two potential customers you're talking to, that's exactly the right stage. You don't need a go-to-market plan. You need someone to help you think clearly about the conversation you're already having.
Swartz mentors cover a lot of ground, from fundraising to operations to product. This is narrower on purpose. The session is specifically about go-to-market: how you're positioning what you've built, who you're selling to, and whether the commercial story you're telling is working. I've been the VP of Marketing at five startups. That's all I do. If your question is about GTM, messaging, or your first pipeline motion, that's where I can go deep in a way a generalist mentor usually can't.
I'm a marketer, not an engineer. I won't pretend to understand your technical architecture. What I do know is the gap that shows up in almost every deep tech company that comes out of a program like Swartz: the technology is genuinely impressive, and the language used to describe it inside the lab makes a buyer's eyes glaze over. Bridging that gap is the job. Whether you're in robotics, AI infrastructure, or applied machine learning, the GTM fundamentals are consistent enough that the session will be useful.
The free session is a single conversation. You bring a problem, I give you honest feedback, you leave with something you can act on that week. Advisory work is ongoing. I'm embedded in the business on a part-time basis, attending team meetings, working through strategy over time, and accountable to your results, not just the quality of the advice. The session is the right starting point. Ongoing work is for founders who want to keep going after that first conversation.
Send me an email with one sentence on what you're building and one sentence on the specific thing you want to think through. I'll reply within 48 hours to find a time. The session is 30-60 minutes over video call. No deck required. No prep. Just show up ready to talk through the problem and we'll go from there.
Ready when you are

One conversation. Something concrete to act on.

Send a quick email with what you're building and what you want to think through. I'll get back to you within 48 hours.

[email protected] Subject line: Free GTM Session -- CMU Swartz