This page is for Georgetown Venture Lab founders looking for free GTM feedback from a B2B SaaS marketing operator with five startup VP of Marketing roles.

For Georgetown Venture Lab Founders

You built a venture inside the Hoya network. Now you need a fractional CMO and GTM advisor to help you build the B2B marketing motion.

Free 30-60 minute GTM session for Georgetown Venture Lab 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 Georgetown Venture Lab 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 Georgetown Venture Lab founder profile

If you're a Georgetown Venture Lab 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 Georgetown ecosystem

A few companies with Georgetown roots

Georgetown alumni have built some notable companies across fintech, enterprise software, and consumer brands. A few you may recognize.

Health-Ade Kombucha
Co-founded by Georgetown alum Daina Trout. Grew from a farmers market stand to a nationally distributed consumer health brand acquired by Butterfly Equity.
Georgetown Alumni
GATSBY Chocolate
Founded by Georgetown alum Doug Bouton, co-founder of Halo Top. Low-calorie chocolate brand that scaled rapidly through retail distribution.
Georgetown Alumni
Super Coffee
Founded by Georgetown alum Jordan DeCicco. Functional coffee brand that raised over $100M and became one of the fastest-growing beverage companies in the US.
Georgetown Alumni
Keep Company
HR tech platform helping employers reduce attrition among parents and caregivers. Georgetown Startup Accelerator alumni building B2B SaaS for people ops teams.
Venture Lab
About Tom

Five startups. Marketing Leadership.

Tom Berger

Georgetown produces a specific kind of founder: someone with sharp strategic instincts, a strong professional network, and often real exposure to policy, government, or regulated industries before they ever start a company. The challenge I see most often is translating that background into a commercial motion that a buyer can act on quickly. Strategy is not a pipeline.

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 run a Portfolio CMO practice based in the DC area 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 in disguise. I do a small number of these for founders in programs like the Georgetown Venture Lab because the conversations are genuinely useful to me too. They keep me sharp on what early-stage founders are actually dealing with. The only thing I ask is that you show up with a real question.
Early stage is often the right time. The positioning decisions you make before you've repeated your story to 50 people are the easiest ones to change. If you're still in customer discovery and trying to figure out who you're actually selling to, that's exactly where this session helps most. You don't need a marketing plan. You need someone to pressure-test the commercial story before it calcifies.
The Venture Lab's mentors cover a wide range: fundraising, legal, operations, product. This session is narrower on purpose. It's specifically about GTM: your positioning, your ICP, your first pipeline motion, and whether the commercial story you're telling is working. I've been VP of Marketing at five startups. If the question is about go-to-market, that's where I can go deeper than a generalist mentor typically will.
That's actually where this conversation gets most useful. Enterprise and government buying cycles are long, involve multiple stakeholders, and almost never follow the playbook that consumer or SMB SaaS founders use. Getting the message right for the economic buyer versus the end user versus procurement is a specific skill. If your pipeline is stalling in complex organizations, that's something we can work through directly.
The session is one conversation. You bring a problem, I give you honest feedback, you leave with something you can act on. Advisory work is ongoing: I'm embedded in the business on a part-time basis, attending team meetings, working through strategy over months, and accountable to pipeline results. The session is the right place to start. Ongoing work is for founders who want to keep going after that first call.
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. The session is 30-60 minutes over video call. No slides, no prep. Just show up ready to talk through the problem.
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 -- Georgetown Venture Lab