Operator-led GTM advisory & talent · Founded by Shantanu Shekhar
I'm Shantanu. I've spent my career inside the revenue engines of some of the best-known companies in B2B SaaS, building the systems to help GTM teams scale. Shandalf is how I help founders, CROs, RevOps leaders, and investors get from board narrative to operating detail: sharper strategy, stronger revenue operations, AI-powered workflows, and the operating talent to make it real.
Bain & Company
LinkedIn
Nitro
Gong
Personio
As companies scale, forecast accuracy slips below 90%. Revenue plans miss despite 4x pipeline coverage and 100% of pipeline generation targets hit. AI tools get bolted on before the workflow is understood, and the ROI stays unclear. Quota capacity runs behind plan while attrition spikes.
I help leaders step back, diagnose the real constraints, and build data-backed, AI-powered GTM systems for the next stage of growth. And, just as crucially, find the talent to run them.
Every engagement starts from the operating problem. It then takes one of three shapes, or a combination of them.
Each starts from the operating problem rather than a services menu.
Founders · CROs · Investors · PE
A structured, operator-grade read of your commercial engine: where growth is actually constrained, what to fix first, and a narrative your board will follow.
Growth-stage · PE-backed
Build the execution rhythm: cadence, metrics with owners, forecasting discipline, and a RevOps charter that makes the function strategic rather than reactive.
Teams scaling with AI
Put AI where it compounds operator judgment rather than where the demo looked good. Workflow-first redesign with humans in the loop.
Or ongoing, across all three
CEOs · CROs · Investors
An ongoing senior operator sounding board. For the decisions that don't fit neatly into a project.
RevOps and GTM leadership talent is rare, high-stakes, and hard to assess. I help SaaS companies define, map, source, and assess critical GTM operating talent through an operator-led lens. The starting point is the commercial operating problem rather than a job title. I know the profile, and where to find it.
The skills are scarce and inconsistently defined. Generalist recruiters miss the mark because they don't understand the function. They match keywords rather than operating problems. The result: expensive hires solving the wrong problem.
Most AI-in-GTM failures are workflow failures rather than model failures. Here's the order of operations I hold clients to.
If the team can't write down how the work happens today (inputs, decisions, handoffs), AI will automate the confusion.
Pick the quality and productivity signals that matter, give them owners, and measure before and after. No instrumentation, no claims.
Humans in the loop, agents where the workflow is stable, and a roadmap that earns the next automation rather than assuming it.
"AI is a force multiplier on a clear operating system. And a chaos generator on a murky one."
Field notes on RevOps, GTM systems, AI workflows, and talent. Published on LinkedIn, plus conversations on podcasts and stages.
Strategy, forecasting, AI workflows, hiring and expansion. The positions I argue from.
Read the field notes → Featured postWhere AI genuinely changes revenue operations, and where it just adds noise.
Read on LinkedIn → Featured postOn how the RevOps function is changing, and what it should become.
Read on LinkedIn →Seven questions I'd ask in the first hour of any engagement, and the same first read I'd give you across the table.
Run the Inflection Check →
I started in strategy consulting at Bain & Company, where I learned structured problem-solving, and its limits. Strategy, it turns out, only matters if the operating system can carry it.
So I moved inside the machine. Across LinkedIn, Nitro, Gong, and now Personio, I've built and run commercial systems through the moments that make or break growth: founder-led sales becoming repeatable, forecasts earning (or losing) a board's trust, international expansion done right and done badly, AI arriving faster than workflows could absorb it.
Along the way I discovered the other half of the job: the talent. The best GTM systems are inseparable from the operators who run them, and I've spent years learning what that profile looks like and where to find it.
Shandalf is how I put all of that to work for founders, CROs, RevOps leaders, and investors at their own inflection points. When you work with Shandalf, you get a senior operator rather than an agency.
Tell me what you're working on. I read everything myself and reply personally.
Best suited for SaaS leaders and investors at a real commercial inflection point.
Prefer email? shantanu@shandalf.com
