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 most advisors only diagram. 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.
Segments multiply. Forecasts get noisier. Pipeline quality gets harder to trust. AI tools get bolted on before the workflow is understood. Teams hire for a title before the operating problem is clear.
I help leaders step back, diagnose the real constraints, and build the GTM systems — and find the talent — needed for the next stage of growth.
Six things I believe after two decades inside revenue engines. Disagree with any of them and we'll have a good conversation.
Most GTM strategy fails in translation, not conception. The board deck and the Monday pipeline review must describe the same company.
AI is a force multiplier on a clear operating system and a chaos generator on a murky one. If you can't write the workflow down, you're not ready to automate it.
Noisy forecasts usually trace back to unclear stage definitions, unowned metrics, and cadence that inspects activity instead of quality.
The most expensive mistake in scaling GTM is hiring for a title before the operating problem is clear. Define the problem; the profile follows.
Treated as back-office admin, RevOps files reports. Treated as the connective tissue between strategy and execution, it changes what leadership can see and decide.
Going multi-market too early — without product-geo fit, local understanding, and the right first hires — is how good companies buy complexity they can't afford.
Every engagement starts from the operating problem, not a services menu. These are the shapes the work usually takes.
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 — not where the demo looked good. Workflow-first redesign with humans in the loop.
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 — starting from the commercial operating problem, not 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, not operating problems. The result: expensive hires solving the wrong problem.
Seven questions I'd ask in the first hour of any engagement. Answer honestly and you'll get the same first read I'd give you across the table — where your GTM system is strong, where trust breaks first, and what I'd look at next.
Most AI-in-GTM failures aren't model failures — they're workflow 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.
Recent thinking on GTM systems and RevOps.
Read on LinkedIn → 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 →
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 — not an agency.
We help your revenue team create magic.
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
