What does it take to build a go-to-market strategy that actually works? Tina McNulty has spent nearly 30 years figuring that out. As the newest member of the 53 Stations Wayfinder network, she brings deep operational and strategic experience and a track record across Schneider Electric, M12, Comcast Ventures, and Chegg to help founders shape their stories that help them grow. 

We sat down with her to talk more about her approach and what it means to be part of the 53 Stations Wayfinder network, which is a curated community of seasoned executives, operators, and industry experts who bring firsthand experience to help founders scale enduring companies.

You’ve spent your career inside large organizations and venture funds. What excited you most about plugging into the 53 Stations network?

I’ve spent most of my career building inside complex systems: large enterprises, venture portfolios, and early-stage companies trying to become both. What excited me about 53 Stations is the density of real operators who’ve been in the messy middle. It’s a network designed for practical pattern matching, not theory, and that’s where I do my best work. I love helping startups build and drive impact. Those corporate connections can be gas for the fire.

What’s the most common mistake early-stage founders make when building their first go-to-market strategy, and when should they start engaging deeply on the marketing front?

The most common mistake is treating go-to-market as a launch moment instead of a learning system. Founders often over-rotate on messaging before they have earned clarity on buyer pain, decision dynamics, or product-market fit. Deep marketing work should start earlier than most think—once you can repeatedly explain why customers buy, not just why the product works.

At M12, you drove a rebrand that moved positive sentiment by 117%. What was the mechanism behind that shift, and what did that experience teach you about timing a rebrand?

The shift came from aligning identity with our unique value proposition. We leaned into the value we uniquely brought—a connection to Microsoft—and then expressed that consistently across every touchpoint. Rebrands work when they capture momentum that already exists. They fail when they try to manufacture a narrative the business hasn’t yet earned.

You led Schneider Electric’s early adoption of AI in marketing. What did that actually look like in practice, and what separates teams that generate real value from AI tools from teams that don’t?

Coming from Microsoft, I was already using AI deeply in my day‑to‑day work, so when I joined Schneider Electric that mindset carried over naturally. My focus was less on “using AI” for its own sake and more on what it enabled: doing more with a lean team, accelerating insight generation, increasing content throughput, and dramatically improving experimentation velocity. AI became embedded in workflows, not bolted on as a novelty.

What separates teams that generate real value from AI from those that don’t is intent and operating discipline. High-performing teams start with clear problems, strong fundamentals, and well‑defined decision frameworks, then apply AI to amplify those strengths. Teams that struggle tend to deploy tools without changing how work gets done or without investing in proper training and accountability around their use. Effective AI adoption requires a behavioral shift: using the technology not just to produce more output, but to help teams make faster, smarter decisions.

With nearly 30 years of GTM experience, you’ve seen strategies fail in execution even when they were sound on paper. What most often breaks down?

Execution usually breaks where strategy meets operating reality. Incentives don’t align, ownership gets blurry, and teams lack a shared cadence for learning and adjustment. A strategy only works if it’s translated into clear decisions, trade-offs, and feedback loops that teams can actually run day to day.

What’s a capability or tool available to marketers today that didn’t exist 12 months ago and you’re genuinely excited about? 

Agentic AI embedded directly into GTM workflows. Not just generating content, but continuously synthesizing customer signals, testing messaging, and informing decisions in near real time. It has the potential to shorten the distance between what the market says and how teams respond.

What’s a problem you’d want a 53 Stations portfolio founder to bring to you? 

I’m especially interested in helping founders sharpen the story that fuels growth, clarifying narrative, positioning, and category logic as they move from early traction to scale. That moment when the product works and demand is real. Aligning what the company is with how the market understands it can dramatically accelerate growth when done well. I’d also add that I have worn many hats over my career across marketing, strategy, communications, people, venture, and partnership. If you come to me with a problem, it’s likely that I’ve encountered something similar and can help you solve yours.

Anything else you’d like to share with the 53 Stations network?

I’m most useful when the goal is clarity, not validation. I’m happy to challenge assumptions, share hard‑earned lessons (boy have I had a lot of them!), and help teams simplify decisions, especially when complexity starts to feel like progress.

Tina joins a growing list of 53 Stations Wayfinders, who help founders navigate critical inflection points across every stage of company building. From scaling teams to landing needle-moving customers, Wayfinders offer strategic guidance and practical support to help founders tackle their most pressing challenges.

To learn more about Wayfinders and the other advisors in the program, check out the 53 Stations website.