Michael Slawson: Professionalizing Sales at First Institutional Capital

Episode notes

In this episode of the [ A] Growth Ventures Podcast , Hamlet Azarian sits down with Michael Slawson , President of Apparel Advisors , and the go-to expert PE firms call when their portfolio companies need a serious go-to-market overhaul. With a background spanning international consulting, the World Bank, clean energy entrepreneurship in Kenya, and hypergrowth stints at Hum Capital and Clipboard Health, Michael brings a rare blend of global perspective and on-the-ground sales execution to every engagement. This conversation explores Michael's journey - from co-founding a pyrolysis-based clean energy charcoal company in East Africa and learning hard lessons about willingness to pay, to doing door-to-door pest control sales, to now building full GTM systems from scratch for sponsor-backed B2B companies. His central insight: go-to-market is never just a hire - it's a system built around four pillars: accounts, channels, messaging, and RevOps . And if you're not building that system with flexibility baked in, you're accumulating GTM debt that future you will regret.

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