Data Room / Go-to-Market Strategy

Go-to-Market Strategy

9 min read Commercial

1. GTM Overview

Brunelly operates a dual-motion go-to-market strategy. Enterprise readiness is the primary focus - high-ACV contracts with large organisations provide the predictable ARR that supports growth and Series A fundraising. In parallel, a free tier targets small businesses, founding teams, and small digital agencies, building ground-up awareness and filling the 30% non-enterprise revenue target while the enterprise pipeline matures.

Revenue model:

Motion Target Revenue Share Mechanism
Enterprise sales 70% of revenue Founder-led sales converting to dedicated AE
Self-serve / PLG 30% of revenue Free tier, credit-based conversion, team expansion

Revenue targets (18-month horizon):

  • Enterprise: ~$750K ARR from 3 converted pilots
  • Non-enterprise (self-serve): ~$250K over 18 months
  • Combined: ~$1M ARR (Series A milestone)

Primary market: UAE, expanding into UK/Europe and the broader Middle East. We are not targeting the US market unless accepted into Y Combinator.

2. Enterprise Sales Motion

Target Profile

  • Mid-to-large enterprises with 50+ developer teams
  • Current tool stack spend of $3,000--$7,000 per developer per year across fragmented tools
  • Pain point: AI bolted onto legacy tooling rather than built natively

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):

Firmographic:

  • 500+ developer organisations in financial services, consulting, luxury/retail, and enterprise technology
  • $500M+ annual revenue, with budget authority for $250K+ software purchasing decisions
  • Current dev tool spend of $3,000--$7,000 per developer per year, spread across multiple disconnected vendors

Technographic:

  • Currently running a fragmented tool stack (e.g., Jira + GitHub + separate CI/CD + separate monitoring) with no unified AI layer
  • Have attempted or are actively evaluating AI coding assistants (Copilot, Cursor) but finding them insufficient for enterprise-grade needs such as compliance, audit trails, and full lifecycle coverage

Behavioural triggers (signals that indicate readiness to buy):

  • Failed internal AI development PoC - the prospect has invested in building or evaluating AI tooling internally and found it lacking (as Deutsche Bank experienced before Publicis Sapient brought Brunelly to the table)
  • Upcoming tool contract renewal creating a consolidation opportunity where Brunelly can replace multiple point solutions at lower total cost
  • Compliance audit requiring development traceability - DORA, SOX, or equivalent regulatory requirements that demand unified audit trails across the development lifecycle
  • CTO or VP Engineering mandate to measurably improve developer productivity, often triggered by board-level pressure on engineering efficiency metrics

Key Verticals

Vertical Validation Point Why It Fits
Financial services Deutsche Bank pilot discussions via Publicis Sapient Highest tool spend per developer, regulatory complexity creates switching cost moats, DORA compliance drives need for unified platforms
Consulting / SI Publicis Sapient evaluating for internal use and client delivery Consultancies charge $200--$500/hr for developers; productivity gains flow directly to margin. Each SI partner becomes a channel
Luxury / retail De Beers Group relationship via Executive Chairman Existing Pina Vida consultancy engagement; De Beers actively exploring cost-cutting and operational optimisation, digital transformation budgets growing

Sales Approach

Phase 1 (Months 1--9): Founder-led sales. Guy Powell (CTO) leads technical deep-dives and architecture discussions. Dhilushi Perusinghe (CEO) manages commercial terms and account relationships. Founder-led sales is deliberate at this stage - enterprise buyers in the AI SDLC space expect to speak with the person who built the product, and Guy's technical credibility (MSc Robotics & AI, ex-Microsoft, ex-Symantec) is a direct competitive advantage in technical evaluations.

Phase 2 (Months 9--18): First dedicated Account Executive. Hired once the enterprise playbook is proven through 3+ converted pilots. Founders shift to strategic accounts and partnerships.

Enterprise Deal Structure

Parameter Target
Average Contract Value (ACV) ~$250K
Pilot duration 3--6 months
Pilot pricing 10--30% of projected ACV (credited toward full contract)
Contract structure Annual, with multi-year discounts (15% for 2-year, 25% for 3-year)
Conversion target 40--60% of paid pilots convert to annual contracts

Pilot-to-Paid Model

The pilot is designed to convert, not to "evaluate." Every pilot includes:

  1. Pre-defined success criteria agreed before kickoff (pilots with predefined criteria convert 3.2x more often)
  2. Production use, not sandbox - get into real workflows within the first two weeks
  3. Weekly quantitative check-ins measuring cycle time, credit usage, and developer satisfaction
  4. ROI analysis delivered at pilot conclusion with expansion path defined

Budget is structured at the VP-approval level ($50K--$250K) to accelerate decision-making and avoid board-level procurement cycles for the initial engagement.

Channel Strategy: Systems Integrator Partnerships

Publicis Sapient is the template for a repeatable channel model:

  • Revenue share: 15--25% of first-year contract value to the SI partner
  • Co-branded delivery: "Publicis Sapient AI Development, powered by Brunelly"
  • Motivation alignment: If Brunelly makes their developers 3--5x more productive, the SI captures the margin improvement on $200--$500/hr billing rates
  • Scale path: Replicate with Accenture, Wipro, Infosys, Thoughtworks in Year 2
  • Impact: Each consultancy partnership unlocks enterprise logos without direct sales effort. The Wipro-Factory precedent saw a single partnership roll out across "tens of thousands of engineers."

One successful Deutsche Bank deployment creates a replicable playbook for the entire financial services vertical.

The Publicis Sapient engagement demonstrates a repeatable template for SI partnerships: the integrator uses Brunelly to increase their delivery margins while continuing to bill clients at standard day rates, creating a natural incentive alignment that does not require Brunelly to discount or subsidise adoption. The Factory-Wipro precedent validates this model at scale - Wipro integrated Factory's AI capabilities into their WEGA platform and rolled out across "tens of thousands of engineers," demonstrating that a single SI partnership can unlock more developer seats than years of direct sales effort. Year 2 target partners are Accenture, Wipro, Infosys, and Thoughtworks, selected because each has an established AI or digital transformation practice and an existing base of enterprise software delivery engagements where Brunelly can demonstrate immediate margin improvement. Partner qualification criteria include a 500+ developer workforce, an active AI transformation practice, and current enterprise software delivery engagements - ensuring any partner has both the scale to generate meaningful revenue and the technical maturity to adopt the platform effectively. Channel conflict is managed through clear lane separation: direct enterprise sales for accounts without existing SI involvement, and SI-led engagement for their existing client relationships. Revenue share is structured at 15--25% of first-year contract value to SI partners on referred or co-sold deals, consistent with the Publicis Sapient model and competitive with industry norms for technology channel partnerships.

3. Self-Serve / PLG Motion

Strategy

Product-led growth is the bottom-up complement to top-down enterprise sales. While enterprise readiness is the primary focus, the 30% non-enterprise revenue target comes primarily from small businesses, founding teams, and small digital agencies who adopt Brunelly through the free tier and grow into paid plans.

The free tier is limited to work item improvement and AI-assisted coding on cheaper AI models. This constrained scope keeps Brunelly's cost of serving free users low while giving developers a meaningful, hands-on experience with the platform. The purpose is to build ground-up awareness and usage while the enterprise pipeline matures - these users grow into paid tiers as they see value and need access to full SDLC features (backlog generation, estimation, automated sessions, security scanning).

The free tier is also a deliberate bottom-up enterprise acquisition strategy. This is a classic PLG motion: individual developers use the free tier on personal or side projects, experience the value first-hand, and then become internal champions who push for adoption within their workplace. A developer who has already used Brunelly to generate a backlog, improve work items, or write code is far more effective at driving enterprise adoption than any outbound sales email. They bring direct experience, internal credibility, and a concrete use case to budget conversations. This bottom-up motion complements the top-down enterprise sales effort - the free tier seeds future enterprise pipeline by creating advocates inside organisations that Brunelly may not yet be targeting directly.

Enterprise readiness is being built in parallel: SSO, audit logging, SOC 2, and compliance controls are shipping on the same timeline. Enterprise becomes the dominant focus as MVPs with enterprise clients prove the model, but the free tier ensures Brunelly is not dependent on a small number of long-cycle enterprise deals for early momentum.

Target Segments (Non-Enterprise)

Segment Why They Convert
Small businesses (5--30 developers) Outgrow free limits quickly; need full backlog and estimation features
Founding teams / early-stage startups Start free, upgrade as team and codebase grow
Small digital agencies Use Brunelly to improve delivery margins; upgrade for client project management and advanced AI

Why Agencies and Small Businesses First

The initial non-enterprise focus on agencies and small businesses (typically 20-odd employees) is a deliberate strategic choice, not a fallback:

  • Real value, real case studies. These are companies where the team can deliver meaningful, measurable impact quickly - improved delivery velocity, reduced planning overhead, better code quality. A 20-person agency that triples its output using Brunelly produces a concrete, verifiable case study that resonates with enterprise buyers evaluating the platform.
  • Case studies validate the product for enterprise. Enterprise procurement teams want evidence that the product works in production, with real teams, on real projects. Agency case studies provide this evidence faster than waiting for the first enterprise pilot to conclude. A portfolio of agency success stories de-risks the enterprise buying decision.
  • Fills the 30% non-enterprise revenue target. While enterprise pilots follow their natural 3--6 month cycle, agency and small business revenue provides a growing base of recurring revenue that demonstrates product-market fit to Series A investors.
  • Speed of feedback loop. Smaller organisations adopt faster, provide feedback faster, and iterate faster. The product improvements driven by agency usage directly benefit enterprise readiness.

Funnel Design

Developer at small team signs up (Free - work item improvement + coding only)
  --> Sees value, needs backlog generation or estimation (30--60 days)
    --> Upgrades to Pro ($29/user/month)
      --> Invites team members, needs SSO (Business, $79/user/month)
        --> CTO/VP Eng discovers, needs compliance (Enterprise, $139/user/month)

Tier Economics

Tier Monthly Price Purpose
Free $0 Land and hook. Limited to work item improvement and AI-assisted coding on cheaper models. Enough to experience value, not enough for daily professional use across the full SDLC
Pro $29/user/month Small teams. 25 projects, 1,500 credits. Full SDLC features. Priced above Copilot ($19) to signal broader scope
Business $79/user/month Mid-market. Unlimited projects, 5,000 credits, SSO. Below GitLab Ultimate ($99)
Enterprise $139/user/month Large orgs. Compliance, dedicated infrastructure, 15,000 credits

Conversion Targets

  • Free to Pro: 2--5% (industry standard for developer tools)
  • Pro to Business: 15--25%
  • Business to Enterprise: 20--40%

Non-Enterprise Revenue Target

$250K over the first 18 months, driven primarily by small businesses, founding teams, and small digital agencies converting from the free tier, supplemented by organic word-of-mouth and developer community growth. This is a conservative target that does not depend on significant marketing spend.

4. Current Pipeline and Traction

Publicis Sapient / Deutsche Bank

The highest-value opportunity in the pipeline. Publicis Sapient, a $5B+ consultancy, evaluated Brunelly after Deutsche Bank spent $5M on a failed internal AI PoC and reviewed Google's offering. Their assessment:

"We've looked at this internally, spoken to EPAM and Google and nothing matches this - we are very, very impressed."

Publicis Sapient is considering Brunelly for both client delivery (Deutsche Bank) and internal use. Enterprise deck and demo videos are being prepared for a second meeting, with the goal of formalising a pilot structure. A consultancy of this scale does not stake its Tier 1 banking client relationship on unproven technology.

STEP Conference Pipeline

20+ serious leads from STEP conference in Dubai, actively requesting demos and follow-ups. These are warm leads from in-person conversations, not inbound marketing - conversion rates from conference leads to pilot discussions are significantly higher than cold outbound.

Early Sign-Up Traction

~200 sign-ups from waitlist with zero marketing spend. This validates organic developer interest and provides early data on activation and engagement patterns.

Additional Pipeline

Lead Stage Context
De Beers Group Warm - existing relationship Existing Pina Vida consultancy engagement; Jonathan (Executive Chairman) has a direct enterprise relationship from his De Beers tenure; De Beers actively exploring cost-cutting and operational optimisation
Medius Early conversation Global procurement company, warm introduction
Additional consultancies Early conversation Network-driven leads following STEP and Publicis Sapient interest

Enterprise Delivery Track Record

Pina Vida (the predecessor consultancy being wound down, IP transferring to Brunelly) has a proven track record of selling and delivering multi-year enterprise contracts with renewals. This is not a team learning enterprise sales for the first time - it is a team applying existing enterprise relationships and delivery experience to a product company.

5. How Enterprises Use Brunelly

The following scenarios illustrate how different types of organisations use Brunelly in their day-to-day engineering operations. These are representative of the verticals we are targeting and reflect the workflows the platform supports today.

Financial Services: Regulated Development at Scale

A 200-person development team at a major bank is building a new payments feature that falls under DORA regulatory requirements. Their tech lead describes the feature in natural language, and Brunelly generates a structured backlog of 15 user stories, each with acceptance criteria, security considerations, and compliance annotations. The team runs AI-assisted estimation to plan the sprint, replacing the usual two days of planning poker with a 30-minute review session. When developers move to implementation, Brunelly's code generation produces pull requests that follow the bank's internal patterns and security standards. Automated reviews flag 3 potential compliance violations before any human reviewer sees the code - issues that historically would have been caught in a security audit weeks later, triggering expensive rework cycles. What previously took 3 weeks of planning and 2 full sprints of development is completed in 4 days, with a cleaner audit trail than the manual process ever produced.

Systems Integrator: Margin Improvement Through AI-Assisted Delivery

A consulting firm deploys Brunelly on a client engagement to accelerate a digital transformation project. Their team of 15 consultants uses Brunelly to generate the initial backlog from discovery documents, produce architecture recommendations grounded in the client's existing codebase, and generate implementation code that follows the client's established patterns. The client sees a 3x improvement in delivery velocity compared to their previous vendor engagement. The consultancy continues to bill at their standard day rate - Brunelly handles the heavy lifting on requirements decomposition, estimation, and initial code generation, so consultants spend their time on high-value architecture decisions and client communication rather than boilerplate. Their effective margins on the engagement improve from 35% to 55%. The firm now packages Brunelly-powered delivery as a premium offering, differentiating their proposals from competitors who are still using Jira and manual estimation.

Mid-Market Product Team: Shipping Faster Without Hiring

A 30-person product engineering team at a growing SaaS company adopts Brunelly to increase their shipping cadence without expanding headcount. Their product manager describes features conversationally during sprint planning, and Brunelly generates stories with detailed acceptance criteria and technical implementation notes. Developers use AI code generation for the initial implementation of each story, then review and refine the output - spending their time on architecture and edge cases rather than scaffolding. Automated bug detection catches issues before QA picks up the build, reducing the back-and-forth cycle that used to consume 20% of each sprint. Within two quarters, the team is shipping 3x more features per release cycle with the same 30 engineers. Their CTO reports to the board that engineering velocity has tripled without hiring, and the per-feature cost has dropped by 60% - a metric that directly supports the company's path to profitability.

6. Sales and Marketing Infrastructure

Team Structure

Function Location Headcount Timing
Enterprise sales (founder-led) UAE / Remote 2 (Guy + Dhilushi) Now
Business development / outreach UAE (front office) 1--2 hires Post-funding, Month 1--2
Research and data management Sri Lanka (back office) 1--2 hires Post-funding, Month 1--2
Executive Chairman (enterprise intros) UK / UAE 1 (Jonathan) Now

This structure is capital-efficient by design. Front-office UAE presence for enterprise credibility and in-person meetings. Back-office Sri Lanka for research, lead qualification, and CRM management at a fraction of the cost of a UAE or UK hire.

Sales Collateral (In Production)

  • 14 product demo videos covering different parts of the platform (~1 minute each, with voiceover). May also produce one overall compilation. These are critical for enterprise buyers who want to see the product before committing to a call.
  • Enterprise sales deck being finalised for Publicis Sapient second meeting and broader pipeline outreach.
  • Data room (this document set) for investor conversations that doubles as credibility material for enterprise prospects.

Conference and Event Strategy

The STEP conference model proved effective: 20+ serious leads from a single event. The strategy is to repeat this at targeted events in the UAE and broader Middle East, focusing on conferences where enterprise technology buyers and consultancy leaders attend. Conference ROI at this stage far exceeds digital marketing spend for enterprise pipeline generation.

7. Milestones: From Here to $1M ARR

Month 1--3 (March--May 2026)

  • Close Publicis Sapient pilot with pre-defined success criteria and paid structure ($25K--$75K pilot fee)
  • Begin 2 additional enterprise pilots from STEP conference pipeline and network introductions
  • Ship enterprise requirements: SSO (SAML/OIDC), audit logging, SOC 2 Type I certification process started
  • Hire 1--2 BD reps in UAE for pipeline building
  • Complete demo video suite and enterprise deck
  • Target: 3 pilots in progress, 200+ free-tier users

Month 4--6 (June--August 2026)

  • 5 enterprise pilots running concurrently
  • Publicis Sapient pilot producing quantitative results (cycle time reduction, developer satisfaction scores)
  • Pipeline building through outbound, events, and SI partner referrals
  • SOC 2 Type I certification in hand
  • Self-serve growth through organic sign-ups and developer word-of-mouth
  • Target: 5 active pilots, conversion discussions starting for earliest pilots

Month 7--12 (September 2026--February 2027)

  • Convert 3 enterprise pilots to paid annual contracts (~$250K ACV each = ~$750K enterprise ARR)
  • Publicis Sapient formalised as channel partner with revenue share agreement
  • Expand within converted accounts (more teams, more seats)
  • Hire first dedicated Account Executive based on proven playbook
  • Self-serve revenue building toward $250K non-enterprise target
  • Target: ~$750K enterprise ARR, growing self-serve revenue, second round of pilots starting

Month 12--18 (March--August 2027)

  • Reach ~$1M ARR (enterprise + self-serve combined)
  • Series A readiness: proven enterprise sales motion, repeatable pilot-to-paid conversion, channel partner model validated
  • Begin second SI partnership replication (Accenture, Wipro, or equivalent)
  • Target: Series A raise with ~$1M ARR, 3+ paying enterprise clients, validated channel model

8. Geographic Strategy

UAE Hub (Primary)

The UAE is the launch market by deliberate strategic choice, not default:

  • Big fish, small pond. The UAE startup ecosystem is growing but not saturated. An AI-native SDLC platform stands out in Dubai/Abu Dhabi in a way it would not in San Francisco or London.
  • Accelerator ecosystem. Potential incorporation via accelerator freezone covering costs, legal, visas, and offices.
  • Tax efficiency. 9% corporate tax - significantly lower than most Western jurisdictions (25% UK, 21% US, 30% Germany). The vast majority of revenue is retained for growth.
  • Enterprise access. STEP conference alone generated 20+ serious leads. UAE-based enterprises are investing heavily in technology and digital transformation.
  • DIFC/ADGM legal frameworks. Comfortable for international investors, familiar contract law.

Middle East Expansion

  • Growing government and private-sector investment in technology and digitalisation
  • Large-scale development projects (NEOM, Saudi Vision 2030, Qatar National Vision) driving demand for software delivery tooling
  • Less crowded competitive landscape than Western markets

UK/Europe (Served from UAE)

  • Enterprise clients like Deutsche Bank served remotely with on-site visits as needed
  • Guy (CTO) and Trishna (CFO) are UK-based; Jonathan (Chairman) has UK enterprise network
  • UK/European enterprise contracts do not require a UK office - they require compliance, credibility, and technical depth

US Market

Not a primary focus. The US market is the most competitive and expensive market for developer tools. Brunelly will enter the US only if accepted into Y Combinator, which would provide the network and credibility needed to compete effectively.

9. Key Advantages in GTM

Capital Efficiency

Sri Lanka engineering costs (~$500/month per senior developer, fully loaded) mean Brunelly can build and iterate at a fraction of the cost of a US or European competitor. GTM back-office support from Sri Lanka further reduces burn. The $1.5M raise provides 3+ years of runway - this is not a company that will need an emergency bridge round.

Founder Technical Credibility

Enterprise AI tool sales are fundamentally technical sales. Procurement teams bring architects and engineering leads to evaluation calls. Guy Powell (MSc Robotics & AI, ex-Microsoft, ex-Symantec, built the entire Brunelly + Maitento stack) can go toe-to-toe with any technical evaluator. This is a rare and significant advantage for a seed-stage company - most competitors send sales reps who cannot answer deep architecture questions.

Existing Enterprise Relationships

This team has sold and delivered multi-year enterprise contracts through Pina Vida. The relationships, the process knowledge, and the credibility transfer directly to Brunelly. The De Beers Group connection via Jonathan, the Publicis Sapient engagement, and the STEP conference pipeline are not cold-start efforts - they build on years of enterprise delivery.

SI Partnership Model

The consultancy channel is a force multiplier. Each SI partner (starting with Publicis Sapient) sells Brunelly to their own client base, provides implementation services, and benefits from developer productivity gains on their own delivery teams. This creates a sales channel with zero customer acquisition cost for Brunelly and dramatically compressed sales cycles (2--4 months vs. 6--12 months for direct enterprise sales).

Product Moat

No competitor covers the full SDLC with AI native throughout. This is validated by Publicis Sapient, who checked EPAM and Google and found nothing comparable. The 2+ years of development on Brunelly and Maitento cannot be replicated quickly - and every month of production use with enterprise clients deepens the moat through feedback, data, and workflow integration.