---
title: "My favorite GTM tools and ones that i want to try in 2026"
description: "I wanted to use our first week back from the holidays to share some of my favorite tools and the folks building them. It’s easy to use tools without…"
url: https://garrettawolfe.substack.com/p/my-favorite-gtm-tools-and-ones-that
---

[← All posts](https://getaob.com/blog/)

# My favorite GTM tools and ones that i want to try in 2026

January 7, 2026 · By Garrett Wolfe · [Originally published on Substack](https://garrettawolfe.substack.com/p/my-favorite-gtm-tools-and-ones-that)

I wanted to use our first week back from the holidays to share some of my favorite tools and the folks building them. It’s easy to use tools without getting to know the people cranking away creating them, and for several of these I’ve been lucky enough to get to know the builders as well!

Notably, I have explicitly mentioned *whether I’ve used the tool or not, so I’m not just shilling recommendations at you not having used it (**like many other people do**)*, and this is not sponsored in any way whatsoever, just doing my part to share the love and give thanks!

## Inbound Scheduling & Workflows - *Default*

[Default](http://default.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - Default is an incredible team building in the **inbound** space led up by [Nico](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoaferr), [Victor](https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorpapyshev),[Stan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanrym), [George](https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeoharris), [Caitlin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlyn-vaughn/), and a handful of other exceptional individuals. For teams that are scaling and need ***scheduling, routing, and workflow*** tools associated with inbound demos - Default is a modern inbound workflows solution!

Funny, when I first started my journey into the startup world, I got to know Nico and the team and immediately fell in love. They weren’t ready to hire someone with my background at the time but I am so grateful to have stayed close to the team, become a power user of their product, and have implemented it for Unify and a handful of other clients! I’ve never known any different but I have used Hubspot’s calendar, Calendly, and am grateful for what they’re building.

## Linkedin Signals - *PhantomBuster & Captain Data*

I feel like [Phantombuster](https://phantombuster.com/?deal=garrett77&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=onegtm&utm_content=onegtm) and [CaptainData](https://www.captaindata.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) are some of the unsung heroes of GTM that I’ve had a ton of personal experience with over the last 24 months. These platforms can be used to scrape all types of engagement data on Linkedin like likes, comments, follows, viewers, as well as just general Linkedin scrapes, helping build lead lists on Linkedin among others. Before Unify built an integration with these tools, I personally used Phantombuster and CaptainData to scrape 50+ Linkedin engagement categories across thousands of people at Unify which generated milions of dollars of pipeline for us. The Phantombuster team ([John Mears](https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mears/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BCljNtBqIS5C3HxzL6SFPOg%3D%3D), [Jackie Newnam](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackienewnam/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BCljNtBqIS5C3HxzL6SFPOg%3D%3D), [Brian Moran](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianejmoran/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BCljNtBqIS5C3HxzL6SFPOg%3D%3D), [Diane Bogui](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianebogui/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BCljNtBqIS5C3HxzL6SFPOg%3D%3D)) and Captain Data team ([Marc Francis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcfrancis961/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BvjKDAEQNTQG37lYVqxOkEg%3D%3D), [Chloe Damon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloedamon/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BvjKDAEQNTQG37lYVqxOkEg%3D%3D), [Olivier Darcq](https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivier-darcq/)) are extremely kind, patient, and friendly - even with the admittedly steepish learning curve to work their systems overtime! God knows where i’d be without learning about these guys!

**Favorite:** My favorite is ***Phantombuster*** here for the friendlier UI, but CaptainData has a bit more power / configuration for folks who want to go really deep.

## Website Deanonymization - *RB2B / Vector*

Although I’ve never spoken to anyone on the [RB2B](http://rb2b.com/?ref=garrett&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=onegtm&utm_content=onegtm) team, you gotta hand it to Adam on the [Retention.com](http://Retention.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) train for building a great media engine in founder led content by building in public and admitting both wins and losses.

Vector is competitor to [RB2B](http://rb2b.com?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=onegtm&utm_content=onegtm) that offers a very similar suite of tools with a team that has responded to support inquiries near instantly and their founding AE has gotten on the phone with me at a moments notice.

For deanonymizing website visitors (which could be considered both shady but also highly useful), RB2B, [Vector](http://vector.co/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), and a few other providers are great platforms.

**Favorite:** I’m a paying [RB2B](http://rb2b.com/?ref=garrett&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=onegtm&utm_content=onegtm) user, for whatever reason i’ve gotten better results from them but have heard of many friends who far prefer Vector.

## Lead Gen Workflows - *Clay and Unify*

It’s unfair to give either of these too much airtime but both of these tools are category defining and revolutionary within the space. [Unify’s](http://unifygtm.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) team is comprised of some of the best specialists Hyewon Kim, Solomon Astley, Sam Waterbury, Skyler Mickunas (and quite a few folks who have gone out to start their own companies as well - Devin Plumb, etc.). [Clay](http://clay.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) is no different, having met folks like [Everett](https://www.linkedin.com/in/everettberry), [Brett Fischler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettfischler/), [Nick Goel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickgoel), [Daniel Johnson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-johnson-5679781b4/), [Josh Hanson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadhanson377/), [Alex Lindahl](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlindahl/), and many more - they are building something truly special

Clay is the power tool for GTMEs, and Unify seems to be going down the BDR automation (replacing Apollo route).

**Favorite:** Biased here and like both for different reasons :)

## Email Tools - *Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist*

[Instantly](https://instantly.ai/?via=garrett&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=onegtm&utm_content=onegtm), [Smartlead](http://smartlead.ai/?via=garrett), [Lemlist](http://lemlist.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), [EmailBison](https://emailbison.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - there’s a bunch here.

[Instantly](https://instantly.ai/?via=garrett&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=onegtm&utm_content=onegtm) has the cleanest UI / UX but [Smartlead](https://smartlead.ai/?via=garrett) has a better API endpoint. EmailBison people love for deliverability since its on different (I believe private) email infra but is newer to the game. Haven’t used Lemlist but have heard good things.

## Basic Linkedin Messaging - Heyreach, LaGrowthMachine, Dripify

[HeyReach](http://heyreach.io/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) has been my tool of choice for Linkedin messaging ever since a few of my clients introed me to it. They are all functionally the same and I don’t have a strong preference here but HeyReach has seemed to have the best external opinions on it. We used [LaGrowthMachine](https://lagrowthmachine.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) at Unify and the team was very kind to help us with success, improve messaging, and generally just shoot the shit. Have heard good things about [Dripify](https://dripify.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) but haven’t had the chance to use.

***Favorite:*** HeyReach

## Advanced Linkedin Prospecting & Messaging - [Valley](http://valley.co/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm)

In the early days of Unify we viewed them more as a competitor, but they’ve come to be more of a complement in my mind as they have sticked to just Linkedin (as opposed to the full gambit for outbound). CEO Zayd Syed Ali is super kind, he has let me try out the tool and its extremely intriguing and has a stunning UI. Their head of growth (**[Shubh Agrawal](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shubhagrawal/overlay/about-this-profile/))**also is a legend and is friendly, and funny (important!).

## AI Search - Exa, Parallel

Super fascinating category that I plan to write about but these tools ([Exa](http://exa.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), [Parallel](https://parallel.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), [Extruct](https://www.extruct.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm)) basically use AI to scrape the web for your search parameters. They can be used for super vanilla B2B SaaS use cases (folks that match X criteria, companies that match Y filters) across sales, recruiting, and more. However, i’ve found these platforms particularly useful for far more useful things like highly niche signal monitoring. I have a ton of fun with Exa because it complements my RSS feed work in Clay in a super neat way. The team at Exa is incredible, and while i’ve heard people rave about Parallel just as much if not more, I prefer to interface with a list like UI rather than a proper API at least for right now.

These companies are still very early, but it reminds me **a ton of Unify** when I joined in April 2024 as they iron out a few key things like

- Promoting the product and creating product-led growth and marketing content
- Building a partnerships program
- and a bunch more!

## Product Walkthrough / Demo Software - Navattic, Supademo

Making folks get on the phone with an AE in order to buy can be intimidating and annoying, thus a handful of platforms have popped up that allow folks to build guided walkthroughs or demos. When I was building Galaxy, I setup [Supademo](http://supademo.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) for us as I saw it on Twitter and it was super easy to get up and running. Created a great “intent signal” for us and converted to a bunch of design partners that I sold for us. Highly highly recommend using, and I met [Joseph Lee](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhylee) (CEO) at a founder dinner purely coincidentally and Fredo Tan (Growth Lead) via product dogfooding and the team is great.

[Navattic](http://navattic.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) is a bit more mature and has deeper product suite (today). [Randy Frank](https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-frank) is a Duke Alum and had [Ethan Dursht](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethandursht/) on his early team (before he joined Unify!). [Alisa Feng](https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-feng/) has also been extremely kind to me as I diligence new product ideas as well.

**Favorite:** Supademo for bootstrapped companies / quick builds and early stage Companies; Navattic for more thorough demo automation with integrations, sandboxes, etc.

## Email / Linkedin Activity Syncing - Outbound Sync

A difficult part of building these outbound systems is syncing everything back to your CRM so your team knows whats going on at a glance. For god knows what reason, none of the email tools / linkedin tools sync activities back to CRM. I’m very curious as to why they left out such a logical thing so if someone could give me an answer I would be plenty interested to hear. [OutboundSync](https://outboundsync.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) finally syncs back all of this interaction data directly to your CRM along with great dashboarding to manage what is going on. In this regard, they do compete with Unify somewhat which is fascinating. [Harris Kenney](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harriskenny) is super friendly and a great guy to watch as he built this product mostly himself out of pure struggle and frustration.

## ScaledMail, ZapMail, etc. - Email Infra Management

Managing email infrastructure is not only annoying, but complicated. Everyone has their own preference but I took the jump and chose [ScaledMail](https://www.scaledmail.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) to use which I have now rolled out over 4+ clients. They are super great for spinning up and down mailboxes, checking email health, and for just asking questions to. Because they deal with so many mailboxes, they can buy them at a cheaper cost then you and me buying our own via Outlook and Gmail. DNS settings and such can be irritating for folks, this eliminates that entire process and puts them in charge. Their team is also incredibly responsive, helpful, and always down to chat about things regardless of what they may be! [Dean Fiacco](https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanfiacco/) is a great team lead here

**Favorite:** ScaledMail

## CRM - HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio

I am not the most qualified person to speak on this subject but have used Hubspot, Salesforce, and a handful of others in the last few years. As [Vic Schwenoa](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrpipeline/) once put it to me:

- Attio can be used for simplistic CRM implementations for small companies.
- Salesforce if you want to build a trillion dollar company
- [Hubspot](http://hubspot.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) can be used for everything inbetween.

Hubspot is what I use personally and typically recommend to folks. It’s a lot faster, snappier, and cleaner than Salesforce. This makes a big difference for deep revops work, for list building, and for actual utilization by reps and other teams which matters a ton.

[Dharmesh Shah](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh/) is also a masterclass in founder-led marketing, he posts on Linkedin and Twitter nonstop with very genuine and sincere content and Hubspot in particular is far more well rounded in other areas of operating other than sales engagement (marketing, CS, signals, etc.)

I’ve heard great things about the [Octolanes](https://www.octolane.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), [Clarify’s](https://www.clarify.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), [Lightfields](https://lightfield.app/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm), and other AI CRM’s of the world, but have not used them yet simply out of lack of integrations with GTM tools. Excited to see how this newish space evolves

**Favorite:** Hubspot for ease of use and scalability

## Contact Data - Wiza

[Wiza](http://wiza.co/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) has somehow appeared on the market as a new player that has somehow made it big, entirely bootstrapped. A really impressive feat. I’ve procured them for a client and have been impressed by the match rate of contact data versus other vendors. While they dont have a sequencing tool (yet), it’s nice to see someone crushing in the data space. Great folks here like [George Uhlrich](https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-ulrich-ms-8652a3119/), [Michael Kilcullen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkilcullen/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3BIcID9OmFTE2RrOU7C8j4Mw%3D%3D), and [KJ Chow](https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithjchow/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3Bc4wvwr10SgWgtCSFGDmexw%3D%3D))

## BDR Dialing - Nooks, Orum

I am going thru a buying cycle with [Nooks](http://nooks.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) and Orum right now. Anthony Firenzi recently started at Nooks and he tends to have a good nose for GTM tools so excited to see what comes here. Orum is another solid tool folks recommend, though I haven’t tried it just yet.

## Free Contact Data + Email Sequences - Apollo

This is just such a no brainer but everyone should have the [Apollo](http://apollo.io/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) chrome extension and get their 100 free emails per month + 1 free email sequence. Just so awesome to have on hand and one of the best things to have while you bootstrap your ideas :)

## AEO / GEO (&SEO) Optimization - Gauge

Transparently, I ran into the [Gauge](https://www.withgauge.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) team by first trying to sell Galaxy to them and get them using it. I was already building AEO / GEO / SEO infrastructure myself in-house, and wasn’t interested in buying Gauge. What was initially me trying to sneakily sell, turned into a beautiful relationship with [Caelean Barnes](https://www.linkedin.com/in/caelean) and [Ethan Finkel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanfinkel98/) showing me their platform, letting me use it, and seeing the trajectory of Galaxy go hockeystick as I invested more in building AEO / GEO. Track mentions, visibility, where to go get citations and more. Doesn’t hurt that they’re friendly (and I have a fairly active text chain w them).

[AirOps](https://www.airops.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) (also love but haven’t used!) and [Profound](https://www.tryprofound.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) in this space too.

## Notable Mentions

- [SixtyFour AI](http://sixtyfour.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - like n8n and Unify / Clay had a baby. Interesting for list building and lightweight signal orchestration → [Chris Price](https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-price-59a24b178/)

- [Floqer](http://floqer.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - like n8n, Unify, and Clay had a baby. [Anastasia Liamets](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasia-liamets/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3Bx153zOH%2BSpOOmyJlFMuzeg%3D%3D), [Shivam Mahajan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivammahajan1/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_people%3Bx153zOH%2BSpOOmyJlFMuzeg%3D%3D)
- [n8n](http://n8n.io/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - obviously complex but powerful
- [Origami](http://origamiagents.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - Cursor for outbound?
- *Warmly* - There are a lot of warm outbound tools out there (Unify included) and [Warmly](https://www.warmly.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) is one that comes to mind here. Max has a younger brother (that went to Duke) and has similarly done a great job of building in public (or as he calls it “going clear”). He’s built a lot with a very lean team and has given the GTM space a lot of good laughs and leans into it too :) I haven’t personally used Warmly but have heard good things from folks who want a simple automated outbound platform for warm signals like website intent.
- [Keak](https://www.keak.com/) - super sick AB testing platform

## Tools I want to checkout in 2026

[image: Spongebob I Need It GIFs | Tenor]

If you work at these companies and wanna give me a spin of your tool (or are a new entrant to the crowded space of GTM, hit me up)

- [11x](http://11x.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm)
- [Rox](http://rox.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm)
- [Actively](http://actively.ai) and [Amplemarket](http://amplemarket.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) (need to know how yall compare to Unify ;))
- [Cleanroom](https://trycleanroom.com/) - [Elias Stravik](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliasstravik/)
- [Seam AI](http://getseam.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm)
- [Granola](http://granola.ai/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - finally time for me to invest here
- [Mutiny](http://mutinyhq.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm)
- [Pocus](https://pocus.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=substack&utm_campaign=garrettwolfeonegtm) - despite being adjacent to Unify, i’d love to learn more about their PLG focus and check out the platform - seems like a great product.

## Where OneGTM can help

- [Clay agency and Clay consultant](https://getaob.com/clay-agency): Clay tables, enrichment waterfalls, and scoring from a Clay Artisan Solutions Partner.
- [Clay alternatives](https://getaob.com/clay-alternatives): What to use instead of Clay, organized by the job you need done.
- [What is a GTM engineer?](https://getaob.com/gtm-engineer): The role, salary ranges, skills, and tools, from the State of GTME report.
- [Signal-based outbound agency](https://getaob.com/outbound-agency): Cold email and LinkedIn systems triggered by real buying signals.

## More from the blog

- [Maybe we aren't thinking big enough… Is it all a search problem?](https://getaob.com/blog/maybe-we-arent-thinking-big-enough) (January 14, 2026)
- [Small GTME problems a platform should build](https://getaob.com/blog/small-gtme-problems-a-platform-should) (December 23, 2025)
- [The Art of the CRM (and why you should prio using one)](https://getaob.com/blog/the-art-of-the-crm-and-why-you-should) (December 3, 2025)

[Work with OneGTM](https://getaob.com/#contact)