Europe entered 2026 with a cautiously improving growth backdrop. However, despite early optimism at the start of the year, headline GDP growth is projected to slow to 1.3% in 2026, while ongoing global turbulence is an unavoidable problem. Most recently, the Iran war has caused gas and oil prices to spiral. Experts have already warned that this could cause inflation in the Eurozone to spike.
In turn, markets have already begun pricing the risk of a rate hike into 2026 business plans, while consumers are likely to adopt a cautious approach with new purchases as the cost of living rises across the board.
This means that both B2C and B2B companies will need to double down on their product market fit, buyer personas and campaign narratives with expertly crafted Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies. A report from McKinsey found that Europe’s marketing executives are focusing on the basics within their control as they try to navigate the declining economic and consumer sentiment indices across the European Union.
As a result, the report found that CMOs across the continent are doubling down on the importance of strong branding and close alignment with target buyers as a way to build resilience and long-term growth.
In uncertain times, trust and emotional connection become the anchor that gives customers clarity, consistency, and a sense of security.
Here is 150sec’s rundown of the leaders driving growth in Europe with expert GTM strategies in 2026.
Daniel Domingues: Founder & CEO, Planno
Daniel Domingues is the founder and CEO of solar prospecting company Planno, which applies geospatial machine‑learning to accelerate commercial and industrial solar prospecting. Based in Dubai with strong European market activity, Domingues has driven a strategy around data‑driven lead qualification that helps energy developers build predictable sales pipelines faster than manual methods.
His GTM leadership centers on translating complex energy transition problems into a clear commercial value proposition, aligning product, marketing, and sales teams on a unified vision. Through strategic international partnerships and a sharp focus on efficiency, Planno is becoming a leader at the intersection of AI and sustainability in Europe and beyond.
Nate MacLeitch: CEO, QuickBlox
Nate has steered QuickBlox, the London‑based communications API company, through over half a decade of product innovation and market expansion. Under his stewardship, QuickBlox has launched real‑time chat, video, and AI‑augmented features designed to help developers and enterprises rapidly embed communications into their products.
His GTM expertise lies in balancing technical depth with clear commercial positioning, including growing the adoption of the Quickblox platform by diversifying into regulated verticals like healthcare while maintaining a self‑serve developer entry point. He also mentors startup founders, reinforcing his broader influence on go‑to‑market skill development.
Ibrahim Hasanov: Founder & CEO, MyUser
Based in San Franciso, Ibrahim leads MyUser, an AI automation platform that reimagines B2B outbound sales by fully automating the outreach funnel, from lead discovery to conversation and meetings. His product‑first GTM approach, which includes a number of European clients, leans on demonstrating measurable pipeline impact over traditional costly manual sales processes.
His leadership represents a new wave of AI‑enabled selling models where product adoption and customer value replace classic sales‑led muscle as the primary engine of growth. This reflects modern market trends where usage, automation, and self‑serve simplicity are key growth levers.
Fernando Gaspar Barros: Founder, Brands Like Bands
Fernando Gaspar Barros created Brands Like Bands to help companies amplify cultural engagement and employer branding through music‑centric events that unite corporate teams and broader audiences. By bridging community, creativity, and brand storytelling, he has redefined how organizations think about internal culture as a GTM lever.
His leadership blends creative marketing with human connection, showing how experiential GTM initiatives, beyond traditional demand generation, can build long‑term brand loyalty and word‑of‑mouth momentum. His work spotlights cultural resonance as a performance metric in modern go‑to‑market playbooks.
Jack Cummings: CMO & Interim CRO, Payhawk
Recognized in the GTM10 awards, Jack Cumminds transformed Payhawk’s GTM structure by pioneering thematic “Release Editions” product launches and new pipeline metrics, significantly increasing the company’s win rates across European markets.
His focus on performance measurement and cross‑functional alignment has made Payhawk’s GTM motion more predictable and scalable a model for how data can harmonize revenue and marketing teams for sustained growth.
Julia Goelles: VP Marketing, Parloa
Julia has been instrumental in establishing Parloa’s brand in competitive enterprise AI spaces through global partner‑first GTM strategies that strengthened credibility and enterprise pipeline growth.
Her leadership illustrates how partnerships and co‑selling strategies can multiply GTM reach, especially when scaling from European roots to global markets.
Richard King: Founder & CEO, The Alliance
Richard’s GTM vision integrates community‑led growth with narrative marketing, helping founder‑focused teams turn early traction into repeatable global engines for events, media, and community services.
He champions messaging and storytelling as key GTM differentiators, in particular for B2B stakeholders pursuing brand‑led acquisition.
Mahesh Raja: Chief Growth Officer, Ness Digital Engineering
Mahesh holds over two decades of experience building, scaling, and leading large, complex organizations across technology, digital engineering, and professional services. He has a long track record working with multi-billion dollar organizations to build go-to-market engines that drive sustainable revenue growth, market expansion, and enterprise value creation.
In his current role as Chief Growth Officer at Ness Digital Engineering, Mahesh is responsible for global revenue growth, industry strategy, and market development across financial services, communications and media, manufacturing and transportation, technology, and commercial sectors.
Palmer Houchins: VP of Marketing, G2
G2 is the world’s largest tech marketplace where businesses can discover, review, and manage the technology they need to reach their potential. Palmer Houchins has led campaigns that bolstered G2’s global presence and GTM resonance, including signature virtual events and awards programs, cementing the company’s voice in GTM decision‑making.
His work underscores the value of brand authority and ecosystem engagement in GTM strategies.
Kathy O’Donnell: Sr Director International Marketing, Gong
Kathy’s GTM leadership helped Gong expand its European footprint with integrated, customer‑centric campaigns that drove deep pipeline growth with lean resources. Gong is
a leading revenue intelligence platform that uses AI to analyze customer interactions, helping sales teams improve win rates and forecast revenue. It records calls, emails, and meetings to provide actionable insights, coaching opportunities, and pipeline visibility.
Her success with multi‑channel education and GTM execution highlights how localized GTM motions can scale global product launches.
Laurent Sultan: Chief Revenue Officer, Diapason
Laurent has redefined ActiveViam’s GTM function by blending a data‑driven approach with people leadership, delivering consistent revenue outcomes while mentoring next‑generation GTM talent.
His leadership reflects how revenue teams can thrive when GTM plays emphasize both analytical rigor and team empowerment.
Helen Martin: Global Partner Marketing Lead, Mambu
Helen Martin is the Global Partner Marketing Lead for Mambu, where she drives growth for Mambu by leveraging a growing global partner ecosystem. Martin has helped Mambu scale its European SaaS footprint by enabling co‑selling and ecosystem‑triggered demand.
Her work showcases GTM strategies that prioritize external network leverage for rapid pipeline expansion. Martin owns global partner marketing programs for strategic partners, including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Deloitte & PwC that act as key growth levers for Mambu.
Tim Renew: CEO, BCB Group
Tim, a seasoned entrepreneur and C-level executive leader in fintech, was appointed as BCB’s Deputy CEO in 2024, moving to CEO in 2025. He has raised over $85 million for industry-defining fintech and SaaS brands, building GTM strategies and growing sales, marketing and customer success teams around the world, from complete startup/ pre-revenue through to Series B and beyond.
Now he is focusing on BCB’s Series B and strengthening our position as the key bridge between crypto-native and traditional finance.
Jo Zhu Kennedy: Strategic Partnerships Head, Anthropic
Anthropic is experiencing rapid growth in Europe, designating the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region as its fastest-growing market, the company has seen its run-rate revenue in the region grow by more than nine times over the past year and has tripled its European headcount.
As Head of Strategic Partnerships, Jo Zhu Kennedy has built a scalable GTM playbook for developer and startup partnerships, rapidly expanding Anthropic’s market reach across Europe and globally. Her work highlights the exponential impact of community and partner‑oriented GTM strategies in high‑growth AI markets.
