Paloma Parties: Positioning, Strategy, AI-Powered Marketing Ops, & Scalable GTM Motions

Chris McLellan, the AI-forward marketing consultant, was contracted by Paloma Parties after its seed round to establish core positioning, marketing strategy, scalable GTM motions, and AI-powered operations including knowledge bases, CRM, outbound prospecting engine, and reporting dashboard.

Chris McLellan wrote website and crafted clear value statements.

Quick Summary

Paloma, a North American startup, needed a marketing function built from the ground up to take its conversational booking agent to enterprise restaurant and hotel groups. Chris McLellan was contracted for a 3 month term to lead the work.

• Positioned Paloma in a new category, Event Success, with clear differentiators

• Developed brand style guide and product taxonomy

• Created GTM strategy, marketing plan, calendar, and budget

• Set up Airtable knowledge bases powering the website, blog, content, and strategy

• Wrote all website pages, with metadata and schema

• Set up Attio CRM and Apollo outbound prospecting engine

• Developed PLG, ABM, and founder-led growth motions

• Built reporting dashboard

These activities gave Paloma a clear market position and an AI-enabled marketing engine already driving leads.

Context

Paloma is an early-stage B2B SaaS company building a conversational booking agent that helps restaurants and event venues capture, qualify, and convert private event inquiries. Its product replaces abandoned web forms and missed phone calls with an agent that responds 24/7 and plugs into existing websites, calendars, and CRM tools.

Following its seed round, Paloma was preparing to move upmarket to national restaurant and hotel groups, in a space crowded with event management software. I was contracted on a 3 month term to establish its brand positioning, go-to-market strategy, marketing operations, and early growth programs.

Established unique category for business with clear, defensible positioning

Objectives

• Establish clear, defensible market positioning

• Create GTM strategy and budget

• Implement AI-powered marketing operations

• Kickstart early GTM motions

  
  

Approach

• Focus early and deep on positioning, including category and differentiators

• Build data foundations first, so AI-powered operations have a single source of truth

• Choose modern tools with MCP capability to keep the stack connected

• Favour cost-effective channels and programs that fit a tight budget

• Shape positioning and language with founders, customers, and the product team

• Work quickly and collaboratively, using startup friendly suppliers

  
  

Deliverables

Clear Category & Positioning

• Developed positioning with a new category (Event Success) and clear differentiators

• Developed brand style guide in partnership with the design agency

• Established product taxonomy (features, capabilities) with the product team

Executable Strategy & Budget

• Created GTM strategy, marketing plan, calendar, and budget

AI-Powered Marketing Operations

• Set up knowledge base powering the website, blog, content, and strategy, including tables for product taxonomy, positioning frameworks, brand, and proof points (Airtable)

• Built content tracker table with UTM code creation (Airtable)

• Wrote all website pages including home, about, competitor comparison, pricing, and how it works, with metadata and schema

• Set up CRM with AI-enabled sequences and workflows, custom models for customer records and deals, and deal flow management and reporting (Attio)

• Built outbound prospecting engine with custom shadow domain, domain warm-up, list building, sequences, and A/B testing (Apollo)

• Built reporting dashboard with scorecards (GA4, Google Data Studio)

Scalable GTM Motions

• Developed product-led growth (PLG) with ambassador program with referral codes

• Developed Account-Based Marketing powered by AI tools (Claude) and CRM (Attio)

• Established founder-led growth motion with hand-picked, startup friendly Digital PR agency

Built modern CRM with custom objects, deal flows, nurturing sequences, funnel reports, and integrations.

Results

• Clear market positioning and differentiation, with a new category, Event Success

• Executable GTM strategy, marketing plan, and budget in place

• Knowledge bases powering the website, blog, and content from a single source of truth

• CRM and outbound email platform live, with mirrored domain

• ABM motion running with AI-researched target accounts

• Ambassador program driving leads

Established ambassador program to introduce growth into the customer experience

About Chris McLellan

Chris McLellan is an AI-forward marketing professional with 15+ years' experience helping startups and innovation-led businesses grow. A certified Chartered Marketer, he has delivered 50+ launch campaigns for companies backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Sir Richard Branson.

Chris is a member of the National AI Committee at the Canadian Marketing Association, Founder and volunteer producer at Ask AI, a nonprofit AI focused on AI and the future of work, and co-author and Technical Lead of the Data Collaboration Framework, a Canadian international standard in data ownerships and digital innovation.