General Assembly: building a UK enterprise business from zero
This is Alper Yurder's own career experience, not a Forte Growth client engagement. Before founding Forte Growth, Alper built General Assembly's UK enterprise business from zero and landed Barclays and Deutsche Bank as clients.
The starting point
General Assembly is an education technology company, in Alper's own description of it on the Forte Growth podcast page. In the UK it had no enterprise business. Alper built one from zero.
What enterprise selling looked like
Alper describes enterprise deals of that size running across twenty to thirty stakeholders in different functions. The first reason he gives for losing a winnable deal is losing sight of it: you are left in the dark.
The work was building consensus across the buyer's business, not only winning over one champion. The full conversation, with the transcript, is on the podcast page.
The result
A UK enterprise business built from zero, with Barclays and Deutsche Bank landed.
Why it matters for a B2B company now
It is the reference Forte Growth uses for sales-led companies selling to large buyers, where long cycles and many stakeholders are normal. How Forte Growth handles that today is in why B2B deals take six months. Forte Growth builds and runs go to market and marketing for B2B startups and scale-ups, from strategy to sales; its client results are on the case studies page.
Frequently asked questions
Was General Assembly a Forte Growth client?
No. General Assembly is Alper Yurder's own career experience, before he founded Forte Growth. It is shown because the enterprise sales work there informs how Forte Growth works with sales-led companies.
What did Alper Yurder do at General Assembly?
He built General Assembly's UK enterprise business from zero and landed Barclays and Deutsche Bank.
What makes enterprise deals hard?
In Alper's experience, deals of that size run across twenty to thirty stakeholders in different functions, and the first reason a winnable deal is lost is losing sight of it.