What the research covers
- 339 companies: 19 extended cases and 320 shorter source-backed briefs. A source-backed brief is not equivalent to a deep dive.
- The shorter group includes 96 partial records, shown as evidence briefs.
- 916 distinct linked sources. 197 of the 339 company pages currently cite a single source.
- 600 people entries, with attributed roles and, where documented, contributions.
- Research date: November 10, 2026. Source publication and event dates vary and are shown where available.
Research depth is uneven; each company page states its depth and lists its open questions. How the companies were selected is described in the research method: inclusion reflects the lists the corpus started from; it is not a random sample and is not evidence of commercial success.
The framework and its boundaries
Every company in GTM Unpacked is examined through the framework in Disciplined Entrepreneurship: The Revenue Engine. The cases apply the framework retrospectively; they do not claim the companies followed the book. The company research, classifications, and critical judgments on this site are GTM Unpacked’s application of that framework.
MIT Sloan and Martin Trust Center references establish educational provenance. They do not establish endorsement, authorship, sponsorship, or validation of this corpus.
The rules the research follows
- Facts carry inline numeric citations such as [1] or [1][2]. Each number resolves to the numbered source list of the same company page.
- Analytical, causal, and counterfactual statements start with [Inference]. Company-reported metrics are attributed to the company. [Unverified] and [Speculation] are kept as separate labels where they apply.
- Interviews, first customers, employee training, tool usage, CAC, retention, margins, and conversion metrics are never invented. Missing evidence remains an explicit gap.
- Valuation, bookings, run rate, contracted capacity, GMV, and recognized revenue are kept distinct. A headline dollar figure without a metric definition and period is not turned into verified ARR.
- A waitlist or unpaid pilot is not a paying customer. A job advertisement establishes a desired role, not a completed hire or proven operating process.
- Quotations are short and attributed; the research schema caps quoted words at 25 per source.
- Genuine dated captures are historical evidence. Current screenshots, reconstructed designs, and generated brand images are not substitutes.
What the rules and the checks do not establish
These are rules the research follows, not audited guarantees. The structural checks of the site confirm that every citation number resolves to an entry in the source list of its page. A successful structural check does not verify source accuracy, licensing, external link health, accessibility, or causal conclusions, and a citation that resolves does not by itself prove that the source supports the claim.
Data access and how to cite
The full corpus is available as structured data (research-data.json) and as a company index (company-index.md). A sitemap and llms.txt describe the site; they do not guarantee indexing, ranking or inclusion in any answer engine.
Cite the company page URL and the research date. The author and publisher of record is GTM Unpacked. Where a statement rests on a numbered source, cite that source as well. For example: GTM Unpacked. “Lovable GTM Unpacked. How did Lovable grow?” https://gtmunpacked.com/companies/lovable/. Research date: November 10, 2026.