Startups aren’t short on ambition. They’re short on time. During Intel® Liftoff Days, a focused acceleration week for early-stage AI companies, founders joined a workshop led by Mohamed F. Ahmed (we call him Mo) Senior Director at Intel, to learn how to stretch their speed advantage even further using AI.
“If you do not move fast, you lose everything,” Mo said. “Speed is your only edge.”
The session, AI Hacks for Marketing and Sales, wasn’t a lecture on flashy tools. It was a practical, founder-tested look at how to use AI not just to save time, but to reshape how you approach outreach, fundraising, customer insight, and product development.
Before You Start: Tools Can’t Fix Strategy
Mo started with a warning: AI only helps if you understand the fundamentals of what you're trying to do.
“If you don’t know how B2B sales works, no tool will save you. AI won’t write a good sales email if you don’t understand the stages of a high-ticket sale.”
Each hack in the session paired a proven sales or marketing principle with AI-powered acceleration.
Hack 1: Stop Sending Generic Outreach. Use AI to Get Personal at Scale
Founders know they need to personalize outreach. Most stop at changing the first name or company.
That’s not enough.
Mo described how he used an AI tool called Manus to research 35 target companies. But instead of collecting facts manually, he prompted the AI to dig into each prospect’s:
- Recent activity on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Company news (funding, hiring, launches)
- Public emotional cues—frustration, celebration, wins
- Job focus and current tools
He then asked it to create fully personalized outreach - email, LinkedIn, and phone scripts - for each one, including a suggested number of follow-ups and message timing. The result was kinda astonishing.
“That campaign had 8x the usual response rate. It was faster to build and much more relevant.”
Takeaway:
- Personalized messages matter more than ever.
- Use AI to research, not just write.
- Focus on relevance, not clever lines.
Try: Manus, AutoBound, ChatGPT (with Deep Research), or Clay for prospecting and custom message sequences.
Hack 2: Account-Based Marketing with AI Is No Longer Just for Big Teams
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) means targeting high-value accounts with custom campaigns - once the domain of well-funded marketing teams.
With AI, solo founders can now:
- Identify their top 100 target accounts
- Build dedicated landing pages for each one
- Generate ads, emails, and PDFs tailored to specific job titles
- Automate the full funnel journey
Mo shared how he used AI to generate 15 different content assets for a single prospect, including landing pages and product messaging tied to that company’s public security concerns.
“Founders can now build campaigns that feel like a full team made them in just a few hours.”
Takeaway:
- ABM is doable with the right prompts and automation.
- Use AI to scale your intent, not to copy-paste content.
Try: ChatGPT + Claude for messaging; Manus for research; Wix or WordPress + AI-generated landing pages.
Hack 3: Turn Customer Calls Into Actionable Intelligence
Every customer call is a data goldmine… if you know what to do with it. Startups often collect feedback but don’t organize or review it properly.
Mo outlined a simple system:
- Record and transcribe all customer calls
- Feed transcripts into your AI tool
- Ask for recurring themes, feature requests, emotional spikes, and objections
One of his go-to prompts?
“Give me the top recurring pain points, emotional moments, and decision barriers from the last 10 customer calls.”
He also shared a personal habit: journaling everything he does in a day, then asking AI what he’s missing or repeating too often.
“It helps me see blind spots in how I’m working. Same idea applies to customers.”
Takeaway:
- Don’t just take notes. Turn them into decisions.
- AI is great at spotting patterns you’re too close to see.
Try: Otter, Fireflies, or Notion AI for transcript analysis. Use ChatGPT to extract trends and priorities.
Hack 4: Use AI to Build Smarter Investor Pitches
Fundraising is like sales with higher stakes. Mo explained how AI can give you an edge:
- Research investors by analyzing their social media, public portfolios, and writing style
- Use tools like Signal NFX and Manus to identify themes they care about
- Create multiple versions of your pitch tailored to investor type: data-driven, story-driven, or problem-focused
“You’re not just sending decks. You’re sending signals that you understand what they care about.”
He also showed an example of mapping an investor’s interests over time to find the right moment to reach out.
Takeaway:
- Investors respond better when they feel understood.
- Personalization works here, too—especially when fundraising is competitive.
Try: Signal NFX, Manus, and ChatGPT for pitch deck tailoring and investor analysis.
Hack 5: Validate Product Ideas with AI Personas
Startups chasing product-market fit can use AI not just to test ideas, but to role-play customer feedback.
Mo recommends:
- Creating AI personas based on real and online data
- Using Reddit threads, product reviews, and customer support tickets to feed that persona
- Interviewing the AI as if it were your user
“If you build the persona right, the feedback can be surprisingly useful and fast.”
He emphasized this doesn’t replace actual customer interviews, but it can help you narrow down features, objections, and priorities before you spend time building.
Takeaway:
- Use AI to simulate user conversations and test assumptions quickly.
- Data from forums and competitor reviews can help shape your early personas.
Try: ChatGPT (custom GPTs), Claude, or any LLM agent tool with memory and persona modeling.
What Matters Most: Fundamentals First, Then AI
Mo ended with a reminder: the tools are powerful, but they won’t think for you.
“You need to know how sales works. You need to understand how marketing funnels operate. If you don’t, you’ll build faster but in the wrong direction.”
He urged founders to build systems for learning: from customers, from markets, and from themselves. AI can accelerate that process. But it doesn’t replace it.
And that’s the throughline from both of Mo’s Intel® Liftoff Days sessions.
Speed isn’t just about doing more, faster.
It’s about knowing where to aim and getting there before anyone else.
Want more insights like this for your AI startup? Join Intel® Liftoff and connect with experts, peers, and the support you need to grow faster.
About The Speaker
Mohamed F. Ahmed is a Senior Director of AI Cloud Infrastructure at Intel, where he leads strategic initiatives to advance cloud-based AI solutions. With over 20 years of experience in technology and several successful startups, Mo brings a founder's perspective to enterprise AI development. His expertise spans cloud infrastructure, SaaS transformation, and AI product strategy. Mohamed holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and has led multiple technical organizations through periods of rapid innovation and growth.
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