Join the IT ConsultingGTM Hackathon: go-to-market strategy for IT consulting businesses

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10 editions done. 50+ reviews!

Participants in AceMakers programs have won IT consulting projects with

Nestlé
Lidl
Telekom

Meet Your Judges

Fredy Osterberger
Apple logo

Fredy Osterberger

Ex-Director Marcom, EMEA

Munich

Karl Pinto
Salesforce logo

Karl Pinto

Ex-Senior Account Executive

New York

Emma Yu
LinkedIn logo

Emma Yu

Ex-Director of Product Marketing & Investor

San Francisco

Haseen Selim
GitLab logo

Haseen Selim

GTM Planning & Ops Manager

Toronto

Fabian Essrich
Google logo

Fabian Essrich

Ex-Sales Specialist

Munich

Benjamin Douablin
FullEnrich logo

Benjamin Douablin

Co-founder & CEO

San Francisco

Max Greenwald
Warmly logo

Max Greenwald

Co-founder & CEO

San Francisco

Dani Hao
Apollo logo

Dani Hao

Senior Manager C&C Marketing

San Francisco

Alexander Erin
Linked Helper logo

Alexander Erin

Founder & CEO

Dubai

Emmie Chang
Y Combinator logo

Emmie Chang

Investor & 3x Founder

San Francisco

Matteo Bulgarelli
TikTok logo

Matteo Bulgarelli

Head of Performance, EEMEA

Dubai

Steffen Obert
PwC logo

Steffen Obert

GTM Advisor

Munich

Victoria Yang
Clay logo

Victoria Yang

GTM Engineering

New York

How it works

  1. Apply and join as one of 5 IT consultants
  2. Over 5 weeks, get world-class training on 5 GTM pillars for IT consultants
  3. Each week, build 1 of the 5 pillars
  4. Each week, get expert feedback and a score from the judges on what you've built
  5. 1 team wins prizes. All teams win a working GTM strategy.

Week 1 to 5

5 Weekly Sprints

to launch your GTM strategy

1

Market Positioning & Offer

2

Lead Generation & Collateral

3

Sales

4

RevOps Systems

5

Customer Success

Week by week

What happens each week

Week 1

Positioning & Offer Strategy

Figure out your ideal client profile by mastering frameworks that help you answer questions like whether you should focus on a specific technology, region or niche. Learn a B2B IT consulting specific approach like mapping out different buyer personas who can push you in front of decision makers, finding your place in the B2B value chain, and setting up a system to get market feedback calls with your ICP.

Week 2

Lead Generation & Collateral

Get clarity on which funnels make the most sense for you and draw a buyer journey map. Follow step-by-step instructions to build those funnels, whether it's LinkedIn, email, webinars, roundtables, or channel partnerships, as well as create supporting collateral materials like your website, case studies or reviews. Start scheduling your first client calls and set up systems to ramp it up to around 30 calls a month.

Week 3

Sales

Map out your sales call flow, prepare scripts for each step, build conversion assets like audits, and craft an irresistible offer. Set up a system to send agreements. Record and analyze your calls and master a consultative approach to selling IT services.

Week 4

RevOps

Set up tracking and define your financial goals so you understand your KPIs like how much you need to charge per client or how long they need to stick around. Reverse engineer how many calls you need to book each month, what percentage you need to close, then you'll break it down into sales KPIs, set benchmarks, and figure out the exact action steps you need to take in each part of the funnel, like how many messages you need to send per day.

Week 5

Customer Success

Increase the lifetime value of each client through renewals using tools like stickiness, chokeholds, enablement, and happiness metrics. Build account expansion systems, which are boosting the value of each client by, for example, upsells, cross-sells, or methods like account penetration. Build brand ambassadorship and referral systems, so happy clients recommend even more happy clients creating a positive feedback loop.

How is each week structured

​

Mondays

Video Instructions

Step-by-step video instructions, tracking sheets and templates so you know exactly what to build that week and how to do it.

1 hourself-paced
Tuesdays

Coach-led Collaboration

Live Zoom call led by Matt to intro the core topic of the week and answer questions. Breakout rooms to spar ideas with the group of around 5 participants.

1 hourUS mornings / EU afternoons
Wednesdays

Experts, Peers & Deep Focus

  1. 1. 3 extra open office hours with a topic expert
  2. 2. Idea Gym: peer review and sparring with other participants
  3. 3. Deep focus implementation
4 hoursself-paced
Thursdays

Judge Feedback

Judges join live Zoom calls. Participants present, earn points, and get feedback on what to improve.

1 hourUS mornings / EU afternoons
Fridays

Implement

Put everything you've learned into action based on the judges' feedback.

4 hoursself-paced

Week 6 to month 6

What happens after 5 weeks

  1. 5 months of office hoursOpen office hours calls and all the materials, to keep iterating on your strategy.
  2. Alumni networkEvery past participant, exchanging IT consulting projects and helping each other.
  3. Result guaranteeWe work with you until you get ROI. See the details

Who is this for?

Who is this not for?

  • B2C companies

    Everything here is built for selling B2B: to companies, their buyers and their decision makers.

  • Companies outside Europe and the US

    The playbooks focus mostly on the European and US markets.

  • Firms with more than 20 FTEs

    It is built for IT consulting firms of 1 to 20 people, where at least one of the founders is engaged in the process.

  • B2B companies outside IT consulting or tech

    The examples, frameworks and judges all come from IT consulting and tech.

10 editions done. 50+ reviews!

Shreeya Shevade

Shreeya Shevade

The Ace Makers Hackathon was incredibly value-packed. Within just 5 weeks, we not only closed a client but also built strong, healthy processes. Highly recommended!

O

Ola Piętka

As a solo founder just starting out, I honestly wasn't expecting much. But in just 5 weeks I learned so much! It even helped me land my first client! Highly recommend, totally worth it.

M

Mihai Gheorghe

AceMakers GTM Hackathon helped us structure our go-to-market properly - ICP, sales process, customer success, all of it. Practical feedback, real deliverables we're actually using now. Highly recommend for any early-stage B2B founder.

Y

Yurii Servatko

Great experience overall - a very well organized and highly practical GTM hackathon. We came in without a clear positioning or ICP and left with a clear direction for our GTM, outreach, and how to actually execute going forward. Highly recommend.

Simone Giovo

Simone Giovo

Qubic

Founder

This hackathon has been a real game-changer for us, such incredible value! We joined without a clear lead acquisition pipeline and left with a concrete, actionable plan that's already delivering results. The process helped us clarify our strategy and sharpen our execution.

J

Jiří

Red Teamers Academy

The GTM Hackathon was a highly valuable experience for our company, Red Teamers Academy. The programme was well structured, with thoughtfully designed content and a clear, practical approach throughout.

S

Sándor Nagy

I participated in their GTM Hackathon and the 5 weeks were pretty intense in the good way, I managed to create collaterals I am proud of as a solo founder. Now I have a structured strategy to take on my greatest challenge in life so far, to build my boutique consultancy.

V

Vladimir Cvijanović

If you are an IT consultant or founder looking to stop "fiddling" with your services and start actually scaling, this is the experience you need. I walked away with a wealth of new knowledge. The hands-on nature of the event allowed me to pick up skills that would have taken months to learn otherwise.

A

Ana

I'm seriously blown away by this hackathon! I joined thinking I'd just get a few useful opinions, but I ended up with a clear, scalable process for growing my business.

Petro Fomin

Petro Fomin

Our team participated in the Hackathon. It was a bit of a grind at first, but honestly so worth it. We started seeing the shift midway through the process, and now that we've finished the course, we've taken a giant leap forward from where we started.

M

Mariselle Gonzalez

This was exactly what I needed to move the needle on my startup! I will be honest, you need to SPEND the time and DO THE WORK. It is a lot, all at once, but totally worth it! I learned so much from this process and the other participants in the Hackathon. Thank you Matt for sticking with me as I made up my mind to join.

Julien Fiamma Baret

Julien Fiamma Baret

Elephantis

Founder

France

The Hackathon experience from Ace Makers was a great way to REALLY launch our Go-To-Market activities. It offers immediately usable content and sets the right pace to help you get going.

Cristian Curteanu

Cristian Curteanu

If you struggle to organize your GTM strategy, at AceMakers GTM Hackathon you will learn all the tools and techniques for tailoring a strategy that will work best for your business, along with a support for challenges you might face. That is how it worked for me!

M

Marius Milu

Very good organization, helped us get more clarity and close more deals.

Criostóir O'Codlatáin Lachtna

Criostóir O'Codlatáin Lachtna

The Acemakers Hackathon was great for setting up systems for customer acquisition in a really short time frame!

Z

Zoltán André

Arrived with scattered knowledge about GTM and they organized and gave me a good overview about the whole process. If you start out your first business I can recommend them greatly.

Máté Torok

Máté Torok

Naunet

Co-founder

Hungary

It is a great opportunity to work with AceMakers, it allowed for so many things to click into place in terms of market approach for me.

M

Maurice Rothe

Great company to give you a head start into your GTM strategy. Good insights and you get to be in a group of likeminded people, which was quite helpful for me personally.

D

Daniel Pietschmann

Thanks for the amazing hackathon! Really was a great experience, and really moved the needle for me!

M

Michal Sestak

Slovakia

Can strongly recommend to anyone looking to take their business to the next level. The whole team is dedicated to what they do and I always felt supported and on the right track, able to make fast progress. Thanks!

A

Alina Powała

This hackathon was amazing! I learnt so much, it was great value for money. Highly recommend.

S

Sander Brienen

Working with AceMakers really helped us get to the core of our proposition and build a decent process on lead generation, closing and follow up. AceMakers is efficient and professional. They provide high quality templates that help you get started right away. Just expect an intense period with a lot of additional work.

P

Peter Korenčan

Good course, however quite demanding.

How it all started

From Stanford auditoriums to Fortune 500 companies

Matt presenting the GTM Framework at Stanford Founders
  1. It started with consulting

    As AceMakers we led over 250 go-to-market projects in IT consulting and tech, including for Apple's former head of marketing for EMEA.

  2. Around the same time, hackathons

    We were hosting hackathons at Stanford University and with companies like Lovable, sponsored and supported by a16z. Over 2,000 participants took part, but none of it was focused on IT consultants.

  3. So we put the two together

    Working with IT consultants on one side, hosting hackathons on the other: we merged them into go-to-market hackathons. That is how the GTM Hackathon for IT consultants emerged.

  4. 10 hackathons later, and counting

    Up until now we have hosted more than 10 go-to-market hackathons for IT consultants, and every cohort shapes the next one.

The People Behind It

Meet Your GTM Coaches

Matt Laker

Matt Laker

San Francisco, USA

Positioning & Sales

Matt excels in GTM strategies for IT consulting companies. As Director of GTM Strategy, GTM Consulting, and Co-Founder at AceMakers, he led business development efforts for over 250 companies by defining high-value ICPs, mapping buyer journeys, and building lead generation campaigns.

Elena Wall

Elena Wall

Hannover, Germany

Marketing Collateral

Specialized in marketing collateral that you need to build your funnel - everything from slides, presentation, website - Elena will help you structure that the way that people will want to talk to you!

Eryk Rogulski

Eryk Rogulski

Warsaw, Poland

Lead Generation & RevOps

As a LinkedIn Lead Generation Specialist, Eryk Rogulski's work involves scheduling hundreds of calls with qualified leads, ensuring a consistent flow of opportunities for the sales team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GTM Hackathon?

A “GTM hackathon” combines the “Go-To-Market” (GTM) strategy, which focuses on how to launch and sell a product or service to the market, with a “hackathon,” a collaborative, time-bound event where teams build prototypes or solutions to specific problems. The GTM Hackathon for IT consultants is a high-energy, fast-paced sprint where founders and teams of service-based tech companies come together to build and pressure-test their entire go-to-market strategy - from positioning and ICP to outreach scripts and sales systems, with expert guidance, peer feedback, and real-time implementation. Think of it as startup bootcamp meets sales war room, where instead of coding apps, you’re building revenue engines, finding your niche and validating your service offering.

What is go-to-market (GTM)?

It’s the strategy that business uses to sell a product or service to customers. It’s just the “how do we get people to buy this thing?” plan and execution. Imagine you’ve got an awesome IT service to sell but now you need to figure out: • Who to sell it to • How to reach them • What to say to make them buy

Who is this not for?

If you can’t seriously commit the time.

How much time do I need to commit weekly?

Plan for 12 hours per week during the first 5-weeks of the Hackathon sprint: - 4 hours for learning and - 8 hours for building That’s enough to make real progress without taking over your life! Full breakdown: •Mondays: 1 hour to review video instructions •Tuesdays: 1 hour for a coach-led weekly collaboration call •Wednesdays: 4-hour deep-focus building time block + 1 hour idea sparring meeting with another Hackathon participant •Thursdays: 1 hour for a weekly meeting with the Hackathon judges for presentations & feedback •Fridays or one of the weekend days: 4-hour deep-focus building time block After 5-week sprint, plan for 5 hours per week (excluding operations) to optimize until the end of month 6: •1 hour for the weekly collaboration meeting with the Hackathon community & coaches •4-hour deep-focus building time block on any day the week

Is Hackathon just theory and plan or practice?

In the Hackathon, we're working on your positioning, lead gen, and sales strategy - and actually structuring it all together. Best part? We're not just making a plan. You're bringing your real service, and during the Hackathon, you'll be implementing it, getting feedback, optimizing, and pivoting until it actually works in practice.

How much does it cost to participate?

You can find the most up-to-date pricing for the Hackathon Pass in the Participant Agreement. Don’t forget to ask our team about early bird specials! Here is why this hackathon cost money: Reason 1: Most hackathons are really just promo tools - they’re designed to get people using one specific product (usually a SaaS), and the organizers make money from those subscriptions. We chose a different path. Instead, we only show the tools we actually use ourselves or help participants work with whatever tools are best for them - no bias, just what works. Reason 2: It helps us pay fair, livable salaries to our hardworking enablement team - so they can focus full-time on supporting you every step of the way. This hackathon includes over 30 hours of live Zoom training led by a professional GTM enablement team who doesn’t treat it as a side project. Reason 3: Although the Hackathon pass is relatively inexpensive compared to our 1-on-1 consulting (a 6-month pass costs about the same as just one month of private consulting), we’ve found that putting a price tag on the Hackathon is the best way to attract people who are truly committed and ready to take GTM seriously. The network and collaboration are some of the most valuable parts of the experience. This keeps the energy high and the engagement strong - which means a way better experience for you! Reason 4: It allows us to reinvest profits into ongoing research, so by joining the hackathon, you’re getting access to the bleeding edge of what actually works in GTM today as well as access to world’s best GTM leaders.

Can I see user agreement before applying?

Absolutely! Click here to open it.

What if I can’t make it for this opening?

We don’t have a set date for the next opening. So if this resonates with you and you’re feeling that little “this is for me” spark… don’t wait. Apply now. Worst case? We chat and figure out what makes the most sense together. Best case? You don’t miss out.

What if I can’t make the weekly live call?

No problem. All calls are recorded and uploaded within 24 hours. You can catch up anytime, and you’ll still get support inside the community between sessions.

I watch a lot of free content about it, for example YouTube videos. What’s the difference between those and the AceMakers GTM Hackathon?

It’s more structured, sequential step-by-step program. We’ve distilled only the things that you need - it’s actually about curating materials and giving you less but straight forward things to implement, rather than overloading you with content. Besides, there is more accountability because we’re meeting every week during a cohort and beyond so people actually take action. There are live calls so we’re solving all the problems and you don’t get stuck. It’s more fun, because you’re doing it with others and most importantly… it’s a challenge where you compete with other to launch your GTM strategy and succeed! That commitment is the point. Investors like NFX keep pointing founders to programs like this one because an outside deadline and a group that sees your progress keep you accountable. You also get the reason to tell friends, family and clients: I have committed to this, I have to build it.

Ready for a Challenge?

We'll see if this Hackathon is right for you.