SaaStock speaker
April Dunford
Founder / CEOFounder & CEO, Ambient Strategy
- Appearances
- 6
- Years
- 2019–2024
- Main stage
- 4
- YouTube views
- 8,581
April Dunford, Founder & CEO at Ambient Strategy has made 6 SaaStock appearances between 2019 and 2024, speaking at SaaStock USA 2024, SaaStock Europe 2023, SaaStock Remote 2022, and SaaStock Europe 2019. Talks include "How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford, Ambient Strategy at SaaStock USA 2024", "How to Stand Out in Noisy Markets - Strategic Positioning with April Dunford", "How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford". This page collects every recorded SaaStock keynote, fireside chat, panel, and podcast appearance by April Dunford.
Most-watched talk
How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford
Keynote · SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin · 5.6K YouTube views
Many Canadians who would have thought hello how's everybody doing. It's so great to be here thank you for sticking around to listen to a talk about sales nobody likes sales. But it's good for you how many people here think selling is hard hands up little showy hands y. So Liars. So many people are no I've got. It's easy selling is easy I've got it most of us think selling is hard I come from the product. Side of the house most of the founders that I work with come from the product side of the ho…
About April Dunford
Who is April Dunford?
April Dunford is the founder and CEO of Ambient Strategy, where she works with founders and B2B technology companies on positioning and go-to-market strategy. By her own account on the SaaStock stage, she comes from the product side of the house, and so do most of the founders she works with. That background shapes the way she approaches selling: instead of treating it as a dark art owned by a separate department, she reframes it around how customers actually make decisions. As she put it at SaaStock USA 2024, almost everyone in the room thinks selling is hard, and the rare person who insists it is easy is, generally, lying.
Her central move is to flip the problem. Rather than asking why selling is so difficult, she asks the audience to look at the transaction from the customer's perspective and argues that the real difficulty sits on the other side of the table. In her words from that same talk, buying is hard. That single reframe runs through almost everything she teaches, from how to craft a story that sells to how to build a sales pitch that genuinely changes the game for a product team that would rather talk about features than close deals.
Dunford has appeared at SaaStock repeatedly, evolving the same body of work for different rooms. She spoke at SaaStock Europe 2019 as a positioning consultant and author on why product-market fit does not automatically equal growth, returned for SaaStock Remote 2022 on crafting a story that sells, and delivered her game-changing sales pitch sessions at both SaaStock Europe 2023 and SaaStock USA 2024, alongside talks on strategic positioning to unlock growth in noisy markets. This page collects her recorded SaaStock talks with transcripts.
About Ambient Strategy
Ambient Strategy is April Dunford's consulting practice, built around a deceptively simple idea: most companies that struggle to grow are not failing because their product is weak, but because the market cannot understand what the product is or why it matters. Her work helps founders and B2B teams find the position from which their product looks not just good, but obviously the best choice for a specific kind of buyer.
Much of the practice is aimed at product-led founders who, like Dunford herself, came up through engineering and product rather than sales. In her SaaStock talks she repeatedly addresses that audience directly, acknowledging that they tend to find selling uncomfortable and prefer to let the product speak for itself. Her counter-argument is that buyers are overwhelmed: at SaaStock Remote 2022 she described how a typical purchase begins with a boss telling someone to go figure out what is on the market and come back with a recommendation, leaving that person to panic through a process they have never run before.
From that insight flows the rest of the Ambient Strategy methodology that shows up across her sessions. Standing out in noisy markets is treated as a positioning problem first. A game-changing sales pitch is built by guiding a buyer who has never bought anything like your product before. And growth, as her 2019 SaaStock Europe talk argued, only becomes safe to chase once the underlying assumptions behind repeatable sales have actually been validated. The common thread is making the buyer's hard job easier.
Key lessons from April Dunford's talks
Buying is harder than selling. Dunford's signature reframe is to stop obsessing over why selling feels difficult and instead study the customer's experience. As she told SaaStock USA 2024, buying is hard, and once you accept that, your job shifts from pushing a product to helping a confused buyer reach a confident decision.
Your buyers have never bought something like this before. In her SaaStock Remote 2022 talk, she pointed out that in B2B sales buyers have never bought a solution like yours before, so they arrive without a framework for evaluating you. A pitch that assumes the buyer already understands the category will lose them; a story that teaches them how to choose will win.
Positioning is how you stand out in noisy markets. Across her 2023 and 2024 sessions, Dunford treats differentiation as a positioning decision rather than a messaging tweak. If the market is crowded and loud, the answer is to define the frame of reference in which your product is the clear best option, not to shout louder than competitors.
Product-market fit does not equal growth. From her 2019 SaaStock Europe talk: founders want scalable, repeatable sales, but scaling too soon is dangerous. Before stepping on the gas, you have to validate the fundamental assumptions behind your go-to-market, or you will simply pour fuel on a process that does not yet work.
Company
Ambient Strategy — at a glance
| Company | Ambient Strategy |
|---|---|
| Founder & CEO | April Dunford |
| Focus | Positioning and go-to-market consulting for B2B tech |
| Audience | Founders and product-led startups |
Figures and themes are drawn from April Dunford's SaaStock talks and her publicly stated work on positioning.
Topics covered
What April Dunford speaks about
- Strategic positioning
- Sales pitches
- Standing out in noisy markets
- B2B selling
- Product-market fit
- Scalable repeatable sales
- Buyer psychology
- Storytelling that sells
In their words
Top quotes from April Dunford
“your buyers have never bought a solution like yours before”
— SaaStock Remote 2022
Keynotes
April Dunford keynotes at SaaStock
How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford, Ambient Strategy at SaaStock USA 2024
SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin · Keynote · 726 YouTube views
Founder & CEO, Ambient Strategy (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
Thanks for coming. Today I'm going to teach you something about selling — hopefully you find it useful. Hands up: how many people here think selling is hard? A lot of you. Some people are like, "No, it's easy — I sell all day." Those people are lying, generally. I actually want to turn it around a little bit and think about it from the customer's perspective. I'm going to say something that may be a little controversial: I think buying is hard. Sometimes people look at me like, "No, that's calle…
How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford
SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin · Keynote · 5.6K YouTube views
Founder & CEO, Ambient Strategy (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
Many Canadians who would have thought hello how's everybody doing. It's so great to be here thank you for sticking around to listen to a talk about sales nobody likes sales. But it's good for you how many people here think selling is hard hands up little showy hands y. So Liars. So many people are no I've got. It's easy selling is easy I've got it most of us think selling is hard I come from the product. Side of the house most of the founders that I work with come from the product side of the ho…
How to Craft a Story That Sells, April Dunford founder at Ambient Strategy
SaaStock Remote 2022 · Online · Keynote · 755 YouTube views
Founder, Ambient Strategy (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
Today I'm going to talk to you about how to craft a story that sells. Here's something in B2B sales that is absolutely true and we almost never talk about it: your buyers have never bought a solution like yours before. Think about how a purchase process actually happens. The boss says, "We've got to stop doing CRM on a bunch of spreadsheets. Douglas, get out there, figure out what CRMs are out there, come back with a recommendation. We're going to buy one." What does Douglas do? He panics. He do…
When Product Market Fit does not equal Growth - April Dunford
SaaStock Europe 2019 · Dublin · Keynote · 1.5K YouTube views
Positioning Consultant & Author, Independent (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
I want to talk about product-market fit and how it relates to growth. As startups, we all fundamentally want to grow, so we're all looking for a pathway to scalable, repeatable sales. At the same time, we know that scaling too soon doesn't work — and in fact, sometimes it can be downright dangerous. We have a set of really fundamental assumptions that we need to validate before we can efficiently and effectively step on the gas. So how do we know when to step on the gas? One idea is: we know we…
Other appearances
Other SaaStock appearances by April Dunford
How to Stand Out in Noisy Markets - Strategic Positioning with April Dunford
SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin
Founder & CEO, Ambient Strategy (at the time of the talk)
Using Strategic Posititioning to Unlock Growth in Noisy Markets
SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin · 20m keynote & 5m Q&A
Founder & CEO, Ambient Strategy (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
TBC
All appearances
Every SaaStock appearance by April Dunford
| Year | Conference | Talk | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin | How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford, Ambient Strategy at SaaStock USA 2024 | Keynote |
| 2024 | SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin | How to Stand Out in Noisy Markets - Strategic Positioning with April Dunford | — |
| 2023 | SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin | How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford | Keynote |
| 2023 | SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin | Using Strategic Posititioning to Unlock Growth in Noisy Markets | 20m keynote & 5m Q&A |
| 2022 | SaaStock Remote 2022 · Online | How to Craft a Story That Sells, April Dunford founder at Ambient Strategy | Keynote |
| 2019 | SaaStock Europe 2019 · Dublin | When Product Market Fit does not equal Growth - April Dunford | Keynote |
FAQ
Frequently asked about April Dunford
Who is April Dunford?
April Dunford, Founder & CEO at Ambient Strategy has made 6 SaaStock appearances between 2019 and 2024, speaking at SaaStock USA 2024, SaaStock Europe 2023, SaaStock Remote 2022, and SaaStock Europe 2019. Talks include "How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford, Ambient Strategy at SaaStock USA 2024", "How to Stand Out in Noisy Markets - Strategic Positioning with April Dunford", "How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford". This page collects every recorded SaaStock keynote, fireside chat, panel, and podcast appearance by April Dunford.
How many times has April Dunford spoken at SaaStock?
April Dunford has spoken at SaaStock 6 times between 2019–2024 — including 4 keynotes, 0 fireside chats and panels, and 0 podcast interviews.
What did April Dunford speak about at SaaStock?
"How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford, Ambient Strategy at SaaStock USA 2024" at SaaStock USA 2024; "How to Stand Out in Noisy Markets - Strategic Positioning with April Dunford" at SaaStock USA 2024; "How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford" at SaaStock Europe 2023; "Using Strategic Posititioning to Unlock Growth in Noisy Markets" at SaaStock Europe 2023; "How to Craft a Story That Sells, April Dunford founder at Ambient Strategy" at SaaStock Remote 2022; "When Product Market Fit does not equal Growth - April Dunford" at SaaStock Europe 2019
What is April Dunford's most-watched SaaStock talk?
"How to Build a Game-Changing Sales Pitch with April Dunford" delivered at SaaStock Europe 2023 has 5,614 YouTube views.