talentpluto

After working with dozens of startups hiring sales talent, we've spotted four common mistakes that cost companies their ideal candidates. 1) Moving too slowly. Top candidates typically have offers within days. If you’ve found "the one," don’t wait. Make the offer ASAP. 2) Over-interviewing. If you’ve clearly found a great fit, more interviews won't add value. They'll just waste everyone’s time. 3) Chasing vanity metrics. Perfect resumes or logos rarely predict startup success. Find the grit, not the logo. 4) Not addressing stability directly. Candidates appreciate transparency. What’s your runway? How fast are you actually growing? Tell them clearly what joining you means versus a larger, "safer" option. Avoiding these mistakes means clearer expectations, quicker decisions, and happier candidates.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 Candidates often tell startups they're eager to quickly advance from SDR to AE. It sounds ambitious, but here's the problem. Startups want someone excited to master the role they're hiring for today. They need someone to immediately own the challenge at hand, not just see it as a stepping stone. The secret is this. At a startup, the fastest way up is crushing your current job. Do exceptional work as an SDR and you’ll earn quicker advancement, more ownership, and deeper fulfillment than at any big company. Nail your current role, and your future will unfold naturally.

How a Stealth Startup Hired Their Founding Growth Lead in 48 Hours After closing their seed round, a stealth startup urgently needed their first growth hire fast. Traditional hiring would’ve taken weeks. Instead, they partnered with Talentpluto for immediate alignment. Leveraging deep candidate insights from Talentpluto’s voice-driven matching, the startup confidently skipped unnecessary interview rounds. The result? • 7 ideal candidates matched in under 24 hours • Only 2 short interviews needed • Nafi Osmani accepted an offer within 48 hours and started immediately This is hiring without the wait. No guesswork. No lost candidates.

It's so exciting to see the TalentPluto team provide incredible service and value to startups in NYC. Friends who are hiring for AE's, BDR's, or other sales folks - check them out! Sahil Seth Logan Mimaroglu

Startup sales compensation is something everyone asks about because, honestly, it’s all over the place. Here are real numbers we’re seeing right now for startup SDR and AE roles. These are averages, with tons of outliers, but should help you start thinking through what's best for you. 𝗡𝗬𝗖 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 • SDR: $70K base, $110K OTE • AE: ~$115K base, $200K OTE (top AEs pushing $300K+ OTE) 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 • SDR: $60K base, $100K OTE • AE: ~$100K base, $180K OTE Know your worth. Find the right fit.

We’ve tracked hundreds of startup hiring processes. Here’s how quickly great sales talent disappears if you move slowly: - Top-tier SDR and AE candidates 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝟳-𝟭𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 from first conversation - If your hiring timeline 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝟮 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 your best candidates Speed is now your biggest competitive advantage in hiring. Startups leveraging Talentpluto move 2x as fast because they have deeper candidate insights right from the start. Our voice-driven candidate profiles cut out unnecessary interview rounds, save everyone’s time, and let teams hire in days, not weeks.

Resumes are outdated. talentpluto gives you real sales conversations instead. Here's how hiring salespeople works today: 1) Read resumes 2) Guess who's good 3) Waste hours interviewing weak matches Here's how talentpluto changes that: 1) Hear voice clips of candidates selling 2) Immediately understand their pitch and presence 3) Request interviews with genuinely great fits No guessing. No wasted interviews. Better hires, faster.

Startups: Your first 10 hires set your culture forever. Hiring your earliest sales team defines your company’s trajectory. Get it wrong, and your startup stumbles before it starts. talentpluto partners with VC-backed startups to identify high-potential SDRs and AEs using AI conversation. Forget resumes and hear exactly how candidates sell, pitch, and communicate. High-impact, early hires. Clear culture fits. No guesswork.

Do NOT build a startup without a technical cofounder. I tried twice. Failed both times. Painfully. Everyone says low-code/no-code tools solve this. For 99% of founders, that's nonsense. Realistically, you have two options: - Become technical yourself (hard, takes time) - Find a great technical cofounder (harder, takes trust) I've known my cofounder Logan Mimaroglu for 10+ years. We literally grew up together and even lived together. So when we disagree, arguments escalate exactly like two roommates fighting over dirty dishes left in the sink. Best advice I ever got was to forget your idea. Make friends first. Because if you can't find someone you genuinely love to build with, your startup idea won't matter anyway.

Candidates can pay people $10/day to mass-apply to jobs. True story: A candidate told me he hires someone offshore for $10/day Their job is to apply to jobs non-stop, morning to night. Hundreds of applications every single day. It's a painful snapshot of today's hiring market: applications are now meaningless numbers games. Real people, genuine stories buried in endless noise. Recruiting wasn’t meant to be spam. It was meant to be human. Clearly, something’s broken. What's the fix for the broken hiring process?