How to advance at startups by mastering your role

I've interviewed 100's of first sales hires for start ups. Most founders panic hire when moving from founder led sales - and it shows. They raise cash, feel the heat, and you guessed it; job post for a Head of Sales. But here is my take.... Your first sales hire should come AFTER you've sold plenty yourself. Not before.   Not during fundraising.   Not when investors whisper sweet nothings.  After. Why? Because: - A sales person can't sell what you can't explain. - They can't handle objections you haven't heard. - They can't refine messaging you haven't tested. - And they definitely can't build a process that doesn't exist yet. I've seen startups burn $200k+ on a senior sales hire who flops in 6 months. Why? Because the founder handed them a product, a deck, and said "go sell". No process.   No proven messaging.   No understanding of real objections.  That's not a sales problem. That's a founder problem. Forget the ex-Oracle VP who wants $300k base. Find a hungry hustler with startup experience who wants to build from scratch. Pay them fairly. Give them equity. Teach them everything. Oh, and here's the kicker: Your first sales hire needs to be local or you need to be in their location for a period of time. Not because remote work is bad, but because you need to pass everything to them; the passion, what is working, getting in meetings with them and so on. Agree? Thinking about your first sales hire? Let's chat. No pitch, just experience of 100's of sales hires. #sales #firsthire #startups #growth

Your startup has high churn? I can save you €100K right now: Don’t hire a Head of Growth, Head of Marketing, or Head of Sales yet. It’s simple: these roles exist to accelerate startups that already have a clear product-market fit. They won’t turn a shaky product into a success story. So if you’re not there yet, that’s fine. Reaching PMF is hard. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve hit it if you haven’t. Instead, invest your time in: → Talking to your customers → Understanding their real frustrations → Building a product that solves their problems better than anyone else Product first. Growth later. Hiring a Head of Growth with a bad product is like buying an F1 without tires. It’ll go fast, but you’ll crash into the wall. Fix the leaks first. Then scale.

Spoke with a CRO last week from a very early stage SaaS startup that we're currently supporting who said something that stuck with me: “At this stage, an AE can’t just close deals, they’ve got to do the pre-sales work too.” Nothing new here, we know the role of an AE can look very different depending on the stage of the business. In a more established organisation: ✅ There’s a defined sales process ✅ Pre-sales handles technical deep dives ✅ Marketing feeds you pipeline ✅ CS manages onboarding and adoption But in an early-stage startup? YOU are the process. You’re writing your own sequences, creating your own collateral, scoping technical requirements and often building the messaging as you go. The difference between a successful AE in a scale-up vs a startup often comes down to mindset. One thrives on process. The other thrives on building it. Neither is better, just different skill sets. But for early stage hiring, getting that distinction right is critical. What struck me is that a lot of early stage businesses don’t think this way when hiring. If you’re a startup, you have to make sure you’re bringing in people who can handle the scrappy environment. Someone who sees this as freedom, the chance to create and build processes, rather than someone who feels lost without structure. When interviewing, don’t just qualify for industry knowledge, sales numbers, or product understanding. Ask yourself... can they thrive in your current environment?

As I continue to sell my for own ventures as a Founder, I've developed a deep-rooted philosophy for startups hiring the Founding Account Executive: If you don't already have the sales motion in place, DON'T make that first sales hire. 1. If you have questions about your sales cycle - DON'T DO IT. 2. If you have questions about the steps in the sales process - DON'T DO IT. 3. If you don't have the systems and processes in place that will enable that first sales hire to successfully sell your product - DON'T DO IT. This is not 2010 where you hire an SDR fresh out of college and tell them to "figure it out." We are living in an age where the owness is on the executives to set the motion into play to build up the sales machine first before paying a young professional out of school $60k to tell them to do everything themselves. Those salaries are changing and so is the skillset required for those roles. These new Founding Account Executives are being done a disservice if they're walking into a situation where they have to build something from scratch. At the very least, you have to give them direction. If you're hiring at GTM Engineer, that is a different story and a different process. We can't confuse what an AE is vs a GTM Engineer. And as a side note, I'm seeing this mistake constantly. But for the Founding AE, gone are the days of "go figure it out." Say hello to figuring it out yourself first, the executive, before you invest in someone to plug into your machine.

Most companies take 3-4 weeks to fill a position. We did it in 72 hours. "Startups move fast" - but most people don't really understand what that means in practice. Let me show you what it actually looks like. Here's what happened last week: Thursday 3pm: Decided we needed a BDR Thursday 4pm: Called a recruiter Friday 9am: Received first candidate Friday 2pm: Initial interview Sunday 11am: Final call Sunday 12pm: Offer extended Sunday 1:30pm: Contract signed Sunday 4pm: Email and Slack access granted By Monday morning, he was already in our CRM. Most companies would still be debating whether to hire, what to pay, and how to write the job description. Meanwhile, we’re already generating pipeline. Just. Do. It. The worst case scenario? You made a bad hire that can be quickly undone. (Yes, we've unfortunately let people go days after starting when it wasn't right.) Moving with extreme speed isn't reckless - it's your only competitive advantage when you're small. The difference between great startups and mediocre ones isn't just what they build - it's how quickly they execute on decisions that matter. What's the fastest decision-to-execution you've seen at your company?

Classic early stage scaling trap 👀 *Specializing your sales org too early* You have just gotten to your first few millions in revenue with a few AEs. 💰 It’s tempting to hire a few BDRs to help with pipeline building ✅ I mean, in theory it sounds perfect— BDRs will bring in the meetings, you and the AEs can close it 🙌 In reality— 1️⃣ Hiring any new role requires effort. New process, KPIs, inputs and this is esp true for a successful BDR teams — they need hands on management to get the best output 😅 2️⃣ You can’t outsource your outbound playbook building to someone who hasn’t done it before. It requires thoughtful planning, experimentation and execution across marketing / sales over a long period to get it right! 🤝 3️⃣ It’s not the best customer experience to have multiple touch points this early in a startups evolution. Over time specialization makes sense but early on focus on delighting customers at every step 💙 Instead of this ^^ try to hire more AEs and have them help build the first iteration of your outbound playbook. 🔑 Ofc you may find the unicorn BDR that can do it all with minimal oversight… but typically you are better off sticking to a full stack, generalist model for as long as possible 🚀 Happy building ✌️ #founders #founderledsales #startups #scalingrevenueorgs #bdr #sdr

Founders are the #1 reason their outbound teams fail. I’ve worked with dozens of early-stage startups. Almost all of them made the same mistake before hiring their first SDR. They thought outbound = hire a few reps, start sending emails and cold call. No offer. No system. No strategy. Just vibe outbound. Then two months later they’re complaining. “We’ve sent 10,000 emails, made 2000 calls and haven’t closed a deal.” Outbound didn’t fail. It's not "dead". It's an issue with your entire strategy. If your reps don’t have a proven offer, a working message, or a clear ICP, it’s not their fault when results don’t come. You can't expect your sales team to just figure it out. You can't hire founding AEs or founding SDRs and expect them to be successful if you haven't prepared them for success. Before hiring anyone, founders need to: - Cold call - Cold email - Validate their offer with real data - Close outbound deals Outbound isn’t plug-and-play. It’s trial and error until it works. And if you're not willing to do that, you won't stand a chance.

Startup hiring: Attitude/Fit > Experience Latest onboarding failed... See why to avoid the same mistakes Just brought on a salesperson to help drive sales on a newish startup. Industry experience in niche we are selling to, lots of sales experience, personal friend*... seemed like a good fit. * so less thorough in suitability checks, first error. 1st day: "where's your sales training guide?" Me: It doesn't exist, you are first sales person ever, we will build it as we go. (went down like an oceangate sub) 1st potential customer, had some unexpected difficulties: "we can't think about selling this until every possible issue is sorted" Me: Every issue there is already fixed, every client going forward will get smoother, find the next. "No, will be a headache having 10 like this at once" Me: None will be this difficult again, we learnt from it, and who said 10, just get 1 "No. You need to redesign the whole (fully functional and no critical design issues) app to my preferences before I will sell it" ....................................... Corporate sales is a different beast to startups. Having to figure things out is a different skillset to following provided process down a provided list of hot leads. While a desire for perfection in everything is valuable at times, it is the wrong priority for an early stage tech startup. When hiring for a startup, go for the keen, hungry problem solver rather than the person with the big names on their CV

Every early-stage founder hits the same wall: You’ve got early traction, a working product and a handful of great customers. Then suddenly… sales becomes the bottleneck. You don’t have time to run a full pipeline. You’re not ready for a full-time hire. But you need someone to own sales or momentum stalls. While reading this week’s edition of The Open Letter, I noticed that’s where SaleMate comes in. Born out of the SA startup trenches, they embed fractional sales leadership into growing B2B teams (4–25 ppl). It’s like plugging in a sales brain, one that brings process, consistency, and confidence, without the hiring risk. This is the future for lean teams: modular growth talent that scales with you. It’s a trend we are seeing more and more of in a world dominated by tech and AI. Founders: what role would you fractionalise today if you could?

Your first sales hire shouldn’t be the person you like the most. It should be the person most different from you. In training last month, a founder asked me who to hire as his first salesperson. I asked, “What are you best at?” He said, “I’m a visionary. Big picture, product, story.” I told him, “Then you need your opposite. A disciplined, process-obsessed operator who lives in the details.” He looked confused. “But I want someone I can relate to.” That’s the trap. Most founders hire a mini-me. Same personality, same skills. But you’re not hiring to replicate your strengths. You’re hiring to cover your blind spots. Two visionaries = no deals. A visionary + a disciplined operator = revenue. Stop hiring your clone. Start hiring your complement. #Hiring #Founder #SalesLeadership #Startup #GSD