Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Specifically, she champions a metrics-based approach for developing world class recruiting teams. Because of her position, Maia has observed recruiting patterns in hundreds of companies, and has developed best practices for startups. Maia reports these five strategic recruiting metrics to the executive team each quarter.

Sales Recruiting 111

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Data Analysis 111

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 150

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 150

OpenView Labs

APRIL 29, 2021

Recruiting top talent is the common denominator across all scaling startups. It’s an extremely competitive market filled with hundreds of “hot startups” calling on all of the same candidates. It’s an extremely competitive market filled with hundreds of “hot startups” calling on all of the same candidates. It’s a lot.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 81

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2023

The best VPs of Sales I’ve hired were Directors of Sales before. And whatever you see as a flag during the interview process, is almost always 10x bigger once they join full-time. No research before interview. “Informational interviews” may make sense at big tech companies. But at startups?

Sales Hiring 282

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 282

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

In this post, we’re featuring our Recruiting Manager, Elizabeth Faddis! Priority projects are focused on enhancing the company’s recruiting strategy, processes, and programs to deliver on current and future talent needs. You recently started your Recruiting Manager role at FastSpring, how are you liking it so far?

Sales Recruiting 88

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Management Technical Review 88

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2022

So did startups. VCs funded startups in a day, with limited diligence, sometimes at 100x revenue for the hottest of deals. And startups … well, they moved pretty darn quickly too. What we used to do, from ‘05-‘19: Do 30 interviews per position, ideally. A related post here: How To Get Better at Recruiting. (We

Sales Hiring 279

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 279

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. We were coming off an environment where startup funding was as fruitful as ever. On the sales side, people hired way too much. More salespeople do not equal more sales.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 274

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development. Is a CRO right for you?

Sales Hiring 259

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 259

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Chuck is the co-founder of Blueprint Expansion , a GTM roles recruiting firm that has helped over 50 VC-backed companies make amazing Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success hires. By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase.

Sales Hiring 103

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing SMB 103

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

So if scaling your sales organization is a priority in 2020, here are the things you need to be aware of to make sure you do so successfully. In my experience both as a salesperson and as a recruiter, it’s primarily been four things: They want the work they’re doing to matter to them. Hiring sales leaders will get harder.

Sales Recruiting 53

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Trends 53

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Mark Roberge, the Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot, has spent 20 years in startups. As he told me a few days ago, he has observed the lack of sales management and sales execution skills as one of the most consistent deficiencies limiting the potential of early stage SaaS companies. The first step is hiring a sales leader.

Sales Hiring 184

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 184

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Your startup is just getting off the ground. You might have a few account executives and a sales leader in place; maybe some revenue and a handful of customers. The sales team costs real money, and the question before the company is: how do you know what quota plan to assign to the account executives?

Compensation 152

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 152

The Angel VC

APRIL 1, 2017

At the excellent SaaStr Annual 2016 conference about a year ago, a very experienced SaaS CEO said on stage that an internal recruiter can be a startup CEO’s secret superpower. I couldn’t agree more, and I think startups should make that hire sooner rather than later. Here’s why. Thanks to Jenny – our very own HR lady! -

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Software Review 168

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Q: What are the top 20 pieces of advice for building a successful SaaS startup? Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. When you go to hire your first sales rep, hire 2. A bit more here.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 303

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 19, 2021

Sales recruiting is broken. The sad truth is that VP of Sales are turning over within 19 months —and that timeline is shrinking. . Not only that, the market has heated way back up and the VP of Sales is one of the most sought after roles. Image from First Round’s State of Startups Report. Therein lies the dilemma.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82

Mucker Capital

APRIL 2, 2024

In this Mucker Growth session, Mike Genstil with ValueCore delves into the concept of value selling and its application in enterprise sales. As a founder, ideally you want your sellers, marketers, and product leaders aligned in transforming product features into value-based messages to accelerate sales cycles and secure corporate deals.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Technical Review Enterprise Cybersecurity 52

Buffer Resources

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

I’ve never created LinkedIn content with the “goal” of lead generation or immediate-term sales. Another cool example I really like is Tito Bohrt — he stands out with the pseudo, “ Sales Mad Scientist ” — which demonstrates confidence and a unique identity online.

Sales Recruiting 125

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 125

Point Nine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

P9 Panel on Hiring Sales Leaders — Founders Summit 2023 “You are going to fire your first sales manager!” — A lesson too many founders learn the hard way. At Point Nine, we aspire to continuously share what we learn with our community and the extended startup ecosystem.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

Sales Hacker

APRIL 21, 2020

When I first wrote this article, we were in a very different place, with unemployment at an all-time low and sales hiring a top priority. You’ll be able to download the interview scorecard template that I use with my clients. Can you ever be sure you’re hiring the right salesperson? Man oh man, how the world has changed so quickly!

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 93

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

Whether you need to hire dozens of sales reps in the next few months or you’re a scrappy startup and need your first three sales hires, building a business will nearly always involve hiring for sales. According to Insightsquared, recruiting should take up to 20% of time for a C-level executive.

Sales Hiring 139

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Enablement 139

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Sales reps were hosting 4-6 calls daily but most of these calls were early demos or top-of-funnel discovery calls Sales was closing really small deals on one end while talking to really large companies with hundreds of thousands of people on the other. As a startup, it’s tempting to try and do everything.

Scale 246

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 246

Sales Hacker

APRIL 18, 2023

Table of contents Joel’s background: 80% interview rate, 0 sales experience Burn your resume! Here’s why Statistics: Video pitches vs. resumes How to make a video pitch Video pitch + follow-up cadence Real success stories Hone your mindset My story: How I landed an 80% interview rate with 0 sales experience It was early 2020.

Sales Recruiting 78

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales 78

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 8, 2020

According to First Round’s 2019 State of Startups report , sales leadership is the most difficult hire to make. Image: State of Startups. And with sales being a top priority for founders…. Image: State of Startups. …hiring a qualified sales leader is getting harder by the day.

Sales Hiring 81

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 81

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 30, 2023

The first goal of sales at a startup isn’t to bring in revenue — it’s to get customer feedback. I’ve spent the last year working to find product-market fit for my startup, Dock. I’ve used our sales process to iterate our way to product market-fit and wanted to share what I’ve learned along the way.

Sales Recruiting 88

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 88

OpenView Labs

MARCH 8, 2021

B2B sales involves one business selling its product to another business. Those with experience in both B2B and B2C sales know that B2B is a lot tougher—the deals are bigger, there’s often more than one decision-maker, and the competition is intense. For all those reasons, hiring and management must be on point.

Sales Hiring 80

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting B2B 80

CloseSaaS

JANUARY 30, 2017

Interviews are like first dates, where the candidate and the interviewer try to pass off the best versions of themselves. Candidates sell you on their immaculate resumes, and some canned responses. You sell them on unlimited coconut water, and a foosball table.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Startup Interviewing Sales 52

Chart Mogul

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

But sales is the one thing founders cannot oversee — without it your startup will die. Startup founders are stretched thinly like silly putty. But the one thing you must think about is sales. Without sales, your startup dies. Yet, sales is all too often a dirty word. Your first sales playbook.

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Startup 93

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

In this episode of the Sales Hacker Podcast, we have Hakim Myers , Business Recruiter at Nextdoor , where he recruits for people, finance, and legal functions for startups. Join us for a revealing conversation on sales and talent from the perspective of a recruiter in an executive search firm.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Retention Scale Sales Hiring 81

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 23, 2024

At a16z’s recent Connect/Fintech event, a16z Partner Alex Immerman sat down for a broad conversation with Immad Akhund , co-founder and CEO of banking startup Mercury , and René Lacerte, founder and CEO of financial services company BILL. Immad: Yeah, I’ve been doing startups a long time, and like fintech is great.

Payments 117

Payments Forecasting Payment Services Payment Solutions 117

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Wiza’s accuracy-obsessed B2B contact database offers 99% coverage of LinkedIn profiles as well as a powerful Chrome extension that enables you to access contact data while browsing LinkedIn profiles and when exporting from Sales Nav. During interviews, it’s easy for disappointment to creep in at this stage. That’s sales.

Sales Recruiting 67

Sales Recruiting AI Search AI B2B 67

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

One of the hardest but least spoken about transitions in a startup’s life is crossing people management chasm. At the outset of the startup, there might be three people, then eight, then fifteen. As they grow, startups often create ad hoc managers I call team leads. Team leads manage 3 to 5 people.

Sales Recruiting 100

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Scale 100

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

It’s an approach that’s served him well along the road to building the HubSpot sales team, where he was CRO for nine years. That experience led to his bestselling book, The Sales Acceleration Formula. Yet in Mark’s experience working with and mentoring startups, he’s found that many entrepreneurs go with intuition over information.

Scale 226

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 226

Kellblog

AUGUST 19, 2022

This is commonly known as a backdoor search, I guess because you’re sneaking out the back door to interview candidates. As someone who’s recruited candiates, been recruited as a candidate, and even once hired via a backdoor search, let me say that I don’t like them. Arguably, the normal order of operations.

Sales Recruiting 85

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring AWS Company Culture 85

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2020

Nothing matters but recruiting and using your personal network. Sam Blond, CSO at Brex explains why recruiting, networking and employee happiness is the key to this playbook on recruiting your sales team. Sam Blond | Chief Sales Officer @ Brex. I’m doing The Playbook To Recruiting Your Sales Team.

Sales Recruiting 138

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team 138

Chart Mogul

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

But sales is the one thing founders cannot oversee — without it your startup will die. Startup founders are stretched thinly like silly putty. But the one thing you must think about is sales. Without sales, your startup dies. Yet, sales is all too often a dirty word. Your first sales playbook.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Startup 52

Sales Hacker

MAY 16, 2019

Nothing really stood out until I stumbled across a “Director of Sales and Client Relations” role with a company called Jammony. Jammony was a little startup (I didn’t know then that it was literally just Matt) focused on making the process of getting a fair mortgage more streamlined and fair. Director of Sales and love what I do.

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 93

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Faced with one of the hottest recruiting markets in recent memory, many newly remote tech companies have dramatically expanded their hiring borders. Salary expectations are skyrocketing and many applicants have four or more offers in hand at the end of an interview cycle. . Right now, many early-stage companies are in a tight spot.

Sales Hiring 68

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Marketing Interviewing 68