32 ms·

I find this very relatable. We currently lease space from a startup that is a little bit ahead of us, but our revenue are catching up quickly. My co-founder is

I find this very relatable. We currently lease space from a startup that is a little bit ahead of us, but our revenue are catching up quickly. My co-founder is an aggressive salesman, so much so I have to push hard to keep up product. Which is good, we are moving quickly. But the company we work next to is having trouble with sales. None of the founders have sales experience and then they hired a sales person straight out of college. That kid is an excellent guy, he tries as hard as he can, but he has no idea what he's doing. The number one thing holding this company back is the founders being willing to look outside their bubble and hire an experienced salesman who is going to make them uncomfortable, tell them they are wrong and move their business forward. But at the same time, I know it's hard. We hired a head of Operations totally different than us, but still fit our core values. And she pushes us all the time. And we do the same. And while it's been hard, it's definitely made us better.

ska 10y ago
This is pretty common - many startups have literally nothing compelling to offer many experienced, successful sales person with deep domain knowledge and networks. So you are much more likely to end up with something else, unless you are lucky.
shanemhansen 10y ago
I find this happens quite a bit in any organization that needs to develop competence in an area they aren't already experts at. One of the first companies I worked for was trying to get good at product management. They kept hiring a bunch of smooth talking inexperienced people who crashed and burned spectacularly. They didn't know enough about product management to hire good product management.