4 ms·

> He hesitates when it comes to sales because he does not see himself as a sales person. Having said that I think he could do it and his role would evolve over

> He hesitates when it comes to sales because he does not see himself as a sales person. Having said that I think he could do it and his role would evolve over time away from direct sales into more of a management role. I've made this mistake before. Just because that person is super smart, doesn't mean he/she can pull of what you want from the person. To find out, you MUST try working with the person for a bit. What you need right now as you say is a sales role. Then you need to find a sales guy. You can always bring in your friend later on when you need a "management role". If you really want to try working with him, one way to try this out is to NOT bring him in as co-founder but bring him in as an employee and pay him based on commission. That's how sales people mostly make money anyway. Then after a while if you think he really is someone you are looking for, then you can "downgrade" his salary and propose equity instead.

mseebach 9y ago
> You can always bring in your friend later on when you need a "management role". Also worth keeping in mind that general purpose managers (as opposed to subject matter specialists taking on managerial tasks) is probably at least ~25 hires out. There's simply not enough to manage to sustain a full time position before then.
Blackstone4 9y ago
Agreed - so we are going to start out with him working one day a week plus weekends. That way he can understand the product and start doing some sales calls. We can figure it out from there. I know potential clients or can get introductions where needed through my network. The real work will be in running the sales process + shoe leather. Then managing the company (i.e. legal contracts etc.). Building the product takes up a lot of my time. The alternative is that I bring on a technical person and I do more of the sales.

mseebach 9y ago

> You can always bring in your friend later on when you need a "management role". Also worth keeping in mind that general purpose managers (as opposed to subject matter specialists taking on managerial tasks) is probably at least ~25 hires out. There's simply not enough to manage to sustain a full time position before then.

Blackstone4 9y ago

Agreed - so we are going to start out with him working one day a week plus weekends. That way he can understand the product and start doing some sales calls. We can figure it out from there. I know potential clients or can get introductions where needed through my network. The real work will be in running the sales process + shoe leather. Then managing the company (i.e. legal contracts etc.). Building the product takes up a lot of my time. The alternative is that I bring on a technical person and I do more of the sales.