Startup to Scaleup

After founding several startups, 200+ employees & my last exit, I am now helping B2B startups achieve their sales potential. Sales is a science. Just like you engineer your product into existence, you need to build a sales & marketing machine to help people see how your product changes their lives for the better. I know first-hand how frustrating it is when you have "the best idea in the world”, develop a new product, that nobody at the end really cares about & soon you run out of money. This is from my own experience, let’s say more than once. My mistake 1: My assumption that great products sell themselves. My mistake 2: Hiring a senior salesperson from a big company, with a track record of selling millions of dollars worth of products, every year. I guess my second mistake needs a bit more explanation. Imagine this. You decide to hire a sales rep. She’s senior & used to earning $125k basic & $125k bonus. Because you’re a startup she cuts you a deal, to work for only $100k basic in exchange for some equity, without a guaranteed draw. And because it’s a nascent market, an evangelical sale & you have very little sales today, the lead times to sell are longer than she’s used to, not to mention the pivoting & not fully mature product. Also, you don't have a sales team or marketing budget. So 3–6 months in she's complaining, she’s not going to hit her numbers & earn the expected commission. But at least you gave her a base so she’ll gladly bank that as she looks for her next job. I realize that the secret of startup growth is NOT in hiring a great salesperson, or a rainmaker who can magically sell more. But to build a sales system, so that anybody (almost) can sell more. That's how it becomes much easier to scale. I help founders build their sales machine & reach predictable revenue (i.e. predictable growth) in weeks, rather than months (or even years) of trial & error. Wanna know more? Email me at: ✉ maddy@startuptoscaleupnow.com