Bain Capital Ventures’ Post

Six(ish) months ago, sitting in a coffee shop, Zach and I had a conversation about working together. The conversation revolved around startups, and founders and sales challenges. Why scaling businesses was hard, and how so many folks didn't have what they needed to be successful. It was out of that conversation that Revenue Rocket was born. It was birthed out of this notion that Sales Doesn't Have to Suck... but for most people it does. We wanted to bring together a group of elite sales leaders, operators and executers to attack some of the hardest sales challenges... lead gen, GTM, closing, sales operations (etc). Well, fast forward 6 months and we just brought on another UNBELIEVABLE asset, Alex Newman, to build this thing with us. He has been driving immense value for his clients for 10+ years solving alot of the same challenges that RevRocket is solving. We couldn't be more excited to have him... not just because he is one of the best sales minds out there... but because he loves people and wants to see people succeed in business (and in life). Please join us in welcoming Alex as a founding member of the 🚀

Last week, I met with 30 of the top Partnership leaders. Their partner programs generate over $150M in ARR. This was their #1 most common challenge: “Do more with less.” Now, this is nothing new for partnership leaders. We are the OG’s of doing more with less. We’ve had to operate this way even through the peak ZIRP froth where every SaaS startup had more money than they knew what to do with. But now the more is MORE and the less is LESS. To not only survive, but to thrive, in this environment partnership leaders need to become experts of operations and data. We need to start creating processes. We need to start measuring everything. Process allows us to operationalize our programs for scalability. Measurement gathers data on our processes, our partnerships, and our outcomes to surface what’s working and what’s not. This is the only way to create lean and mean partner programs. There’s no magic bullet. Either we build the foundation to scale, or we *hope* for good luck. I know it’s not the most fun part of the job, but it’s critical. It’s the only way we exit GTM purgatory and get the resources we deserve.

In the last year I’ve spoken to 100’s of partnerships teams. From Series A startups to $100B market cap enterprises. Want to know the #1 problem they ALL faced? Bad publicity. Here’s what I mean (and how to fix it): Partnerships has a perception problem. At best, C-suites and boards “don’t get it”. At worst, they think it's a waste of time. And you know what? I don’t totally blame them. They’ve come to expect a level of predictability from their GTM channels. And partnerships teams are NOTORIOUSLY bad at demonstrating impact. And you know what? I don’t totally blame them either. The average partnerships team is doing 20 jobs on a weekly basis. Effectively tracking, reporting, and forecasting on all of them is incredibly difficult. Balancing that with core revenue generating activities is virtually impossible. And forget about trying to keep executives updated. Something always gives. That’s why we built EULER. It's not just a PRM or Portal. We make it easy to track, analyze, and communicate the impact of Partnerships in real-time. We do the heavy lifting so partner teams can focus on revenue. Why? Because without validating impact… We'll never get a seat at the table. P.S. If you want to get on our waitlist, DM me.

Doing sales in a startup is hard—full of obstacles, trial and error, learning through failing, sometimes winning. Closing Q3 I want to recognize the impact my colleagues have made with their determined, improvement-focused attitude and teamwork.   Like many startups, Teamspective has had its share of uphill battles (and more to come). Competing against established brands while still refining our positioning and sales pitch, and building better product and trusted brand. Every deal, won or lost, has taught us something valuable that we’ve used to grow and improve for the future opportunities.   All that effort has led to results worth celebrating. Here some key achievements in Q3:   🏆 First publicly listed customer in the US - an important step in a European company's journey.   🏆 2nd highest quarterly sales in company history - great validation that many things are working.   🏆 Record amount of new pipeline generated - we're able to build predictable future success with in-house resources. This was not the case one year ago.   🏆 Largest Performance solutions customer to date - our platform can improve 360 feedback and performance management in enterprise scale companies. This was not the case one year ago.   🏆 Largest Collaboration analytics customer - our solutions can efficiently produce insights even for complex organizations with thousands of employees. This was not the case one year ago.   To me these achievements demonstrate the dedication and hard work of our sales and product teams. A big thank you to Ilona, Reko, Jukka and Jaakko for your relentless drive to improve, to all companies provided us with the essential learnings, and to our entire product team for building a platform that delivers great value to our customers. 🙌   Now, back to work to keep learning and improving! 🚀   #StartupLife #SalesSuccess #Teamwork #CustomerSuccess #Persistence #Growth

We've been growing a LOT recently... Team members Partners Conversations Prospects And, growing is tons of fun... And busy... And stressful. But, ultimately, growing well is the #1 way to win, and while that's an easy thing to say and know - it's a totally different beast to do well. If an early-stage company fails, it'll fail in the growth stage. When your meetings pick up, and you have less time to focus on the product. When your prospects are asking for new product features/integrations, and you have to prioritize. When you take on more/less early-sales calls and focus more/less on following up well. (Want to know why this is important? Talk to 🦄 Matt Farina 🦄.) This is where most early-stage orgs + founders fail. So, if you want to know how to grow well - hit us up. (Link in comments)

Early-stage founders often contend with limited time and access to talent, necessitating strategic resource management. Startups should prioritize building a robust foundation with available talent, gradually scaling up as the business expands. Emphasizing achievable milestones over traditional revenue targets and fostering alignment within the team are pivotal for long-term success amid resource constraints. Thanks Sam Jacobs for these invaluable insights!

A third into the year, founders still embrace "do more with less." An outcome of this? Series A and B founders with 10-12 direct reports. Back in 2021/2022 (the good ol' days of ZIRP), this would never have happened. A Series A raise meant you were quickly building out your entire executive bench. A Series B raise and you're staffing up C-level for hypergrowth. Here are some real examples of what the world looks like now: - A CEO with 10+ engineers still reporting to them, while also running a $10M+ revenue co - A CEO with no VP of Sales, no VP Marketing heading into Series B fundraise - A Series B CEO with international and US-based sales teams (12+ reps) still rolling up to them So what's going on here? First: we're seeing some CEOs in the unfortunate position of hiring execs that didn't work out, and taking more time going back to the drawing board. Instead of moving quickly they're doing a deep retro, working through the issues themselves, and then going back to the hiring process when they feel ready. Second: traditional benchmarks for Series A, B, and C rounds from 2022 are no longer applicable. Broadly we're seeing teams just do more with less. - Seed stage companies are growing past $2M ARR before fundraising their A. - Founders are hiring a senior sales IC instead of a VP sales. - And on the product front, that traditional VP Product is instead replaced with an up-and-comer product lead. Here's the advice I end up giving: At a certain point, too many direct reports harms executive function and decision-making and distracts from the big wins the CEO is responsible for getting each year. Yes -- finding the right leader to take over a team is hard. You're digging deep for people who can roll up their sleeves, still operate as executives, aren't jaded about the early stage buildout, and can bring a deep well of energy to getting it done. But these people exist -- as hard as they can be to find -- and a bench of the right leaders is still the solution to CEO leverage. It's just that everyone is looking for a very different flavor now. In a typical search, it's not uncommon now for us to have 50+ conversations on the market (if not way more) in order to filter for a unique combination of talents and DNA. You'll then need to combine this with stellar interview process design and top-grading exercises to ensure you're assessing for the right talent. It's not easy, but the end result of a single right hire is massive pressure relief.

Many early-stage founders set their executive team up to fail. There are 3 main reasons why: 1. Hiring too senior too early You don’t need a CRO if you have two sales people. You must understand that hiring a senior executive is investing in a function, not hiring an outstanding individual contributor. If you’re early stage and don’t have a ton of customers, the first thing you need is to make sales yourself. Then you need to add some additional folks. Then you can hire a Head of or VP. But hiring too senior too early mismatches the stage of growth the company faces. Senior people need more resources and firepower. If you expect them to pull their own reports out of the CRM or close some deals on their own you might get blank stares. Size your hiring to your stage of growth. 2. Building revenue targets with no revenue A revenue plan implies predictability. Predictability implies you have enough data and data implies you’ve been doing something long enough to measure it and find some patterns. None of that is true at the early stages and trying to adhere to a revenue model before you understand how your customers will actually behave, whether they will renew, or what they might need from the product. Instead, focus on key milestones. Those milestones will likely center around signups, usage, engagement, NPS, and momentum around pipeline. Past $1M in ARR you can think more clearly about predictable growth but until that point you’re building the muscles that lead to growth. 3. Lack of alignment As the CEO, it’s your job to make sure everyone is pointed in the right direction. Some of my biggest mistakes have come from assuming people are moving in the same direction and then realizing that we weren’t. That different people had different definitions of the same words. That we thought we were agreeing in the meeting but we weren’t pushing to the “last mile” to understand whether we truly agreed. This type of “ruinous empathy”, as Kim Scott calls it, where people smile and seem to agree in person but aren’t because they’re not being direct is toxic and it sets the team up for failure. It’s your job to learn how to guide the conversation and keep going until you’ve confirmed that everybody understands which way they’re going. What other ways do early-stage founders get it wrong or right? Share your take in the comments. Let's all get better together.

These days, everyone seems to be looking for a success formula. You can even see it at mid-size, VC-backed B2B companies. It's all about the rush of monthly growth rates, meeting the quarterly quotas, and driving more activity and movement across the company to make it seem like things are going great. We're not able to drive consistent, high-quality revenue, so we push marketing to run up another lead gen form campaign, stack MQLs, and call it a day. Then sales reps close at 15% after 2 months of aggressive follow-ups and boom! we hit quotas. But what about long-term enterprise value? Well, on that note, 3,200 private US startups that collectively raised $27.2bn from VC have gone out of business this year, according to PitchBook and The New York Times. The wheel needs to change directions. And change in companies' strategies starts with changes in individuals' mindsets. IMHO, this means both executives and managers need to start planning, executing, and reassessing the long-term impact strategies will have in their companies. Hard to do when the average tenure of CMOs is hardly ever higher than 2 years, I know. But maybe that widespread, quotas-first thinking has always been what pushed marketing professionals' tenure to be lower – just saying. Would love to discuss this further in the comments though, so let me know what you think! #b2bgrowth #vc #vcfunding #startupculture #revops ------------------------------------------- P.S. I post daily about how to profitably advertise on LinkedIn in a way that aligns with modern B2B best practices and helps generate high-quality demand. Hit the button in the top right to follow along. DMs are open.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿-𝗟𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝗕𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺. As many startup founders would concur, one of the most defining transitions in a company's journey is moving from founder-led sales to establishing a go-to-market team. While this pivotal shift might appear straightforward, it's fraught with unseen challenges that can make or break the scaling process. Founder-led sales often thrive on personal connections and the charismatic pitch of the founder. However, as startups grow, this model becomes unsustainable. The creation of a GTM team requires not just hiring talent but also codifying the founder’s sales approach into a scalable and repeatable process. This transition involves understanding your market fit deeply, building a comprehensive sales strategy, and ensuring your team is equipped with the right tools and knowledge. It's about creating an ecosystem where sales are not just about individual charm but about collective effort and strategy. Moreover, this transition period can be a true test of a founder’s ability to delegate and trust their team. It demands a shift from being at the forefront of every sale to empowering others to take the lead. The challenge lies not only in building a functional team but in nurturing a culture that values learning from rejections as much as celebrating wins. In conclusion, transitioning from founder-led sales to an effective GTM team is more than just hiring for sales roles; it's about strategically crafting roles, processes, and culture that aligns with long-term business objectives. It’s an investment in your company’s future, ensuring scalability and sustainability beyond the initial hype and personal networks. For those embarking on this journey, remember - patience, perseverance, and planning are your best allies. ... Understanding these intricacies can significantly impact how early-stage SaaS startups scale their operations. As someone who helps the founders establish PMF and build their sales engines efficiently, I've seen firsthand how vital this transition is for sustainable growth.