For the first post of this newsletter, let’s talk about why we’re writing this newsletter in the first place.
Founding GTM is not normal sales.
All traditional sales advice out there (online, on TikTok, in your inbox) is built for sales positions at companies that already have established product-market fit, a sales process, pricing, and mentorship from sales managers.
Throwing any of those people into the same shoes as a 27-year-old who just became the first sales rep at a seed stage company with 4 customers, $1M ARR, and not a dollar to spend on marketing is a completely different game.
Here’s the thing: both career paths are valid. But you have to acknowledge that these are two entirely different arenas.
Being an Enterprise Account Executive at HubSpot is barely the same role as being a Founding BDR at a no-name startup that has 1 year of runway to figure out what the hell they are selling and who they are selling to.
The fortunate part is that our long-lasting golden law of startup sales prevails: the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.
That’s why you’re probably reading this.
It’s obvious that the Enterprise AE at HubSpot gets to deal with a meaty pipeline and cushy logo, and the average founding GTM employee embraces a 50/50 shot of not having their benefits set up when they join the company.
What should also be obvious: whoever can actually figure out how to bring a company from 0 to 1 and bring revenue in the door with no existing playbook will create serious economic value and be rewarded for it.
GTM isn’t normal sales because it’s not just sales in the first place.
To be honest, seeing ‘GTM’ in someone's LinkedIn bio can be a bit annoying, and I've even had my mom ask me “what is this GTM thing everyone is saying they do? Why don’t they just put their real job?”
I get her point. If you’re in sales, just freaking say you’re in sales. Embrace the “sleazy salesman” stigma.
But anyone who has actually been in an early-stage business knows that just isn’t the truth at all with how teams are operating.
GTM team members are doing things that traditional sellers aren't: defining ICP, drafting messaging, setting up workflows, evaluating tools, creating sales processes, determining pricing, implementing product feedback, creating marketing content, running demos solo,and most importantly: trying to make people buy something they have never heard of before.
This is exaggerated - but imagine trying to be one of the first sales hires at Salesforce.
They’re a Fortune 500 company and arguably were the first iconic modern SaaS company in history.
Trying to explain to people that business software would now live on the web while tech giants had been selling physical software to enterprises for decades sounded completely insane, especially coming from some random startup no one had heard of.
But the founders had a vision, and the early hire sales team had the grit to break into the right rooms with a new idea that changed how businesses will function forever.
This newsletter is for all founders and early GTM hires to do exactly that: bring their amazing ideas to market as effectively as possible.
Going from 0 to 1 and launching new products is incredibly challenging and lonely.
In the world of AI and emerging deep tech, where anyone can build anything, distribution is the moat, and founding GTM hires are going to become some of the most valuable people inside the next great companies.
Let’s all win together.