Pre-Interview

Hiring your first US salesperson from overseas is one of the hardest recruiting challenges a startup can face. No brand recognition, time zone gaps, a high trust bar, and a market you may not know well. Here is how to do it right.

Most founders run interviews the same way they ran them at their last job — or make it up as they go. The result is a process that's slow, inconsistent, and tells you almost nothing useful. Here's how to build one that evaluates fast, stays consistent across candidates, and doesn't lose great people to a slower competitor.

Sales compensation in 2026 is about alignment. The best teams tie pay directly to outcomes, keep plans simple, and benchmark against real market data. From SDRs to CROs, structure, quota, and variable pay all need to reflect role expectations, sales cycles, and revenue responsibility. Get it right, and performance follows.

Good reps land in bad startups. It happens more than anyone admits — and the way you handle it in your next interview matters more than the fact that it happened. Here's exactly how to own it, reframe it, and get back to your track record fast.

Everyone wants the breakout SaaS story. Most AEs never get close — and it's usually not a talent problem. It's an alignment problem. Here's what elite startup teams are actually screening for, and how to reposition yourself to make yes easy.

A $300K OTE feels like a lottery win — until the conditions underneath it don't hold. Before you sign, here's how to look past the number and evaluate what actually determines whether you'll hit it.

Losing a top rep at Seed or Series A isn't just inconvenient — it can set your GTM motion back by months. Here's what actually keeps great sellers around, and it's not what most founders focus on.

You can close deals. The hard part is building a team that can close them too. Here's how to extract what's in your head, build just enough process, and turn founder-led selling into a motion your reps can actually run.

Slow hiring isn't usually a process problem. It's a positioning problem. If the candidates you want aren't excited about your startup, no amount of process fixes that. Here's what's actually driving decisions for top GTM talent today.

Your first few sales hires aren't just filling seats — they're testing whether your motion works. Here's how to scope each of the first three hires correctly, and the red flags that signal you're about to make a costly mistake.

Hiring a CRO right after your Seed or Series A closes feels like the right move. Usually it isn't. Here's what early-stage companies actually need at each stage — and when the CRO conversation becomes relevant.

A Founding AE isn't a typical closer — they're a builder who sells and a seller who documents. Here's a ready-to-use job description template, plus the context you need to know when to hire this role and what to look for.

Getting the AE profile wrong is one of the most expensive early-stage hiring mistakes. Here's how to match your candidate profile to your actual sales motion, stage, and buyer — before you start recruiting.

Most startup sales JDs read like copy-pastes from big tech — vague, bloated, and easy to ignore. Here's a six-element framework for writing one that hooks the right candidates and filters out the wrong ones.

Hiring too soon wastes budget. Hiring the wrong role stalls growth. Here's a practical framework for deciding whether your next GTM hire should be an AE, SDR, or CSM — based on where you actually are.

Using multiple recruiting firms sounds like it'll get you more candidates faster. Usually it doesn't. Here's what actually happens — and when the multi-firm approach genuinely makes sense.

Should you use a recruiting firm, bring in an embedded partner, or hire internal recruiters? The right answer depends entirely on your stage, hiring volume, and how fast you need to move. Here's how to decide.

The reps who want to be in the office exist — you just need to know how to find them, position the opportunity correctly, and build a local hiring strategy that works. Here's the playbook.

Hiring managers aren't reading your resume — they're skimming it for reasons to decline. Here's how to build a SaaS sales resume that gets past the screen and into the conversation.

Before a hiring manager opens your resume, they've already looked at your LinkedIn. Here's how to optimize your headline, About section, and content so your profile works harder than your resume.