Why Founders Must Sell Themselves

(Though they’re scared & not sure how)

1️⃣ Authenticity

At the early stage, founders are the (face of the) company. Everything comes down to their background, skills, and personality.

They know the vision, and where they want their company to go.

Plus: this kind of authenticity is disarming, because it’s real. In meetings, and in cold outreach. What they say feels genuine.

2️⃣ Product Knowledge 

They have built and are likely to continue building the product (mostly) by themselves.

With that, and so many adjustments based on early user testing, alpha and beta testers, and first pilot clients, only they are able to keep up. 

3️⃣ High Fail Rate of External Sellers

Too soon, early founders hire full-time sellers––sometimes even as a Head of Sales––to build a sales operation.

This backfires all too often because there isn’t much to scale, let alone manage.

The first 10-20 logos will likely come in a messy manner: through a combination of intros (their and/or their angel network) and by throwing darts against the wall in outreach. 

Until there are recurring patterns both in outreach and deal management that also yield referrals, it’s pointless to make a full-time hire.

(If anything, they need a pioneer seller who acts as an SDR, AE, and CSM all in one.) 

And once they’ve been in the trenches themselves, they have a much better idea what to hire for.

4️⃣ Define Sales Culture 

Culture starts at the top––this is also true for a company’s sales culture. It should never be set and defined by the first sales hire.

Culture is not just free beer and bean bags. It’s also “this is how we do things around here, this is how we sell".

The more they are (and to some degree, stay) involved, the lower the chances of exchanging later sales execs like light bulbs––which is so common in tech startups.

In essence 👇

SaaS founder = (early) SaaS seller