Startup Work 4 - Cash is King

Cash is king.

And sales brings in the cash.

Prior to working for startups, I my broader education largely came from my MBA* and following the "startup press" - i.e. the thought-leading founders and VCs who produce so much content about startups: blogs, Twitter, podcasts, etc.

With some notable exceptions** neither had much focus on sales.

Business schools tend to cover a range of topics (general management, org design, leadership, negotiations) and put a particular focus on marketing (the "top of the funnel") but less on sales management and the process of actually making a sale.

The startup press tends to lionize blitz-scaling companies that seem to sell themselves, led by visionary product and engineering leaders who "don't need" sales teams.

The implication is that sales teams are hustling used car salesmen - best to be avoided both as a buyer and as a member of your team.

But then you join a startup and realize that while much of the hype is around growth and valuations, the metric that matters most is revenue.

Market share, valuations and funding are all driven by revenue - getting contracts signed and cash in the door.

So an odd thing happens for the product, tech and even marketing hires who previously looked down at the salespeople:

The salespeople are often the most prominent members of the business, the successful ones are the CEO's prodigal sons. And their boss, the CRO, holds immense power.

Much more to come on sales and revenue teams...

*I had a great b-school experience despite the growing skepticism from many in the startup space.

**SaaStr has carved out a great niche and there are plenty of sales-specific rabbit holes to go down, but those are largely in parallel to the rest of the startup press.