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20Sales: Biggest Lessons Scaling Hubspot from $0-$100M in ARR, The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise, How to do Channel Partnerships Right and How to Construct Sales Comp Plans Early On with Mark Roberge

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Jul 12, 2024

Mark Roberge, Co-founder of Stage 2 Capital and former CRO of HubSpot, shares invaluable insights from scaling HubSpot to $100M in ARR. He discusses the biggest mistakes startups make when transitioning to enterprise and the critical timing for such a shift. Mark emphasizes the need to be selective with early customers and the importance of channel diversification. He also reveals how hiring the right talent and developing effective sales compensation plans can significantly impact growth strategies.

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ANECDOTE

HubSpot's First Sales Hire

Mark Roberge, initially a consultant, became HubSpot's fourth employee and first sales hire.
This happened after a series of serendipitous events and discussions with co-founders Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan.

ADVICE

Transitioning from Founder-Led Sales

Founders transitioning from founder-led sales should learn to assess sales skills or find an advisor who can.
Prioritize sales skills over specific product experience when hiring early sales team members.

ADVICE

Building a Sales Playbook

Founders should define the buyer journey, ideal customer profile, and value proposition early on.
Sales leaders should handle sales methodologies, discovery calls, and other sales processes.

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Mark Roberge is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital and a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School. Prior to these roles, Mark was the founding CRO at HubSpot, where he scaled ARR from $0 to $100 million and expanded his team from 1 to 450 employees. Mark was ranked #19 in Forbes' Top 30 Social Sellers in the World. He was also awarded the 2010 Salesperson of the Year at the MIT Sales Conference.

In Today's Episode with Mark Roberge We Discuss:

1. Biggest Lessons Scaling Hubspot to $100M in ARR:

What are Mark's biggest lessons in what worked in their sales strategy in scaling to $100M in ARR?
What elements of Hubspot's sales strategy did not work? What would he have done differently with the benefit of hindsight?
What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known when he started at Hubspot?

2. How the Best Startups Scale into Enterprise:

What are the single biggest mistakes startups make when scaling into enterprise?
When is the right time? What do founders get most wrong on timing of scale into enterprise?
What do you need to have in place both from a team and product perspective to make the transition?

3. Second Product and Second Channel:

When is the right time to launch the second product?
Why does Mark believe that you should be turning down customers in the early days? Why is not every customer right for your company?
How does Mark think about channel diversification? Does Mark agree you only need one channel to scale to $50M in ARR and two to scale to $100M in ARR?

4. 99% of SaaS Founders Do Partnerships Wrong:

What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when doing channel partnerships?
What can and should they do to set channel partnerships up for success?
What do the channel partners need to have to be equipped to sell the partner solution?
What level of buy-in and from who on the channel partner side is needed for the partnership to be successful?
What did Mark learn from Hubspot's partnership with Salesforce scaling to 10% of Hubspot's revenue?