Y Combinator Startup Podcast Enterprise Sales with Pete Koomen | Startup School
14 snips
Nov 16, 2024 
In this discussion, Pete Koomen, co-founder and CTO of Optimizely and Y Combinator partner, shares valuable insights from his journey to $100M ARR. He dives into the critical stages of the enterprise sales funnel, emphasizing founder involvement and the importance of tailored outreach. Pete offers strategies for navigating complex sales, mastering product demos, and determining effective pricing. He also stresses collaboration among teams and proactive engagement to ensure successful customer implementation. A treasure trove of wisdom for technical founders!
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Founders Should Sell
- Technical founders are capable of selling their own product initially.
- If you can't sell it yourself, you likely won't be able to hire someone else to do it pre-product-market fit.
Pre-PMF Sales is Entrepreneurial
- Pre-product-market fit sales is entrepreneurial, requiring vision, credibility, and experimentation.
- This makes founders, not traditional salespeople, best suited for this early sales role.
Engineer's Sales Advantage
- Technical founders possess expertise and conviction about their product and the problem it solves.
- These traits are crucial for sales, which is about helping people, not using tricks.
