GTM 58: How Stripe SuperCharged their SMB Team with Meka Asonye

Aug 29, 2023

Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital, discusses his experience scaling Stripe's sales organization. Topics include long-term orientation for lead distribution, angel investing tips, and compensation structures for early-stage companies.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

A Grounding Perspective and Mecca Asonye's Background in Sales and Player Development

02:14 • 5min

Parallels, Cold Emails, and Leading the SMB Team at Stripe

07:27 • 3min

Measuring Success and Balancing Resources

10:50 • 21min

The Importance of Human Decency and Its Impact on Interactions

32:13 • 5min

Getting Started in Angel Investing

36:48 • 9min

Meka Asonye is a Partner at First Round Capital based in San Francisco. Before moving into venture, Meka was an active angel investor backing companies such as Coda, Alchemy, Rimeto (acq. by Slack), Snackpass and Stytch.

Previously, he served as the VP of Sales & Services at Mixpanel, where he ran the more than 100-person global revenue team. Before Mixpanel, Meka spent four years at Stripe and scaled and matured its sales organization during the company's rapid growth from 250 to 2000 people. Prior to joining Stripe, Meka served as Case Team Leader at Bain in San Francisco, partnering with the C-Suites of Fortune 50 companies across different verticals.

Meka started his career working in Player Development & Baseball Operations for the Cleveland Indians. Meka earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in Economics and Finance from Princeton and his MBA from Harvard Business School

What You Will Learn:

Long-term orientation for lead distribution at Stripe.
Investing in the person, and then the product, is most important in angel investing.
Best tips to start out in angel investing.
Compensation structures that early-stage companies should implement.

Highlights:
(3:44) How Meka started his career in player development and baseball ops for the Cleveland Indians.

(8:50) Meka’s biggest challenges during his time at Stripe as the Head of Sales.

(10:15) How the SMB team measured success at Stripe and how it evolved over the years.

(13:14) Balancing lead distribution at Stripe.

(16:28) Practicing “Dumpster Diving” at Stripe.

(18:00) Setting up long-term incentive structures at Stripe.

(22:48) How Meka began angel investing.

(28:10) What Meka learned from his first angel investing experience.

(36:22) The best way to start out in angel investing.

(39:42) Why traditional sales compensation models at early-stage companies are flawed.

(42:00) The importance of educating your customers effectively through each touch.

Guest Speaker Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mekaasonye/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigMekaStyle
Email: Meka@firstround.com

Host Speaker Links:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

The GTM Podcast
The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

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