In this episode of the East Coast Elite series, we sit down with Nakul Mandan, founder and partner at Audacious Ventures, to discuss his unique approach to early-stage investing.
After an 18-year career, Nakul discovered a powerful differentiator: an in-house playbook for recruiting exceptional talent and building scalable sales engines. He shares how his experience with a legendary sales leader transformed his investment philosophy, leading him to double down on "founder quality" and "10x individual contributors". We dive into tangible advice for founders on everything from identifying an urgent problem to solve to knowing when to hire their first sales team. Nakul also provides invaluable guidance for salespeople and execs looking to break into the world of venture capital.
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🏹 Key Topics Covered
00:00 - Intro & Background
02:16 - The Audacious Ventures Thesis
04:30 - A Sales Legend's Impact
06:14 - The Genesis of Audacious
10:48 - Founder, Market, Urgency
14:40 - Coaching Founder-Led Sales
18:57 - The Repeatable Pipeline
20:51 - When to Hire Your First Sellers
24:20 - The Hands-On VC Advantage
27:40 - The Sales Comp Sticker Shock
29:34 - Good vs. Great in Recruiting
36:15 - How Reps Evaluate Startups
43:29 - Evaluating Equity Packages
48:36 - Double Trigger Vesting Explained
50:20 - Hiring Your First Sales Leader
56:31 - The Hybrid Sales Role
💥 3 Biggest Lessons:
Prioritize a Founder's Quality Over the Idea: The single biggest ingredient for startup success is the founder's ability to be a "force of nature" and attract other exceptional people. A great team can pivot and solve problems, but a great idea with a mediocre team is far less likely to succeed.
The Problem Must Be Urgent: When evaluating an idea, ask if it solves an urgent problem for the buyer, not just an important one. People only pay for solutions to problems that they need to solve right now, and this urgency is a key indicator of a large, scalable market opportunity.
Recruiting is Relentless: The difference between a "good" hire and a "great" hire is massive. Founders and VCs must be relentless in their pursuit of "10x" talent, a person who is in the 99th percentile of their profession. This requires deep back-channeling, a focus on recruiting as a core competency, and a willingness to pay for top-tier talent.
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💬 Notable Quotes "People don't solve important but not urgent problems. People solve important and urgent problems". "The single biggest ingredient to startup success is the density of exceptional people in a company". "No VC can help you get to product market fit. But if you can get to product market fit, beyond that, there are some... frameworks that you can apply to build a scalable sales engine". "If you don't have an ICP, you're probably not ready for sellers". "I would argue that the difference between good and great is the same as the difference between good and absolutely horrible. It's light and day".
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