GTM 149: How to Scale International Sales Teams with Rick Kelley

Jun 3, 2025

Rick Kelley, former VP at Meta, shares insights from his 15-year tenure leading a $10B+ revenue operation. He discusses the operational playbooks that fueled Meta’s massive growth and emphasizes the importance of coachability and humility in sales leadership. Delving into AI's transformative role, he outlines how it changes headcount strategy and the essential traits he seeks in hires. Kelley advises founders on focusing on builders over closers and the risks of misaligning sales capacity in early-stage companies.

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ANECDOTE

Rick's Journey to Meta Leadership

Rick Kelly got into international sales via Yahoo, moving to Barcelona to centralize European sales.
He then joined Meta to build out their EMEA sales team from scratch, relocating to Dublin with family.

ADVICE

Data-Driven Market Prioritization

Prioritize markets based on data-driven economic studies when allocating sales headcount.
Avoid random hiring based on existing customers; invest where greatest opportunity lies.

ADVICE

Centralize Early Sales Hires

Early-stage startups should centralize their initial hires to promote collaboration and flexibility.
A hub model allows shifting focus across countries without isolated or under-resourced offices.

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Rick Kelley is the former SVP of Gaming & App Monetization Solutions at Meta and Managing Director of Meta Ireland, where he led a $1B+ revenue organization & played a pivotal role in building out Meta’s go-to-market teams across North America & EMEA. Over his 15-year career at Meta, Rick was instrumental in driving international expansion, especially across Europe, the Middle East, & Africa—helping to localize strategy, scale high-performing sales teams, & bring new ad products to market. Today, he advises founders on global GTM execution, sales hiring, & how AI is reshaping the future of commercial organizations.

Discussed in this Episode:

The operational playbooks that scaled Meta’s ad sales
Why AI will shift how sales orgs think about headcount & human capital
The three traits Rick looks for in great sales leaders—& how to spot them early
Why early-stage companies should prioritize hiring builders, not closers
How to segment go-to-market motions by customer journey, not just ACV
Why “coachable, humble, gritty” still wins—even in an AI-powered GTM world

Highlights:

6:30 How Meta scaled repeatable playbooks across SMB, Mid-Market, & Enterprise

10:00 The role of humility & coachability in building scalable teams

13:00 Why top sales leaders are systems thinkers—not just great closers

16:00 AI’s impact on headcount & how to scale without over-hiring

21:00 Making your first 5 sales hires count

25:30 Early-stage mistake: over-complicating GTM before validating demand

30:30 Why product & GTM must be tied at the hip—especially in AI-first companies

34:00 From Facebook to Meta: what changed & what didn’t in sales strategy

37:00 Final thoughts: GTM myths, leadership advice, & staying grounded

Guest Speaker Links (Rick Kelley):

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rickkelley

Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi
Newsletter: substack.com/@sophiebuonassisi

Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):

Website: gtmnow.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gtmnow
Twitter/X: x.com/GTMnow_
YouTube: /@gtm_now

Sponsors: UserEvidence

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The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow 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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