Ben Solari, VP of Sales at Jellyfish, shares sales advice for taking technical products to market.If you’re not super technical, sales is a great way to get your foot in the door in the startup world. That’s how Alex (our host) got started at Yelp before eventually founding Dock.But what happens when you have to sell a very technical product to a very technical audience?Ben Solari joins us in this episode to talk about leading sales teams at DataRobot and Jellyfish—two products aimed at engineering leaders.Alex and Ben discuss:The benefits of being a seller with an equities trading backgroundHow Ben learned to sell technical productsDataRobot and Jellyfish's early sales strategiesScaling DataRobot's sales team to 30 account executivesJellyfish's top-down sales pitchCollaborating with marketing

Alexa Grabell, Founder of Pocus, shares the company's founding story, plus lots of product-led growth advice for go-to-market teams.Pocus has ridden the PLG wave, earning $23 million in funding and landing big-name SaaS customers like Webflow, Loom, and Miro only two years since its founding.In today’s episode, Alex and Alexa discuss:The backstory behind Pocus's foundingPocus's approach to fundraisingThe role of sales in a product-led motionWhen PLG companies should hire their first sales repWhy Pocus isn't a product-led company themselvesAnd a bunch of other PLG best practicesEven if you’re not in PLG, there’s tons of gold sales and go-to-market advice in this episode. It was only 3 years ago that Alexa Grabell was working in a sales operations role at Dataminr. She realized how much-untapped value was sitting in product and customer data.After going back to school to complete an MBA at Stanford in 2021, Alexa co-founded Pocus—a revenue data platform that helps go-to-market teams surface insights from their product usage data.Through building Pocus, Alexa has become one of the leading voices in product-led growth (PLG) and product-led sales.

Bryan Rutcofsky, Co-Founder and CRO of Marqii, shares how he grew sales at Yext to over 140 team members and $100 million in revenue.Inflated job titles are a bit of a cliche at startups. You see a lot of C-suite and VP-level roles that probably shouldn’t have been handed out.But when Bryan Rutcofsky grew sales at Yext to 140 team members and over $100 million in revenue, he certainly earned the Senior VP title.When Bryan joined Yext, they were called GymTicket.com — a local listings website that sold leads to gyms. They later expanded into other categories, like veterinarians and TV repairmen, before wrapping everything into one website: Yext.By the time Bryan left Yext in 2017, they were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.In today’s episode, Bryan shares:What it was like to lead sales as they built and re-built YextThe challenges of selling a new product category to several SMB verticalsWhy he hired primarily junior sales reps for their first 100 hiresHow he came to co-found his new company, MarqiiWhat it's like selling into the hospitality industryEnjoy the conversation!

Rich Liu, CRO of Everlaw, recounts stories from his time leading early sales at Facebook in 2010, taking the plunge into B2B SaaS at MuleSoft, and selling a corporate travel platform during the pandemic.Rich Liu’s philosophy to scaling sales at 5 unicorn companies has been surprisingly simple: build the sales process to help the customer achieve their business outcomes.In this episode, Alex and Rich talk about:The early days of sales at Facebook, including selling ads through the 2012 presidential election, the threat of mobile, and Facebook’s “black eye” IPOHow he transformed MuleSoft's sales model from a technical sale to an outcome-based saleHow he hired a sales team at scale after MuleSoft was acquired by SalesforceSelling to economic buyers through the pandemic at TripActionsSelling in a down market at Everlaw

Ben Braverman, Chief Business Officer of Hadrian and former CRO of Flexport, shares how he grew Flexport to an $8 billion valuation.Flexport is a freight forwarder. They help book, track, and deliver freight shipments. So not only did Flexport’s sales team have to cope with the usual challenges of growing a SaaS company, they also had to handle the real-world logistical challenges that come from working with factories, customs agencies, and 747s. Alex and Ben became friends when Flexport invested in our company: Dock.In this episode, Alex and Ben talk about:The importance of solving complete problems for your customersWhy Flexport started with the long tail of SMB customersWhy Ben scaled the sales team slowlyWhat makes a great SMB vs. mid-market vs. key accounts sales repFlexport’s selling squadsHow they ramped up new sellersThe double-edged sword of succeeding as a first-time revenue leaderHis new role at Hadrian, the future of space manufacturing, and “space lasers”He’s also our first-ever guest to call in from a pickup truck in Wyoming.

Tushar Makhija, Founder and CEO of TeamOhana, chats with Alex about how he went from zero sales experience to VP of revenue at HelpShift in only a few years, what it means to be a sales leader, and why Indian immigrants are so successful in tech leadership positions.Some revenue leaders thrive in the chaos of early startup life. They love getting their hands dirty, leading early sales deals, finding product-market-fit and establishing a go-to-market foundation.Tushar Makhija is one of those people.In this episode, Tushar and Alex chat about:How Tushar went from first-time sales rep to VP of revenue in only a few years at HelpshiftWhat it was like to go from startup mode to working with a professional CEO at HelpshiftAdvice for first sales hiresWhat it means to be a sales leaderThe difference between being a sales leader and a founderWhy Indian immigrants are so successful in tech leadership positions.

Brittany Soinski, Manager of Customer Success Programs at Loom, shares success enablement and onboarding best practices from her time at Wrike, Mural, and Loom.Alex met Brittany while building Dock and was super impressed with her knowledge of building customer success and onboarding programs.In her first year-plus at Loom, she has helped revamp their customer onboarding program, technical implementation process, customer-facing resource hub, live webinar program, Sales-to-CS handoff process, and much more.In this episode, Brittany shares:what it’s like to work in Customer Success Enablement vs. Customer Successhow to build a successful onboarding program; andhow to measure onboarding success.And stick around 'til the end to hear Brittany’s number one tip for sending better Looms.

Pete Prowitt, Head of Revenue at Stytch, shares what it was like to lead sales at Intercom and Loom during hypergrowth, and how he shifted from successful sales rep to revenue leader. The lines between sales-led and product-led growth are blurring. What used to be two distinct sales motions are now complementary to each other.In this episode we talk to Pete Prowitt—who’s worked for some of the most successful companies in both sales-led and product-led growth.We talk about:the differences and similarities between sales-led and product-led growthwhat it was like to be at Intercom and Loom during hypergrowth; andhow he made the shift from successful sales rep to revenue leaderEnjoy the show!

François Dufour, CMO in Residence and Marketing Partner at Decibel, shares marketing growth stories from his time at LinkedIn, Twilio, and more.François Dufour was Alex's coach back when Alex ran marketing at Lattice. François really helped Alex transition from being an individual contributor to a true marketing executive at a fast-growing SaaS company. In this episode, François and Alex caught up to talk about:early growth at LinkedIn and Twiliothe importance of getting close to customershow to market and sell to a technical audience; andhow to upgrade yourself from individual contributor to marketing leaderEnjoy the show!

Dini Mehta was incredibly successful as the CRO of Lattice. She took the company from $3M to over $100M in ARR when she left. Dini and Alex also happen to go way back. They worked together for 3 years at Lattice, where Dini ran sales and Alex ran marketing. So we thought she’d be the perfect guest for our new show.In this episode, Alex and Dini about the early days at Lattice—including their go-to-market strategy, how they moved upmarket, and how they collaborated across sales and marketing.Plus, Dini gives advice on how to grow from an AE to CRO. Enjoy the episode!