Hunters and Unicorns

John Lack, Global Head of BizDev at Airtable and veteran sales leader from Oracle and MongoDB, shares career-defining lessons in software sales. He talks pay and how BDRs can earn six figures early. He explains why pipeline generation is the foundation, how to evaluate company development programs, and what milestones move you from BDR to AE.

In this episode, we welcome Joe Eskenazi, CRO at Kong, to discuss the critical transition from an elite salesperson to a top-tier business leader. Joe shares how he bypassed the typical "salesperson" label by treating every interaction as a business consultancy, fueled by a concurrent MBA and an early career in sports broadcasting. We dive deep into the reality of the CRO role—orchestrating cross-functional ecosystems rather than just closing deals—and the personal journey of managing high-intensity burnout. Joe also offers powerful advice on finding an authentic leadership voice and why organizations must prioritize leadership training to protect their talent. 🙌 Thanks To Our Sponsor! Aurasell AI: https://www.aurasell.ai 🏹 Key Topics Covered 00:00 - Intro 01:57 - The Reputation and Rise of a CRO 03:39 - Viewing Sales as Business Optimization 06:47 - The Calling Card for Success 13:50 - The Cross-Functional Ecosystem 19:30 - The Strength and Weakness of Intensity 25:00 - Navigating Burnout 33:14 - The Kobe Bryant Lesson 42:34 - Finding Your Own Voice 46:36 - The Era of AI Governance and APIs   💥 3 Biggest Lessons: Be a Business Leader, Not a Sales Leader: To reach the executive level, you must shift your mindset from selling products to solving strategic business challenges. Joe argues that a true business leader drives cross-functional alignment and won't do "bad deals" just for a commission because they are focused on the long-term health of the organization. You Can’t Outwork the Job: High-performers often fall into the trap of trying to out-hustle every problem, which inevitably leads to burnout. True leadership requires ruthless prioritization, mental resilience practices like breathwork or cold plunging, and recognizing that your effectiveness is compromised if you neglect your health or family. Never Compromise the Standard: Influenced by mentors like Cedric Pech and Luca Lazzaron, Joe believes in maintaining an unshakeable standard of excellence. He uses the "Touch the Line" philosophy to remind leaders that shortcutting small details eventually leads to personal and professional erosion. 💬 Notable Quotes "Find your voice. Find out who you are as a leader". "I tell AEs who become leaders, you can't outwork the job. Just know that". "I realized that I love what I'm doing because I love to help businesses optimize and transform". "Preparation was always my calling card... I absolutely have a big fear of failure". "There’s no AI without APIs... we like to be the picks and shovels leading to the gold". 🙌 Thanks for listening! This episode was hosted by Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne, founders of Hunters & Unicorns, and post-produced by the team at videoforce.pro. If you enjoyed this episode, please drop a like/share and subscribe to our channel! 🦄 Connect with Hunters & Unicorns Website: http://huntersandunicorns.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/HuntersUn1corns Instagram: http://instagram.com/huntersandunicorns Blog: http://huntersandunicorns.com/blog #softwaresales #huntersandunicorns #playbookuniverse

Join Carl Mattsson, VP & GM EMEA at Kong, who played a pivotal role in scaling the company from $1M to nearly $100M ARR. He sheds light on hiring for character over experience, emphasizing innate curiosity and grit. Carl discusses the culture shift from a family vibe to a robust team focus and how a personal story about pasta solidified his commitment during tough times. He also shares insights on blending creativity with science in sales and positioning Kong as a leader in AI governance.

Steve Rog, Chief Revenue Officer at Cyera, shares his remarkable journey from a technical background to a leading role in cybersecurity sales. He dives into the significance of humility and teamwork in building a successful culture at Cyera. Steve emphasizes the value of Emotional Intelligence in leadership—highlighting that effective delivery of messages is crucial. He also discusses the importance of mentorship, reflecting on key figures who shaped his career, and how authentic leadership involves empowering others to excel.

Jason Eubanks is back to answer the question every revenue leader is asking: Will AI kill sales jobs or make great sellers unstoppable? He drops hard stats (91% of B2B teams missed quota, top 25 % drive 80% of revenue at 11× productivity) and explains why AI is a superpower for elite performers, a wake-up call for the bottom quartile, and a complete game-changer for SDR outreach, buyer trust, and hiring. If you lead a sales org, this 35-minute conversation is required listening. 🙌 Thanks to Our Sponsor! Aurasell AI The first AI-native GTM platform: https://aurasell.ai 🏹 Key Topics Covered 00:00 - Intro & Jason returns 01:38 - AI: replace or superpower? 03:07 - Top 25% dominate revenue 04:38 - 91% teams miss quota 09:40 - AI’s impact on SDRs 12:46 - Outreach volume vs buyer fatigue 16:52 - Human trust + real-time signals 25:14 - Hiring for the AI era 28:25 - Will AI make sellers lazy? 31:12 - Keeping top talent engaged   💥 3 Biggest Lessons: 1. AI Widens the Performance Gap Top 25 % already produce 11× more — AI will make them unstoppable while exposing under-performers. 2. Bottom Quartile Must Adapt Fast If you don’t aggressively adopt AI tools, you’ll fall further behind as others 2–4× their productivity. 3. Hire Character, Teach Skills Work ethic and engagement can’t be automated — get these right and AI turns good sellers into great ones. 💬 Notable Quotes “AI will be a superpower… it will unlock new levels of productivity that allow your top sellers to become even more productive.” “91 % of all B2B sales teams didn’t hit their revenue targets.” “80 % of the revenue was generated by only 25 % of the sellers.” “I don’t buy that AI makes sellers lazy — laziness exists for other reasons.” 🙌 Thanks for listening! This episode was hosted by Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne, founders of Hunters & Unicorns, and post-produced by the team at videoforce.pro. If you enjoyed this episode, please smash like/share and subscribe! 🦄 Connect with Hunters & Unicorns Website: http://huntersandunicorns.com X: http://x.com/HuntersUn1corns Instagram: http://instagram.com/huntersandunicorns Blog: http://huntersandunicorns.com/blog #softwaresales #huntersandunicorns #playbookuniverse

In this episode, we talk to Jason Eubanks, CEO and Co-founder of Aurasell (our brand NEW Sponsor!), about his transition from a 20-year go-to-market operator to a builder and founder. Jason shares the exact moment he became obsessed with solving a major product problem, the complexity and low productivity caused by massive tool sprawl (over 20 products) and unintentional data silos in the go-to-market stack. He details the crucial steps of founding Aurasell: partnering with a complementary CTO, validating the huge market problem (estimating over $1 billion in services spend), and securing a significant seed round to build the world's first AI-native CRM platform focused on customer-problem-centric design. 🙌 Thanks To Our Sponsor! Aurasell AI: https://www.aurasell.ai 🏹 Key Topics Covered 01:36 - Founder Journey & Co-Founders 03:24 - From Operator to 3:15 a.m. Spark 05:00 - VC Detour & Market Gap 07:42 - Tool Sprawl & Unified AI Context 11:22 - Mapping the Problem to $30M Seed   💥 3 Biggest Lessons: The Spark of Product Obsession: Jason’s 20-year career as a CRO never led him to chase founding a company—until he woke up obsessing over a core product problem firsthand: the low productivity and operational cost caused by 20+ disconnected tools in the go-to-market stack. Tool Sprawl Handicaps AI: The reliance on 20+ legacy SaaS products unintentionally creates data silos where crucial contextual metadata lives, rather than the core CRM. When companies try to "sprinkle" AI on this brittle structure, they severely handicap the potential for high-quality automation. The Opportunity is in AI Native: To maximize productivity and solve the tool sprawl problem, the necessary solution is a single, AI-native platform built with a unified logic layer. This approach moves beyond small "AI tricks" to actionable automation that frees expensive sellers to attack the market. 💬 Notable Quotes "I don't wake up at 3 in the morning and obsess over product. And then one day I did wake up at 3:15 in the morning obsessing over a product problem." "I think it's important to make sure that your co-founding partners are complementary in skill set, like Minded and Alind on the problem." "On average, every dollar of software you spend, historically has carried with it $3 of services." "The problem... is that those sellers are being asked to interface with... the contextual awareness that allows us to use AI to automate with high quality outcomes, often that contextual awareness lives in the metadata."   🙌 Thanks for listening! This episode was hosted by Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne, founders of Hunters & Unicorns, and post-produced by the team at videoforce.pro. If you enjoyed this episode, please drop a like/share and subscribe to our channel! 🦄 Connect with Hunters & Unicorns Website: http://huntersandunicorns.com Twitter:   / huntersun1corns   Instagram:   / huntersandunicorns   Blog: http://huntersandunicorns.com/blog   SEO Tags: Jason Eubanks, Aurasell, AI Native CRM, Founder Journey, CRO to CEO, Tool Sprawl, Data Silos, Sales Productivity, GTM Platform, Seed Round, Co-founder, Venture Partner #softwaresales #huntersandunicorns #playbookuniverse

Emma Maslen, an accomplished author, angel investor, and founder of Inspir'em, shares her insights on the practical application of sales playbooks. She highlights the difference between theoretical frameworks and their real-world usage, advocating for curiosity over checklists. Emma also emphasizes the necessity of intentional networking, explaining common pitfalls and strategies for successful connections. She underscores that networking should be a consistent commitment, offering valuable advice on establishing and nurturing professional relationships.

Join Julia Weimer, Director of Solution Engineering at Wiz, as she shares her inspiring journey from SOC security analyst to leading high-performing pre-sales teams. Julia emphasizes the importance of viewing Sales Engineers as equal partners to Account Executives, rather than just technical support. She discusses the critical SE/AE relationships that drive success, the importance of nurturing talent, and building diversity in tech roles. Plus, she offers insights on balancing career aspirations with motherhood and instilling an entrepreneurial mindset in SE candidates.

Kristian Kamber, CEO and co-founder of SPLX AI, offers a fascinating look into his evolution from elite sales roles at AppDynamics and Zscaler to launching an AI security startup. He discusses the importance of finding the right technical co-founder and the pivotal moments in securing investment. Kristian emphasizes leveraging sales skills to achieve product-market fit and shares insights on building a strong team and navigating the unique challenges of AI security. His journey offers invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Dave Goodmark, VP of Sales at Wiz, is a seasoned sales leader known for his dedication to mentorship and skill acquisition. He discusses the transformative power of mentorship in shaping his career, including the bold move from leadership back to an individual contributor role to learn from the best. Goodmark emphasizes the importance of a 'sibling culture' that fosters open feedback and accountability. He also shares insights on building a strong network and the value of focusing on who you work for rather than titles, which can accelerate your career growth.