The Bravado Pod

The best sales people understand the psychology of sales… and the best sales leaders understand the psychology of leading a successful GTM organization. Tomer Chernia, SVP Sales at Vercel has mastered both. In this episode, he takes us through his sales and leadership strategy, which scaled Vercel to $100M ARR at breakneck speed. - The key to sales outreach that unlocks every buyer profile and market segment - Vercel’s unique mock pitch process uncovers what hiring managers really want to see- Reconciling team morale with the board’s demands to conquer higher revenue targets Episode Content:00:00 - Introducing Tomer Chernia, SVP Sales @ Vercel04:00 - From Selling MarTech to Open Source DevTools07:04 - Selling and Outreach to the Open Source Community13:42 - Splitting up Territories and Deal Complexity19:13 - Profile of Salesperson that succeed in Mid-market and Enterprise22:25 - Sales Hiring in Hypergrowth27:54 - Remote vs In-person Culture and Performance40:05 - Investing in the Success of the Sales Team44:36 - How to think about quotas and compensation48:59 - Balanced and Thoughtful Growth Plans54:17 - Lightning Round: Sales as a Super Power, Controversial Advice, Best Fictional Sales PersonAre you Hiring Salespeople? Check out Bravado Talent - https://talent.bravado.co/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearebravadoTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/bravadoInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/bravado_sales/https://Bravado.co

You’ve heard how great Revenue Leaders hyper-scaled in the past few years. But, what does it take to do it now - at this moment in the market?In the last 14 months, Jonathan Blackburn, VP of Sales turned a 6 person sales team with no scalable process into 40+ reps and is on his way to making Nooks the fastest growing startup of 2025. For everyone currently on their own rocketship and looking for contemporary wisdom, find out what Nooks is doing right now to hyper-scale: - Going against all good Sales advice and winning 72% of the deals that offer the controversial FREE trial!  *gasp - Reversing the industry norm of pushing up market to instead be pulled up market by strategic processes that build trust  - Capitalizing on their exceptional timing in the market by doubling down on outbound pipeline generation with the best SDR team in the game“Hyper-scale or die” is the battle cry for SaaS in 2025 and Nooks is set to win. Their VP of Sales, Jonathan Blackburn shares all the details of exactly how they’re doing it right now with Bravado CEO Sahil Mansuri.  Episode Content:00:00 - Introducing Jonathan Blackburn, VP of Sales @ Nooks03:21 - Expanding the sales team and a 60 day internal evaluation08:51 - Try before you buy20:32 - Profile of rep to hire at Nooks30:20 - Red Flags while hiring35:32 - Setting up the team for success47:07 - Managing up as a VP of Sales54:03 - Pipeline and the resurgence of the SDR01:01:54 - Sales as a Superpower01:05:13 - Best advice early in your careerAre you Hiring Salespeople? Are you Hiring Salespeople? Check out Bravado Talent - https://talent.bravado.co/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearebravadoTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/bravadoInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/bravado_sales/https://Bravado.co

Vanta CRO Stevie Case hyper-scaled her team from 20 people and $10M to 300+ and $100M in less than two years. This week’s episode is a masterclass in how to change the trajectory of your business. If your company is between $5M - $20M ARR, you’ll hear the cheat codes to  - Moving Upmarket: How to scale to enterprise customers without losing focus on your core SMB base- Culture Building: Going all-in on enablement so your reps can grow their career as far as they want without leaving the company- Remote-First Structuring: How Vanta went against the conventional wisdom and achieved this hypergrowth with a fully remote sales team. The bar for startup growth keeps getting raised. The only way to keep up is to lead the way. Bravado CEO Sahil Mansuri brings you the insights to help you do just that every other Wednesday on The Bravado Pod. Episode Content:00:00 - Introducing Stevie Case, CRO @ Vanta06:55 - Success comes down to the people you hire. Who does Vanta hire?23:24 - How to crush a Stevie Case interview - the exercise that makes or breaks it for candidates at Vanta 30:39 - Maximizing Productivity in a Remote-first team and the importance of face time39:35 - It’s never too early to think about creating multiple revenue engines49:47 - How to forecast accurately for success with the levers that drive pipeline57:41 - The real ROI betting on SDRs1:04:52 - Lightning Round: Sales as a Superpower, Professional Gaming to SalesAre you Hiring Salespeople? Check out Bravado Talent - https://talent.bravado.co/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearebravadoTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/bravadoInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/bravado_sales/https://Bravado.co

Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com and former lead at Shopify, shares his expertise on scaling SMBs in the SaaS landscape. He highlights the necessity of adapting sales strategies at each milestone, explaining how to identify a startup's potential for growth. Norton emphasizes the importance of early investments in RevOps and shares tips on hiring the right sales leader. He also discusses the balance between remote and in-office work and the key traits that define a successful sales team, making this a must-listen for startup founders and sales leaders alike.

From Scaling GTM at Okta, Checkr, and Miro to How AI is Disrupting the SaaS Sales Playbook: CRO Sangeeta Chakraborty  Discover how the AI era is transforming Sales teams, Sales Leadership, and even CS. Drawing from her experience scaling revenue at top SaaS companies during major market disruptions, Sangeeta reveals:  Why traditional SaaS Sales strategies are being upended by AI-driven pricing and customer expectation changes  Battle-tested tactics for breaking into new markets without brand recognition  The most important skills for reps to thrive in the AI era  Strategies for Sales Leaders to meet today’s aggressive revenue targets Bravado CEO, Sahil Mansuri asks the questions Founders, Sales VPs, and AEs need answered to crush quota in 2025. Sangeeta's LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sangeetachakraborty/ Episode Content: 00:00 - Welcoming Sangeeta Chakraborty to the Podcast! 06:41 - The importance of hiring the right people for Sales 12:12 - The evolution of post-sales in usage based pricing models 15:00 - The new AE role 22:20 - Building a culture of learning 28:34 - Winners don’t shy away from big targets 37:05 - Outlier performance will always lead Sales 38:42 - The right way to plan for outliers 42:28 - TOFU for startups 47:17 - The next phase of brand growth 49:05 - The work most companies try to skip 52:02 - Quick fire round Are you Hiring Salespeople? Check out Bravado Talent - https://talent.bravado.co/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearebravado Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/bravado Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bravado_sales/ https://Bravado.co