Inside The Pipeline: B2B Sales and GTM
00:17:12 · Oscar Lanzendorf, Tris Tusa
[00:17:12] S1: whole world, to create ElevenLabs into this sort of, like, beautiful thing. Who was behind Matthew McConaughey, and how did that come about? So Matthew McConaughey was an... Was actually an early investor. We just recently disclosed this. It's it's the network that ElevenLabs basically brings with us, and it's the amazing technology. And I think if you have a great technology and you have a good network, people will automatically wanna be talking to you. We have a very strong partnerships team behind this as well, and obviously very charismatic founders that are very good at, you know, pitching the product and building that relationship. So it's a mix of both. And you know how it is in life and in the startup world when you're doing something great, doors just automatically open. [00:17:53] S0: If you had to choose one other voice globally to have like Matthew McConaughey as part of ElevenLabs, who would you choose? [00:18:02] S1: Me, personally? You have a [00:18:03] S0: great voice as well. [00:18:04] S1: Thank you. It's available on ElevenLabs, actually. [00:18:07] S0: Is it? [00:18:08] S1: Yeah. It is. It is. It's it's called Oscar. [00:18:10] S0: Yeah. You you personally, though. Who would who would you choose? [00:18:13] S1: I would probably choose Christian Bale, but in the Batman voice. Yes. Yes. Because complimentary also to Michael to Michael Caine. You know? So... Yeah.
00:18:13 · Oscar Lanzendorf, Tris Tusa, S2
[00:18:13] S1: I would probably choose Christian Bale, but in the Batman voice. Yes. Yes. Because complimentary also to Michael to Michael Caine. You know? So... Yeah. [00:18:24] S0: And and and how does it feel for you guys, obviously, another European company who's making waves in the AI space? Is that something that's at the heart of the company? I know, obviously, your founders are from Poland, very old school friends. How does that root itself throughout the culture? [00:18:40] S1: Well, obviously, we're very proud to be such a successful company in that space and coming from Europe. And I think... Yeah. No. It's a thing we're very bullish about. We we we like that very much, and we wanna be one of the names when you think about startups and unicorns coming from Europe, and we hope that we inspire the ecosystem with that. [00:18:58] S2: I I really, really hope that we've sorted ourselves out enough whereby when you IPO, you do it here. But, obviously, we can't get into that. Yeah. So I think one thing that I wanted to know about you specifically was, obviously, we just touched on the fact that it's incredibly difficult to get a job at ElevenLabs. What what was your motivation for joining, and what was the process like when trying to get a job there?
00:19:24 · Oscar Lanzendorf, Tris Tusa
[00:19:24] S1: Yep. I So was making a switch. Basically, I was more in the VC side of things. And I personally was like, alright. I either wanna found a company or I wanna join a company that is super great. You know? And I was speaking with a couple of startups, and I remember one of them that was very well backed by good and reputable VCs was telling me Oscar, I think your skills are very good. You're just not a good fit for it what we are doing. And I was thinking to myself, you're absolutely spot on. I have no association with your product at all. And I wouldn't have even been happy if I would have gotten a term sheet. And I was like reevaluating and I was like thinking, all right, what was the most happiest time in my life? It was when I was a founder, I founded myself basically like an ephemeral voice messaging service like Snapchat, but for voice. That was super interesting. I loved creating music. I think music is such an interesting space. I loved hearing books rather than reading books. And I always like to communicate. And then I was like, wow, what company is doing AI audio? ElevenLabs is doing that. I need to get into ElevenLabs. Yeah. And that was then like, the the moment where I was like, alright, this is the only company I'm gonna apply and I wanna get into it. And, yeah, here we are. [00:20:28] S0: So... And what did that application process look like from the point that you sent them your CV or connected with someone?
00:20:28 · Tris Tusa, Oscar Lanzendorf
[00:20:28] S0: So... And what did that application process look like from the point that you sent them your CV or connected with someone? [00:20:35] S1: Yeah. Connected... So I connected with Carlos just to show you how we work at ElevenLabs. I sent the email on... I had the epiphany on a Friday afternoon, and I sent him an email at, I think, it was 06:30PM on a Friday. Oh. I got a two minutes. I got a reply at 07:30AM on Saturday. And he was like, hey, Oscar. Great to hear from you. [00:20:57] S0: Great
00:20:57 · Tris Tusa, Oscar Lanzendorf, S2
[00:20:57] S0: Great [00:20:57] S1: to be connected. Kesha here, shout out to Kesha, is gonna take care. And then I was like, awesome. Wow. Immediately. Hey, Kesha. Can we set up a call? First... At a second, no no reply. I was again, can we have a call? Yes. Let's have a call. And we had a call, and it was a little bit skeptical because I don't come from a sales background. I come from a VC background. Yeah. But he was like, yeah. But you seem to have hustle. So let's let's give you a try. And then it took forever because everyone is so damn busy. There's other priorities. And I was just like pushing and I was like getting back to him. He was like, yeah, sorry. Let's have another call. We had another call. He's like, alright, you know, it's gonna be tough, but like, I'll connect you with one person. So I spoke with with Hugo then and then I went through the interview process. And I was, like, every... After every single interview, because I had the odds pretty much against me, I was, like, I'm gonna There's no way. Destroy. I'm gonna destroy. And I did. I prepared so much for every interview, and I killed it. And, yeah, that's pretty much what I recommend everyone to do as well if they're applying [00:21:52] S2: to your company. You killing it. How can one kill it? Yes. In an ElevenLabs interview.
00:21:52 · S2, Oscar Lanzendorf
[00:21:52] S2: to your company. You killing it. How can one kill it? Yes. In an ElevenLabs interview. [00:21:59] S1: Understand the company very well. Understand your reason for applying very well. Be able to quickfire, you have to like, at ElevenLabs, we're gonna test your RAM, not your memory, your RAM, what is accessible right now. Yeah. And do more than the average person, you know, come in with no ego. Like, if I'm telling you, listen, I think I'm the best in go to market. May I show you a presentation? You didn't ask me for a presentation, but I brought one with me. And I also brought a case study. And I also have a slide showing you why I'm better than all the competitors showcasing you rather than telling you, giving you an example of my portfolio. It's really like going the extra mile and going into detail for that so that you actually show me, listen, I can close you as a customer versus other people that are just like coming in there and being like, yeah, but I worked for Google back then, like, was not enough. And that is the thing. Like, we don't hire these kind of profiles, because we wanna hire people that are really serious and that show us their execution. Yeah. And that's also, like, the different way of thinking about approaching go to market and having different strategies to get to the decision makers quickly.