The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:37:39 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[00:37:39] S1: And I'm gonna be listening to a load of Gong calls before that to really try and understand the cadence, the language, the pattern. [00:37:46] S0: Absolutely. You're gonna be listening to Gong calls. You're gonna be joining live calls. You're going to be in team meetings, listening to pipeline reviews and forecasting calls and everything in between. And then guess what? After your first call, your leader is responsible for riding shotgun and making sure they're supporting you from start to finish. If you're running a big sales team and you're just dependent on enablement, you're gonna die. You need your frontline leaders to lean in aggressively and also be as deep in the weeds as possible with new new hires onboarding. [00:38:21] S1: It's one of those ones which sounds obvious, but it's hard when you are a leader to, like, delve down into the... I didn't mean it awfully, but it's kind of like intern batches in venture funds where you're like A 100%. Wants to help young people, but, like, I gotta close the big fucking whale of a deal. [00:38:36] S0: A 100%. But you have to do both. Yeah. Of course. You have a number that you're responsible for. And so, yeah, if there's a big swing deal and you're a frontline leader, yeah, you're all hands on deck. At the same time, guess what? Your number's gonna keep going up sequentially month over month, quarter over quarter as these new sellers ramp up. And so you're directly incentivized to make sure that they're coming into the system to be killers. Otherwise, you're gonna be in trouble as a leader.
00:38:36 · Max Freeman, Harry Stebbings
[00:38:36] S0: A 100%. But you have to do both. Yeah. Of course. You have a number that you're responsible for. And so, yeah, if there's a big swing deal and you're a frontline leader, yeah, you're all hands on deck. At the same time, guess what? Your number's gonna keep going up sequentially month over month, quarter over quarter as these new sellers ramp up. And so you're directly incentivized to make sure that they're coming into the system to be killers. Otherwise, you're gonna be in trouble as a leader. [00:39:00] S1: What percent of first calls do you think you're impressed by versus disappointed by? [00:39:06] S0: Seventy thirty. 70 in the camp of I'm impressed. 30 in the camp of this is just not to our standard. And and so what happens in the 30%? I'm actually fairly in the weeds on this where I'm reviewing and watching a lot of Gong calls, specifically with new hires. Candidly, even more of our our tenured reps. And if it's not to our standard, I'm pulling them in in our leader, and we're gonna talk [00:39:28] S1: about It's tough. [00:39:29] S0: It's tough, but it's right. If you join a sales team that doesn't have your leader or your SVP that into the weeds holding you accountable, that's probably a bad sign.
00:39:29 · Max Freeman, Harry Stebbings
[00:39:29] S0: It's tough, but it's right. If you join a sales team that doesn't have your leader or your SVP that into the weeds holding you accountable, that's probably a bad sign. [00:39:43] S1: Talk about holding you to account. Let's say I come out of these ninety days. Okay? I'm ready. I'm unleashed in the wild. Carlos, who was the head of sales at Eleven Labs, said that they get 20 x quota. Now it was a slightly slightly popular clip. How do you feel about that? What is, like, good to you? And how would you advise founders listening? [00:40:05] S0: I sort of lean in the camp of Degman on this one, where if you're that efficient, you're probably leaving money on the table and you need more reps. Now, I think the old school thought, you know, that the snowflakes and the mongos used to run of, you know, four to one or five to one, that's too low. I think depending on our segments at ramp, it's anywhere from seven to 12. I think that's pretty healthy. [00:40:29] S1: It's a lot. I want you to pay me more if I was doing 12 to one, dude. [00:40:33] S0: I know. We might have to cut that Pay [00:40:35] S1: me pay me double, and then it'll be six to one. I know. I agree. [00:40:38] S0: We we might have to cut that part out. I don't know if our inside sales reps actually know that some of them are, like, 14 to one.
00:40:38 · Max Freeman, Harry Stebbings
[00:40:38] S0: We we might have to cut that part out. I don't know if our inside sales reps actually know that some of them are, like, 14 to one. [00:40:46] S1: They are a 100%. I think it's good. You want, like, the hunger games of competition. Okay. So for me, it's like an early stage company, though. I'm in the six to 10 range now is where I kinda need to be hitting to be in a... You are a performance sales team. [00:41:00] S0: I think that's right. [00:41:01] S1: And, like, ramp time, how long do you give me to to ramp post boot camp? Because, obviously, boot camp kinda getting my feet on the ground. How long do I get to ramp? [00:41:09] S0: Again, it depends on the segment. Our down market sellers, inside sales reps, sixty days, commercial reps, ninety days, mid market, four months, enterprise, five months, and our strategic enterprise is a six month ramping schedule. The reason why those ramping schedules exist in that way is just due to cycle length timing. How quickly [00:41:29] S1: do you know if someone's not very good?
00:41:29 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[00:41:29] S1: do you know if someone's not very good? [00:41:31] S0: I think it's actually fairly simple to get a pulse check on if someone is gonna be good or not. I think there's a direct correlation in onboarding with sellers that are annoying and sellers that are not. And when I say sellers that are annoying, they are constantly asking questions 20 fourseven. They're very thoughtful. They're talking about account strategy, they want to pick your brain about pipeline and getting you to send emails on their behalf, they want to ask you product questions, and it's never ending. There is a direct correlation with that person being incredible. The inverse is not always true, but I think the folks that are quiet, not asking any questions, or asking questions that any AI bot or Notion bot can answer, usually, that's gonna be weak signal. [00:42:18] S1: I I totally agree. I always say that, actually, the quality of a founder is very obvious. The quality of the questions founder asked at the end of an interview with a VC or [00:42:25] S0: a meeting with a VC. That's why I intentionally leave at least ten minutes in an interview for them to fire away at me. [00:42:32] S1: Because it tells you... People think... Like, my partners often say, why why are we spending so much time answering that question? Like, because it's... You don't get it. I'm actually measuring them. They go, tell me. You've got four partners. Is it an equal vote in the IC, or how do you guys think about investment decision making? That's quite a
00:42:32 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[00:42:32] S1: Because it tells you... People think... Like, my partners often say, why why are we spending so much time answering that question? Like, because it's... You don't get it. I'm actually measuring them. They go, tell me. You've got four partners. Is it an equal vote in the IC, or how do you guys think about investment decision making? That's quite a [00:42:49] S0: smart question to ask, Rafaan. I think about it the same way. I think about an interview where I intentionally need to give them at least ten to fifteen minutes to fire away as if they're trying to sell into me. And so I get some sellers who will say, hey, Max, I spoke with Scott on your enterprise team. I know he's number one right now. The reason why I think he's doing really well is he walked me through his process. Here's how I think about sales and why it's uniquely very similar to what it is that Scott's doing. That makes me a really good fit for this role. In the same way that you're breaking into an enterprise account. If I'm a seller and I get on the phone with a CFO, hey, mister CFO, I spoke with your controller. These are the pain points. These are the challenges. Here's how I think RAMP can uniquely solve some of these said challenges. It's the same thing that I'm trying to ascertain. [00:43:39] S1: Can I ask you? You've mentioned Dagnon quite a few times. Dagnon always says to me, like, I think customer success is bullshit. Like, it should be paid for professional services. And I'm like, I'm not sure if he's right. Do you think CS is bullshit and it should just be paid for?