The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:58:41 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[00:58:41] S1: Have you guys just built all your own tools? [00:58:43] S0: Harry, this... When I come to London, I'll I'll show you this. It is insane what our sellers can accomplish with inspect, like creating bespoke custom demos, performing any analysis on, you know, current customers ramp configuration. It's epic. [00:58:59] S1: Who's to credit for that? Is that as the CTO who's built the internal tooling? [00:59:04] S0: Yeah. I I give dual credit to Eric and Kareem. It's just culturally in our DNA to push forward and go build. [00:59:13] S1: Okay. You have a job offer that you know will not be rejected. You can give it to anyone in sales in the world to join the Ramp Sales team. Who is it? [00:59:24] S0: ICR leader or anyone. [00:59:25] S1: Anyone. I liked Becca Lindquist a lot from Clay. [00:59:29] S0: So I was literally gonna say, Becca or someone that's under... Like, I'm a big believer in finding someone that's just about to hit an insane trajectory. Again, my whole thesis on mispriced assets. There's a guy, Charlie Demuth, who's an enterprise frontline leader at ProFound, who's a... He's an animal that I've been... Every every six months, I I try and bring him in. Hopefully, Mark, doesn't listen to this because he's the SVP of sales at ProFound. [01:00:00] S1: What's your biggest advice to a new rep on their first day?
01:00:00 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[01:00:00] S1: What's your biggest advice to a new rep on their first day? [01:00:05] S0: You need to you need to go all in. You need to be obsessed. Because if you're not obsessed, you're going to be average. And the additive thing I'd I'd say too is be a problem solver. Don't be a problem finder. Anybody could be a problem finder at a startup. There's a thousand things on fire every waking moment. Very few can be a problem solver. As a new seller, you bring a fresh perspective. You could see there could be something structurally wrong with our process. There's something that you were doing at your previous company that might be applied to help move the business forward. That is how you're going to accelerate your career and do well. And then get, I guess with obsession, like take fucking onboarding seriously. Pass your certifications, break into accounts, start creating a lot of your own pipeline, all the basic stuff that you'd be surprised some people neglected. [01:00:56] S1: I'm always like, listen, accept blame, and deflect credit. Like, the worst thing for me is, oh, no. No. But that wasn't my fault. That was Max's fault.
01:00:56 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[01:00:56] S1: I'm always like, listen, accept blame, and deflect credit. Like, the worst thing for me is, oh, no. No. But that wasn't my fault. That was Max's fault. [01:01:04] S0: Yep. There... There's nothing worse than going to your leader and saying, hey. Do you have any feedback for me? That's an atrocious exercise for everybody involved. Come to the table with a point of view, Hey, I noticed this in my last two deals. Here's how I'm thinking about course correcting. I'd love to get your take. I'd love to get your advice. Am I viewing this the right way? Have you seen this play out with other sellers? That's just the mindset that you need to bring to be incredibly effective in your role as a new seller. [01:01:31] S1: I agree with you. It's a really good point because whenever... But they always do it to me, and I'm always like, oh, fuck. I guess I should have been better at giving you performance reviews. [01:01:39] S0: I I know. [01:01:39] S1: Do know what I mean? And it makes me feel shit. You're kind of asking a horizontal question that's not like, hey. I feel like I need help with the closing process. [01:01:47] S0: Yes. Same with leaders. Same with leaders. Hey. Do you have any feedback for me? Hey. I noticed this problem. Here's how I'm gonna go solve it. Here's the cross functional resource that I'm gonna need to bring in. If I get blocked, like, come help come help me.
01:01:47 · Max Freeman, Harry Stebbings
[01:01:47] S0: Yes. Same with leaders. Same with leaders. Hey. Do you have any feedback for me? Hey. I noticed this problem. Here's how I'm gonna go solve it. Here's the cross functional resource that I'm gonna need to bring in. If I get blocked, like, come help come help me. [01:02:02] S1: Do you know what fucks me off more, man, Ling? Intro request is in a similar vein, horizontal. I'd love an intro to someone at Ram. I know. Someone at Ram. I can I can do Keith Raboy, the board member? I can do Eric Glyman. I can do Max, the rock star sales leader, but I don't have also a freaking clue why. So I know. That would be helpful too. And on top of that, you know, I get about 50 intro requests a day. Maybe if you could do a copy and paste, that might be helpful too. Yep. The horizontal shit nature of intro requests I know. Astounds me. [01:02:32] S0: You and me both. If you're gonna ask for an intro, there needs to be substance, and you need to make it so easy that they're just forwarding it to the person with the appropriate context. Otherwise, you shouldn't expect a response. [01:02:45] S1: Max, I'm totally aware of the ask here, but I'd love to meet Colin. I'd love to specifically speak to him about his experience at X. I've added a message below that you can copy and paste. Yep. By the way, I totally understand if this is not possible. Huge hugs, and let me know when you're in London. Yes. Final one for you. What's the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you? [01:03:06] S0: I have to give my wife credit. She was my girlfriend at the time.
01:03:06 · Max Freeman, Harry Stebbings
[01:03:06] S0: I have to give my wife credit. She was my girlfriend at the time. [01:03:11] S1: Oh, you're getting brownie points for this one. [01:03:14] S0: I am. Am. Look, it it was late twenty twenty, and I basically told her what I think this could turn into. This was like four or five months into ramp, but I was deliberate in telling her this is gonna fuck up our lives. Like, we're gonna have to make a lot of trade offs. I'm gonna be absent in our social life, but like, I really wanna pursue this, and I'm fired up about it. And she was super supportive, still is today. Doesn't love that we can all sweat. Yeah. No. I think that was that was probably the kindest thing that that anyone's done for me. [01:03:50] S1: Wow. Well, dude, listen. Chanel solves a lot of problems. So, you know, so it's it's okay. You know? I've learned this. I've missed a lot of family shit, and my mother has 30 Chanel handbags. [01:04:02] S0: So That's right. [01:04:03] S1: We both win. You know? Yeah. Dude, I've I've loved doing this. I I really so enjoy episodes like this where it is granular, it's reflective, it's fun. It's everything in one. Yeah. So I really appreciate it, man.
01:04:03 · Harry Stebbings, Max Freeman
[01:04:03] S1: We both win. You know? Yeah. Dude, I've I've loved doing this. I I really so enjoy episodes like this where it is granular, it's reflective, it's fun. It's everything in one. Yeah. So I really appreciate it, man. [01:04:18] S0: Me too. This was a blast. I'm such a huge fan of yours. This is full circle moment. Actually, what's funny, I should have said this in the beginning. Back when I was in SDR at Ramp, I always used to listen to your podcast and take anecdotes. This was all done by hand manually and reach out to the founders that you had as guests as a way to try and get them on Ramp. And so it's funny six and a half years later that I'm sitting here.