How do I decide which GTM roles to hire, and in what order?
The short answer
Hire against the bottleneck you can prove, not the org chart you eventually want. If you have more conversations than you can run, hire a closer; if your closers are idle, hire pipeline generation instead. If the closers are winning but the numbers are a mess and forecasting is guesswork, that is your first ops person, usually part-time before full-time. Product marketing earns its seat when the same objection keeps costing you deals and nobody owns the answer. Two reps before a manager, and never hire a leader to figure out a motion you have not yet found yourself.
Go deeper, your way
5 hand-picked resources, 2 India-specific, 5 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
🎧 Podcast
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Why we picked it
Lemkin gives actual numbers for the decisions leaders agonise over: when to hire, how to set quota, how many reps per manager. Opinionated in a way that is useful even where you disagree.
Why we picked it
Exotel sells across India, South East Asia and the Middle East, so Bhatia can compare emerging markets rather than treating the US as the only destination. Useful when you are choosing which market to expand into and how to staff it.
Why we picked it
This is where the SDR and AE split came from, and the summary gives you the whole model without the book. The rule that no AE prospects and no SDR closes explains why GTM org charts look the way they do.
Why we picked it
A rare account of the specific moments a GTM changed shape, from narrowing to cold email agencies, to reversing the demo, to layering enterprise on top of self-serve. Best-in-class practice described as decisions rather than principles.
Why we picked it
Kirani has backed Freshworks, Chargebee and BrowserStack, and his rule that the product stays horizontal while the GTM goes vertical is the most quoted line in Indian SaaS for good reason. Covers push versus pull markets, channel focus, first pricing and first hires in one piece.
