Article · 7 min read

How did you go about doing the first few sales, and at what point did you feel the need for a sales hire?

Manav Garg with Sudheer Koneru · SaaSBoomi, The India Advantage Free Beginner India

Zenoti's Sudheer Koneru saying plainly that his first two sales hires both failed and he had to go back to selling himself. Rare honesty from an Indian founder about the part everyone else skips.

• Sudheer Koneru's first two sales hires never worked out, even with industry experience, so he sold himself.
• He suggests hiring a consulting firm to sharpen the pitch for the market before hiring a VP of Sales.
• The founder mindset he recommends: assume the company you built is the wrong one and start it again.
• Elad Gil's counterpoint: era-defining companies pushed on sales early, like Google hiring Omid Kordestani as a consumer site.