Article · ~20 min read

This GTM Leader Crowdsources Early Lessons From Stripe, Figma and More

Meka Asonye · First Round Review Free Intermediate

Names both failure modes of the founder-to-first-hire handoff, holding on too long and letting go too early, with input from eleven operators at Stripe, Figma, Coda and Loom. Directly useful when you are deciding on the timing.

  • The signal to hire sales is five legitimate ICP companies deeply engaged and the founder becoming the bottleneck.
  • Budget at least six months to source, hire, and onboard a VP of Sales.
  • Hire a leader who has scaled about one order of magnitude above you: for a 10-person team, someone who ran roughly 100.
  • Keep early comp plans to two metrics maximum, and trial a quota with no teeth for a quarter before it counts.
Open on review.firstround.com ↗

It answers 3 questions

  1. I am the first GTM hire at a startup. What is my job really, and how do I not get fired in 12 months?
  2. When do I stop selling myself and hire the first person, and what kind of person should that be?
  3. What do the very best GTM teams do that everyone else does not?

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