Article

If You're a Founder Brushing Up on Sales 101

First Round Review Free Intermediate

This is a curated set of First Round's deepest sales pieces for founders, including scripts for the exact emails and calls that close deals. It is worth the time because it comes from operators who scaled sales at real venture-backed companies, not generic sales-blog advice.

  • Founder-led sales is a repeatable skill, not innate charisma
  • Specific scripts exist for the emails and calls that actually close
  • Sustainable sales process beats one-off heroics
Open on review.firstround.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I follow up after a good sales call without being annoying or looking desperate?

Read with it

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  4. Blomfield (founder of Monzo and GoCarchless, now a YC partner) gives the concrete mechanics of closing that first B2B deal:... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · 25 min read The Sales Playbook for Founders Tom Blomfield
  5. An Indian founder story where the early demand test was manual, cold emails and direct outreach to find the first customers... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Podcast · ~50 min How Khadim Batti Built Whatfix Into a Global SaaS Leader Prime Venture Partners
  6. Your short answer says to ask what would have to be true for someone to pay today, and this book is the toolkit for exactly... Chris Voss Book Never Split the Difference Chris Voss
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