GTM Playbook: From founder-led to sales-led growth

❌ Transitioning from founder-led to sales-led growth doesn't start with a job ad.

As a founder, hiring your first salesperson is one of the biggest challenges, maybe even the most important hire in the early stage.

It’s crucial to build a go-to-market (GTM) team that makes your growth independent of yourself.

But here’s the truth that I learned building my previous company:

👉 It starts way earlier than with a job ad. Your sales team needs to be set up for success. If your foundation is shaky, you’ll burn through your runway. The first sales hire is just one step of many.

👉 To support this transition (as part of my work with different tech startups), I usually take an inventory of what’s in place and what’s missing to help companies shift to scalable, sales-led growth.

👉 Here’s the visual I created inspired by Peter Kazanjy’s Founding Sales stages outlining all the pieces that need to be documented, trained, and refined.

🟢 Only with this structured approach can you make your company’s growth independent of you.

Where are you in this process?👇