Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Hiring reps before sales leaders saves early-stage cash and equity

Kyle Parrish · 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales · Dec 8, 2021 · at 8:23

Kyle Parrish, VP of Sales at Figma, discusses early sales hiring strategy and why starting with individual reps rather than a Head of Sales reduces early burn.

0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.8s
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“I think the one thing to call out is it's the cheaper route. You're not going to give away as much equity. You're not going to be probably paying these people in very early stage, high amount of cash”

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More from Kyle Parrish

Disclosure
Figma maintains a strict zero-discounting policy on its product
“We don't discount the product. It's something we've held to really strongly.”
Kyle Parrish Dec 8, 2021 ▶ 34:19 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales
Insight
Founder-led sales is inherently unscalable and unrepeatable
“Founder-led sales isn't scalable. It's not repeatable”
Kyle Parrish Dec 8, 2021 ▶ 6:06 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales
Insight
Hire a sales leader before expanding to three or more reps
“I think if you have hit some level of product market fit, you're seeing traction. You know that there is a market to go grab, and it's a speed game. And like, we need to go do it fast. And you're like, I think that we can support having five salespeople, even,…”
Kyle Parrish Dec 8, 2021 ▶ 6:36 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales
Insight
Hiring big-tech sales veterans is often a mistake for early startups
“Some founders get, you know, really, really star eyed around, Oh, they were at Salesforce for 15 years. There's such a great fit for my 40 employee startup to come and build sales or come and be the first rep. And I'm not saying that they couldn't be, but gene…”
Kyle Parrish Dec 8, 2021 ▶ 20:07 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales
Prediction Held up
Figma's $10B valuation is just the floor for the company
“You know, we're now a ten billion dollar company with the most recent fundraise, but we also genuinely think that that's just the floor. I mean, Figma is going to be a massive company and we're just getting started.”
Kyle Parrish Dec 8, 2021 ▶ 31:40 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Parrish completed 19 interviews in three days to join Dropbox
“Three days, 19 interviews later, I ended up getting the job at Dropbox”
Kyle Parrish Dec 8, 2021 ▶ 4:27 20 Sales: When To Hire Your Head of Sales/ First Reps, What To Look for in 10x Sales Candidates, How To Structure The Hiring Process, How To Onboard New Reps Efficiently, How To Set First Quotas and more with Kyle Parrish, Figma's VP Sales
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