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Herzberg: Closing initial deals builds sales empathy and informs product

Dannie Herzberg · 20VC: The Memo: What is a Sales Playbook? Does the Founder Need to Create It? Should the First Sales Hire Be a Leader or a Rep? · Jul 27, 2022 · at 11:30

Dannie Herzberg was not on this episode. A recording of them was played into it, so these are their words but not an appearance on 20VC. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.

Danny Herzberg, partner at Sequoia, explains the dual benefits founders gain when personally closing their startup's first 10 to 20 customers.

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“And after selling the first 10, 20 customers. The founder will, number one, have a really good sense of empathy for the first official salespeople that he or she brings on, and number two, will learn that selling is one of the most important input mechanisms for product direction, too.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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Prediction Not checkable as stated
Herzberg will hire candidates she dislikes if they have high integrity
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