McCall: Startups wait too long to make their first sales operations hire
Andy McCall · Lighthouse or Landgrab? How to Pick Your AI Sales Strategy · Aug 12, 2026 · at 40:58
Andy McCall, sales executive and a16z advisor, explains to Joe Schmidt which sales functions founders mistakenly delay hiring during early company growth.
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“I would say sales operations is, is probably one that I see companies waiting a little too long on. And I am not a proponent. I don't think you need to, you know, stand up a gigantic revenue operations organization. It can be literally like one person, but you need somebody that every day is thinking through territory alignment, you know, name lists, doing, you know, commission skirmishes, setting a sales constitution, like all that kind of stuff becomes really, really, really important because when you get into like, you know, scale mode, you want all that stuff like largely figured out. You don't want, they become speed bumps otherwise.”
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