Carlos Delatorre
Chief Revenue Officer, Harness. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executiveoperatorinvestor@carlosdcarlosd ↗LinkedIn ↗harness.io ↗
Carlos Delatorre is an enterprise software sales leader who previously served as CRO of MongoDB through its IPO, CRO of TripActions, and CEO of Vera Security. He is known for establishing go-to-market systems and sales pipeline generation frameworks for high-growth tech companies.
2shows
2appearances
64statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
8said about them ↓ Everything Carlos Delatorre said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Delatorre: Former Oracle salespeople performed poorly at MongoDB
“So at MongoDB, the sales team Oracle people did really poorly for the most part.”
Delatorre: Former Concur and Amex reps perform poorly at TripActions
“And at TripActions, Concur people and Amex people do poorly.”
Delatorre: Startups cannot scale from $20M to $100M on PLG alone
“But you don't get from 20 to a hundred on PLG because, you know, to get from 20 to a hundred, you're probably doing bigger deals, and you're doing bigger deals at bigger companies, and so PLG makes for a great meeting, and you know, I think in a hundred, if yo…”
Founders Should Avoid Hiring a Sales Leader in the First Years
“Don't hire a leader yet. Hire individual contributor. At first just hire SDRs and you be the rep so that you get, I think for an early stage company, the CEO really has to develop the plays, figure out the message, at least that initial message.”
Hiring AEs Without Self-Sourcing Pipeline Experience Is a Non-Negotiable Risk
“Pipeline generation. Hiring AEs that have not built their own pipeline, that one is non-negotiable, because if they say they will, if they say they want to they just don't know how hard it is, or they don't remember, maybe they did it as SDRs a long, long time…”
Carlos Delatorre Has Fired Sales Reps During First-Month Bootcamp
“We've parted ways with people at bootcamp. It was clear in their first month that, you know, we'd made a mistake and, you know, we apologize for that because we hired them. But why wait nine months and waste their time and waste our time and opportunity costs?”
Delatorre: Disruptive startups should hire sales athletes over legacy reps
“You don't disrupt a market by hiring the people from the legacy vendors and hoping they'll figure it out. You need fresh thinking, and so really what that means is you hire sales athletes, exceptional sales talent, That probably doesn't know anything about you…”
Carlos Delatorre: Salespeople Do Not Sell; Buyers Buy
“I don't believe salespeople sell. Buyers buy. All salespeople can do is create an environment that is conducive to that purchase decision.”
High Sales Performance Is Mostly Learned, Not Innate Charisma
“I think it absolutely can be learned. And I think when people say that someone is born a sales, a salesperson, usually what they're referring to is charisma and a big personality. And I don't know that those things are necessarily what makes a great salesperso…”
Carlos Delatorre: Sales Is More Science Than Art
“There are people who are savants, who are gifted, and there are people who can Connect dots that others don't see, but then others can follow, can learn, and can replicate those things, so I think it's more science than art, candidly.”
Carlos Delatorre: Past Sales Success Does Not Predict Future Performance
“A trap and a mistake that people make is Over rotating on what they have done in the past, and assuming that success in the past predicts success in the future.”
Prioritize Deal-Size Experience Over Domain Expertise When Hiring Sales Reps
“I would prefer experience with the type of deal over domain with the, unless the domain is so specific that it's going to take a lifetime. You know, if I'm selling some like, you know, molecular modeling technology and you have to be a biologist to understand …”
Hiring Sales Reps Without Challenger Company Experience Is High Risk
“I've spent almost my entire career at challenger companies. And so if you're going to disrupt a marketplace the risk associated with hiring someone that hasn't been at a challenger company is really, really high. So that one is a near non-negotiable.”
Isolated MongoDB Sales Reps Had a 4x Higher Attrition Rate
“At MongoDB, we hired a lot of people, and our attrition was higher than we wanted it to be, and so we did a lot of analysis on attrition, and what we found is that lone rangers, and we meant that meaning when we have a single employee in a You know, if we have…”
Pipeline Volume Trumps Execution Precision in Sales
“Roughly excellence in pipeline generation equals excellence in sales. Someone who's got a massive pipeline that misses some things in the sales cycles, They're probably still gonna do very well. Someone that executes beautifully, but doesn't have enough pipeli…”
Outbound Cold Calling Remains the Most Effective Pipeline Generation Method
“Really the most effective means of pipeline generation is outbound cold calling.”
Two-Thirds of Sales Meetings Are Scheduled via Cold Calling
“Most meetings are set, like two thirds are set as a cold call.”
Outbound Sales Models Break Down Below $50k Contract Sizes
“Certainly down to 50 K, maybe below 50 K probably, you know, starts to break down. Cause down to 50 K you know, your reps are gonna be earlier in career, and so their OTE is not as high.”
Waiting 18 Months to Fire Underperforming Reps Is Extremely Costly
“A lot of companies, You know, they, they'll, they'll start to worry about someone that hasn't sold at, you know, nine, 10, 1112 months, and so then they'll make a decision to part ways at 18 months. That's so expensive”
Delay Formal Sales Enablement Until Closing 10 to 20 Customers
“For a founder at a, you know, let's say a series, a company, I would get some really smart, hardworking you know, enthusiastic individual contributors and go build it. And you won't, and you'll be able to build your enablement after you've closed, you know, 10…”
Verticalizing Horizontal Sales Teams Hurts Meritocracy
“Verticalizing the sales force when you have a horizontal solution, I think cuts it cuts against meritocracy because there's typically going to be some verticals that are better than others.”
The SaaS Seat Churn Trough Is Mostly Behind Us
“I do think that a lot of that has worked through the system already. Companies that I'm, you know, a little closer to, I think most of that seems to be the trough, let's say is, you know, is behind us.”
The Transactional Enterprise Sales Rep Model Is Dead
“And I think the days of, you know, the big sales rep with the fancy suit that comes in and does the big deal and then walks off to another To another, you know, to another account. I don't think that's healthy, and I think those days are long gone.”
Price Discounting Fails to Create Non-Existent Deals in Enterprise Sales
“I think that using discount to close a deal that was not otherwise going to close, rarely works. Because if it's a considered purchase, There is either a champion that is willing to advocate for this purchase and advocate with the economic buyer for this purch…”
The other half of the tape: Carlos Delatorre's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 8 times in 3 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 3Rich Liu 2Mark Goldberger 2Dan Fougere 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 8
2024 4 mentions in 1 episode
2023 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Carlos's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Chief Revenue Officer, Harness | 1 | 53 | 100% 1/1 | full record on 20VC → |
 SAASTRLEDGER | Chief Revenue Officer, Harness | 1 | 11 | — | full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast → |