Some roles at a startup attract a lot of attention.
Everyone wants to be a ‘Founder.’ And, whether a Founder or not, other jobs high on the hip list include CEO, Lead Engineer, Head of Product, and any job title that includes the term ‘Growth Hacker.’
However, a role that is consistently under appreciated is that of sales. Too often the ‘Head of Sales’ is given a lowly status that carries a slight whiff of pariah.
This is a huge mistake.
SPEAKING AS AN ENTREPRENEUR:
Selling is the single most important thing that a Founder must be able to do.
SPEAKING AS A VC
I couldn’t consider backing a team where there wasn’t at least one natural-born-killer salesperson on the founding team. In fact, on many of the best teams, there’s more than one.