In this episode, Pete Kazanjy—author of Founding Sales and a veteran sales leader—joins hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow to share a crash course in founder-led sales, explaining why early-stage founders have to take charge of selling before hiring sales reps. He breaks down the key mindset shifts for technical founders, how sales is like “weaponized product management,” and when it’s time to delegate lead generation.
If you're a startup founder looking to master sales we highly recommend this episode.
To read Pete's book: https://www.foundingsales.com/
Chapters:
00:00 The Future of Sales in Age of AI
06:11 Objection Handling and Sales Narrative Crafting
12:48 Validation through Founder-Led Sales Approach
16:55 Founder's hands-on role in scalable sales.
22:09 Tailoring Outreach Strategies for Target Audiences
29:49 LinkedIn Prospect Engagement for Founder Outreach Success
35:15 Empathetic Approach to Sales Conversations
42:10 Effective Sales Strategies for Closing Deals
47:31 Hiring Early Stage Salespeople for Startups
54:12 Product-Obsessed Pioneers in Organizations
58:26 Packaging Tactical Solutions for Customer Pain Points
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Key Takeaways and Lessons from the Conversation
Why Founders Must Sell First
- Early-stage sales are an extension of product management (“weaponized product management”). Founders—who best understand the product vision and user pain—are most suited to do the initial “debugging” of the sales motion.
- You can’t simply hire a head of sales at the seed stage. Founders need the direct feedback loop to validate whether people truly have the problem and whether the pitch is resonating.
Building a Narrative/Pitch
A repeatable, succinct narrative is the bedrock. Show the buyer:
- The Problem you solve and why it’s worth addressing urgently.
- How your solution works and why it’s better than their status quo.
- Proof (even early customer stories/testimonials) that it actually delivers.
This narrative informs everything: first emails, discovery questions, demo structure, ads, etc.
Prospecting & Outbound Basics
- Identify which types of organizations and specific titles inside them feel the “pain” you solve. Different personas prefer different outreach channels: phone, email, LinkedIn, even in-person if applicable.
- Founders should do the actual outreach early on. Leveraging “I’m the founder, and I’d love your feedback” often earns a higher response rate.
Pre-Call Planning & Discovery
- Research your prospect’s background, organization size, tech stack, or prior employers—anything that helps you form a hypothesis about their pain.
- A good discovery call feels like a conversation between peers—not a hard sell. You’re exploring whether they truly have the problem.
- If there’s good alignment, move naturally toward how you can help. If it’s not a fit, part ways amicably.
Closing Deals
- After discovering a real need, present how you solve it, give proof points, and ask about commercial details directly (e.g. “If we agree on terms, are you ready to move forward?”). If they voice objections, welcome them. This usually reveals the real barriers—price, timing, internal buy-in, etc. Address them one by one.
Early Pricing
- Don’t over-engineer or “innovate” on pricing at the seed stage. Look at comparable B2B tools your target persona already buys and follow a familiar model (e.g. per-seat for sales software).
- Plan to iterate your pricing. As you grow more confident in your value, gradually raise prices and watch your win rate. Very high close rates often mean you’re underpricing.
Customer Success & Retention
- Recurring revenue = recurring impact. Signing a contract is just the start; founders must ensure a great onboarding so customers see time-to-value quickly.
- Happy customers fuel new sales, expansions, and referrals. This early “customer love” loop is critical for building momentum and validating product-market fit.
When to Hire a Sales Team
- Get enough at-bats as a founder to see repeatability (ideally 10–20+ deals, if your average deal size is mid-market or smaller).
- First hires are not typically “big-name” VPs or directors but rather 1–2 “full-stack” AEs who thrive in early-stage chaos.
- Founders hand off a solid playbook: the pitch, demo scripts, objection handling, and proven outreach sequences. That documentation and tribal knowledge will help new reps ramp quickly.
Founder’s Motivation & Teaching Mindset
Writing down the process (playbooks, pre-call checklists, sales scripts) is key—not only for your future hires, but for refining your own approach.
Founders (especially those from non-sales backgrounds) should view early selling as a learnable skill—a natural extension of product discovery that is just as critical as building the product itself.
