Introduction

If you want your startup to grow, you can’t walk away from sales. This guide explains why founders must stay in charge of revenue forever.

What's the problem it solves?

Many founders believe they can hire salespeople and stop selling. But when they step away too soon, they lose touch with customers and risk destroying their company’s growth.

Quick Summary

Selling isn’t just a temporary task for startup founders-it’s a job that never really ends. The founder must always stay involved in bringing in revenue, talking to customers, and understanding the market. Even if they build a team later, the founder still leads the sales engine to keep the business on track.

This article lays out the six steps of founder-led sales, starting with finding a product people want to pay for, getting your first buyers, hiring help only when ready, and building a system that can scale. It also warns against common mistakes, like hiring a sales leader too early or stepping away from customer feedback. In the end, it shows how staying close to sales gives the founder better products, smarter hires, and stronger companies.

Key Takeaways from the article

• Sales is not a phase you graduate from-it’s a forever job for at least one founder.
• You can’t lead your company if you’re not in touch with what customers want and why they buy.
• There are six phases: find product fit, get early customers, make your first hire, build a system, scale it, and then hire a sales leader.
• Never hire a sales leader before you’ve built something repeatable.
• Your first sales hire should support your system, not replace your role.
• Repeatability comes before growth. Don’t scale until you’ve proven what works.
• Use what you learn in sales to shape your product and team decisions.
• You have a “founder’s advantage”-people will tell you more truth than they would a salesperson. Use it.
• Ask for referrals and take notes after every customer talk. Build playbooks from these lessons.
• Sales isn’t a distraction. It’s the most important part of building a real, lasting business.

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