I ran a bootstrapped firm that was about 15FTE at its peak before it sold. So growth, but not mega growth.
The problems I ran into was:
- Hiring experience from outside often led to the old "inside" team being disgruntled at having someone come in over them (who doesn't know our ecosystem that well)
- At certain points, I had to choose between taking profit out and taking a chance on an expensive outside hire (who would not necessarily be increasing revenue directly)
- OEM/Strategic deals (%20-40 of revenue) often took a _long_ time... (like 1-3 years). There was no good way to incentivize a sales rep on a sales cycle that is so long. (One of our deals took seven years from initial presentation to first dollar... but there were a lot of dollars once they started!) I never figured out how to grow a sales team for OEM deals.
The problems I ran into was:
- Hiring experience from outside often led to the old "inside" team being disgruntled at having someone come in over them (who doesn't know our ecosystem that well)
- At certain points, I had to choose between taking profit out and taking a chance on an expensive outside hire (who would not necessarily be increasing revenue directly)
- OEM/Strategic deals (%20-40 of revenue) often took a _long_ time... (like 1-3 years). There was no good way to incentivize a sales rep on a sales cycle that is so long. (One of our deals took seven years from initial presentation to first dollar... but there were a lot of dollars once they started!) I never figured out how to grow a sales team for OEM deals.
So there are a few of my bits.