Short excerpt from a Jason M. Lemkin talk advising startup founders on which VP to hire first to scale revenue. Lemkin argues that once a company reaches about $1M (or $2M) in revenue — and especially after it has two sales reps at quota — it is ready for a VP-level hire (not necessarily only a VP of Sales); any strong VP will be accretive and can scale the team substantially.
So here's the one that, like, everybody gets a little bit wrong. Which is which VP? I finally got to a million or even 2 million in revenue. Which VP should I hire first? 90% of you in the audience will want to hire the VP of sales first, right? You'll finally figure out how to get customers. You'll get tired. You'll feel like, if I can find this great VP of sales, she'll be a magician. I'll sell more. If at a million in revenue, you're ready. A million. Two at the latest. You are absolutely ready for a VP of Sales once you even have two reps at quota. As soon as you have two, a great VP can take you from three to 300. She can do it. But what people don't get, you should hire actually any great VP you can find at a million. We fixate on this magician that's gonna magically bail us out. That means that all of these VPs, if they're awesome, will be accretive. So, yes, you want the VP of sales.
