GTM 105: Scaling to $100M ARR with Creative Demand Gen and Hiring Discipline with Sam Blond

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4M ago 1:09:16

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Sam Blond is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Brex, where he scaled revenue from $1M to hundreds of millions in ARR. Prior to Brex, Sam served as VP of Sales at Zenefits, growing revenue from $1M to $70M in just two years. After his operating roles, Sam joined Founders Fund as an investing partner before leaving to co-found a new startup.
Discussed in this Episode:

Why investing early in sales ops and rev ops is critical for scaling revenue.
How to generate demand through creative campaigns and a "concentric circles" approach.
The risks of scaling sales teams too quickly based on flawed hiring models.
What VCs look for in a compelling founder pitch, beyond just business metrics.
Why focusing on generating pipeline is often better than optimizing conversions.
How to leverage customer marketing and "raving fans" as an early acquisition channel.

Highlights:
[5:00] – Sam's incredible track record scaling Brex and Zenefits from $1M to $100M+ ARR.
[13:58] – Outlining the most creative and successful demand gen campaigns run at Brex.
[20:17] – The importance of sustaining a culture of creativity in marketing as you scale.
[33:35] – Mistakes made at Zenefits: investing in rev ops too late, deprioritizing customer experience, hiring too fast.
[43:45] – What VCs look for in founders when metrics alone aren't enough to get the deal done.
[52:15] – One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Sam thinks is bull$***
[60:21] – One thing that is working for Sam in go-to-market right now.
Guest Speaker Links (Sam Blond):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-blond-791026b/
Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/
Sponsors:

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The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders - the experts who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories - revealing what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.
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