Kyle Parrish, Figma’s first sales hire, built the company’s zero-to-one sales engine from scratch. Figma now has more than 3 million monthly users. Prior to Figma, Kyle spent 5 years at Dropbox in various sales roles. At Dropbox, Kyle successfully launched and scaled the Austin office to 100+ people, and then led the enterprise sales function in San Francisco and New York.

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In today’s episode, we discuss:

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Referenced:

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Where to find Kyle Parrish:

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Where to find Brett Berson:

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Where to find First Round Capital:

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:10) What founders need to figure out before hiring salespeople

(03:48) Who to hire as your first salesperson

(05:34) Transitioning away from founder-led sales

(07:07) Tactics for hiring great salespeople

(12:50) The ideal experience sales candidates should have

(13:49) Common traits of successful salespeople

(18:45) What it was like being Figma’s first sales hire

(19:59) Interesting tactic to integrate the first sales hire

(21:16) How Figma executed its early sales motion

(32:27) Why Figma changed its customer narrative

(34:03) Building outbound sales strategy at Figma

(36:17) Segmented pricing and no discounts

(41:55) Kyle’s transition from Dropbox to Figma

(47:25) Creating a world-class sales culture

(51:46) How Figma does sales differently

(54:02) Building the initial sales team around a passion for the product

(57:12) Figma’s unique hiring process for salespeople

(60:40) Advice for founders hiring their first salesperson

(63:18) The secret to Dylan Field’s success

(64:33) How to scale yourself as an early hire

(66:25) Oliver Jay’s impact on Kyle