Probably the most common and important early stage go-to-market question I get from founders and first sales leaders is this: What are creative new ways to create demand for my sales team?

It's a forever question, and it's so hard. Usually it's about understanding what's coming next. Best practices that haven't been exploited yet.

I have a hypothesis — it's community-led growth, CLG.

My friend Paul St. John, the first sales leader at GitHub, arguably the pioneer on CLG, joins me to demystify how he built a revenue machine and all the unique attributes of doing that on top of a very successful CLG company.

Free Resource:

• [Free Report] Learn from 1,000+ startup founders on how AI is scaling their sales strategy https://clickhubspot.com/ias

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

I'm rewriting some of my Science of Scaling framework after this conversation. It knocked me off my chair, if we're being honest here.

It's about the commission plan.

When I asked Nick Dellis (VP of Revenue, Mercury) about his team's commission plan, he said, "We don't have one."

And Nick makes a strong case for why it might be high time for your company to ditch its commission plan too.

Resource:

[Free Download] Learn how sales teams are using AI and automation with our 2024 Report https://clickhubspot.com/sai

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Today we're doing something a little different. We've heard from sales leaders, but what about the other side of the scaling equation: Venture Capital.

Kyle Duffy joins us from Gradient Ventures, part of Google parent Alphabet, specializing in early stage investing in AI and machine learning. Exciting stuff, to say the least.

Kyle unpacks early stages of go-to-market development — what are the biggest opportunities he sees, and what are the ones early stage founders fail to exploit?

[Free Download] Discover how sales leaders leverage AI to optimize their GTM strategy to drive better results https://clickhubspot.com/gtm

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

We've gone from arguably the biggest bull market in the history of tech in 2020-2021 to arguably tech's biggest down cycles in 2022-2023.

It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.

What does that mean for a sales leader? What does that mean for the pressures you're getting from your CEO, from the leadership team, from the board? How do you manage expectations, culture, product pivots, and value prop with your customer?

Take a breath. Exhale. Ang McManamon (Vp of Sales, Crunchbase) gets candid about navigating tricky sales cycles — so you'll be best equipped for the inevitable next one.

Use this to start closing more deals https://clickhubspot.com/atg

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Sales leaders often diligence the CEO, but they quickly realize they should've done the same for the CMO. Same for the other way around. It's a topic not even Mark has yet to fully codify.

Host Mark Roberge is joined by Sydney Sloan (CMO, Drata) and Adam Aarons (CRO, Drata) to discuss how the two navigated their way into a unicorn-worthy partnership. They'll talk about:

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.

Community-led growth involves multiple communities, including core user communities, spheres of influence (like executives or department heads), and the intersection of these communities. And when you run it alongside a PLG motion, it can be truly powerful.

Host Mark Roberge is joined by Andrew Ettinger (CRO, Appen) to discuss applying a community-led growth model at your org. In this episode learn more about:

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.

No matter what stage your company is in, you need to build a best in class sales team. And no one knows how to do that better than today's guest.

Host Mark Roberge is joined by John McMahon (Board Member, Snowflake & MongoDB) to get super tactical on how to build a billion dollar rev org. They discuss:

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.

Today we have the architect behind the go-to-market strategy. We're going to laugh, we're going to cry. We're gonna talk about the most important go-to-market strategic moves that made HubSpot what it is today.

Host Mark Roberge is joined by Brian Halligan, (Co-Founder, HubSpot) to discuss the roles of a founder and first sales person in taking a company from startup to scale up . In this episode learn more about:

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.

When you found a startup, you’re the first salesperson. Surprise! But eventually, if things go right, you’ll grow the company to a point where you need to shift from founder selling to scaling a global sales team.

Host Mark Roberge is joined by Jonathan Anguelov, (Co-Founder, Aircall) to discuss this evolving role of founders. In this episode learn more about:

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.

How do you set the right sales quota for a rep? What about the quarterly spend on account executives, marketing, or SDRs?

Host Mark Roberge is joined by Matt Plank (CRO, Rippling) to discuss how to think through all the different projections on your sales and marketing spends. In this episode learn more about:

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.