The traditional sales playbook assumes you have time to build a team. Most funded startups don't.
I've spent 12+ years selling for companies like Twilio, Box, and Oracle. I've seen the same pattern repeat itself dozens of times: A company raises $2-5M in seed funding. The board wants $1M ARR in 12 months. The founder hires two SDRs and an AE. And then... nothing happens for 90 days.
Why? Because the traditional sales playbook assumes you have time. Time to hire. Time to onboard. Time to ramp. Time for reps to learn your ICP, build pipeline, and start closing.
Here's the problem: investors aren't funding your reps' learning curve.
They're funding revenue growth. And the gap between "we just hired sales" and "we're consistently hitting quota" is where most early-stage companies die.