Tech startups don’t fail because they run out of money.
They fail because they run out of momentum, usually right after founder-led sales hit a wall.
Venture capital bets on potential. A product with promise. A market with urgency. A team with energy.
But too often, the engine built to deliver on that potential, the sales function, never scales.
And the result? Most startups stall long before they ever become profitable, putting unnecessary drag on entire portfolios.
So what’s going wrong?
The Founder-Led Sales Trap
In the early days, founder-led sales are a strength. Founders bring belief, urgency, and deep product insight to the table — and buyers respond to that passion. But what feels like traction is often not yet repeatable. It’s intuition, not infrastructure.
The moment you try to replace the founder with a sales hire, things fall apart.
This isn't a hiring problem — it’s a sales effectiveness problem.
The Missing Layer: Sales Effectiveness Before Scale
Startups are told to "scale fast," but rarely taught how to scale right.
That requires foundational sales infrastructure:
Most startups try to figure this out after they hire a Head of Sales, often after burning through their first few reps.
But by then, the damage is already done: lost revenue, team churn, and a broken feedback loop between sales and product.
What This Means for Venture Portfolios
For VCs, this dysfunction shows up as:
And most critically: too few companies graduating from Seed to Series A or beyond with the commercial maturity to justify larger follow-on rounds.
Where a Sales Effectiveness Consultant Makes the Difference
Engaging a sales effectiveness consultant at the right stage — just before or during the transition out of founder-led sales — can have a profound impact:
Put simply: it helps startups become sales-ready, not just sales-hopeful.
Scaling Product Is Not the Same as Scaling Sales
Engineering and product development follow agile frameworks, standups, and iteration loops.
But sales is too often treated like a black box or worse, a “hire it and hope” strategy.
That’s not scale. That’s risk.
Startups that invest early in sales effectiveness don’t just grow revenue, they grow with intention. They attract better reps. They retain better customers. They prove their model faster.
And that makes them more valuable for founders and for investors.
Final Thought
If you’re a VC or ecosystem leader looking to increase the commercial maturity of your portfolio, consider this:
Before you fund more salespeople, fund the system they’ll be selling within.
A small investment in sales effectiveness infrastructure can unlock a far larger return and help ensure your startups aren’t just exciting, but enduring.