There is no transition "out of sales" as a founder

A 6-step framework to grow sales as a founder

Mar 05, 2025

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👋 Hi, it’s Kyle Poyar and welcome to Growth Unhinged, my weekly newsletter exploring the hidden playbooks behind the fastest-growing startups.

When I ask founders about their biggest growth mistakes, they almost always bring up early sales decisions. Their first AE was a costly mishire, setting them back 6+ months. They hired a sales leader before they were ready for it. Or they thought they could transition “out of sales” to focus on product.

Thankfully, Seth DeHart is one of the foremost experts on this topic. After successful runs as an early sales leader, he’s gone on to advise 80+ B2B startups — including Typeform, Attio, incident.io and SuperAnnotate — on this exact journey. He also runs Founder Led Sales, the free platform and community helping 250+ founders up their sales game. Today, Seth shares his six-step framework for nailing founder-led sales.

More resources: Future of GTM series | Zero to One series

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A guest post by

Seth DeHart

I run Founder Led Sales a resource platform for Founders on the journey of finding PMF through hiring a sales leader. I’ve led sales for multiple scale ups and advised over 100 Founders. I'm also a Venture Partner at Point Nine.