Here’s a post from Jason Caplain , a VC in Ralieigh, NC with another take that adds more meaning to the discussion about the entrepreneur being the chief sales guy. It casts a more refined light on the earlier post here.
The whole idea of “time to raise money, no time to sell” is a keeper of an insight.
Don’t most Americans like to sell? Apparently not by the appalling frequency with which this pattern repeats itself. People seem to be willing to go to amazing lengths not to sell something to someone.
After the seed/early stage, if the company is successful, a strong sales leader is going to be very important to new investors who will want to see capabilities spread over a team.
However, my contention is that even if there is a sales leader who is not the CEO on the founding team, the CEO has to be selling as a primary role.
The company cannot get the pulse of the market into the product cycle and make the rapid, instinctive changes and improvements that come from customer contact if the customer contact is relegated to a “function” on the team. It has to be the reason for being.
For even more on entrepreneurial sales, look up the work of Waverly Deutsch who teaches entrepreneurship at U of C and really understands the sales role!