So I’m proud to have co-led the Series A investment in Salesloft back in the day, and to have brought in almost all the later stage investors, too. A fun one for me, especially as they exited for $2.3 Billion in 2021! Seemed like an almost ordinary exit in the go-go days of 2021. Today? I mean, where are these exits 😉
One of the top things I learned from founding CEO Kyle Porter was being utterly tenacious in competitive spaces.
What do I mean? First, while Salesloft was overall very early to the space, in terms of the ultimate product, it actually came a bit after Outreach, Toutapp, Yesware, and many others you may have forgotten. It had $7m in ARR already in a different product — but the addition of a sales communications tool and a revenue management tool came after.
And you know what I always heard from Kyle?
“We’ll build an ever better version”.
Rather than be bowed or worried about competition, he had such confidence in his team, he viewed them as a roadmap that he could always catch.
When you hear that, and see it, it’s just so inspiring.
What you hear from 80%+ of CEOs in competitive spaces is … the other vibe, that border on excuses:
- “They have more money than us”
- “They have so many more resources”
- “The space is so crowded”
- “It’s hard enough just keeping up with what we’ve built”
- “Maybe next year”
- Woe is me.
- We don’t have enough cash.
- That’s too hard.
The other vibe I’ll call: Maybe Next Year.
Look you don’t always win being first. You don’t always win being the cleverest. You often win in a competitive space by charging head-on. By beating them not just where you are innovative, but where they are strong.
These are the startups I want to invest in, and work with, and the ones you should join.
The ones that face the competition head on. And yes, find white space they are missing. But also — just go beat them directly.
