Close Your First $1M ARR With Your Laptop CLOSED (Joe Caprio, Partner @ Glasswing Ventures)

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1. 11:03

   to continue messaging them. So build really smart target audiences on Sales Navigator and then action like 100 connection requests a week with a very specific segmented message. Abandon email with 1% reply rates. Abandon SEO. Abandon things that take a long time to come back “to you and just build really smart theoretical market segments that you're going to beach head” into. And so I've got a company in my portfolio right now that is going fundraising and they wanted to do like a practice pitch to us. We led their pre-seed and we're going to lead their seed and we're going to help them raise or fill out the rest of the rounds. So they're practicing the pitch on us. And the founder says, you know, we're having success

   In Beachhead market selection

2. 12:44

   And it's literally 1500 humans now on one sentence, we're having success with seasonal factories. So you can literally just kind of take a hunch and build out 13 weeks worth of outbound and then drive real net new meetings based off this theory you have. And the conversation's not, “you need to buy my product. No, the conversation's like, here are my credentials. Here's what I'm” building. Here's my funding. Here's why I'm legitimate. And here's why I want to devote all of this education and money and desire into your role and your day-to-day problem. And I'm looking for prints. Damn, that's a hell of a lot better of a sales meeting to take than some sales rep

   In Founder-led outbound messaging

3. 24:04

   You don't even know if this product is going to exist anymore, guys. What are you doing? Yeah. Armand, I used to keep a Slack channel open to your point about not really knowing what product market fit is in early stages. I'd get on a call with somebody and I'd say, hey, we've raised some money. We're exiting stealth mode this winter. “Right now I'm just getting feedback from your job title. So let me talk you through what we're” building here, riff with you. And I want to know, is your industry a good industry to beachhead? Is your role the right user? Am I explaining this problem right? Help me out. Give me a pre-half hour. And that's the context of a lot of my early sales pitches when I launch a company. So I get on the call and not, do you want to buy this? But can you help me identify if I'm

   In Founder-led discovery calls

4. 24:10

   Yeah. Armand, I used to keep a Slack channel open to your point about not really knowing what product market fit is in early stages. I'd get on a call with somebody and I'd say, hey, we've raised some money. We're exiting stealth mode this winter. Right now I'm just getting feedback from your job title. So let me talk you through what we're “building here, riff with you. And I want to know, is your industry a good industry to beachhead?” Is your role the right user? Am I explaining this problem right? Help me out. Give me a pre-half hour. And that's the context of a lot of my early sales pitches when I launch a company. So I get on the call and not, do you want to buy this? But can you help me identify if I'm

   In Market-entry validation

5. 24:24

   Right now I'm just getting feedback from your job title. So let me talk you through what we're building here, riff with you. And I want to know, is your industry a good industry to beachhead? Is your role the right user? Am I explaining this problem right? Help me out. Give me a pre-half hour. And that's the context of a lot of my early sales pitches when I launch a company. “So I get on the call and not, do you want to buy this? But can you help me identify if I'm” building this for you or someone else? It's a much more interesting conversation to have. People like that. And in that conversation, they say, you know, Joe, I don't need your product here now, but you should have called me at my last company because insert scenario, insert dynamic,

   In Founder-led discovery calls

6. 25:48

   we, you know, like I'm really going with like customer testimonial led, like second generation prospect. You look like a deal of mine, but it's more like you look like a deal this prospect described. And again, I'm a founder, I'm venture-backed, I'm about to launch. “I just want a friendly chat.” Should I launch with you? And so again, even though now I'm going for deals, I'm still doing that friendly affable, I'm a venture-backed founder, isn't that interesting? And the audience is saying, yeah, it is interesting and yeah, I'll give you an honest ear and listen to what you're saying and then tell you, yeah, my business is like that. I do have that challenge.

   In Founder-led discovery calls

7. 33:29

   And the final question is, Joe, what is one thing that a sales leader or maybe in this case, a founder running a mini sales team, what is one bad habit that a sales leader should break? Stop doing immediately. That would make every revenue organization in the world a little bit better. “Stop sending campaigns before you manually clean your list.” Do not send dear sir. Do not send Joe rocket ship. Do not send emails to salespeople that work for your competitor because you didn't take the time to just purge the list. Look at the first 20 people on the list. And if you're not 18 out of 20 or a match, you have more filtering to do to get your list right.

   In Data hygiene

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