Congratulations Founder! After months/years of tireless product development and taking the giant risk of founding your own company, you did it.  You were able to raise enough money to start to bring your product/service to market.  You are no longer in the concept or MVP phase; you now have the runway to hit the ground running and grow your business into the empire you envision it to be.

An important decision you need to make with this investment is how much money, and how you will allocate it, will be for business development and revenue generation.  Let’s face it, a business without revenue is just a hobby, and your investors didn’t give you a boatload of cash for you to play with your hobby.  They expect your business to grow, and quickly, so how you use this seed funding is crucial for your business hitting your next milestone.

As the founder, it’s imperative that you take yourself out of the selling role at this stage.  You cannot grow if you are a single point of failure for all revenue generation activities, you just don’t have the time for it.  Business development needs to be an “always on” activity, and if you are wearing too many hats, you will never scale with a “sometimes on when I have time for it” strategy.

Once you come to terms that you need to hire for full-time business development, here’s where your strategy and approach becomes critical.  Let me present your two paths and provide insight as to why one path is a significantly better choice.

Option A

Hire 1 Full-Time VP of Sales

• $250,000 annual base salary plus bonus and equity.
• Comes with connections, experience, industry expertise, incredible resume, and boardroom polish.
• Talks a big game and looks like they have the skills to back it up.

Option B

Hire 3 Account Executives + 1 Fractional Sales Leader

• $65,000 base salary per AE + aggressive bonus based on stretch targets.
• $48,000 to bring in a fractional sales leader part time to lead the sales account executives and manage the strategy.
• No built-in industry connections or decades of industry knowledge, but you get real sales execution and strategic oversight.

What’s the Better Bet?

While most startup businesses go with Option A, in nearly every case, Option B wins.  Here’s why:

• More coverage: Three AEs mean more conversations, demos, and closed deals.  You can’t make up for covering more ground.
• Faster feedback loops: You can test messaging, targeting, and pricing in parallel.  Through failing fast and collaborating, you can define your ICP and strategy quickly.
• Lower risk: If you hire three and one hire misses, you’re still in the game.  If your only hire misses, oh boy.
• Built-in structure: A fractional sales leader brings process, accountability, and coaching—without the full-time overhead and loss of equity.

Too often, companies bring on a seasoned VP who’s built to scale what already works—not to figure it out. And when there’s no clear Go-To-Market playbook, their experience doesn’t translate into pipeline.

When Option A Might Work

If your product is highly specialized, enterprise-driven, and access truly depends on relationships, a VP with the right network can accelerate deals—but only if they’re still willing to sell. Many are so far removed from the daily grind of selling, and struggle when trying to switch from leader to producer.

Success POV: Start Small, Build Smart

A fractional sales leader is your secret weapon to help startups:

• Build foundational sales processes
• Hire and coach early reps
• Develop, test, and perfect GTM strategies
• Prepare for scalable growth and future funding rounds
• Hire and handoff their full-time replacement- when the timing is right.

If you’re considering your first sales leadership hire, ask yourself:

• Do I need strategy or execution right now?
• Am I building a repeatable sales process, or just hoping for big wins?
• Can I afford to make one big bet, or should I de-risk with smart execution?

At Sales Geek, we help founders answer those questions and scale with intention. Let’s talk if you’re at that decision point.

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