Discover/Seedcamp Podcast/Navigating Growth: Sales and Scaling Str...

Being their first SDR, I was effectively the guinea pig. It's what they called me at the time. And because we didn't have an SDR, we didn't really know any outbound. We didn't know our ICP.

Navigating Growth on Seedcamp Podcast · Navigating Growth: Sales and Scaling Strategies from Ryan...

“Not that anyone was placing the pressure on me, but when you're around great people, you wanna be able to to execute.”

4:08 / 4:27

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Not that anyone was placing the pressure on me, but when you're around great people, you wanna be able to to execute. And being their first SDR, I was effectively the guinea pig. It's what they called me at the time. And because we didn't have an SDR, we didn't really know any outbound. We didn't know our ICP. We were still in stealth mode, so there's no website.

Why this clip

Raw account of being the first hire in a critical role with specific details about the unknowns (no ICP, no outbound process). The 'guinea pig' metaphor is memorable and captures the experimental nature of early startup roles.

4:08 - 4:2719sOrigin Story

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Seedcamp Podcast · Navigating Growth

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You hire someone, say, from Oracle, and they're joining Snowflake, and no one knows who Snowflake is, but everyone knows who Oracle is, and they're not used to proving that our company is reputable.

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Seedcamp Podcast · Navigating Growth

Origin Story

I was our IT person in Europe. It's the only job that I wanted to get fired from. I was the worst IT person, and people would join and not know that I was in sales... Ryan doesn't actually do IT. He's just the only person in Europe who actually knows how to set up this laptop.

Humorous, self-deprecating story about startup chaos with specific details and dialogue. The absurdity of being the 'worst IT person' while actually being in sales creates memorable, relatable content about early-stage hustle.

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