Inside Figma’s early days: How to build a world-class sales org | Kyle Parrish (VP of Sales)
In Depth
Shownotes Transcript
Kyle Parrish, Figma’s first sales hire, built the company’s zero-to-one sales engine from scratch. Figma now has more than 3 million monthly users. Prior to Figma, Kyle spent 5 years at Dropbox in various sales roles. At Dropbox, Kyle successfully launched and scaled the Austin office to 100+ people, and then led the enterprise sales function in San Francisco and New York.
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In today’s episode, we discuss:
The right time to build a sales function
Hiring and scaling a successful sales org
Building a unique sales culture
Career advice for ambitious salespeople
Figma’s early sales motion
How to integrate your first sales hire
Navigating the founder/Head of Sales relationship
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Referenced:
Amanda Kleha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-kleha-015599/)
Asana: https://asana.com/)
Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/)
Claire Butler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairetbutler/)
Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/)
Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/)
FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/)
Figma: https://www.figma.com/)
Kevin Egan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-egan-59719/)
Oliver Jay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverjayleadership/)
Praveer Melwani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveer-melwani/)
Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/)
Slack: https://www.slack.com/)
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Where to find Kyle Parrish:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kparrish8/)
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/KyleHParrish)
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Where to find Brett Berson:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/)
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson)
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Where to find First Round Capital:
Website: https://firstround.com/)
First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround)
This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast)
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:10) What founders need to figure out before hiring salespeople
(03:48) Who to hire as your first salesperson
(05:34) Transitioning away from founder-led sales
(07:07) Tactics for hiring great salespeople
(12:50) The ideal experience sales candidates should have
(13:49) Common traits of successful salespeople
(18:45) What it was like being Figma’s first sales hire
(19:59) Interesting tactic to integrate the first sales hire
(21:16) How Figma executed its early sales motion
(32:27) Why Figma changed its customer narrative
(34:03) Building outbound sales strategy at Figma
(36:17) Segmented pricing and no discounts
(41:55) Kyle’s transition from Dropbox to Figma
(47:25) Creating a world-class sales culture
(51:46) How Figma does sales differently
(54:02) Building the initial sales team around a passion for the product
(57:12) Figma’s unique hiring process for salespeople
(60:40) Advice for founders hiring their first salesperson
(63:18) The secret to Dylan Field’s success
(64:33) How to scale yourself as an early hire
(66:25) Oliver Jay’s impact on Kyle
