ian

Hey this is ian hogarth. I first presented a version of this essay at an event at a place called Ditchley which had brought together various ML researchers and politicians from North America and Europe to discuss this topic. One of the things that really struck me was the similarity between the U.K. and Canada in terms of their depth of academic talent around ML but the paucity of independent “domestic champions”.

thanks! the biggest thing that will change for you as a Songkick user is that you'll now start seeing a lot more presale inventory directly from artists inside the Songkick app.

I agree with that. I think from a titles point of view it's also worth noting that BD roles at start-ups is 99% about selling, whereas BD at big companies is often more about being a filter for things that a PM might want to 'buy', and shielding them from what they don't. That's part of the reason that the most badass start-up BD people don't come from big company biz dev teams.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. Just not for too long, otherwise you become too integral to the process.

Yeah, I need to sort that out. Thanks for the feedback

i thought it was worth a try. one thing i realised when i made a list of people who really fitted this description is that in most cases they came inbound vs being recruited. as a result i've been prepping a series of posts on distribution/partnerships to see if I can get the attention of the white whale.

I'm a developer by training and I always felt the same way about the term hustler. I think people who self-describe as hustlers are often not what I describe in this post. I just couldn't think of a better descriptor.

I'm with you on this. I'm not a fan of any sort of salary bonus scheme. I hope if we ever hire a sales team we can avoid doing that. We have so far. I'd prefer to make your nX factor something that you prove to the rest of the team and that is rewarded by increased equity. Doesn't matter whether you're an amazing developer, member of our customer support team, doing hiring, or working on partnerships. What matters is that you're hacking the status quo for your role in a big company and helping us be more exceptional.

That's a good point. I'd be curious to learn what the variance across the average corporate sales team is.

I think there are basically 2 forms of distribution at start-ups that multiply together. The distinguishing factor seems to be whether relationships can make a real difference ie talking to people (partnerhips, PR etc) or are not needed (growth hacking). There is a ton of interplay e.g. you could do all sorts of smart stuff to hack a big social platform, but propriety early access to new platform features via a great relationship with one of the platform team will give you a differentiated toolbox.

For the first type of distribution a great salesperson who is also highly intuitive about product, growth hacking, scalable systems etc, can have even more impact than if they are just selling as part of a traditional sales team.