**Building High-Performance Sales Organizations: Insights from Scaling Four Unicorns, Including OpenAI’s Growth**
Maggie Hott has dedicated 15 years to developing go-to-market teams at four unicorns valued at over $500B. Previously, she was the 2nd SDR at Eventbrite, first sales hire at Slack (scaling from $50M to $1B ARR, leading to a $27B acquisition by Salesforce), Director of Sales at Webflow (growing from $40M to $140M ARR), and now leads go-to-market at OpenAI, building ChatGPT Enterprise from scratch. She co-manages a venture fund supporting over 30 founders. These insights reflect her personal experience.
After a decade and a half of building sales teams at unicorns—Eventbrite, Slack, Webflow, and OpenAI—I learned scaling is not about strict adherence to playbooks. It’s about knowing when to discard them.
At OpenAI, we expanded from 250 to nearly 1,000 personnel in a year, launching what we consider the fastest-growing enterprise app ever. Here’s the playbook that guided us.
**5 Critical Lessons for Growth**
1. **One Great Hire is Better than Three Good Ones:** Upholding high hiring standards paid off, even during hypergrowth. A mis-hire can cost over $1M. Exceptional hires attract other exceptional talent.
2. **Beware the “Logo Trap”:** Big names from companies like Google or Salesforce don’t guarantee startup readiness. Start-ups need builders, not just operators of existing systems.
3. **Frontline Managers as Untrained Therapists:** They define your team’s experience and bear emotional and performance weight. Invest heavily in their leadership and emotional intelligence.
4. **Customer Loss Channels Trump Win Channels:** Analyzing loss channels accelerates growth by diagnosing and addressing failures.
5. **Most Decisions Are Reversible:** Adopt a two-way door approach. Move fast on reversible decisions, especially in AI where speed is critical.
**ChatGPT Enterprise’s Rise: A Case Study**
In 2023, we hypothesized that ChatGPT Enterprise required a unique go-to-market approach distinct from our API business. Starting with a small team of less than ten without traditional sales roles, we prioritized creating a dedicated go-to-market team for rapid deployment and focus.
**A Phased Approach to Scaling**
*Foundation (Months 1-3):* Focused hires with vertical expertise, built basic frameworks and structures, and set customer success foundations.
*Systems (Months 4-9):* Expanded team capabilities, implemented CRM systems, and started specialization.
*Scale (Months 10-18):* Expanded vertical-specific teams, established partnerships, enhanced marketing and lead generation.
*Integration (Months 19-24):* Unified teams, cross-trained staff, centralized processes, and improved customer experience.
**Unifying Teams for Greater Performance**
In a bold move, OpenAI unified both go-to-market organizations, exchanging roles and training across products to enhance execution speed, reduce duplication, and improve customer service.
**Hiring and Culture: Building the A-Team**
*Hire for Alignment:* Seek candidates whose skills align with your mission.
*Focus on Teams:* Collaborate and align culture, trust, and individual excellence.
*Embrace Chaos Translators:* Hire adaptable generalists who thrive in ambiguity.
*Interview Strategy:* Incorporate tactical and behavioral questions to identify suitable candidates.
**Culture and Leadership Lessons**
Acknowledging three pillars of culture—fostering real debates, clarifying priorities, and empowering decisions—contributed significantly to high performance. Assigning non-sales roles to oversee major customers ensured swift feedback integration into development processes.
**Compensation and Scaling**
Strategically aligning compensation to performance goals motivates cohesive teamwork. Emphasizing initial full salaries for sales teams promoted long-term value over immediate gains. Companies should plan dual paths for product-led and sales-driven growth.
**Learning from Mistakes**
Common mistakes include delaying external leadership hiring, underestimating enterprise needs, not documenting customer success early, and reluctance in addressing performance issues. Organizations should base decisions on contextual understanding rather than rigid frameworks.
**Conclusion**
Building exceptional go-to-market teams requires critical adaptation to your business context, rapid decision-making, and nurturing a culture of high performance, crucial for success in the fast-evolving AI sector.