Paul Bennett

To founders, margins are more than just numbers on a P&L. They’re proof of success, the result of hard work, and the foundations for scaling what started as a dream a few years ago. But as you scale, every hire you make either protects—or destroys—those margins. Poor hiring decisions quietly shrink profitability and make growth harder. Take a $150K hire: with ramp lag (months to deliver value), onboarding (weeks of team training), and inefficiencies (misaligned priorities, duplicate efforts), the real cost can hit $250K in year one. And if your gross margin is 50%, that hire now demands $500K in revenue just to break even. The Key Isn’t Avoiding Hiring—It’s Hiring for Impact, here's how you can get there: 1. Use the 3x Rule: Every hire should deliver 3x their cost in revenue, efficiency, or savings within six to nine months. - A $150K operations lead who automates processes and saves $500K annually? Multiplier. - A vague “general manager” who just adds meetings? Liability. 2. Hire Multipliers, Not Gap-Fillers: Multipliers make your team more productive. Gap-fillers add headcount without driving outcomes. - Instead of hiring another marketer, invest in a marketing operations lead who improves ROI across campaigns. 3. Ask before you hire: - Will this role deliver 2-3x ROI? - Does this hire amplify productivity—or just add costs? - Can your margins absorb the ramp lag? If the answers aren’t clear, revisit your systems. Your margins are your foundation—prioritize them with every hire.

10

1 Comment

Scale-Ups have the greatest opportunity to create a disproportionate competitive edge by doing ONE thing right.... RECRUITMENT. Done correctly, here are some of the outcomes you can achieve: 🔥 100% Offer Acceptance 🔥 50%+ Conversion rate of Passive to Active Candidate 🔥 Sub-5% Attrition 🔥 3+ Years Average Tenure ☝ All boils down to the candidate experience you create. It's never too late to change or improve.

4

I posted previously on when to hire your first AEs, and what to look for. So presuming you’ve done this and have a few AEs in the role, how do you assess whether these AEs are doing well? A few founders I’ve spoken with have mentioned this challenge - especially because, very early on, there is so much noise amidst the signal of what is working. In this context I think it’s critical to consider input and output metrics separately. ✅ Output metrics - These are the metrics you are ultimately trying to deliver as a business. This includes things like ARR, number of new logos, maybe even usage or number of DAUs, WAUs, MAUs, etc. While these metrics are influence-able via behaviors, they are the dependent variable. You can’t just tell your early AEs to triple ARR when you're learning all about your market and target buyers; that’s not an effective management strategy. ▶ Input metrics - The activities which (presumably) drive the output metrics. This includes things like number of email sequences sent, number of calls made, number of meetings held, even number of hours spent in the office (though I do not recommend tracking that one). A pattern I’ve observed is that many early-stage founders dramatically under-goal input metrics early on. This may be because they have not run sales teams before, or because they are “anchoring” to a very different phase of the company. When you have new salespeople for the first time, every incremental metric feels like gravy; the CEO has gone from no one caring about her product, to doing five pitch meetings a week, so it can feel like stratospheric growth - which in a way, it is, on a percentage basis. But your basis for comparison should not be the zero meetings per week that you held previously, but the twenty five meetings per week you need in order to close x deals per month, at z ACV. So when in doubt, triple your input metric goal. You held 20 discovery meetings last month? Let’s do 60 next month! That said, it’s important not to overly goal the very leading indicator input metrics - for instance, the number of emails sent. Since you have hired smart, scrappy, malleable early AEs, you want them to think creatively about how to drive the earlier part of the funnel - meetings held - and that may involve fewer, more thoughtful emails, calls, or LinkedIn messages. An AE who sends 10 emails to land 2 meetings is much more effective than one who sends 100 emails to land 2 meetings; the latter is polluting your lead pool with less relevant outbound content; the former is learning how exactly to break through to prospects, and these learnings should be replicated throughout the team. You’ll learn so quickly with audacious input metrics - about the messaging and channels which work best, and critically, which AEs have more grit, hustle, and creativity in securing those meetings.

23

1 Comment

Founders Scaling Without the Chaos Every growth phase needs a new structure—but I’ve had some first hand both experiencing and noticing founders stumble with these 2 things: - Hold onto too much- You create bottlenecks and burnout. - Hire too fast- You bloat your team and slow everything down. An easy way to transition/focus: 1️⃣ Startup Phase - Founders juggle operations, marketing, and sales themselves. - Once revenue stabilizes or you hit 50+ customers, start handing off key tasks. 2️⃣ Scaling Phase - Bring in role leads (product, customer success) instead of full teams. - Now’s the time to focus on building systems—let your team handle the details. 3️⃣ Mature Phase - Shift fully into strategic leadership—build cross-functional teams and a leadership pipeline. - When daily operations slow you down, step back and let others lead. The key? Stop managing and start designing. Build a system that scales without you. #founders #Startup

32

4 Comments

Next up in the series of posts about starting a startup for non-technical founders: 2. Finding a co-founder How do you even find one in the first place? For anyone who's tried, it's exceptionally hard. Let's start with the framework. You want to find: (a) Someone that has complimentary skills. Think one plus one equals three. (b) Someone equally passionate about the same problem. If you’re not equally excited about the challenge you’re tackling, it’s going to be hard to keep the momentum going. (c) Someone that is available - Timing. You both need to be available and ready to commit at the same time. After you go down this list, you might be lucky to know one or two people in your immediate network to work with. In terms of what you can do to navigate this stuff, there were 2 things that I thought would give me the best shot. One was immersing myself in a founder-dense environment like SF. Another was co-founder dating. The best matching platform I’ve seen is from YC. They have tons of profiles and make it simple to meet a lot of people quickly. None of this is easy, but all of it is possible. I will be sharing learnings from the process that Tennison C. and I went through (very different; I met 8 new people vs Tennison met 80 new people)—hope they’re helpful for anyone experiencing this.  --- Yesterday, we covered "Things you can’t say as a non-technical founder." For the remainder of the week, I will write about 3. Importance of a deep trial period 4. Investing in your co-founder relationship

26

4 Comments

The fee structure most agencies use with clients is pretty standard industry-wide (X% of the candidate's salary for perm roles). Some agencies use alternative fee structures since it works better for both parties and creates more alignment - e.g. ongoing monthly retainers, embedded recruiters/RPO, flat rates, etc. Some markets have unique factors that make a non-standard fee structure more mutually beneficial for both the agency/client. Pricing structure and strategy is something that most agencies don't really dig into since it's easier to go with the status quo since it's what clients expect and are used to. I'm curious - if you've used alternative fee structures, how do you like it? Has it worked out better for everyone long term?

16

7 Comments

Many founders proudly claim to speak to every candidate they hire until the company is 100+ employees, but I've decided against that. We've now hired multiple great people that I haven't spoke to before we extended an offer. There are two main reasons: trust and speed. I believe in our team to make good decisions and this is one of the ultimate examples- who constitutes Chameleon. And with my hectic calendar I don't want to bottleneck decision making because speed is crucial to closing the best people. But I do speak to everyone either before or on Day 1. Along with my co-founder Brian we spend 20 mins reinforcing some key aspects of our culture and ways of working to help all new hires understand their expectations. We talk about some basics: the importance of Kaizen; how everything is a work-in-progress; how to avoid Slack from becoming a hindrance to work; how we hate "facetime" expectations etc. Maintaining the right culture requires this kind of non-scaleble and individual-level engagement and coaching, alongside systems and processes. Would be interested to know what tactical things other founders and leaders to do maintain culture as the team grows!

42

18 Comments

New Review landed yesterday. From a Founder led SaaS business. Around 20 heads. Needed 2 game-changing hires. Until now they had mostly hired from their network. But eventually, that well can run dry. So they used me and 106. Credit to these guys as they totally bought into what we were doing. Used us exclusively. And listened to the advice. The result? - 2 Hires Made in record time. - Both are under 25 days time to hire. - The first hire was only 10 days. Here's what the Founder said: "It was an absolute pleasure to work with 106 Recruitment. Adam spent a good amount of time understanding our business and the needs of this recruitment phase. The well-informed shortlisting process and exceptional communication throughout the hiring process were spot on. Trusting someone to represent your company when reaching out to the world can be daunting; Adam performed admirably, and I have no hesitation in returning for our future recruitment needs."

9

2 Comments

Harmonic’s team recently tripled their hiring speed, going from 1 hire/quarter to 1 hire/month. They also 6x-ed their quality candidate pipeline. All without paying an upfront retainer. How? By partnering with Paraform. Harmonic’s investors and customers make up all the household VC names you can think of. They’re scaling fast, and needed exceptional engineers to match that growth. Soham Kamat, Harmonic’s Head of Business Operations, knew what the company needed to build. He just needed to find the right talent to build it. Last quarter, Soham made a bet with Harmonic’s head of sales. Could the company generate $1 million in net new sales by the end of the quarter? Or could Soham hire 4 engineers first? The loser would buy the winning team a Michelin-starred dinner. Can you really hire as quickly as you scale? Turns out, you can. Harmonic hired 4 new engineers last quarter – with Paraform recruiters Clint Tankersley, Ryan Poole, and Nick Kimball helping land 3 of those 4 roles – AND secured $1M in net new sales. Congrats to Soham, Max, and the team on both milestones! To learn more about Harmonic’s story, check out the link in comments.

84

3 Comments

Your ideal candidate doesn't know who you are... Over all the years of working with SaaS start-ups and scale-ups I would estimate that around 95% of the candidates I have spoken to about an opportunity have never heard of the hiring company before. In a market where the competition for top talent is fierce, hoping that the other 95% stumble across your LinkedIn advert or careers site seems a bit foolhardy. A good recruiter isn't just there to just fill a vacancy - they're there to ensure you have access to the widest pool of candidates possible by taking a credible and proactive approach, also saving the hiring company a huge amount of time that can be better spent elsewhere.

19

As startup founders, we’re constantly selling…and we’ve realised that sales is actually pretty hard. Especially when you sell remotely because you don’t get to interact with your customer face-to-face. We’ve felt this problem personally and we know companies feel it too. Some of our early customers already use PaddleBoat as a “sales readiness” tool. They create and share custom training programs so that reps have context before they start pitching. Now, once you have context, reps need confidence, and that takes practice. But who do you practice with? Practicing on real customer calls sounds risky - and you’d definitely leave some money on the table. You could ask your manager to “roleplay” as a customer and then get feedback on your pitch. This can get pretty awkward, pretty fast. Plus sales managers are busy people, who’s got the time? We believe there’s a better way to help sales reps practice and eliminate dial anxiety. We help companies create realistic voice-bots that match their buyer personas. These voice-bots are then used by sales teams to perfect their sales pitch. We automatically give reps feedback on their pitch so they don’t have to wait on their managers to coach them. If this idea is interesting to you and you’d like to chat - I’d love to spend some time: https://lnkd.in/gcZWcAGr PaddleBoat Ashutosh Raj Shri Prasad Rajendran #genai #sales #coaching #conversationalai

91

7 Comments

🚨 I spoke to 10 Tech Founders about hiring, and I’ve summarised the 3 most common problems they highlighted during those conversations: 1️⃣ Brand Awareness - Struggle to hire directly as nobody knows who they are… 2️⃣ Agencies - Cost a fortune, own the talent pool and add limited value… 3️⃣ Internal TA - Long-term cost as hiring isn’t consistent enough… ————————— If you’re reading this and thinking ‘wow, that sums me up!’, then I’ve got a question… …. (Just building some suspense here) … What if you could: ✅ Increase brand awareness via re-jigged advertising campaigns? ✅ Reduce Agency spend by 50% and own the talent pool? ✅ Only pay for what you need, when you need it? Or, in summary… ✅ What if you could combine the best of Agency and TA, for half the cost? 🤔🤔🤔 ————————— If you’re interested in finding out more: 📥 Slide into my DMs 📞 Book a call (🔗 below) #recruitment  #talentacquisition  #startupjourney #techrecruitment

11

1 Comment

I'm noticing (anecdotally) a nice spike in new startups and businesses being launched over the past few months After a muted 18 months, it's refreshing to see a lot more entrepreneurs taking the plunge. So, in the spirit of paying it forward, here's some honest, hopefully useful, (and sometimes unsaid) tips for anyone just starting up: 1) Nobody cares! Your first shots on goal most likely will not work. You'll feel despondent, maybe even ashamed that people may see you as a failure. At this point remember that nobody cares So, unabashedly pivot as many times as needed, to maybe even wildly different sectors as needed to find what works 2) Your goal should be to make your first dollar ASAP. People pay for things that make them money > save them money > save them time. 3) Guard your equity zealously. IMO, it is better to own 70% of a 1000 crore co, than to own 7% of a 10000 crore co. You are the owner in the former, and board-appointed management in the latter The world is littered with stories of founders ousted by their boards. Take some inspiration from the old family businesses 4) VC is a fantastic source of capital, but that's all. Their incentives are not aligned with yours & they have a fiduciary duty to themselves and their LPs. Your risk parameters are not the same - you aren't playing the same game. Remember that they've bet on multiple numbers at the roulette table, (and taken further insurance with preferred equity terms). You and your employees have all your chips on 1 number. You have a bigger fiduciary duty to yourself and your common shareholders 5) Everyone and their uncle will offer an opinion. So discount anything from anyone who's not a deep subject matter expert, or hasn't done the job. Remember, you'll frequently run into completely random advice from MBAs-turned-consultants-turned-VCs. You cannot learn how to run a business as a board observer. It'll be like taking batting advice from a color commentator 6) Be very very frugal in your hiring. Your first 20 employees should almost exclusively be ICs, and the only two roles are building or selling. Eliminate anyone who does not directly contribute to this (no chief of staff, EA, sales manager) 7) If you've raised capital, pay yourself a reasonable salary i.e. somewhat below market. If anyone tells you otherwise, screw them. Remember, even first-time GPs take 2% of the fund yearly as fees, with a promise to maybe return something in 10 years 8) Unless you are playing a highly competitive capital-intensive game, prioritize profitability over growth. If you're profitable, you will forever be able to raise capital on your turf, which is a significant shift in the power equation (refer point 2) 9) It is a long, lonely journey. People will often tell you to be a missionary, but it is perfectly okay to have superficial dreams that give you the necessary fuel. Fame, FU money, Freedom - whatever floats your boat #startup #entrepreneurship

285

19 Comments

It feels both surreal and completely natural to be joining Order Editing as a seed investor. I stumbled upon Order Editing in September last year and instantly knew the problem it solves. My journey in my 20’s - building Peoplevox - had shown me the complexity and issues something as simple as a customer changing their mind or missing a letter off their address can cause everyone downstream. What I couldn’t have foreseen are the upsides it creates for upsells. I don’t think anyone would’ve imagined the kind of ROI brands would get from it. It’s like customers are so ecstatic they’re not in email tennis that they just want to buy more to say thank you. I’ve got plenty of incentive to make time to support Order Editing now - but to be honest it’s felt natural to go the extra mile to help Hamish McKay and Kiril Climson. They’re ambitious - it’s infectious. But ultimately they’re living up the hype - that’s impressive. There has never been a better time to be building in the Ecommerce ecosystem - these are the good old days. 😉 #ecommerce #techstacks

143

24 Comments

🔥Female-Led Recruitment Start-Ups 🔥 Top Tips on researching your market for recruitment success. Deep market knowledge sets the foundation for a successful recruitment agency. Download our free guide to starting your new recruitment venture: https://lnkd.in/ezM2rmWV Here’s our top 3 on market research: 🔥 Identify Your Niche: Focus on specific industries or job types where you can offer the most value. 🔥 Analyse Competitors: Understand what competitors offer and how you can differentiate your agency. 🔥 Stay Informed: Keep up with industry trends, job market changes, and potential client needs. Helen says…There are definite pro’s and con’s of niches, but generally having a niche makes all of your activity much more strategic and it’s much more attractive for prospective clients and candidates. It also makes you much more scalable and saleable further down the line. #whynotyouwhynotnow #professionalwomen #recruitment #entrepreneurship #motivation #innovation"

3

We only hire from our competitors.   This has been common for SaaS firms the past few years.   With the increase of talent on the market, many hiring teams have prioritised reps who've sold their tech before.   And I totally get why.   Quicker ramp-up time Likely to have contacts to go after Less training required on the product Often brings good ideas from a competitive lense   But there comes a point where it's counterproductive.   Some firms take months to find the "perfect" candidate from their competition.   In that time you could've hired & onboarded a gun from outside the space.   And I'd bet good money they'd smash it.   Hiring from a competitor doesn't guarantee success.   Here's what I'd prioritise instead:   Deal values Personas sold to Quota attainment Vertical experience  A growth mindset PG experience If you're hiring right now and struggling to find the perfect candidate.   Perhaps it's time to look outside of your competition.   You'll be surprised by the result.   #techsales #gotomarket #saasrecruitment

52

16 Comments

Trigify.io getting a demo in front of 600 people last week 😎 Sales triggers are the talk of the town right now So proud of what everyone in the team is building It's still early days but our mission to build a world leading product in the trigger space is taking shape nicely And it's only just beginning 🚀 Shoutout to ColdIQ for the mention #salestriggers #sales #businessdevelopment

6

1 Comment

49 founders and senior startup leaders respond to a survey from Sifted on the relationship between founders and VCs. Are expectations off from the start as VCs try too hard to pander to their founders with over promises of "value-add" and extensive platform teams? Do founders need to be reminded of their primary role - execution?

3