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This week, we’re speaking with Kelsey Recht, an entrepreneur, advisor, and the founder and former CEO of VenueBook. In keeping with the spirit of Adventures in Growth, Kelsey charted her course to tech leadership via a non-traditional route, working in finance before studying for her MBA at the Kellogg School of Management and then founding her first startup, VenueBook.
Our discussion touched on a range of topics, from Founder as a sales role to collecting useful customer feedback to what to look for in hiring early stage employees. As you’ll hear, Kelsey has truly exceptional perspectives on networking and a relationship-building approach to business development, and we’ll take a deep dive into her insights in this area.
Welcome to Adventures in Growth!
Listen on Spotify, Apple or Google.
(0:00:08) - Sales and Networking in Tech Startups
Kelsey shares secrets to success for leading business development, emphasizing sales, networking, customer feedback, and early-stage employees.
(0:10:15) - Ideal Sales Hire for Early-Stage Startup
Kelsey shares her experience hiring a salesperson for her early-stage startup VenueBook, discussing growth mindset, responding to objections, and customer discovery.
(0:17:58) - Challenges in Early Stage Startups
Kelsey advises on understanding corporate vs. startup roles, researching potential roles, and asking key questions about runway,identifying root pains, and raising plans.
(0:26:39) - Networking and Conversational Work
Kelsey shares advice on networking, emphasizing being curious and leveraging high volume and targeted knowledge.
(0:37:19) - Sales Approaches for New Products
Kelsey discusses the Challenger Sales Method and getting customer feedback to understand pain points and business opportunities
(0:45:26) - The Importance of Go-to-Market Strategy
Kelsey’s strategies for identifying business opportunities include customer types, networking, and assessing potentials.
(0:49:58) - Building Connections
Networking, assessing opportunities, leveraging references, customer feedback, cold calling, and creating connections are discussed.
(1:01:28) - Quick Fire Questions
We ask Kelsey our set of quick fire questions about leadership and being an entrepreneur.
Contact Kelsey
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelsey-recht/
Kelsey’s Recommendation:
Podcast - The a16z Podcast by Stephanie Smith
Podcast - Freakonomics Podcast by Stephen J. Dubner
Podcast - The Sweaty Startup by Nick Huber
Podcast - My First Million by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri
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