BitcoinAddict

When a startup hires a manager without much management experience, RUN!

I cannot believe I forgot to mention this pro tip but I will now. One sure-fire sign that a startup is a bad place to be, because startups usually do this more than anyone else, is when they hire someone with little to no management experience as a manager. Usually, this is some young kid not that far removed from college who got promoted to manager in his last role, barely lasted a year, but a startup hires him as a manager.

Almost always a recipe for disaster and a way for the company to say "we have zero idea of what we are doing and any manager worth their salt has not even entertained an interview with us".

These guys (and it is almost always a guy for some reason) are usually arrogant, incompetent, and suck at management as well.

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

13 comments

Sort by:

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

A lot of times when I've seen this happen it was a "field promotion" of the company's first sales hire. They get in as a founding AE (or one of a couple), get some deals through and the company bumps them up to director or VP. It can work, but in general managers emulate the managers they liked working with, and if you were an AE who reported directly to the CEO, you really didn't have a traditional manager you were reporting to and have nothing really to base anything on.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yet another reason to avoid early-stage startups.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Question, how do you get manager experience without first being hired as a manager?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Fair point.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I feel your pain

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

They are ALWAYS middlers who cannot figure out how to accomplish their goals without trying 10-12 new tactics. Without a playbook to pull from, they rely on LinkedIn articles or "advisors" to teach them what to do next.

They are the same ones you see with 5-6 month VP of Sales stints on their resume. The company didn't fail, they did.

RelationshipMaker

Opinionated

Head of Sales

Yep, it’s a major problem. How many of us have a boss that it totally out of their depth but magically keeps the reins to your future?
I’ve put up with their shit because it’s a 50/50 chance that they’ll make it.
Keep your lines of communication open and be very visible with your bosses boss. Make sure they know you’re a good employee and it’ll help heaps.
Good luck.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

That’s usually it. Start ups usually have limited talent pools, or they are experienced management teams and have everyone they want to target and will be slow to hire (see that a lot more than you’d expect). So yeah, always watch from afar before you jump in

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

My first job out of college was at a startup, and my manager was only two years out of school (and a friend of mine). He was actually one of the better managers I've had.

I know this is definitely the exception to the rule, but the dude is now CFO of another startup that he cofounded when he left our mutual employer.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

I may agree,but let's just not ignore that some to many current good managers used not to be that great,just cuz of many factors just like the lack of experience, missing the right directives form their upper mgmt or even getting the required feedback from their subordinates.
Believe it's more into one of the stages many managers may have passed by and not specifically in the Startups!

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

President/CRO

Haha right. Because seasoned managers have never turned out to be terrible leaders.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

96% of the time I would agree with you, really depends on the person

Armageddon

Opinionated

Enterprise Account Executive

I've seen this work successfully before. it can be a crap shoot though

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

BitcoinAddict

When a startup hires a manager without much management experience, RUN!

13 comments

Related posts

For a newly funded startup, if they want to hire a VP of sales/BD person. What things should they consider?

Would you hire a salesperson outside of software for an AE role at a software company

What does a good/bad onboarding process look like for a new sales hire? (SDR/BDR or AE)