For venture-backed SaaS companies in the Boston area, it seems that the only real limitation to their growth is the speed at which they can hire. Not just hire software engineers and the like, but entry-level business development reps. Without them, quarterly targets are missed, leading to unhappy investors. However, hiring business development reps has become a difficult task. Also, the high turnover rate is problematic for a startup company.
Check out this article from Acquia’s Tom Murdock, a sales hiring innovator. He explains how the IPO-bound company set out to fix the entry-level sales position interview process and remove the problem of bad fits at the top of the funnel. One source of the solution? Our portfolio company, LaunchSource (who we’ve featured before!). Thanks to LaunchSource, Acquia can see how candidates work through real-life scenarios and gain concrete insights into how the candidates would handle the position; a noted shift from the status quo of meeting with people who may just be good in the interview.
Thanks Bill. The VDC is doing some really cool stuff and I hope it continues to thrive with more and more companies like LS. My team at Acquia deserves the vast majority of the credit on how we’ve iterated on our hiring process over the years. If anyone has any specific questions about our process, feel free to email me or send me a note on LinkedIn.
– Tom M