Tales from a first GTM hire: Tushar Makhija's journey at Helpshift, Airbase, and TeamOhana
07/17/23 • 47 min
Tushar Makhija, Founder and CEO of TeamOhana, chats with Alex about how he went from zero sales experience to VP of revenue at HelpShift in only a few years, what it means to be a sales leader, and why Indian immigrants are so successful in tech leadership positions.
Some revenue leaders thrive in the chaos of early startup life. They love getting their hands dirty, leading early sales deals, finding product-market-fit and establishing a go-to-market foundation.
Tushar Makhija is one of those people.
In this episode, Tushar and Alex chat about:
- How Tushar went from first-time sales rep to VP of revenue in only a few years at Helpshift
- What it was like to go from startup mode to working with a professional CEO at Helpshift
- Advice for first sales hires
- What it means to be a sales leader
- The difference between being a sales leader and a founder
- Why Indian immigrants are so successful in tech leadership positions.
Tushar Makhija, Founder and CEO of TeamOhana, chats with Alex about how he went from zero sales experience to VP of revenue at HelpShift in only a few years, what it means to be a sales leader, and why Indian immigrants are so successful in tech leadership positions.
Some revenue leaders thrive in the chaos of early startup life. They love getting their hands dirty, leading early sales deals, finding product-market-fit and establishing a go-to-market foundation.
Tushar Makhija is one of those people.
In this episode, Tushar and Alex chat about:
- How Tushar went from first-time sales rep to VP of revenue in only a few years at Helpshift
- What it was like to go from startup mode to working with a professional CEO at Helpshift
- Advice for first sales hires
- What it means to be a sales leader
- The difference between being a sales leader and a founder
- Why Indian immigrants are so successful in tech leadership positions.
Previous Episode
Building Success Programs: How Brittany Soinski overhauled onboarding at Loom
Brittany Soinski, Manager of Customer Success Programs at Loom, shares success enablement and onboarding best practices from her time at Wrike, Mural, and Loom.
Alex met Brittany while building Dock and was super impressed with her knowledge of building customer success and onboarding programs.
In her first year-plus at Loom, she has helped revamp their customer onboarding program, technical implementation process, customer-facing resource hub, live webinar program, Sales-to-CS handoff process, and much more.
In this episode, Brittany shares:
- what it’s like to work in Customer Success Enablement vs. Customer Success
- how to build a successful onboarding program; and
- how to measure onboarding success.
And stick around 'til the end to hear Brittany’s number one tip for sending better Looms.
Next Episode
Talkin' Sales in a Pickup Truck: How Ben Braverman grew Flexport to a $2B run rate
Ben Braverman, Chief Business Officer of Hadrian and former CRO of Flexport, shares how he grew Flexport to an $8 billion valuation.
Flexport is a freight forwarder. They help book, track, and deliver freight shipments. So not only did Flexport’s sales team have to cope with the usual challenges of growing a SaaS company, they also had to handle the real-world logistical challenges that come from working with factories, customs agencies, and 747s. Alex and Ben became friends when Flexport invested in our company: Dock.
In this episode, Alex and Ben talk about:
- The importance of solving complete problems for your customers
- Why Flexport started with the long tail of SMB customers
- Why Ben scaled the sales team slowly
- What makes a great SMB vs. mid-market vs. key accounts sales rep
- Flexport’s selling squads
- How they ramped up new sellers
- The double-edged sword of succeeding as a first-time revenue leader
- His new role at Hadrian, the future of space manufacturing, and “space lasers”
- He’s also our first-ever guest to call in from a pickup truck in Wyoming.
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