Monaco

SaaStr 865: The Agents #008: Agents Are Merging, Not Multiplying. Plus, Sam Blond on Why Outbound Isn't Dead. Everyone told you the future is 100 specialized agents, one for every job. That's not what's happening at SaaStr AI. Their AI VP of Finance didn't get its own app. It moved in with the AI VP of Marketing. The agents are collapsing into each other, sharing knowledge, sharing context, going deeper together. In this episode, Amelia and Jason do a live breakdown of their AI VP of Finance: how they wired Bill.com, QuickBooks, Brex, and PandaDoc into one agent, what the agent found on day one that their human finance team never did, and why contract close to invoice now takes 30 seconds instead of a day. Then Sam Blond, founder and CEO of Monaco and one of the most respected sales minds in SaaS, joins to talk about why outbound still works, what brand and message market fit actually mean for AI agents in the field, and why Monaco is building toward one GTM platform that does everything. You'll learn: Why SaaStr's agents are merging, not multiplying, and what the "monorepo" model means for your own AI stack The exact integrations that power their AI VP of Finance (and which ones took 10 minutes vs. an hour) How the agent surfaced collections problems and automations the human team never knew existed Why "set it and forget it" is a myth, and what happened when Qualified was still selling 2026 tickets weeks after the event ended Sam Blond on brand, message market fit, and what actually makes AI outbound work for companies that aren't SaaStr Why FDE relationships are now more valuable than any AE, and what that means for how you buy and sell software This is for you if: You're a founder or operator wondering whether to build a separate finance agent or fold it into what you already have You run outbound and keep hearing it's dead (it's not) You're evaluating your GTM stack and wondering if you need five agents or one You want a real, unfiltered look at what it takes to run AI agents in production, including the failures

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

Sam Blond is the Co-founder and CEO of Monaco, the revenue engine for startups. Sam is one of the best sales operators in tech. He spent four years as CRO at Brex, where he helped scale it to a ~$12B valuation, ran sales at Zenefits before that, and got his start at EchoSign. If there’s a modern GTM playbook, Sam helped write it. Our conversation walks through how AI has rewritten a big chunk of it. But most importantly, we talk about what hasn’t changed. We get into the sales work AI is now better at than humans, and why Sam thinks 90% of startups misdiagnose their bottleneck as conversion when it’s really demand gen. He explains why he doesn’t measure early brand marketing at all and trusts anecdotes over attribution, walks through the full Monaco launch playbook including the Super Bowl box-truck story, and shares a rev-ops insight from Brex, including how they figured out a specific ICP converted at 4x the rate of another. Thank you to Numeral, Flex, Amplitude, and Merge for supporting this episode. Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance https://www.numeral.com Flex: Get premium banking and a net 60 day credit card at 0% APY https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital Amplitude: AI analytics, all you have to do is ask https://www.amplitude.com Merge: Every modal. One API. Total control. Check out Merge’s Agent Handler. merge.dev/turner Timestamps: (0:00) Scaling Brex to $12B (1:14) How AI speeds up prospecting and TAM building (5:19) Using AI to get more leverage (9:15) Incubating Monaco at Founders Fund (12:56) Innovator’s dilemma in AI (15:57) Why AI companies build full platforms, not wedge products (23:30) Revenue is just a math equation (27:18) Two ways AI increases conversion rates (36:56) AI will never replace spending time with customers (39:46) Don’t measure the impact of brand marketing (49:03) Your marketing must be different (and hard) (58:39) Customer discovery calls and working with design partners (1:03:03) The zero to 100 launch (1:11:00) Monaco’s launch playbook (1:19:00) Send gifts that are unique and social (1:22:17) Naming your company (1:28:04) Founders should send early outbound (1:32:38) How multi-channel augments AI outbound (1:39:42) Using intent signals and outreach timing to increase conversions (1:43:28) Two common ways founders mess up when scaling revenue (1:50:22) Monaco’s Forward Deployed AE's Referenced Try Monaco: https://www.monaco.com/ Careers at Monaco: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/monaco Sam’s launch post: https://x.com/samdblond/status/2026420015793320129?s=20 Follow Sam Twitter: https://x.com/samdblond LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-blond-791026b/ Follow Turner Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

SaaStr 743: 9 Easy Sales Concepts So Many Get Wrong with Sam Blond, Former CRO Brex Sam Blond, the former CRO at Brex with 15 years in tech sales, took the stage at SaaStr Europa 2024 to share nine easy sales concepts that so many get wrong. Sam got his first job in tech sales as an SDR for Jason Lemkin's company, EchoSign, which later sold to Adobe and launched his career. These nine sales concepts, when done correctly, will greatly improve your sales and sales teams: Don't Outsource Recruiting Focus on Demand Until You Have Too Much Do Things That Stand Out Leverage Happy Customers to Generate New Ones Distribution Is As Important As The Announcement Be Prescriptive On How To Buy Your Product The Presumptive Close Meet Prospective Customers In Person Obsess Over Implementation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet. Join us in 2024 at: SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20 -------------- This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent Get more when Northwest Registered Agent starts your business. They'll form your company fast and stand up your entire business identity in minutes. That means business free domain, business email, website, hosting, address, mail scanning, business phone app, all within minutes. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC. This episode is sponsored by: Remote.com Are you overwhelmed with paperwork managing overseas contractors? Say hello to efficiency with Remote's Contractor Management solution! Seamlessly handle invoicing, fixed payments, and compliant, localized contracts. Kickstart your free trial today at Remote.com. This episode is sponsored by Pendo, the all-in-one product experience platform. Pendo helps your users do the things you really want them to do. You can try Pendo for free at Pendo.io/saastr and check out Mind The Product, the community for product people like… us.

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

Sam Blond is the former CRO at Brex, where he led the company from near $0-$400M in ARR and a $12.5B valuation. Before Brex, Sam was VP of Sales at Zenefits, where he led the company from $0-$70M ARR in 2 years and a $4.5B valuation. Sam joined Founders Fund as a Partner in 2022 and recently left to focus more on operating. In Today's Episode with Sam Blond We Discuss: 1. Lessons From Scaling Brex to $400M ARR & Zenefits to $70M ARR: What are the secrets that very few people know, that led to the success of Brex and Zenefits? What was the single worst sales investment Brex made? What was the best? What are Sam's biggest tips to people picking the rocketship they will join? 2. Who, What and When to Hire: When is the right time to hire your first sales rep? Should the founder be the one to create the sales playbook? What is the right profile for the first sales hire? Does it matter if the new hire has domain experience? Why does Sam always advocate to hire through network and not recruiters? 3. How to Hire the Best Sales Reps: What are the questions Sam always asks in interviews with sales hires? Does Sam do case studies with candidates? What is he looking for? What are the biggest green and red flags a candidate can show in an interview process? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring sales teams? 4. How to Have the Best Performing Sales Team: What are the three ways to measure the success of a rep in the first 30-60 days? Why does Sam believe most startups are doing outbound wrong? What should they change? Why does Sam believe demand gen is the bottleneck for all companies? What can be done to solve the demand gen challenge? How does outbound change in a world of AI?

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

SaaStr 733: Advice Every SaaS Founder Needs to Know in 2024 with Sam Blond and Jason Lemkin At SaaStr Miami, former Founder's Fund Partner and CRO of Brex Sam Blond — host of the SaaStr CRO Confidential Podcast — sat down with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin for a fireside chat about finding success as a SaaS company in 2024. They discuss Sam's learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. Sam just finished 18 months at Founders Fund after joining in mid-to-late 2022. We were coming off an environment where startup funding was as fruitful as ever. With personal experience from EchoSign and other high-growth companies, he was spoiled when it came to those companies raising money from exceptional VCs. What he's learned on both sides of the VC table is that the bar is really high for most VCs. Higher than he imagined in terms of the founder quality bar and, the stage of the business, and growth and efficiency metrics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet. Join us in 2024 at: SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20 SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave200 -------------- This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent Get more when Northwest Registered Agent starts your business. They'll form your company fast and stand up your entire business identity in minutes. That means business free domain, business email, website, hosting, address, mail scanning, business phone app, all within minutes. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC.

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

SaaStr 726: How to Build Out Your SDR Function in 2024 with Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and Host of SaaStr CRO Confidential How do you build out a Sales Development (SDR) function at your SaaS company? Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and host of SaaStr's CRO Confidential shares his advice for building an SDR function in 2024 based on his experience as CRO at Brex. We'll cover everything from setup to efficiencies in setting up an SDR function, including: The benefits of SDR When to hire your first SDR Who to hire How to measure performance Scaling the team Trends in outbound -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet. Join us in 2024 at: SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20 SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave200 -------------- This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent When starting your business, it's important to use a service that will actually help you. Northwest Registered Agent is that service. They'll form your company fast, give you the documents you need to open a business bank account, and even provide you with mail scanning and a business address to keep your personal privacy intact. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC.

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

Sam Blond, Chief Revenue Officer at Brex, shares how to set and hit revenue targets for your sales team, when to adjust, and how to structure and hire your team around your sales KPIs and goals. Video: https://youtu.be/NXKvxb1AoPU Blog post: https://www.saastr.com/how-to-set-and-hit-revenue-targets-with-brex-cro-sam-blond-pod-541-video/ Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saastr/ Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

In this episode of the SaaStr podcast, SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin, chats with Sam Blond, Chief Revenue Officer at Brex. Together they discuss the future of SaaS sales and buying cycles in a post-covid marketplace. Video + blog post: https://www.saastr.com/future-of-sales-post-covid-with-brex/

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

If there’s one person who knows a thing or two about sales growth, it’s Brex Chief Sales Officer Sam Blond, who has been a part of some legendary sales runs during his career. Sam joined Zenefits in 2013, and helped transform the company into the fastest SaaS business of all time. Then, he left and joined Brex, and was part of a team that scaled from 46 to 455 employees in just two years.  Was it luck that led Sam to these companies, or is Sam naturally gifted in discovering opportunities? In this episode, Sam explains his approach to sales and growth, while also explaining how to scale effectively from the inside.  In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover:  Sorting through the noise, and recognizing greatness  when interviewing. Sam’s advice for advancing and bettering yourself at a company, and capitalizing on luck when it happens. Sam’s thoughts on determining good reps versus good leaders.  How companies like Brex are using the pandemic to refocus and rebuild, while planning to scale again in 2021. The importance of trying to hire the best possible people for sales roles. Sam’s thoughts on why he is a strong recruiter, and why he has been so successful in building high performance sales teams.  The strategy of using above market compensation to attract and retain top talent. Sam’s philosophy on quota, and why he likes 70 percent of his team to be over 100 percent of quota. Creating a winning sales culture, and why it’s one of the most important things to strive for. The challenge of scaling a sales team without chopping up territories or lowering quotas, and how businesses can avoid this pitfall. Why company leaders need to temper growth expectations.  How Sam goes about setting future growth targets.  Earning respect through performance and taking on leadership roles.  Why it’s everyone’s job to recruit. Sam talks about the strategy of using internal recruiting, and only bringing aboard new team members who can be vouched for — and why this helps mitigate risk. Links Connect with SamLinkedin Twitter Brex  Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco

Sam Blond is Chief Sales Officer @ Brex, the startup that provides corporate cards for startups. To date they have raised over $57m in funding from the likes of Y Combinator, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Yuri Milner, Elad Gil and many more incredible names. Prior to Brex, Sam Was Chief Revenue Officer at Rainforest QA. Before Rainforest, Sam saw firsthand the hypergrowth scaling of Zenefits as VP of Sales where he saw the company grow from 18 employees and $1m in ARR to over 1,800 employees and over $70m in ARR. Sam got his start in the SaaS industry with Jason Lemkin @ Echosign as Director of Sales. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Sam made his way into the world of sales and came to join Jason Lemkin with his first role in sales at Echosign? Why does Sam believe that more sales reps does not always equal more revenue? What are the benchmarks that suggest founders really need to add to their sales team? Does Sam agree Founders should be selling up to $1m in ARR? How does Sam assess who is the best person to hire for the role? What have been Sam's lessons on what it fundamentally takes to attract the best talent? In the early days how does Sam think about both role allocation and whether to hire the young jack of all trades vs the more senior executive? Why does Sam believe that founders need to spend more time on top of funnel? Why does Sam believe that not all opportunities are created equal? How does Sam think about the right structure and time it should take to pass from lead to MQL to SAL to opportunity to deal? Where does this most commonly breakdown? Why does Sam believe the key to success in SaaS sales teams is "urgency"? Literally, how can reps instil a sense of urgency in their current pipeline? Why does Sam disagree with the conventional wisdom and say discounting is a great tool? How does Sam determine the right level of discount to give? How does Sam assess pilots as an alternative approach to getting leads over the line? Sam's 60 Second SaaStr What does Sam know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? Quality or quantity of logos in the early days? Sales rep productivity, what does Sam believe is good? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Sam Blond

Sam Blond

Former CRO

BrexFounders FundMonaco