Carles Reina

Carles Reina is VP of Sales at ElevenLabs, where he was the first investor and fourth employee. Carles has scaled the revenue org from Day 1 to over $350M in just 3 years. Carles is also an active investor with investments in ElevenLabs, Revolut, Happy Robot and more. AGENDA: 00:00 - Is the Traditional CRO Dead in the Age of AI? 01:01 - Building the AI Sales Machine: Agents that Actually Generate Revenue 08:35 - Will AI Shrink the Sales Teams of the Future? 09:51 - The ElevenLabs Masterclass: Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota 11:00 - How to Structure Explosive Sales Accelerators 12:15 - Why You Should Stop Paying Commission on Pilots 14:00 - Customer Success: Is it 'Total Bullshit' or a Growth Engine? 16:15 - The 'Global-First' Fallacy: Why You Need to Open Every Market Now 17:23 - Why Startups Are Wrong to Ignore 20-Year Sales Veterans 19:15 - The Pipeline Construction Secret: Liquidity vs. Whales 24:30 - Forecasting the Unpredictable: How to Hit a $1B Revenue Target 31:55 - The Substitution Threat: Is AI Voice Just a Commodity? 34:10 - Verticalization Mistakes: Lessons from Scaling India 38:40 - The 'IBM Effect': Does Brand Actually Shorten Sales Cycles? 40:15 - Extreme Expectations: Why ElevenLabs is a Hard Company to Work For 42:15 - Internal Leaderboards: How to Use Public Competition to Drive Results 44:20 - Hunting the Obsessed: Identifying the 'Inner Psychopath' in Hires 46:40 - The SaaS Apocalypse: Will Companies Build Their Own CRM? 48:30 - Formula 1 Branding: The Mindset Behind the Audi-Revolut Deal 50:15 - Dinner vs. Conferences: Which Marketing Channels Actually Scale? 52:45 - Designing Un-Salesy Content: How to Run a Legendary Summit 54:20 - CVC Strategy: Turning Corporate Investors into Distribution Channels 01:01:45 - The Globalization Nightmare: Why You Can't Sell in English Everywhere 01:06:45 - Operator-Investors: Can You Be a High-Performer and a VC Simultaneously? 01:11:30 - Unit Economics in AI: Why Good Early Numbers Might Mean Failure 01:18:25 - The Next Wave: Why Foundational Model Consolidation is Inevitable

Carles Reina

Chief Revenue Officer

ElevenLabs

Carles Reina is VP of Sales at ElevenLabs, where he was the first investor and fourth employee. Carles has scaled the revenue org from Day 1 to over $330M in just 3 years. Carles is also an active investor with investments in ElevenLabs, Revolut, Happy Robot and more. AGENDA: 0:00 How I Turned $20K into $16M with Revolut Angel Investment 10:45 Why I Don't Believe in Product-Market Fit 15:40 How to do Land and Expand: Turning $12K Deals into Millions 19:40 The 20X Rule: A "Ruthless" Comp Plan for Elite Reps 24:35 Public Shaming? Why Honest Pipeline Reviews Save Companies 28:50 Why Your Sales Reps Should Never Be in the Office 35:45 The Outbound King: How to Pivot from 90% Inbound 45:45 "Vibe Coding" & The Death of Technical Ceilings 55:35 Why I'd Fire Myself: The Secret Psychology of High-Performers

Carles Reina

Chief Revenue Officer

ElevenLabs

Less than two years since the breakthrough of text-based AI, we now see incredible developments in multimodal AI models and their impact on millions of users. As part of New York Tech Week, we brought together a live audience and three leaders from standout companies delivering AI-driven products to millions. Gaurav Misra, Cofounder and CEO of Captions, Carles Reina, Chief Revenue Officer of ElevenLabs, and Laura Burkhauser, VP of Product at Descript discuss the challenges and opportunities of designing AI-driven products, solving real customer problems, and effective marketing. From the critical need for preventing AI misuse to ensuring international accessibility, they cover essential insights for the future of AI technology.   Resources:  Find Laura on Twitter: https://x.com/burkenstocks Find Carles on Twitter :https://twitter.com/carles_reina Find Gaurav of Twitter: https://twitter.com/gmharhar   Stay Updated:  Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/ Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.   Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gaurav Misra

Co-founder and CEO

Captions

Carles Reina

Chief Revenue Officer

ElevenLabs

Laura Burkhauser

VP of Product

Descript