20Sales: ElevenLabs: Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota | How to Structure Sales Compensation Plans | Customer Success: 'Total BS' or Growth Engine? | Building an AI Sales Machine: What Tools & Tactics Must CROs Adopt Today with Carles Reina

20Sales: ElevenLabs: Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota | How to Structure Sales Compensation Plans | Customer Success: 'Total BS' or Growth Engine? | Building an AI Sales Machine: What Tools & Tactics Must CROs Adopt Today with Carles Reina

Author: Harry Stebbings April 11, 2026 Duration: 1:25:03

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

 


Hosted by Harry Stebbings, The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) pulls back the curtain on the high-stakes worlds of venture capital and startup building. Each episode is a compact, twenty-minute dive into the minds shaping the future of technology. You’ll hear candid conversations with legendary investors, the very individuals who fund and guide the next generation of companies, featuring voices like Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Beyond the capital, this podcast dedicates time to the founders themselves. Weekly, Stebbings sits down with transformative entrepreneurs such as Spotify's Daniel Ek, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman, unpacking the real journeys behind their iconic companies. The format is direct and focused, cutting straight to the core insights on funding strategies, pitch dynamics, and the personal philosophies that drive success. Tuning into this podcast means gaining an unfiltered perspective from both sides of the table, all delivered in a concise and accessible style that fits into your day.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Podcast Episodes
20VC: Cerebras CEO on Why Raise $1BN and Delay the IPO | NVIDIA Showing Signs They Are Worried About Growth | Concentration of Value in Mag7: Will the AI Train Come to a Halt | Can the US Supply the Energy for AI with Andrew Feldman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:59
Andrew Feldman is Co-Founder & CEO of Cerebras, building the world's fastest AI inference and training. Cerebras recently closed a $1.1BN Series G round at an $8.1 billion valuation, backed by top names including Fidelit…
20Growth: How to Use Influencers to Scale Growth Insanely Fast | How to Optimise User Onboaring for Growth | How the Best Growth Teams Create Organic Growth and Community | Why LTV/CAC Models are BS with Ketty Slonimsky [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:32
Ketty Slonimsky is Chief Growth Officer at Palta, the platform behind apps like Flo (the #1 female health app with 77M+ MAU), Simple, and Zing AI, where she leads a centralized growth function across the portfolio. She w…
20VC: OpenAI and Anthropic Will Build Their Own Chips | NVIDIA Will Be Worth $10TRN | How to Solve the Energy Required for AI... Nuclear | Why China is Behind the US in the Race for AGI with Jonathan Ross, Groq Founder [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:29
Jonathan Ross is the Founder & CEO of Groq, the AI chip company redefining inference at scale. Under his leadership, Groq has raised over $3B from top investors. The company has reached a valuation of nearly $7B, positio…
20Product: Revolut Business $1BN Revenue: Five of the Biggest Product Lessons | How Revolut Structures Product and Design Teams | How Revolut Experiments and Invests in New Product Bets | How Revolut Ships Product So Fast with James Gibson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:15
James Gibson is Head of Revolut Business. Under his leadership, Revolut Business now processes over $33 billion in monthly transaction volume and generates more than $1BN in annualised revenue. AGENDA: 04:10 Is Consultin…
20VC: General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja on The Future of Venture Capital: Chanel vs Walmart | Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM | Investing $5BN+ Into Stripe Over 14 Rounds | Investing Hundreds of Millions into Anthropic at $60BN Valuation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:27:19
Hemant Taneja is the CEO and leader of General Catalyst, the firm he has scaled over the last decade into one of the largest with over $40BN in AUM. He has been one of the most influential investors of the past two decad…
20VC: Why 90% of Founders Build Startups Wrong | Why AI Growth Rates are Sustainable & Remote Work is BS and the AI Talent War | Competing with Brett Taylor and Sierra: Who Wins the Customer Service War with Jesse Zhang, Decagon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:19
Jesse Zhang is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Decagon, the conversational AI platform for customer experience. As one of the fastest growing companies in the valley, they have raised over $230M at a last round price of $1.5BN.…
20VC: Opendoor's CEO on The Greatest Turnaround in Tech | OpenAI and Oracle: How Can Either Afford to Do This | How Anthropic Could Lose 50% of Their Revenue Overnight | Replit Raises at $3BN | Figure, Gemini & VIA IPOs Broken Down [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:24:20
AGENDA: 00:00 Opendoor's Potential and Market Valuation 03:32 Why Did Kaz Leave $300M on the Table to Join Opendoor 04:44 Why Does Kaz Believe OPEN Can Be a Good Business When the Market Doesn't 06:34 How does Kaz Feel A…