20Sales: Why You Need a CRO Pre-Product | Why Remote Sales Teams Do Not Work | How Snowflake Built a Sales Machine with Chad Peets

20Sales: Why You Need a CRO Pre-Product | Why Remote Sales Teams Do Not Work | How Snowflake Built a Sales Machine with Chad Peets

Author: Harry Stebbings November 7, 2025 Duration: 1:09:13
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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Chad Peets is one of the greatest sales leaders and recruiters of the last 25 years. From 2018 to 2023, Chad was a Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures. Chad has worked with the world's best CEOs and CROs to build world-class go-to-market organizations. Chad is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Lacework and Luminary Cloud and on the boards of Clumio and Sigma Computing. He previously served as a board member for Astronomer, Transposit, and others. He was an early-stage investor at Snowflake, Sigma, Observe, Lacework, and Clumio.

In Today's Discussion with Chad Peet's We Discuss:

1. You Need a CRO Pre-Product:

  • Why does Chad believe that SaaS companies need a CRO pre-product?

  • Should the founder not be the right person to create the sales playbook?

  • What should the founder look for in their first CRO hire?

  • Does any great CRO really want to go back to an early startup and do it again?

2. What Everyone Gets Wrong in Building Sales Teams:

  • Why are most sales reps not performing?

  • How long does it take for sales teams to ramp? How does this change with PLG and enterprise?

  • What are the benchmarks of good vs great for average sales reps?

  • How do founders and VCs most often hurt their sales teams and performance?

3. How to Build a Hiring Machine:

  • What are the single biggest mistakes people make when hiring sales reps and teams?

  • Are sales people money motivated? How to create comp plans that incentivise and align?

  • Why does Chad believe that any sales rep that does not want to be in the office, is not putting their career and development first?

  • Why is it harder than ever to recruit great sales leaders today?

4. Lessons from Scaling Sales at Snowflake:

  • What are the single biggest lessons of what worked from scaling Snowflake's sales team?

  • What did not work? What would he do differently with the team again?

  • What did Snowflake teach Chad about success and culture and how they interplay together?

 


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

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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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