Press Release: Venture Guides Launches Sales Academy to Accelerate Portfolio Company Growth
Sales training and mentorship program develops pipeline of diverse, trained sales candidates to kick-start early stage growth
Boston, MA- April 2, 2024 – Venture Guides, an early stage venture capital firm focused on team-based investing and guiding, today announced the launch of Venture Guides’ Sales Academy for Leadership, Excellence, and Success (VG SALES) designed to accelerate sales for its portfolio companies with trained and motivated sales professionals, ready to join fast growing tech startups.
With a steadfast commitment to fostering the success of its portfolio companies, Venture Guides recognizes the critical role of sales execution in early, sustainable growth. For start-up tech companies, sales professionals are on the front lines, helping to understand customer needs, providing real-time feedback to the product teams, and generating early customer interest and business revenue. The newly launched VG SALES program equips entry-level sales professionals with the training, mentorship and guidance needed to join early venture-backed companies and create meaningful sales impact right away.
"At Venture Guides, we understand the challenges start-ups face when hiring, training, and launching a sales team," said Ben Nye, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Venture Guides. "First-time technical founders often don't have the bandwidth and experience of hiring, onboarding, and ramping sales and marketing teams. VG SALES helps accelerate them by introducing stronger, more prepared candidates, saving 4-6 months per sales representative. Our sales academy is one of the many ways we help our portfolio companies; leveraging decades of proven, hands-on experience as operators and company builders.”
“The VG SALES program underscores Venture Guides' commitment to providing unparalleled support and strategic guidance to its portfolio companies,” said Naj Husain, Co-founder and CEO, Elastio. “The partnership we have with the Venture Guides team has made a meaningful difference in how quickly and effectively our Go-to-Market teams are executing. We can't wait to see the impact of the new sales academy.”
The VG SALES program offers a comprehensive sales skills curriculum including product positioning and messaging, prospecting and lead generation, customer-centric selling, customer engagement, sales enablement and selling tools and includes one-on-one coaching sessions. The program is designed for entry-level sales candidates who will bring drive, commitment and resilience to the full-time, 8-week program. While there is a competitive interview and selection process, there is no charge to participate and candidates are paid a stipend to make it possible for them to commit to the program. Successful graduates of the program will be introduced to the hiring process with Venture Guides’ portfolio companies.
“One of our top priorities for VG SALES is to encourage and support traditionally under-represented groups, regardless of background or professional experience,” said Tessa Doman, VP of VG SALES. “We encourage diverse, motivated candidates to apply and, through VG SALES, we hope to contribute to building strong, inclusive and more resilient sales teams throughout the technology industry.”
The next VG SALES cohort begins on Monday June 3rd, 2024. Interested applicants can apply at: https://www.ventureguides.com/venture-guides-sales
Venture Guides is an early-stage venture capital firm offering a unique investing and operating approach that accelerates portfolio startups with business management and go-to-market strategies in the infrastructure, cloud, security and data sectors. The firm’s transparent and team-based approach delivers entrepreneurs consistent yield and strong profit performance. Forbes Midas List and Inc. 5000 rankings have recognized the performance-driven achievement of Venture Guides’ partners multiple times. Learn more about Venture Guides at www.ventureguides.com.