In 2010, I decided to move back out to Silicon Valley from NYC to get back into the startup founders’ seat. It was my third trip to the valley in 10 years with hopes of building a successful startup — this time focused on b2b sales automation. I joined an incubator called Angelpad and worked on a sales automation tool.
After a few months of trying to get the business off the ground and a failed attempt at raising capital, my co-founders threw in the towel and I was left with enough money to eat and a mattress to sleep on. But my undying passion for startups and sales did not go away.
While I was at Angelpad it became very apparent that I was the only person who had a clue what true hustler-style selling was all about. Particularly what that meant within the tech startup sales experience. I found myself giving advice and became excited by the idea of being able to inspire founders through sharing my thoughts and passions around startup sales tactics and processes. I wanted it to be more than just tactics though, I really wanted to motivate and inspire people. Since my original intention was never to build a business, it allowed me to be super creative and free — I wanted to startup a movement.
Over the course of 4 years, Sales4StartUps grew into an organization that involved people from Silicon Valley through Guadalajara, Mexico. We had the amazing opportunity to teach and inspire nearly 2,000 founders and early employees on how to win through sales. I was able to make so many amazing friends all over the world through our organization, and for this I am incredibly grateful.
Today, I am excited to announce that Sales4StartUps has agreed to be acquired by Sales Hacker Inc! Similar to S4S, Sales Hacker has been trying to spread the good word around sales, startups, and innovation since their inception. Our two organizations could not have been a more natural fit. As part of Sales Hacker family, we will now have access to the team and resources we need to reach more locations and founders than ever before.
I want to thank a few amazing friends who have always been so supportive of Sales4StartUps from day one: Matthew Bellows, Cliff Pollan, Wade Floyd, Aaron Ross, Andy Paul, JP Werlin, Steli Efti, Bridget Gleason, Ali Jawin, Mark Roberge, Fred Shilmover, Andrew Archer, Ben Sardella, Ilya Lichtenstein, Ilya Semin, Jorge Bestard, Yokum Taku & Victoria Beatty at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Jim Payne, John Pelly, Elizabeth Quintanilla, Eric Hemati, The Pipedrive team, Bastian Lehmann of Postmates, Noah Barr, Tim Guleri, Mark Fernandes & Dora Prado of Sierra Ventures, Thomas Korte and the Angelpad family, Santiago Zavala of 500 Startups, Kiana and so many more.
Special thanks to Kiana Davari and Alejandro De Simone for supporting me during the early days. And an emotional and loving thank you to my brothers Jason Vargas and Bennett Phillips; without you guys Sales4StartUps would have never made it past a few meetups in SF and an excuse to hear myself talk shop. Thank you for always sticking by me no matter what. It was an honor to work with you. Bennett, please thank your wife and kids for allowing you to spend so much time with S4S 🙂
Keep fighting the good fight,
Jorge Soto
Founder, Sales4StartUps
@sotoventures
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