For founders: where to start
Where do I start as a founder hiring my first seller? Write your bets, get real data in, invite your team and run your first weekly review.
The question
I’m still selling, and I’ve just hired my first seller. What do I set up, and what do I look at each week?
Founder-led selling works because it lives in one head. The first hire needs it written down: who you sell to, what you say, how you qualify, and a short weekly look at what’s working.
Where it sits on the loop
The start of every stage at once: the ICP that feeds Imported, the message that earns Replied, and the deals in Pipeline.
How to think about it
- Write your bets down. Who buys, what you say, how you decide a deal is real.
- Get enough real activity to read them. Twenty leads and a live sequence before you trust a rate.
- Start one weekly rhythm. Find the first constraint, pick a few actions, check what changed.
Common mistakes
- Configuring before selling. Weeks on setup with nothing live to learn from.
- Hiring before writing the ICP. The new seller works a list nobody agreed on.
In Summit53
Your view
In the welcome window, choose Founder. If you’re a workspace admin, Summit53 also sets your role to CRO, so you land on the leader home with team views; otherwise it reads Ask your workspace admin to set your role to a leader role to see team views. In a new workspace, your home is Build your engine until your deals or leads arrive.
Start here
- Work through the seven setup steps: First 30 days.
- Invite your first seller: Teams, roles & invites.
- Run your first weekly review: Where is the engine stuck?
Your playbooks
Your screens
- Blueprint & Knowledge: your ICP, positioning and qualification bets
- Leads & Focus queue and Sequence builder
- Revenue Engine home
In Claude or Codex
- The summit53 skill to connect and check your workspace.
- first-meeting-deck before a discovery call, deal-review-prep for a deal you’re unsure of, and board-revenue-pack after a raise.
When the data is thin
- Early on, most rates read Not enough data yet. That’s honest, not broken: it clears as volume arrives.
- Demo records don’t count towards setup or the engine’s numbers.
Do it this week
- Write your ICP in five lines and your positioning in three.
- Write the three questions every deal review will ask.
- Put five strong-fit leads into one sequence and set a date to check replies.