Inside Figma’s early days: How to build a world-class sales org | Kyle Parrish (VP of Sales)

In Depth

Kyle Parrish, Figma’s first sales hire, built the company’s zero-to-one sales engine from scratch. Figma now has more than 3 million monthly users. Prior to Figma, Kyle spent 5 years at Dropbox in various sales roles. At Dropbox, Kyle successfully launched and scaled the Austin office to 100+ people, and then led the enterprise sales function in San Francisco and New York.

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In today’s episode, we discuss:

• The right time to build a sales function
• Hiring and scaling a successful sales org
• Building a unique sales culture
• Career advice for ambitious salespeople
• Figma’s early sales motion
• How to integrate your first sales hire
• Navigating the founder/Head of Sales relationship

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Referenced:

• Amanda Kleha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-kleha-015599/
• Asana: https://asana.com/
• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/
• Claire Butler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairetbutler/
• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/
• Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/
• FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Kevin Egan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-egan-59719/
• Oliver Jay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverjayleadership/
• Praveer Melwani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveer-melwani/
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• Slack: https://www.slack.com/

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Where to find Kyle Parrish:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kparrish8/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/KyleHParrish

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Where to find Brett Berson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

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Where to find First Round Capital:

• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:10) What founders need to figure out before hiring salespeople

(03:48) Who to hire as your first salesperson

(05:34) Transitioning away from founder-led sales

(07:07) Tactics for hiring great salespeople

(12:50) The ideal experience sales candidates should have

(13:49) Common traits of successful salespeople

(18:45) What it was like being Figma’s first sales hire

(19:59) Interesting tactic to integrate the first sales hire

(21:16) How Figma executed its early sales motion

(32:27) Why Figma changed its customer narrative

(34:03) Building outbound sales strategy at Figma

(36:17) Segmented pricing and no discounts

(41:55) Kyle’s transition from Dropbox to Figma

(47:25) Creating a world-class sales culture

(51:46) How Figma does sales differently

(54:02) Building the initial sales team around a passion for the product

(57:12) Figma’s unique hiring process for salespeople

(60:40) Advice for founders hiring their first salesperson

(63:18) The secret to Dylan Field’s success

(64:33) How to scale yourself as an early hire

(66:25) Oliver Jay’s impact on Kyle