Building a $330M Revenue Machine in Three Years

I always get in trouble for these types of posts, but age or arrogance, I do not care anymore. I have interviewed 100 of the best sales leaders over the past 5 years. None has impressed me as much as @Carles_Reina @elevenlabsio . He scaled their GTM from $0 to $330M in ARR in just 3 years. This weekend I released our episode with him and have gone over it to condense my biggest lessons from the discussion. 🚀 8 Lessons on Building a $330M+ Revenue Machine 1. The "20x" Quota Rule Forget the standard SaaS 6x–8x multiple. At ElevenLabs, the rule is simple: you must bring in 20 times your base salary in revenue. If your base is $100k, your quota is $2M. It sounds aggressive, but it sets a high-performance bar where over 80% of the team hits their targets. 2. Hire "Hunters," Not Just Product Experts A common mistake is hiring for product knowledge and hoping to "train" the sales muscle. Carles learned the hard way: you need people with a natural "hunter" mentality who are hungry, driven, and passionate. You can teach the tech, but you can’t teach the hustle. 3. Be "Ruthless" with Pipeline Reviews Carles holds monthly pipeline reviews where he drills into every detail in front of the entire team. If you aren’t doing your job, you get called out publicly. This transparency ensures everyone learns from each other's mistakes and keeps the team on their toes. 4. Salespeople Belong on the Road If the sales team is in the office for multiple days, Carles starts getting worried. A remote culture works if it’s a "road" culture. Sellers need to be out talking to customers face-to-face, not just hiding behind virtual meetings. 5. Land Small, Expand Fast Don't get bogged down waiting months for a six-figure enterprise deal. Land with a $12k contract to bypass layers of approval. Once the MSA is signed, the "land" is over, and the "outbound" mission begins to capture every other team in the organization. 6. Forecast with Brutal Negativity Optimism kills sales organizations. Carles advises being as negative as possible when forecasting. If a deal is worth $500k, forecast it at $24k. This prevents "inflated" pipelines and forces the team to work twice as hard to ensure the real targets are hit. 7. The 72-Hour "First Contract" Goal Onboarding at ElevenLabs isn't about weeks of reading manuals. New hires join calls immediately. The target? Sign your first contract within your first two weeks. Some have even closed enterprise deals within 72 hours of joining. 8. Treat Customers as a Community Transactional selling leads to churn. Building a community—where you give customers your WhatsApp, interact constantly, and do what's right for them even if it costs you money—is how you retain them forever. Huge thanks to @matiii and @lukeharries for helping to make this one happen. (link in comments)