WMYT - What makes YOU Tick? Tech Leaders Career Stories

Richard and Tolu @ Tick Talent
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Conversations with high-performing tech leaders, breaking down the decisions, failures, and strategies behind exceptional careers. It all starts by asking "what makes you tick?" Designed for founders and operators who want practical lessons from people who’ve built, scaled, and led in the real world. No theory. No hype. Just insights you can use.

  1. 23h ago

    How to Expand Into Europe: 6 Lessons from SaaS Revenue Leaders

    How do you expand into Europe when the US playbook got you this far? Six sales and marketing leaders from What Makes You Tick share what they learned breaking into EMEA, and they all land on the same point: Europe is not one market, and copy-paste doesn't work. Michael Schirrmacher says hire a leader, not a lone AE. Campbell Williams goes further: one seasoned operator who owns Europe and reports to the CEO.Featuring:• Alexander Bellon, global sales and go-to-market leader across FinTech and SaaS• Conor Douglas, 11 years at HubSpot, building its early EMEA teams• Kevin Shirley, tech sales leader in Dublin for a San Francisco company• Amit Stark, 26 years scaling EMEA for US public companies and Israeli startups• Michael Schirrmacher, sales leader and early Bloomreach employee in Europe• Campbell Williams, CMO and commercially minded marketing leader (fractional and interim)We discuss:• Why Europe is "the slow money", and why slow money doesn't leave very quickly• What travels from the US (systems, process, the inbound engine) and what doesn't (cultural nuances)• How moving data security to the front of the sales process changed things in Germany• The copy-paste go-to-market mistake: it works in the UK, then "everything dies" in Germany• Why one AE, 5,000 miles from every colleague, struggles to open a region• Who should lead Europe, and why mirroring the US org chart backfires• Borrowing reputation: partners for validation, pipeline and deliveryBrought to you by Tick Talent: Operator-led GTM search for B2B Tech. https://tick-talent.comChapters:(00:00) Intro: Richard Washington(00:51) Alexander Bellon: Europe is the slow money(03:08) Conor Douglas: systems travel, culture doesn't(05:46) Kevin Shirley: EMEA talent is just as strong(08:10) Amit Stark: the copy-paste go-to-market(11:35) Michael Schirrmacher: hire a leader first(14:39) Campbell Williams: one operator for Europe(17:52) Alexander Bellon: borrow a partner's reputationWatch the full episodes:• Alexander Bellon (E.128): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6P1K_oBxas• Conor Douglas (E.83): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyUR7LCiHRE• Kevin Shirley (E.56): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t8ZUiwbxvY• Amit Stark (E.138): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIGkpq253vk• Michael Schirrmacher (E.110): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25I0C5x7lQ• Campbell Williams (E.88): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4bJfqaZt7sWhere to find What Makes You Tick:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1PrIjRzmSOGUQJSigtpXNS• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wmyt-what-makes-you-tick-tech-leaders-career-stories/id1699043715• LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/wmyt%3F-what-makes-you-tick-7083793079794556928/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatMakesYouTickWhere to find Rich:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/#WhatMakesYouTick #WMYTMixtape #InternationalExpansion #GoToMarket #EuropeanTech

    How to Expand Into Europe: 6 Lessons from SaaS Revenue Leaders

  2. 5d ago

    How to Scale Your Sales Team Without Lowering the Bar (Lessons from a Sales VP)

    Doubling your team doesn't alway smean doubling performance! It sounds like the right idea, but we so often get that wrong. So how do we get it right?Check out this Best Bits episode where Rakesh Rathod shares why execution beats experience when hiring for a startup: the 'hire fast' trap, hiring in the rear-view mirror, the red flag of needing guidance, and why sales can't win in a vacuum.Rakesh Rathod is a seasoned revenue leader who's helped multiple startups transition from stalled growth to scalable success.Chapters:0:00 Intro: Richard on why hiring goes wrong1:08 The 'Hire Fast' Trap After Funding2:34 Why We Over-Index on Experience4:26 Hiring in the Rear-View Mirror6:09 Interview Red Flags: How Much Guidance?8:05 Sporting DNA and the Three-to-Five-Year Plan9:49 Falling Forward12:10 The Questions Candidates Ask You13:41 Collaboration: Sales Can't Win in a Vacuum17:11 OutroFull episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL3UMgJ8ZycLinks:- Rakesh Rathod on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rakesh-rathod-b6847b2b- Richard Washington on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/- WMYT? What Makes You Tick newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/wmyt%3F-what-makes-you-tick-7083793079794556928About Tick Talent: Operator-led GTM search for B2B Tech. https://tick-talent.com

    How to Scale Your Sales Team Without Lowering the Bar (Lessons from a Sales VP)

  3. Oct 21

    How to hire great salespeople (14 revenue leaders share what works!)

    14 sales leaders and founders from our 150 What Makes You Tick episodes on hiring great salespeople: what to look for, how to test for it, what happens when you get it wrong, and the biggest job a founder has.Chapters:0:00 Intro: Richard on hiring elite salespeople0:47 Benjamin Caller: why an empty seat beats the wrong hire2:05 James Smith: SPARK, the 5 traits he screens for3:52 Gal Aga: his mentality on building a team6:44 Simon Black: promote from within, or hire from your sector?9:42 Remy Piazza: why industry experience is overrated11:49 Charles Talbot: bad salespeople are great interviewers12:44 Elitsa Miller: how to spot consistency and grit16:01 Olivia Lockwood: why she counts the pronouns17:37 Michael Schirrmacher: why he looks for failure stories19:12 Heath Barnett: the top-5% rep who lasted 3 months22:42 Simon Black: the top performer holding everyone back24:34 Amit Stark: why mercenary reps kill your company26:55 Scott MacGregor: the bone-dry talent strategy bucket29:36 Abi Williams: competency you can learn, character you can't30:31 OutroFull conversations:- Benjamin Caller (E.127): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyCAat-n8OA- James Smith (E.101): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz8066MnkZo- Gal Aga (E.77): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ww8FZ9u6I- Simon Black (E.119): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfIs4F_udlI- Remy Piazza (E.99): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxaEqVCIRi0- Charles Talbot and Douglas Mancini (E.120): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBK98ay-Gpk- Elitsa Miller (E.126): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaBxVzHdrj4- Olivia Lockwood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz8iduYq7o0- Michael Schirrmacher (E.110): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25I0C5x7lQ- Heath Barnett (E.95): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viv8BikwTNg- Amit Stark (E.138): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIGkpq253vk- Scott MacGregor (E.106): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An8ZNavt5HI- Abi Williams (E.66): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLK27Hbp954Connect with us:- Richard Washington on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/- Tick Talent: https://tick-talent.com- WMYT newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/wmyt%3F-what-makes-you-tick-7083793079794556928

    How to hire great salespeople (14 revenue leaders share what works!)

  4. Oct 11

    The Series A to B SaaS Growth Trap: Don't Mistake Success for Repeatability - Joseph Jenkins

    Is your SaaS growth actually repeatable, or are you mistaking early success for a scalable sales motion? VP Sales Joseph Jenkins breaks down the hidden assumptions that quietly crack the foundations of early-stage B2B SaaS companies.This is a What Makes You Tick Best Bits extract. Host Richard Washington, Founder of Tick Talent, talks with Joseph, a VP Sales who has hired over a hundred people as a sales leader, about the assumptions founders and first sales leaders make between pre-seed and Series B, and how to check them before they cost you.Watch the full episode with Joseph: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWI9Mzg-2roIn this episode, Joseph explains:- Why "is it repeatable?" is the question to ask of every win: a great rep, inbound, an enterprise logo, product-market fit- His definition of repeatability: the same persona, the same use case and the same channel and motion, with a large enough market behind it- Talent vs environment: why the same rep can struggle at one company and crush it at another- Why product-market fit is never permanent, and the false positives that fool founders- The four humility metrics to check before you invest in scaling: CAC payback, repeatability, gross margin and NRR- Why you need people around you with no incentive to agree with youChapters:0:00 Unchecked assumptions can kill a business1:03 The hidden cracks founders build into their sales foundation2:37 Are your sellers actually good?3:48 The star rep whose network ran dry: "It's not repeatable, boss"4:48 Talent vs environment: bad rep or wrong fit?7:09 Product-market fit isn't permanent7:30 False positives: the $1M customer that sank a sales team8:47 When should you actually invest in growth?9:16 Humility metric #1: CAC payback10:09 Good CAC payback, but no repeatability10:42 What repeatability actually means11:45 What happens when your assumptions are wrong?13:53 Find people with no incentive to agree with you14:31 Team of Rivals: build people who challenge you15:13 Don't lose your humilityLinks:- Full episode with Joseph Jenkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWI9Mzg-2ro- Connect with Joseph Jenkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephdanieljenkins/- Follow Rich on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/- Subscribe to the WMYT? What Makes You Tick newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/wmyt%3F-what-makes-you-tick-7083793079794556928About Tick Talent: Operator-led GTM search for B2B Tech. https://tick-talent.comSubscribe for Best Bits every Sunday, plus our career stories podcast What Makes You Tick and our masterclass format Making Revenue Tick.#SaaS #SalesLeadership #Startups

    The Series A to B SaaS Growth Trap: Don't Mistake Success for Repeatability - Joseph Jenkins

  5. Oct 4

    The AI Talent Race - What the Rest of Tech Can Learn From San Francisco

    Executive pay is being rewritten in real time by AI money, and almost nobody can see the whole board. Jacob Warwick can. In this Best Bits, he pulls back the curtain on negotiating eight-figure deals with some of the most powerful founders in tech, why the old playbook of slowing deals down no longer works, and how he runs the whole operation from three documents and a phone. We discuss: 1. How executive deal timelines collapsed from four months to four days 2. Why Jacob now tells some clients to speed up, not slow down 3. The way billionaires negotiate when time matters more than money 4. Rethinking your fee model when a single call creates millions in value 5. Whether the AI hiring boom is a genuine shift or a bubble 6. Running a high-value advisory business on just three documents 7. Reframing negotiation as expanding value, not taking a bigger slice Brought to you by Tick Talent, the search partner for the founding sales leaders and go-to-market multipliers who actually move the needle. Learn more at tick-talent.com Where to find Jacob Warwick: https://www.thinkwarwick.com/ Where to find Rich Washington: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/AaDdP1iyFd4 If you enjoyed this, watch the full episode and subscribe for more conversations with the best tech leaders in the world. #ExecutivePay #Negotiation #AIJobs #CompensationStrategy #TechCareers #ExecutiveSearch #CRO #ProductLeadership #CareerGrowth #SalaryNegotiation #Leadership #AICompanies #StartupHiring #GoToMarket #TechLeadership

    The AI Talent Race - What the Rest of Tech Can Learn From San Francisco

  6. Oct 1

    6 Enterprise Demand Generation Mistakes US Companies Make When Expanding into Europe

    Most US companies expanding into Europe make the same mistakes: they treat EMEA as one market, throw salespeople at the problem, and wonder why the pipeline never shows up. In this episode of Making Revenue Tick, Rich and Campbell Williams walk through the six oops moments that derail enterprise expansion, and exactly how to avoid each one. Campbell is a CMO-level go-to-market leader who has spent his career building demand engines across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for North American businesses scaling internationally. We discuss: 1. Why treating EMEA as one market can hurt expansion plans 2. The reporting structure that creates sales versus marketing infighting 3. How to win real local autonomy from a North American HQ 4. Defining ICP, personas, and the ABM sweet spot for a new region 5. Why only 5% of your market is ready to buy now 6. What separates great account-based marketing from vanity metrics 7. The first three marketing hires to build a demand engine in EMEA Brought to you by Tick Talent, the search partner for the founding sales leaders and go-to-market multipliers who actually move the needle. Learn more at tick-talent.com Where to find Campbell Williams: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/campbellwilliams/ Where to find Rich Washington: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ If you enjoyed this, subscribe for more conversations that help revenue leaders build go-to-market engines that actually work. #MakingRevenueTick #DemandGeneration #GoToMarket #EMEA #MarketExpansion #ABM #B2BMarketing #SaaSMarketing #ICP #RevenueGrowth #EnterpriseSales #FractionalCMO #DemandGen #MarketingStrategy #InternationalExpansion

    6 Enterprise Demand Generation Mistakes US Companies Make When Expanding into Europe

  7. Sep 27

    ICP Masterclass: How to Double Sales Without Doubling Your Sales Team

    Every revenue leader is being asked to do the same thing: grow sales without growing the team at the same pace. Double the number, but with maybe 20 to 30% more headcount. In this Best Bits special, Rich sits down with Brent Holloway who runs SaaS Sales Advisors, coaching startups and scale-ups on the ICP mapping and unit economics that turn winging it into a repeatable, data-driven machine. We discuss: 1. The productivity math behind doubling sales with only 20 to 30% more headcount 2. How to move a team from 350k to 500k per rep in a single year 3. What an ideal customer profile actually is, and how to build one with data 4. The reasons 74% of reps miss quota, even at strong companies 5. The "Road to Club" waterfall plan for finding exactly where you are missing 6. How focus took reps from 250 to 300k up to 500 to 600k in annualized bookings 7. Matching the right sales leader to your current growth stage Three Takeaways: 1/ Apply the full sales velocity formula. Sales velocity equals opportunity volume, multiplied by win rate, multiplied by average sale price, divided by sales cycle length. Annualize the result and measure it against quota, so you can see whether a rep's current mix of deals can mathematically get them there. 2/ Beware the self-fulfilling prophecy. The industries and segments that look like your "best" are often just the most familiar, not the most optimal. Without data, you double down on what you already know rather than what actually converts efficiently. 3/ Model the alternative efficiency scenarios. Before you assign more people or more time to a play, run the scenarios. Quantify what happens if you shift effort from the bottom half of the bell curve to the top half, and let the numbers guide where you focus. Brought to you by Tick Talent, the search partner for the founding sales leaders and go-to-market multipliers who actually move the needle. Learn more at tick-talent.com Where to find Brent Holloway: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-holloway/ Where to find Rich Washington: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ If you enjoyed this, go check out the full episode and subscribe for more conversations with the best tech leaders in the world. #SalesLeadership #ICP #SalesProductivity #RevenueGrowth #GoToMarket #SalesVelocity #SaaSSales #UnitEconomics #RevOps #SalesStrategy #StartupSales #ScaleUp #SalesManagement #QuotaAttainment #B2BSales

    ICP Masterclass: How to Double Sales Without Doubling Your Sales Team

  8. Sep 24

    How Leaders Can Solve the Sales Skills Shortage

    Everyone's fighting to hire the best salespeople. Ioanna Mantzouridou Onasi thinks that's the wrong question entirely. What you need to be thinking about is how do you develop the talent you already have? In this episode of Making Revenue Tick, the Founder and CEO of Dextego joins Rich to unpack the sales skills shortage, the influence gap holding teams back, and how AI can finally make coaching work. We discuss: 1. Why the world runs on perceived skills, not actual ones 2. The "influence gap" and why it's the skill sales teams miss most 3. Why onboarding everything at once is the wrong way to train 4. Why measuring outcomes without understanding the why kills coaching 5. What actually makes a top performer, and how to replicate it 6. Where AI has the biggest impact: real-time coaching, not role plays 7. Why "train them and they'll leave" is the wrong way to think Brought to you by Tick Talent, go-to-market recruitment for early-stage tech startups: https://www.tick-talent.com/ Where to find Ioanna Mantzouridou Onasi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannemantzouridou/ Where to find Rich: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Wednesday, Best Bits every Sunday.

    How Leaders Can Solve the Sales Skills Shortage
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Conversations with high-performing tech leaders, breaking down the decisions, failures, and strategies behind exceptional careers. It all starts by asking "what makes you tick?" Designed for founders and operators who want practical lessons from people who’ve built, scaled, and led in the real world. No theory. No hype. Just insights you can use.

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