7 ways I avoided founder-led sales, and which ones (didn't) work

AI’s imagination of a startup conference

It was a big warehouse in Brooklyn with hundreds of startup booths inside. I truly don’t remember the name of the conference - there are a lot of startup events in New York.

I do remember running into my angel investor, Craig. I also remember what he said.

“Get back to the office and sell.”

Now Craig is a nice guy. Inspiring even. His tone wasn’t malicious. As an experienced startup investor, he knew that as the founder of an early revenue company, I needed that focus on what mattered: spending time with potential customers, building revenue and further refining our product, not hanging out with other startup founders and listening to trends.

As a founder, there are 1000 time traps we can fall into that prevent us from staying in our seat and moving the needle. As a founder responsible for business development, especially in the space we were in, that face and phone time with customers was critical to our success.

Unfortunately, I was pretty good at avoiding sales time when I didn’t feel like it.

Big sales energy

You know that old adage that introverts expend energy being with people, and extroverts gain energy being with people?

I've always found that to be an oversimplification at best.

I’ve been labeled an introvert at times and an extravert at others. The word “ambivert” has been thrown around which clears things up precisely 0%.

Here’s how I think about it now:

Interacting with people takes physical energy, but its emotional impact varies—some interactions fuel us, others drain us. Over time, emotional energy can influence our physical stamina.

I feel charged up after a game of basketball, even though it’s physically tiring. My wife gets that same boost from doing puzzles—something I find draining.

I sometimes use AI-generated visuals to break up the text—are they helpful or distracting? Let me know in the comments.

Sales isn’t just interacting with people—it’s guiding them toward a decision. That pressure makes it especially draining for many founders. Perhaps it feels the way basketball feels to my wife. Marketing can generate interest, but sales requires real human connection—and that’s what makes it tough to sustain.

Rejection is exhausting—especially when you’ve poured emotional energy into your startup. Early-stage sales demands constant effort, and when things aren’t clicking, it drains even faster. That’s why, like many founders, I found creative ways to avoid the sales seat.

7 ways to avoid selling and which ones (don’t) work

There are lots of tactics I used to avoid trying to sell our offering in my early days as a founder.

1. Hired a co-founder from the industry to sell for us.

It seemed like the perfect solution. Bring in someone with domain expertise and a strong network, and let them handle sales while I focused on product and operations. The reality? Sales needs to stay in the purview of a true founder, who uses each meeting to pull information out of the customer to further shape the product. Even with the right industry contacts, having someone start to “push” a too-early solution is counterproductive.

2. Hired an SDR firm to generate leads.

Outsourcing the Sales Development function (cold outreach to customers) can be a good move for some companies, but it’s not usually the right move early on during the founder-led sales period. I tried to outsource this too early when we couldn’t provide crystal clear guidance to the sales firm, and it wasted valuable time and resources.

3. Convince myself I was networking

Attending conferences (like the Brooklyn one above), industry meetups, and startup events can feel productive. You’re out there, making connections, talking about your company. But networking without a clear sales goal is often just another distraction. If you’re not generating real sales conversations, it’s just socializing with a business card.

4. Try to spin up partnerships

Instead of selling directly, I spent too much time speaking with other real estate tech startups and brokerages who had a more established clientele, hoping we could iron out a partnership that would be fruitful on both sides. We were able to set up some referral schemes - but not impactful enough to bank on as a predictable sales channel.

5. Convince myself I was enabling sales

Sales enablement is important—creating pitch decks, refining messaging, building case studies. But spending too much of my time optimizing sales materials without actually getting in front of customers was another form of procrastination. There comes a time later in the game where this is the largest lever for sales growth, but this work needs to be efficient in the beginning to protect time for actual sales activities.

6. Believe That a Great Product Sells Itself

This is very rarely true, especially for B2B businesses. The adage goes: first time founders obsess over product, but second time founders obsess over distribution.

7. Seek out elaborate growth hacks

Instead of doing the hard work of direct sales, I’d spend time chasing viral loops, SEO tricks, and automation schemes. Growth hacks can amplify a solid sales process, but they can’t replace it.

Another startup advisor whose words stick out to me on this is Michael Mandel, the founder & CEO of Compstak, a big-name data startup in the commercial real estate world. He kindly pointed out that I was trying to “outsmart the shit out of everything” instead of just focusing on sales. Anything that attempts to circumvent sales in early stages should be viewed skeptically.

Big, big energy

If you’re an early stage founder realizing that you’ve been avoiding the sales seat, there’s some good news.

1. We can get better at dealing with rejection.

2. We can increase the band of interactions that give us energy.

3. We can build our emotional energy reserve itself.

4. We can adjust our sales approach so it’s less draining.

None of those outcomes require our immediate circumstances to improve. We don’t need to have more cash in the bank or deeper product market fit to start changing the way sales impacts our energy. We need the right mindset, and the willingness to spend time being a bit uncomfortable and experiencing rejection in a way that both improves our approach and builds our resilience.

Even now, selling isn’t an activity I sprint towards. I have a fledgling consulting practice, and I’m hesitant on direct sales activities that could build its pipeline. But I know that avoiding it won’t help.

Tuning up our actual sales approach will be a whole new topic to unpack, but in the meantime, if you are a founder, especially one who leans away from sales, here’s my challenge: Spend today intentionally putting yourself in the sales seat. Call a short list of prospects or follow up on old leads with new information. Action is required before you feel like it to start to change your own mind, and maybe, save your startup.

The needle moves when you do.