Selling Is Not Below You

Somewhere in the corporate years, many professionals absorbed a hierarchy: strategy is noble, operations respectable, selling... somebody else's department. Then they start a venture and discover the org chart has one box, and selling is in it.

Reframe it with the truth: you have sold your entire career. Every budget you got approved, every board you convinced, every candidate you attracted, every appraisal you negotiated — selling. The skill is present; only the label triggers the allergy.

Founder-selling at your stage is not the cold-call cliché. It is: telling people plainly what you now do (most of your network still doesn't know); asking at every good meeting 'who else should I be talking to?'; following up with the discipline you'd expect of a junior; and asking for the order in words — 'shall we start next month?' — instead of waiting to be discovered.

Discovery is not a strategy. The market rewards the clearly-stated ask, made repeatedly, without embarrassment.