Expanding your hiring efforts across borders can unlock incredible talent pools, but it also introduces new challenges. Before you go global, you need a game plan. Here’s a three-step framework to help you prepare:

Async Work: New Time Zones, New Rhythms, New Playbooks

Hiring internationally means your team won’t all be online at the same time.

To make this work:
✔ Invest in async-friendly tools like Loom, Notion, and Slack workflows.
✔ Shift from meetings to documentation — don’t let decisions get lost in live discussions.
✔ Establish overlap hours where distributed teams can collaborate in real-time.

Cross-Cultural Communication: Your Biggest Hidden Challenge

Culture impacts how people give feedback, make decisions, and resolve conflicts. Ignoring these differences can lead to misunderstandings and disengagement.

To support your global hires:
✔ Train your leaders on cultural intelligence — help them recognize and adapt to different communication styles. Create the culture of Inclusion — your new organizational culture.
✔ Create clear norms for feedback — some cultures are direct, others prefer indirect suggestions. Train and empower your teams — set the expectations and lead by example.

Compliance & Market Insights: Know the Terrain Before You Hire

Employment laws, payroll systems, and tax regulations vary drastically by country.

Instead of hiring blindly:
✔ Use EOR (Employer Of The Record) platforms like Deel or Remote to streamline compliance (payroll, contracts, benefits).
✔ Research market trends — what are the salary benchmarks? What do local candidates expect from an employer? (If you don’t have an in-house Comp& Ben Specialist you can contract one to create your compensation ranges, or you can use compensation benchmarking tools like Ravio or Figures)
✔ Prioritize countries with strong talent pools and employer-friendly regulations.

Going global isn’t just about hiring anywhere — it’s about setting up systems that allow your international team to thrive.

Hiring for Go-To-Market (GTM) teams isn’t like hiring for product or engineering — it’s a revenue-critical function with high expectations, aggressive targets, and a competitive talent market. Recruiters who truly understand GTM roles, compensation structures, and the nuances of sales cycles become invaluable partners to their hiring teams.

With 13 years of experience in high-growth tech companies globally, I’ve seen what works — and what doesn’t — when it comes to hiring top GTM talent.

Here’s how recruiters can elevate their game and drive impactful hiring:

💡 Become a True Partner to Your GTM Leaders

Recruiters who act as strategic partners (not just resume screeners) make better hires, faster.

Here’s how:
✔ Understand the business goals and scope of the role and the product
✔ Get clarity on success metrics.
✔ Work together on creating selling points for the role.

GTM leaders don’t need a recruiter who just forwards resumes — they need someone who understands their team’s needs and proactively sources top talent. But your partnership doesn’t end when you meet the team and learn what they do. You can further strengthen it by bringing market insights (more on that below).

💡 Master the Scope: Know the Role Inside and Out

To recruit effectively, you need to speak the language of GTM teams.

Here’s what to focus on:
✔ Talk numbers — Average Deal Size, Average Sales Cycle, Customer Segmentation; What is the typical size of the company they are selling to? Is there a geographical split in the team or sector or both? The skill sets required are vastly different.
✔ Role Scope — New Business vs. Expansion: Is this role focused on hunting (AE/BDR) or farming (Account Management/Customer Success)?
✔ The Full GTM Ecosystem — GTM isn’t just sales — it includes marketing, partnerships/channels, revenue operations, and customer success. Understand how these functions work together and what the lead/logo handover looks like to be able to discuss it with candidates.
✔ Sales Compensation Structures — GTM compensation plans can be complex. Learn about OTE (on-target earnings), base + variable (commission) splits, quotas, accelerators, and clawbacks. Candidates will expect this information as early as their first interaction with you.

Being fluent in GTM hiring lingo helps build credibility with hiring managers and candidates alike.

💡Leverage Market Insights to Stay Competitive

GTM hiring is fiercely competitive, and recruiters who track market data make better hires.

Here’s how to gain an edge:
✔ Monitor the competitive landscape
✔ Understand compensation expectations and collect data
✔ Track industry hiring trends

Great recruiters don’t just fill roles — they bring data-driven insights that help hiring managers attract and close top talent.
Use market insights to support your Hiring Managers and GTM Leaders — bring relevant data and turn them into hiring recommendations. This is another way to strengthen your relationship with functional leaders and make an impact.

💡Go Beyond Job Descriptions — Source Like a Pro

The best GTM hires aren’t applying online — you have to find them.

Here’s how to build strong pipelines:
✔ Look at quota attainment. High-performing salespeople often highlight their quota achievements on their profiles.
✔ Network within sales communities. Engage with sales Slack groups, LinkedIn posts, and industry events.
✔ Source from competitors & similar industries. If you’re struggling to find talent, look at companies with similar sales cycles and customer bases.

Great GTM recruiters don’t wait for candidates to come to them — they proactively build relationships with top performers.

Final Thoughts: GTM Recruiting Is About More Than Just Filling Roles

Hiring a GTM team is hiring the revenue engine of the company — and recruiters who approach it strategically will become trusted advisors to the business. By deeply understanding GTM structures, compensation, market insights, and sourcing strategies, you’ll set both hiring managers and candidates up for success.

Hiring a Go-To-Market (GTM) team isn’t just about filling roles — it’s about building a revenue engine that scales. Whether you’re hiring your first sales rep or expanding a global team, getting it right can mean the difference between hypergrowth and missed targets.

With 13 years of experience in high-growth tech companies globally, I’ve seen firsthand what separates GTM teams that thrive from those that struggle. From early-stage startups to scaling organizations, the right hiring strategy can make or break a company’s trajectory.

Here’s a four-step framework for hiring and structuring your GTM team for success:

Step 1: Define Your GTM Motion Before You Hire

Before you post that job listing, ask:

• Is your GTM motion inbound, outbound, or product-led?
• Do you need hunters (new business) or farmers (account managers)?
• Where are your customers, and what sales cycles do they expect?

Your answers will dictate the profiles you need — an early-stage startup needs versatile generalists (they can wear many hats), while a scaling company needs specialized hires (masters of their craft).

Step 2: Prioritize These Three Must-Have Roles First

To build a GTM team from scratch, start with:

• Sales (AE or BDR/SDR) — Generates and closes deals.
• Marketing (Growth or Demand Gen) — Drives leads and brand awareness.
• Customer Success (CSM or Account Manager) — Ensures retention and upsells.

Each role fuels the next — great marketing feeds sales, and great CS fuels expansion.

Step 3: Compensation Matters — But So Do Growth Paths

The best GTM talent is highly sought after, so get competitive:

• Offer base + commission structures (variable) that align incentives with business goals.
• Give clear career paths — candidates want to know their next step.
• Consider equity for key hires to attract mission-driven talent.

If your comp isn’t market-competitive, you’ll lose top candidates fast.

Step 4: Build for Scalability — Not Just Today’s Needs

Your first hires should be able to handle ambiguity, but as you scale:

• Define repeatable sales playbooks.
• Implement enablement (learning) programs for new hire training and up-skilling needs.
• Hire ops and analytics early — data-driven decisions will fuel growth.

GTM teams evolve quickly. Think ahead so you’re not constantly rebuilding.

Leadership isn’t just about vision — it’s about execution, collaboration, and adaptability. While studying leadership at Cornell, I deepened my understanding of how to navigate stakeholder relationships and lead change effectively.

With 13 years of experience in high-growth tech companies, and working in global leadership roles, I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is to align with stakeholders, especially in fast-moving environments. My recent postgraduate studies at Cornell have reinforced key leadership principles that drive impact.

Here are 3 lessons I’d like to share with you today:

Contracting Conversations Matter

When starting to work with stakeholders, setting clear expectations is crucial. Whether it’s a new relationship (aligning on ways of working) or an existing one (reaffirming or evolving the partnership), defining roles, communication styles, and decision-making processes ensures a strong foundation.

Context Shapes Collaboration

Stakeholder dynamics evolve over time. Trust, shared goals, and past successes impact how we engage. Are we building from scratch, reinforcing an effective partnership, or expanding our collaboration based on mutual confidence? Recognizing this helps tailor conversations for maximum impact.

Leading Change

Change isn’t just about execution — it’s about preparation and alignment.
3 step approach to driving change:
* Define the “why” behind the change and secure buy-in
* Assess the landscape, identify risks, and strategize
* Implement with clarity, communication, and agility

Whether you’re supporting a VC portfolio, leading talent strategies, or managing operational shifts, these principles are game-changers.

Where to start:

• Clarity in Growth Paths: Clear leveling frameworks outline what success looks like at every stage — from junior talent to leadership — fostering transparency and fairness.
• Focus on Skills, Not Titles: By emphasizing capabilities over rigid roles, these frameworks empower engineers to deepen their expertise and broaden their impact across domains.
• Aligned Performance and Culture: Frameworks reinforce cultural values, ensuring team performance aligns with organizational goals while promoting collaboration and innovation.
• Empowerment Through Feedback: Actionable, detailed feedback tied to a shared framework helps team members take ownership of their growth and excel in their roles.

Career frameworks done right:

One of the most effective tools for establishing clarity and fostering growth in engineering teams is a well-designed career framework.

These frameworks provide a structured approach to leveling, ensuring transparency, skill development, and alignment with team goals. Here are a few of my top recommendations:

Dropbox Engineering Career Framework

GitLab Engineering Career Framework

Buffer Two-Path Career Framework

The WHY behind the pay transparency directive

This directive aims to combat pay discrimination and help close the gender pay gap in the EU.
Lack of pay transparency has been identified as one of the key obstacles to closing the gender pay gap, which remains at around 13% on average in the EU in 2020. This means that women earn on average 13% less than men per hour, (Eurostat data from 2021).

Read more: Why pay transparency can help reduce the EU’s gender pay gap.

When does it come into effect?

EU member states have until June 2026 to transfer this directive into national law.

Who needs to comply with the directive?

All EU companies with 100+ employees (this includes part-time employees and contract workers) are obligated to mandatory pay reporting.

Smaller organizations (99> employees) are still subject to more narrow requirements.

Key takeaywas of the directive:

• Disclose salary ranges in job postings
• Right to pay information (employees will have the right to request information from their employer on their individual pay level and on the average pay levels, broken down by sex, for categories of workers doing the same work or work of equal value)
• Gender Pay Gap Reports
• Pay audits and action plan reporting (as necessary)

Read more: Key elements of the Directive on pay transparency

“Managing up” is often misunderstood as mere self-promotion, but in reality, it’s about creating alignment and trust with your manager. It’s about understanding their goals, anticipating challenges, and communicating in ways that make collaboration seamless.

Think of it this way: your manager’s success and your success are interconnected. Managing up means being proactive — bringing clarity, solutions, and perspectives that help your manager make better decisions. It’s not about hierarchy; it’s about partnership.

When done well, managing up doesn’t just make your manager’s life easier — it makes your impact bigger.

Managing Up Done Well

Here's what to focus on during your next 1on1:

Keep it clear, concise, and impactful!

Inspired by Rands in Repose’s excellent take on this topic “Managing up”.

The Secretary Problem is a mathematical puzzle:

• Problem: You want to hire a secretary out of N candidates.
• For each candidate you interview, you have to make a decision whether to accept or reject them.
• You cannot reverse a decision once it is made. Assume each candidate can be ranked against each other.
• If you are interviewing them in a random order, how do you select a candidate in a way that there is a maximum chance of finding the best out of all candidates?

Mathematically, the optimal strategy involves initially rejecting the first ~37% of candidates and then selecting the next candidate who surpasses all previous interviewees in quality.

Will that work?

Making a decision based on data is the best path you can take. While this is a good framework the reality is much more complicated. Just like physicists find it useful to consider things in a vacuum, in a perfect environment, and then they still have to correct for real-world conditions.

The Optimal Stopping Problem assumes you know the total number of candidates, can rank them perfectly (removing bias), and can’t return to previous applicants once you move to the next one. Real-life decisions involve uncertainty and context, which this model doesn’t account for.

To make better hiring choices, work with your talent team to create a strategy focused on data. Use tools and techniques to remove bias and focus on the candidate’s skills & capabilities.

Managers operate on an hourly schedule, breaking their day into multiple segments filled with meetings and a variety of tasks. This structure aligns with their responsibility to oversee operations and coordinate efforts across teams.

Makers, such as programmers, writers, or designers, work best with uninterrupted blocks of time. Their work requires deep focus and creativity, making even a single meeting disruptive to their flow. In many cases, a broken block of time can mean a lost day of productivity.

Why should we care about this?
Grasping these differences is a game-changer for workplaces where managers and makers work together. When managers get the flexibility for meetings and makers get the uninterrupted time they need to focus, everyone wins, and teamwork flows more smoothly

This summary is inspired by Paul Graham’s timeless 2009 essay, “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule,” which has been a source of insight for me ever since

I’ve always believed that building winning teams is much like the strategy behind a Formula 1 race — success isn’t just about the person in the spotlight, but the people working behind the scenes to make it all happen.

While the driver gets the glory when the race is won, it’s the countless unsung heroes — engineers, pit crews, strategists — who make the victory possible. Just like in tech startups, where teams across all functions contribute to success, it’s the collective effort that drives real achievement.

3 things winning teams have in common:

• A Shared Vision and Clear Goals
  Winning teams align around a common mission and understand how their individual roles contribute to the bigger picture. Whether it’s crossing the finish line first or launching a new product, clarity of purpose drives focus, motivation, and collaboration.
• Trust and Open Communication
  Strong teams thrive on trust — members rely on one another and feel safe sharing ideas or concerns. Open communication ensures problems are addressed quickly and opportunities for improvement are seized, creating a culture where everyone feels valued and heard.
• Commitment to Continuous Improvement
  Winning teams don’t settle for the status quo; they constantly look for ways to improve. Through feedback, adaptability, and learning from setbacks, they evolve together, ensuring they remain competitive in the face of challenges

Whether in Formula 1 or a tech organization, success is never the result of one person’s effort. It’s the seamless collaboration of roles — leaders, innovators, and executors — that brings a vision to life. As a leader, recognizing and empowering each contributor is crucial. Celebrate the driver, but never forget the engineers, pit crew, and strategists who make the race — and the victory — possible.

Great teams, like great races, are won together.