Challenge
Techstars saw an opportunity to grow revenue through better targeting, territory planning, and a more efficient sales process.
How Techstars Accelerated Sales Pipeline with Revenue Insights
Techstars is the world’s most active pre-seed investor, having invested in thousands of early-stage startups. Their portfolio is as diversified as their thousands of founders — from HealthTech and FinTech, to Web3 and CleanTech; from Miami and Silicon Valley to Lagos and London.
They support many of the world’s best entrepreneurs with access to capital, mentoring, finding customers, hiring talent, choosing the right infrastructure, and much more!
Key Takeaways
Solution
They knew they needed more than just a Salesforce admin; they needed a Salesforce Architect and a RevOps Strategist.
Outcome
Techstars enhanced visibility into their sales engine, enabling quicker, proactive decision-making, which led to a more qualified sales pipeline in six months.
We weren’t going to be able to make meaningful strides if I didn’t have strength and caliber in my corner from a RevOps perspective.
The Challenge
The Techstars Revenue Team works with the world’s leading Universities, Corporations and Governments to develop and run innovation programs in support of Techstars’ investment strategy by building a global footprint of partnerships that drive innovation around the world.
That’s why, in January 2023, Techstars hired Ryan Spillane, a CRO with an impressive track record of running high-growth enterprise revenue teams.
Ryan knew that pipeline visibility was the first step to reaching peak Revenue Efficiency. And that was one of the areas the revenue team struggled with.
“There was no consistency in the methodology that we were using to run our pipeline or how we thought about close rates. It was really difficult to understand how the business moves,” says Ryan.
There’s more to RevOps than just updating systems. You need a thought partner in there to be able to make informed decisions that will impact the strategy.
The Solution
Ryan was referred to three RevOps companies, Union Square Consulting among them. But from experience, he already knew exactly what he was looking for.
“You have to have those two pieces; the person helping you with data and the systems infrastructure, and the strategy component so that you can make sense of it,” Ryan explains.
“And I couldn’t find anybody else that had both functions, until Union Square.”
The work USC did helped us identify what was needed, before we needed it, so we could act on it instead of reacting to it.
The Outcome
Over the first six months of working together, Techstars’ pipeline processes and revenue systems were overhauled to open up visibility into the flow of the business.
“It all translated into being able to develop territories with real math and data behind them, segmenting our marketplace to understand how to find our best customers, developing a quota system that was fair and accurate,” Ryan says.
Through the data, Ryan was also able to see the gaps in their pipeline coverage, and how many new hires would be needed to close the future deals they were forecasting.
“When the SalesOps person on my team said, ‘There’s no way we would’ve got any of this stuff done this year without Union Square’, that’s when I knew, this is adding real value,” says Ryan.
As Techstars’ partnership with Union Square continues, they’re excited to see the growth that will come with their next sales cycle.
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See how Strategic Revenue Operations can give you the power to forecast, adapt, and act.