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Public evidence record

Jason Lemkin

Published podcast speaker

Claims
40
Episodes
2
Shows
1
Named items
3

Books, apps, and tools

The evidenced stack.

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tool / uses

Delphi

“I used Delphi. I instantly broke it because I had too much data to ingest.”

Lenny's Podcast · 1 Jan 2026

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

person / likes

Scott

“Having said that, I will tell you, and again, no knock on Adobe, but when I was a VP at Adobe, and it was a long time ago, when product was in another building, in some cases, that was not great. And I love Scott and the whole team, it was a great experience, but I can just tell you, what I learned is, that did not work for me as an agile guy, having groups that would do this work in isolation.”

Lenny's Podcast · 18 Feb 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

person / likes

Lenny

“I love Lenny, but he was a director for two years before this, and this is his first rule, and he did so good last year, but I'm worried Lenny's going to break.”

Lenny's Podcast · 18 Feb 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Jason said.

40 transcript-backed records

01 / belief

" I don't have the perfect answer to this one, but I think be honest about it, be honest that for the best people, it will make them more productive.

“" I don't have the perfect answer to this one, but I think be honest about it, be honest that for the best people, it will make them more productive.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

02 / commitment

The mediocre are just going to be more mediocre. So I think the AE is what we will always have salespeople, but being a people person is not enough anymore.

“The mediocre are just going to be more mediocre. So I think the AE is what we will always have salespeople, but being a people person is not enough anymore.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

03 / belief

We needed help. And so that's what I learned is, you have this partner, the FDE and the vendor, and a lot of them actually might not take your business if they don't think they can help you.

“We needed help. And so that's what I learned is, you have this partner, the FDE and the vendor, and a lot of them actually might not take your business if they don't think they can help you.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / commitment

I literally, just when I was in London, I built a whole app where you can practice selling Harvey, Cursor, Replit, and ChatGPT Enterprise, and it works.

“I literally, just when I was in London, I built a whole app where you can practice selling Harvey, Cursor, Replit, and ChatGPT Enterprise, and it works.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

10 / prediction

I don't think most of the startups you and I work with and most of the folks listen to this do not close the majority of their revenue with cold human cold calls.

“I don't think most of the startups you and I work with and most of the folks listen to this do not close the majority of their revenue with cold human cold calls.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

12 / prediction

Net net, we're going to need more sales and go-to-market professionals than ever because the winners are growing so quickly that even if they're more efficient, they will need more human beings than ever.

“Net net, we're going to need more sales and go-to-market professionals than ever because the winners are growing so quickly that even if they're more efficient, they will need more human beings than ever.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / prediction

" Even if it doesn't quite work. And I knew from this Delphi, this general agent that it would sort of work because going into annual, this general agent, this Digital Jason closed a 70K sponsorship on its own.

“" Even if it doesn't quite work. And I knew from this Delphi, this general agent that it would sort of work because going into annual, this general agent, this Digital Jason closed a 70K sponsorship on its own.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

15 / recommendation

They need help from the founders in the early days. They need help from sales engineers or product people, which is my favorite place to get the help as you scale, but they need help.

“They need help from the founders in the early days. They need help from sales engineers or product people, which is my favorite place to get the help as you scale, but they need help.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

16 / evaluation

We can talk about all this kind of stuff, but when you go out as a first time founder and interview 30 reps, and you're going to have to interview 30, and 20 are just going to break your brain because they don't do any work and they don't do any prep and they didn't even go to your website.

“We can talk about all this kind of stuff, but when you go out as a first time founder and interview 30 reps, and you're going to have to interview 30, and 20 are just going to break your brain because they don't do any work and they don't do any prep and they didn't even go to your website.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

18 / belief

I think a thing that's gone on in the industry that founders expect now because there's so much discussion of it on LinkedIn and social media, but I haven't found work, is that an account executive will magically be full stack.

“I think a thing that's gone on in the industry that founders expect now because there's so much discussion of it on LinkedIn and social media, but I haven't found work, is that an account executive will magically be full stack.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

21 / belief

I think you got to push it up and I think you got to force the VP of Sales and the VP of Product to have this weekly meeting about the budget, and that will force them to have enough, just enough organization on their team so that it can all be surfaced up.

“I think you got to push it up and I think you got to force the VP of Sales and the VP of Product to have this weekly meeting about the budget, and that will force them to have enough, just enough organization on their team so that it can all be surfaced up.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

24 / prediction

Just be honest about, yes, the motion that it will take to get those first 10, 15, 20 customers, and if they were able to find you by putting their credit card and no one had to talk to them, then that's your DNA today.

“Just be honest about, yes, the motion that it will take to get those first 10, 15, 20 customers, and if they were able to find you by putting their credit card and no one had to talk to them, then that's your DNA today.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

28 / commitment

We have really good conversations. And I will tell you, if you have a question like you really need some help in your business or you want to do a pitch, if you send me the world's best email pitch, I will read a 100% of them.

“We have really good conversations. And I will tell you, if you have a question like you really need some help in your business or you want to do a pitch, if you send me the world's best email pitch, I will read a 100% of them.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

29 / belief

I think you will regret it if you don't hire these first couple of sales reps that have a couple years of experience if you're in B2B with B2B sales. They need a couple of years of experience and they need a certain amount of maturity, and maturity is a real issue, and these are in any early hire because we just don't have time to babysit people.

“I think you will regret it if you don't hire these first couple of sales reps that have a couple years of experience if you're in B2B with B2B sales. They need a couple of years of experience and they need a certain amount of maturity, and maturity is a real issue, and these are in any early hire because we just don't have time to babysit people.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

31 / evaluation

You're not in enough deals if there's no stress. But the stress has to have enough process, even in a startup, that it doesn't break because your question alludes to the fact it can break organizations again and again.

“You're not in enough deals if there's no stress. But the stress has to have enough process, even in a startup, that it doesn't break because your question alludes to the fact it can break organizations again and again.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

32 / recommendation

Sales, whether it's prospects or existing customers, it can vary, but they should be like, "On my first day, I want to join five calls." And when you hear that story of, "I don't want to travel out of Pleasanton," or they say, here's what you're going to hear from the wrong person for anything, even up to 50 million in revenue, "I'm going to spend that first month working on process," "I'm going to spend that first month getting Salesforce up and running," "I'm going to send the first month on territory planning, Lenny, because we really, with our three reps, I really want to make sure we've nailed territories, right?

“Sales, whether it's prospects or existing customers, it can vary, but they should be like, "On my first day, I want to join five calls." And when you hear that story of, "I don't want to travel out of Pleasanton," or they say, here's what you're going to hear from the wrong person for anything, even up to 50 million in revenue, "I'm going to spend that first month working on process," "I'm going to spend that first month getting Salesforce up and running," "I'm going to send the first month on territory planning, Lenny, because we really, with our three reps, I really want to make sure we've nailed territories, right?”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

33 / prediction

Even the smallest experiment, no matter what it says on the internet, again, that we release 100 a day, I would argue bringing any product extension to market's very expensive and risky because you're taking away from something else.

“Even the smallest experiment, no matter what it says on the internet, again, that we release 100 a day, I would argue bringing any product extension to market's very expensive and risky because you're taking away from something else.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

34 / evaluation

The problem is if you let this go for too long, more than a quarter, if you make it too easy for long a quarter, the problem is the mediocre lean into it too much, and that doesn't help.

“The problem is if you let this go for too long, more than a quarter, if you make it too easy for long a quarter, the problem is the mediocre lean into it too much, and that doesn't help.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

35 / observation

People don't even do reference checks. And they don't, they stopped doing, "Do me this demo," because they were so worried the rep would go to Gusto or would go to Deal, or would go to remote.

“People don't even do reference checks. And they don't, they stopped doing, "Do me this demo," because they were so worried the rep would go to Gusto or would go to Deal, or would go to remote.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

36 / prediction

It's never going to happen. So I used to say I don't know if it matters, but what I've learned the last 18 to 20 months when everyone has gotten lazy, Lenny, everyone in tech has gotten lazy, is I see way too many VPs of sales that come in and never have any idea how to sell the product, never, never.

“It's never going to happen. So I used to say I don't know if it matters, but what I've learned the last 18 to 20 months when everyone has gotten lazy, Lenny, everyone in tech has gotten lazy, is I see way too many VPs of sales that come in and never have any idea how to sell the product, never, never.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

37 / prediction

The tools change and the pace has changed, but the issues, I love to dig into them because we keep making the same mistakes as founders and executives again and again and again.

“The tools change and the pace has changed, but the issues, I love to dig into them because we keep making the same mistakes as founders and executives again and again and again.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

38 / evaluation

Because if you're a startup, your product isn't very good, your software is not very good, and you have a competitor, but you have some 10x feature that is driving people to buy you something you're doing that does not exist in the marketplace.

“Because if you're a startup, your product isn't very good, your software is not very good, and you have a competitor, but you have some 10x feature that is driving people to buy you something you're doing that does not exist in the marketplace.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

39 / evaluation

Whether it's burnout or whatever out or just too much change, I would say I've probably interviewed for different reasons, 50 VPs of sales in the last 12 months, I would say the majority don't want to do sales.

“Whether it's burnout or whatever out or just too much change, I would say I've probably interviewed for different reasons, 50 VPs of sales in the last 12 months, I would say the majority don't want to do sales.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

40 / evaluation

Having said that, I will tell you, and again, no knock on Adobe, but when I was a VP at Adobe, and it was a long time ago, when product was in another building, in some cases, that was not great. And I love Scott and the whole team, it was a great experience, but I can just tell you, what I learned is, that did not work for me as an agile guy, having groups that would do this work in isolation.

“Having said that, I will tell you, and again, no knock on Adobe, but when I was a VP at Adobe, and it was a long time ago, when product was in another building, in some cases, that was not great. And I love Scott and the whole team, it was a great experience, but I can just tell you, what I learned is, that did not work for me as an agile guy, having groups that would do this work in isolation.”
Speaker
Jason Lemkin
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast
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