3 Building a sales team Your sales team will evolve over time—but as we’ve said, it is important that it starts with the founder. Initially, you need to evangelize and test the product in the market, shaping it so that it meets market needs. It is vital that you don’t hire salespeople too early—you need a mature sales pipeline, value proposition, and use cases to ensure you get value from them. That’s why it is the role of the founder to explore and gain early sales, validating your product in the market. 19