The Outlier Playbook: Finding 10x Talent & Winning at VC with Nakul Mandan

Hunters and Unicorns

In this episode of the East Coast Elite series, we sit down with Nakul Mandan, founder and partner at Audacious Ventures, to discuss his unique approach to early-stage investing.

After an 18-year career, Nakul discovered a powerful differentiator: an in-house playbook for recruiting exceptional talent and building scalable sales engines. He shares how his experience with a legendary sales leader transformed his investment philosophy, leading him to double down on "founder quality" and "10x individual contributors". We dive into tangible advice for founders on everything from identifying an urgent problem to solve to knowing when to hire their first sales team. Nakul also provides invaluable guidance for salespeople and execs looking to break into the world of venture capital.

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🏹 Key Topics Covered

00:00 - Intro & Background

02:16 - The Audacious Ventures Thesis

04:30 - A Sales Legend's Impact

06:14 - The Genesis of Audacious

10:48 - Founder, Market, Urgency

14:40 - Coaching Founder-Led Sales

18:57 - The Repeatable Pipeline

20:51 - When to Hire Your First Sellers

24:20 - The Hands-On VC Advantage

27:40 - The Sales Comp Sticker Shock

29:34 - Good vs. Great in Recruiting

36:15 - How Reps Evaluate Startups

43:29 - Evaluating Equity Packages

48:36 - Double Trigger Vesting Explained

50:20 - Hiring Your First Sales Leader

56:31 - The Hybrid Sales Role

💥 3 Biggest Lessons:

Prioritize a Founder's Quality Over the Idea: The single biggest ingredient for startup success is the founder's ability to be a "force of nature" and attract other exceptional people. A great team can pivot and solve problems, but a great idea with a mediocre team is far less likely to succeed.

The Problem Must Be Urgent: When evaluating an idea, ask if it solves an urgent problem for the buyer, not just an important one. People only pay for solutions to problems that they need to solve right now, and this urgency is a key indicator of a large, scalable market opportunity.

Recruiting is Relentless: The difference between a "good" hire and a "great" hire is massive. Founders and VCs must be relentless in their pursuit of "10x" talent, a person who is in the 99th percentile of their profession. This requires deep back-channeling, a focus on recruiting as a core competency, and a willingness to pay for top-tier talent.

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Blog: http://huntersandunicorns.com/blog

💬 Notable Quotes "People don't solve important but not urgent problems. People solve important and urgent problems". "The single biggest ingredient to startup success is the density of exceptional people in a company". "No VC can help you get to product market fit. But if you can get to product market fit, beyond that, there are some... frameworks that you can apply to build a scalable sales engine". "If you don't have an ICP, you're probably not ready for sellers". "I would argue that the difference between good and great is the same as the difference between good and absolutely horrible. It's light and day".

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