Tomasz Tunguz：AI 应用与基础设施销售差异——两周敲定八位数大单
Closing Eight Figure Deals in Two Weeks • Tomasz Tunguz
Bardia Shahali 在 Fireworks AI 将销售团队从约 300 万美元做到约 4 亿美元，现任 Granola 销售副总裁，他指出 AI 基础设施层单笔交易可达数千万美元且两周即可成交，但所有推理提供商争夺同一批客户，竞争更激烈。由于模型能力每 45 天就达到新高度，薪酬计划已从年度改为按季度设定。基础设施层由 FDE、SE 与 AE 配对交付复杂产品，应用层则由 AE 与 CSM 交付软件，但生产力和采用速度更高。
主题
正文
There are two markets in AI : applications & infrastructure. Bardia Shahali has built sales teams both : first at Fireworks AI from roughly $3m to roughly $400m, & now VP of Sales at Granola.
In our conversation at Office Hours earlier this week,1 we talked about the differences in building modern sales organizations in each domain. Here are three takeaways :
Watch the full conversation on YouTube : Office Hours with Bardia Shahali
“You can close an eight-figure deal in two weeks.”
At Fireworks, whose customers are AI-native companies growing at extraordinary rates, single deals can reach the tens of millions with a very fast sales cycle. The counterpoint is competition. Every inference provider chases the same accounts. The stakes are higher & the competition more intense.
“But each rep, the quota they can carry is just multiples higher.”
“We used to set like comp plans on an annual basis…Now we’re setting comp every quarter because things change so much from quarter to quarter.”
Second, annual planning in an environment this dynamic can be a challenge : products evolve faster, model capabilities reach a new zenith every 45 days,2 & the competitive landscape shifts quickly.
“If you have a small team, then you’re not putting in the extra effort to go after, to do a little bit of outbound.”
Last, the risk of understaffing is a lack of emphasis on outbound & expansion. At the infrastructure layer, FDEs (forward-deployed engineers) & SEs (sales engineers) pair with AEs (account executives) to invent new acronyms I need to define within parens. Still with me?
In reality, they pair to deliver a highly complex product. At the application layer, the AE & CSM (customer success manager) deliver software similar to the previous era, but with higher productivity & typically faster adoption/expansion.
There’s lots more to the 15 minute conversation : on-target earnings numbers in the AI era, on-boarding, burnout, usage-based pricing at the app layer. Watch the full episode here. Office Hours with Bardia Shahali
I’m grateful to Bardia for sharing his insights at Office Hours!
Model Release Exhaustion ↩︎
Get the next one in your inbox
The 1-minute read that turns tech data into strategic advantage.
Read by 150k+ founders & operators.