The Wrong VP of Sales Gets All the High Fives

Jason Lemkin from SaaStr has a contrarian take on VP of Sales hiring: if everyone loves your final candidate, you are probably making a mistake.

His argument: the best VP of Sales hires make people uncomfortable. Low performers know they will be moved out. Top performers get anxious because things will change. Management splits because half do not really understand what a VP of Sales does. And boards often pick whoever sells up well in the interview, not who will actually ship results.

Why Consensus Is a Red Flag

Your existing sales team should not unanimously love the hire. Low performers feel threatened by someone great. Top performers want someone nice who will leave them alone, not someone who will push for change. That is logical for them, bad for the company.

Your management team will often favour the candidate with the best cultural fit. But fit matters less than hands-on execution and the ability to scale. The newest VPs especially tend to vote for the wrong person because they do not know yet what works at this stage.

Your board rarely knows. Most VCs were not CEOs. Even fewer hired a VP of Sales at your ACV, with your customer profile, at your stage. They love candidates from Twilio or Salesforce. Those hires often lack startup experience and are not hands-on enough.

The Popular Candidate Is Usually Too Big Company

The VP of Sales everyone loves often came from a big logo. They spend time on people stuff, which is good. But if they are not a little rough around the edges, it means they do not actually do sales anymore. You are not ready for that.

Lemkin's advice: if you are down to two final candidates, do not pick the one everyone likes most. They will make the least change. What you need is someone who will grow revenue a little faster and scale the right team on time.

When you do grow faster, everyone will love the VP of Sales who got you there. Not the one who got all the high fives in the interview process.

Context: SaaStr Is a Founder-Led Media Business

SaaStr is not a large SaaS vendor. It is a small, founder-led business with roughly 35 to 41 employees and about $4 million to $5 million in annual revenue. Lemkin is the founder and CEO, and recent posts describe the operation as lean, with a core team now supported by AI agents.

That matters because this take is not coming from a vendor with a huge enterprise sales org. It is a founder-led, content-driven business with strong opinions on hiring sales leaders and scale-stage discipline. SaaStr is best known as a major SaaS community and conference brand, with influence strongest in the startup and growth-stage ecosystem.

No visible ANZ operating footprint, so this is editorial commentary from a highly influential SaaS commentator, not a company announcement from an ANZ employer.

What This Means for ANZ Sales Leaders

If you are interviewing for a VP of Sales role, this reframes what a strong process looks like. If everyone is nodding along and saying you are a great fit, ask yourself: are they looking for someone who will change things, or someone who will maintain the status quo?

And if you are hiring a VP of Sales, do not mistake unanimous approval for validation. The candidate who makes half the room uncomfortable might be the one who ships results.