# founder-led-sales

Walks a technical founder through the first sales conversations: spotting the champion and the budget holder, running a demo, and not losing the deal to “let me think about it”.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 327
- Author: AIDevGTM
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder/tree/HEAD/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/founder-led-sales

## What it does

The skill breaks every deal into four pieces: a champion, a buyer with budget, a pain that costs money, and a trigger to act now. Miss one and you have a chat, not a deal — the point is to work out which piece is absent. From there it lays out the motion: start with accounts already on the free tier or filing issues, then send one short message to one person about something specific you noticed. A blast that could go to a thousand people is not outreach.

The first call is discovery, not a pitch. Talk about 30 percent of the time, listen for the rest. Show the product doing the customer's job with their kind of data instead of touring features. Value gets framed for whoever signs the budget: the developer feels hours saved, the manager approves a release cycle back or a compliance box ticked. Arm your champion with a one-paragraph business case and an answer to “why now”, because you are rarely in the room when the yes happens.

“Let me think about it” is a blocker you have not surfaced yet. Ask what they would need to be sure of, and the real reason usually comes out — budget, another stakeholder, a missing feature, timing. Founder-led selling runs through roughly the first 10 to 20 paying customers, or until the motion repeats and you can write it down. Hiring a rep before that means handing off something you have not figured out. The skill installs as a plain `SKILL.md` file in your platform's skills directory; no API key or runtime of its own.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 13-founder-led-sales -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/13-founder-led-sales/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 13-founder-led-sales -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 13-founder-led-sales -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder 13-founder-led-sales
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 13-founder-led-sales -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --path skills/13-founder-led-sales
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 13-founder-led-sales -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder/tree/HEAD/skills/13-founder-led-sales/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- find the champion inside an account and reach whoever owns the budget
- run a first call as discovery instead of a product pitch
- demo the customer's own use case rather than a feature tour
- diagnose “let me think about it” and surface the real blocker
- decide when to hire a salesperson and when to keep selling yourself

## Example prompts
- Break down this deal for me: champion, buyer, pain with a cost, trigger — what's missing?
- Draft five discovery questions I'll ask before showing anything
- The customer said they'll think about it — how do I find the real blocker?

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: b22ccb81166014fa.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE b22ccb81166014fa
```text
---
name: founder-led-sales
description: "Coach the user through actually selling: finding the champion and the buyer, running the first sales conversations, demoing their use case, handling \"let me think about it,\" and closing the first paying customers yourself. Use when developers love it but nobody pays, you've never sold anything and freeze on the conversation, or deals keep stalling on \"we'll think about it.\""
---

# Founder-led sales (close your first customers yourself)

> Nobody can sell it before you can. The first ten deals are not a hire, they are how you learn what you are actually selling and to whom. Do them yourself, badly at first, until the motion repeats.

**Use this when:** developers love it and live in the free tier but nobody pays, you have never sold anything and freeze on the actual conversation, every deal dies on "let me think about it," or you are tempted to hire a salesperson to do the part you have not figured out yet.

## The core idea

`market-to-devs-sell-to-buyers` told you *who* to sell to (the dev adopts, the boss pays). `pricing` set the number. This is the part nobody warns technical founders about: actually doing it. And it is not slimy. Selling a dev tool well is discovery plus helping a champion get budget. You are not convincing anyone of anything false, you are finding the people who already have the pain and making it easy for them to say yes.

One rule under all of it: **do this yourself until it repeats.** You cannot outsource a motion you have not cracked. Founders who hire a rep at deal one hire someone to fail at a job that does not exist yet.

## Every real deal has four things

If any one is missing, it is not a deal, it is a conversation. Your job is to find out which is missing.
- **A champion.** Someone who uses it, loves it, and will fight for it inside their company. Usually the developer who adopted you.
- **A buyer.** Someone with budget. Often not the champion.
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE b22ccb81166014fa

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