How I did sales as a first time founder

In the early days of Alma, when no one knew about us, the vision was our product. We had a hypothesis with my co-founder that we could make legal immigration services easier with automation. It was based on our own experience, but also of our immigrant friends who struggled through the complexities of US immigration.

Start with Customer Discovery:

Before I even thought about sales, I focused on validating my idea. Alma started as a B2B product targeting law firms before pivoting to B2C immigration services. The validation began with customer discovery calls, inspired by The Mom Test book, which helped me strip the fluff from conversations and dive into real pain points.

Warm Intros all the way:

We began by reaching out to our immigrant friends and asking them to connect us with the law firms they had hired. Also, many early calls also came from LinkedIn reach-outs and cold emails.

I knew our target persona—immigration lawyers—very well. Being an ex-lawyer myself helped establish credibility and made it natural to relate to their pain points.

I completed around 35-40 calls with immigration law firms over 2-3 weeks. The calls averaged 30 minutes each, and I used Notion for taking notes and organizing summaries.

Ask the Right Questions:

When conducting discovery calls, prepare your questions well and go beyond the surface. Below some of the sample questions you can ask:

- How big of a problem is this for you?

- How are you currently solving it? What else have you tried?

- How much time or money do you spend addressing this?

- Is the problem urgent? Where does this rank among your current priorities?

- When was the last time you encountered this issue?

A significant discovery during these conversations was understanding both the frequency and urgency of the problems. If someone says something is important but not urgent, that's a red flag. The best customers are those who have already tried to solve the problem themselves.

Ask for money early:

Try to come out of these conversations with some sort of commitment from prospective clients, like a letter of intent. Without that, it's just another conversation - don’t get excited by simply validating the problem.

This was the true test of whether the problem I was solving was worth paying for and if the market was ready. It’s one thing for people to agree they have a problem; it’s another for them to commit financially. I’d ask something along the lines of, “If we were to solve this problem effectively, is it something you’d be willing to pay for?”. To my surprise, over 20% of people responded with a resounding yes. This was a powerful indicator to start building with these people as our partners.

Start selling early, and sell yourself

There is a famous saying that if your product doesn’t have bugs when sold, you are too late to the market. We started selling pretty early with an MVP (minimum viable product), which could do certain things but it wasn’t nearly ready. At this stage, you are looking for customer feedback, and remember your product might look completely different after some time, so stay flexible and don’t get attached to the early version of the product.

As a founder, you're the best person to sell your product in the early stages. Nobody knows your vision and product as deeply as you do. Use that knowledge to connect with your champions. Your passion, insights, and authenticity can't be replicated.

We also used our Customer Discovery calls to get our first design partners, since some of them showed commitment early on.

Pivoting to B2C and Sales Evolution:

B2B sales often involve multiple decision-makers and touchpoints, making the process longer and more complex. When I pivoted to B2C, the sales process became more straightforward. Selling legal immigration services focused on outcomes rather than productivity metrics or roadmaps. This simplified our sales pitch significantly.

Trust is the most important currency in sales. We built that by emphasizing how we're faster, better, and often cheaper than traditional providers. The expertise of our team also played a critical role when I was selling services directly.

Most early prospects came from my personal network—friends, colleagues, and mutual connections. But real traction came from validating our services beyond this circle.

Scaling Sales and Hiring

In the early days, I spent 60-70% of my time on sales. As a founder, you need to sell your product or service yourself before hiring someone else to do it. Founder-led sales help you understand your market, refine messaging, and develop scalable sales motions.

As sales operations scale, the biggest challenges was managing all the leads and information in an effective manner. Initially, I was using Notion to track all the leads but now, we have a CRM and other sales tools to make sure every lead is accounted for.

The decision to hire a salesperson came when:

- The lead volume exceeded my capacity

- I understood my sales process well enough to delegate it

What to Look for in a Salesperson

The sales reps at Alma manage the entire sales cycle, from outreach to closing. Minimize customer touchpoints to one point of contact to avoid miscommunication or delays. If handovers are necessary, ensure they’re seamless.

We are focused on speed: It's a big part of our value prop for our services. We make sure our clients have the same experience even before signing up.

Look for someone who:

- Takes ownership and is ambitious

- Is naturally extroverted and enjoys conversations

- Understands the problem and can articulate it effectively

- Thrives in a demanding startup environment

- Avoid hiring upper management roles too early. Keep hierarchies flat to maintain clear communication and focus.

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