1. **Foundersuite for VC/Fundraising**:
   1. Foundersuite (promo code: METZ40) makes it so founders do not need to do all of the digging for VC contact information, and it also keeps all of the data separated from any sales team data, so founders can manage the fundraising pipeline privately. I’d encourage founders to keep the sales team focused on sales and manage fundraising privately with their co-founders, and then provide weekly updates to the team.
2. Can’t We Just Use A Spreadsheet? Isn’t That A Better Deal? This argument appears to be academically correct, on the surface. In reality, spreadsheets are very, very expensive, in that they offer very little value for what the user pays for them (nearly $0), and they consume inordinate amounts of the sales professional’s time, and give very little value back to the organization. There’s a tremendous difference between the amount of value a startup can derive from a pseudo-spreadsheet type CRM like Airtable versus a real CRM like Pipedrive, which is capable of highly sophisticated analytics and forecasting, which can drive business decisions and quickly help teams find product-market fit, if the team has not arrived at it.
3. Motorcycle Gang Methodology: Building outsourced teams is not easy, but the biggest thing that founders need to remember is that when you’re building an outsourced team is that the old way of building them is similar to building a pyramid, in that they would be hierarchical in nature. That is a very 2000-2012 way of thinking of building an outsourced demand-generation team. Today, it’s better to think of an outsourced team as an anti-fragile organism, one that can do well when put under pressure. Here are the key things to look for when building a team:
   1. Platform: Begin sourcing all on one platform. Generally, I have had good experiences on Upwork.
   2. English Test: Before any work is done, give every prospective team member an English test with standardized levels, and offer to pay for the time spent taking the test. The best ones will level team members at B1, B2, etc. I prefer to use Lingoda. Make sure that you have the test-taker videotape the entire test, both their screen and themselves taking the test, including the test results. Refuse to accept any test that does not include the entire test, including test results, their video, and the test video. This is very important.
   3. Trials: Begin with a short 10-hour trial project, then do a 40-hour trial project after that.
   4. Location: There are many locations to choose from but I prefer locations that have a great deal of startups in the immediate vicinity - typically 500 within a 4-5 hour drive. My favorite cities for this type of work include Cairo, Manila and other 10M+ population metro areas with very large university populations, where average monthly rent is about $400-1000+.
   5. Education: Insist on college degree or nearly completed college degree.
   6. Hours: Do not take anyone for less than 3-4 hours per day, 5 days per week. Insist on the same work hours every day.
   7. Communication: You will need a Slack or Discord instance for this, and you may need to use a paid version, as you will eventually need to use the full search history.
   8. Language: If the team is from a region other than your home region, encourage the team to communicate in whatever language is their native language when they communicate with one another.