u/Ok-Wrongdoer-843

The weirdest part about remote work is how everyone is “busy” all day but nobody can clearly explain what actually moved forward.

A few Slack messages.
2-3 meetings.
Some updates in Notion.
A couple of “let’s revisit this tomorrow.”

And somehow the entire day disappears.

Feels like a lot of companies accidentally optimized for appearing busy instead of actually getting work done.

The older I get, the more I realise a huge percentage of professional networking is basically:

• finding people online
• studying their life for 20 minutes
• pretending the message is casual
• hoping they reply

Half of LinkedIn feels like:
“Hey man, loved your recent post”
followed immediately by:
“Would love 15 minutes of your time.”

Honestly respect people who admit they’re networking instead of pretending every interaction happened naturally.

The older I get, the more I realise a huge percentage of professional networking is basically:

• finding people online
• studying their life for 20 minutes
• pretending the message is casual
• hoping they reply

Half of LinkedIn feels like:
“Hey man, loved your recent post”
followed immediately by:
“Would love 15 minutes of your time.”

Honestly respect people who admit they’re networking instead of pretending every interaction happened naturally.

Nobody prepared me for how dramatic grooming sessions would become after getting a dog.

Spent the last 2 days researching pet trimmers and somehow every single product online has:

• people calling it life changing
• people calling it complete garbage
• photos of perfectly groomed dogs
• one review saying it sounds like a tractor

At this point I think my dog trusts absolutely nobody holding anything electric near him anymore.But still if we have to get one actually good, what would you suggest, budget not being the concern.

https://preview.redd.it/8bw8u8iny02h1.png?width=332&format=png&auto=webp&s=d528e60bc805fa64ff87e5cf2c050bc06558c70c

https://preview.redd.it/yx1149iny02h1.png?width=341&format=png&auto=webp&s=baaaa7454074dc4281a0fccff919bb963502949f

https://preview.redd.it/4yn7t9iny02h1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bed792b49e0276dcf812a02c94cb5815db33700

https://preview.redd.it/2hwmufkny02h1.png?width=417&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f45177240a1c20fc04d7bc15d22e775fd9c3ec9

The people who sound the smoothest in interviews are often the weakest once actual work starts.

Meanwhile some of the genuinely good salespeople almost undersell themselves completely.

One candidate we spoke to recently had all the “right” answers:

• perfect LinkedIn
• polished pitch
• confident tone
• knew every sales buzzword possible

Thought he’d easily be our best hire.

Then during a mock discovery call it genuinely felt like he was waiting for motivational background music to start playing. Everything sounded scripted.

Another guy sounded awkward initially, had a messy resume, didn’t even speak like a “sales influencer”, but handled objections naturally and actually listened before responding.

Made me realise sales interviews are weird because being good at interviewing for sales and being good at sales are sometimes completely different skills.

The people who sound the smoothest in interviews are often the weakest once actual work starts.

Meanwhile some of the genuinely good salespeople almost undersell themselves completely.

One candidate we spoke to recently had all the “right” answers:

• perfect LinkedIn
• polished pitch
• confident tone
• knew every sales buzzword possible

Thought he’d easily be our best hire.

Then during a mock discovery call it genuinely felt like he was waiting for motivational background music to start playing. Everything sounded scripted.

Another guy sounded awkward initially, had a messy resume, didn’t even speak like a “sales influencer”, but handled objections naturally and actually listened before responding.

Made me realise sales interviews are weird because being good at interviewing for sales and being good at sales are sometimes completely different skills.

Everywhere online now it’s:
“High ticket closer”
“Remote sales”
“10k/month setters”
“Closers wanted”

So naturally we assumed finding sales talent online would be easy.

Instead it’s been one of the most frustrating parts of building.

The weird thing is a lot of candidates genuinely sound good at first.

They know all the terminology.
They’ve watched the podcasts.
They know the frameworks.
Some even have impressive looking case studies.

But once you go deeper, you realise a surprising number of people have basically learned how to SOUND like they work in sales without actually being good at selling.

One guy we interviewed kept repeating outbound advice from Twitter almost word for word. Another claimed he “scaled multiple SaaS offers” but couldn’t explain how he would handle a stalled lead beyond “follow up consistently”.

I’m not even blaming people entirely. The internet has basically turned sales into this weird online-money niche where everybody markets themselves like a millionaire closer.

Meanwhile actual good salespeople are usually busy working somewhere already.

Honestly made me understand why so many founders stay founder-led on sales way longer than they planned.

Everywhere online now it’s:
“High ticket closer”
“Remote sales”
“10k/month setters”
“Closers wanted”

So naturally we assumed finding sales talent online would be easy.

Instead it’s been one of the most frustrating parts of building.

The weird thing is a lot of candidates genuinely sound good at first.

They know all the terminology.
They’ve watched the podcasts.
They know the frameworks.
Some even have impressive looking case studies.

But once you go deeper, you realise a surprising number of people have basically learned how to SOUND like they work in sales without actually being good at selling.

One guy we interviewed kept repeating outbound advice from Twitter almost word for word. Another claimed he “scaled multiple SaaS offers” but couldn’t explain how he would handle a stalled lead beyond “follow up consistently”.

I’m not even blaming people entirely. The internet has basically turned sales into this weird online-money niche where everybody markets themselves like a millionaire closer.

Meanwhile actual good salespeople are usually busy working somewhere already.

Honestly made me understand why so many founders stay founder-led on sales way longer than they planned.

Hiring developers has honestly been pretty straightforward for us. Designers too. You can usually tell within a few conversations whether somebody knows what they’re doing.

Sales is completely different.

Over the past 4-5 months we spoke to a lot of freelance SDRs and closers from LinkedIn, Upwork, Twitter, referrals etc. On paper some of these people looked amazing.

But once they actually got on calls, things started falling apart fast.

One guy kept talking about how he “scaled multiple SaaS companies” but couldn’t explain a basic outbound flow without sounding rehearsed.

Another insisted cold calling was dead and everything should be automated, then admitted he hadn’t personally closed anything in almost a year.

A few just vanished after onboarding.

The strange part is that almost every profile online looks polished now.

Everybody knows the right words to say. “Appointment setter.” “High ticket closer.” “B2B outbound specialist.” Same language everywhere.

But there’s almost no way to verify who can actually sell and who just learned sales terminology from YouTube.

We even tried paid trial periods because we thought maybe we were judging too early. Still ended up wasting a decent amount of time and money.

Now I understand why so many early-stage founders just keep doing founder-led sales much longer than they want to.

Curious how people here are solving this.

Are you hiring internally now?
Using agencies?
Pure commission?
Or did you somehow find a reliable place online for sales hiring?

Hiring developers has honestly been pretty straightforward for us. Designers too. You can usually tell within a few conversations whether somebody knows what they’re doing.

Sales is completely different.

Over the past 4-5 months we spoke to a lot of freelance SDRs and closers from LinkedIn, Upwork, Twitter, referrals etc. On paper some of these people looked amazing.

But once they actually got on calls, things started falling apart fast.

One guy kept talking about how he “scaled multiple SaaS companies” but couldn’t explain a basic outbound flow without sounding rehearsed.

Another insisted cold calling was dead and everything should be automated, then admitted he hadn’t personally closed anything in almost a year.

A few just vanished after onboarding.

The strange part is that almost every profile online looks polished now.

Everybody knows the right words to say. “Appointment setter.” “High ticket closer.” “B2B outbound specialist.” Same language everywhere.

But there’s almost no way to verify who can actually sell and who just learned sales terminology from YouTube.

We even tried paid trial periods because we thought maybe we were judging too early. Still ended up wasting a decent amount of time and money.

Now I understand why so many early-stage founders just keep doing founder-led sales much longer than they want to.

Curious how people here are solving this.

Are you hiring internally now?
Using agencies?
Pure commission?
Or did you somehow find a reliable place online for sales hiring?

I don’t even know how to explain this properly, but this whole thing felt very off.

I was working as a trainee and everything seemed normal. No warnings, no negative feedback, nothing like that.

Then one day I just couldn’t log into Slack anymore. No message, no heads up. Just logged out.

At first I thought it was some glitch. So I mailed them asking about access, and also mentioned that my payment for last month + bonus was still pending.

And this is the reply I get:

“We reduced the number of trainees. You didn’t meet the performance minimum.”

https://preview.redd.it/8jinhrg44wyg1.jpg?width=760&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ee27a2fbb70bae3d8bb7a6a6679f041ec888fd7

That’s it.

No one told me there even was a “performance minimum.”

No review, no conversation, no “hey you need to improve.”

Just removed access and then this message after I followed up.

And the payment part? Still not addressed.

I get that companies can let people go. That’s not even the main issue.

It’s the way it happened. Being silently cut off instead of told directly. No clarity on expectations. And then having to chase them for money I already worked for.

Feels like trainees are just… disposable?

Has anyone else dealt with something like this? Especially the payment part, not sure what my next step should be.