Sales is doing it wrong

Good morning, Riveters. Growth doesn’t always come from adding more features or chasing more leads, it comes from knowing when to let your product do the selling and when to step in. Today, we’re unpacking Product Led Sales, the strategy top SaaS companies use to scale faster by reading usage signals instead of chasing cold prospects. Plus, you'll discover fresh insights from the economy, AI, and startup world that can help you make sharper decisions this week. It’s a mix of strategy, news, and practical plays you can act on right away. Let’s get started.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

Want to catch up on previous issues? Read more here.

Economy
Last week the Fed signaled cooling growth and trimmed key policy rates a notch, including lowering the interest rate on reserve balances to 4.15 percent and approving a 0.25 point cut to the primary credit rate. The statement keeps inflation concerns on the table while easing policy at the margins, and the implementation note outlines modest reinvestment changes.
What this means to you: If you’re eyeing a credit line or equipment financing, start repricing now and lock terms if they work for your cash plan.
Source: Federal Reserve

AI
OpenAI and Nvidia announced a strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 GW of Nvidia systems, paired with an Nvidia investment of up to $100 billion as capacity comes online. First deployments target the second half of 2026 on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform. This accelerates compute supply for next-gen models and signals continued capex intensity across AI infrastructure.
What this means to you: Expect faster model rollouts and rising API power, but also tighter GPU supply and higher infra competition. Plan vendor diversification and budget for AI usage growth.
Source: OpenAI

Startups
Google Ventures led a $10 million Series A into Blacksmith just four months after its seed, citing concrete results and speed to market. Meanwhile, fresh seed rounds like Shield’s $5 million show early capital is still available for sharp theses and clear usage. The bar is higher, diligence is faster, and proof beats pitch.
What this means to you: Tighten your proof stack. Lead with user growth, usage cohorts, and payback math. If momentum is real, move quickly to close before markets shift.
Source: TechCrunch

Greg Bailey has been appointed CEO of Recoop Disaster Insurance. Recoop offers a unique supplemental insurance product designed to help homeowners recover more quickly when natural disasters strike.

As CEO, Bailey will focus on accelerating sales, expanding distribution channels, and driving technology investments that simplify recovery for customers across the country. He joins Recoop with a clear mandate: scale the business, sharpen execution, and position the company for long-term impact in a rapidly evolving insurance market.

Here’s the truth: most “qualified leads” aren’t. They filled out a form, downloaded a whitepaper, maybe clicked a webinar link. That doesn’t mean they care about your product. What matters is whether they’ve touched value inside the product itself. That’s where Product Led Sales (PLS) comes in.

PLS is the natural evolution of product led growth. Users start with a free trial or freemium tier, they hit an “aha moment,” and only then does a salesperson step in. The sales motion is no longer about pitching features. It’s about amplifying what the customer already proved to themselves.

Why is this different? Because it’s efficient. Instead of chasing cold leads, your team focuses on Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) and Product Qualified Accounts (PQAs). These are users or companies that already took the actions that predict conversion. Think a team that has invited five coworkers into Slack, a developer who hit usage limits on Twilio, or a marketing team that just connected Salesforce to a trial analytics tool. Those signals are worth more than a hundred email opens.

For founders and operators, the implications are big. If your CRM is full of marketing-qualified fluff, your sales team wastes cycles. If your CRM is enriched with product signals, you can time outreach to the exact moment a buyer needs help. Deals close faster, require fewer touchpoints, and expand naturally.

So how do you set it up?

First, nail your activation moment. Ask: what action best predicts retention? It might be sending the first 50 messages, publishing a live dashboard, or inviting teammates. Instrument it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t scale it.

Second, define your PQL and PQA. Blend behavior (usage, integrations, team invites) with fit (company size, industry). Share the definition across sales, product, and marketing so everyone runs on the same playbook.

Third, wire the data into your CRM. A rep should see product usage right next to firmographic data. If an account hit 80 percent of its trial limit, that’s a green light for a friendly outreach.

Finally, rethink the role of sales. In PLS, the rep isn’t a gatekeeper. They’re an accelerator. Their job is to unblock procurement, guide best practices, and expand usage across teams. The product already convinced the buyer. Sales just makes the path smoother.

The companies getting this right—Slack, Figma, Atlassian—aren’t debating product led vs sales led. They’re blending both. They let the product do the convincing, then let sales step in where humans add leverage.

If you’re scaling now, ask yourself: are your salespeople chasing clicks or reading signals? The answer could be the difference between another quarter of grind and a system that compounds.

Most platforms push you to make thousands of ads. Kojo helps you make better ones. We turn your social data into proven ideas, predict which will perform, and send them to real human creators in seconds. Less waste, more certainty, and ads that actually work.

Book a Demo

Time-to-Value Sprint

The faster a customer experiences your product’s core value, the faster you grow. Too many startups obsess over features when they should be removing friction to the “aha moment.” Map the one action that predicts retention—sending a message, creating a dashboard, inviting a teammate—and cut the steps to get there in half. Add a pre-filled template, seed sample data, or auto-connect integrations. Every minute shaved off onboarding compounds into higher activation, stronger retention, and more revenue without adding a single marketing dollar.