Overview
You manage a team of BDRs doing outbound prospecting to get Replit in front of developers and engineering leaders at tech companies. Replit is a browser-based IDE/development platform with PLG motion, so you're building outbound to complement product-led growth. You're hiring and training the team in Salt Lake City while the company scales hard post-$400M raise.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | BDR/SDR Manager - building outbound team |
| Sales Motion | Outbound-heavy (complementing PLG motion) |
| Deal Complexity | Varies - SMB transactional to enterprise consultative |
| Sales Cycle | N/A - pipeline generation role |
| Deal Size | N/A - feeding AE team |
| Quota (est.) | Team quota: likely 100-150 qualified meetings/month |
Company Context
Stage: Late-stage growth ($9B valuation, $400M recently raised)
Size: 386 employees
Growth: Aggressive hiring across GTM. Building out SLC as GTM hub. Post-funding expansion mode.
Market Position: Category leader in browser-based dev tools. Competing against GitHub Codespaces, cloud IDEs, traditional local dev environments. Strong PLG foundation, now layering on enterprise sales motion.
GTM Reality
Pipeline Sources:
- 60%+ PLG/Inbound - free users, product signups, community
- 40% Outbound - what your team builds (targeting specific accounts/personas)
- Partner motion exists but unclear scope
SDR/AE Structure: You're building the SDR side. Dedicated SDR team feeding AE team. Your reps prospect, qualify, book meetings, hand to AEs.
SE Support: Likely have SEs for technical demos on larger deals.
Competitive Landscape
Main Competitors: GitHub Codespaces, Gitpod, cloud-based IDEs, traditional local development setups
How They Differentiate: Browser-based simplicity, collaborative coding, built-in AI features, no setup required
Common Objections: Security/data concerns, "we already have GitHub", entrenched in existing dev workflows, pricing for teams
Win Themes: Speed to code, collaboration, onboarding new devs faster, eliminating environment setup headaches
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Team Management (40%) | Hiring/Training (30%) | Strategy/Process (20%) | Internal Alignment (10%)
Key Activities
- 1:1s and coaching: 30-45 min weekly with each rep. Reviewing call recordings, email copy, objection handling. Lots of "why didn't you ask X" and "here's how to reframe that."
- Hiring: Interviewing candidates, selling the role, managing pipeline of applicants. Building team from scratch means constant recruiting.
- Setting targets and process: Defining activity metrics (calls/day, emails sent, meetings booked), conversion benchmarks, outreach sequences. Figuring out what works in developer sales.
- Internal meetings: Syncing with VP GTM, AE managers, marketing on target accounts, messaging, lead quality feedback. Weekly pipeline reviews where you defend your team's output.
- Training new hires: Onboarding reps on Replit product, ICP, outreach frameworks. Building playbooks from scratch since outbound is newer.
- Reporting: Building dashboards, explaining why meeting volume is up/down, forecasting hiring needs, justifying headcount investment.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- Building from scratch in hypergrowth: You're defining what good looks like while the company changes every quarter. Limited historical data. Pressure to hire fast but hire right.
- Developer outreach is tricky: Developers hate being sold to. Cold outreach to engineers has low response rates. Your team will face rejection and need creative approaches (community engagement, technical content, not sounding like typical SaaS spam).
- Balancing PLG and outbound: Product generates tons of signups. Figuring out when outbound adds value vs stepping on inbound motion. AEs might prefer warm leads over your cold-sourced meetings.
- Scaling quality while growing: Hiring 5-10 reps fast means some won't work out. You'll spend time performance managing while also trying to support top performers.
- Proving outbound ROI: If PLG is working, you'll constantly justify why outbound matters. Execs will ask "why can't we just ride the product wave?"
What Success Looks Like
- Hit team meeting quota consistently: 100-150 qualified meetings/month accepted by AEs
- Pipeline conversion: X% of your meetings turn into opportunities (AEs actually work them, not junk)
- Hire and ramp new reps: Get someone from offer to productive in 60-90 days
- Rep retention: Keep your best performers. Attrition under 20% annually.
- Develop future leaders: Promote 1-2 reps to senior BDR or AE roles within a year
Who You're Selling To (Your Team Prospects)
Primary Buyers:
- Engineering Managers / VPs Engineering at tech companies (evaluating dev tools for teams)
- CTOs at mid-market companies (making dev tooling decisions)
- Developer Relations / DevOps leads (championing new tools internally)
What They Care About:
- Developer productivity and velocity
- Reducing onboarding friction for new engineers
- Collaboration and remote work enablement
- Cost vs existing tooling (GitHub, AWS Cloud9, etc.)
- Security and compliance for code/data
Requirements
- 3-5+ years managing SDR/BDR teams, preferably 10+ direct reports
- Experience building outbound programs at PLG or developer tools companies
- Track record hiring and developing junior sales talent
- Comfortable with metrics: activity rates, conversion funnels, pipeline velocity
- Understanding of developer personas and how to reach them (not typical SMB outreach)
- Willing to be in Salt Lake City office (building local team culture)
- Comfortable in hypergrowth chaos - processes change, priorities shift, you adapt fast