#23 Bob Marsh: Lessons from $1M-$100M | Exiting startups | Salesman to CEO

Welcome to The Search For Growth, the show that takes you inside the minds of the world’s greatest startup founders and entrepreneurs.Today, it's my pleasure to introduce Bob Marsh, a seasoned sales executive with a passion for helping companies grow. Bob has spent his career in sales and sales leadership, and is currently the Chief Revenue Officer of Bluewater Technologies. Prior to that, he was the Founder and CEO of LevelEleven, a sales management system used by some of the world's most progressive sales organizations. Through building two category-creating businesses, Bob is a professional speaker on the topics of sales growth and leadership and has had the opportunity to speak at several industry leading events and been published in Fast Company,, Quotable, and the Harvard Business Review. Join us as we unpack Bob's story and learnings from his experience helping companies grow through sales and leadership. (00:00) Intro (00:51) Podcast Starts (01:47) The first $5 Bob ever earned (02:48) Lessons from working in a golf store (05:35) Pivotal failures and nearly getting fired (09:03) Why everyone hate salespeople (13:52) Defining your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) (18:52) Becoming your true self (26:39) Building canals vs Flowing with the river (28:00) Entrepreneurs must balance optimism with paranoia (32:41) Starting LevelEleven and becoming an entrepreneur (36:42) “The Jockey & The Horse” analogy to investing (38:55) Building a SalesTech software to $5M in revenue and exiting (41:00) Finding a technical co-founder vs outsourcing your MVP (43:00) Selling LevelEleven and Bob’s first exit as a founder (45:48) Working with PE, retaining equity, and the PE playbook (49:31) Bob’s stint as a professional speaker (52:00) Rapid fire questions