About John Gannon

I have over 15 years of experience working in the trenches at successful startups, high growth companies, and VC firms. During that time, I've managed, interviewed, and coached hundreds of people -- and I've worked in almost every business functional role, including marketing, product management, and business development.

Author Archive | John Gannon

RevTrax (NYC) is hiring a Sales Director

By on July 31, 2013 in Startup Jobs

My friend Jon Sroka is hiring a Sales Director at RevTrax. RevTrax sells an omnichannel marketing platform targeted towards retailers. Here’s what they’re looking for in a potential hire: Proven track record of 7+ years of quota carrying software as a service new business sales experience, 5+ in retail. Proven sales leader in previous roles […]

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Should startups hire MBAs? The great debate continues!

By on July 21, 2013 in Career Advice

Investment banking and management consulting positions still capture the career interest of many MBA students and grads. However, over the last several years there’s been a focus at many business schools to beef up their entrepreneurship programs as more and more MBAs want to strike out on their own or join a startup after graduation. […]

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Taking smart career risk

By on July 6, 2013 in Career Advice

Most people (including me) overestimate the amount of risk inherent in career changes, entrepreneurial ventures, and new projects. Entrepreneur and StartupCareerAdvice.com contributing author Keith Cowing just wrote an excellent post on evaluating career risk that describes this phenomenon and gives specific feedback on how to overcome it. In not so many words, it all comes down […]

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Interviewing at a startup – Two techniques to help you succeed

By on April 30, 2013 in Career Advice

Startups are great at many things. Unfortunately for the startup job seeker, interviewing candidates is often not one of them. 🙂 In an ideal interview scenario, a startup would have you speak with a variety of people on the team, ensuring each interviewer had a specific, relevant theme to explore with you. They’d dive deep to […]

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First employee at a startup? Here are 3 ways to find your first customers

By on April 4, 2013 in Career Advice

If you are the first employee at a startup one of your most important jobs will be to find and secure new customers. This is also a topic that is near and dear to my heart, since I spent a huge amount of time on Customer Development and outreach as the first employee at a startup […]

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Startup sales jobs – 5 ways to know you have what it takes to succeed

By on March 24, 2013 in Career Advice

If you’re exploring startup sales jobs, keep in mind that to succeed in these roles you need a certain mindset and way of selling that’s fundamentally different from your peers who are working at larger companies. From my experience having worked as an investor and operator in and advisor to startups, these 5 traits can […]

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Startup stock options won’t make you rich

By on March 3, 2013 in Job Search Tips

I often see people who are new to the startup world overvalue the equity component (stock options) of their compensation, thinking that it will be their ticket to an early retirement.  The problem is that startup stock options almost always will not make you rich, particularly when the company has already raised even a modest […]

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