<p>Kyle Parrish joined Figma as the first-ever sales hire when the company was doing $2M in ARR and helped scale it to $950M ARR. Figma then went on to IPO (FIG). </p><p>But the path there was anything but smooth.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Kyle breaks down what it actually took to build Figma&#39;s enterprise sales motion from scratch, including the no-discount rule that made procurement teams furious, the 40-hour interview weeks when hiring felt impossible to keep up with, and what it was like to lead a 300-person team through a failed $20B Adobe acquisition, and then have their best year immediately after.</p><p><br></p><p>We cover:</p><p>- Why Figma refused to discount, even when Microsoft pushed back</p><p>- How to hire the right first sales rep as a founder</p><p>- The PLG to enterprise transition most companies get wrong</p><p>- What the Adobe deal collapse actually felt like from the inside</p><p>- How Figma went from 3 products to 8 overnight and launched into an IPO</p><p>- What great sales look like in the AI era</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamp:</p><p>0:00 – Intro </p><p>1:02 – Guest intro: Kyle Parrish </p><p>1:35 – Joining Figma at $2M ARR in 2018 </p><p>5:01 – First meeting with Dylan (Figma CEO) </p><p>6:13 – How to find your first sales hire </p><p>9:05 – Stage alignment in early hiring </p><p>11:43 – Early-stage operators need &quot;scar tissue&quot; </p><p>13:19 – Northstar metric at Figma </p><p>14:13 – Obsessing over customer conversations </p><p>16:44 – Building Figma&#39;s brand through community </p><p>17:31 – Scaling the &quot;unscalable&quot; </p><p>20:08 – In-person GTM vs. digital </p><p>22:47 – Was there a moment Figma might not make it? </p><p>24:48 – Pivoting after the Adobe deal collapsed </p><p>28:10 – Figma&#39;s no-discount rule </p><p>31:05 – Enterprise ELAs replacing discounting </p><p>34:47 – What makes a great salesperson in the AI era </p><p>36:56 – Missionaries vs. mercenaries in AI-era GTM </p><p>39:47 – Spotting the next Dropbox or Figma </p><p>43:46 – Kyle&#39;s post-Figma investing focus </p><p>45:58 – Family, travel &amp; what&#39;s next</p><p><br></p><p>Guest: Kyle Parrish, former VP Sales at Figma </p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kparrish8/</p><p>X: https://x.com/KyleHParrish</p><p><br></p><p>Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP Marketing at GTMnow</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/</p><p>X: https://x.com/sophiebuona</p><p><br></p><p>Visit us on: https://gtmnow.com</p><p>Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow</p><p>Follow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_</p><p>Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_now</p><p>Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_</p><p>Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/</p><p><br></p><p>Sponsors: </p><p>Nooks - the AI workspace for outbound teams: https://www.nooks.ai/gtmfund</p><p><br></p><p>.Tech - Domains, where the next generation of builders is planting their flag. Secure your .tech domain today from any registrar of your choice. </p><p><br></p><p>Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to GTMnow for the latest episodes! https://gtmnow.com</p><p>For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]</p><p>GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/</p>