"Treat every human different—and build your frameworks from there." - Amos Schwartzfarb

In this episode of Tech Scenes, Jeff James Martin sits down with Amos Schwartzfarb, former managing Director of Techstars Austin and author of Sell More Faster and Levers, to explore what it really takes to scale a startup from founder-led sales to full-blown success.

Amos shares stories from his own wild entrepreneurial journey—from packing boxes for one of the first e-commerce companies to becoming one of Texas’s most active early-stage investors. The conversation dives deep into frameworks for sales, metrics that matter, and how to balance hard data with human nuance when building teams. They also talk about the joy of coaching, the discovery process, and how music—and leadership—are both about learning to harmonize.

Key Takeaways:

• Strong opinions, loosely held are crucial to evolving as a leader and operator.

• Coaching and mentorship create value far beyond tactical execution.

• Discovery never stops—you’re always figuring things out.

• Founder-led sales matter early on—nobody sells like the founder.

• Sales frameworks and metrics help teams build predictability and scale.

• OKRs build capability, while KPIs measure current state—they serve different purposes.

• Every person is different, and great leaders build around individuality, not uniformity.

• High-performing teams learn together—learning is a shared core behavior.

• The journey of entrepreneurship is personal, iterative, and often musical.

Chapters:

00:00 – Embracing Flexibility in Opinions
01:10 – The Joy of Coaching and Mentorship
02:52 – Frameworks for Business Success
04:47 – The Discovery Process in Startups
06:20 – Reflecting on Career Paths
07:50 – The Evolution of Business Plans
10:12 – Learning Through Business Planning
12:09 – The Importance of a Holistic View
13:31 – Metrics and Predictability in Sales
16:57 – Founder-Led Sales Strategies
20:12 – Understanding Sales Metrics
22:34 – Hiring the Right Sales Profiles
24:05 – Learning as a Core Team Behavior
24:52 – Journey to Techstars: A New Beginning
27:31 – Lessons from Mentoring Startups
30:00 – The Importance of Individuality in Teams
33:48 – Frameworks for Team Success
36:31 – Understanding OKRs vs. KPIs
40:39 – The Future Hippies of Punk: A Musical Journey

Resources:
Learn more about the book Peak Teams – Mastering the Habit of Unstoppable Venture-backed Companies 🔗 https://a.co/d/hp5Jtnu

Visit Collective Genius™ to Build Your Venture-backed Team with the Peak Operating System™ 🔗 https://www.collective-genius.com/

Music by Andrew Applepie 🔗 https://soundcloud.com/andrewapplepie

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