Scaling MongoDB from Employee 8 to SVP - Meghan Gill (SVP Sales Ops, MongoDB)

This episode is perfect for those interested in tactical advice from seed stage to IPO around marketing tactics and sales compensation.

Meghan Gill is SVP Sales Operations & Sales Development at MongoDB. She previously joined as employee #8 and has scaled with the org over the past 15 years. In this episode, we cover tactical learnings about early and scaled marketing & sales compensation approaches. We tackle how to incentivize sales teams and how educational content can be effective lead gen for an early go-to-market motion. Meghan also shares many anecdotes from the scaling journey at MongoDB with advice for founders along the way.

Where to Find Meghan:

• Twitter: https://x.com/meghanpgill?lang=en

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanpgill/

Where to Find Shomik:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shomikghosh21

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shomik-ghosh-a5a71319/

• Software Snack Bites Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google.

In this episode, we cover:

(00:50) – Joining MongoDB as Employee 8

(04:37) – Moving from Marketing into Sales Ops

(05:45) – Setting Appropriate Sales Compensation

(07:08) – What Early MongoDB Got Right

(08:30) – Early Criticism

(10:27) – Do Things That Don’t Scale Moment

(12:08) – Early Enterprise Customers

(13:42) – Early NoSQL Messaging & Positioning

(16:55) – What Meghan Would Tell Herself Back as Employee 8

(18:30) – Managing 3 Kids While Building Startups

(19:50) – How Meghan Scaled Across Stages

(24:10) – Incentivizing Reps with New Product Rollouts

(26:20) – Focus Drives Efficiency

(29:05) – Career Advice

(31:00) – Early Marketing

(33:13) – Early Pricing

(34:18) – When to Make First RevOps Hire

(36:42) – What Are Common Mistakes with Sales Quotas

(39:45) – When to Adjust Sales Compensation

(40:57) – Most Common Advice Meghan Gives Around Marketing

(42:37) – Education Content as a Marketing Engine

(44:00) – Wrap Up