In many IT and tech firms, early growth runs squarely on the energy and charisma of the founder. That’s powerful while it lasts, but as soon as the company outgrows that setup, founder-led sales often becomes the organisational bottleneck.

Growth becomes unpredictable. One month might bring in 25% of the revenue of the next. Meanwhile, newly hired business development managers struggle to succeed because all deals still funnel through the founder. These newcomers may be full of ambition, but they lack the head start and institutional knowledge to thrive.

That’s when a company either stalls or implodes under the inconsistency.

Why growth stalls outside founder-controlled sales

Founder-led sales isn’t inherently flawed. In fact, in the early days it’s a natural and effective model. Founders bring deep product knowledge, passion and the ability to connect emotionally with prospects. But as IT and tech businesses scale, that approach becomes fragile.

Without formal processes or shared context, new salespeople can’t replicate success at speed. They lack the knowledge of objections, negotiation tactics, typical customer profiles and product positioning that the founder knows intuitively. Worst of all, clients don’t transition to talking with new reps. This slows ramp time, lowers close rates and locks growth to one person’s bandwidth.

FACTS SHEET — What we noticed with our clients in IT & Tech

• We have 500+ IT and tech clients and close contacts across Belgium and the Netherlands
• More than 50% of them experience a slowdown towards their growth ambitions, due to a lack of focus and a clear go-to-market
• 80% of IT and tech companies are actively professionalising their go-to-market approach
• Over 60% of founders indicate that shifting to a commercial organisation is the biggest challenge in scaling

Building a scalable sales engine

It’s critical to build a structure that transforms success into a repeatable, transferable sales machine. That means:

• Documenting the founder’s customer dialogue: objections, use cases, demo scripts and negotiation strategies, stored centrally in a CRM or wiki for easy access.
• Constructing a playbook and training rhythm that new hires can follow, helping them reach full productivity faster and consistently.
• Defining a clear, structured pipeline with qualification criteria, stages, follow-up sequences and CRM discipline, so leads don’t fall through the cracks.

This shift reduces the founder bottleneck and frees them up for strategic leadership.

The risks of hiring sales talent

The instinct to bring in a high-performing sales rep is natural, but risky. Hire the wrong person, and you could get the stereotypical “slick salesperson” who alienates your technically savvy clients, erodes the trust the founder built and disrupts your culture.

The real goal is to hire business developers, not just closers. You need people who think strategically and take initiative. They challenge assumptions, explore new ways to find deals and develop long-term relationships rather than chasing short-term commissions.

A new role for the founder

Once a structured sales process and the right hires are in place, the founder’s role needs to evolve. Away from day-to-day deal closing, towards strategic relationship-building, product and market guidance, coaching the sales team and refining the go-to-market direction.

That handoff isn’t easy: it means letting go of control and allowing others to represent the vision. But it’s essential if the business is going to scale beyond its origin story.

Is your company stalling?

Do you recognise any of the following symptoms of the founder-led hustle?

• Growth becomes erratic: surging one month, stalling the next.
• New hires underperform or burn out trying to replicate the founder magic.
• The founder is overwhelmed, juggling deals, recruitment and operations, risking burnout or poor strategic focus.
• Your organisation remains hostage to one person’s bandwidth, and future investors or partners will see that as a liability.

If you recognise this, it’s time to take action. Transitioning from founder-led selling to a structured sales organisation is a critical step for IT and tech companies that want to scale sustainably.

Merluno partners with tech founders to shape that evolution. We define repeatable sales processes and guide business developers towards durable growth.