We've interviewed dozens of founders for a new series on product-market fit.

Jarod Estacio

GTM Enablement Manager

I like to think that one of, if not the biggest, professional and personal strengths that I have is the ability to uncover and create connections. This lends itself nicely to my role at First Round, where my central focus is assisting founders in sales pipeline development by way of making key introductions to folks in the greater First Round network. In addition to top-of-the-funnel work, I also help founders hone in on their ICP by identifying what’s working and what’s not throughout their sales process. It requires paying close attention to all the details of who we’re reaching out to on behalf of our portfolio companies and why or why not those introductions lead to revenue generated. Many founders are also first-time sellers, and I try to help them uncover deep insights as they hone their chops and develop their founder-sales playbook.

Prior to First Round, I worked in numerous sales roles at various high-growth startups across sales development, partnership management, deal-closing and brokerage. All of these experiences taught me the importance of a clean, consistent, and what some might consider aggressive (although I would say confident) sales process. Whether it’s sales development or down-funnel work I’ve seen time and time again that the best salespeople are methodical—edging on obsessive—about maintaining a strong and consistent sales process.

Not only do I love the competition that a sales career affords, but I am also a massive competitor outside of the office. I was a nationally ranked rower in high school and was recruited to row at all divisions of colleges. I ended up deciding on a liberal arts college, Hamilton, where I was able to stay competitive athletically in a top 5 Division-III program while exploring my creative and intellectual side as Hamilton had an open curriculum requiring no prerequisites or core classes for all 4 years. This allowed me to study economics, literature and Africana studies all at once. Being from the Philly area I am a massive Philadelphia sports fan (go birds!) and an avid cheesesteak enthusiast. Creatively, I enjoy taking in and making art in my free time.