In this episode of How I Hire, Andy Mowat speaks with Tim Geisenheimer, CRO at Hatch, about building high-performing outbound sales teams in the AI era. Drawing from his experience scaling revenue organizations at Twitter, Correlated, and now Hatch, Tim shares tactical frameworks for identifying candidates who thrive in phone-centric environments, conducting scientific reference checks, and managing complex interview processes. His insights reveal how successful CROs are adapting their hiring strategies while maintaining focus on fundamental sales fundamentals that AI hasn't disrupted.
Topics discussed:
- Why cold calling remains the dominant channel for B2B enterprise sales despite AI advancement, and how to screen SDRs specifically for phone-centric roles rather than multi-channel generalists.
- The "stretch candidate" philosophy borrowed from Jason Lemkin—when to hire someone who hasn't seen your exact growth story before versus requiring proven pattern recognition at your stage and scale.
- How to conduct "back-channel" reference checks by intentionally seeking out former colleagues the candidate didn't recommend, and the specific questioning framework that removes hiring bias to focus on management optimization.
- The tactical approach to managing multiple candidates through lengthy interview processes—treating it like fundraising orchestration with transparent communication about timelines and decision points.
- Why the best senior candidates proactively reach out with personalized research about specific open roles, and how this simple outbound tactic works because so few executives actually do it.
- The intellectual curiosity framework for identifying early onboarding red flags—specifically looking for bias-to-action and self-directed learning within the first two weeks at fast-growing companies.
- How AI tools like ChatGPT's O3 have raised the baseline expectation for candidate research, making company and role preparation non-negotiable rather than impressive.
- The counterintuitive onboarding philosophy for 100-person startups that balances structured enablement with self-directed discovery, expecting new hires to schedule their own CEO meetings and cross-functional conversations.
ABOUT YOUR HOST:
Andy Mowat has built GTM engines for top companies throughout his career. He led Revenue Operations and Demand Gen at four unicorns, including scaling from $10M to $100M ARR at both Upwork and Culture Amp, and helping guide Box and Carta through IPO scale. With a passion for connecting people, Andy has advised executives on their careers for years and launched Whispered to make searching for executive roles less intimidating.
Learn more about about Whispered: www.whispered.com
Interact with AI Andy: www.whispered.com/whisper-search
