Founder, P33 | Executive Thought Leadership Agency

Helped 50+ B2B tech companies build their Founder/CEO Brand and implement Executive Thought Leadership Programs for LinkedIn. Customers, results & process: project33.io

About me:

I'm Finn, 29, grew up in Bremen, Germany, studied Physics & Philosophy in Heidelberg for 3 semesters, dropped out of college in 2017 because I was doing it for other people, flew to New York with no plans, documented the journey on Linkedin, Instagram and Youtube, and started my first company (Project 33) on the back of having grown a small audience. We're a small remote agency that helps B2B founders & execs create thought leadership content for Linkedin.

In my free time, which I try to have as much as possible of, I read (fav author: Nassim N. Taleb), write, run, lift, code (currently building an app), cook, make Youtube videos, turn books into Instagram accounts, grapple (BJJ), and travel (lived in NYC, Cape Town, Bali, Minsk, CMDX, Lima & Antalya so far). In December 2020 I married the most beautiful woman in the world. In January 2023, I became dad to the most beautiful baby girl. We currently live in Berlin, Germany.

Finn Thormeier

Manuel Hartmann

Founder & CEO@SalesPlaybook | Build & scale B2B sales without trial & error

Transforming B2B SaaS Sales in the DACH Region

With over 5 years of experience, I built SalesPlaybook from CHF0 to 30k MRR in under 18 months and scaled it to a 7-figure annual revenue with fewer than 6 FTEs. I’ve supported 300+ B2B SaaS and Professional Service Entrepreneurs to:
- Achieve EUR 0-10 Mio. ARR in under 3 years profitably
- Accelerate ARR growth by over 5x from 0-1 Mio. in less than 18 months
- Close 10-50x larger deals through Message-Market-Fit & Value Selling
- Implement & optimize HubSpot Sales Hub & Outbound Sales from scratch

Career Highlights:
- 2009: Launched sales career with 3-figure NPO donations
- 2012: Reached 6-figure sales with sportscars@Tesla
- 2014-2016: Led 7-figure CRM transformations@Accenture
- 2017-2019: Managed 5-figure AI SaaS@Onedot
- Present: Driving 5-figure deals@SalesPlaybook

What I Offer:
- Pipeline Generation: Developing and executing strategies to build robust sales pipelines.
- Sales Enablement: Equipping sales teams with the tools and training needed for success.
- HubSpot Services: Comprehensive implementation and optimization of HubSpot CRM

Personal Interests: 
- I’m an avid UFC fan, active (kick)boxer, snowboarder, and musician (piano + e-guitar). 
- I enjoy taking on challenges like writing a book in under 30 days or completing 1,000 push-ups

Education: Master’s Degree in Business Innovation from HSG with MBA Exchange in Canada

Let’s connect if: 
- You're a B2B entrepreneur looking to scale sales quickly, efficiently & without 6-figure mistakes
- You identify as a Top 1% talent on hunger & drive, urgent curiosity, intelligence & integrity

Founder & CEO

Join 220+ customers to build & scale sales with the #1 B2B SaaS Startup Sales Journey Partner in DACH.

All the expert sales help you need to fast forward your B2B SaaS Startup.

👉 Book a 1:1 Sales Assessment Call: https://thesalesplaybook.com/bookacall
👉 Get proven hands-on sales resources: https://thesalesplaybook.com/resources
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Track Record:
❖ 0-2M booked ARR in <15 months by finding message-market-fit in <9 months (boostbar)
❖ 0-7 figure ARR in <12 months by hitting message-market fit, setting up outbound sales engine & more (Kyan Health)
❖ 0-7 figure ARR in <18 months by hitting message-market-fit, building outbound sales & training first sales hires (Archlet)
❖ >10 projects to 50+ subscriptions to exit after building outbound sales from 0 (Airica)
❖ 0-2M+ ARR in <18 months by building a sales team from scratch (rready)
❖ 5x MRR by building scalable sales & hiring first sales rep (Turbit)
❖ Ramp 5 SDRs to quota in less than 3 months (Beekeeper)
❖ 4x annual revenue after closing 700k deal with Fortune 500 company by leveraging value-selling (novoMOF)
❖ 2x MRR in 6 months by niching down on Ideal Customer Profile (Houston & Ko)
❖ 370k+ deal closed through hands-on support, approaching 7-figure revenue (56k.Cloud)
❖ 2x ARR in 9 months by 10x'ing ACV by 10x, winning 100K+ deals & hitting 90% reply rates (Classtime)
❖ 2x MRR in 3 months, from 5-10k deals to EUR 150k contract, hitting 30% booking rates (wowflow)
❖ 2x MRR in 6 months from group coaching sessions & more (Houston & Ko)
❖ 250k ARR deal closed by changing their positioning & negotiation approach (Linimex)
❖ <5% to 80% opening and 30%+ reply rates on scalable outbound sales (TRESIO)
❖ 2x MRR in 6 months by niching down on Ideal Customer Profile (Houston & Ko)

Working on this hands-on guide in a world full of AI-generated noise to help you scale trust & revenue quickly with better pipeline and process instead of more people and problems.

A "Sneak Peak" of what you will get on est. 60-70 pages:

Chapter 1 provides a Pipeline Generation Blueprint by introducing the concept of moving from disconnected activities to a unified, predictable revenue engine.

Chapter 2 focuses on creating a a Scalable Marketing & Sales Infrastructure leveraging HubSpot and best-in-class business processes.

Chapter 3 dives deeper on the importance of precision in targeting and refining your Ideal Customer Profile to improve marketing relevance and sales productivity.

Chapter 4 explains how to build trust through targeted awareness and educational content, ensuring prospects are well-informed.

Chapter 5 discusses how to scale what works with retargeting and nurturing to deepen trust and guide high-potential accounts through the funnel.

Chapter 6 highlights the importance of converting signals into conversations of data-driven, trust-based sales motions to turn demand into pipeline.

Chapter 7 covers how to best optimize your sales pipeline operations through metrics, analytics, automation, and continuous improvement.

Chapter 8 explores how to leverage AI and tools like Clay to create hyper-personalized, signal-based outbound LinkedIn & email campaigns.

Chapter 9 focuses on using automation to buy back your time by eliminate low-value tasks & enabling you & your team to focus on human-first interactions.

Chapter 10 shifts the narrative from vanity metrics such as post impressions to revenue-relevant ones such as engagement, sales pipeline, and impacted revenue.

Chapter 11 provides a phased execution schedule, starting with foundational architecture and ending with strategic refinement and scaling.

Chapter 12 discusses the critical role of trust in business, the challenges posed by AI, and how companies can leverage technology to scale trust in a human way.

👉 Comment "Trust" below if I shall send you the PDF once ready?
(I rarely do this "Comment below", but find it more pragmatic in this case then to make you go to a separate landing page...)

Helping DACH B2B software firms to scale sales quickly, efficiently & without 6-figure mistakes with done-for-you pipeline generation, fractional sales & HubSpot services.

Avoiding 6-figure GTM mistakes make or break your startup.
 
Some are really completely avoidable.

3 "Hall of Fame" 6-figure mistakes:

1/ People First, Process Second, Pipeline Third.
Just invert: Awareness -> Demand -> Pipeline.
Once you hit 100-250k, Process (via HubSpot).
Then think about if you need people, AI or XYZ.
👉 Only hire once you figured out "A+B+C+D=ARR".

2/ "Poisonous 3Ps": Paid Ads, Partners, PLG
Paid only works to scale things that work.
Partners will not sell better than your team.
Product-Led-Growth breaks at +/- 20k ACV.
👉 Get to at least 7-figure ARR before the above?

3/ Doing too much, all at once.
3 "I"CPs, Enterprise + SMB...then "go to the US".
Trying to master LinkedIn, Meta, Google & PR.
Then adding people to create a bigger mess.
👉 "Fear the man who practiced 1 punch 1'000x"?

Others require a more nuanced conversation.
Thanks Fabian Hartmann for orchestrating these.

 👉 Sign up here if you've raised >2M & let's talk? https://lnkd.in/ecpwfEtn

Why Salesforce is losing Mid-Market (20-500 FTEs), fast.
Look, I was a proud Certified SF Admin 2014-2019.

Salesforce was an incredible product back then.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
It did not improve for SMBs.

Salesforce did NOT scale FOR small and mid-sized companies.
It has been scaling straight past them.
And that is the problem (for them).

At ~$40 billion in ARR, 
Salesforce does not build for entrepreneurs anymore.
It cannot optimize for the "small" 7- & 8-figure ARR firm.

1. Complexity never went away
- Salesforce assumes admins, consultants*, and budgets
- *Yes, I was one. Yes, I cost 1.5-2k/day, every day.
- SMBs want speed, not consultant spend, forever.

2. The product stopped evolving for SMB reality
- Same core workflows, more clouds, more SKUs
- More abstraction, more complexity less usability
- Innovation is focused on Fortune 500, DAX, SMI

3. SMBs don’t want to pay Admins full-time salaries
- They want software that "just works", FOR them
- Implementations should be 5-, not 6-figures
- Quarterly retainers (if any) 4-, not 5-figures

4. Enterprise economics broke the value equation
- Pricing assumes big contracts and long commitments
- SMBs optimize for flexibility and fast pay-back periods
- The financial math simply fails if you are <1'000 FTEs

Yamini Rangan's team at HubSpot didn’t beat* Salesforce.

Salesforce beat itself once it just stopped to care.

Because for them, "small" firms are not the ICP.

So "Sayonara Salesforce, Hello HubSpot"!

Marketing: Let's invest heavily in personal LinkedIn content.
CEO: Instead of paid ads? Have you lost your mind?

Marketing: Paid ads rent attention. Personal brands compound it.

CEO: Ads give us predictable leads.

Marketing: They give us predictable CAC inflation.
Meanwhile, our buyers trust people, not logos.

CEO: We need scale.

Marketing: Personal content is scale.
One strong operator posting daily 
reaches more decision-makers than a five-figure ad budget.
And the trust transfers before the first sales call.

CEO: But ads are measurable!?

Marketing: So is influence. Inbound deals. 
Shorter sales cycles. Higher close rates. Lower discounting.
You will see it directly in pipeline quality over 3-6 months.
 
CEO: 3-6 months? This feels risky, and "long"-term.

Marketing: You know what is risky?
Competing in an auction 
where everyone has the same targeting and the same claims.

CEO: So what is the alternative you propose?

Marketing: Build category voices.
Founders. CEOs. Revenue leaders. Product experts.
Buyers trust people long before they are "ready to buy".

CEO: And what about paid ads? Just stop or what?

Marketing: Stack them on top.
To amplify what already works.
Not to compensate for zero initial trust.

CEO: So how long do you need until I see results?

Marketing: 3-6 weeks for traction, 3-6 months for pipeline.
Higher impressions, engagements & profile views fast.
Higher deal flow, sales velocity & deal size follow.

Look, "buyers" are people too.
And people buy from people.
Not from "Click at me, I am an ad, give me money."

👉 Save & share this post if you find it useful?
----
Shout-out to Chris Cunningham for the inspiration about this post on (un)gated content and just doing a tremendous job on marketing at ClickUp (our backbone for "anything client services)!

We all never rise to our potential, consistently.
We fall to our conditions to start and succeed.

Consistent results come from starting, not scaling.

A reflection from my own experience:

1. Make the first step laughably small
- Your brain resists change, not action
- Start with 1 pushup, 10s dead hang, 100 words
- Momentum does the rest once you get started

2. Remove choice, confusion & complexity
- Decision fatigue & optionality kill execution
- Decide the night before, not in the morning
- If you have to decide what to do, you already lost

3. Design the environment, not your "willpower"
- "Willpower" is unreliable under stress
- Environment enforces behavior
- Environment > willpower

4. Anchor habits to identity, not outcomes
- "I am an athlete" > "I want to get fit"
- Outcomes are abstract and distant
- Identity is immediate and binary

5. Track daily streaks, not scale
- I failed at daily journaling (+ "anything") if >5min/day
- "2 minutes a day keeps the doctor away"
- Never miss 2 days in a row, just go

6. Do the "hard now" thing
- Cold shower, cold call, cold x...
- "I could do the hard thing...
- ...so I can do the easy thing!"

Don't worry about how to "scale & succeed".

Just start, and stay consistent to keep going?

P.S. No, I don't do a 10min cold shower.
Just 10 long, deep breaths.
So +/- 2min, every day.

taplio

The Battle

Finn Thormeier

Manuel Hartmann

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The Battle

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Manuel Hartmann

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Likes

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