Atamis Ltd

A comprehensive suite of tools includes e-procurement, contract management, supplier performance monitoring, and analytics capabilities to power your procurement across the S2C. With Atamis, your procurement function can streamline operations, mitigate risks, and achieve strategic objectives effectively.

"The ability to tier suppliers, track due diligence and monitor savings has transformed our supplier relationship management. The Atamis solution supports the necessity of meeting the changing regulatory landscape and can adapt to our business as it evolves. Within a few months the system had paid for itself as a result of contract savings we were able to realise via its use." 
- John Downing, Procurement Director, Ardonagh Group.

Sales Director

Alcumus

Alcumus helps organisations of all sizes anticipate, manage and avoid risks that endanger their people, their operations and our planet. We provide an integrated approach to managing Health, Safety and ESG across industries, locations, contractor and supplier networks.

The operational resilience, control and insights we provide contribute to the continued success of over 45,000 customers around the world.

Responsible for the Sales Development, Account Executive, and Customer Success functions across SaaS and Professional Service product lines in HR, H&S, Consultancy, Risk and Compliance. Managed a team of 5x Sales Managers and up to 35x IC's consistently delivering seven-figure net new logo ARR annually across SMB, MM, and ENT sectors.

VP of Sales

For companies that need to demonstrate compliance with increasingly stringent health and safety legislation, Alcumus SafeContractor, the UK’s leading health and safety accreditation, acts as a strategic technology partner to verify the compliance of your contractors and makes them available through an easy-to-use online portal.

The contractor management system provides vital insight into your supply chain, enabling you to effectively monitor, manage, and make informed decisions. Scaled sales team from 6 to 15 people within first two years while reducing sales cycle, increasing ACV and consistently improving win rates to exceed performance expectations.

Sales Manager

Robert Half

Recruitment Consultant

Associate Consultant

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management system for businesses and organisations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. Launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages using Hootsuite’s unique social media dashboard. Streamline team workflow with scheduling and assignment tools and reach audiences with geo-targeting functionality. Invite multiple collaborators to manage social profiles securely, plus provide custom reports using the comprehensive social analytics tools for measurement.

Key social network integrations include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ Pages, plus a suite of social content apps for YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and more.

- Hootsuite has over 6 million global users spanning six continents.
- Hootsuite’s users send over 3 million messages through the dashboard each day
- Over 1.2 billion messages have been sent through Hootsuite since its launch.
- Notable clients include 79 of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as McDonalds, WWF, PepsiCo, Virgin, FOX, Sony Music among others.

UK Ambassador

Self-Employed

Contribute to enhancements in revenue generation and brand reach through strategic marketing and digital / social media content planning for clients. Impacted corporate performance through business analysis and recommendation of improvements across sales, marketing, PR, advertising, customer service, product development and social media.

Assisted clients across human resources, financial services, medical devices, utilities and information technology industries.

Sales and Marketing Consultant

My Media Guru

My Media Guru Ltd is a social media consultancy formed to provide analytical and strategic solutions, advice and recommendations regarding direct business to consumer social media marketing.

Between its partners, My Media Guru Ltd has extensive experience in the fields of direct marketing, direct sales, programming, design, publishing and advertising. Focused lead generation services in over 1,000 campaigns generating over 40,000 leads.

Services include:
- Bespoke Facebook Applications
- Targeted Advertising Campaigns
- Social Community Building
- Detailed Social Media Analytic and Reports
- Social Media Training

Strategically managed key accounts, delivering consulting services focused on social media promotions and marketing solutions; developed and managed 20+ weekly campaigns.

NB: Now trading as Something Europe Ltd

Head of Marketing and Outsourced Business

The Penny Group London LLP

Orchestrated development of internal communication strategy, establishing programme for rapid turnaround of internal campaigns. Maintained external supplier agreements and partnerships with copywriters, graphic designers, mortgage brokers, and accountants. Trained and supported advisers and financial planners in addition to managing company’s graduate programme.

Head of Marketing

Vita Financial Limited

Whole of market protection brokerage providing protection solutions to UK consumers.

Vita's key focus is to develop strong, reciprocal affinity partnerships with both local and national, like minded people.

Played a key role in start-up and development of insurance brokerage, encompassing establishment of high-value sales, digital, and operational platforms as well as partnership network.

Achieved top levels of client satisfaction, retention, and referrals through customer journey optimisation.
Enforced compliance with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations and internal policies / best practice.
Effectively allocated £4,000 monthly budget for digital, affiliate, and list rental.

Co-founder

General Protect Limited / Monitrend Research Ltd / Comms Direct Ltd

Part of the Comms Corporation.  Outbound contact centre providing direct sales and marketing campaigns across variety of industries and clients across two contact centres totalling 250 FTE.

Optimised sales scripts for existing and new product lines to ensure compliance with client needs.
Allocated and managed workflow, collaborated with cross-functional leaders and mitigated operational issues.
Developed web-based CRM in partnership with 3rd party software house, providing tracking and distribution of all generated lead types, including KPIs and payroll functions while ensuring compliance with FCA’s Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) principles.
Boosted performance of sales team while minimising turnover through creation of coaching programme for team leaders that enhanced evaluations and promotions operations.
Enhanced throughput of 200+ FTEs through development of training programmes covering sales process, compliance, and proper use of CRM system (Sprint).

Previous positions:
Senior Campaign Manager
Campaign Manager
Sales Manager
Team Leader
Sales Executive

Sales professional with more than 20 years of combined experience driving revenue, leading commercial teams, increasing market share, and elevating performance for a wide range of organisations. Delivers sustainable profitable growth through innovative sales and marketing initiatives.

Jay Perkins

SaaS GTM specialist | Co-Founder of Cosmic Partners | Working with VC backed tech startups

I'm an experienced SaaS sales leader and GTM expert sharing revenue-focused insight to help early-stage B2B tech founders. I worked in commercial leadership roles for 15 years helping VC-backed B2B technology companies scale revenue, transition from founder-led sales, and build high-performing sales teams. 

In that time I saw how much of an impact hiring the right people can have on the success of early-stage startups trying to hit ambitious growth targets. 

And as a former hiring manager in software sales myself, I know the frustration of being presented with candidates who haven’t been properly screened by recruitment companies.

That’s why I co-founded Cosmic Partners. To bring together SaaS and recruitment expertise to deliver a seamless, time-saving hiring process tailored to startups. Founders and Revenue Leaders trust us to deliver exceptional candidates who align with their sales motion and growth stage, freeing up time to focus on scaling their business. 

At Cosmic Partners we specialise in sales recruitment for VC backed B2B tech companies.

Want to find out more: DM me or email me – matthew@cosmicpartners.co.uk 

Get a free 60-minute GTM review - https://cosmicpartners.co.uk/gtm-review-request

View our recent case studies - https://cosmicpartners.co.uk/resources/case-studies

Matthew Codd

At 23 I landed a SaaS AE role with zero SaaS experience.
It paid me £250k.

That was 14 years ago now so that money is probably equivalent to £500k in todays money. 

And it was the role that kickstarted my SaaS career. It was the role that enabled me to buy my first property. It's the role that I will always be most grateful for. 

And over the years I've had people have called me "lucky" but the reality is it wasn't luck and was sheer resilience.

Here is how I got the role without any experience:

1. Sent the MD a connection request
2. Sent a DM once he accepted
3. Sent another one when he didn't respond
4. Picked up the phone when he didn't respond
5. Booked in the interview on the call 
6. Completed 2 interviews
7. Got the job

He agreed to meet me because I showed I could do the job. I didn't take the first no. I was hired as the experiment. 

I started on a £45k basic and I turned it into £250k with commission.

I’ve never believed in luck.
I always believed in creating your own!

We just worked with VC backed SaaS company.

We helped them hire a founding AE.

That company was Sable Bio.

They were looking for a founding AE to help work alongside the founders to help them scale post funding round. 

They are a founding team of deep domain experts but a team that haven’t built a commercial team before. So a perfect fit for Cosmic as we love using our expertise to consult and advise on what good looks like and help ensure they are set up for success. 

So how did we find the right person?

1. Spent 2 hours onboarding them
2. Spoke to their investors
3. Ran a go-live session to ensure we were all aligned 
4. Created the JD, final stage task and outbound messaging
5. Looked at the addressable market of candidates
6. Marketed the role to our extensive network
7. Started our unique headhunting process
8. Reviewed over 3k potential candidates
9. Identified 267 people that looked excellent
10. Ran our outbound process 
11. Competed 54, 15 min qualification calls
12. Ran 26, 30 minute interviews
13. Booked 4 people in the CEOs diary
14. Booked 2 people in for final stage
15. Helped with the offer and reference process

BUT that’s not all… 

Because we aren’t a traditional recruitment company that just fills roles....

We found that founders at this stage need more than just a person. They need the right advice around what to do before the hire comes in and after. This is what mitigates the high failure rate from these roles. 

So using my revenue leader experience I advised their CEO around the best practice on:

- How to sell as a founder
- How to transition from founder-led sales
- How to create an attractive commission plan
- How to onboard a founding AE
- How to act like a revenue leader

And the crazy part is we do all of this as part of our fee. So we are literally doing 90% more work that traditional recruitment companies for the same fee. 

In my experience hiring is only one part of the process but you need the right conditions for success and that’s the reason so many early sales hires fail. 

And this is EXACTLY why we set up Cosmic. We built a process using all our years of experience as operators. 

Because you can't just post a job and think that is a strategy or work with a recruitment company that doesn't have the right experience to set you up for success. These hires can completely change the growth trajectory of SaaS company. 

So if you’re about to hire your first AE make sure you run a proper process and ensure the system is ready for them to win.

I have now helped over 100 SaaS founders over the last 18 months with sales advice. I've learnt that it's often in the weeds help that moves the needle. 
So I'm creating a founder hotline. 

No high level BS, no theory, just straight value. 

It could you with things things like:

- Preparing for a big discovery call that is coming up tomorrow.
- Sense checking for an upcoming demo.
- Multiple stakeholders pulling you in different directions.
- A pipeline that looks healthy… but isn’t converting.
- Nailing founder-led sales.
- When and how to hire early sales people.
- Running better pipeline review.
- Sanity checking pivots.

The list goes on!

And I've found that in these situations it's not a book or a Notion page that will help. 

It's instant practical help that can be implemented immediately. 

So I’m creating something new:

A private WhatsApp group for VC-backed B2B SaaS founders.

Think of it as a sales hotline.

You can get access to my experience having worked with lots of founders and VCs and you can get advice from fellow founders. 

Real advice that you can use that day which will make an immediate impact. 

So... 

If you’re a VC-backed SaaS founder who has:

- Raised £500k+ of VC funding 
- Reached £350k+ ARR

And you would like access to a hotline just let me know. 

p.s you will also get access to some very cool founder dinners!

Over the years  I’ve watched more runway disappear after a fundraise than before it.

I've seen how the cash goes flying out the door so much easier once the money is in the account. So I've shared my advice around this in this Revenue Rocket. 

This issue also covers:

- Why early sales traction is a misleading signal in SaaS.
- Why post-raise urgency drives bad hiring, and how to avoid it.
- Who you need on the early team to turn capital into traction.
- My pro Bono Reviews if you want a one-to-one GTM checkup.

Also a  big thank you to Amrit Sami from Mercia who joined me on this month's Cosmic Conversation. He shared a lots of valuable advice for founders who are looking to raise or have just raised so make sure you take a listen. His views on hiring were completely aligned to mine! 

If there are topics you’d like me to cover in future Revenue Rocket just let me know by dropping a comment or DM!

p.s if you find these useful don't forget to subscribe!

Early-stage teams often move quickly, especially once the first deals land. A handful of early wins get treated as proof, and hiring decisions start g

Open article: You hired too early by Matthew Codd • 3 min read

Early sales traction is one of the most misleading signals in SaaS. Those first 5-10 customers will buy almost anything.

Why?

- They are early adopters
- They like you and not the product
- They will tolerate broken onboarding
- They will forgive missing features
- They will work manually around the gaps

So the early revenue shows up…

And founders think they can just carry on growing. And I see founders all the time tell me “cool we will just do more of this.”

But that’s the trap.

Yes those early sales prove you can do some founder-led sales. But they don’t prove the product sells.

And things start to break when ever deal feels bespoke and pricing gets flexible. 

On Friday I spoke to a Seed Stage founder at £247k ARR who thought they had early traction. They were selling enterprise SaaS to big banks and were giving free trials and every prospect was on some bespoke pricing model. I told them to stop as this is nothing but fake momentum and doesn't scale. 

Real traction looks like this:

- Shorter sales cycles.
- Demos that need less explaining.
- Custom requests disappear.
- Buyers selling internally for you.
- New customers sound like old ones.

And I get it early revenue feels good.

But repeatable sales changes everything.

And until you have customers that buy without free trials, discounts and customising product you don’t have momentum. You have a sales process problem.

Build the playbook then scale.

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