Darwinian on Medium: The Early Writing
Curated by Darwinian
## Darwinian on Medium: The Early Writing
This collection of five articles from Darwinian Ventures' early Medium publications captures the foundational thinking that would later inform the firm's broader advisory work. The pieces center on the operational decisions that most frequently derail early-stage B2B companies—particularly around sales team construction, hiring sequencing, and the temptation to default to conventional approaches. Across multiple articles, Darwinian makes a consistent case that outsourcing sales teams offers early-stage startups meaningful advantages over building internally, including reduced risk, lower costs, and faster ramp-up times, while warning that the in-house path frequently leads to frustration, time loss, and financial damage from bad hires.
The collection also addresses the specific hiring mistakes B2B founders tend to repeat: hiring too junior, cycling through VPs of Sales, using interns for outreach, and over-relying on tools rather than building genuine sales capability. Beyond team structure, Darwinian challenges surface-level adoption of popular tactics and technologies. Social selling is reframed not as sending LinkedIn connection requests or InMails, but as the disciplined art of using social media to find, connect with, understand, and nurture prospects. Similarly, the firm's perspective on AI is measured and practical—arguing that AI will not replace sales teams overnight but will incrementally change the nature of work by adding efficiencies to existing software and processes, reshaping what a sales team is rather than eliminating it.
Taken together, these articles reflect an operator's perspective—direct, experience-driven, and focused on the decisions that compound most consequentially in a company's early stages. The writing establishes themes around disciplined go-to-market execution, realistic expectations about technology adoption, and the hidden costs of conventional startup sales playbooks that remain relevant well beyond their original publication.