Fantasy Startup Draft: The First 5 Hires We’d Make Today
Fri Feb 06 2026
In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson run a fantasy startup draft—Super Bowl–style. If you were founding a company today, who would you hire first? Marketing generalist, founding BDR, product marketing, RevOps, customer success, or a first business hire? Kyle and CJ draft five non-technical roles each, debate tradeoffs, and explain how early hiring choices shape growth, efficiency, and execution. Then it’s on you to vote on the winning roster—with real (and painful) stakes for the loser.
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SPONSORS:
RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com
Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.
HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com
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LINKS:
Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com
CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/
Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/
Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/
Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/
Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/
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RELATED EPISODES:
When the marketing math doesn’t math | with Emily Kramer
https://youtu.be/sSuoV_YSrlw
The Psychology Behind Why Buyers Don’t Change | DemandJen
https://youtu.be/h7ZgPkgZ5oE
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Fantasy Punishments and Cold Open
00:02:35 Show Intro and Draft Stakes
00:03:37 Framing the Fantasy Startup Draft
00:05:41 Round One
00:10:13 Sponsors — RightRev | Tropic | HockeyStack
00:13:54 Round Two
00:18:00 Round Three
00:21:10 Round Four
00:24:12 Round Five
00:27:18 Why This Pick Didn’t Make the Draft
00:28:12 Pricing in the Real World: Super Bowl Ads
00:30:51 Bonuses in the Real World: NFL Playoff Incentives
00:32:59 Voting, Final Thoughts, and Wrap-Up
#MostlyGrowthPodcast #StartupDraft #GoToMarket #EarlyStageStartups #RevenueOps
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In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson run a fantasy startup draft—Super Bowl–style. If you were founding a company today, who would you hire first? Marketing generalist, founding BDR, product marketing, RevOps, customer success, or a first business hire? Kyle and CJ draft five non-technical roles each, debate tradeoffs, and explain how early hiring choices shape growth, efficiency, and execution. Then it’s on you to vote on the winning roster—with real (and painful) stakes for the loser. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com — LINKS: Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ — RELATED EPISODES: When the marketing math doesn’t math | with Emily Kramer https://youtu.be/sSuoV_YSrlw The Psychology Behind Why Buyers Don’t Change | DemandJen https://youtu.be/h7ZgPkgZ5oE — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Fantasy Punishments and Cold Open 00:02:35 Show Intro and Draft Stakes 00:03:37 Framing the Fantasy Startup Draft 00:05:41 Round One 00:10:13 Sponsors — RightRev | Tropic | HockeyStack 00:13:54 Round Two 00:18:00 Round Three 00:21:10 Round Four 00:24:12 Round Five 00:27:18 Why This Pick Didn’t Make the Draft 00:28:12 Pricing in the Real World: Super Bowl Ads 00:30:51 Bonuses in the Real World: NFL Playoff Incentives 00:32:59 Voting, Final Thoughts, and Wrap-Up #MostlyGrowthPodcast #StartupDraft #GoToMarket #EarlyStageStartups #RevenueOps