{"podcast":{"title":"In Depth","slug":"in-depth-1318680","podcast_index_feed_id":1318680,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/FRCH6787238462","website_url":"https://firstround.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/9426cbf8-25fe-11ec-a0b4-fb6861cc1eaf/image/f27cea2953ad25c68029f33bc99ba58b.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"First Round","episode_count":178,"summary":"Welcome to In Depth, a podcast from The First Round Review that’s dedicated to surfacing the tactical advice founders and startup leaders need to grow their teams, their companies and themselves. Hosted by Brett Berson, a partner at First Round, In Depth will cover a lot of ground and a wide range of topics, from hiring executives and becoming a better manager, to the importance of storytelling inside of your organization. But every interview will hit the level of tactical depth where the very best advice is found. We hope you’ll join us. Subscribe to “In Depth” now and learn more at firstround.com","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680"},"episode":{"title":"Snowflake’s first sales hire on scaling from $0 to $3.5B | Chris Degnan (Former CRO, Snowflake)","slug":"snowflake-s-first-sales-hire-on-scaling-from-0-to-3-5b-chris-degnan-former-cro-snowflake","published_at":"2026-02-26T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/snowflake-s-first-sales-hire-on-scaling-from-0-to-3-5b-chris-degnan-former-cro-snowflake","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH3508151279.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH3508151279.mp3","summary":"Chris Degnan was the first sales hire at Snowflake and spent 11 years scaling the company from zero to $3.5 billion in revenue as its CRO, working alongside four different CEOs and learning from each one. In this episode, Chris breaks down what it actually takes to scale an enterprise sales organization, why MEDDIC is the methodology every founder should know, and what working under Frank Slootman taught him about firing fast, taking feedback and finding the fakers in your team. In today's episode, we discuss: What the CRO job looks like at $10M vs. $1B+ Why sales leaders must know how to sell the product themselves The MEDDIC methodology and why it's a founder's best insurance policy How to find the fakers, manage-uppers and passengers in your org What Frank Slootman got right — and wrong — about scaling Snowflake Why most AI companies will face a go-to-market reckoning References: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/ Bob Muglia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-muglia-714ba592/ Carl Eschenbach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-eschenbach-980543/ Christian Kleinerman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-kleinerman-a973102/ Denise Persson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisepersson/ Dell: https://www.dell.com/ Frank Slootman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankslootman/ John McMahon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmcmahon1/ Michael Scarpelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-scarpelli-1b289b9/ Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/ Oracle: https://www.oracle.com/ Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/ Sridhar Ramaswamy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridhar-ramaswamy/ Stanford Graduate School of Business: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ Where to find Chris: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-degnan/ Where to find Brett: LinkedIn:…","meta_description":"Chris Degnan was the first sales hire at Snowflake and spent 11 years scaling the company from zero to $3.5 billion in revenue as its CRO, working alongsi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3597,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/in-depth-1318680/episodes/snowflake-s-first-sales-hire-on-scaling-from-0-to-3-5b-chris-degnan-former-cro-snowflake/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/snowflake-s-first-sales-hire-on-scaling-from-0-to-3-5b-chris-degnan-former-cro-snowflake.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}