Everything is sales

You are always selling - whether you like it or not

I spent a decade building products thinking I was above sales. Then I became an investor and realized: everything meaningful I'd ever done was sales.

What shipped great products wasn't just technical brilliance—it was convincing skeptical engineers to prioritize user needs, persuading designers to tackle technical debt, rallying reluctant teams behind tough pivots. I'd been selling all along—I just hadn't admitted it.

An engineering manager fighting for a critical refactor isn't battling technical debt—they're selling future velocity to leadership. Brilliant ideas without alignment quietly fade into forgotten Notion docs, no matter how technically sound.

Great founders understand this truth. Their obsession with solving meaningful problems pulls others into orbit. They don't distinguish between building and selling because every interaction shapes conviction in their vision.

PMs sell vision. Designers sell experiences. Engineers sell architecture. CEOs sell possibility. Every role is sales.