AI-native startups still build sales teams, they just scale them later
Replit's CEO now expects more than half his company to be salespeople by year-end, and SaaStr says the pattern holds across the AI cohort. The catch is timing: PLG companies once added sales around $20M-$50M ARR, now it's more like $100M-$250M. Gamma hit $100M with no sales team and its CEO calls that a mistake. Anthropic added 140+ salespeople in 18 months and now posts more sales than research roles.