Voyager Capital is a Pacific Northwest venture firm that invests in early-stage business to business tech companies in Washington, Oregon and Western Canada, with $525 million under management.  Voyager understands the value of entrepreneurs -and has made it their mission to invest in those who have the passion to unleash ideas, push boundaries and drive disruptive change. They also recognize that the potential that successful companies have is rooted in its people. It is not surprising that they refer their portfolio companies to TalentReach when they are looking to recruit successful teams, particularly when they are looking to bring on top sales performers.

“We focus on innovative entrepreneurs, many with product or engineering backgrounds,” says Bill McAleer, Managing Director of Voyager Capital. “We often help them refine their go to market strategies. It is a huge challenge to hire good sales people, especially in some markets.” Some of their current portfolio companies include Sheerid, Syndio, Lytics, Thoughtexchange, Carbon Robotics, Hiya, Shiftboard and Videon. Another portfolio company, Zipwhip was sold to Twilio last year for $940 million.

TalentReach really understands the challenges of sourcing sales roles, and understands the unique characteristics that a successful sales candidate must have. They know that there is not a “one size fits all” when it comes to sales professionals, and can make a good match for top employers, as they really get to know the unique needs of many of Voyager’s portfolio companies.

“It is important to find sales people that are stage-appropriate,” says McAleer. “It is different selling for a mid stage company than it is for an early stage one. For early stage, you’ve got to be able to really describe a solution, and talk to the customer about the specific benefits of the product. It can be a challenge to find these people.” Early adopters are a unique customer set, and sales people must be able to relate the solution to the problem.

The war for talent, and particularly top sales talent, is very real, and can be one of the biggest challenges for early stage companies, especially in enterprise sales. While the opportunities for remote work have opened talent markets for some companies, there is still a value in having sales professions located in the region of some of their target customers. For example, if the main clients are financial institutions, someone based in New York is more valuable than one based in Boise. It is this kind of nuance that a good recruiting firm understands. 

“TalentReach is scrappy and understands the mentality required of the sales people that our portfolio companies are trying to recruit,” says McAleer. “They have been very responsive for our early stage companies who urgently need to find good candidates…TalentReach gets in there and makes it happen.”