Go-to-market after the Series A: who owns it before the VP Sales arrives
The Series A buys hires, and hires land in two quarters. In between, nobody senior owns the middle between marketing and sales: the target list, the plays, the funnel, the weekly rhythm. The order that works is system first, then the hire into it. Tom Meijer, founder of Caugia (Paris), runs that build as a fractional GTM operator, one to three days a week, until the hire arrives and inherits a motion that already moves.
The gap the round creates
Founder-led sales got the company to the raise: the founder knew every deal, closed on conviction, and the pipeline lived in a head. The board now wants a plan with a number, the plan needs hires, and a VP Sales or a CRO takes four to six months to find and two quarters to prove. Hiring the executive before the motion is defined turns an expensive hire into an expensive experiment, and a first AE or SDR without a system produces activity, not pipeline.
Build the system before the headcount
A target list with named doors, not a market size: the accounts you will actually work this quarter, with the person in each who can say yes. Two or three plays, each with an entry channel, a message and a qualified bar written down. A funnel on paper with stage criteria the whole team reads the same way. A weekly review of forty-five minutes with three decisions: what moved, what to kill or scale, who owns what next. That is the system a hire can inherit.
Marketing comes into it as a channel with an owner and a number, not as a department to staff first. The question after a raise is rarely sales versus marketing; it is whether anyone has written down how a named account becomes revenue.
Who should own it in the meantime
The founder, with structure. Works when the founder has two days a week for it and someone to hold the rhythm. Fails when the round also brought product, hiring and board work that eat the same days.
A fractional GTM operator. One senior person inside the team one to three days a week, who designs the motion, runs it with the team and AI where it holds up, and hands the incoming executive a system in motion. The team keeps the hands. This is the model Caugia runs.
An interim executive. Full-time cover when the seat is empty and the team needs daily management now. Useful, and more expensive than the gap usually warrants when the team is still three people.
The first AE or SDR, alone. The common choice, and the one that burns the most runway: a junior hire without a target list, a play or a bar, measured on activity, managed by nobody.
What a ninety-day block looks like after a raise
Scoping first: the motion to build, the number it is held to, the owners. Then build and run: the target list and the plays in the first weeks, first touches by the team on the operator’s bar, the funnel instrumented in the CRM you already have. Decision rules on day thirty (are the plays getting replies, is the bar right), day sixty (is qualified pipeline forming at the rate the number needs) and day ninety (continue, hand over, or stop).
The number is agreed before day one and it is a leading one: qualified opportunities by day ninety, not revenue, because the sales cycle is longer than the block. The board sees a scorecard every week instead of a narrative every quarter.
The hire that comes after
By the time the VP Sales or CRO lands, the profile is clearer, because the motion told you what the job is: a closer for a proven outbound play, a builder for a partner channel, a manager for a team that already exists. The hire inherits the target list, the plays, the funnel on paper and the weekly note, and the first ninety days of that tenure are spent scaling a motion, not discovering one.
Who is behind Caugia
Tom Meijer, founder of Caugia and fractional GTM operator based in Paris. Dutch, a decade building GTM systems in B2B SaaS: Contentsquare from startup to a $5.6B valuation, then Greenly’s AI-first revenue architecture. He designs the motion, runs it with the team one to three days a week in ninety-day blocks, and holds it to the number agreed up front. Two engagements at a time, in English and French, on site in Paris or remote.
Questions people ask
After a Series A, who should own go-to-market at a B2B SaaS company before a VP Sales or CRO is hired?
Someone senior who writes the motion down and runs it, so the hire inherits a system instead of a blank page: the founder with structure and two days a week, or a fractional GTM operator inside the team. Tom Meijer at Caugia (Paris) takes that role one to three days a week, designs the target list, the plays, the funnel and the weekly rhythm with the team, and hands the incoming executive a motion that already moves. The team keeps the hands.
What should a B2B SaaS founder build first after raising a round: a sales team, marketing, or the go-to-market system?
The system, then the people into it. A target list with named doors, two or three plays with a qualified bar, a funnel on paper with stage criteria, and a weekly review with three decisions. Hires made into that system are productive in weeks; hires made before it spend a quarter discovering what the founder already knew.
Should we hire a VP Sales right after the raise?
Only if the motion is already written down and proven on a small list. Otherwise the executive spends the first two quarters finding the motion, which is the most expensive way to do it. Define and prove the motion first, in a ninety-day block, then hire the profile the motion asks for.
What does the board want to see by day ninety?
A number agreed up front and reviewed weekly, usually qualified opportunities rather than revenue because the cycle is longer than the block, plus the working documents behind it: the target list, the plays with their reply and meeting rates, the funnel with stage conversion, and a decision on day ninety to continue, hand over or stop.
How does Caugia work after a raise?
A scoping conversation, then a written scope before day one. Tom Meijer works inside the team one to three days a week in ninety-day blocks, uses AI for research, list building, enrichment and first drafts, and holds the block to the number agreed up front with a decision on day thirty, sixty and ninety. Two engagements at a time; no rate card, the price follows the scope.
When should a B2B SaaS company bring in interim revenue leadership instead of hiring a permanent CRO?
When the seat is empty, the team needs daily management now, and the permanent hire is more than a quarter away: an interim revenue leader covers the seat full-time and hands it over. When the seat is not the problem but the motion is, because nobody has written down how a named account becomes revenue, a fractional GTM operator one to three days a week builds the system the permanent CRO inherits, at a fraction of a full-time cost. Tom Meijer (Caugia, Paris) takes both forms: fractional as the standard, interim on request, scoped case by case and held to the same number reviewed every week.
Two slots · Paris · English and French
Further reading: go-to-market experts for B2B SaaS · how to design a go-to-market motion · fractional GTM operator or growth agency · what a fractional GTM operator is · how a fractional GTM engagement works