CRO vs VP Sales: Which Do You Hire First at Your Startup?

This is one of the most common questions we get from Series A and B founders. Both titles sound similar but represent fundamentally different things. Getting this wrong is one of the most expensive mistakes a startup can make.

What a VP Sales actually does

A VP Sales owns the revenue number. They build, manage, and coach the sales team, set quotas, run the hiring process for AEs and SDRs, and are accountable for hitting the bookings target. They are a player-coach, still involved in deals while building the machine around them. The best VP Sales hires at early-stage startups are comfortable being hands-on and do not need a fully built team to be effective.

What a CRO actually does

A CRO owns the entire revenue function, sales, marketing, customer success, and sometimes partnerships. A true CRO is a strategic operator who aligns multiple go-to-market functions toward a single revenue target. They are typically a layer above VP Sales. Hiring a CRO before you have a functioning sales team is like hiring a general before you have soldiers.

The rule of thumb

Hire a VP Sales first. Hire a CRO when you have a VP Sales, a VP Marketing, and a VP Customer Success, and you need someone to align all three. That is typically Series B or C, not Series A. If a candidate insists on the CRO title at Series A with fewer than 20 salespeople, that is a red flag, they want the title, not the job.

When a CRO makes sense earlier

There are exceptions. If your founder is not a sales person and needs a senior operator to own the entire commercial function from day one, a CRO can work at Series A, but only if they are genuinely willing to be hands-on and build from scratch. Ask them directly: "What does your first 90 days look like before you have a team?" Their answer tells you everything.

The comp difference

The gap between these two titles is real, and it compounds quickly at the leadership level. Here is what the market looks like for each at Series A:

• VP Sales at Series A: $160K–$190K base, $280K–$360K OTE, 0.25%–0.75% equity
• CRO at Series A: $200K–$240K base, $360K–$480K OTE, 0.5%–1.5% equity

The premium for CRO is real, make sure the scope justifies it. Whether you are hiring in New York, San Francisco, Austin, Chicago, or remotely across the US, these ranges hold fairly consistently at the Series A stage. The equity delta is where most founders underestimate the long-term cost of an early CRO hire.