A VP of Sales owns the sales team and revenue number. A CRO owns all of revenue: sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps, aligned under one number. Most Series A companies need a VP of Sales. A CRO makes sense at Series B or later, when multiple GTM functions need to be unified.
See the comp differenceThis 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.
Owns the revenue number. Builds, manages, and coaches the sales team, sets quotas, runs the hiring process for AEs and SDRs, and is accountable for hitting the bookings target. 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.
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, 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.
Hire a VP Sales first. As Pavilion (formerly Revenue Collective) advises its member CROs, the CRO role only works when there are multiple GTM functions to unify. 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.
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 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.
| Role | Base | OTE | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|
| VP Sales | $160K–$190K | $280K–$360K | 0.25%–0.75% |
| CRO | $200K–$240K | $360K–$480K | 0.5%–1.5% |
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.
The test: if you cannot clearly articulate what the CRO will own that the VP Sales will not, you do not need a CRO yet. Hire the VP Sales first.
Book a free 15-minute call. We have helped dozens of Series A and B startups across New York, San Francisco, and Austin make this exact decision.
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