A CRO who helped scale a company from its first dollar of revenue to a $500M+ acquisition joins Verticals for a practical conversation on sales, scale, and vertical AI.

In this episode, Luke Sophinos and Nic Poulos sit down with Martin Roth, former CRO of Levelset, where he built and scaled the sales organisation from day one through their acquisition by Procore.

We go deep on what actually changes as sales teams scale, the mistakes founders make as revenue grows, and how vertical AI is starting to reshape sales roles earlier than most teams expect.

This is an operator-level conversation grounded in lived experience, not theory.

We cover:

• What really changes when sales moves from early traction to scale

• Common mistakes founders make as revenue grows

• How sales roles and structure evolve over time

• Where vertical AI is genuinely changing sales workflows

• Where AI is overhyped, and what still requires humans

• Why incentives and structure matter more than tools

• What breaks first when growth accelerates

• How to think about scaling sales before problems appear

If you’re building or leading sales in vertical SaaS or vertical AI, this episode offers practical insight from someone who’s seen the full journey, from zero to exit.

New episodes drop every Wednesday.

00:00 – Intro: Verticals, sales, and vertical AI 01:20 – Introducing Martin Roth (CRO, Levelset → Procore acquisition) 04:00 – Joining at $0 revenue: what the early days really look like 07:30 – Early sales hires: what matters and what doesn’t 11:00 – When sales starts to break — and why it’s normal 15:00 – Scaling structure vs scaling headcount 18:30 – Founder-led sales vs professional sales leadership 22:30 – Incentives, quotas, and misaligned behaviour 26:30 – What changes as revenue grows from millions to scale 30:30 – Vertical AI enters sales: what’s actually useful today 34:30 – Where AI is overhyped in sales organisations 38:30 – Humans vs automation: what doesn’t get replaced 42:00 – Retention, expansion, and durable revenue 46:30 – Common mistakes founders make too late 50:30 – How to think about sales design before scaling 54:30 – Lessons from seeing the full arc, end to end 58:30 – Closing thoughts: building sales systems that last