90% of Startups Fail: What $100m Sales Teams Do Differently with Ethan Schechter

Episode notes

Leadership in high-growth environments comes with moments of pressure, complexity, and rapid change. For go-to-market executives, your approach in those moments sets the tone for the entire team. In this episode of Built Not Born , Ethan Schechter shares how he keeps teams laughing through the lows, turns competition and collaboration into motivation, and helps build startups that endure when many don’t. Sage Nye interviews Ethan Schechter, a go-to-market leader and SVP of Global Sales & Customer Success at Qodo, to discuss what it really takes to build high-performing sales teams from the ground up. Ethan shares how to balance structure with creativity, foster accountability, and turn failure into growth. From his “Passion, Mastery, Accountability” hiring framework to practical insights on cross-functional selling and customer success alignment, this conversation offers a blueprint for scaling revenue engines that endure the chaos of startup growth.