Building a Sales Org From Scratch During COVID | Kaylin McNamara (Sr. Director, GTM at Owl Labs)

In this episode, I sit down with Kaylin McNamara, Sr. Director of GTM Operations at Owl Labs, to break down what it really takes to build and scale a sales org from scratch, especially when the market is changing fast.Kaylin walks through how Owl Labs went from an e-comm led motion to a true sales org during COVID, what she prioritized first (data + process before “playbooks”), how they segmented direct vs channel vs SMB, and the leadership principles that helped her earn trust and keep teams aligned through constant change.TOPICS WE COVERWhat Kaylin did in the first 60 days to stand up sales from scratchWhy you can’t build a “playbook” until the data foundation existsHow Owl Labs split direct sales vs channel to avoid self-competitionThe “Swiss Army knife” seller profile for fast, high-volume cyclesHow they handled SMB (BDRs running full-cycle under 200 employees)The hardest part of scaling: change moving faster than documentationHow to earn promotions without politics: reputation + cross-functional trustKaylin’s leadership rule: lead with the why + set clear expectationsHow to raise concerns without killing morale (bring solutions)ABOUT THE GUEST Kaylin McNamara is the Senior Director of GTM Operations at Owl Labs, a Boston-based hardware technology company building video conferencing tools for hybrid work. She joined during the early days of Owl’s growth and helped build and scale the go-to-market motion across direct sales, channel partnerships, and international expansion.Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carter-armendarez/ Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.techsaleswithcarter.com/newsletter/ Learn more about Owl Labs: https://owllabs.com/