From Inception to Acquisition: Natasha Ratanshi-Stein on scaling Surfboard, stage-fit hiring and the importance of founder-led sales

Natasha Ratanshi-Stein has seen startups from almost every angle, as a VC, Operator, and Founder. After scaling customer service operations at Bulb, she saw firsthand how broken legacy workforce management tooling really was.  That pain became Surfboard, and in today’s Making The Grade episode, Natasha is refreshingly honest about what founders underestimate in the £1 to £10M ARR journey, and her own journey from inception to an acquisition by Dialpad, which was all sparked by an SDR’s mis-targeted outbound message.   📚 Episode Chapters:  02:00 - Building Surfboard from idea to acquisition14:40 - Lessons from selling before a finished product 30:15 - Transitioning out of being a Founder 38:00 - Hiring the right Sales Leaders for growth   44:15 - Navigating funding challenges  🎧 Continue listening…  Make sure you listen to Ego, Cash & GTM Discipline: Paul Fifield’s unfiltered lessons from building scalable businesses  Enjoyed today's episode of Making The Grade? If you took something valuable from the episode, we'd love for you to... ✔️ Leave us a rating and review on your favourite podcast platform. ✔️ Share your ideas or guest suggestions with us at [email protected]✔️ Stay in the loop with the latest from Making The Grade and ScaleWise by following us on LinkedIn or YouTube. See you again next week!