Carlos Reina

Sales and Growth Leader at ElevenLabs and Venture Capitalist at Baobab Ventures

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

Traditional outbound sales is ineffective and 'dead' unless it is executed in a highly personalized, human-like manner, as generic outreach response rates have fallen below 0.01%.

Conventional venture capital advice, such as conquering one market at a time, is obsolete in the current AI landscape where rapid, multi-front expansion is necessary to outpace fierce competition.

A significant portion of the traditional SaaS market is over, as companies will increasingly opt to build their own custom software for core applications rather than rely on third-party vendors.

Corporate Venture Capital should be leveraged as a direct distribution channel by contractually obligating investors to generate specific amounts of revenue, with penalties for non-performance.

Internal AI agents should be treated as productive team members, with deals they close resulting in commission payouts to incentivize their development and adoption within the company.

Podcast consensus on Reina

Points of consensus

▶Carlos Reina consistently advocates for using internal AI agents to augment and automate core business functions, citing the successful deployment of an AI SDR, proposals manager, and a revenue-generating AI customer success manager at ElevenLabs.Apr 2026

▶Reina's commentary reflects a belief in an aggressive, high-growth strategy, evidenced by setting 20x sales quotas, planning to nearly double the sales team, and rejecting traditional, slower-paced market entry advice.Apr 2026

▶He emphasizes a strategic approach to fundraising and partnerships, particularly through Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) deals that are structured with explicit revenue generation commitments and penalties.Apr 2026

▶Reina views the current AI market as a rapidly consolidating space where speed is critical, predicting that incumbents will acquire emerging startups and that traditional SaaS models are becoming obsolete.Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶Reina's assertion that traditional outbound sales is 'dead' and that email response rates are below 0.01% challenges the continued practices of many B2B sales organizations that still rely on these methods.Apr 2026

▶His operating principle that every $1M in revenue adds $33M in valuation is a specific multiplier that may contrast with more variable valuation methodologies used by other investors and analysts.Apr 2026

▶Reina's belief that the traditional venture capital advice of conquering one market at a time is 'outdated and counterintuitive' stands in direct opposition to a long-held, foundational principle of startup strategy.Apr 2026

▶He argues that a large portion of the traditional SaaS market is 'over' due to companies building custom software, a view that contests the prevailing narrative of SaaS as a dominant and growing business model.Apr 2026

Key themes

▶AI-Powered Sales & OperationsApr 2026

Reina details ElevenLabs' extensive internal use of AI for core business functions, including an AI Sales Development Representative for inbound leads, an AI proposals manager for RFPs, and a revenue-generating AI customer success manager. This theme highlights a strategy of building internal tools to achieve significant productivity gains, with a stated goal of a 50% improvement for the sales team.

This demonstrates a shift from buying third-party SaaS tools to building proprietary AI systems that are deeply integrated into workflows, potentially creating a significant operational advantage and changing the cost structure of a sales organization.

▶Unconventional Go-to-Market & Growth StrategyApr 2026

Reina champions an extremely aggressive growth model, characterized by setting sales quotas at a 20x OTE ratio, far exceeding industry norms. This is coupled with a rejection of traditional VC advice to focus on a single market, instead pursuing multiple opportunities simultaneously due to the rapid pace of the AI industry.

This high-risk, high-reward approach suggests that in hyper-competitive AI markets, the cost of moving too slowly is perceived as greater than the risk of spreading resources too thin.

▶Strategic Use of Corporate Venture CapitalApr 2026

Reina outlines a novel approach to Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) where investments are contractually tied to revenue generation. CVCs like Deutsche Telekom and Toyota's Woven Capital must bring in a specified amount of revenue for ElevenLabs within a set timeframe, or face penalties, effectively turning the cap table into a committed distribution channel.

This model aligns investor and company incentives in a uniquely direct way, transforming passive capital into an active, accountable sales and distribution partnership, which could be a new paradigm for strategic investments.

▶AI Market Consolidation and DisruptionApr 2026

Reina predicts a future where the AI landscape is dominated by a few 'blue chip' incumbents (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, ElevenLabs) that will acquire emerging foundational model startups. He also believes the traditional SaaS market is partially over, as companies will increasingly build their own core applications, and that managed services have a strong moat against open-source alternatives.

Reina's perspective indicates he believes the AI market is maturing rapidly towards a power-law distribution, where platform-level players will capture most of the value through acquisition and by providing essential, managed infrastructure.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

Initial GTM Phase

Reports that ElevenLabs' initial go-to-market strategy, which targeted large media and entertainment studios, was unsuccessful, forcing a strategic pivot.

Strategic Pivot

Following the initial GTM failure, ElevenLabs successfully entered new markets, with AI agents and customer support becoming 'fantastically huge' and the fastest-growing business segments, respectively.

Internal AI Development

Describes the internal development and deployment of AI agents for sales and customer success, noting that the AI customer success manager has already closed deals and is generating revenue.

CVC Investment Strategy

Outlines the implementation of a distribution strategy involving investment from Corporate Venture Capital arms like Woven Capital, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefonica, with unique revenue-commitment clauses.

Current Year

Details plans for massive expansion, aiming to hire approximately 120 new sales staff to grow the team from 130 to under 250 people.

2026 Goal

Articulates a personal goal for 2026: for his venture fund, Baobab Ventures, to have backed three unicorns and for ElevenLabs to exceed $1 billion in revenue.

Suggested prompts

How sustainable is a 20x On-Target Earnings (OTE) sales quota, and what are the potential impacts on sales team culture, hiring, and long-term retention? &nearr;What are the legal and relational risks of structuring Corporate Venture Capital deals with strict revenue commitments and penalties for failure? &nearr;To what extent does ElevenLabs' strategy of powering its direct competitors, like Sierra, create long-term strategic vulnerabilities versus market dominance? &nearr;How does the internal development of revenue-generating AI agents (SDR, CSM) change the traditional build-vs-buy calculation for enterprise software procurement? &nearr;

Key concepts

AI Sales Agents 1 ep Sales Quotas & Compensation 1 ep Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy 1 ep Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) 1 ep AI Market Consolidation 1 ep SaaS Market Disruption 1 ep Enterprise Sales Strategy 1 ep Product-Led Growth (PLG) 1 ep Outbound Sales Efficacy 1 ep Venture Capital Strategy 1 ep

Notable quotes

“you have a 20x yes um quota which is a lot higher than anyone else um we interviewed the the head of sales at clay recently and they said there's a six to eight.”

Carlos Reina · ElevenLabs: Building an AI Sales Machine & Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota

“going one market at a time, it doesn't work. And there's like the bullshit advice that like BCs have been giving like for many years.”

Carlos Reina · ElevenLabs: Building an AI Sales Machine & Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota

“you will invest for every million dollars that you want to invest, you need to actually like bring X amount of revenues in the next 12 months or 24 months, whatever time frame you want, right? And there has to be some penalties and some consequences if that doesn't happen.”

Carlos Reina · ElevenLabs: Building an AI Sales Machine & Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota

“So you think the SaaS is over I think there is a very large portion that is over but but i think like there is a real fact that like people will end up building their own applications and i think that's that's key”

Carlos Reina · ElevenLabs: Building an AI Sales Machine & Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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