At Satellite, we are invested in your long-term professional development. We’re not here to help you simply land a job — we want to see you launch a rewarding career.
Our awesome network of hiring partners helps make that possible. We only partner with carefully vetted, high-growth tech companies who will provide outstanding support to Satellite alums. These partners have everything to gain from hiring you, because they value the same skills and strengths as we do.
That includes partners like Firstbase, a startup that helps remote companies create exceptional workplaces for their employees, providing the technical systems and infrastructure required for successful work.
Satellite alum Christina Parker became the first of our graduates to land a job placement when she joined the Firstbase team as a sales development rep. And only several months in, she’s already crushing her quotas.
Firstbase’s Vice President of Sales, Adam Long generously took time to chat with Satellite about the future of remote work, what he looks for in an SDR candidate, and the flexibility of core sales skills.
COVID may have turned remote work into a necessity, but the collective workplace experience had been changing long before 2020. 62% of employed Americans engaged in some degree of remote work in 2019. The flexibility to work virtually has become an increasingly important factor when considering a job offer — for many people it’s just as important as a salary.
Many employees on virtual teams find that remote work directly impacts their ability to maintain better work-life balance. As Adam remarked during our interview, remote work gives you back the hour (or two, or three) that you would otherwise spend commuting to and from the office every day — a valuable window of time that you are free to use for just about anything you want: exercise, reading, enjoying a meal with your family.
“The way we think about it at Firstbase, remote work isn’t the future of work so much as it’s the future of living,” he shared.
This added flexibility has the potential to create a more level playing field and — as we also strive to do at Satellite — democratize access to opportunity.
“Remote work creates an opportunity for individuals who have historically been underrepresented in the workplace,” Adam noted. “For example, a traditional workplace poses many obstacles for single parents, who have to pick up their kids from school every day and juggle more responsibilities at home. The added flexibility of remote jobs allows for underrepresented groups to pursue a wider range of opportunities.”
Still, for all the possibilities of virtual work, it’s often a big undertaking for a remote company to get off the ground and deliver an exceptional experience to their employees, as the founders of Firstbase know quite well.
Like many people, Firstbase founders Chris Herd and Trey Bastian found themselves longing to spend more time with loved ones — and to actually get to see their children grow up. They also realized the potential business opportunity of being able to draw on a pool of candidates outside of a 30-mile radius. So, when they launched a fintech company several years back, they decided to go fully remote. This turned out easier said than done.
Almost immediately, Chris and Trey encountered all of the challenges that Firstbase now helps solve. They discovered how expensive and time-consuming it is to provide all of your employees with the tools and equipment they need to do their best work. And without that infrastructure in place, it’s difficult to retain top talent.
Firstbase was born of the duo’s desire to provide an ideal work experience for their team. The company officially launched in September of 2019 — just before COVID accelerated the pace of an already underway transition to remote work.
Since this spring, Adam has observed a trend of companies seeing remote work as the way forward rather than a short-term solution.
“For many companies, being remote is no longer a pandemic-related necessity,” he said. “It’s something that they’ve realized they need a long-term strategy for.”
While there’s no shortage of uncertainty about the future, including how current events will continue to influence the workplace, Firstbase will undoubtedly be able to play a part in it.
At a fast-growing startup like Firstbase, time is a precious commodity. Of course, time is also what’s required to onboard an SDR.
“If people come into an entry-level role without any experience in sales, they’ll need a lot of hands-on management just to understand the basics,” Adam said.
By hiring Satellite alums, who have a demonstrated proficiency in sales development and remote work, companies like Firstbase can save countless hours that would otherwise be spent on training.
Satellite’s curriculum covers key sales skills like prospecting and cold calling — a foundation that has served Christina very well at Firstbase, according to Adam.
“Christina is smart, she works hard, and her results have been fantastic,” he said. “She came to Firstbase with a solid understanding of prospecting, so when I discussed previous prospecting attempts and what hadn’t worked, she was able to take those insights and apply it to her own work.”
While core sales skills are integral to success as an SDR, hiring partners like Adam also value problem-solving skills and grit — two of the main qualities Satellite looks for during the application process.
“We’re a startup, so it’s a different working environment than that of an established company. The lines between roles are blurry, and we need people in every role — including SDR roles — who are scrappy, who have grit, and who can overcome challenges.”
And for those ready to rise to the challenge, an SDR role is only the beginning.
“If you choose a company that’s growing quickly, new roles are being created all the time. If you’re executing well, you have huge opportunities ahead of you.”
At Bootcamp, we stress the flexibility of a foundation in sales: our Career Accelerator can help you cultivate a valuable, adaptable set of skills that can translate to a wide variety of professional settings. (As an example, recent grad Dillon Brown took an account management position as his first post-Satellite move.)
That flexibility is something Adam most appreciates about sales.
“There’s a good chance your longer-term career goals involve sales,” he said. “Most senior roles, even those that are not explicitly sales-related, involve selling. If you’re hiring an employee, you’re selling your company to a candidate. If you start your own company, you’re selling an idea to investors. No matter what you do, some level of sales experience is an extremely valuable asset.”
Curious about sales? You’ve got nothing to lose from diving right in at Satellite’s Bootcamp, which is only six weeks and free of cost.
We’re currently accepting applications for upcoming Bootcamp cohorts. Learn how to launch your new career today.
