Carles Reina on ElevenLabs Sales, Compensation and Global Growth

ElevenLabs sales leader and early investor Carles Reina joins Harry Stebbings to discuss enterprise sales, compensation, international expansion, partnerships and investing. Company performance figures and product claims are his or the host’s statements; they are not independently audited in the interview.

Reina says a sales leader must think beyond closing individual deals to the whole distribution strategy, including partnerships and new channels. He believes AI can help a smaller team do more, but argues that strategy still needs to be paired with execution. This is his view of the role, not a universal job definition.

He says many AI outbound tools he has tried treat prospects as transactions and send generic messages without understanding their preferences. He cites a very low response-rate figure without a source or methodology. His criticism is based on his experience and does not establish performance for every vendor or campaign.

Reina says ElevenLabs built tools for inbound inquiries, requests for proposals and customer-success drafts. In his description, a human reviews and can edit proposed emails before sending, and the company uses outcomes to improve future drafts. His claims that the system has helped close deals are not accompanied by measured results.

He wants a 50% productivity improvement and says that could allow him to hire fewer people than otherwise planned while paying a concentrated team well. This is a management goal and forecast, not a reported 50% improvement or proof of an industry-wide employment effect.

Stebbings asks about a quota described as 20 times compensation. Reina says two employees had reached their annual quota by February and favors demanding but fair targets. He says a quota that proves too high should be adjusted or compensation reconsidered. The attainment example is his account, not team-wide data.

Reina says he welcomes large commission payments when a representative creates value. He asserts that each additional $1 million in revenue adds $33 million in valuation, using a valuation multiple as a heuristic. That is not a guaranteed or realized increase in enterprise value, and the conversation does not establish the calculation’s conditions.

He describes a base commission of 5% on sales, with accelerators above quota and extra incentives for longer contracts or selected products. He warns that too many incentives can cause a team to push the wrong thing. Specific terms can change, and the interview does not disclose every condition of the plan.

Reina says ElevenLabs does not pay commission on pilots but pays once an annual or two-year agreement is signed. He says representatives can earn commissions on expansion for the first 12 months, or two years for designated strategic accounts. These are his description of company policy at the recording, not a template for every business.

Reina values new-business “hunters” but says they need coordination with customer success. He gives a hypothetical holding company where inconsistent pricing across subsidiaries can complicate renewal. His point is to align account strategy rather than treat every subsidiary as an isolated transaction.

He argues customer success should support expansion and revenue as well as customer satisfaction. He says some services can be charged for, but a purely transactional relationship may not always build long-term trust. His claim that competitors can be built in days is a broad opinion, not a demonstrated rule.

Reina challenges the traditional advice to enter one market at a time. He believes companies can test several markets and channels in parallel if they have a reasoned thesis for each. Stebbings questions whether that requires product-led distribution; Reina argues experienced sellers can also bring relationships and expertise.

Reina says candidates with decades of sales experience can help open a sector if they remain motivated and understand the product. He rejects dismissing them solely because of age or prior experience. His examples of faster access to senior buyers are a hiring hypothesis, not a guarantee of shorter cycles.

Stebbings challenges whether a 20-times quota implies the product is easy to sell. Reina says he believes his team is unusually capable and cites its willingness to challenge him. That four-times comparison is his opinion about colleagues, not a measured productivity comparison.

Reina compares go-to-market experimentation with portfolio construction. He recommends testing products, channels, partners and markets while recording why each bet should work. He corrects the idea of entering every market indiscriminately: the goal is to revisit assumptions when conditions change.

He says a first push into large media and entertainment studios did not grow as quickly as hoped, so the company shifted toward media-creation platforms. He describes a later bet on agent products as successful for ElevenLabs. These are his company’s experiences and commercial claims, not independent market-share data.

Reina, who is also an investor, says not every worthwhile startup grows at the same speed. He describes new ElevenLabs bets that had not yet generated meaningful revenue and says a sales leader should think about next year’s opportunities as well as this quarter. His optimism about future growth is not a forecast guarantee.

Asked whether ElevenLabs will reach $1 billion in revenue by year-end, Reina says he would like to but does not know whether it will happen. He describes forecasting as difficult when many channels and products are experimental. The target is an aspiration, not an achieved result.

He recounts an airline executive receiving many pitches for customer-support automation. Reina says ElevenLabs also sells in that area but wants to experiment with helping enterprises develop new revenue-generating agent products. He acknowledges the proposed “labs” model still has to be proven and scaled.

Asked about crowded customer-support investing, Reina says he would not personally invest in the category but says ElevenLabs sells to it. He claims the company both offers agents and supplies a model layer to competitors. These statements reflect his investment and employment interests; the interview does not verify each commercial relationship or customer return.

Reina says he told partners in advance that ElevenLabs planned to launch an agents product that could compete with them. He believes a company can be both a supplier and competitor if it is transparent. His account of the conversations is not independent evidence of how every partner views the arrangement.

Stebbings asks whether customers will substitute cheaper voice models. Reina says he once thought open models might commoditize the category but now believes operational integration, scale and maintenance still create value for a managed provider. His assessment favors his employer and does not establish that open models are unsuitable for all organizations.

Reina describes segmenting the India sales team by industry too early. He says the team was too small, some sales cycles were long and momentum suffered for a quarter. His diagnosis and the reported impact are his retrospective account, not independently verified financial data.

He uses “pipeline construction” to balance large opportunities with nearer-term deals that keep representatives engaged. He looks at the number of companies, potential contract sizes and sales cycles in a market rather than applying one quota mechanically. His examples are illustrative rather than actual market forecasts.

Reina calls government an experiment with long sales cycles and says he is willing to invest in it for strategic and public-service reasons. He believes a successful government relationship can be sticky. That is his rationale and forecast, not evidence that a specific deployment improves public services.

After the India experiment, Reina says the company returned to a broader sales approach and negotiated named-account lists. He reports that deals began closing again after the reset. The story illustrates his willingness to reverse a decision; the interview does not establish that the reorganization alone caused the change.

Reina believes brand recognition can shorten enterprise sales cycles and cites several AI companies he thinks have strong brands. That is his experience and opinion, not a controlled causal comparison. Stebbings notes that discussion on social media may differ from adoption in large organizations.

Reina says most new sellers work out and describes being explicit about high expectations and long hours before an offer. He reports a sales team of roughly 130 and plans to add about 120 while keeping it under 250. These are approximate figures and plans at the time, not current verified headcount.

He identifies cultural dilution and onboarding as risks of rapid hiring. The company posts a weekly leaderboard with quota attainment and forecasts, he says, but he also looks at pipeline and strategic account work. Stebbings raises the risk of public comparison demoralizing someone at the bottom.

Reina believes many salespeople want direct feedback and describes a short interview designed to reveal motivation and preparation. His generalizations about sales personalities and his claim that 20 minutes is enough for him are personal hiring judgments, not validated predictions of any candidate’s performance.

He prefers not to record interviews because he thinks recording may change how candidates behave, while saying sales calls are recorded and feed the CRM. The distinction is his practice; the conversation does not detail consent or data handling for every situation.

Reina predicts organizations will build some customized applications but continue to buy others. He says ElevenLabs uses Salesforce and has not built its own CRM, even though he can imagine doing so. His assessment of SaaS disruption is a forecast, not proof that a given system can be replaced cheaply or safely.

He says he prefers small tests to large unproven budget commitments. If a team can demonstrate results with an initial experiment, he says, the company can scale it. His statement that budget has not been a constraint is his management view and does not establish unlimited resources.

Asked about a Formula One sponsorship, Reina says ElevenLabs compared teams against a budget and chose Audi after negotiations. He does not disclose the price. He describes the selection as a brand and creative bet, not a measured return, and cites his personal interest in the sport.

Reina says executive dinners have produced strong returns for his enterprise work, while conferences have often been less effective. He gives approximate dinner costs and says results vary by city. These are his experience and estimates; no attribution model or comparative data is provided.

For events, Reina recommends inviting relevant customers, designing useful content and giving partners a voice rather than making every session a sales pitch. He describes ElevenLabs’ London summit as a way to share product vision and highlight companies using the platform. He says the company considers both influenced and directly closed revenue.

Reina describes corporate venture investors as possible internal champions and says ElevenLabs has worked with investors connected to telecom and automotive groups. He says some investment allocations were linked to commercial commitments, with potential buyouts if commitments were not met. This is his account of deal design, not a disclosure of every contract.

He cautions that partner ecosystems take time and dedicated people to train, support and incentivize. He suggests initially tracking qualified opportunities before shifting attention toward revenue. His timing examples are heuristics; the results depend on the partner, product and commercial agreement.

Asked when a product-led customer merits sales attention, Reina suggests about $1,000 in monthly spending as one point where a business may want more support. He says the sales motion must be efficient. The figure is his rule of thumb, not a universal acquisition-cost or profitability threshold.

For a new market, Reina says his team first tries to close enterprise deals centrally before hiring locally. He treats initial revenue as evidence to investigate further, not as proof of scalable product-market fit. He recounts India as a market that looked difficult until he learned more about it.

Reina says he underestimated the need for local languages and contract terms when expanding internationally. He describes visiting Japan, then hiring a local team, and gives France as another example where local requirements matter. The population percentages he mentions are unsupported in the conversation.

He says the South Korea strategy reflected its international content industry: local sales may require Korean while customers produce for other languages. This is his company’s market thesis, not a comprehensive description of Korean creators or a verified revenue breakdown.

Asked whether AI contributes to a decline in Hollywood, Reina predicts established studios can adapt and use technology to test ideas at lower cost. He proposes scaling content after it finds an audience. As an ElevenLabs executive and investor, he has an interest in adoption; his claims about costs and outcomes are forecasts.

Stebbings notes that he and Reina have invested together, then asks whether operators should also invest. Reina says the combination can help founders, while Stebbings questions whether it diverts attention from an operator’s employer. Reina believes he can serve both responsibilities, but that is his view; conflicts and time commitments depend on the arrangements.

Reina describes negotiations with limited partners and says he is accountable for the fund’s results. He mentions a desired 10-times return and a goal of backing seven unicorns. These are aspirations and private fund discussions, not reported realized returns or guarantees to investors.

His advice to prospective operator-investors is to be useful beyond writing a check. He describes helping portfolio companies with sales hiring, introductions and feedback on pitches. He acknowledges that different investors use different check sizes and that conviction can sometimes be misplaced.

Reina says one investing mistake was backing founders without sufficiently understanding their appetite for go-to-market work. He prefers asking how they plan to reach customers, while acknowledging that some companies need more time to develop. His preferences reflect his sales background, not a requirement for every founder.

He names ElevenLabs and another portfolio company when asked where he would concentrate capital, and says he committed to ElevenLabs after a short meeting. These are self-interested personal preferences, not independent investment analysis. He says he remains open to slower-growing companies and repeat founders.

In the quick-fire round, Reina says time is his hardest constraint: work for ElevenLabs and his fund competes with time for his partner and friends. He describes gardening as a way to reset. These are personal choices and experiences, not a work-life prescription.

He praises ElevenLabs CEO Mati for listening, making decisions and changing course when necessary. Reina values experimentation on less consequential issues while concentrating attention on a small number of important decisions. This is an employee and investor’s assessment of the CEO, not an independent evaluation.

Reina predicts a new wave of foundation-model companies and possible acquisitions by larger labs. Asked to choose between hypothetical valuations, he favors Anthropic and says he uses Claude frequently. His views are speculative, not verified deal plans or personalized investment advice.