RevOps for Startups: What to Build First (And What to Skip)

At a startup, RevOps means doing everything with limited budget and headcount. The priority is building a data foundation that scales, choosing tools that won't need replacing in 12 months.

You've seen the job postings: "First RevOps hire at a Series A startup." Sounds exciting. It also means you're building everything from scratch with a team of one and a budget that looks generous until you price out Salesforce Enterprise.

Here's what startup RevOps actually looks like, based on patterns from 455 current job postings and real tool adoption data.

What "First RevOps Hire" Actually Means

Of the 455 RevOps postings we track, roughly 65 are explicitly "first hire" or "founding" roles. These postings share common patterns:

• Title inflation: "Head of RevOps" at a 30-person company. The title sounds senior, but the work is IC-level. You're building dashboards, not managing a team.
• Everything scope: CRM setup, lead routing, pipeline reporting, comp plan administration, and "whatever else needs doing." This is the job.
• Compensation: Entry and Mid-level startup RevOps roles pay $140K average. Not bad, but 15-20% below what a similar title pays at a Series C+. The gap is supposed to be offset by equity.

The Startup RevOps Stack (Under $500/Month)

The biggest mistake startup RevOps hires make: picking enterprise tools for a startup budget. Here's what works at the early stage:

• CRM: HubSpot Free/Starter. Salesforce is overkill under 20 reps. HubSpot gives you a functional CRM, email, and basic automation without a six-figure annual contract.
• Enrichment: Apollo or Clay. Both offer startup-friendly pricing for contact enrichment and prospecting.
• Automation: Zapier for connecting everything. At a startup, integration speed beats integration elegance.
• Analytics: Start with HubSpot's built-in reporting. Add Looker or Metabase when you outgrow it.
• Skip for now: Gong (too expensive under 10 reps), Clari (premature without 3+ quarters of pipeline data), 6sense (ABM is a Series B+ strategy).

Start with HubSpot + Apollo + Zapier. Total cost under $500/month. You can migrate to Salesforce when you have the headcount to justify the complexity.

What to Build in Your First 90 Days

Month 1: Data foundation

Clean the CRM. Define lifecycle stages. Set up basic lead routing. Build one dashboard that shows pipeline by stage, source, and owner. Everything else can wait until the data is trustworthy.

Month 2: Process

Document the sales process. Build the opportunity stages to match how deals actually move (not how the CEO wishes they moved). Set up automated alerts for stalled deals and missing fields. Create the comp plan in a spreadsheet first. Do not automate comp until the rules are stable.

Month 3: Reporting and forecasting

Build a weekly pipeline review deck. Create a basic forecast model (even if it's just weighted pipeline). Start tracking pipeline velocity. Present your first QBR to leadership with actual data instead of vibes.

Salary Expectations

Based on our salary data, startup RevOps roles by seniority:

• First hire / IC: $90K-$140K base + equity (0.05%-0.5% depending on stage)
• Director level (Series B+): $140K-$200K base + equity
• VP level (Series C+): $190K-$250K base + equity

For detailed benchmarks, use our salary calculator.

When to Upgrade

You'll know it's time to move past the starter stack when:

• You have 15+ reps and HubSpot's workflow limits are blocking you
• Your sales cycle is complex enough to need CPQ
• You're spending more time building workarounds than doing actual ops work
• The CEO asks for forecasting accuracy, not just a forecast

At that point, plan the Salesforce migration. Budget 3-6 months and $50K+ in implementation costs. Don't rush it. A bad Salesforce implementation is worse than no Salesforce at all.