Why You Should Join Cursor Over OpenAI and Anthropic & How To Avoid Bad Sales Hires W/ Tomer Chernia, VP of GTM @ Cursor
Vibescaling Podcast
Compensation design: commissions vs salary
Tomer explains why Cursor pays commissions to attract top sellers and the tradeoffs with no-commission models.
Tomer Chernia is the VP of GTM at Cursor, one of the fastest-growing companies in tech - reportedly going from 0 to $500M+ ARR faster than almost any company in history.
Before Cursor, Tomer spent three years at Vercel where he helped build out the go-to-market motion and developed their GTM efficiency framework. Prior to that, he was at Branch and Segment as early GTM hires.
Tomer got his start in tech at Yahoo, then joined Wildfire pre-acquisition by Google - where he caught the startup bug. He even tried his hand at founding a company before going back to sales.
He's a serious foodie (ask him for SF restaurant recs) and recently got into natural wine.
Discussed In This Episode
• His interview process evolution: from "pitch your product" to discovery sessions + deal reviews
• The "three hows" technique for testing candidate depth until their understanding breaks
• How Cursor went from 8 GTM people to nearly 100 in six months
• Why he chose Cursor over staying at Vercel (the "would you regret it?" test)
• The Cursor vs. OpenAI/Anthropic pitch for candidates - why "born adult" matters
• Why Cursor pays commissions when others don't - the real tradeoffs
• PLG sellers vs. top-down sellers - different strengths, different failure modes
• Why sales morale matters more than most leaders admit - and how quota setting destroys it
• "Buyers are liars" - why your champion isn't always a reliable narrator
• The future of outbound: signal-based, not spray-and-pray
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro & SF Restaurant Recommendations from a Serious Foodie
(04:00) From Humanities Major to Yahoo: How Tomer Fell Into Sales by Accident
(12:00) Wildfire, Google, Founding a Company & Why He Went Back to Sales
(20:00) The Tap on the Shoulder from Cursor: "Would You Regret Saying No?"
(26:00) How to Actually Hire Great Salespeople: Discovery Sessions + Deal Reviews
(32:00) The "Three Hows" - Testing Candidate Depth Until Understanding Breaks
(38:00) Why Sales Morale Matters: Quota Setting & Rep Motivation
(44:00) Cursor's GTM Growth: From 8 People to Nearly 100 in Six Months
(50:00) Why Cursor Over OpenAI or Anthropic: The "Born Adult" Company
(56:00) The Future of Outbound & How to Stand Out as a Candidate
About The Vibescaling Podcast
The Vibescaling podcast interviews GTM leaders and investors at top AI startups and early-stage companies.
Every week, host Chris Balestras, partner @ Vibescaling (an advisory, recruiting, investing, & media firm for seed through series C AI-natives) sits down with GTM operators from the fastest-growing AI natives and SaaS companies to break down what's actually working in go-to-market today.
No fluff, no theory - just honest, tactical insights from people in the trenches building the next generation of AI breakouts.
About Vibescaling:
Vibescaling is an advisory, recruiting, investing, & media firm for seed through series C AI-natives & fast-growing SaaS startups.
Where to Find Vibescaling:
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/vibescaling/
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https://www.youtube.com/@vibescaling
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