Brian McCarthy, revenue leader who scaled Rubrik to $1.5B ARR, discusses PLG-driven growth and the capacity problems it can create. He talks about re-segmenting accounts to improve buying experiences. He emphasizes building champions over features, blending bottom-up adoption with top-down value selling, and hiring high clock-speed sellers to sustain AI-era scale.
55:12
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Recruited A Successor To Prove The Machine
Brian recruited Jesse Green and intentionally built him into a successor to prove the execution machine could run without him.
McCarthy used the hire to teach comp planning, productivity models, and product prioritization so he felt safe stepping away from the CRO role.
insights INSIGHT
PLG Success Created A Capacity Crisis
Cursor's explosive PLG growth created a capacity crisis where enterprise sellers were drowning in conversion opportunities.
The company went from four go-to-market people to ~80 and sales-led revenue from $400k to nearly $300M in a year.
insights INSIGHT
Model Agnosticism Becomes A Competitive Advantage
Cursor designed an agnostic harness so customers can pick the best model for each task, trading off cost, speed, and quality.
That agnosticism lets Cursor sit above multiple models and capture massive model consumption through its platform.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
PLG can create explosive growth, but it can also mask fundamental gaps in execution, capacity, and long-term durability. As AI-native companies scale at unprecedented speed, revenue leaders face a new tension: how to convert bottom-up adoption into enterprise value without breaking the system that fueled growth. Brian McCarthy joins to unpack how Cursor is navigating this shift, why sales execution becomes the moat in a world of swappable technology, and what it takes to build a go-to-market machine that keeps pace with innovation while deepening customer trust.
Brian McCarthy is President of Global Revenue and Field Operations at Cursor and former CRO at Rubrik, where he helped scale the company from $118M to $1.5B in ARR. He is known for building high-performance revenue organizations and execution-focused cultures in complex enterprise environments.
03:30 – Why great leaders know when to step away, and how building a successor is the true test of an execution machine
09:50 – What to look for in a once-in-a-career opportunity, and why timing matters more than brand or hype
17:03 – How PLG success created a capacity crisis, and why too much demand can degrade customer experience
29:29 – The decision to radically reduce account load, and how focus enables better selling and better buying experiences
32:16 – Why champions, not features, drive revenue, and how to intentionally build them across the organization
38:19 – The required balance between bottom-up adoption and top-down value selling in technical markets
41:31 – Why “clock speed” is the defining trait of modern sellers, and how enablement must fuel continuous learning
49:09 – The shift from tools to AI factories, and what it means for the future of software development and selling
52:01 – Why culture, trust, and human relationships remain the durable moat in a world of rapidly changing technology
Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.
This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.
Revenue Builders