Siva Rajamani has seen 300+ enterprise sales comp plans. Most are too complex, reward the wrong behavior, or both. He breaks down the hidden math that makes reps avoid your best deals, quota-to-OTE ratios that work, and why your top performers should out-earn almost everyone.
Jason Lemkin breaks down a pattern he sees across SaaS startups: the number one rep, already earning top 1% money, quits...
Market IntelBig Tech buys your rival. Your AE panics. The prospect goes quiet. Except the data says something different: acquirers v...
Melbourne longevity startup Everlab closed a $65M Series A led by Airtree. The three-year-old company, which raised $15M seed in July 2025, is hiring for UK market entry and scaling its clinical and tech teams. Worth noting: they are selling preventive health diagnostics direct-to-consumer and through corporate wellness programmes, including BCG, BHP and Bain.
Queensland fintech Flyweel closed $2.41M pre-seed led by Ten13 to build embedded lending for ad spend. The company processed $110M in ad spend across 1,000 businesses and is launching US-first. Worth noting: this is a different entity than the digital commerce company Omnicom acquired for $835M.
SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin, a Marketo customer since 2006, built a replacement for a broken unsubscribe feature using Claude and Replit in an afternoon after weeks of escalations produced no fix. The move highlights a broader retention risk: long-tenured customers get worse support than new logos, and AI tools now make workarounds trivial.
## Flyweel raises $2.41M pre-seed, no ANZ sales hires announced Queensland fintech Flyweel closed $2.41 million in pre-seed funding led by Ten13, with backing from Antler, QIC, and fintech operators including Mollie CEO Koen Köppen, Zip cofounder Larry Diamond, and Stake cofounder Matt Leibowitz. The company embeds lending into ad spend: businesses fund campaigns upfront, repay as revenue lands. Flyweel connects ad platforms, CRM, and accounting in real time. They have managed $110 million in ad spend across nearly 1,000 businesses since launching in 2025. Founded by Reuben Scheckter (CEO, former lead gen business owner who managed $40M in ad spend) and Matteo Calo (ex-Adyen, Mollie, Semrush payments lead), Flyweel is going direct to the US market first for its financial products: Performance Capital, spend cards, and bill pay. **What we do not know:** Team size, sales headcount, comp structure, or hiring plans. The funding announcement mentions US customer traction but no details on ANZ expansion or local sales roles. **Context for sales teams:** Fintech pre-seed rounds in ANZ typically fund 2 to 5 early hires, often including a founding AE or head of growth. US-first GTM usually means remote roles or NYC-based positions for enterprise fintech sales, with OTE ranging $140k to $180k for early AEs at this stage. Entry-level SDR roles at similar companies typically sit at $60k to $75k base, $90k to $110k OTE. Flyweel is solving cash flow timing for ad spend, positioning ads as capital investments rather than expense lines. That matters as AI accelerates in-house ad scaling and new platforms (ChatGPT is piloting ads in Australia) multiply spend channels. Worth noting: The company name is Flyweel, not Flywheel Digital (the Baltimore-based commerce company acquired by Omnicom for $835M in 2023). Different businesses, different markets. **For sales professionals:** No hiring announcements yet. If they scale, expect US-focused roles first, likely remote or NYC-based given the market focus.
## The Pattern Jason Lemkin from SaaStr has tracked this across portfolio companies: the number one or two rep quits despite top 1% to 5% earnings, respect, and a dialled-in motion. They often move to roles where they will earn less, start over, and face unclear upsides. The common thread is not pay or culture. It is change. ## Why Top Performers Leave Lemkin identifies three primary triggers: **New VP of Sales arrives.** The top rep loses their shelter. Even if treated well, the dynamic shifts. A mediocre VP accelerates the exit. A great VP knows how to manage this transition, but hire wrong and you lose your best producer. **VP of Sales departs.** Anxiety spikes. The top rep was often protected by that leader. When that shield disappears, so does their confidence in the environment. **Comp looks harder to achieve.** Lemkin cites a rep at a $20m ARR startup who made $800k, then quit for a public company role as one of hundreds. Reason: next year looked harder. This is the number one driver. Top performers can read the territory. When the path to quota gets steeper, they leave before the pain starts. ## What Actually Works Lemkin's advice for retaining top AEs during change: **Align the new VP and top rep from day one.** The VP may not know the product or motion as well as their new report. Manage that dynamic. **Involve top AEs in VP hiring.** Shows respect. Lets them vet who they will work for. **Give them space.** Spending more time with your top rep during transitions does not help. Let them work. **Do not ask them to do more than sell.** Top individual contributors often resist team lead roles, SDR mentoring, or strategy work. Forcing it breeds resentment. Let them be elite closers, nothing more. **Leave the door open.** Tell them they can return. Many realise 12 months later they left a perfect environment. Make sure they know the desk is waiting. **Hire a VP who retains top performers.** Mediocre VPs keep low performers. Great VPs make sure top AEs stay when they join. ## ANZ Context This pattern hits ANZ startups particularly hard. Brand strength is still building, leadership benches are thin, and comp plan volatility is higher during growth phases. When a Sydney or Melbourne scaleup hires a new CRO or adjusts territory, top reps read the signals fast. SaaStr's community includes executives from emerging ANZ SaaS firms. The Q&A format delivers real-time retention advice for sales leaders managing volatile environments with limited brand power. ## The Core Insight Change is constant in startups. Top reps know the current environment made them successful. Any shift, even neutral or positive, introduces risk to their $600k run rate. They leave not because the new situation is objectively worse, but because the old one was objectively perfect for them. Comp transparency matters here too. If your top rep is making $600k and you cannot articulate how they hit that again next year, they are already interviewing.
**Siva Rajamani, CEO of Everstage, sees 300+ enterprise sales comp plans every year. He says 90% make the same mistake: they reward one thing in the slide deck and punish it in the spreadsheet.** The pattern is consistent. Companies start with a simple plan. Then they patch in exceptions until the comp structure has ten parameters and optimizes for nothing. "If explaining your plan takes longer than 60 seconds, it's broken," Rajamani said. "If your comp plan needs an FAQ, it's not a plan, it's a tax code." ## The hidden math problem Here is the trap: a company adds an accelerator for multi-year deals. Sounds smart. But the discount reps must give to land those contracts outweighs the accelerator. So reps rationally avoid multi-year deals, the exact behavior the company wanted to encourage. "Your comp plan is the real instruction manual, not your 1-on-1s," Rajamani said. "If reps aren't doing what you want, don't question the rep. Audit the plan." ## What actually works Everstage, a sales performance management platform that has raised roughly $45M, runs its own comp plan on three levers: overall quota, a multi-year accelerator, and one-time revenue. That is it. The benchmarks Rajamani recommends: - **Base-to-variable split:** 50/50 for most roles - **Quota-to-OTE ratio:** 4x to 5x (for every dollar of OTE, rep should deliver $4-5 in quota) - **Visibility:** Reps need to see potential earnings before they act. "What do I make if I close this?" is what drives behavior. The company serves hypergrowth and enterprise clients, automating commissions, quota planning, and incentive execution. Rajamani previously scaled RevOps at Freshworks from 1 to 25 people before starting Everstage in 2020. ## AI is widening the gap The performance gap between top and average reps is accelerating, especially as top performers use AI to scale their leverage. Rajamani sees the $1M+ sales rep coming, and he argues it is better on margins: paying big commissions to a few A-players beats hiring a stack of mid-level reps, because you carry far fewer base salaries for the same revenue. "Optimize for your top reps' earning potential," he said. "Counterintuitively, it's cheaper." ## The simplicity test If your comp plan requires a 20-page deck and a RevOps analyst to interpret it, you have already lost. The best plans are simple enough that reps know exactly what they will earn for the deal they are about to close. Everything else is friction. Everstage competes in the sales performance management space alongside Xactly, CaptivateIQ, Spiff, and Performio. The company operates out of Delaware, with presence in New York and Chennai, and employs roughly 350 people with estimated annual revenue around $75M. **Worth noting:** If your reps are avoiding the deals you want them to close, the comp plan is the first place to look. Not the CRM. Not the sales deck. The comp plan.
## Everlab raises $65m Series A, Airtree leads Melbourne healthtech expansion Melbourne healthtech startup Everlab has closed a $65 million Series A led by Airtree Ventures, with participation from Plural, Left Lane Capital, b2venture, and Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins. The round comes less than a year after the company raised $15 million in seed funding. Founded in 2023, Everlab runs an AI-driven preventative care platform that consolidates diagnostics, specialist referrals, prescriptions, and wearable data into a single system. The company is positioning itself as consumer-facing longevity infrastructure rather than a traditional clinic operator. Multiple sources report the company has tens of thousands of users on its waitlist. ### What this means for sales teams Rapid funding velocity usually means accelerated headcount growth. Everlab's Series A will fund international expansion, clinic network development, and team scaling. That typically translates to roles across clinical operations, tech, and go-to-market: account executives for B2B partnerships (pathology labs, corporate wellness), SDRs for enterprise outreach, and account managers for provider relationships. Healthtech sales in ANZ has seen consistent hiring over the past 18 months, particularly in platforms that sit between clinical and consumer. Companies in this category (preventative diagnostics, care navigation, longevity) tend to hire AEs with healthcare or SaaS experience, often at OTEs between $140k and $180k depending on segment and deal size. The broader context: healthcare sales roles at funded startups in ANZ have shifted toward platforms that aggregate fragmented systems (exactly what Everlab is building). If you are an AE or AM with experience selling into pathology, diagnostics, or corporate health, this is the category to watch. Series A companies in this space typically hire 4 to 8 go-to-market roles within six months of a close. Worth noting: Everlab has not publicly disclosed revenue, sales leadership, or specific headcount. That information typically surfaces within 60 to 90 days of a funding announcement as hiring ramps.
**Everlab closed a $65 million Series A** led by Airtree Ventures, with Plural, b2venture, and Left Lane Capital participating. Australian test captain Pat Cummins joined as an angel investor. The Melbourne startup sells AI-powered preventive health assessments direct to consumers and through corporate programs. Individual tests range from $299 for basic health checks to $3,499 for MRI body scans. Packaged assessments run $900 to $2,700. **Corporate customers include BCG, BHP, and Bain & Company.** The company has processed 20,000 clients across Australia and New Zealand since launching publicly in January 2024. More than 25% of clients had previously undetected health issues identified during testing. Founded in 2023 by Marc Hermann, Dr. Steven Lu, Sam Kothari, and Anshul Jain, Everlab previously raised $3 million pre-seed and $15 million seed. Total funding now sits at $83 million across three rounds in under two years. **The Series A will fund UK expansion and clinical infrastructure.** The company integrates with 1,850+ health provider locations and 180+ clinicians, processing 200,000+ health reports monthly. Worth noting: public sources do not disclose sales team size, sales leadership, or revenue figures. The go-to-market appears to be direct-to-consumer subscriptions plus enterprise health programs, competing in the preventive care segment alongside Superpower and Compound. CEO Marc Hermann previously co-founded Foodspring, acquired by Mars in 2019. The company describes a subscription model with annual memberships plus individual tests, with a waitlist previously reported in the tens of thousands. **What this means for sales:** If Everlab is hiring for its UK expansion, expect enterprise account roles selling into corporate health programs, plus potential inside sales for direct-to-consumer. The $65M raise suggests significant headcount growth ahead, but no hiring announcements yet.
Victoria is legislating a two-day-per-week work-from-home entitlement for regular casuals and part-time employees, effective September 1, 2026. The bill hits state parliament this week. ## Who it covers Regular casuals qualify if they have worked systematically for 12 months with reasonable expectation of ongoing work. Part-time staff with similar tenure also qualify. Pro-rata guidance drops before September. This expands on existing flexible work rights, which required specific eligibility criteria like pregnancy, disability, or caregiving. The new law removes those barriers and makes WFH a baseline entitlement, not a request. ## How it works Employers can only refuse after consulting the employee, attempting agreement, and demonstrating reasonable business grounds. They must also consult on work-from-home safety issues: hazard identification, risk controls, the full WHS checklist. Small businesses get until mid-2027 to update HR policies and compliance processes. No exemptions for company size after that deadline. ## What it means for sales teams If you run an SDR floor or manage field AEs in Victoria, this changes workforce planning. Territory coverage, team collaboration, onboarding logistics: all need rethinking if half your team can work remotely two days a week. For recruiting: candidates now have a legal baseline. "Flexible work available" is no longer a perk you offer. It is a right they can enforce. Comp discussions should account for this shift in expectations. Retention angle: staff with caregiving responsibilities or long commutes now have statutory backing. That could reduce churn, but only if you build remote work into your culture rather than treating it as compliance theatre. ## Implementation reality Victoria embedded this in the Equal Opportunity Act to avoid constitutional challenges with federal workplace law. Whether that holds up in court remains to be seen. The government acknowledges legal questions but believes this is the lowest-risk path. No other ANZ jurisdiction has gone this hard on legislated remote work. Victoria is testing whether mandating flexibility works better than leaving it to employer discretion. Bottom line: update your remote work policies, prep your WHS documentation, and factor this into 2026 headcount planning. The law lands in 15 months.
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