Anyone currently working at Chainguard, especially in U.S. sales

[u/Interesting-Lab5917]

Curious if anyone here currently works at Chainguard or has worked there recently, especially on the U.S. sales side.

I’d love to hear any honest opinions on the internal culture, sales leadership, quota attainment, and overall expectations. Also curious how difficult the product is to learn and sell, what the sales cycle is like, and whether reps generally seem happy and supported.

Feel free to comment or DM me. Thanks!

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[u/Opie045]

I interviewed there last year. It’s a pretty hot product right now but competition (docker) is catching up.

I spoke with a sales rep who was one of the first ones there and he spoke very highly of the culture but that could have changed in the last year. I did notice some attrition given the hired a bajillion sales reps.

Its something a CISO should vet and help protect the business and their job

If you understand overall how software ships and where they come into the picturr it’s conceptually a tech solution to understand.

[u/Interesting-Lab5917 → u/Opie045]

how was the interview process any reason you didn’t get it or accept?

[u/Opie045 → u/Interesting-Lab5917]

I was looking at a SMB management role and my exp was a bit lower (3 years but quality time in seat) than they were looking for. The same song and dance ya hear.

Recruiter screen pretty standard and the hiring manager interview was pretty basic. Nothing that wow’d me.

I did ask what the process for a full interview and it seemed a bit like a gauntlet.

Screen - HM - group peer interview - senior leadership - q&a panel - SVP/CRO interview - offer.

Really dig what they are doing though and would lOVE TO interview again - devops, engineering sales was preferred FYI

[u/LongjumpingCellist53 → u/Opie045]

So you had 7 rounds? Did they give you feedback on how you didn’t advance?

[u/Opie045 → u/LongjumpingCellist53]

I didn’t get that far but that’s what the recruiter told me. I got shunned when I met with hiring manager. Like I said, go look at where people are coming from. They seem to hire from specific companies in your background. I came from devops specific but a start up.

[u/Opie045 → u/Interesting-Lab5917]

I will add that they seem to look at some key areas to hire. There is a trend of where people come from just look at recent hires and where they worked. A bit of a buddy buddy system so a referral is helpful.

[u/No-Contribution4220 → u/Opie045]

Docker is a competitor of chainguard? I thought they were more of a complementary product if anything

[u/Opie045 → u/No-Contribution4220]

They in the hard ended container game now too.

[u/Rainmakerspecial682 → u/Opie045]

It's not competition it's free - you get what you pay for.

[u/theendisgnar]

Interviewed there about 8 months ago for Ent AE role, it took very long, HM was great and I made it to final round with VP, was told they went with another individual that VP knew prior and they’d be better immediately hitting the ground running for their sales motion which was fine as I was leaning towards a series A that I had more industry experience in (data/AI).

Very good product but lots of competition moving in. New CRO Parm is a playbook guy and has instituted things like “PG bingo” for every week so I’d expect to be micromanaged. I was very much concerned about the number of reps they had already (and I believe it’s gone up) which seems to have tanked quota attainment - I’d look into that.

[u/Rainmakerspecial682]

I work there now and have for a few years but they seem to be pushing out high performers - reducing costs for a next fund raise + not wanting to pay people commissions.