This week marks two years at Slash. Since joining, I’ve closed $70MM in ARR. It was far from easy, but that’s exactly what made the journey fun.
To celebrate the anniversary, I thought it would be helpful to share some sauce I’ve learned. To start, let me give you a glance at where my journey began, so you can better understand how I got here.
Where It All Started: A Broken Computer
When I was 12 years old, I loved playing Roblox & Minecraft, but I had a terrible computer. It was passed down to me from my grandpa; the monitor would shut off every 30 minutes, and the keyboard would randomly stop working, too. My Mom couldn’t afford to get me a new computer at the time, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and get my first taste of internet money.
I first discovered Roblox reselling. I started flipping virtual hats, which are cosmetic items for your character; rare hats could go for a 10–20% profit on the secondary market. Over the next two years, I made close to $3,000 and was able to buy myself a completely new computer setup.
Even though I reached my original goal, I wasn’t done trying to make money online. That early success kept me going. It also taught me something I’ve stuck with since: there’s opportunity everywhere, you just have to notice it and act on it.
Shitcoins, Group Chats, and Leverage
Around the same time, I started learning about cryptocurrency. I began investing in random shitcoins and joining several community group chats. I’ve always heard the phrase “your network is your net worth,” but I never understood how important it was until then. It’s one thing to be around successful people, but it’s another to interact with people who expose you to new opportunities and urge you to take chances. Find those people and latch on to them. Meet as many people as you can and learn as much as you can from them (this is especially true in sales, not just business-building).
I dabbled in crypto for about a year, and then I worked up to managing a portfolio valued at $8,000. Then, a friend in one of my group chats introduced me to sneaker Twitter.
Stop Mining for Gold, Start Selling Pickaxes
I immediately shifted my energy to learning everything about the sneaker community: bots, proxies, servers, paid info groups. I initially tried reselling, using the same strategies I had learned from Roblox and crypto, but I quickly realized that I was horrible at selling sneakers. I couldn’t make more than $500 in a good month. So instead of mining for gold, I started selling pickaxes.
In this case, “pickaxes” referred to the bots resellers use to secure limited drops for shoes, collectibles, clothes, etc. They work by automating the checkout process - filling in your info, adding items to cart, and completing the purchase faster than any human could. Bots are key to scaling a reselling business, and they resell for thousands of dollars on the secondary market.
I figured out how to get my hands on a few bots at a time. It wasn’t easy, since they were in limited supply and had extremely high demand (20,000 people would go after a single drop, and they all needed the same infrastructure). But video games trained me well. My reaction speed was as fast as a fly, and my mouse control was pixel-precise. I was able to consistently secure a copy of bots every week and flip them for thousands in profit.
One important thing I learned during these early days in the sneaker community was that you’re not going to be perfect at everything, and that’s alright. What matters is recognizing when it’s time to stop trying to force success out of something and instead doubling down on what you are good at.
Play to Your Strengths
Once I discovered how I fit into the sneaker community, I started my first real business, Botcookers. It was a Discord group that charged $30/month for access to Twitter monitors, automatic link openers, and autocheckout tools for resellers.
From there, I went on to start 12 more businesses, all having to do with sneaker Twitter and the infrastructure behind reselling. At its peak, my best business was doing $2.4M ARR.
Managing multiple businesses forced me to learn skills school never taught me: how to market a product, sell the product, build business relationships, recruit a team, manage accounts, source deals, provide customer support, and so much more. The best way to learn is exposure; once I became a business owner, I had no choice but to go all in and learn as much as I could.
I still ended up going to college (solely because I was granted a full scholarship) and majored in finance + pre-law. Throughout college, I continued running 4+ businesses; it was unbelievably stressful, since I was trying to maintain my GPA on a full course load. I wonder how much more I could’ve achieved had I not gone to college, but that’s a story for another time.
Despite how busy I had been during college, I still had no idea what I wanted to do once it was over. All I knew for certain was I wanted to move away from the smaller, niche communities to work on something more meaningful. And then, I learned about Slash.
The Jump to Something Bigger
When I joined Slash two years ago, we were still at the Series A stage and had practically no one on the sales team besides Victor and Shaan. I like to call myself the “second employee of Slash.” Back then, it was a completely different environment, and I had never done in-person sales or any kind or selling outside of the niche communities I came from.
Let me tell you: back then, nobody knew what Slash was. Every conversation started with, “how the hell do you guys do banking? I’ve never heard of you.” It was challenging, but it also gave me a competitive edge as I learned to sell.
When I first started, getting a user to spend six figures a month felt like a huge win, mainly because they were so hard to come by. Nobody trusted us, so a sales cycle for someone spending just $10k a month could take weeks (instead of what should’ve been hours or days).
It forced a mindset shift. I learned to treat every opportunity the same, regardless of size, and to never disqualify based on volume. A lot of competitors only focused on customers spending six figures or more, but I leaned the other way. I wanted to make sure every single person had the best possible experience. To this day, most of my clients will tell you the same thing: I’ve always been there for them, not just for banking, but in helping them grow their business through my network.
Staying Ahead of the Product Curve
At an early-stage startup, you hear every possible objection, and you have to learn how to handle all of them. I spent weeks studying the competitive landscape and understanding where others fell short. If I couldn’t close a deal, I’d at least figure out what the customer loved about their current solution, then bring that back to our team so we could build something better.
When Slash started, it was built for the sneaker Twitter reselling community that I came from, with features tailored to a very specific type of user. I quickly realized we were missing a lot of functionality needed to go after a broader market. In many ways, I was selling a product that wasn’t fully ready for customers who already had more robust banking solutions. For example, there was no way to send money internationally once it settled in Slash back then, which forced everything to stay domestic.
Within my first two months, I convinced the engineering team to ship international wires so we could support customers with foreign employees. From there, things really took off as I started learning everything about each client’s business and pushing to build the specific features they needed to operate.
I began to understand why startups can deliver more value with a team of 20 than a late-stage company with over 1,000 employees. There’s no middle management, so when a customer needs something, we build it. Even now, after growing to more than 60 employees, the mindset is still the same. Features are shipped in days, not months, and every client gets what they need built with the goal of helping us serve more businesses like them.
Closing Without All the Answers
I also learned that confidence is everything in sales.
I try to know everything about the product when I’m selling, but there were plenty of times early on where I genuinely didn’t know how to answer a question. In those moments, I had to fake it until I made it. That’s where confidence made all the difference between losing a deal and keeping it alive long enough to figure things out later in the cycle.
One example I always think about is when someone asked how Slash could issue bank accounts without a charter license. At the time, I had no clue. I came up with an answer on the spot that satisfied the lead, even though I’m sure it wasn’t entirely accurate.
Slash as a product is constantly evolving because of how quickly our engineering team ships. Staying up to date is critical when you’re dealing with clients who want to know the latest and greatest, so I made it a priority to use Slash myself every day. I’ve always believed I shouldn’t sell something I wouldn’t personally use. Every new feature gets demoed to the team each Friday so we understand how it works, who it’s for, and what problem it solves; I make sure to pay close attention.
There have definitely been plenty of times where I’ve lost deals for reasons out of my control. That’s just part of sales. If you let it affect you mentally, you’re probably not cut out for it. Rejection is a big part of the job, and the key is learning something from every single one.
One story I always tell is from a conference where most people were in their 60s or older. I was 23 at the time, and when I started talking to a group, they didn’t take me seriously. They were making jokes about my sales style and everything else. I laughed along with them and asked for feedback, which ended up getting me one of their phone numbers.
A few months later, I reached out again and managed to onboard him, and shortly after, the rest of the group followed.
At one point or another, you’re going to get rejected. If you stay in it and keep looking for a path forward, things tend to work out one way or another, even if that first person never converts.
Who is Nicolas Brillante?
If you’ve connected with me on LinkedIn, you probably have some idea of who I am. But there’s more to the story than what shows up in a feed.
One thing I’ve always done is keep a very specific professional identity depending on the context. I’m almost never trying to be the guy with something smart to say. I just share what’s on my mind and talk about interesting projects I’m working on.
Part of that comes from being in sales. When you’re in sales, you’re constantly adjusting how you present yourself depending on who you’re talking to. It’s effective, but it’s also exhausting. You can start to lose touch with the personality you grew up with.
I’ve been working non-stop since I was 12. There’s a reason I put in 15 hours a day, almost every day. Even on weekends, I’m still getting a few hours in. At this point it’s become part of how I’m wired. I get fulfillment from seeing the company I’m part of succeed, no matter the cost.
I’ve always believed that every day I take off is a day someone else can get ahead. Whether that’s true or not, it’s what drives me to keep going. A big part of that motivation comes from the businesses I work with. Seeing them realize that Slash is the seamless banking experience they should’ve had from the start is what makes it all worth it.
Sales is relationship building at its core, and at the end of the day, people just want to work with someone they like. Nobody wants to deal with a salesperson with a massive ego or who’s difficult to work with. I find fulfillment in the work I do, and every day I wake up trying to be better than I was the day before.
What I’ve Learned Over the Past 2 Years
I’ve encountered many obstacles, but they shaped who I am today and reinforced what it actually takes to succeed in sales. Here are the biggest things I’ve learned:
Find opportunity anywhere, with anyone. There are so many people in this world, and it’s in your best interest to meet as many of them as you can.
Don’t just use people. Give back and help others whenever you can. You never know when you might need their help, and it reinforces the idea that your network is your net worth.
Be persistent. Whether it’s your job or something outside of it, you can’t let yourself quit. Find a path forward, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Stay open-minded. There’s never just one path forward, and understanding that puts you ahead.
Learn from the people around you. There are plenty of moments where you’ll feel like the least knowledgeable person in the room. Use that to learn and improve.
Be confident. No matter the situation, confidence earns respect and builds trust. No one wants to buy from someone who doesn’t believe in what they’re selling.
I could list 50 more, but these are the ones that mattered most in helping me contribute to $70M in ARR at Slash over the past two years. If you feel like you align with this or have a similar story, I’d love to have you join my strategic vertical team here at Slash. We’re always looking for great people, and there’s a reason we’ve been able to compete at a high level with a team of under 75.
