Why leading CROs in 2028 will be technical | Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta)

Stevie Case is the CRO of Vanta, the trust management platform serving everyone from founders to Fortune 100 CISOs. A former pro-video gamer who stumbled into sales through a mentor's bet, Stevie has built one of the most unconventional paths to the C-suite in tech. In this episode, she unpacks why early revenue hires fail, what separates a true CRO from a VP of Sales, and why she believes fewer than 10% of current CROs will thrive by 2028. In today's episode, we discuss: • Why early revenue hires fail • What a top 1% CRO actually does • The scaling mistake Stevie made by copying Twilio's playbook at Vanta • Why Vanta remains 100% sales-led at every segment • AI vs. humans in go-to-market References: • Cursor: https://cursor.sh/ • Gong: https://www.gong.io/ • Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ • Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/ • Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/ Where to find Stevie: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steviecase/ Where to find Brett: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: 00:00 Why early revenue hires fail 02:23 Who to hire at $5M in revenue 04:16 Coin-operated sellers vs. long-term builders 05:57 What excellence looks like in the CRO role 07:44 Metrics, confidence, and velocity 12:04 Should CROs lead sales? 14:39 From shy seller to revenue leader 16:36 Learning to scale at Twilio 17:44 "There is no CRO playbook" 19:58 Stevie's scaling mistake at Vanta 22:16 Why Vanta stays 100% sales-led 23:16 The value of planning 24-26 months ahead 29:54 When trusting intuition was the wrong call 30:49 Do humans still have a place in the future of GTM? 33:33 Stevie's leadership non-negotiables 36:36 The myth of hiring for industry expertise 40:00 What stays centralized in a 600-person company 47:09 The hidden leverage of a customer's first 30 days 53:42 Why the CRO role will face enormous changes by 2028 58:42 What leaders must do now to stay relevant 01:02:30 Unpacking the CEO-CRO dynamic