April 11, 2025
Written by someone who spent a lot of time running in circles, literally.
Let me start with a confession: I used to run around a lot—collegiately, at UC San Diego. There were uniforms, coaches, and early mornings.
As a bioengineering student, I also had a full academic schedule, which was intense.
And somehow, years later, I found myself working alongside others who did the same—minus the cross-country part, plus maybe some lacrosse or rowing.
Over time, I’ve noticed something: former college athletes make excellent salespeople.
Not just decent. Not “they’ll figure it out.” Actually great.
And not just in a “grindset” kind of way—though yes, there is grinding—but in an operationally valuable, quota-hitting, and culture-stabilizing way.
For startups building sales teams, these former athletes offer tremendous value. The qualities they develop fall into three key categories:
- Physical and Mental Discipline
- Growth and Adaptability
- Team and Leadership Skills
Let’s break this down. If you’re a startup building a sales team, and you don’t consider athletes, it might be like leaving money on the table.
Or at least like turning down a 6 AM demo call because you didn’t feel like it.
Here’s why.
Exceptional Work Ethic/Consistency/ Discipline
They show up. Every. Single. Day.
Sales is mostly just losing, politely—occasionally winning—always showing up.
Athletes get that. You don’t get “fit” and then coast. You stay fit. Forever. Or at least through college eligibility.
I once spoke with a field hockey player turned cloud rep (Princeton, obviously) who said she won a competitive deal simply because she emailed and attended meetings more consistently than the two larger vendors.
That was the differentiator—not pricing, not features, just… endurance.
Attention to Detail
They care about inches. Literally.
The same Princeton hockey field player mentioned that a slightly off-field hockey pass, maybe just inches off target, means your teammate is running behind them to recover. Not ideal.
That level of detail orientation is… strangely relevant to CRM hygiene, forecasting accuracy, and how you spell “prospect’s” name in a cold email.
Resilience
They’ve lost worse.
Sales rejection is spiritually violent. Athletes have had entire seasons implode. Races where the wind won.
A Stanford rower, now an all-star start-up CEO, broke his back, lay in bed for two months, recovered, and became an All-American.
Your SDR had 100 people in a day hang up on her? She’ll be fine.
Intrinsic Motivation
… And they’re addicted to metrics.
Athletes don’t just do the work—they measure it. Religiously.
On my triathlon team, Strava wasn’t just an app—it was a lifestyle. Every split, segment, and second became a data point in the pursuit of a personal best.
Sound familiar? It should.
Sales is just another race with a leaderboard: quotas, conversion rates, and pipeline velocity. Athletes already speak that language.
Coachable
They like being coached.
Imagine someone who wants feedback—and uses it. Shocking, I know.
But athletes are wired for improvement.
They’ve spent years turning critique into performance gains. Shave a second, jump an inch higher, close a deal.
Same muscle.
Quick Studies
They adapt faster than your onboarding flow.
Athletes are professional adjusters. New plays, new opponents, new weather, new shoes—it’s all part of the job.
In 2008, my cross-country coach introduced heart rate monitoring. Not the sleek Apple Watch kind. The kind with chest straps, beeps, and Excel spreadsheets.
We adapted because performance demanded it. So when your sales team pivots to a new CRM, pricing model, or product line mid-quarter?
They won’t flinch. They’ll just ask for the login.
Effective Time Management
They know how to calendar.
Class. Practice. Travel. Homework. Sleep. Repeat.
Athletes don’t just manage time; they weaponize it.
They will take your disorganized sales org and, within a week, be blocking time for “Follow-up Blitz 3” and “45-min Pipeline Cleanse.”
Teamwork
They understand team dynamics.
Yes, sales is competitive.
But also, reps pass leads. SDRs hand off to AEs. Teams have goals.
Athletes know how to run their legs and cheer for the next. They also understand how not to be annoying in Slack. Priceless.
College athletes know how to take direction. They’ve lived entire seasons inside someone else’s playbook—literal ones.
But they also know when to improvise. The coach isn’t on the field, and sometimes you have to call an audible.
In sales, this translates to a magical combination: people who follow the process and know when to quietly bend it to close the deal.
Not rebels, not robots. Just… useful.
Empathy
They remember what it’s like to suck.
Athletes know what it’s like to be bad at something—painfully bad. I still remember my first day on the triathlon team, trying (and failing) to ride in clip-in shoes.
I fell over repeatedly in the parking lot like a winded toddler on stilts. One teammate stayed behind to help.
No judgment. Just patience.
Two years later, we were the 5th team in the nation. We still call each other when we learn something new—bike, job, life, whatever.
That kind of empathy doesn’t show up on a résumé, but it shows up everywhere else: in customer calls, team huddles, and post-mortems.
Perform Under Pressure
They don’t freak out in front of an audience.
Sales is theater. Demos are performances.
Athletes are used to being watched, judged, and occasionally heckled.
So if your AE doesn’t flinch when the prospect brings in their CTO for the pricing call—that’s the athlete in them.
Academic Intelligence
They’re actually smart.
Contrary to popular belief, many college athletes went to class.
And stayed eligible. And graduated. Some even double-majored.
These are humans who can hold product knowledge and budget objections in their head at once.
Highly Networked
They come with friends.
Athletes have networks. And not just “I know a guy” networks—trust networks.
Other high-performing, coachable, driven, slightly masochistic people.
Want to scale a sales team fast? Ask a former athlete who their fastest friend is. Or how?
TL;DR: Why hire college athletes? Former Stanford rower Diego Baugh said it best:
“You either have that dawg or you don’t.”
They show up, take feedback, compete hard, and know how to win—on the field and in the funnel.
Conclusion
College athletes bring more than hustle—they bring systems, grit, and the ability to thrive under pressure.
I’ve seen it firsthand: as a teammate, and now as someone building and working with sales teams.
When hiring, don’t just look for résumés with SaaS logos. Look for the people who:
- Wake up early without being asked
- Adapt on the fly
- Manage time like it’s a sport
- Lift the team, not just their own numbers
Here’s the cheat sheet:
- Work ethic
- Attention to detail
- Mental toughness
- Metrics mindset
- Coachability
- Fast learners
- Time management
- Team players
- Empathetic collaborators
- Calm under fire
- Smart enough to stay eligible
- Networks full of other high-performers
Bonus tip: A friend and two-time founder told me he loves hiring athletes with engineering degrees. “They did college in hard mode.” He’s not wrong.