Nobody built this for me. So I built it.
20 years in sales. No formal training. A lot of spreadsheets. Here’s how I got here — and why Gordon exists.
The story
I got into sales late and by accident.
I had a newborn at home and no money. My first B2B job was selling office supplies door-to-door — the kind of job nobody writes LinkedIn essays about. I figured out pretty quickly that SaaS was where the real money was. I applied everywhere. Everyone said no. For a year.
Somebody finally took a chance on me as an AE. I hit my number (and then some). Not because I was a natural — because when you come home to a baby who needs formula, you don’t miss quota.
That got me promoted into leadership. With a little guidance and a lot of trial and error, I figured out CRMs, pipeline reviews, and comp plans the same way I’d figured out how to sell — by getting it wrong, fast, in public.
Over the next decade I kept taking roles at early-stage companies. First sales hire. First sales leader. Head of sales. I’ve been the first sales leader at multiple companies — and twice helped a team grow past $5M in revenue. Every single time, one of the first things I had to build — before a CRM, before a playbook, before a pitch deck — was the comp plan.
And every single time, I built it in a spreadsheet.
The early versions were ugly. Color-coded, no formulas, wrong half the time. But every company, the spreadsheet got a little better. After ten years, it was a template my colleagues asked me for by name. Reps told me it was the first time they actually understood how they got paid.
Gordon started as an internal tool for the team I’m running now. Reps loved it. Leaders I used to work with asked for access. Eventually I realized the spreadsheet I’d spent a decade making was about to become software — and if my teammates wanted it, a lot of other first-time sales leaders probably did too.
So here we are.
What Gordon stands for
Reps don't run through the tape when comp is too complex.
If a rep can't see what the next deal is worth, they coast. The tape is right there and they don't break it — not because they don't care, but because they can't see it. Gordon exists to make that tape visible every single day.
Comp is a trust problem, not a math problem.
When reps don't trust the plan, they disengage. When leaders don't trust the numbers, they spend Sundays redoing the spreadsheet. Simple, transparent, real-time comp isn't a feature — it's the minimum a sales team deserves.
What Gordon is not
Not a finance tool. I built this for sales leaders, not bean counters.
Not an enterprise platform. If your comp plan is 40 pages with six accelerator tiers, go use the big guys. Gordon is for teams under 10 with plans that should fit on one page.
Not trying to do everything. No CRM. No payroll. No invoicing. One job, done well.
If you’re still carrying the bag
If you’re the sales leader who just got hired — and comp is somehow your job now — Gordon’s for you.
If you’re the founder still selling yourself — Gordon’s for you.
If you’re tired of Sunday nights in Excel — you know what to do.
Try it free. No demo. No sales call. No spreadsheet required.
— John