Europe Is Not a Country: Katrin Sturm on Hiring and Selling Across Europe
Episode notes
Europe is not a country, and US companies that treat it like one pay for it in hiring, sales
and slow growth.
In Episode 1 of API to Europe, host Jochen Werner talks with Katrin Sturm, a former go-to-
market leader at Salesforce and Oracle and the founder of Scale & Shine, about what US
companies get wrong when they expand into Europe.
They cover which European markets are hardest to hire in, the usual order of entry, and
why a German speaker is not automatically the right fit for Austria or Switzerland. They
also get into why less is more in outbound sales, the mistakes early-stage founders make
with sales hires, and how AI is shifting go-to-market toward community and human trust.
About Katrin Sturm: she held go-to-market leadership roles at Salesforce and Oracle,
including Salesforce's growth from $3B to $10B (2013 to 2018), and founded Scale & Shine,
a network for peer support, leadership development and go-to-market sparring for
founders and GTM leaders in SaaS and AI.
Connect with Katrin on LinkedIn: Link
Learn more about Scale & Shine: Link