For lots of reasons I won't go into, after getting an engineering degree at a pretty good school (UC Santa Barbara), I have only worked in sales at large companies (Intel, Gartner, and British Telecom). I think I can objectively say I've been successful as both an individual contributor and my 18 months as a sales manager: multiple 100%+ achievement years as an IC and my only year as sales manager was 110% (with a 40% team target increase to boot); you can see my LinkedIn profile and judge for yourself (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewmurphy). At the same time, during my entire sales career, I've never stopped coding on the side; both to 'keep the saw sharp' (i.e. stay up to date with current trends) and just because I like it. I've got an app in the app store I just finished (obligatory plug: try CallAGrownUp, website: https://www.callagrownup.com/, App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id975758532?mt=8) where I wrote the entire solution on both the server and the client.

Over the last 4+ years, I have tried to find a (preferably technical) sales job at a startup with zero success. For the roles that match my experience level, I have been told directly several times and had it inferred several more times that they are only looking for people with SaaS backgrounds and/or people who have worked at 'fast growing startups' or Google/Facebook/Twitter.

Any thoughts about what I can do to make myself more attractive to smaller companies, would be greatly appreciated.