SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2024

SaaStr AI Day is starting soon and will be live streaming today! Use the links below at each session’s designated time to tune-in live and join the Zoom session room. Or you can also watch the livestreams on the SaaStr YouTube Channel. Speaker: Brian Thomas, CPO @ Customer.io Speaker: Brian Thomas, CPO @ Customer.io

AI 214

AI Generative AI Engineering Enterprise 214

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

If you haven’t read it yet, head on over to Part 1 of Ask Me Anything with SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin to learn about sales in SaaS, how to create great SDRs and AEs, developing an impactful content strategy, and potential SaaS trends for the next 12-18 months. How do you fix GTM? They’ll know the risks they’re taking.

Sales Hiring 231

Sales Hiring SaaS Banking AI 231

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2023

OpenAI’s Head of Sales, Aliisa Rosenthal, joined OpenAI a year and a half ago — before ChatGPT launched. How did they get here? Aliisa took to the stage at SaaStr Annual to share how far AI has come since the launch of ChatGPT, how it can change the way we work for the better, and what the future holds.

ChatGPT 236

ChatGPT AI Search Scale Sales Hiring 236

SaaStr

JULY 6, 2022

Founding a SaaS company is already a significant challenge for any entrepreneur, but targeting the enterprise space can be an entirely different beast. So how can you break into the market successfully? So until I had written my first blog post, I had sold my first product, I had hired my first salesperson, etc.,

Enterprise 213

Enterprise Sales Hiring Social Media Communication 213

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Sales execs can screw up so many things and still close a lot if they just get 1 thing right If they just are a true subject matter expert in the product they sell Yet so many aren't — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  ?? jasonlk) January 26, 2024 I remember my first embarrassing sales meeting. I walked in alone.

Sales Hiring 233

Sales Hiring B2B Engineering Enterprise 233

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What are the signs that an enterprise SaaS startup is ready to scale by hiring more sales people? For a higher-velocity, in-bound driven SaaS product, most sales reps will have trouble processing more than 50 or so truly qualified leads a month. Pretty soon, everyone just gets dropped into a crappy cadence.

Scale 268

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales 268

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: 5 Interesting Learnings from Docebo at $145,000,000 in ARR Fractional CROs and CMOs: The Only Times I’ve Ever Seen Them Work 90%-95% of Salespeople Won’t Make It At Your Startup. A 6 Part Test to Help You Get It Right.

Scale 194

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales Hiring 194

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. It was more like 1 out of 100, and the filter to get into that top 100 is extremely high. That’s how hard it can be to get funded.

Sales Hiring 254

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 254

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2024

Shrav added that if you want to close bigger deals, not just Enterprise, but mid-market and SMB as well, that the moment you’re ready to Go-To-Market, you need to become compliant. “He was doing a freemium product and I was like ‘Why don’t you just walk into an Adobe or a Cisco and just close a six-figure deal? .

AI 148

AI SMB compliance Sales Hiring 148

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

How is AI going to impact the software and SaaS landscape of the next couple of years and also the next 5-10 years? That info could be: high volumes of text like blogs contracts how to respond to a customer images video We’re in the early innings of what it means to generate or have GenAI. sending a meme in Discord).

AI 254

AI Generative AI Venture Capital SaaS 254

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2022

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: Gartner: Software Spend Will Still Grow by $100 Billion in 2023. The Ultimate Guide for Hiring a Great VP of Sale s. If sales are down — be honest about the root cause. A SaaStr Classic. Most Likely, It’s Not The Market.

Scale 240

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Pricing 240

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

You Have to Train Sales Reps 3–10. You have to start formal sales training by rep #3. How does a CEO/founder/owner pick his salary? Jason notes that a VP of Sales may still succeed elsewhere, but if they are not a good fit for a particular startup, that is the founder’s responsibility. And you can start very small.

Sales Hiring 228

Sales Hiring Technical Advisors Compensation Outsourced Development 228

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

SurveyMonkey was relatively slow to go enterprise, which suited it well for a long time. How they buy, when they buy, why they buy. Calendly for example waited until about $50m ARR to build out an enteprise sales team. Zoom similarly started off almost 100% self-serve and SMB, and then later added an enterprise team.

SMB 335

SMB SaaS Enterprise Software 335

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Go-to-Market matters because sales and marketing spend remain the biggest proportion of SaaS spend, so honing in on that spend to build an engine and drive growth is paramount. Because founder-led sales worked really well for most of the early stages, but you eventually start running out of juice around $15M ARR.

Scale 233

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 233

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2022

5 Critical and Company-Altering Learnings from B2B Startups with Y Combinator : Anu Hariharan , Managing Director at Y Combinator, will share key learnings from top B2B startups and how these pivotal lessons help founders build in any sector. If you haven’t already, sign up here for tickets before we sell out.

Scale 244

Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service B2B 244

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

And that challenge some of your assumptions on how to scale. 60% of Asana’s customers come from self-service, 40% from sales. This is trending to 50/50 now that Asana has crossed $400m in ARR, but still a reminder a self-serve motion combined with sales jumping on the bigger deals can scale very, very far.

Scale 344

Scale SMB SaaS Scaling 344

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2024

Before diving into all things AI, Jason asked Jennifer, “How do you keep going long in this industry when so many CEOs have left?” How to Buck Up and Go Long in SaaS? How do you go long in SaaS? How do I leverage GenAI in my operations to become more efficient? I’m eight years into a three-year gig,” Jennifer jokes.

Generative AI 234

Generative AI AI Technical Review Software Review 234

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Their customers desperately need to make sense of this new world – not only how to survive massive digital acceleration but also high inflation and other forms of political and economic volatility. Customers have become very thoughtful about where they can spend their budget and how to do more with less in times of uncertainty.

Scale 224

Scale SMB Scaling Innovation 224

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Ok we’ve talked a bit more on SaaStr over the years on how to hire a Great VP of Sales , but hiring a Great VP of Marketing is just as important. More on that here: We’ve talked about getting the hire right especially on one axis — making sure they’ve done Demand Gen. Not just in sales. Not really.

Sales Hiring 275

Sales Hiring Growth Hacking B2C SMB 275

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2023

How did the largest product-led growth enterprise company in the world find success? So what should earlier-stage companies do: immediately build out a big sales team or focus on product-led growth? Now they have sales reps, but still consider themselves PLG. Directly through sales teams. Here’s why.

Sales Hiring 220

Sales Hiring Enterprise Headcount Scale 220

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2023

The landscape for Go-to-Market (GTM) will be changing over the next 12 months in terms of roles within GTM, in combination with how buyers make purchases and the decision-makers involved. Once you get past the founder stage and have your first 10-20 customers, it’s all about focus. Let’s start at the beginning — with the customer.

Point of Sale 245

Point of Sale Forecasting Technical Review SMB 245

SaaStr

JULY 21, 2022

You finally get into a big potential deal, and often, you’re competing with someone much bigger. But most large enterprises will push back. But most large enterprises will push back. It just puts you in a different risk category for enterprise customers. You probably won’t get an enterprise deal.

Enterprise 281

Enterprise Sales 281

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2022

Our target market is US-based enterprise sales, marketing teams, and companies with software. Even though we empower other companies to use PLG, Reprise had a fairly classic approach to enterprise sales. Even though we empower other companies to use PLG, Reprise had a fairly classic approach to enterprise sales.

Scale 290

Scale B2C Enterprise Acquisition 290

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2023

In part two we head into IPO waters, how to incorporate AI into your products, the best way to drive employee performance, pricing models, and much more. Q: How do you stand out in terms of customer acquisition against large competitors who aren’t incorporating AI? Q: As you scale, how metrics-oriented should the company be?

Scale 230

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success AI 230

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

And how big is your current fund? And how big is your current fund? Enterprise software–at all stages and check sizes–with a focus on SaaS, Security, Infrastructure and, of course, with an integrated AI strategy. Oxygen-like solutions don’t get turned off or turned down, they become essential to the workings of a company.

Scale 231

Scale Software Review Payment Features AI 231

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Many folks just bypass the partner channel and how important it is, and as a founder, even if you have a partner program set up, it may take an extra cycle to realize that all companies have favorite partners. How Do You Decide Who to Partner with? The sales reps were friends, and accounts were shared. Otherwise, it falls apart.

AWS 206

AWS Scale Sales Hiring Marketing 206

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Catch up on part one here , where he deep dives into what he really thinks about AI, Sales and lead Gen for SaaS in 2024. Q: When Should A Slow Growth Company Hire a Head of Sales? They have one salesperson but want to skip having two scaled reps and immediately hire the VP of Sales. Should a VP of Sales hold a quota?

Sales Hiring 242

Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital Generative AI 242

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

We just wrote up how some of the biggest changes of SaaS are now coming, specifically in Customer Success and Sales. Customer Success Is Vulnerable to Cuts Jason shared that he didn’t realize how vulnerable customer success was to cuts until 2023. But there is debate happening about how to achieve that.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 246

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

The team, led by Deepinder Singh Dhingra, has deep enterprise SaaS experience and truly understands their customer’s needs. And how big is your current fund? What’s different about your fund / how you invest and support founders? I have known Deepinder for several years, and he has great product instincts and hustle.

Innovation 241

Innovation Wireless Acquisition Technology 241

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2023

So leading growth stage VC Iconiq has published its latest and very detailed Definitive Guide to Sales Compensation here. Corners were cut in the boom times of 2021, but we are back to sane sales models. Renewals, if they are done by sales, are paid out at about 40% of an initial commission. Everyone should have a read.

Scale 267

Scale Compensation Sales SMB 267

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2022

How Leveraging Partnerships Can 2x Your Growth with Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre. Here’s how they do it. #5. How To Innovate Faster with Community: Insights From GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij. Top 5 Ways to Scale a Sales Team with Zoom CRO Ryan Azus and SaaStr VP of Sales Bryan Elsesser. And YC is popular! #2.

VP of Engineering 235

VP of Engineering Scale Outbound Sales Team SMB 235

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Dear SaaStr: How Do Startups Really Sell to Big Enterprises Before They’re Proven? Large enterprises use lots of tools, widgets, and software in their businesses, but they tend to use the obvious, trusted solutions. If you truly can change the way they do business, you can often get a meeting. And often a sale.

Enterprise 238

Enterprise Startup Scale Innovation 238

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2023

Your enterprise must grow, and profitably. Kate Ahlering, CRO at Calendly, shares how revenue operations are every CRO’s secret weapon to revolutionizing enterprise sales growth. . How customers come into the sales funnel, when, where, and how they’re engaged are becoming increasingly digitalized.

Enterprise 226

Enterprise Sales Sales Funnel Compensation 226

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2023

And so many different strategies, from more enterprise to more SMB, from more tech focused (Asana) to less tech focused (Monday). And so many different strategies, from more enterprise to more SMB, from more tech focused (Asana) to less tech focused (Monday). Diversity of vendors and customers. You can just learn so much.

SMB 237

SMB Outsourced Development Enterprise Scale 237

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

Mistake: On the other hand… not betting on the team that got me there “Everything will be fine once we get a new head of [X]” -every startup CEO ever (also me, frequently) When you launch a company, the initial team is usually whoever you can get. I make it 5 or 6 times, just to be sure.” Here are my 10 greatest (worst?)

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Customer Success 263

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Only the very best reps that have sold sales or marketing tools, which are very similar to the tools they use every day already, can sell vertical saas or developer tools. Only the very best reps that have sold sales or marketing tools, which are very similar to the tools they use every day already, can sell vertical saas or developer tools.

Sales Hiring 171

Sales Hiring Sales SaaS SMB 171

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2022

First, I’d go for a SaaS expert over a domain/target market expert in just about any senior hire — VP Product, VP Sales, VP Marketing. Second, I’m skeptical most product folks from B2C, from Gaming, from low-end freemium can make the jump to more enterprise-y SaaS B2B. Junior product managers usually haven’t.

Sales Hiring 259

Sales Hiring B2C B2B Engineering 259