SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Many companies believe excellent product design comes from hiring the best engineers and signing up for the latest software instead of building from the users’ perspectives. Stripe’s CTO, David Singleton, shares how they use a system of feedback, iteration, and fast shipping to create products that meet users’ expectations.

CTO Hire 239

CTO Hire CTO Payment Methods Payment Solutions 239

SaaStr

JANUARY 16, 2023

To convert an idea into a successful venture, startups need to be equipped to scale. Hiring a reliable team is an all-encompassing issue where startups dive in head-first but fail to optimize it for success. . Hiring an expert produces 1000x better results than someone with interests elsewhere. . Build an irreplaceable team .

Scale 206

Scale CTO Hire Cloud Scaling 206

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2022

Miguel Carranza, CTO at RevenueCat, shares ten learnings from firsthand experience in architecting an API & SDK that is currently on 5,000+ apps and has seen 3x growth Year-over-Year. . But at scale, people will use your API in crazy ways that you might not imagine, so some margin of the unexpected is unavoidable.

CTO Hire 224

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Scaling 224

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2023

Dan Robinson, current Advisor and former CTO at Heap , shares five essential learnings from nearly a decade of building a SaaS business. Register for SaaStr Annual and join 12,500 Cloud and SaaS Founders, VCs, and Execs at SaaStr Annual for three full days of workshops, sessions, and networking — all to help you scale faster.

CTO Coach 187

CTO Coach CTO Hire CTO Leadership 187

TurnKey Labs

MARCH 6, 2023

Knowing how to hire a CTO is one thing—knowing when to hire a CTO is another. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve put together a strong team and dynamic product, and have realized you’re missing an integral piece of the puzzle. If […]

CTO 57

CTO CTO Hire Technology Scaling 57

TechEmpower SaaS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Do you anticipate scale issues presently or in the future? While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. cto , product , saas Do you have the basics already defined and merely need them fleshed out? Either way, we can help!"]

Software Development 443

Software Development Development Software Review Software 443

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Perhaps the single most important thing you can ever do in SaaS, at least after $1m in ARR or so, is hire the best VPs you can. We’ve talked a lot over the years about how not to hire a wrong VP of Sales — 70%+ of the first VPs of Sales don’t make it even 10 months. You need to hire up-and-comers. Get on jets?

Part-Time VPE 327

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 327

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2020

Q: What’s the number one challenge for scale-up founders? You will need a VP of Product to scale your roadmap. You can smother customers with love alone in the early days, but as you scale, you need a seasoned customer success team and VP that has done this before. She can be your CTO forever.

Part-Time VPE 235

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE Sales Recruiting 235

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Scaling a PLG company While it’s great to figure out a PLG model that allows you to scale your revenue with inbound, it cannot stop there. It starts at the beginning when someone interacts with your brand.” – Kim Walsh Hiring and collaboration for growth The product marketing team is the first function to hire for.

Scale 194

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scaling 194

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Lately I’ve been working with 5+ SaaS companies all hiring their first VP of Product. And critically, most have a really strong CEO-CTO partnership. A few general learnings: A VP of Product that Reports to CTO / Engineering Rarely Meets With That Many Customers. I just see this time and time again.

Part-Time VPE 293

Part-Time VPE Outsourcing Services CTO Hire CTO 293

SaaStr

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Anyhow the one thing I learned, beyond getting help screening and hiring for these positions from domain experts, is to look for Flags. For signs the prospective hire just won’t work out, no matter how strong they might look on paper. At that point, VPEs need them to scale. Why join a start-up? Not for start-ups.

Sales Hiring 251

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 251

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2023

The best we made our CTO. But what if our CTO gets hit by a bus? He scaled up our technology in a way folks for years had thought was impossible. They feed on each other, hire other toxic people, and turn the company against the mission and each other. Sometimes, still hire them. Well he was toxic. For a while.

CTO Hire 225

CTO Hire CTO Technology Engineering 225

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

The first 2 scaled reps you hire that hit plan (some may churn before then) get special training. They get CTO training. Without training, reps 3-10 scale more slowly, if at all. And they see the CEO sort of judging them for not scaling quickly. Simplify to a 1 page contract. They get CEO training.

Scale 341

Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO 341

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Founded by Sanjit Biswas, former CEO at Meraki and John Bicket former CTO at Meraki[link] Samsara builds software to manage physical operations: truck fleets, mining, food & beverage, oil & gas. The first is the company sell 3 or 5 year contracts that are non-refundable and non-cancellable at relatively small ACVs of $35k.

CTO Hire 357

CTO Hire CTO Coach Benchmarks Scale 357

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2023

Answers from the CEOs of Twilio, Veeva, Amplitude, HubSpot, Gainsight and More What Your First 100 Hires Will Look Like Top Podcasts This Week: 1. SaaStr 666: Scaling a SaaS Startup to $1B+ ARR: Insights from UiPath’s CEO and Founder Daniel Dines  2. LIVE from SaaStr Europa 2023: Stage A – Tuesday 4.

CTO Hire 208

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Scaling 208

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2023

Ode to the $100,000,000 Exit Dear SaaStr: Should You Hire Someone That Seems Good … But Always Job Hops? SaaStr 638: Lessons Learned in Scaling Your Team & Revenue from $1M ARR to $1B+ with Cloudflare CRO Chris Merritt  2. SaaStr 639: Scaling a SaaS Sales Team While Building Culture with Figma VP of Sales Scott Pugh   3.

Scale 210

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Startup 210

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2023

Startups come in all shapes and sizes on various stages of a timeline, yet it’s not surprising how many have the same questions and concerns about how to scale from x to y to z, the right time to hire and fire, and how to keep a team motivated during hard times. But I’ve almost failed every time.”

CTO Hire 184

CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 184

SaaStr

MAY 20, 2020

He joined StubHub as CTO, but didn’t get nearly as much equity as the other CTO — because he “wasn’t committed enough.” If your customers love your product now, hire reps. ” Times of crisis are actually great times to find hard problems to solve.

CTO Hire 345

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Airlines 345

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2021

Some leaders like Slack have seen the same, but most Cloud leaders at scale with high NRR end up getting more and more of their revenue from their existing base, not new customers. Use overages to renegotiate contracts, not charge per event. They’re growing even faster at scale. More on that here.

Scale 270

Scale CTO Hire New CTO CTO 270

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

You’ll need to hire aggressively to get to the next level and continue that rapid growth. But what roles should you hire for, and what will your org chart look like at each stage? David considers product to be its own department that should also report directly to the CEO, instead of falling under the CTO. CTO (40 Employees).

CTO Hire 249

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 249

SaaStr

JULY 3, 2022

The Ultimate Guide for Hiring a Great VP of Sales. Top Podcasts This Week: SaaStr 568: Mind the Gap: Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times with Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz. Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Tougher Times | Point Nine Managing Partner Christoph Janz. Top Videos This Week: 1.

CTO Hire 200

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Scale CTO 200

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

In the past, we’ve touched on several different ideas to help you scale, to do Even Better: Imagine capital doesn’t matter. And importantly, you need to spend more time with your existing customers (vs. But even if you’ve hired the world’s best VP of Sales … you can’t opt out of sales entirely.

Part-Time VPE 273

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services 273

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2024

Jason Warner , who was CTO of GitHub before and during my time as COO there (and a former partner at Redpoint!) All of our Managing Directors on the early team have both founded companies and operate at scale. This week we’re focusing on Erica Brescia, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures! #1. Why did you do the deal?

Management 226

Management CTO Hire New CTO AI 226

SaaStr

JUNE 12, 2022

SaaStr 559: Secrets to Building Your Marketing Engine To Drive Scale with Airtable CMO Archana Agrawal. Top 5 Mistakes Building & Scaling Global Product Teams | HubSpot GM & VP, Products Poorvi Shrivastav. with Jenn Knight, Co-founder and CTO of AgentSync, and Daryna Kulya, Co-founder of OpenPhone.

Scale 173

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire CTO 173

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

For part one of this Ask Me Anything session, Jason covers everything you need to know about hiring your first VP of Sales, what he really thinks about AI, what the future of lead generation in 2024 looks like, and much more. There are no Cloud magicians, and you can’t hire a PLG magician. Find and hire two other similar reps.

Scale 245

Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales Recruiting 245

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2021

The first type is the kind of management team hired by second+ time founders. And if you are, you are going to naturally start off hiring up-and-comers to your first leadership team. That CTO that doesn’t quite have the traditional background. Then, they can scale almost infinitely. And that’s great.

Part-Time VPE 235

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 235

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 29, 2020

They’ll revolt when you make a senior or mid-level hire that as a group, they simply cannot suffer one day longer. He was literally the only person on the planet with the specific scaling experience we needed. It did work — we got the scaling done. You see this all the time. Everyone hated him.

Part-Time VPE 273

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 273

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2020

in ARR, get to Initial Traction , we then realize we have to scale. Hire not just 1-2 reps, but 10. That it’s time to bring in someone that knows. But I’ve found many great SaaS founders take longer, too long, to decide to hire the other VPs. My CTO and dev team is building all the features we need.

Sales Hiring 358

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Scale 358

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

These are all full-time jobs by $1m ARR. Fixing it yourself becomes the biggest time sink and excuse for not hiring there is. You end up spending all your time backfilling roles you should have hired. And even worse, you often sort of give up trying to make the hire. Get on a jet, at least twice a quarter.

Part-Time VPE 268

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 268

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2019

From large scale mainstage sessions to intimate workshops and even a dedicated lounge, we are carving out some of SaaStr Annual just for developers and engineers. ” When to Hire and When to Automate” with Zapier CEO Wade Foster. ” When to Hire and When to Automate” with Zapier CEO Wade Foster.

CTO Coach 143

CTO Coach Engineering CTO Hire Development 143

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2020

In fact, right after that we hired a roundtrip employee as our CTO in my first start-up and it was amazing. It was magical to have an A+ team member also be almost 100% scaled up his first day. Especially in tougher times, folks may be knocking on your door again. Roundtrip hires can work. Life changes.

CTO Hire 255

CTO Hire CTO Scaling Management 255

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2024

Is the CTO involved in these decisions? App contraction is still happening, and AI is absorbing all of the energy in the industry. So, some will stop raising a round or two, and others will reach a level of scale where they’ll have to be very disciplined. It doesn’t matter until you’re at scale. Is SaaS dead right now?

AI 240

AI Pricing Artificial Intelligence Scale 240

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

In that case, is PLG cheaper for expanding the base than their sales-driven process? “I think it’s both if you look at scale,” Henry says. “PLG is cheaper, right? It can’t come from scaling something five years ago from 10 to 400 SDRs, but real innovation.

New CTO 255

New CTO Scale Sales Hiring AWS 255

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

On top of that, founders are full of excuses preventing them from scaling. You have to see: A couple of good hires brought in Improvement on some metrics A big deal or two hanging out there, brought in and closed Things taken off your plate. But after a couple million in ARR, you can afford any hire if they’re accretive.

Part-Time VPE 185

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 185

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2020

Brendon introduces his playbook to hiring the first VP of Sales from his experiences as VP of Sales at LinkedIn, EchoSign, Talkdesk and more. Learn the dos and don’ts to make the correct hire the first time and not rush into hiring the wrong VP of Sales, which can cost the company months or even years. Roughly 90%.

Sales Hiring 156

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire 156

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2022

Fast forward to today, and there is an amazing amount of B2B-centric content out there, and many others have put together amazing events around the hard-learned lessons of scaling revenue and scaling SaaS companies. 2017 The Third SaaStr Annual: Scale Together. 2017 The Third SaaStr Annual: Scale Together.

Scale 282

Scale Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO 282

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

Which role should you hire for first? For starters, your first hire should be someone who can complement your skills, someone who is strong in areas where you’re weak, but it goes much deeper than that. I am guessing it’s probably the hardest problem to solve, hiring a job, let alone at this level. And for good reason.

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 255