SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2023

But … if you’ve been around, if you know great founders, if you have strong dealflow, if you can already get into great companies … then it’s terrible advice. One of the all-time best SaaS VCs just invested in one of my companies. The job is to deploy capital, after all. So we all feel this.

Investment 281

Investment Cloud SaaS Management 281

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2024

I struggled with this myself a bit in the early days, in my first start-up job. If a SaaS company under a great CEO grows from say $1m to $100m in ARR … the valuation and value could easily grow from $10m to $1b. That’s a unique job. Dear SaaStr: What Does a CEO Do to Deserve Such an Exorbitant Salary? That’s the CEO.

B2C 241

B2C Engineering Revenue SaaS 241

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

The question entrepreneurs and founders need to ask themselves is… Is Your Company Still Relevant In A Post-AI World? It’s an exciting time to be a visionary, and that’s a founder’s job. Those companies are gone. He proved that the innovator’s dilemma causes big companies to get disrupted. What about talent?

AI 247

AI Technical Review Startup Management 247

Upscope

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Customer success manager (CSM) job descriptions vary greatly across companies, depending on size and philosophy. Below are several job descriptions which cover this range. Why does the CSM job description vary so much across different organisations? Gainsight is a large (500+ employees) and growing SaaS company.

Customer Success 40

Customer Success Sales Hiring Management SaaS 40

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2023

Aren’t they already being paid to do a full-time job? Don’t they seem to be working on their side hustle on LinkedIn with even more enthusiasm than their day job? And in some cases, really to be both a VP and running a second senior job at the same time. Depends on the size of the company. Well, maybe.

Underperforming Technical Team 271

Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Startup 271

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2024

The vast majority of startups and companies allow a ton of work from home. So look if you’re unhappy today, but have a good job, reflect a bit. If your job is truly unrewarding, yes find another one. My best advice if your job is rewarding is do more of it. And importantly — it’s not quality of life. I meant embrace it.

Sales Hiring 201

Sales Hiring Startup Sales 201

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. However, last Friday the jobs report came out very strong (which would in theory contradict the possibility of a soft landing, which I’ll get into). Follow along to stay up to date! Hard Landing? Soft Landing? No Landing?

Cloud 268

Cloud Software Review Technical Review Systems Review 268

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2023

You pick yourself up, and find another job. If as a non-founder, you fail at your individual job, that is rough. But the company can survive that. The most shocking thing from talking with Jensen: if he could do it all over again, he would not start a company. It’s hard there, too — but it’s not the same. You move on.

Entrepreneurship 253

Entrepreneurship Interviewing Scaling SaaS 253

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2024

But you should be a bigger, better, and more highly regarded company and product this year than last. But this is your job as CEO, to balance the different incentives and forces here. So increase pricing annually to reflect that. Well, that depends on how much you’ve earned. Try to increase pricing annually for new customers.

Pricing 249

Pricing Branding Sales 249

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2024

I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve done in the past months where I was told how their last company was “toxic”. That job was toxic. It wasn’t my company. Twice this week, at least. It’s the new hot term to describe situations that are challenging. Or that we didn’t enjoy. They are toxic, after all.

Interviewing 235

Interviewing 235

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

In a lineup of all Enterprise B2B SaaS companies with similar features, investors can only choose one or two per year. She’s also sat on boards with 15 or 16 companies, figuring out what does and doesn’t work for her as an investor. Your culture is why people will leave a lucrative job at Google to work with you. Who likes it?

B2B 197

B2B Enterprise Communication Technology 197

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

SaaS sales execs with even a little bit of experience at other SaaS companies are looking for higher and higher OTEs, often with lower effective attainment and high support costs. Almost every SMB SaaS company I work with has moved most of its sales team outside the U.S. simply don’t really want these jobs.

SMB 261

SMB Scale Sales Hiring Sales 261

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2024

If your win rates stay extremely high, that means your are doing a pretty terrible job of getting into more and new deals. Measure your NPS, and then have the whole company align on raising it every quarter. Your happy customers beget more happy customers in SaaS.

Scaling 264

Scaling Revenue Underperforming Technical Team Market Segmentation 264

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Is The Job of a Venture Capital Fund Manager? Ultimately, the job is to beat Nasdaq by at least 20%. It’s liquid and full of great tech companies! Now what does the job look like? The post Dear SaaStr: What Is The Job of a Venture Capital Fund Manager? Roughly: Source new investments.

Venture Capital 173

Venture Capital Management Investment Startup 173

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2024

Last time we had a great one with Job van der Voort, CEO at Remote, check it out here. We implemented 6Sense early, using it to craft highly targeted campaigns based on company category, intent stage, and job family for individual contacts within those accounts. This week we have Rik Haandrikman, VP of Marketing at RevenueCat!

Marketing 197

Marketing ChatGPT Mobile Onboarding 197

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2024

The make or break ones: Should we sell our company? Not for help doing their job. There’s no one to talk to about their jobs, even if they have a big team. That’s part of your job for your top performers in your 1-on-1’s. And especially — peed up any that are reversible, and have a good manager to manage them.

Management 245

Management Sales Hiring Pricing Communication 245

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2022

An important gap to fill, and a full-time job. And most of these CS execs and I share the same frustration: their job is mainly reactive. What I mean is, with most SaaS companies, there’s just a huge customer workflow break. Sales works as hard as it can to close the deal this month, this quarter — and often does an amazing job.

Customer Success 273

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing 273

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Often, for another job where realistically, they won’t make nearly as much money. Why would a sales rep quit a job where they are making top 1%-5% money, respected, treated well, and have it dialed it? She quit to go a big public company as one of hundreds of reps, and start over. I asked her why. The constant here?

Sales Recruiting 192

Sales Recruiting Sales Startup Engineering 192

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2021

That's part of the job, after all. Just make sure at least 50% of their energy goes into promoting the company, and not just their personal brand. CMO is a tough job. And the job often is so multi-facteted. It’s a big job. Both their company, and many times, themselves. The real job.

Sales Recruiting 266

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Branding Product Marketing 266

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

One bit of advice: Please, please, actually research the company you are interviewing at. Be a consultant, build your 30/60/90 plan and job description and iterate and validate during the interview. For real. At least for 30-45 minutes, ideally more. He said that was the first time he’d heard that. Usually works pretty well.”

Interviewing 216

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Consulting 216

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2023

You could just run the standard playbook from your last job and it would almost always just work. I remember I first started to see this with one company I invested in where some folks described it as “Gong for XYZ”. I know great jobs are harder to find. The demand was already there, and often red hot. You can interview.

Marketing 219

Marketing Sales Interviewing Enterprise 219

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

1: Put the company right back into your drip market campaign. If your competitor did an OK job but isn’t loved and you now are doing something much better (one thing) than them. I.e., if someone that loves you instead moves over to run the company / division / org you lost the deal at. If your competitor really screwed it up.

Sales 253

Sales SaaS Marketing 253

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

And the more it’s just a job. To another VC firm (pretty common) To work at a portfolio company To start their own company To a corporate VC fund Are some of the most common landing spots. Now, the more junior you are, and the less of a true Managing General Partner you are, the less it is true. Where do they go?

Investment 220

Investment Management Software 220

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2023

A new role, a new company, maybe even starting one yourself. In my first tech job, I was working at a firm helping startups … and then I knew one night, it was time. I gave my notice the next day, with no job lined up, and zero savings. I’ve then left two jobs since. They start new companies. That time comes.

Startup 230

Startup Pricing Investment Sales 230

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2023

So Jamin Ball at Altimeter Capital probably does the best job of tracking SaaS and Cloud metrics of public companies of anyone out there.

SaaS 238

SaaS Cloud Scale Metrics 238

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2021

The company does reasonably well, or at least, doesn’t fail. Six tips: Don’t sell too much of the company. If you only sell 20–30% of the company, because you don’t need that much capital … you’ll remain in de facto and legal control. It’s not your company anymore at that point. You give it 110%. This is key tip #1.

Finance 346

Finance Investment Marketing Leadership 346

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

A few years ago, Harry Glaser sold his company, Periscope Data, for $130M. From the start of the company to a couple of years after being acquired, it was about a ten-year journey altogether. The adage is true that tech companies aren’t sold. Lesson 1: Offers Come When They Come You should grow your company for the long run.

Underperforming Technical Team 164

Underperforming Technical Team Data Development Team Review Technical Review 164

SaaStr

OCTOBER 1, 2023

As part of that, the very way we build SaaS companies has changed multiple times. To OTEs, to job specs, to how teams are staffed, and more. To OTEs, to job specs, to how teams are staffed, and more. And if as part of that, your job stinks, well I get it. It’s so much change. Make a change. Even now, find a way.

Engineering 197

Engineering SaaS Marketing 197

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 23, 2024

At a16z’s recent Connect/Fintech event, a16z Partner Alex Immerman sat down for a broad conversation with Immad Akhund , co-founder and CEO of banking startup Mercury , and René Lacerte, founder and CEO of financial services company BILL. So we tried these ways internally in the company. I don’t believe jobs go away.

Payments 103

Payments Forecasting Payment Services Payment Solutions 103

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Unless again, you have a true CTO as well, that is also leading the company. Bill Gates coded, Jobs didn’t. But — Jobs had Woz. You’ve got to recruit a much bigger, and more expensive, engineering team in many cases. There are exceptions, many of them. But usually there is an amazing CTO from Day 1.

Outsourcing Services 237

Outsourcing Services Engineering CTO Scale 237

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2020

Q: Why are sales jobs the worst? It’s easy to see in many SaaS companies, but overall in the world, many people don’t really value the large contributions sales professionals make. You can be just a number to the company. At the VP level, your job is always at risk. Here’s why sales is tough: Can’t hide — not for long.

Sales 316

Sales Churn SaaS Management 316