SaaStr

DECEMBER 25, 2023

He’d move into a lower paying customer success role, and had a $100k OTE at his last role, where he was laid off. He’s been searching for months for a new role and was feeling the pressure. While we hadn’t really kept in touch, I offered him a similar role with significantly higher comp. My only ask: he own it.

Startup 236

Startup Customer Success Metrics SaaS 236

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2024

Decide if the CEO is literally a 10/10 and ideally the CTO If you aren’t sure the CEO is truly great, and ideally, the CTO, then ask around. No matter how attractive the other parts of the role may be. So how you can do your own diligence as the first senior sales exec going in? I’d suggest a quick 2 part test: #1.

Sales Recruiting 215

Sales Recruiting CTO Startup Sales 215

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

The “traditional” role of a sales engineer is to support the sales team through the close of a deal. And as you scale, the role should likely end there. Dear SaaStr: How often will a sales engineer also wear a customer success hat in an early stage of an SaaS startup? Pretty darn common.

Scale 234

Scale Engineering Customer Success Startup 234

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What’s Really So Great About Being CEO? You get to be friends with, and interact at a unique level, with other, and great, CEOs. Not if you are a great CEO. Whatever glory there is in the role, you won’t enjoy that part, not really, not much. It’s a really, really, really hard job.

Compensation 262

Compensation 262

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2023

A CMO role, again and again. A VP of Sales role. A few tells: No CEO-level reference. Any great VP-level candidate should have at least 1 CEO willing to sing their praises. Any great VP-level candidate should have at least 1 CEO willing to sing their praises. Maybe a role or two didn’t work out.

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring SaaS Interviewing Startup 235

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2024

As the kickoff to our first fully digital SaaStr AI Day, Jennifer Tejada , the CEO of PagerDuty, chatted with Jason Lemkin, SaaStr CEO and Founder, about navigating the shift to Generative AI and what Artificial Intelligence in SaaS might look like in the next 6 months, as well as years to come. How to Buck Up and Go Long in SaaS?

Generative AI 238

Generative AI AI Technical Review Software Review 238

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2023

I’ve talked with three CEOs at leading vendors in sales and post-sales at $200m+ in ARR the past few weeks and they’ve all reinforced these are some of the biggest changes in a generation. Outbound is nothing new, but the formal role of the SDR exploded the past decade. Segment reps, and have closers close.

Customer Success 292

Customer Success Scale AI Pricing 292

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

It’s just so much more intense and all-consuming that an individual contributor or even “ordinary” manager role. The good news is, you’ll also gain great new friends : As you scale, you’ll bond with other CEOs and founders at your leve l. You’ll have much in common with other CEOs at $1m, $10m, $50m, etc.

Engineering 258

Engineering Scaling Management Leadership 258

OpenView Labs

MARCH 13, 2019

Wistia’s Co-founder & CEO, Chris Savage, explains their decision to create a self-service funnel and when their sales team gets involved in the buying process. The post Wistia’s CEO on the Role of Sales in a PLG Company [Podcast] appeared first on OpenView Labs. Prefer to listen on iTunes? Click here.

Sales 61

Sales Marketing 61

SaaStr

DECEMBER 24, 2023

“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. In this role, she leads all post-sales functions including User Operations (Support), Customer Success, Renewals, Professional Services, and Training.

Startup 233

Startup Customer Success Sales Business 233

SaaStr

OCTOBER 22, 2023

“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. He is a Strategic Advisor to the CEO of Freshworks. I always learn a lot from these — they are in essence a best practices list from each leader. He is on the Board of Directors for R.R.

AI Search 258

AI Search Consulting Leadership AI 258

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2024

Tracy Young , CEO and co-founder at TigerEye, sits down with three CROs to talk about how they navigated the journey to revenue leader. While working at LinkedIn back in 2009, she was offered the role of building out the first SDR and BDR organization. The path to Cheif Revenue Officer (CRO) is different for many people.

Scale 243

Scale Underperforming Technical Team SMB Finance 243

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2020

We’re not quite done with that journey but if you’ll forgive me going back in time, I wanted to address an interesting question at Day 1: Who Should Be CEO? Sometimes when you start a company it’s 100% obvious who the CEO should be. A big part of a CEO’s job is to keep the company funded and not bankrupt.

Sales Recruiting 315

Sales Recruiting Venture Capital CTO Hire CTO 315

SaaStr

AUGUST 1, 2023

Either find a smaller role in the company, and still be supportive. If the CEO is really great, they’ll find someone else. Stay in a reduced role if you can. Dear SaaStr: How Do I Leave a Startup When I’m an Integral Co-founder? Do that if you can. If you can’t, if you really don’t want to stay. Then rip the band-aid off.

Startup 217

Startup Finance 217

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Chances of a Startup CEO Getting Fired? Who can actually fire the CEO? So, if you don’t raise money and bring on any outside Directors, there is usually no one who can fire the CEO , unless the other cofounders get together, vote themselves the majority of the board, and then fire the CEO.

Technical Cofounder 249

Technical Cofounder Venture Capital Startup CTO 249

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 4, 2024

On March 15th at 9:30 Pacific time, Office Hours will host Colin Zima, CEO of Omni Analytics. Colin is no stranger to business intelligence & data analysis. Can non-deterministic systems be used effectively when the answer must be correct If you’re interested to attend, please register here.

Technical Advisors 165

Technical Advisors AI Search Data Analysis Acquisition 165

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

But what roles should you hire for, and what will your org chart look like at each stage? You will continue to expand and iterate based on this basic model as you grow: Founder/CEO. At this early stage, your teams are lean, made up mostly of individual contributors, with department heads reporting directly to the CEO.

CTO Hire 249

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 249

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2023

“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. With a career focused on the intersection of storytelling, media, technology, and advertising, Sarah also previously held leadership roles at Ooyala, Discovery, and Viacom.

Advertising 229

Advertising Leadership AI Technology 229

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2023

“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. I always learn a lot from these — they are in essence a best practices list from each leader. Last week we had a great one with Sarah Kiefer, CMO at Pitch, check it out here.

Innovation 240

Innovation Technology Enterprise Data 240

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

The best CEOs telegraph these risks, without drama, but plainly and ahead of time. When I hear a CEO say a competitor is “imploding” — usually they aren’t. The best CEOs are very respectful of their competitors. The best CEOs update you first on what the competition is doing well, and importantly. A bit more here.

Startup 278

Startup Scaling SaaS Revenue 278

SaaStr

APRIL 9, 2022

Oh, you are CEO of a 4-person startup? More fun than a non-CEO role. All other roles, you will be bored sometimes. But as CEO, your mind will always be working. Other great CEOs, founders, VCs, executives, and more. Most founders, in fact, get a bit lost once they sell their startups, or move on as CEO.

Sales Recruiting 207

Sales Recruiting Startup Management Business 207

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What should a CEO look for in hiring a fractional or part-time Chief Marketing Officer? There are tons of folks, especially in the Bay Area, who want to consult with you in a senior marketing role. Someone that can own a number. Tons of them. What very few will do is own a number: Own a lead commit.

Marketing 201

Marketing Consulting Revenue 201

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

” To be a successful CMO, you need context from your CEO and the rest of the executive team. It leads CMOs to not spending enough time on hiring, and it can also lead them down a path where they start to compromise on the company and hiring principles because they want to move on in the hiring process and get someone in the role.

Sales Hiring 251

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 251

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2021

I also think, as a case study, @jenntejada is a great example of CEO that adds value to the product itself like @levie. Yes you can win in many cases by remaining “hidden” as CEO — but the more enterprise your customer base is, the more important getting out there and being out there is. Yes for sure. Let’s contrast Box and Dropbox.

Enterprise 332

Enterprise SMB Scaling Revenue 332

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

In addition to talking about the evolution of customer success, Allison and I will talk about the COO role. COOs have become more common in management teams as ways for founders & CEOs to build the management team to scale a business. How does the role work with the CEO? How does the role work with the CEO?

Scale 293

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Customer Success 293

SaaStr

OCTOBER 2, 2020

And the run up to the holidays and the end of the year is sometimes a time we quietly ask ourselves, after a few (or more) years in … Could Someone Do a Better Job as CEO? It may seem as the years go by that the answer must be Yes, especially for first-time CEOs. Can an outside CEO grow the company magically faster than you ?

Scaling 350

Scaling SaaS Marketing Leadership 350

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2023

“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. In his role as CRO, Robby prioritizes building a world class team, delivering value in every customer interaction, and creating a culture of gratitude across the organization.

Revenue 237

Revenue Forecasting Sales Enablement Customer Success 237

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2022

Up today: a 2016 interview with Harry Stebbings and Gusto Co-Founder and CEO Josh Reeves. To know when it’s the right time, think through every potential role, and ask why. Is this role filling an urgent need? To celebrate 10 years of SaaStr, we’re revisiting some classic podcast episodes.

Interviewing 302

Interviewing Development Churn SaaS 302

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

The 5+2 rule is simple: Every Co-founder including especially the CEO, plus every Customer Success Manager , Must Meet On-Site with 5 Customers a Month , Every Month, or 60x a Year And Get 2 Customer Badges Every Year for a Bonus. _ And you’ll learn something magical: First, customers love to meet the CEO. They love it.

Customer Success 290

Customer Success Compensation Churn Enterprise 290

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Being a CEO changes you. It’s just so much more intense and all-consuming than an individual contributor or even “ordinary” manager role. The good news is, you’ll also gain great new friends : As you scale, you’ll bond with other CEOs and founders at your level. You’ll have much in common with other CEOs at $1m, $10m, $50m, etc.

Engineering 359

Engineering Scaling Management Leadership 359

Tom Tunguz

JULY 12, 2021

Today, Jim Benton, CEO at Chorus announced the company has agreed to a merger with ZoomInfo for $575m. Along the way, Jim Benton joined the business as CEO, accelerating our go-to-market, sharing insights with key sales leaders on The Weekly Briefing , and leading the company to this terrific outcome.

AI 280

AI Technology Software Sales 280

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2021

We were fortunate enough to interview CEOs who were in the trenches navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, investors who were advising companies on how best to move forward, and operators who saw explosive growth given the shift to working from home. . SaaStr 338: Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on Taking Care of Your Team and Your Customers.

Scale 249

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling B2B 249

SaaStr

DECEMBER 31, 2022

“How To Innovate Faster with Community: Insights From GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij” A great session from GitLab’s CEO and founder on how to really use community to build and scale. #2. Here’s what folks most watched in 2022 : Here were the Top 10: #1.

Scale 206

Scale SMB Innovation B2B 206

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2023

“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. I always learn a lot from these — they are in essence a best practices list from each leader. This week we have Carin van Vuuren up, CMO of Greenhouse. #1.

Consulting 219

Consulting Innovation Startup Communication 219

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Under What Circumstances Should the Board Fire the CEO? See, e.g. Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff (although he had a brief, early stint where he wasn’t CEO at Salesforce), Facebook, Microsoft, etc. In fact, almost 90% of leading public SaaS companies are still run by their founder-CEO. So help the CEO get help.

B2C 149

B2C Innovation Scale Enterprise 149

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2021

“Lessons in Scale: Building the Foundation for High Growth with Qualtrics’s CEO” This should be a great session. ”Bottoms Up vs. Top Down Selling in the Enterprise with ThoughtSpot’s CEO” This will be a great session, register here. #5. Here are the 5 most popular sessions so far: #1.

Enterprise 271

Enterprise CTO SMB Scaling 271

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2020

Q: I’m Head of Product and I think our CEO is actively recruiting a VP of Product. Go talk to your CEO. It may mean you need to find another role, or another start-up at some point. It may be deeply disappointing to find out the CEO thinks she or he needs someone “above” you on the org chart. What should I do?

Interviewing 241

Interviewing Management Leadership 241