SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

David’s first foray into SaaS was in 1999 when he joined a startup that would become PayPal, starting as the product leader and later as the COO. In 2008, he founded Yammer, an enterprise software company that David grew to 500 employees and $60 million in sales. Head of Marketing. David Sacks: SaaS Background and Investments.

CTO Hire 237

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SaaStr

MAY 22, 2019

Leaders who do so will lose their product market fit. She started off as an associate product manager with Netscape, then joined the Boston Consulting Group as a project leader. From 200-2008 she held leadership positions at Allegis Corporation and Intuit before ultimately joining Intercom in 2017.

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Casey Accidental

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

After product/market fit, most companies’ obsession is not thinking about how to create their next amazing product. Specifically, how do I get this product I know is valuable in the hands of everyone it can be valuable to. As I have discussed in previous essays , product/market fit can be hard to interpret at the time.

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Payments Scale Payment Methods Underperforming Technical Team 63

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2019

How does a startup that launched during the financial crisis in 2008 become a unicorn company in 2019? Product-market fit has been really important. So we started in 2008 June, 2008 I think and in three days we would celebrate our 11th birthday. That’s when we found product market fit.

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SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2021

In this episode, David Skok , General Partner @ Matrix Partners , uncovers the crucial step missing when it comes to finding product-market fit for B2B companies, how to set-up your sales team for success early on, and what metrics really matter when it comes to a payback period. We’re obviously in a very unique situation today.

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SaaStr

JULY 16, 2019

Join Rene Yang Stewart, Co-Head and Principal, Vista Equity Partners, and Monica Enand, Founder and CEO, Zapproved, as they discuss growing a company from product market fit to scale. René Stewart: So, Monica, you have, obviously, taken a company from figuring out product market fit to now a company of scale.

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Mucker Capital

MAY 6, 2020

That pressure can lead to missteps, which most startups can ill-afford when they still haven’t found product-market fit or a scalable, repeatable go-to-market strategy. Indeed, after raising large rounds of financing, founders frequently feel pressure to spend aggressively to drive growth.

Startup 52

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SaaSHolic

MARCH 20, 2023

A Activision e a Blizzard cresceram na década de 90 se especializando nesse público (até se fundirem em 2008) e gigantes como Microsoft, Sony e Nintendo desenvolveram hardware e software para o público. Nascia em 2007 outra empresa de tecnologia — chamada Zynga — que buscava agradar um público um pouco mais específico: os gamers.

SaaS 52

SaaS Software Review Mobile Startup 52

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

When I was starting as a first time entrepreneur in 2008, I got rejected by a lot of VCs. Do you have to still find the right product market fit, you have to build a good product, you have to service the customers, you have to compete in the market. And it doesn’t mean that you have to sell a big product.

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SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2023

Since 2008, investor preference has largely been growth-oriented due to the artificially low cost of capital and stimulus. The right strategy to win means reassessing fundamental issues like the product-market fit and centering on the best ICP. Shifting focus in a new era. Strategy to win.

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Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

You joined YouTube back in 2008, and you helped guide the company through hypergrowth after its acquisition by Google. During that time, what were some of the biggest lessons that you learned scaling the product organization? When I got to YouTube in 2008, we had amazing growth in lots of different ways. This was 2008.

Software Review 171

Software Review Mobile Systems Review Technical Review 171

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2019

In Dec 2008, Vista Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Wrike for a deal reportedly valuing the company at $800m. In December 2008, Vista Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Wrike for a deal reportedly valuing the company at eight hundred million dollars. Andrew Filev: They depend on your product market fit.

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Sales Hiring Scale SMB Sales Recruiting 145

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

And that led me to co-founding a company called RJ Metrics in 2008 with my co-founder Jake Stein, who was also at Insight. What do we believe in as a company in terms of where we want the product to be in a few years? Really it’s more like product market fit solves all problems. Is that not?

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Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services CTO Hire 131

ProfitWell

AUGUST 19, 2019

They’re an established leader in the market and one of the first movers in the space, but the tradeoffs they’ve made to get there have put the company in dire straits. The biggest problem Evernote has is product-market fit. Subscribe and Listen. How freemium acquisition can go wrong over time.

Acquisition 76

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SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2019

How did seeing the boom and bust of the dot com and 2008 affect Dave’s operating mentality? So I do have to ask, having seen the market volatility of the boom and the bust, how do you think that really impacted your operating mentality, and how you think today, Dave? How does Dave think about when is the right time to raise?

Sales Hiring 141

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Underperforming Technical Team 141

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Billion story from its launch in 2008 to its 2018 acquisition by Recruit Holdings. In terms of the product market fit falling apart. How does your customer success and customer support functions change with the move to enterprise? Billion acquisition is just one milestone in the early innings of the company’s story.

Scale 127

Scale SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting Payment Services 127

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

MARCH 23, 2020

S Curves At HubSpot we often discussed S Curves - the idea behind them is that all products, markets and business models follow a predictable cycle of growth, maturity and decline (the pattern often looks like an “S”). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness brought the theory worldwide attention back in 2008.

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Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service 213

Baremetrics

MARCH 16, 2021

While blockchain technology was spearheaded by Bitcoin starting from 2008, using the technology for other applications became popularized around 2017. As a growing startup, QuikNode is focused on optimizing product market fit and iterating for more traction. Table of Contents. Gain valuable feedback.

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Blockchain Payment Solutions Artificial Intelligence Payment Services 90

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 9, 2024

In 2008, I started a business called RJMetrics, which was basically the first SaaS analytics platform. There weren’t really SaaS products or APIs at that point. Then by 2011 or 2012, some of the tech components of the Great Recession had started wearing off and the market started waking up. The first two were much nerdier.

Scale 114

Scale Technical Review AI Sales Hiring 114

Hitenism

APRIL 24, 2017

By the time I had started KISSmetrics in 2008, I was constantly making friends with people like Eric Ries, Sean Ellis, and Ed Baker just to learn everything they knew about getting predictable growth. To learn this discipline in the past, you would have had to personally network your way to the top growth practitioners in Silicon Valley.

Growth Hacking 177

Growth Hacking Artificial Intelligence Technical Review Systems Review 177

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2019

As for Tom, he joined Redpoint in 2008 and has since led investments in Kustomer, Looker, Expensify, and Gremlin all prior guests on the show, I hasten to add. What time frame from SAL to closed lead suggests product market fit? How does this differ when comparing SMB to enterprise?

Scale 114

Scale SMB Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 114

User Pilot

JULY 28, 2023

A form of minimum viable product MVP designed to attract customers up front and raise money to actually build the product prior to launch. If you want to generate a buzz and market your idea, use a crowdfunding-style MVP. Identify product market fit and understand what will build loyalty, use a minimum lovable product.

Marketplace as a Service 96

Marketplace as a Service Social Media Development Artificial Intelligence 96

SaaStr

JUNE 15, 2021

Jason : You launched, it’s a hack in the beginning with 18 months, you’ve got another product line? Jeff : Basically, we launched voice in 2008, very end of 2008. It’s from Twilio to you, our customer, is that we stand by this as an operationally excellent product. Is that the history?

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Scale Underperforming Technical Team Engineering Wireless 285

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

If you can create a scenario where others are building on top of your product – and therefore evolving it in ways you may not have the resources to do yourself – your offering suddenly becomes even more valuable to your customers. Here, Ceci unpacks her thinking for Intercom’s Group Product Marketing Manager, Jasmine Jaume.

Underperforming Technical Team 170

Underperforming Technical Team Marketplace as a Service Outsourced Development Development 170

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2020

I went into product marketing for the commercial arm of Xerox Park, which is a big computer research company here. And we started CloudFlare during the economic downturn right after the financial crisis in 2008. ” Because again, it was 2008. Then, I went into sales school, Xerox sales school.

Sales Hiring 194

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Outsourcing Services 194

Brian Balfour

JULY 5, 2017

In the introduction to this series I made the point that Product Market Fit isn't the only thing that matters. It is actually only one of four fits needed to grow a product to $100M+ in a venture-backed time frame. Why we should be thinking about it as Market Product Fit. I’ve been in both situations.

Retention 76

Retention Product Marketing B2C Startup 76

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

In particular, post-2008 when a SaaS solution with its OPEX offering stood out from the conventional CAPEX solutions. In 2015 Randy had kept pace with the growth in the market. Competitors were increasing their market share and Randy was falling behind. FIND PRODUCT MARKET FIT. Originally this worked well.

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Scale Growth Hacking Scaling Sales Hiring 86

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2023

Stewart : If we had started in 2008, your question before, we would not have taken off like this, for a number of other reasons. David : Which is great, because Parker did a great job, but at some point with a 600 employee company, at some point you might decide you want a product management team. It was just harder.

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Scale Sales Hiring PayPal Development Team Review 336

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

What does David believe is the crucial step missing in B2B when it comes to finding product market fit? So if we start today on the hailed and much discussed topic of product market fit, there’s a common assumption that you find product market fit and then just aggressively scale.

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Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 189

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2019

What you need to know about this story is that I founded the company back in 2008. The challenge with that is you found a company, you start building a company, you raise money for a company, you hire a team to build the product for a certain type of company, and then the whole consumer changes and you have to adjust.

Scale 116

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ProfitWell

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Combine that with the qualitative feedback Spotify received from the primary benefits survey and the number of people who recommend the product to others, and Spotify is in a really great position to start playing around with their strategy and trying new things. Good product-market fit boosts engagement and trust. “ Hiten Shah.

Payments 63

Payments Payment Methods Payment Services Pricing 63

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

Early stage, there’s going to be demand risk and product market fit risk, but later the risk is about the ability to scale. Is it in that pre product market fit phase? What types of product marketing pieces do we need to generate and create? Harry Stebbings: Totally. I see that.

Scale 172

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SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2020

Basically I was recruiting engineers for Bay area based startups and the problem with it was that the year was 2008, and it was a really tough time for hiring, but an even worse time for recruiters. How do you approach that,, because you can’t literally market to everyone from financial services to shipping brokers.

Sales Recruiting 173

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 173

SaaStr

AUGUST 6, 2019

We looked at the world in 2008, 2009, and we said, “How come it’s almost impossible to connect two companies to do business, especially if they have complex business processes, but we can all connect as consumers on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, every single day we want to do business? Your product has value for them.

Payment Solutions 146

Payment Solutions Payments Outsourcing Services SaaS Payments 146

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2019

Amit Bendov: Product and product marketing. But I totally understand where he’s coming from and it’s hard to disagree with his point. Harry Stebbings: Can I ask? What’s the hardest role to hire for today, do you think?

Outsourced Development 132

Outsourced Development Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 132

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2020

As for Tom, he joined Redpoint in 2008 and has since led investments in Kustomer, Looker, Expensify and Gremlin all prior guests on the show I hasten to add. What time frame from SAL to closed lead suggests product market fit? How does this differ when comparing SMB to enterprise?

SMB 26

SMB Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 26

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2019

I think this is a really, you know, we entered a new era around about the 2008 timeframe when, finally, we started to get the data that people in sales and marketing wanted to be able to make data-driven decisions. And that to me is, that’s sort of the essence of why metrics is such a fundamental part of how you run a business.

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