Casey Accidental

DECEMBER 5, 2023

I’d argue the only companies that have found product/market fit in crypto are companies that either enable or catch grifters. A more pithy way of saying this is the crypto space has created more criminal convictions than companies with product/market fit. So, as an operator, this feels like 1997 or 2008.

AI Search 66

AI Search AI ChatGPT Scale 66

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.

Payments 63

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.

Sales Hiring 177

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Government 177

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

They talked about product adoption, sales alignment, freemium models and lessons they have learned throughout their successful SaaS careers. As two CEO who love the art of sales and scaling, this one really was special. When I was starting as a first time entrepreneur in 2008, I got rejected by a lot of VCs.

Sales Recruiting 247

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 247

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.

Scale 244

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling B2B 244

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 9, 2024

In this conversation, a16z Growth general partner Sarah Wang speaks with Crossbeam CEO Bob Moore about his new book, Ecosystem-Led Growth: A Blueprint for Sales and Marketing Success Using the Power of Partnerships. Or, “are my sales reps selling into the same companies as your sales reps?” We think about SCR teams.

Scale 120

Scale Technical Review AI Sales Hiring 120

Incredo

NOVEMBER 1, 2019

Do you want to grow your SaaS sales team and improve your processes? maintain healthy atmosphere in your Smarketing team, make smart choices regarding your SaaS sales model, strategy, pricing, . build smoother connections both with your prospects through optimized sales process. And from SaaS sales models to SaaS pricing.

SaaS Payments 157

SaaS Payments Payment Methods Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 157

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. You go over and test it at scale with small businesses.

Sales Hiring 145

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Sales Recruiting 145

Baremetrics

MARCH 16, 2021

Background In 2017 and 2018, many new blockchain projects started offering their tokens for sale. While blockchain technology was spearheaded by Bitcoin starting from 2008, using the technology for other applications became popularized around 2017. Table of Contents. Gain valuable feedback.

Blockchain 90

Blockchain Payment Solutions Artificial Intelligence Payment Services 90

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2023

Since 2008, investor preference has largely been growth-oriented due to the artificially low cost of capital and stimulus. It’s rare for companies to improve both their sales and margin during a downturn. The right strategy to win means reassessing fundamental issues like the product-market fit and centering on the best ICP.

Consulting 42

Consulting Underperforming Technical Team Management Marketing 42

Mucker Capital

MAY 6, 2020

Even in the best economic environment, startups face countless challenges, whether related to hiring, pricing, sales or customer acquisition and retention. 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.

Startup 52

Startup Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring 52

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.

Scale 127

Scale Product Marketing Scaling Marketing 127

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

Does Bob agree with the notion that channel sales have completely died in the world of SaaS? 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. I always say kind of tele-sales are the most important form of kind of training in terms of sales.

Sales Hiring 132

Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services CTO Hire 132

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. And I think it’s a constant challenge that every business that moves up market deals with and that requires just thoughtful orchestration across all three areas.

Scale 127

Scale SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting Payment Services 127

User Pilot

MAY 19, 2021

However, if you break down who they were asking: High-growth bootstrapped companies spend 20% less on general and administrative costs while spending 25% more on marketing compared to low growth bootstrapped companies. Hubspot, one of the leading content marketing platforms, pioneered webinars all the way back in 2008.

B2B 119

B2B Marketing SaaS Social Media 119

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”). Opportunity Cost Too often people think solely in terms of the up-front cost of a program, service or product.

Underperforming Technical Team 213

Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service 213

SaaStr

JUNE 15, 2021

How sales worked, how pricing worked, how billboards work, and more. Yesteryear, if you had a communications product, you would go into a relatively top down, IT type sale. You’d have an enterprise sales force, a song and dance and maybe some steak. Jeff : You don’t need sales.

Scale 287

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Engineering Wireless 287

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2020

333: Bridget Gleason is the Head of Sales and Customer Success @ Tidelift, the company providing managed open source, backed by maintainers. Before Tidelift, Bridget was VP of Sales @ Logz.io and before that was VP of Corporate Sales @ Sumo Logic where she drove ARR up by a record 237%.

Sales Hiring 195

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Outsourcing Services 195

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2023

And we ended the day with an incredible combo of the hottest app at that time (and one of the hottest ever), Slack, who likely was around $30m ARR or so … and hadn’t yet added a sales team! I’m like, “Where can I talk to a sales rep?” Can you get to $100 million without a sales team, do you think?

Scale 343

Scale Sales Hiring PayPal Development Team Review 343

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? What one question must all founders be asking in the sales process? *

Scale 115

Scale SMB Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 115

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

* What does David believe is the crucial step missing in B2B when it comes to finding product market fit? How does David think about scaling sales teams? How does one know when is the right time to hire your first sales reps? How does one know when is the right time to hire your first sales reps?

Scale 190

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 190

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

In this blueprint, we provide insight into where growth comes from and how to structure your sales approach to capture that growth. The Winning By Design Blueprint Series provides practical advice for every part of a SaaS sales organization. Traditional Sales Growth vs SaaS Sales Growth. FIND PRODUCT MARKET FIT.

Scale 89

Scale Growth Hacking Scaling Sales Hiring 89

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2019

Finally, before that, Amit was the Founder & CEO @ SparkThis, an outsourced marketing and sales service for cloud companies. How do you know when you have the right pricing mechanism in place from the sales cycles of the reps? Amit Bendov: That’s kind of a long story, but I started my career, actually, in sales.

Outsourced Development 132

Outsourced Development Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 132

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

APRIL 3, 2020

In Today’s Episode We Discuss: * How Anthony made his way into the world of SaaS starting in the sales team at Box and how that led to his entering the world of marketing and creating the customer success category. * How is marketing being pushed further into the realms of CS? Anthony Kennada: Totally.

Sales Recruiting 174

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 174

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. Sales Software Who. Motivation.

Retention 76

Retention Product Marketing B2C Startup 76

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

Karen Page: I started my career in sales and marketing. 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? That might be a good time to continue to AB test your go to market approaches.

Scale 173

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Investment Sales Hiring 173

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2019

Jason Vandeboom is the Founder of ActiveCampaign, a sales and marketing automation platform that enables small businesses around the world to meaningfully connect and engage with their customers. If ACV increase is a core focus for our startup, should we hire a sales rep solely selling to enterprise?

Outsourcing Services 114

Outsourcing Services Scale Sales Hiring SMB 114

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

Scale Marketplace as a Service Sales Recruiting Scaling 116

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? What one question must all founders be asking in the sales process? *

SMB 26

SMB Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 26

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 147

Payment Solutions Payments Outsourcing Services SaaS Payments 147

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. If RFPs are slowing down your sales team, you need to check out Loopio. The platform allows sales reps to deliver consistent, relevant, and responsible communication for each prospect every time, enabling personalization at scale previously unthinkable, previously, absolutely unthinkable.

VP of Engineering 76

VP of Engineering Scale Development Team Review Technical Review 76

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Exited to Semantic in 2008 and had a good exit for the early SaaS businesses then set up Notion and we focus on SaaS companies, mainly in Series A in the European market. Your first sales guy is going to cost you $500K a year plus there’s SDRs, the marketing people. Did anti-virus and anti-spam and the cloud.

Payments 102

Payments Payment Features SaaS Payments Underperforming Technical Team 102

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 31, 2021

In this episode of the Sales Hacker podcast, we have Ajit Ghuman , Head of Product Marketing at Narvar and author of Price To Scale. The role of product marketing, perfectly summarized. Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. The role of product marketing [5:30]. powered by Sounder.

Product Marketing 66

Product Marketing Scale Marketing Pricing 66

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2020

We got started in 2008 when we first spotted this sort of new place in investing, which we called seed. At the time, there may be four or five other firms doing this same strategy of investing somewhere between $500,000 and $2 million into companies that were just getting started we would call it pre product market fit.

Venture Capital 218

Venture Capital Investment Travel Marketplace as a Service 218

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

At the beginning, my vice presidents were engineering, and product, and a designer. Making sure we have product market fit was effectively number one. Build the product. Get it into the market. As the evolution of the company, as we started moving up market, started selling to enterprises, it was, “OK.

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 255