SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2023

They had a bit of dip in growth as they worked to integrate the mega-acquisition of Auth0 — but then went right back to growth. Slowing headcount growth — like lots of others. Okta headcount grew 32% year-over-year, fairly consistent with revenue growth, but then Okta like others slowed down hiring. It only grew 4.5%

Scale 310

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring SMB 310

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

SaaS leaders at scale often find their cost per acquisition goes up at scale, at they saturate the market, but Monday has gotten better and better here: #8. Like many tech companies, Monday added a ton of headcount in 2021. It then added only 63 employees last quarter, and plans to continue with very slow headcount for a while.

Headcount 315

Headcount SMB Engineering Scaling 315

SaaStr

AUGUST 21, 2024

Only Grew Sales & Marketing Expense 12%, and Cut R&D (Product + Engineering) and G&A Expenses Toast has gotten to profitability by truly holding the line on headcount and revenue expenses. Sales & Marketing has only grown 12% as revenue has grown 29%, and R&D expense actually went … down. #5.

Scale 297

Scale Payment Methods SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 297

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 18, 2019

This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics. Sales breaks down the new customer acquisition metrics: total AEs, number of ramping account executives, bookings capacity, quota attainment and so on. People is the first section because people are a startup’s most important element.

Metrics 250

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount 250

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2022

Yes, these really can be seen as customer acquisition costs, and they are: “We consider the net costs of onboarding and hardware, in addition to our sales and marketing activities, to be core elements of our customer acquisition approach.” About 20,000 customers, so about $5,000-$6,000 per year per customer.

SaaS Payments 281

SaaS Payments Scale Payment Methods SMB 281

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

.” Cross-selling generates $5M+ in new monthly revenue – Rippling’s cross-sell motion alone drives over $5 million in net new ARR each month before counting any new customer acquisitions. In the world of SaaS, conventional wisdom has long dictated that focus is paramount.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 154

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

Headcount isn’t the right story for them, though. It’s not about marketing or user acquisition. Eventually, this team moved out of growth, so their success wasn’t dependent on budget or headcount. Just like hiring, you don’t want to be lazy here. Instead, it was a cross-functional, data-driven, experimental team.

Scale 287

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 287

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

OCTOBER 9, 2012

If you manage a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, at some point you'll be forced to make a tough decision about your customer acquisition process: Feed it or starve it? Because of the way the SaaS business model works, if you feed the customer acquisition process, you hurt profits and burn cash.

Acquisition 124

Acquisition Scale SaaS Headcount 124

The Angel VC

MARCH 23, 2016

Therefore the key drivers of my imaginary startup are organic growth rate, marketing budget and customer acquisition costs, conversion rate, ARPU and churn rate. If you have a SaaS startup with a higher-touch sales model where revenue growth is largely driven by sales headcount, the plan needs to be modified accordingly.

SaaS Payments 217

SaaS Payments Headcount SaaS Payment Methods 217

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2023

Ai made it possible to engage with students, teachers, and others within the platform, save on customer service headcount, and scale the company. Three proven use cases for AI at IBM include talent acquisition and management, customer service, and app modernization. Key Takeaways AI presents an unprecedented opportunity.

AI 296

AI Technology Scale Startup 296

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2023

Almost half of that growth is from acquisitions, though, so the “organic” deceleration is from 35% to 15%. #2. Headcount Down 25% Since September 2022, But Revenue Still Up. Twilio is the same great company it was in 2022 and 2021, but it’s also been the segment where buyers have cut back perhaps the most.

Headcount 236

Headcount Cloud Communication Acquisition 236

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2023

The anticipation of a rate change drives fear of target acquisition valuations. In the last two years, M&A has totaled about $49b & it surges to above $60b driven by AI acquisitions. The Fed cuts rates, which helps. M&A accelerates throughout the year. ARR per employee increases 10%, twice the decade long average.

AI Search 240

AI Search Headcount Scale AI 240

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

With precise headcount and budget needs. Third, build a real marketing / customer acquisition / demand gen budget for next year — and figure out how to start it in Q4 … and how to fund it. I’ll Keep it Simple. How many reps. How many SDRs. How many MQLs, how big a marketing budget, and how many in marketing.

Sales Hiring 281

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Acquisition 281

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 23, 2022

With increasing business costs and reduced headcount, companies are feeling the squeeze as they also grapple with rising consumer expectations. Shifting focus to customer retention can actually be twice as powerful as customer acquisition. That’s why companies should look to support – and retain – the customers they have.

Customer Support 212

Customer Support Retention Headcount Customer Lifetime Value 212

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2022

Instead of celebrating headcount, focus on growing efficiently in scalable ways.” . Logo acquisition (i.e., If writing a better email could get a two percent conversion from one percent, it opened the opportunity to do twice as many demos. . Unconventional scaling ideas to accelerate growth.

Outsourcing Services 278

Outsourcing Services Scale Sales Hiring Outsourced Development 278

Kellblog

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

What metrics are PE sponsors looking for in mid-market software acquisitions? How to navigate the PE acquisition process? To what extent will companies raid headcount budget to generate AI budget? What’s happened historically to the IPO bar, i.e., the minimum size you need to go public, and where is it today?

Headcount 70

Headcount AI Generative AI Acquisition 70

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2023

Talent acquisition managers can attract top salespeople by introducing QOL functionalities. Redeploy funds from headcount to sales technology. When asked about an employer’s sales tech stack and how it influences one’s likelihood of accepting a job offer, 92% of respondents stated that it was extremely important. QOL functionalities.

Innovation 246

Innovation Sales Hiring B2B Strategy 246

Sales Hacker

JULY 24, 2018

As we think of ways to improve sales performance, a number of growth pains may come in the way: High acquisition costs. Decreased revenue per rep, High turnover as you scale headcount. You don’t have to automatically accept that your customer acquisition machine will become bloated or inefficient during the growth phase.

Scale 71

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring Scaling 71

SaaStr

OCTOBER 18, 2019

With precise headcount and budget needs. Third, build a real marketing / customer acquisition / demand gen budget for next year — and figure out how to start it in Q4 … and how to fund it. Pick a real ARR target for the end of next year, and back into who you’ll need to hit it — month-by-month. How many reps. How many SDRs.

Sales Hiring 234

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Revenue 234

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2024

Customer acquisition. One thing about moving away from paid acquisition to higher quality revenue is it requires a re-emphasis and reinvestment into free. Do you see massive disruption in workforces and marketing headcounts shrinking because of AI? “I’m That’s the opportunity here. It’s a pain.

AI Search 271

AI Search SaaS Advertising Sales Hiring 271

The Angel VC

MARCH 22, 2012

Therefore the key drivers of my imaginary startup are organic growth rate, marketing budget and customer acquisition costs, conversion rate, ARPU and churn rate. If you have a SaaS startup with a higher-touch sales model where revenue growth is largely driven by sales headcount, the plan needs to be modified accordingly.

Startup 189

Startup SaaS Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions 189

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 21, 2022

We’ll also hear Andrew Chen, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, talking about the changing landscape of customer acquisition. “When you have a product that is strong on the organic and word of mouth side of things, driving additional demand through marketing programs is actually quite hard” A bigger acquisition funnel.

Outsourcing Services 216

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring CTO Hire Acquisition 216

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2019

This data typically comes in three broad flavors: Firmographic: This includes employee headcount, revenue, vertical, business model, location, tech stack, web traffic, and other publicly available information about the customer. Consider these other examples: For business collaboration tools, headcount likely indicates differing needs.

Business 184

Business B2C Scale Headcount 184

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 4, 2019

Despite the exponential growth they’ve gone through, Stripe have been refreshingly conservative about how quickly they grown the company from a headcount perspective. We are a very engineering-centric company, so 50% of headcount is always going to be on engineering. We just were never going to get that headcount.

Scale 162

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Payment Services 162

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Treat partners as another channel – focus on acquisition and enablement. #6 What kind of headcount do you have? Here is a simple framework for maximizing the idea of building an ecosystem. You have to reach new audiences, acquire new partners, and enable the ones you have. Leverage your partner ecosystem.

Scale 270

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Marketing 270

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

As investors, we keep a close eye on customer acquisition cost (CAC) payback. We use it as an indicator that a company has the right fundamentals in place to effectively ramp up customer acquisition. In turn, these headcount costs can go directly towards building and selling the product. . The takeaway.

Headcount 98

Headcount SaaS Compensation Acquisition 98

Valuize Consulting

FEBRUARY 8, 2025

For years, B2B technology companies have leveraged partners to drive customer acquisition and product implementation. However, in todays recurring revenue economy, the role of partners must evolve.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Technical Review Government 52

ChurnZero

JANUARY 17, 2025

CAC Payback Period helps CFOs measure how long it takes to recoup customer acquisition costs through recurring revenue. As a CCO, understanding how your CS programs impact gross margins can help you make a stronger case for budget. The median payback period for SaaS companies is 14 months, but this varies by company size and contract value.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Benchmarks Headcount Scale 52

Sales Hacker

JUNE 1, 2020

This is part of a phenomenon called Product Led Growth (PLG) , an end-user growth model that relies on the product itself to be the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion. Sales still makes up 25% of their headcount on average. No hassle and no credit card required. It seems to be paying off, too.

Sales Hiring 91

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 91

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 29, 2019

When I started, they had a big growth plan as far as headcount, but they were a little bit looser on processes and cadences and things like that framework I was talking about. So again, we got aggressive headcount to see the growth, and we put together a plan where we can actually see maybe even a little bit more growth with the same people.

Scale 172

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Payment Services 172

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 12, 2018

As VP of Corporate Strategy at Twitter, Elad Gil was a key player as company headcount skyrocketed from 90 to 1,500 employees. This wasn’t Elad’s first experience with hyper growth – Google grew headcount 10x during his time as a product manager there – nor the last. If you enjoy the it, check out more episodes.

Sales Hiring 120

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 120

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 25, 2019

Or focusing on customer expansion as opposed to new customer acquisition. When I started, Pipedrive had a big growth plan as far as headcount, but they were a little bit looser on processes and cadences. Research shows that it costs five times as much to win a new customer as it does to generate revenue from an existing one.

Scale 136

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 136

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

You’re investing resources in hiring and training the right people, tracking different metrics at different stages, adding more and more complexity with each increase in headcount, use cases, and customers. I moved there for university, and then I started working at Goldman Sachs in their mergers and acquisitions team.

Outsourcing Services 206

Outsourcing Services Scale Software Sales Hiring 206

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

And once a customer has paid back the initial acquisitions costs to acquire it, all future streams of revenue can loosely be described as a cash flow annuity. Headcount planning, budgeting, fundraising, etc can often be largely based on a top line plan. Do you have ARR or ERR?

AI 193

AI Cloud Revenue Technical Advisors 193

OpenView Labs

MAY 24, 2021

(This new way of thinking about R&D spend also requires companies to rethink the relevance of classic SaaS metrics like CAC payback, which only consider Sales and Marketing costs as part of customer acquisition.). PLG is more of an acquisition channel than a company-wide strategy. Atlassian has an R&D:S&M ratio of 2.9:1.

Scale 98

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring Benchmarks 98

ChurnZero

JUNE 9, 2023

Good sales teams typically get the budget, headcount and tools they desire because the function is tied to revenue. As a result, CS teams often have to work harder to make the case for headcount, technology and even product requests on behalf of customers. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) The churn rate is a good segue to address CAC.

Finance 98

Finance Metrics Customer Success Headcount 98

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Sales now accounts for about 7% of the company’s headcount–a similar share of their workforce as marketing or product management. I’d even argue that the company is still under-resourced in sales; sales accounts for only 7% of Atlassian’s headcount compared to 25% of headcount at the average PLG business. This is a good thing.

Sales Hiring 90

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 90