SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Why did sales-driven Qualtrics get to $100m+ in ARR without ever raising a nickel, and generating more than $20m a year in free cash flow ? Does it cost so, so much to host a few million lines of code on AWS? Sales, done right, should be accretive (although expect sales efficiency to ultimately decline post-Initial Scale).

Scale 279

Scale SaaS Banking AWS 279

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Or of my investments, ones like Algolia and Salesloft, that yes, in theory, were playing in larger markets, but in practice, their entry points were quite narrow. How can that scale over time? How many sales reps, how much marketing spend, how many engineers will you really need? Worth investing 7+ years of your life in.

Scale 197

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital AWS 197

The Angel VC

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

Call me when it scales.” The point is that getting to $1-2 million in ARR probably has less predictive value concerning a company’s ability to get to true scale than most people think – or at least thought some years ago. Being a seed investor I’m trying to find SaaS companies that can scale before they have scaled.

Scale 192

Scale Scaling SaaS AWS 192

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2021

I thought it might be helpful to assemble a checklist of 22 reasons I almost immediately pass on investing in start-ups that are still interesting. You’re in sales. CEO Doesn’t like Sales — and The Hunt. The converse is, a bad arse hacker/engineer that has also learned to love sales. And/or Late.

Sales Recruiting 336

Sales Recruiting Scale AWS Investment 336

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 30, 2024

Then I went into banking, specifically investment banking in the early ’90s. Angela: One of the interesting things we notice about CEOs that are able to scale really quickly is that they often sit at the intersection of a few different worlds and are able to bring these trends together. It’s terrific to be with you today.

Payment Solutions 78

Payment Solutions Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 78

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

I’m referring to the full spectrum of business execution, from product management to design to engineering to marketing to sales to support and all the other functions needed to scale a business. Basic marketing and selling at a global scale is becoming easy too. The second army are your main competitors. Mid-stage startups.

Software Review 224

Software Review Outsourcing Services Software Outsourced Development 224

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

So how can you leverage that product’s success to obtain the valuation and funding you need to scale? I’m talking about product-led growth as an investment strategy, but really my background is 10 years of operating experience in the product-led growth world. Now I’m investing in that. So, OpenView worked out for me.

Investment 100

Investment Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 100

Chart Mogul

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Updating the data engineering stack streamlined data processing; reducing the time and effort invested in manual data handling. The aim was to ease data access across the company and allow data engineering functions to scale. Nowadays, these are packaged and deployed in docker images, and executed via AWS lambda or EKS pods each day.

Engineering 52

Engineering K8S orchestration (Kubernetes) Data AWS 52

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2019

It was around that time about 12 years ago that Jeff Bezos launched AWS, and some of you may remember that, when he did this, Wall Street analysts were looking at him and saying, “Why would you take what’s already a very unprofitable business and drive it further into the red by investing in this AWS initiative?”

Cloud 100

Cloud Scale AWS Machine Learning 100

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2024

When you take the data, you may have a business goal of making more sales or delighting the customer. What should founders know about the modern AI stack that Enterprises can scale on? Being able to size up what kind of training you need and making choices based on that answer will determine the stack Enterprises can scale on.

AI Search 203

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Scale 203

Audacix

JULY 28, 2022

In fact, smart and fast-growing cloud software companies who outperform their peers usually share this common trait: they consistently grow sales and build their brand by turning their security standards into a key differentiator and selling point. A cloud server, like an AWS EC2 instance, is still a server. Great question.

Cybersecurity 52

Cybersecurity Underperforming Technical Team AWS Scale 52

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2023

Scaling Early-Stage to Hyper-Growth Companies With Ed Lenta, SVP and GM of Databricks Back in the early 2000s, people didn’t entirely accept that a virtual machine could be as good as a physical one. Ed Lenta, the SVP and GM of Databricks, had the rare opportunity of scaling three hypergrowth companies — VMware, AWS, and Databricks.

Scale 187

Scale Scaling AWS Sales Hiring 187

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

The team is typically highly cross-functional, working together with sales, product, engineering, and marketing, and the goal is to help the other teams make better decisions through data and financial modeling. In 2014, storage had historically been Dropbox’s most significant cost driver, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on AWS.

Scale 165

Scale Finance Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting 165

Frontegg

MAY 27, 2021

Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a consumer-centric scaling, conversion, and retention philosophy that uses the product itself as the primary growth driver. Making the bottom-up shift: You are shifting from the top-down to a bottom-up mindset, which means more money and time to invest in R&D efforts. Best For: Product Adoption.

Payment Solutions 98

Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments Scale 98

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2020

And so, she can, and Anthony just finished up basically going from the first sales hire at Gainsight at almost 100 million in revenue and has just retired. Maria : Yeah, I think, coming from a marketing side and thinking about that as a marketer, marketing is all about investments. And notice that I said investments, not cost or spend.

Sales Hiring 204

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 204

OPEXEngine

JUNE 29, 2020

Think of it this way: most SaaS companies have high customer acquisition costs, as you have to invest heavily in sales and marketing in order to realize high growth. Those PPC ads that you run and the sales reps that they hire don’t come cheap, and as such, this eats into your profit margin.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks SaaS Sales Hiring Scale 52

OpenView Labs

MARCH 16, 2021

SaaS companies exploring a usage-based model need to plan for both go-to-market and operational challenges spanning from pricing to sales compensation to billing. Flexible: Customers should be able to choose and pay for their exact scope of usage, starting small and scaling as they mature. Get the Usage-Based Pricing Playbook.

Pricing 52

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 52

Frontegg

OCTOBER 14, 2020

Before AWS, engineering teams had to scale their own infrastructure. Frontegg is led by SaaS industry veterans Sagi Rodin and Aviad Mizrachi, who experienced the innovation and dev tax first-hand, building and scaling enterprise-grade applications at CheckPoint (Nasdaq: CHKP), HTS, and Vicon Industries.

DevOps as a Service 52

DevOps as a Service K8S orchestration (Kubernetes) Innovation New CTO 52

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 13, 2018

I saw we had the opportunity to do that in London and to do something that will be new for Facebook, in the same way that AWS was a new business model and product line for Amazon and a bet that paid off very well. We are going from having an enterprise business to having a mid-market business to investing in an SMB business.

Scale 151

Scale Marketplace as a Service Mobile Sales Hiring 151

Chart Mogul

MARCH 2, 2021

What will fill the void left by the business you worked hard to build, scale, and sell? It might be awful. It might be easier to tolerate post-sale commitments, therefore, as you have better control of the outcome. Whatever you decide to do after your SaaS business is acquired, don’t get swept up in the excitement of the sale.

Startup 52

Startup Acquisition SaaS Scale 52

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2020

And then I spent a year at Salesforce working on Marc Benioff’s extended leadership team, and really had a chance to learn how important trust can be, and also really learn from Salesforce, from Mark, how do you really build a global SaaS leader at scale? And in this time of COVID, we’re also pleased we are able to give back.

Software Review 178

Software Review Scale Technical Review SaaS 178

ProfitWell

MAY 12, 2020

This option will require significantly more time investment from an IT department than either of the other two options will. Both companies provide tools that allow businesses to automate their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts. AWS — Amazon Web Services is perhaps the most used of the cloud infrastructure options.

Cloud 59

Cloud Azure SaaS Underperforming Technical Team 59

Chart Mogul

MARCH 2, 2021

What will fill the void left by the business you worked hard to build, scale, and sell? It might be awful. It might be easier to tolerate post-sale commitments, therefore, as you have better control of the outcome. Whatever you decide to do after your SaaS business is acquired, don’t get swept up in the excitement of the sale.

Startup 52

Startup Acquisition SaaS Scale 52

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

A 2020 study from Product Marketing Alliance shows 56% of product marketers find product demos to be an effective sales enablement asset: This trend shows that in 2021, you can also create testimonial videos to establish credibility, increase trust, and convert customers. It allows customers to start small and try out a product.

Product Marketing 58

Product Marketing Trends Scale Marketing 58

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2019

292: Manny Medina is the Founder & CEO @ Outreach, the market leading sales engagement platform that turns your team into a revenue driving machine. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: * How Manny made his way to found the leader in sales engagement from product management at Amazon and Business Development @ Microsoft. *

Scale 141

Scale Sales Hiring Construction Education 141

Sales Hacker

MAY 19, 2020

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Tom Williams , Cofounder and CEO at DealPoint. DealPoint is the first sales platform for customer-centric sales teams. Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. Welcome to the Sales Hacker Podcast. But the ultimate milestone isn’t the contract. We’re on iTunes.

Scale 92

Scale Payment Methods Payment Services Sales Hiring 92

Audacix

OCTOBER 24, 2019

In fact, smart and fast-growing cloud software companies who outperform their peers usually share this common trait: they consistently grow sales and build their brand by turning their security standards into a key differentiator and selling point. But it's also true that it's never too late to secure your cloud-based web app. Great question.

Cloud 49

Cloud Cybersecurity Scale Transportation 49

Neil Patel

JANUARY 8, 2021

Or perhaps you know how it works but don’t have the budget or urgency to invest in one. If you want free hosting but care about your site’s aesthetics and user-friendliness, you can opt for a company that supports their free platform through other means, such as the sales of premium hosting plans. Customer support.

Payment Methods 141

Payment Methods Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 141

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

At its core, gross margin (GM) speaks to the relationship between sales and its costs. As a founder, you can use this 84 cents to pay salaries, office rent, dividends, or invest in R&D. Understand the levers of costs, also known as cost of goods sold (COGS) or cost of sales (COS). Fighting skewed data with segmentation.

Scale 52

Scale Payment Methods Payment Services Systems Review 52

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

As SaaStr Europa 2022 drew to a close, attendees took one more opportunity to ask Jason questions about topics like how to navigate the current market, the future of work, playing in a crowded space, and hiring your first VP of Sales. It was funny for Henry to say he segmented his sales team at 80 million in ARR. Transcript.

Sales Hiring 194

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 194

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 30, 2022

But these days, there are so many innovative and impactful tools that can massively streamline your workflows and help to set you up for success as you scale. This is especially important for small teams, where you need to operate at a scale far beyond your headcount (without burning out your team by working around the clock).

Scale 163

Scale Payment Services Startup AWS 163

Upscope

JUNE 9, 2021

Working as a apple tech was awful but for the rude customers I would put on hold while I went outside to chat with co workers or grab something from the vending machine. I don't have a thick skin, which probably made it about 15 times worse, but I still can't think about it without having awful flashbacks. What can we learn from this?

Payment Methods 52

Payment Methods Management Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring 52

SmartKarrot

MARCH 2, 2023

Here are the top 15 venture capital podcast leaders shaping the industry with their visionary and thought leading podcasts covering a range of topics from startups, investments, trends, interviews, and more! He invested in more than 20 early-stage companies. Azeem is also a creator of the Exponential View newsletter and podcast.

Venture Capital 10

Venture Capital Scale Entrepreneurship EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) 10

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Ten years ago, we built the initial Intercom infrastructure in AWS’ us-east-1 data center in North Virginia, USA. As a first step, we’re delighted to announce that we now offer European data hosting – allowing your most important data to remain entirely in Europe, stored in the AWS-eu-west-1 region. What’s next?

Data 181

Data AWS Scale Engineering 181

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Women in sales often have a polarizing experience. In the Sales Hacker video series Aha Moments , I asked 10 women: “What is one ‘aha moment’ you’ve had in your sales career?”. The conversations that followed were so authentic and encouraging that we decided to expand this conversation to other badass women in the sales world.

Scale 130

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 130

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2020

An open discussion with Sam Blond, CSO at Brex, and Kristen Habacht, VPS at Atlassian, about adjusting their sales process during Covid-19. Kristen Habacht runs EDR sales at Atlassian, which I got a check today, $40 billion-$50 billion company. Four, people in the sale? Kristen Habacht: Well, there’s none in sales.

Merchant Services 173

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 173

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

One thing we’ve learned in helping our founders and operators scale their businesses is that cash is one of their most precious resources. Flex is a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest.

Metrics 92

Metrics Revenue Scale Marketing 92