SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2021

It can be easy for SaaS companies to lose momentum if they haven’t quite found the perfect product-market fit. The reality was that they were heavily relying on the enterprise deals closed by the leadership team. Even after that exciting third year of growth, leadership at Treasure Data began noticing the lack of product-market fit.

Sales Hiring 250

Sales Hiring Data AWS Leadership 250

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2023

Ed Lenta, the SVP and GM of Databricks, had the rare opportunity of scaling three hypergrowth companies — VMware, AWS, and Databricks. You need to marry your go-to-market strategy to specific commercial structures that you, as a SaaS company, decide to offer your customers. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

Scale 185

Scale Scaling AWS Sales Hiring 185

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Customers range from AWS skills-builder platforms with billions of users to Zoom using it for customers and employees. Docebo was started and funded in 2005 and became a SaaS player in 2012. A lot of folks in SaaS at $200M or more in ARR that at least started SMBish can go the whole way because you get 1000 at-bats in the beginning.

Sales Hiring 187

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 187

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

The role of finance in SaaS is changing. In 2014, storage had historically been Dropbox’s most significant cost driver, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on AWS. No longer are finance teams the traditional “bean counters” of ages past.

Scale 165

Scale Finance Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting 165

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

In many ways, your Quality of Life will simply be awful. Your quality of life will simply be awful if your co-founders aren’t as committed as you, and if they aren’t at least close to as good as you. SaaS is so cross-functional. The pay is terrible. The risk isn’t worth it. Do not pass go. Be more patient.

Part-Time VPE 276

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire AWS New CTO 276

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

And it’s one of the three large cloud vendors that we all know: Microsoft, AWS, and Google. AWS’s marketplace has seen 1.5 million subscriptions transacted and Google’s marketplace has seen 3X growth in SaaS sales. Like I said, we run 100% of our platform on AWS, so the fit was great.

Scale 187

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 187

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2020

It’s 2020 and SaaS buyers are more skeptical and suspicious, more disbelieving, more unconvinced than they were in 2019. The SaaS Trust Crisis is making it harder to market and sell software and services than ever before. And what I’d like to talk to you about today is the SaaS Trust crisis we’re seeing.

Software Review 172

Software Review Scale Technical Review SaaS 172

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2023

Whether you’re going from nothing to something or already scaling and thriving beyond $10-100M, healthy, sustainable growth in SaaS is on every founder’s mind. How much does culture matter in SaaS, and how do you build one that pays dividends? You’ll notice an evolution in how you approach customers, board meetings, and leadership.

Scale 174

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Cloud 174

Sales Hacker

MARCH 4, 2019

Dan talks about the key qualities of great sales leadership and how to be an effective executive in addition to being a great sales leader. Building a Repeatable Leadership System [19:04]. Dan’s got over 20 years of sales experience, and specifically has insights on sales and leadership. We’re on iTunes. And on Stitcher.

Leadership 62

Leadership Scale Sales Hiring Sales 62

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

” At Intercom, we build a SaaS solution for our customers, but we don’t consider ourselves a software company. Our engineers also write a lot of Ruby code, which knits together a lot of AWS, infrastructure, platform and SaaS technologies that form the core of Intercom’s backend infrastructure. Google, Microsoft, Apple).

Outsourcing Services 224

Outsourcing Services Software Review Software Outsourced Development 224

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

There are no perfect answers, but let me throw out a few thoughts for each of the major SaaS VP positions: Head of Customer Success – Where Can I Give? What you really want is someone that has (x) successfully managed at least a small team of CSMs before, (y) ideally to quota, and (z) in SaaS. The problem? Lots of it.

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 267

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

But they are often just awful managers. Especially in SaaS. Because SaaS is so cross-functional. Because they don’t know it’s impossible. Or at least, far worse than they are the second time. This means more employee churn, friction, drama than you need.

Sales Hiring 277

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AWS Churn 277

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2019

I’ve been in venture capital for about 20 years, made my first SaaS investment about 18 years ago and have really been focused on this space for a long time. And the topic here really is as much about key lessons as it is really the reality of the entrepreneurial journey in a SaaS company. I’ll just do a quick introduction.

SaaS 138

SaaS Sales Hiring Scale Innovation 138

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 31, 2019

Rise of the cloud and SaaS businesses. The wave of SaaS companies that built themselves on the likes of AWS and Azure have reinforced the pre-eminence of cloud computing. And so we end up with juice companies , meal-kit companies , underwear companies , to select just three, seeking to mimic the “as a service” aspect of SaaS.

Payment Solutions 259

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Software SaaS Payments 259

BetterCloud

MARCH 31, 2020

Whether you’re in a SaaS-powered workplace or just dipping your toes into cloud software as you shift to a remote workforce, one thing is immediately clear: There are so many options out there. Sometimes, choosing a new SaaS tool means combing through lists of dozens (dozens!) when evaluating a new or replacement SaaS tool.

SaaS 59

SaaS AWS Software Review Systems Review 59

User Pilot

AUGUST 16, 2023

How to promote data democratization in your SaaS business to improve decision-making ? SaaS businesses can benefit from data democratization by helping teams make data-driven decisions, boosting their productivity and efficiency, and improving data collaboration between them. How to implement data democratization in your SaaS?

Data 74

Data Technical Review Government Data Analysis 74

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2024

Dharmesh Shah : So, a quick confession before I start, which is like I love SaaS, I love it. We could talk about CAK and LTV, and economics, and fundraising, and entrepreneurship, and SaaS and engineering, and product management, but instead I chose to talk about culture and people, which is a little bit of an odd topic for a CTO to pick up.

Part-Time CTO 247

Part-Time CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach CTO 247

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2020

In Today’s Episode We Discuss: * How did John make his way into the world of SaaS over 2 decades ago and how did that lead to his running a $3Bn ARR business line at Adobe and lead to his joining Domo? How does John think about the role of leadership in a crisis such as this? Harry Stebbings: We are back in the world of SaaS.

Scale 209

Scale Leadership Strategy Technology 209

FastSpring

DECEMBER 21, 2020

How long have you been working in the SaaS/Tech industry? In about 2002, I got into more of a leadership position for satellite offices of larger companies. We needed to figure out a way to sell our service in a productized way, kind of like a SaaS product. But I do enjoy running an awful lot. I started with Java 0.9

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review AWS 78

SaaStr

MAY 14, 2019

Ophelia : And what do you think are the biggest challenges facing any SaaS company today? First of all, do we have any European SaaS startups here today? And how important is that for SaaS companies today? Mikkel : Well again, the public cloud, AWS, was the dominant leader. It will be an amazing milestone. Everything.

Cloud 173

Cloud Sales Recruiting Scale AWS 173

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2020

352: Decacorns ($10B+ valuation) are everywhere in SaaS, despite the downturn. SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin discusses what the new landscape of SaaS means for you in 2020. So over the course of those 20 or so odd years in technology leadership roles. You can see the full video here , and read the podcast transcript below.

Scale 177

Scale Sales Hiring Pricing Sales Recruiting 177

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Software is easier to replace than ever before, especially for SaaS products. Products like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the rise of engineering talent globally have reduced the barrier of entry for software startups in recent years. Buyers aren’t locked into long-term purchases the same way they were with on-premises solutions.

Software Review 162

Software Review AWS Social Media Machine Learning 162

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2020

And I remember like AWS was growing really quickly. And at the time there was a big debate of, “Will big companies ever really use AWS?” There were all these software companies and then the advent of all these SaaS application companies like Salesforce and Workday that were breakout successes. As a team together.

Sales Hiring 163

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Scale Sales Recruiting 163

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, before YesWare, she was VP of Sales @ Engine Yard, where she tripled monthly recurring revenue, over the course of her 3+ year tenure, in 3 key leadership roles. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: * How Bridget made her way into the world of SaaS and Sales and came to be Head of both Sales and Customer Success at Tidelift. *

Sales Hiring 187

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Outsourcing Services 187

ChurnZero

AUGUST 11, 2020

Did you know that 60% of SaaS companies reported a negative impact on customer retention and upsell deals due to the pandemic? This article shares three successful approaches B2B SaaS companies took to retain customers in the first wave. This is a guest blog post by Anita Toth, Chief Churn Crusher. . This is shocking.

Retention 97

Retention Strategy Underperforming Technical Team Software Review 97

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 8, 2018

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Chris Degnan , Chief Revenue Officer of Snowflake Computing, one of the fastest growing SaaS platforms in the world. The secrets to effective leadership and management. Related article: The SaaS Metrics Blueprint: How to Define, Measure and Display What Actually Matters.

Scale 65

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 65

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

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 5, 2019

On paper, the segmented sales model that many SaaS businesses use seems great – who wouldn’t want to copy the success of Salesforce? One of the biggest reasons I see segmentation fail is a disconnect between leadership and the SDR. Otherwise, you’re assuming an awful lot of risk that can hurt your business and then some later.

Sales Hiring 41

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales AWS 41

OpenView Labs

MAY 20, 2019

SaaS is now ubiquitous. Everywhere you look there are dominant SaaS companies with thriving products. That’s certainly true in developer tooling (AWS), sales and support (Salesforce), MarTech (Adobe), commerce (Square), HR tech (Workday) and even vertical markets (Veeva). Not surprisingly, most struggle to break through.

Scale 70

Scale Startup Technical Review Software Review 70

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2020

And then, we ripped it out and Aaron went and talked to some of the top SaaS companies from today and added the case studies. Maria is one of the top SaaS leaders in marketing, just finished up the CMO Vanna plan, which IPOed. This is the best of times in SaaS, right? We wrote a book together. Aaron : Yeah. Maria : Yeah.

Sales Hiring 199

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 199

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Bringing Sales & Leadership with Heart and Ladies Happy Hour to the sales community. I went through a VP of Sales Program with SaaSy Sales Leadership — the moment I realized I didn’t want to be a VP of Sales. are just as critical as understanding the fundamental SaaS metrics such as LTV/CAC, payback, etc.

Scale 130

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 130

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

I just thought that if there was anybody left at the end of day two that had anything they wanted to talk about, scaling SaaS, fundraising, hiring, anything, and I could be helpful, we could do a little extra Q&A. Now there are 20 or 30 public SaaS companies we can learn from. But the downturn in SaaS, at best, is uneven.

Sales Hiring 194

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 194

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Our private membership connects you with a network of thousands of like-minded peers and resources, where you can tap into leadership opportunities, training, mentoring, and other services made for high-growth leaders like you. We work really closely, we have the sales leadership, Jed Smith is my peer. Give us the pitch. Amy: Totally.

Sales Recruiting 80

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Marketing Underperforming Technical Team 80

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2019

So tell me how did you make your way from the wonderful coast of the UK into the world of SaaS and come to now be one of the leading CIOs in the really rising mega wave of enterprise SaaS? But I want to kick off today with a little about you. Yousuf Khan: Well, I think leading CIO is questionable, but I’m getting there.

Technical Advisors 152

Technical Advisors Scale Technical Review Payment Solutions 152

Outseta

MAY 8, 2020

Musing after a decade spent building SaaS start-ups By Geoff Roberts 20 min read. Today I can look back across a full decade that’s been spent building SaaS start-ups. There’s an awful lot of nuance here and the devil is in the details. My whole career, quite literally, lay in front of me.

Part-Time VPE 102

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 102

Outseta

OCTOBER 30, 2020

If you see something you don’t like, you grit your teeth and carry on because the business is bigger than yourself and that’s what your leadership team decided. The other point here is if you’re a CEO, your board or investors or leadership team chose you to be the CEO and make these types of calls—it’s literally your job!

Leadership 62

Leadership Branding Business AWS 62

OpenView Labs

MAY 20, 2019

SaaS is now ubiquitous. Everywhere you look there are dominant SaaS companies with thriving products. That’s certainly true in developer tooling (AWS), sales and support (Salesforce), MarTech (Adobe), commerce (Square), HR tech (Workday) and even vertical markets (Veeva). Not surprisingly, most struggle to break through.

Scale 51

Scale Startup Technical Review Software Review 51