SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

If you haven’t read it yet, head on over to Part 1 of Ask Me Anything with SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin to learn about sales in SaaS, how to create great SDRs and AEs, developing an impactful content strategy, and potential SaaS trends for the next 12-18 months. How do you fix GTM? They’ll know the risks they’re taking.

Sales Hiring 241

Sales Hiring SaaS Banking AI 241

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2023

The sales cycle is important because it cascades into a bunch of critical metrics for you and investors, including revenue. The sales cycle is important because it cascades into a bunch of critical metrics for you and investors, including revenue. You need to be transparent with the sales process with champions within companies.

SaaS Payments 225

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments Payment Features 225

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2022

And even harder to think about Going Long. Instead, it sort of makes you think about taking the First Good Offer for your startup. If you can get to $10m in ARR, growing 80-100% or more Year-over-Year, and have happy customers AND a good team … if … then you can’t be stopped.

Scale 361

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital Startup 361

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

20X year 1⃣ 12X year 2⃣ 5X year 3⃣ #deelspeed @deel [link] — Shuooo (@shuoshuooshuooo) January 23, 2023 When we look at SaaS companies’ success stories, everything looks great on their growth maps. And on to almost $300m ARR today! Identifying a direction is just the starting point.

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 235

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2021

Both are at about $100k in MRR (congratulations!). But even though both are now at $1m ARR … one is just so much better positioned than the other for success getting to $5m and $10m in ARR quickly. The other one at $1m ARR, figured it out on the fly … and really, is still figuring it out.

Interviewing 353

Interviewing Startup SaaS Enterprise 353

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2023

Learn about the most important SaaS metrics for founders in 2023 with the CEOs of the most metric-oriented company, monday.com, and the founder of SaaStr. For a quick recap on SaaS metrics: What is ARR in SaaS? ARR stands for Annualized Recurring Revenue, although its real-world definition has evolved over time.

Metrics 189

Metrics SaaS Sales Hiring Finance 189

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2022

Great rule — if you have the capital to fund it. But maybe not while you are scaling, you can often afford to invest more if you have funding. And you may not be able to afford this if you are bootstrapped or running lean. Especially if you are mid-market or enterprise. Well — Maybe.

Scale 250

Scale Customer Success Sales Hiring Scaling 250

SaaStr

AUGUST 4, 2021

Ask them what those top 3 are before you hire them. You may need something different. I’ve interviewed 100s of VP of marketing candidates over the past years and I can tell you one think — it’s easy to spot the ones that won’t work out. You have to make sure those are you top 2-3 needs, as well.

Interviewing 356

Interviewing Sales Hiring Marketing Branding 356

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Many of you are familiar with this visual, most likely created by an investment firm. It has become much cheaper to build software — You can build high-quality products cheaply in your dorm room with a laptop. The wrong way to build multiple products is… Building random products you think your buyer might want.

Scale 240

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 240

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Customer success is all about outcomes. If you’ve raised venture capital, you know net revenue retention is important. Everything! What Does NRR Aim To Answer Most people know the formula for NRR. In SaaS, you have three ways to make that curve stand out. That’s the end state we’re going for.

Scale 176

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success Scaling 176

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Given the massive downturn that started 18 months ago, many SaaS founders are nervous about what it takes to raise capital in SaaS in 2023 / 2024. If you missed that part of history, this practice turned into writing it on a physical napkin. At the Seed stage, investors also asked how much ARR companies had at the time.

AI 205

AI Underperforming Technical Team Cloud Strategy 205

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Magic Number is your growth in ARR over a quarter divided by the sales and marketing spend in the prior quarter. Magic Number is your growth in ARR over a quarter divided by the sales and marketing spend in the prior quarter. If you were well-funded, 0.7 x in this case, you would already be at break even. Let’s find out.

VP of Engineering 229

VP of Engineering Scale Marketing Benchmarks 229

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

In the past, we’ve touched on several different ideas to help you scale, to do Even Better: Imagine capital doesn’t matter. And see where that takes you. And if your team knows how to spend it, correctly — find a way to get them the capital they need to grow even faster than plan. Add a layer.

Part-Time VPE 284

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services 284

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

For context, Docebo is a learning management platform addressing the needs of corporations that train an audience internally and externally. The LMS market segment is big, and Docebo thinks about it in two folds. People think you can’t build a business without burning a lot of cash, too. Let’s dive into it.

Sales Hiring 209

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 209

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

Recently I put together a quick list on twitter of the Top 10 things that with hindsight, I could and should have done to get from $1m to $10m ARR faster — and with less stress. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. You can do this.

Part-Time VPE 276

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 276

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

If you are a SaaStr reader, you’ll know how passionate I am about Customer Success, since Day 1. What it all means is that if you do it right, you’ll make 6x or more the revenue from your customers after the sale itself. And about measuring and identifying Almost Churn. Word-of-Mouth.

Customer Success 294

Customer Success Compensation Churn Enterprise 294

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

You can watch the full video below, and we’ve included a transcript of the episode. Audience Member 1: I follow your tweets and your content and I really love all the materials you guys put out there. But sometimes I see the title, something like, “After a hundred million ARR, growth slows down.” Bootstrapping.

Sales Hiring 229

Sales Hiring VP of Engineering Payment Methods Scale 229

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2020

I hear again and again from SaaS founders growing to $5m, $10m ARR or even more that they don’t need a certain VP — with the exception of a VP of Sales. Basically, in SaaS, everyone “gets” that they need a VP of Sales. in ARR, get to Initial Traction , we then realize we have to scale.

Sales Hiring 354

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Scale 354

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Read the Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Great VP of Sales ebook or What Makes a Great VP of Sales and How to Hire One blog post. While this topic isn’t new, you want to avoid getting this hire wrong.

Sales Hiring 157

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 157

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

When you’re growing fast, everything can feel like it’s breaking constantly, and you’re hiring and rehiring people fast. But then growth flatlined for a couple of years, and it was time to talk about selling. From the start of the company to a couple of years after being acquired, it was about a ten-year journey altogether.

Underperforming Technical Team 176

Underperforming Technical Team Data Development Team Review Technical Review 176

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2023

PST, Nick Mehta, the CEO of almost $200M ARR Gainsight, shares the top 10 mistakes founders can make when scaling their start-ups — mistakes he made himself over the last ten years of growing Gainsight. They are close to $200M ARR with 1200 employees. Growth doesn’t happen naturally, so you have to figure out what works for you.

Sales Hiring 181

Sales Hiring Scale Pricing Customer Success 181

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2023

Many people at this year’s SaaStr Europa wondered about the future of customer success, motivation during hard times, and how to grow in this new era of efficiency. If you missed part 1, catch that here. Q: How Do You Think The Founder Playbook Has Changed For Bootstrapped Founders In 2023? “The You were lame.

Sales Hiring 231

Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success SaaS 231

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

The advice and thinking that leads you to make important mistakes there really is no need to make: “Ask VCs for Advice When You Want Money, Money When You Want Advice” I don’t know who started this, but they must be smarter and more perceptive than me. Please help me really know which you want.

Part-Time VPE 298

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 298

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to hire a Great VP of Sales. And we’ll keep talking about it — so long as 70% of first-time VPs of Sales don’t make it 1 year. If you can avoid most things on this list — your odds of success go up. Not hiring people better than you. Do not do this.

Sales Hiring 349

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Headcount 349

SaaStr

MAY 29, 2022

And about when to know it isn’t working out. So a quick checklist here: Don’t hire a VP of Sales that hasn’t worked at a start-up at least at the ARR you’ll be at in 12 month s. If you do, they just won’t know the playbook for your stage. They know them. Often not.

Sales Hiring 265

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 265

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Wherever you are in your revenue journey, adopting certain growth strategies can help you keep growing fast. Joined by Katie Wickham, Payrix’s Director of Marketing, Butler shares essential tips on accelerating your business to $100 million ARR and beyond. . Tip #1: Maintain a hyper-focus on your ideal client profile. .

Payments 184

Payments Payment Methods Embedded Payments Scale 184

SaaStr

JANUARY 13, 2021

One piece of “evidence” — a lot of fairly successful SaaS startups all sell at about the same point in time … about 5 years in. You’re responsible for everything as it is. But you have to own less as you scale. I know we all don’t want to do this. Someone you can talk to this stuff about.

Travel 363

Travel SaaS Banking Startup 363

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Conversations about the state of the SaaS market in 2022 are everywhere, and it can seem overwhelming for entrepreneurs and business leaders to make sense of everything. In the first session of the eye-opening CRO Confidential series, SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin interviews Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond about the current economic climate.

Sales Recruiting 207

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Leadership Interviewing 207

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Know the role of the CRO (hint: it’s not sales). It’s up to the CRO to keep a company’s marketing and product strategy in the kind of lockstep that drives it to produce the revenue it needs. The life of a CRO is all about results. You don’t have to get a deal at any price—at the cost of yourself, your team, or your customers.

Underperforming Technical Team 281

Underperforming Technical Team Leadership Outsourced Development Finance 281

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about the challenges in getting from nothing to that first $1m-$1.5m in ARR, “Initial Traction” That it takes longer than you think. That if you get 10 customers, you can get another 10, 100 , and so on. But there’s too much that you just can’t quit.

Sales Hiring 313

Sales Hiring Scale Banking Engineering 313

SaaStr

MAY 13, 2022

There are many ways to track your marketing performance, but if you want to understand how effective it is, one metric reigns supreme: revenue. Once you find what works best for your organization, you’ll be able to scale your profits efficiently and stay ahead of the competition with easy-to-implement bottom-line numbers.

Revenue 221

Revenue Scale Engineering Marketing 221

SaaStr

JUNE 12, 2020

Yet Box needed $250m? Why did Atlassian essentially need no capital to IPO, yet Slack raised epic amounts ? Why did Atlassian essentially need no capital to IPO, yet Slack raised epic amounts ? If you are good at it, you can win in spaces you are weaker in — once you have a brand.

Scale 338

Scale SaaS Business Model Strategy 338

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

Random quote I found on the Internet If that doesn’t describe the CEO experience, I don’t know what does. Maybe they need more coaching. Maybe they just need more time. Lesson: I need to hold our leaders at Gainsight to the highest possible standard. I make it 5 or 6 times, just to be sure.” We should give them a chance.

Sales Hiring 270

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Customer Success 270

SaaStr

APRIL 25, 2021

I didn’t know much about anything other than direct sales at the time. But if you can get out ahead of the market here, you can get brought into, and win, a lot of deals just because you are the only decent vendor at the table. Especially before you have a big brand, this really helps reinforce a “mini-brand”.

Scale 265

Scale Enterprise Branding Scaling 265

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2022

So as I’ve written about before, I’ve interviewed a ton of folks for CS roles in the past 12 months. So as I’ve written about before, I’ve interviewed a ton of folks for CS roles in the past 12 months. Maybe you need gap fillers for now, primarily. An important gap to fill, and a full-time job. But the best do more.

Customer Success 288

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing 288

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

You have to understand: what people are searching for what their intent is what the product is that you’re building It’s a marrying of company vision and go to market. You have to understand: what people are searching for what their intent is what the product is that you’re building It’s a marrying of company vision and go to market.

Scale 176

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 176

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2021

The other day I saw a VP of Sales flame out and resign with no notice from a SaaS company doing $10m ARR growing quickly. But it’s more common than you’d think. But if we’re talking say broadly from $1m-$50 in ARR, there are three top skills. Because you’re going to need a team to sell.

Sales Recruiting 313

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Revenue 313