SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2025

The tools exist, but the organizational change is complex.

Scale 234

Scale AI Underperforming Technical Team Sales 234

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

There is almost no software and non-headcount budget for CS. 64% of CS teams spend $200,000 or less a year on non-headcount, with growth stage companies spending the least, just 0.1% I generally see CS reporting to a CRO as a recipe for conflicts, but sometimes it’s the best option: #2. This data is interesting. of revenue.

Customer Success 347

Customer Success Headcount Churn Revenue 347

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2023

At least in the short term, it is turning most of us can do more with about the same headcount in SaaS. #4. Headcount Growing, But Slowly. Staying basically flat in headcount for 3 quarters while growing a stunning 50% (!) They got there, in fact, two years ahead of schedule. 47% Of Revenue Outside the U.S.,

Headcount 323

Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Cloud 323

SaaStr

JUNE 12, 2025

They’re: Eliminating unproductive agency relationships Streamlining agency rosters Renegotiating contracts and scopes of work Simplifying overlapping roles Reducing total headcount strategically Twenty-two percent say GenAI has already enabled them to reduce reliance on external agencies for creativity and strategy.

AI 181

AI Technical Review Scale Headcount 181

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

That works for a while, but you end up with not enough headcount if you do freeze hiring but still want to grow. More on this in our deep dive with co-CEO Eran Zinman: You can’t grow forever with no growth in headcount. But we’re lapping tougher times for many, and for many others, it’s just plain time to hire again.

Sales Hiring 323

Sales Hiring Headcount Scale Cloud 323

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2025

When asked about reports of 30% headcount reductions in many contact centers within just one year due to AI replacing human headcount, Benioff confirmed he’s exploring similar efficiencies at Salesforce. Contact Center Transformation Is Leading the Way in AI The contact center at the bleeding edge of AI transformation.

AI 229

AI Enterprise Scale Airlines 229

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2023

And very few of you are doubling headcount, vs everyone in 2021. Hiring has way slowed down, but many folks are still hiring, albeit at a reduced rate. 56% of you aren’t hiring, or barely hiring. But a good chunk of you are still hiring, albeit in moderation. This is what we are starting to see across public SaaS leaders as well.

Sales Hiring 271

Sales Hiring Headcount Engineering Revenue 271

SaaStr

MAY 29, 2024

Growing Headcount and Expenses, Just More Slowly Than Revenue The story for most SaaS and Cloud leaders. Grow headcount and expenses, but more slowly than bookings. #5. UiPath proves it again. #3. 1M+ ACV Customers Growing The Fastest UiPath at $1B+ ARR is a tale of going … even more enterprise. $1M+

Scale 294

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring AI 294

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2021

But in theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, this won’t impact headcount too much. But in practice it often adds 20% or so to the headcount in the model. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. SDRs, BDRs, etc. 2 Managers. = 22 heads /.75

Scale 310

Scale Sales Hiring Headcount Sales 310

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2021

“Adding headcount in customer success dept” — Hoala Greevy, CEO, PauBox. You can’t cut corners in headcount in success with automation. You just make the headcount more effective. MaestroQA has driven its ACVs up substantially, but that doesn’t always mean charging more for everything.

Churn 324

Churn Sales Hiring Headcount Technical Review 324

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2023

At the end of the day, in SaaS, efficiency really comes from growing revenue faster than headcount. Almost everyone is doing more with … yes, more headcount, but only a smidge more. Revenue Up 30%, but Employee Count Only up 10%, to 7,055. Salaries and comp are the vast majority of expenses. Including HubSpot. #4.

Scale 320

Scale SMB Headcount New CTO 320

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2023

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. Okta is seeing higher SMB churn and more ROI scrutiny, but is also benefitting from some customers wanting to centralize on fewer core vendors.

Scale 310

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring SMB 310

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

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. Another reminder to go global in SaaS as early as you can! #10. Slowing hiring has been key to driving up free cash flow.

Headcount 315

Headcount SMB Engineering Scaling 315

SaaStr

MAY 7, 2025

It’s a leaner, meaner Twilio, focused again on its core, with more AI but less headcount than before. Headcount Efficiency Has Improved Over the past 12 months, Twilio has reduced headcount by 10%, following a 25% reduction the year before. And its bets on AI seem to be paying off. Voice agents are a large growth vector.

Headcount 164

Headcount AI Scale compliance 164

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2024

Once a VP of Sales that is struggling starts pushing for a lot more sales headcount … it’s time to realize it’s not working. In fact, fewer sales reps often in the short term solves the problem. You focus leads and opportunities on the best reps, and then rebuild the sales team from there.

Sales Hiring 289

Sales Hiring Headcount Sales 289

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

Everyone is basically doing more with not much more headcount (see next point). #4. Growing Headcount, But Much More Slowly That Revenue. Headcount is up 29% year-over-year, but revenue is up 50%. Also you can see sales & marketing headcount is basically flat, while hiring is almost all in engineering / R&D.

Headcount 246

Headcount Scale Sales Hiring AWS 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 18, 2023

Yes many public SaaS companies have done some sort of layoffs the past 12 months, they were often more really reorgs, though, without any net decrease in headcount. The key was “simply” keeping headcount flat. #3. Everyone is basically doing more with not much more headcount. Without really sacrificing growth.

Scale 245

Scale Headcount Point of Sale SaaS 245

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2022

You start making up for it in volume — with headcount. Your life becomes all about recruiting, even more than it was. It’s harder to find that Magical VP that can make a huge difference. At $100m+ in ARR, the hardest part is you have to add a Unicorn each year.

SaaS 350

SaaS Headcount AWS Churn 350

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Last year, the company doubled its headcount, tripled revenue and landed on G2’s Top 100 Global Software list. . And some of the marquee customers include MongoDB, Gitlab and Qualtrics. . The funding comes at a point when Chorus is in the hypergrowth mode.

Scale 359

Scale Artificial Intelligence Payments Payment Services 359

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2024

Unlike building a product team, there is no efficiency when building a sales org: half of your headcount will be in sales at $10m, $50m, or $100m in revenue. It’s tough for founders to grok 40%+ of their headcount forever may be in sales. Add more structure here, and everything gets better. #6.

Sales Hiring 308

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 308

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2024

Fund sizes shrinking = headcount reductions. Funds just plain got bigger over the past 10 years, and in many cases, the original GPs and Old Guard aren’t 100% ready to hand over economics and control. It’s complicated. Not everywhere, but in just enough places so you can see it and feel it.

Headcount 259

Headcount Trends 259

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Freezing Headcount is How They Got So Much More Efficient Again, a common story. But for now, AppFolio is staying leaner, with less headcount this year than last — despite impressive +29% growth. #4. Many that did are now re-hiring, from Monday to Salesforce and more.

Payment Services 281

Payment Services Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments 281

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Hence, Twilio has a very high level of sales efficiency (and relatively small headcount). Many of Twilio’s bigger customers go through sales, but then a huge amount of the downstream revenue is “automatic” as customers use more. But there’s still a real sales team there. They just only need to directly touch a subset of the total revenue.

Scale 341

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 341

The Angel VC

MARCH 23, 2016

I received a lot of great feedback on the template and the original post remains one of the most viewed posts on this blog up to this day. 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

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Hoping headcount (alone) will drive revenue. At some point, every SaaS company gets big enough where headcount does drive revenue. Don’t agree to a plan you mathematically can’t hit. This never ends well. You’ll be blamed. You’ll be fired. But this is almost never the case before $8m-$10m in ARR or so.

Sales Hiring 359

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Headcount 359

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2022

Headcount up 7%, while revenue is up 37%. But that only increases total headcount 7% which revenues went up 37%. That transition doesn’t happen overnight for legacy customers. 30% of their revenues are still from customers running Jira and friends on their own servers. But it’s now finally in decline, shrinking 12%. #5.

Scale 262

Scale Marketplace as a Service Headcount Cloud 262

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

But it’s already starting in the contact center, where leaders from Zendesk to Gorgias to Intercom to Talkdesk are automating away 30%-50% of contact center headcount. Maybe, maybe not. All unstructured data to be instantly structured and searchable. Search was sleepy for years. Now, it’s front and center.

AI Search 296

AI Search SaaS Headcount AI 296

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2023

Don’t Tie Revenue To Headcount “You want to get away from a business model where every incremental dollar requires incremental hiring,” says Deatsch. So instead of focusing on scaling headcount quickly, work toward growing revenue quickly.

Sales Hiring 259

Sales Hiring Enterprise Headcount Scale 259

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

But in theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, this won’t impact headcount too much. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. SDRs, BDRs, etc. But in practice it often adds 20% or so oto the model. 4 SDRs to screen the deals. 2 Managers. = 22 heads /.75

Scale 297

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 297

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2022

Net headcount rarely declines. This may sound harsh, But any "layoff" of a single digit % of employees is usually just a reshuffling. The bottom 5%-7% are moved out, to replace them with better performers. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #???????????? jasonlk) May 25, 2022. Layoffs sound scary, and they are scary.

Headcount 297

Headcount Scaling SaaS Management 297

SaaStr

AUGUST 1, 2023

But this time, instead of headcount, it was apps. Yes, some bigger companies went through layoffs too, but in many cases, they hired more folks back, and really just kept headcount flat or slowed its growth. You get all the VPs into a room, and you tell them to make a list. Of the 10% to cut. Apps though they truly cut.

Headcount 246

Headcount Finance Cloud Startup 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

Headcount isn’t the right story for them, though. Eventually, this team moved out of growth, so their success wasn’t dependent on budget or headcount. Do you want a system that automates playbooks, presents usage data to the team, or creates and tracks a health score? Just like hiring, you don’t want to be lazy here.

Scale 287

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 287

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

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Keeping headcount flat got everyone to be more efficient. Adding Back Sales Capacity Now. I.e., Hiring More Reps. This is a theme we’ll see accelerate the coming months and year. Salesforce also just announced its accelerating hiring again. But you can be too efficient in sales. Samsara is scaling up sales faster now again.

Sales Hiring 296

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Engineering 296

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

Get comfortable with headcount gaps, constantly recruit, and build a network of potential hires so you’re prepared when you need to expand your team. Prioritize quality over speed in hiring Don’t lower your hiring standards to quickly fill positions on your team. Jason says, “There’s no bandaid in leadership.”

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Revenue 294

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2023

A classic and great deep dive in terms of how to scale your teams, headcount, and orgs: #2. In advance of that, we wanted to take a look at a few of David’s classic sessions from SaaStr Annuals past: #1. The SaaS Org Chart by Series with David Sacks, Co-founder and General Partner at Craft Ventures.

Headcount 246

Headcount Startup Scaling SaaS 246

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2023

In theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, and this wouldn’t impact headcount too much. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. SDRs, BDRs, SEs, etc. But in practice, you can’t ask AEs to pay for the help they can closing. So it often adds at least 20% or so to the model.

Scale 316

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 316