SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

They were aware of it, but startups that I work with closely or invested in, if they got all the way to 25 million with 75% NRR, I would tell them to quit today. Jason Lemkin: I think I noticed a pattern, and I wrote it up a couple of years ago and refreshed it, and then I’ll add a new anecdote. VCs can only invest in outliers.

Outsourcing Services 198

Outsourcing Services Banking CTO Hire New CTO 198

Andreessen Horowitz

DECEMBER 4, 2023

To improve the efficiency of spend on cost of goods sold (COGS), most growth-stage leaders can optimize seat-based spend or renegotiate consumption-based contracts in a quarter or 2. Focus on performance management of your product and engineering teams as early indicators for what R&D investments are working, and which aren’t.

Underperforming Technical Team 118

Underperforming Technical Team Benchmarks CTO Hire New CTO 118

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

As a SaaS business, Intercom is a data processor: our customers entrust us with their data, which we store and process on their behalf. We do that by: Investing in your trust through compliance with industry security and privacy ISO standards or frameworks such as SOC 2. Investing significantly in safeguarding our customers’ trust.

Data 118

Data Technical Review CTO Hire compliance 118

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

OpenView is thrilled to announce our recent $9M Series A investment in Loopio , a software platform that helps sales teams respond to RFPs, RFIs, and security questionnaires seamlessly with up-to-date, accurate, and approved content. Loopio co-founders from left to right: Matt York, CTO; Jafar Owainati, COO; Zakir Hemraj, CEO.

Investment 40

Investment CTO Hire New CTO Sales Hiring 40

Baremetrics

DECEMBER 7, 2023

This series attempts to give practical advice to SaaS CEOs and Founders on how to organize and automate their financial backend , giving them freedom to spend time with more value-adding parts of their business like financial planning. What’s their new CAC Payback Time? New Gross Margins?

Merchant Services 90

Merchant Services Startup DevOps as a Service SaaS 90

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 19, 2018

Our team’s mission is to help Intercom evolve, scale and be trusted by every internet business in the world. Rich: In the world we work in today, in this business, there are some harsh realities. They include that time is short, opportunities are fleeting, competition is fierce, and engineering resources are scarce.

Outsourcing Services 192

Outsourcing Services Part-Time VPE Software AWS 192

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 21, 2021

It’s been 10 years since co-founders Eoghan McCabe , Des Traynor , David Barrett , and Ciaran Lee sat in a small Dublin coffee shop and dreamed of making internet business personal, and we’re still every bit as excited. Zanade Mann , founder of Black Women’s Business Collective. Will Larson , CTO of Calm.

VP of Engineering 118

VP of Engineering Scale Technical Review Outsourcing Services 118

Chart Mogul

MARCH 9, 2020

CEO Joel Gascoigne tells us about the decision to invest in new analytics tools and how Buffer sustained long-term growth thanks to growing their ARPA. I realized we had better data in the first 2-3 years of the company when we were using improvised solutions, than with our sophisticated business intelligence platform.

Payment Solutions 113

Payment Solutions Payment Features Payments Social Media 113

ChurnZero

DECEMBER 9, 2022

But promotional paths are a-changing, according to a time-series by Spencer Stuart summarized in Harvard Business Review’s “ Finding the Right CEO.” Additionally, “leapfrog” candidates—those who come from a level below the C-suite, such as senior vice presidents—now make up roughly 5% of new chief execs.

CTO Coach 52

CTO Coach Customer Success VP of Engineering CTO Hire 52

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2020

To date, they have raised over $73M from some of the best in the business including Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst and Point Nine to name a few. When is the right time to hire the first sales rep? Should you hire 2 at a time? What does one look for in their first sales hire? Let’s go do it.

Scale 171

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 171

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 22, 2021

That question has been on Will Larson ‘s mind for a long time. For those who don’t know him, Will has over 10 years of experience in the likes of Yahoo, Digg, Uber, and Stripe, and he’s currently the CTO of Calm , the mindfulness app that helps millions of people to lower their stress levels and sleep better.

Technical Review 274

Technical Review Leadership VP of Engineering CTO Coach 274

SaaStock

MARCH 29, 2019

Don’t overextend your resources when testing new SaaS growth ideas. Here is what he writes: Kieran Flanagan , VP of marketing at HubSpot, shared some interesting insights on approaching new ideas for scaling up your business. You can use them the next time you need to convince your manager brand investment makes sense.

Scale 103

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Social Media 103

Natalia Luneva

APRIL 30, 2021

Announcing new features, increasing customer satisfaction and retention are among the top functions of an online community. . #1 Our community is the best way for us to inform our customers about upcoming updates and new features. Of course, our team is involved to an extent, and we have an external part-time moderator for support.

Marketing 98

Marketing Social Media SaaS New CTO 98

Outseta

OCTOBER 15, 2018

First it was Wistia , followed shortly thereafter by Buffer ; both buyouts a sort of declaration of independence that gave both companies back the ability to build their businesses on their own terms. Investment funds like Indie.VC They had built a highly profitable business that was generally adored by its customers.

CTO Hire 65

CTO Hire CTO Coach SaaS New CTO 65

SaaStr

JANUARY 17, 2020

What other elements of the contract should startups really spend a lot of time focusing on? What can they do to enforce a sense of urgency when signing new clients? And second, just last week he started an incredibly exciting new opportunity with his new company. Where do founders make mistakes in negotiation?

CTO Hire 134

CTO Hire compliance Scale Startup 134

Casey Accidental

JUNE 26, 2018

Technology companies are rapidly hiring analyst roles to pair with their product teams. And while my previous post discussed how to hire analysts and structure their teams within organizations, I haven’t written about how analysts should approach their careers. So, how does data science differ? Option 2: Become an Analytics Manager.

CTO Coach 53

CTO Coach CTO Hire New CTO CTO 53

ProfitWell

DECEMBER 6, 2019

Your top subscription news. What’s the return on investment of your mom? What about the ROI of spending time with your family, friends, or kids? The question is not whether a CSM is a valuable asset to a SaaS business, but rather, how valuable are they? How many CSMs should you hire? And Sprinklr acquires Nanigans.

Scale 43

Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO 43

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

How does Bob think about when is the right time to hire a Head of Partnerships? Where do most startups go wrong both in hiring for partnerships and in the engagements themselves? Specifically with regards to the last two endeavors and the journey of business building, what did you mean by the no one’s coming to save you?

Sales Hiring 132

Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services CTO Hire 132

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal?

Management 231

Management CTO Hire New CTO AI 231

Chart Mogul

MARCH 9, 2020

CEO Joel Gascoigne tells us about the decision to invest in new analytics tools and how Buffer sustained long-term growth thanks to growing their ARPA. I realized we had better data in the first 2-3 years of the company when we were using improvised solutions, than with our sophisticated business intelligence platform.

Payment Solutions 52

Payment Solutions Payment Features Payments Outsourcing Services 52

Kellblog

JANUARY 29, 2020

pre-seed, seed, seed-plus [1]) and one of the things I’ve noticed is that many founders cannot clearly, succinctly, and confidently answer some basic questions about their businesses. ” I’m admittedly fanatical about this, but I want to know what it says on the target buyer’s business card [3].

Startup 99

Startup Sales Hiring CTO Hire New CTO 99

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

I looked back at our investment memo, it was a 2K ACV when Jason invested after Y-C. So you were the first sales hire. Talk to me about the sales hires that you made back in the early days and talk to me about how it changed through the different stages. So my first sales hire was beginning of 2015.

Scale 132

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 132

Point Nine Land

APRIL 9, 2021

Having invested in 9 B2B marketplaces and gathered data from 20+ different investors, here are our findings on what it takes to raise money in 2021 for B2B marketplaces. A technical co-founder or CTO is always a great-to-have at this stage and becomes a must-have as the business scales beyond seed. Team ???????????

Marketplace as a Service 59

Marketplace as a Service Payments B2B SaaS Payments 59

ProfitWell

JANUARY 24, 2020

Wistia , the video software platform we know and love, reminds us that businesses have focused so much on making people aware that they exist, they’ve lost sight of what matters most?: is a much worthier investment for your 2020. But since marketers today have nearly all the same tools at their disposal, there’s an issue here.

Sales Recruiting 40

Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO Sales Hiring 40

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

For part one of this Ask Me Anything session, Jason covers everything you need to know about hiring your first VP of Sales, what he really thinks about AI, what the future of lead generation in 2024 looks like, and much more. You’re not building a product or getting any new customers. You can’t hire a magician Head of Product.

Scale 248

Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales Recruiting 248

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2019

Who’s here on a CEO or more on a business hat SaaS? Who started their business more than three, four years ago? Traditionally we’ve been around since 2005 and traditionally have been a software on-prem business. They wanted real-time results. The business environment and adoption. Raise your hand.

Cloud 165

Cloud Scale Trends Machine Learning 165

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 15, 2018

On day one as Reddit’s new VP of Engineering, Nick Caldwell faced a dilemma. He had to quickly determine which team members displayed a potential for leadership and teach them the fundamentals of management so they could make new hires and scale – without ruining the culture. I got into engineering through my father.

Leadership 141

Leadership Engineering Part-Time VPE CTO Coach 141

Buffer Resources

JANUARY 30, 2023

Then he became CTO at Bezos Academy, a non-profit organization founded by Jeff Bezos. After leaving Bezos Academy, he decided to start a paid newsletter focused on career development, organization design, and hiring. I'm not trying to grow my business as much as possible, but I'm also not retired.

Social Media 17

Social Media CTO Coach CTO Hire New CTO 17

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2019

Erica Schultz is Chief Revenue Officer @ New Relic, the company that gives you the real time insights your software driven business needs to innovate faster. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Erica made her way into the world of SaaS and came to be Chief Revenue Officer @ New Relic. Welcome to Episode 214! Transcript.

Scale 175

Scale Enterprise Scaling Sales Hiring 175

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2021

Co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah shared with us how they got there — and the top mistakes they made — just 3 quarters after their IPO. We have someone that probably 98 percent of you know virtually or socially in some sense, Dharmesh Shah, founder and CTO of HubSpot. But of course, it wasn’t always quite that big!

Part-Time VPE 227

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 227

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2020

Brendon introduces his playbook to hiring the first VP of Sales from his experiences as VP of Sales at LinkedIn, EchoSign, Talkdesk and more. Learn the dos and don’ts to make the correct hire the first time and not rush into hiring the wrong VP of Sales, which can cost the company months or even years. Roughly 90%.

Sales Hiring 157

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire Scale 157

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Since 2010 we’ve seen more startups, funds, and capital than ever before, but with this drastic increase, investors are seeing unexpected new trends reshaping the future of the industry. The panel that we are in is called Is Seed the New Series A, and this is a question that I’ve been asking informally yesterday and today.

New CTO 143

New CTO Sales Hiring B2C CTO Hire 143

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

376: In part two, ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck shares how he built a business from scratch and grew it into one of the most successful IPOs of the 21st century—and what it was really like…the good, the bad, and most of all, the ugly. You start this business. They’ve invested in all of these other businesses.

Sales Hiring 245

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale Investment 245

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2019

Vlad will highlight what defines success in each stage of the growth journey, and how to create a winning business with the right product, team, and culture. Jonathan: And you describe yourself as a technologist first, or a business person? When the founder is a technologist versus a business leader? Jonathan : Hotel business?

Scale 142

Scale Business Sales Hiring CTO Hire 142

CloudGeometry

JULY 8, 2021

When you treat your cloud provider as a fractional colo. When business-critical applications move out of the data center with “lift and shift”. What starts as an easy hack for a new feature that accesses the database directly sprawls quickly into reads and writes that conflict with all kinds existing functions.

Well Architected Framework 130

Well Architected Framework Payment Methods CTO Hire Payment Solutions 130

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Julian Lemoine, Co-Founder, and CTO of Algolia will share his lessons learned on how to stay focused and innovative as you scale while also avoiding the innovation for innovation’s sake pitfalls. Julien Lemoine | Co-founder and CTO @Algolia. So I’m Julien, Co-founder and CTO of Algolia. Want to see more content like this?

Scale 122

Scale Scaling CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 122

OPEXEngine

JUNE 16, 2020

The 90-Day Rule , which argues that new managers need to be decisive about who stays on the teams they inherit. However, as soon as a founder/CEO raises venture capital (VC) they have decided to take investing partners along on the journey. Hired CEOs: It’s the Board’s Company vs. It’s My Company to Run. However, some do [5].

Sales Hiring 59

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Venture Capital Technical Advisors 59