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Dear SaaStr: What Makes a Bad CTO?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: What Makes a Bad CTO? While there is no legal definition for CTO or bright line between CTO and VPE, I’d suggest a start-up CTO really only has to do a few things — which are very hard: Assemble a small team (3–9) of very good engineers.

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How to Hire a CTO: An In-Depth Guide for Success

TurnKey Labs

Knowing how to hire a CTO is one thing—knowing when to hire a CTO is another. If […] Scaling CTO for hireThe fact is, not every company needs a Chief Technology Officer.

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Extreme Product Design: Building Things People Actually Use with Stripe CTO David Singleton (Pod 636 + Video)

SaaStr

Many companies believe excellent product design comes from hiring the best engineers and signing up for the latest software instead of building from the users’ perspectives. Despite all the advancements in technology, creating a product with a great user experience remains challenging.

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Fractional CTO Services Explained

Valerian Tech

The role of a Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is to provide technical expertise and leadership to a company on a part-time or temporary basis.

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When is the Right Time to Hire a Fractional CTO?

Valerian Tech

It can be beneficial to hire a fractional CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in a variety of situations. When you don't have an in-house technology leader: If you don't have a CTO or a similar technology leader on your team, a fractional CTO can fill that role.

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Top SaaStr Content for the Week: Gusto CEO, RevenueCat CTO, Intercom CEO, Notion CRO, and More!

SaaStr

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: Be Careful Hiring “Dualies” — Folks That Are a VP of More Than One Thing. SaaStr 564: Top 10 Learnings Architecting a High Throughput Critical API with RevenueCat CTO Miguel Carranza.

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Why Your Company Needs a Fractional CTO

Valerian Tech

There are many benefits to hiring a fractional CTO, also known as a part-time or interim CTO. A fractional CTO can bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to your organization without the added expense of a full-time executive.

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Top 10 Learnings Architecting a High-Throughput Critical API With RevenueCat Co-Founder & CTO Miguel Carranza (Pod 564 + Video)

SaaStr

Miguel Carranza, CTO at RevenueCat, shares ten learnings from firsthand experience in architecting an API & SDK that is currently on 5,000+ apps and has seen 3x growth Year-over-Year. . Instead, the CTO suggests that you avoid adding new pieces of infrastructure until absolutely necessary.

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“What Do You Mean They Quit?!” Don’t Give Your Engineers a Reason to Leave with Notion’s Head of Engineering: Michael Manapat, Change.org’s CTO: Elaine Zhou, and Plato’s CEO: Quang Hoang (Video)

SaaStr

Co-founder and CEO of Plato, Quong Hoang, the #1 mentoring platform for engineering leaders , helped moderate a discussion between CTO of Change.org, Elaine Zhou, and Head of Engineering at Notion, Michael Manapat, on this subject.

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What Order Should You Hire Your Management Team In?

SaaStr

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m He asked which to hire first. If you have a few nickels in the bank, and you somehow find a great VP a half stage or even full stage early, just hire her. Hiring is so hard as it is. Make the hire now.

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Be Careful Hiring “Dualies” — Folks That Are a VP of More Than One Thing

SaaStr

Anyhow the one thing I learned, beyond getting help screening and hiring for these positions from domain experts, is to look for Flags. For signs the prospective hire just won’t work out, no matter how strong they might look on paper. And I’ve learned again and again, including quite recently, there are 4 types of hires to just avoid: CEOs. And I do think there’s definitely room for one architect in your start-up: one to step up as your CTO or VPE.

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VPs That Can’t Hire … They Aren’t Real VPs. At Least, Not Yet.

SaaStr

Perhaps the single most important thing you can ever do in SaaS, at least after $1m in ARR or so, is hire the best VPs you can. We’ve talked a lot over the years about how not to hire a wrong VP of Sales — 70%+ of the first VPs of Sales don’t make it even 10 months.

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Why Fractional?

Crafty CTO

Fractional CTO services can be a valuable asset for businesses that want to take advantage of technology to grow and improve their operations, but don’t have the resources or expertise to do so in-house. Access to experienced technology leaders One of the main benefits of fractional CTO services is access to experienced and knowledgeable technology leaders who can provide strategic guidance and support for your business.

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The Playbook to Hiring Your First VP of Sales and Not Screwing it Up…….with Cassidy Ventures Founder Brendon Cassidy (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

Brendon introduces his playbook to hiring the first VP of Sales from his experiences as VP of Sales at LinkedIn, EchoSign, Talkdesk and more. So the title of my presentation is The Playbook To Hiring Your First VP Of Sales And Not Screwing It Up. These are foundational hires.

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Startup 411: Building for Scale with Google Cloud, Stairwell, Mashvisor, and Inworld.ai (Video)

SaaStr

Hiring a reliable team is an all-encompassing issue where startups dive in head-first but fail to optimize it for success. . Hiring an expert produces 1000x better results than someone with interests elsewhere. . “A Blog Posts Company Culture Hiring Leadership Videos

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The SaaS Org Chart Live with David Sacks (Podcast #491 and Video)

SaaStr

You’ll need to hire aggressively to get to the next level and continue that rapid growth. But what roles should you hire for, and what will your org chart look like at each stage? You will need to promote and hire more mid-level managers. . CTO (40 Employees).

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Whose Company Is It Anyway? Differences between Founders and Hired CEOs

OPEXEngine

Hired CEOs: It’s the Board’s Company vs. It’s My Company to Run. You become a hired CEO primarily through one path — climbing the corporate ladder at a large tech company [5a], reaching the GM or CXO level, and then deciding to branch out.

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If You Don’t Have a Truly Great Founding Team, Just Take a Pause. Don’t Start Your Start-Up Yet.

SaaStr

But what they don’t have is a good enough founding team: Sometimes, if the prospective founder isn’t super technical, then the CTO/VPE isn’t really great. They’ve got a rent-a-CTO. At least an acqui-hire.

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When The Team Revolts

SaaStr

They’ll revolt when you make a senior or mid-level hire that as a group, they simply cannot suffer one day longer. But I forced us to hire him, over my CTO’s strong objection and my VPE’s grudging acknowledgment we had no choice.

CTO Hire 284
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If You Don’t Think You Need a VP of Product, VP of Marketing, Etc. — Then You Haven’t Worked With a Great One

SaaStr

Hire not just 1-2 reps, but 10. But I’ve found many great SaaS founders take longer, too long, to decide to hire the other VPs. My CTO and dev team is building all the features we need. Can’t I just hire someone to help the sales team?

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How to Stop Micromanaging After $1m-$2m ARR. You Have To.

SaaStr

But even if you’ve hired the world’s best VP of Sales … you can’t opt out of sales entirely. You can’t just exit “marketing” because you hired a VP of Demand Gen. Hire a VP of Finance or even a CFO Early if You Are Growing Quickly.

CTO Hire 284
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Day 1: Who Should Be CEO? A Checklist.

SaaStr

Blog Posts Career Growth & Advice Company Stage Hiring Leadership Resource Type Role / Function Topics

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Bet On Up-and-Comers. But Add One Veteran For Each $10m ARR.

SaaStr

The first type is the kind of management team hired by second+ time founders. And if you are, you are going to naturally start off hiring up-and-comers to your first leadership team. That CTO that doesn’t quite have the traditional background. Don’t hire those.

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The Hiring Opportunity Most B2B SaaS Companies Are Missing

Outseta

Why most SaaS companies are blind to some of the best talent on the market By Geoff Roberts 9 min read I believe that most SaaS companies are missing out of a major opportunity when hiring—the opportunity to hire more part-time help, where the employee acts as a fully integrated (albeit part-time) member of the team on an ongoing basis. I think this will be one of the next major hiring trends that you see in the world of SaaS start-ups.

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Why Hiring Senior Leaders Early Is Worth the Investment

OpenView Labs

Getting hiring right is absolutely critical. I’d like to talk about two different companies with two very different approaches to hiring post-seed raise. To get the team started we hired several junior developers. There is a binary feeling that comes from making those first few technical hires. We worked hard to backfill with senior hires, but there were challenges. We needed a CTO. So why didn’t we hire senior first time? Let’s talk about the CTO.

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CEOs of Zapier, Walkme and Dialpad: How to Build Your First Management Team (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

Which role should you hire for first? For starters, your first hire should be someone who can complement your skills, someone who is strong in areas where you’re weak, but it goes much deeper than that. Now we have to hire VP marketing who has enterprise experience.”

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Round Trip Employees: When It Works & Maybe When It Doesn’t

SaaStr

In fact, right after that we hired a roundtrip employee as our CTO in my first start-up and it was amazing. First, what doesn’t work, or at least hasn’t for me, is re-hiring: Folks that left for a company that was a better fit. Roundtrip hires can work.

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30+ Incredible New Speakers for 2021 SaaStr Annual

SaaStr

Brian Peterson, CTO @ Dialpad. Dave Walters, CTO, Hired. Christa Diaz, Senior Director, Customer Success, Hired. Amy Pisano, CRO, Hired. Jenn Knight, Co-Founder, CTO, AgentSync.

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Busting the Myths About Startup Success with BlackLine’s Founder CEO (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

I retired from SunGard Treasury Systems as their CTO. Your big money is going to go into hiring your employees. Hiring people at a startup is pretty darn similar. If I had friends, either those friendships withered or I hired them for almost nothing to come work for BlackLine.

CTO Hire 283
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Hiring a Senior Executive? Ask These 3 Interview Questions

OpenView Labs

When you ask average questions, you get average hires. If a potential senior hire has gotten so far as to talk with the CEO , she’s probably someone the company wants. Related: Are You Hiring for Culture Fit or Culture Add? Read more posts about hiring at startups.

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Who Should Your VP of Product Report To?

SaaStr

Lately I’ve been working with 5+ SaaS companies all hiring their first VP of Product. And critically, most have a really strong CEO-CTO partnership. A few general learnings: A VP of Product that Reports to CTO / Engineering Rarely Meets With That Many Customers.

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SaaStr Podcast #376 with ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck: “10 Mistakes the CEO of ZoomInfo Made on His Journey to IPO (Part 2)”

SaaStr

Immediately told them to hire 50 reps in a different city, in a different city, and they did. Jason Lemkin: 50 reps in a new city that you’ve never met, and hired in 60 days when you’re in the low millions ARR. They hired good people. They hired good managers.

CTO Hire 244
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Dear SaaStr: What Qualities Make a CEO The Best In Their Industry?

SaaStr

Almost all of them had an amazing CTO or CPO, and hired a simply epic VP or two. Dear SaaStr: What Qualities Make a CEO The Best In Their Industry? I’ve invested in 5 start-ups that had a $1,000,000,000+ cash exit or IPO. The CEOs were all quite different.

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SaaStr Podcasts for the Week with Lucidchart and Wrike — February 28, 2020

SaaStr

How does one know when we need to hire generalists vs specialists? Karl has been in every interview for every new hire for the first 6 years of the business, why? How does Karl structure the hiring process today? Why do they have a hiring committee?

CTO Hire 224
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Top SaaStr Content for the Week: Cloudflare’s CRO, Figma’s VP of Sales, Workshop Wednesday, Brex’s GM of Startups and more!

SaaStr

Ode to the $100,000,000 Exit Dear SaaStr: Should You Hire Someone That Seems Good … But Always Job Hops? SaaStr 636: Extreme Product Design: Building Things People Actually Use with Stripe CTO David Singleton  5.

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SaaStr Podcast #357 with BlackLine CEO & Founder Therese Tucker: “Busting the Myths About Startup Success”

SaaStr

I retired from SunGard Treasury Systems as their CTO. Early Fundraising Hiring Leadership Podcasts blackline founder's favorites therese tucker357: Therese Tucker breaks through the dogma behind what it takes to build a successful tech company.

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Common Pitfalls in Crypto Projects

Valerian Tech

How can CTO’s help ensure the Success of a Cryptocurrency Project? Stay up to date on industry trends: The cryptocurrency industry is rapidly evolving, and it is important for the CTO to stay up to date on the latest technologies, trends, and best practices. What is CryptoCurrency?

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Changing Your Pricing Model: How Hired Went from a Transactional to a Subscription Model

OpenView Labs

At Hired, we started out with a transactional model that was—at the time—a super disruptive approach and one of our key differentiators. This is why, when it came time to shift from a transactional to a subscription pricing model, our team at Hired didn’t hesitate for a moment. At Hired , we help top R&D, engineering, and tech talent find jobs they love. Some may say that we had unusual advantages at Hired as we embarked on this pricing project.

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Top SaaStr Content for the Week: Point Nine Managing Partner, Shippo CEO, Front CEO, Gusto CEO

SaaStr

The Ultimate Guide for Hiring a Great VP of Sales. SaaStr 565: Classic Episode: The Importance of Company Values, a Great Hiring Process, and Ownership Culture with Gusto Co-Founder & CEO Josh Reeves.

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“The “Dos & Don’ts” of Building Winning SaaS Companies with G2 Crowd (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

And I thank a lot of that to actually Met Gourniak, who I hired at that time. And the wave we’re riding at G2, the wave we’re all riding here at Saster is this fourth industrial revolution which really means everything in business is being automated and companies rather than hiring people they are now automating everything. And even if you haven’t started a company, I remember my CTO for my first company BigMachines was Vic Austin.

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