SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2025

Co-founders Dharmesh Shah (CTO) and Brian Halligan (Chairperson) shared at SaaStr Annual the unfiltered truth on building an SMB powerhouse, pivoting to product-led growth, and why the “M” segment is SaaS gold. The company had to retrench and restart their global efforts multiple times. Focus obsessively on churn.

Scale 191

Scale SMB Sales Hiring Scaling 191

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m Enough to invest, but not enough to go crazy with. 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.

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2023

Dan Robinson, current Advisor and former CTO at Heap , shares five essential learnings from nearly a decade of building a SaaS business. What Your Job Is (And What It Isn’t) Your Job is to Make the Company Win A CTO may imagine their primary job is to provide technical expertise, lead engineers, and help build the product.

CTO Coach 242

CTO Coach CTO Hire CTO Leadership 242

Valerian Tech

DECEMBER 30, 2022

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. This can be a useful option for startups or small businesses that may not have the resources to hire a full-time CTO or may not need one on a permanent basis.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2023

Startups come in all shapes and sizes on various stages of a timeline, yet it’s not surprising how many have the same questions and concerns about how to scale from x to y to z, the right time to hire and fire, and how to keep a team motivated during hard times. Do I have a plan or strategy if I get rid of my VP of Sales?

CTO Hire 242

CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 242

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Iconic PLG companies share how they integrated GTM into their growth strategy to go from single digits to over a billion in ARR. Strategy: To get started, identify playbooks that yield the highest revenue. The next hiring focus should be growth marketing. Once this is in place, start investing in paid channels.

Scale 244

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scaling 244

Valerian Tech

JANUARY 5, 2023

It can be beneficial to hire a fractional CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in a variety of situations. They can provide guidance on which technologies to invest in and help you create a roadmap for the future.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

Valerian Tech

DECEMBER 14, 2022

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.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Technology 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

You have to be careful to pair that with someone strong to manage the relationship, that has more time and that also can be trusted. As a founder, you’ll just run out of time to properly manage key customers and partners yourself. Hire that person, and make sure they are someone the top customers can really trust and count on.

CTO Hire 325

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO CTO 325

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

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. I am guessing it’s probably the hardest problem to solve, hiring a job, let alone at this level. And for good reason.

Sales Hiring 261

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 261

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

You have to see: A couple of good hires brought in Improvement on some metrics A big deal or two hanging out there, brought in and closed Things taken off your plate. More time may make them better if they’re already progressing, even if it’s just 10-15% in the first sales cycle. Hiring someone too junior. That often compounds.

Part-Time VPE 242

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale CTO Hire 242

OpenView Labs

APRIL 12, 2019

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 needed a CTO.

CTO Hire 69

CTO Hire Investment New CTO CTO 69

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 19, 2018

That includes all of our cloud strategy, cloud operations, backend engineering, IT and security. Some of the things we talked about were operational overhead and cost of various data stores we were running, along with whether or not we needed to hire dedicated database administrators for various different technologies.

Outsourcing Services 192

Outsourcing Services Part-Time VPE Software AWS 192

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. ” We didn’t do any annual contracts.

Part-Time VPE 290

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 290

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Join this panel of investors from Connect Ventures, Blossom Capital, Dawn Capital, The Family, and Indico Partners as they provide an overview of the current investment landscape, and discuss whether the seed stage is emerging as the new Series A. We are a $50 million fund based in Lisbon, and we invest mainly in seed stage.

New CTO 175

New CTO Sales Hiring B2C CTO Hire 175

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

Outseta

APRIL 11, 2019

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.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire Sales Hiring B2B New CTO 52

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 24, 2021

A thanks to [Marsh 00:00:34] for stepping in at the beginning of the month, and a great session with our own Jason Warner and Adrian, the CTO of Zendesk. Lionetti, the CMO at Confluent, and most recently, the CTO from Zendesk, Adrian. Tomasz Tunguz: Well, there’s two parts to the question. Excited to be back emceeing.

CTO Coach 163

CTO Coach Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 163

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2020

What sets apart some of the most successful, high-growth companies we see today—Slack, Dropbox, Atlassian—has been their ability to tap into and master a new GTM strategy: B2C2B. So we kept investing, we knew we were onto something, and little by little we saw our traction improve. We were not an enterprise company yet.

B2B 167

B2B B2C Scale New CTO 167

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 21, 2022

Along the way, we’ve interviewed trailblazers, business leaders, makers and doers to share their experience and insights on all things startup strategy, product management, design, marketing, customer experience, and much, much more. And so we hired somebody who had a lot of experience and could recommend ways to build the team.

Outsourcing Services 215

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring CTO Hire Acquisition 215

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Interesting for a couple reasons, but Sunil’s been investing in cloud internet since before almost anybody. So, not that many people have started so early in the career, so long in the space, and great investments that we know like Datadog and Fastly, and good at it. ” So, depends on the strategy. One person, 50.

Sales Recruiting 214

Sales Recruiting Development Team Review Technical Review Sales Hiring 214

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Before hiring, assess your current needs and hire as your company grows. Chief Technical Officer : Responsible for outlining the company’s technological vision, implementing technology strategies, and ensuring that the technological resources are aligned with the company’s business needs. Average salary: $196,172/yr.

Sales Hiring 98

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 98

Valerian Tech

JUNE 5, 2023

Therefore, investing in robust cybersecurity measures is essential to safeguard against these threats. The Role of Fractional CTO in Enhancing Cybersecurity A Fractional CTO can provide invaluable expertise and guidance in strengthening an insurance company's cybersecurity defenses.

Cybersecurity 52

Cybersecurity CTO Hire CTO compliance 52

Panintelligence

JUNE 7, 2024

In this blog, we asked Panintelligence CEO Zandra Moore and CTO Ken Miller what they think are some of the most frequent mistakes in SaaS development and offer actionable insights to help you steer clear of them. But the people you hire and lead are absolutely essential to the success of your business. We’re complex.

CTO Hire 98

CTO Hire SaaS Business Underperforming Technical Team 98

Neil Patel

JULY 7, 2021

Are sales at a point where we can justify investing in and learning a new platform? Do we have the technical support, in-house or contracted, to take on the learning curve of an emerging platform? Do I need to reach customers with custom and consistent messaging at every touchpoint?

AI Search 136

AI Search CTO Hire Scale Artificial Intelligence 136

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. The Solution: Invest in a revamped data infrastructure. Joel had what he calls “an honest conversation” with Buffer’s CTO Dan. What is Buffer. Click To Tweet. Click To Tweet.

Payment Solutions 113

Payment Solutions Payment Features Payments Social Media 113

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 13, 2020

Hiring managers are also just trying to sell as well. Users come to us all the time and they say, Hey, this company looks awesome. Are they hiring? That goes to the hiring manager. And if you get hired, RepVue will actually pay you $500. And it’s easy to inflate that for companies during the hiring process.

Marketplace as a Service 111

Marketplace as a Service CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Scale 111

BetterCloud

AUGUST 6, 2021

” At that time, I said, “You know what, I think I really want to become a CIO or CTO.” When I decided I wanted to be a CIO or CTO , I was an associate director or what other companies might call a junior director. I really learned from the managers who came before me, including the person who hired me.

Technology 98

Technology CTO Coach CTO Hire New CTO 98

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 21, 2021

Will Larson , CTO of Calm. Des Traynor , Co-founder and CTO of Intercom. Productboard founder and CEO Hubert Palan on mastering product strategy. Far too many businesses rely on early-on hunches to inform their product strategies. Later’s Farhan Virji on adapting B2C support strategies for B2B teams.

VP of Engineering 118

VP of Engineering Technical Review Scale Outsourcing Services 118

SaaStock

MARCH 29, 2019

That’s the advice, Petri Hollmén picked up on the more technical side of things from the opening session on Day 2 with Cal Henderson, CTO of Slack. You can use them the next time you need to convince your manager brand investment makes sense. The best part? Hire Game Changers to Propel Growth. Full post. .

Scale 103

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Social Media 103

Sales Hacker

JUNE 12, 2020

First strategy here is to build the relationship on a human level , and I think one element of that is you’ve got to get in person. This is a relationship worth investing in. If you are trying to overcome no brand and market, you can’t ask somebody for a three year contract. I see this all the time.

Enterprise 79

Enterprise CTO Hire Startup Technical Cofounder 79

Valerian Tech

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

However, they are still relatively new and their value can be extremely volatile, making them a high-risk investment for some people. How can CTO’s help ensure the Success of a Cryptocurrency Project? Foster community engagement: The CTO should engage with the community and seek to understand their needs and feedback.

Part-Time CTO 52

Part-Time CTO CTO CTO Coach CTO Hire 52

Valerian Tech

JULY 5, 2023

Furthermore, data analytics can help identify trends, optimize pricing strategies, and forecast demand, leading to better revenue management. By investing in technology solutions, hospitality businesses can provide guests with peace of mind and ensure their safety throughout their stay.

Payment Services 52

Payment Services Technology CTO Hire Payment Solutions 52

Sales Hacker

MARCH 25, 2019

Simmone talks about her experience building Gilt City and Kidpass as a woman of color and how she advises companies to build diversity and inclusion into their hiring practices and sales teams. How to build diversity into your hiring practices. It really starts in how you’re hiring. Unconscious bias is a part of all of us.

Sales Hiring 90

Sales Hiring Revenue CTO Coach CTO Hire 90

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2019

Eyal Manor : But there is a lot of investment in that direction. Megan Leuders: And when you were talking to CEOs and CTOs today, what do you believe is the biggest technology challenge that they are facing as a SaaS company? And our marketing strategy is completely an ABM approach. Megan Leuders: Well it’s interesting.

Cloud 173

Cloud Scale Trends Artificial Intelligence 173

Valerian Tech

JUNE 13, 2023

Resource Constraints Smaller healthcare organizations often operate under tight budgets and limited resources, which can hinder their ability to allocate sufficient time, personnel, and financial resources to compliance initiatives. This allows them to pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Healthcare 52

Healthcare compliance CTO Hire New CTO 52

Natalia Luneva

APRIL 30, 2021

Of course, our team is involved to an extent, and we have an external part-time moderator for support. 5 Sebastian Schaeffer, CTO at dofollow.io (B2B PR SaaS) says: “ Our community is primarily on Facebook and Linkedin and it has been live for over a year. We use the community from time to time to promote our services.

Marketing 98

Marketing Social Media SaaS New CTO 98