SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

I recently asked on Twitter when folks knew their startup had something … great. What was the moment when you knew your startup was really doing something great? ” — Jason Riedel, founder/CTO of Aspireship. “When on New Year’s Eve, customers kept sending us signed contracts.”

CTO Hire 289

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Healthcare 289

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2019

We passed a new milestone on Quora — crossing 50,000,000 total views. What makes a bad CTO? Do startups ever have one founder with substantially more equity than the other founder(s)? What are the advantages of being a startup vs being an established business? What is the cheapest thing a salesperson did to you?

CTO Hire 146

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Payment Methods 146

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

Indeed this was also my #1 mistake and the #1 I see from so many startups learning to go upmarket. 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. Are we sure?

CTO Hire 284

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO CTO 284

Baremetrics

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Here’s an overview of the series: Part 1: How to Categorize Expenses in a SaaS Startup v2.0 What’s their new CAC Payback Time? New Gross Margins? Start by creating a new account from clicking the button New on the top-right. Use area charts for more detail. Let’s start with Payroll – Support.

Merchant Services 90

Merchant Services Startup DevOps as a Service SaaS 90

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 64

CTO Hire Investment New CTO CTO 64

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Before hiring, assess your current needs and hire as your company grows. Customer Onboarding Specialist: Responsible for helping new customers get up and running with the company’s products. Before the hiring process, take some time to decide on your current needs and hire as your company grows.

Sales Hiring 96

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 96

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. More likely than not, but barely.

Outsourcing Services 193

Outsourcing Services Banking CTO Hire New CTO 193

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

In part, my shift in thinking could pertain to not being the “front man” handling the pitch. But thanks to our VP of Business Development, I realize team-based selling for an early-stage startup or company is still likely a necessity, and far outweighs specialization when your sales org is fewer than five people or so.

Underperforming Technical Team 121

Underperforming Technical Team CTO Hire CTO Coach Technical Review 121

OpenView Labs

MARCH 17, 2020

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. Mixmax isn’t the only company that tries to talk new employees out of staying. Zappos famously pays new employees to leave after the first month.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team 52

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

Last night, SaaS Office Hours hosted Optimizely co-founder and CTO Pete Koomen. First, hire a management coach to work with you as the company grows. The best ways he found to learn leadership skills was to hire a management coach to meet him once per month, to talk through the issues facing him at Optimizely.

CTO Coach 102

CTO Coach Sales Hiring CTO Hire Startup 102

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

Well, we did the heavy lifting and highlighted a few here for you… “When to Hire and When to Automate” with Zapier CEO Wade Foster. After building their initial prototype, the team presented at Startup Weekend in Columbia and won. “The Cadence: How to Turn Your SaaS Startup into an Army.”

Payment Services 100

Payment Services CTO Hire Payments New CTO 100

The Angel VC

OCTOBER 18, 2012

Continuing my little series using the "minimum viable" approach , here is my 2nd DO for SaaS startups: Build the right team I've written about the topic before, so if you've read this post from early this year most of what I'm going to write now won't be new for you and you may want to skip this article. What comes next?

Sales Hiring 121

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Startup Outsourced Development 121

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

So even the freshest new SaaS startup celebrating their 50th customer may find themselves dealing with sales tax in multiple states. . hiring in-house talent). Expanding into new sales channels is a common growth play. For example, you hire a developer to move you over to an ERP like NetSuite.

Merchant Services 172

Merchant Services Scale Technical Review Sales Hiring 172

Kellblog

JANUARY 29, 2020

The majority of startups solve a problem that is already being solved in some way today. Unless you are solving a brand-new problem (e.g., Unless you are solving a brand-new problem (e.g., If they are already solving the problem in some way, your new solution more likely represents an optimization than a breakthrough.

Startup 99

Startup Sales Hiring CTO Hire New CTO 99

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 19, 2018

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. Ciaran, our CTO , came up with this magical line. He said, “I want to run less software, not more software.

Outsourcing Services 192

Outsourcing Services Part-Time VPE Software AWS 192

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2020

403: Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Success @ Loom, the startup that helps you get your message across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. As for Sam, prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce following their acquisition of Quip, a startup Salesforce acquired for $750M where Sam was also the 1st sales leader.

Scale 174

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 174

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

In the latest installment of SaaStr’s What’s New series – where we sit down with the leaders in SaaS and Cloud for the inside scoop on what’s top of mind and what’s new, SaaStr CEO and Jason Lemkin chats with the CEO of ZoomInfo , Henry Schuck. So, what’s new at ZoomInfo? ” And there can be some truth to that, right? .”

New CTO 257

New CTO Scale Sales Hiring AWS 257

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 21, 2021

With that in mind, before we welcome the new year and all the good things to come, we’ve gathered our favorite insights and nuggets of wisdom from 2021 in a special wrap-up episode. Will Larson , CTO of Calm. Des Traynor , Co-founder and CTO of Intercom. Speed is every startup’s biggest competitive advantage.

VP of Engineering 118

VP of Engineering Scale Technical Review Outsourcing Services 118

OpenView Labs

JULY 16, 2020

Welcome to In CASEYou Missed It, where I take a brief break from my Weekly Walks to get to know some of the most interesting and innovative personalities behind the greatest startups in the world. This time I’m talking with Leela Srinivasan , CMO at SurveyMonkey , to talk about Weird Al, Dr. Who, and the most underrated attribute of a leader.

CTO Hire 55

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Underperforming Technical Team 55

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. Joel had what he calls “an honest conversation” with Buffer’s CTO Dan. That’s when he realized they would need to find a new way to grow. What is Buffer. Click To Tweet.

Payment Solutions 113

Payment Solutions Payment Features Payments Social Media 113

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. Hire Game Changers to Propel Growth. John has 22 years of experience in the world of startups.

Scale 103

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Social Media 103

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 5, 2022

Suddenly, the team got to know SOC 2 Reports all too well and realized just how burdensome and unscalable it could become, especially for high-growth startups. And then, in the 50s, they introduced this new thing, and there was resistance. Evernote’s CTO on Your Biggest Security Worries From 3 to 300 Employees.

Scale 211

Scale compliance Software Review Technical Review 211

OpenView Labs

JUNE 18, 2020

Welcome to In CASEYou Missed It, where I take a brief break from my Weekly Walks to get to know some of the most interesting and innovative personalities behind the greatest startups in the world. My children ask me this all the time. Is there a new skill you’ve been working on during quarantine? I’d pick patience.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Software Engineering 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 17, 2020

. * What are the biggest green lights for CIOs when startups are pitching them? What are the biggest red flags CIOs see when startups are pitching them? What must startups always remember when pitching CIOs? * What must startups remember about how CIOs think about price? Where do founders make mistakes in negotiation?

CTO Hire 134

CTO Hire compliance Scale Startup 134

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

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

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

297: Bob Moore is the Founder & CEO @ Crossbeam, the startup that helps companies find overlapping prospects and customers while keeping the rest of their data private and secure. Where do most startups go wrong both in hiring for partnerships and in the engagements themselves? Yep, we did that.

Sales Hiring 132

Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services CTO Hire 132

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2024

Is the CTO involved in these decisions? App contraction is still happening, and AI is absorbing all of the energy in the industry. But if you want to grow fast, you want to innovate and take care of those customers and the energy that goes into these pricing games, especially for new CROs and revenue teams. It’s too early.”

AI 243

AI Pricing Artificial Intelligence Scale 243

User Pilot

MARCH 7, 2024

This could be explained by the fact that it was women, more often than men, who had to step down and work part-time to take care of stay-at-home children during the pandemic. Then I got hired at a tech company in Lithuania before I knew what tech even was. Sima Banijamali – Sr. I knew nothing about tech.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review CTO Coach Sales Hiring CTO Hire 105

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

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. What to tackle first as a new leader.

Leadership 141

Leadership Engineering Part-Time VPE CTO Coach 141

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. Joel had what he calls “an honest conversation” with Buffer’s CTO Dan. That’s when he realized they would need to find a new way to grow. What is Buffer. Tweet this quote.

Payment Solutions 52

Payment Solutions Payment Features Payments Outsourcing Services 52

ProfitWell

JANUARY 24, 2020

The Athletic , a subscription-based digital sports media company, has officially raised $50 million in a Series D funding round led by Bedrock Capital, now apparently valued at $500 million after this new raise. Brendan Schwartz , Co-Founder and CTO over at Wistia, has spent a lot of time learning to trust his instincts.

Sales Recruiting 40

Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO Sales Hiring 40

Point Nine Land

APRIL 9, 2021

So if you’re a US-based startup, you might be able to shoot slightly higher ;) Unlike SaaS companies which have been around for years, B2B marketplaces are a relatively new category and not many investors have invested in them yet. As a result, we could not collect as many data points as we do for our SaaS napkin.

Marketplace as a Service 59

Marketplace as a Service Payments B2B SaaS Payments 59

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. Q: How Do You Get Sustainable Output In A Startup?

CTO Hire 186

CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 186

Mucker Capital

OCTOBER 22, 2018

After all, thanks to the rise of Airbnb and similar platforms, the hospitality industry was looking for new revenue streams to boost bottom lines. I did some traveling and ended up going to New York City. I quickly discovered I wanted to build a startup and go into the tech space. She was right. After two years, I left.

Interviewing 40

Interviewing CTO Hire New CTO CTO 40

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 Scale CTO Hire 157