article thumbnail

30+ Tough Learnings from Losing a Top Customer

SaaStr

Another top mistake SMB folks make trying to sell enterprise. 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. Are we sure?

CTO Hire 281
article thumbnail

Here’s What Enterprise Buyers Look for When Evaluating Software

OpenView Labs

While the CTOs may be directly involved in the purchase decision-making at the startup and SMB organizations, the role of the CTO at larger organizations can be very different, and not all CTOs look the same. “A A lot of our clients want to target CTOs or C-level executives,” said Valentino Volonghi, CTO of AdRoll.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot: From Day 0 to IPO. What Went to Plan. What Most Certainly Didn’t (Video, Podcast + Transcript)

SaaStr

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. You will fail if you: 1) try to build a suite of products out of the gate, 2) focus solely on SMBs, or 3) have an MBA. But of course, it wasn’t always quite that big!

article thumbnail

What’s New at ZoomInfo with CEO Henry Schuck

SaaStr

So to serve both segments at the simultaneously, ZoomInfo has been rolling out a Product-led sales motion, that gives the ability for an SMB customer to sign up directly on their website for a free trial and grow into a paid customer, without ever having to talk to an sales rep or go through a demo process.

New CTO 255
article thumbnail

Product-Led Growth (PLG) For Startups

Mucker Capital

Obviously if you target enterprise customers, you usually have a very large ACV (Annual Contract Value) and the product usually is complex. We talk about using the product complexity, your target customer size, your contract value, and whether there's individual use case–those four things--to help you decide if PLG is a fit.

Startup 52
article thumbnail

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. The CEO was deferential because that was 10 times what he’d ever raised before, and did all of it. 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.

article thumbnail

SaaStr Podcasts for the Week with Bernadette Nixon, Jay Snyder, Nick Mehta, Loren Padelford, and Jason Lemkin

SaaStr

It’s like we’re going to put pictures online with a price and you’re going to start marketing it and that’s the thing. From contract signature to launch. Touching it, playing with it in a way a CIO or CTO might not before? We are still heavily oriented to SMB and to entrepreneurs. ” Right?