SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2022

Investments I've made that didn't work out: – Momentum investment – CEO a bit of bulls**t artist – CEO good at sales but weak product team / CTO. Some sales-y, some very technical. CEO good at sales, but CTO not that great. So now I try to only invest in Great CEO + Great CTO combos.

Investment 288

Investment Sales Recruiting CTO Startup 288

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2020

I’ve been reminded of this question in several meetings lately where founders are doing pretty well, getting to and past Initial Traction, but with hindsight it’s interesting that the founder that took the CEO gig perhaps was better suited to a different role, say CTO or SVP of Sales or President or COO or SVP Product.

Sales Recruiting 321

Sales Recruiting Venture Capital CTO Hire CTO 321

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2020

In SaaS, it is recruiting your VPs and management team : SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. She can be your CTO forever. That’s a different, and critical, job than CTO.

Part-Time VPE 246

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE Sales Recruiting 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

In 2008, he founded Yammer, an enterprise software company that David grew to 500 employees and $60 million in sales. Head of Sales. Positions Needed: Enterprise AEs, Mid-Market & SMB AEs, SDRs, Sales Ops, Sales Engineer. Positions Needed: Demand Gen, Product Marketing, Sales Enablement, Events/Community.

CTO Hire 266

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 266

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

I thought it would be worth drilling down deeper into each of them, and sharing the learnings and mistakes: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. You can do this.

Part-Time VPE 282

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 282

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

A new edition, new services, an outbound sales team, an account management / upsell team. From $1m to $10m ARR or so, as you build your first management team: You shouldn’t be the VP of Sales Anymore As You Scale. But — You May Still Need to be The Chief Customer (and MRR ) Officer.

Part-Time VPE 278

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services 278

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2021

What makes a bad CTO? How did Mark Zuckerberg manage to own 25% of Facebook? 1% equity considered low as a startup Director of Sales? I’m Head of Product and I think our CEO is actively recruiting a VP of Product. How is the ‘decoy effect’ used to increase add-on and bundle sales?

Software Review 286

Software Review CTO Coach Technical Review Sales Recruiting 286

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2022

Founders were able to recruit on-site. We had Lew Cirne, Founder & CEO of New Relic, Dharmesh Shah, Co-Founder & CTO of HubSpot and for the first time at Annual, we added office hours with the top VCs in SaaS. VPs were able to recruit and make new hires. VCs were able to meet with Founders.

Scale 296

Scale Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO 296

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2020

I hear again and again from SaaS founders growing to $5m, $10m ARR or even more that they don’t need a certain VP — with the exception of a VP of Sales. Basically, in SaaS, everyone “gets” that they need a VP of Sales. To get to $5m-$10m ARR and beyond, we’ll need a real VP of Sales.

Sales Hiring 362

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Scale 362

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2021

“Recruiting Your Sales Team with Brex Chief Sales Officer Sam Blond” Brex was just valued at $7B just 4 years after founding. Learn how CRO Sam Blond build their first sales team here: #10.

Sales Recruiting 147

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Scaling 147

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

More on that here and a great video discussion below: You’ll probably be ready for your first VP of Sales by $1m in ARR. We’ve talked about this a lot on SaaStr, but hiring a true VP of Sales before you have 2 reps hitting quota (and thus a repeatable, if not yet fully repeating process) is too early. Earlier is better.

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2019

Third, I then managed a small team. This was critical to learning what management really was. The first team I managed I inherited, and I was terrible at it. But I started to learn what it took to recruit, inspire, and yes fail a team. And I learned to recruit. To hire our CTO, our first VPE, etc.

Part-Time VPE 164

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 164

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

With power, snacks, and more, we’ll have lounges just for Founders; just for Sales + Marketing professionals; just for Builders (Dev + Product), and just for VCs to issue term sheets. Recruiting Fair. Outside of SaaStr Square park, we’re adding the first-ever SaaStr Recruiting Fair. Be there!! It could be you!!

New CTO 268

New CTO Sales Recruiting CTO Coach Scale 268

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Account Managers: They serve as the lead point of contact for all customer account management matters. Product Marketing Manager: This person is tasked with developing product marketing campaigns , crafting compelling marketing messages, and coming up with ideas to retain customers. Average salary: $46,035/yr.

Sales Hiring 98

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 98

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.” You can’t always expect a great VP of Sales to double sales in 30-60-90 days. But you have to see progress in one sales cycle. If, in one sales cycle, things aren’t improving on several core metrics, they never will. The best VPs of Sales hit the ground running.

Part-Time VPE 200

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 200

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 184

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 184

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Building a sales team that can go from $0-$50M (Video + Transcript). Gaetan Gachet | SVP of Sales @Algolia. It’s an honor to be here with this mythical creature, this sales leader that goes from zero to 50 million in the same job. He has a whole French sales team and office that only speaks English in Paris.

Scale 141

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 141

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

A big part of why we are seeing this growth is that our customers have found that when they use Intercom to engage their website visitors, conversion rates and sales increase by more than 80%! We are laser focused on driving breakthrough innovations which help our customers grow their businesses efficiently.

Scale 195

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Engineering 195

SmartKarrot

MARCH 4, 2021

What makes a chief product officer (CPO) different from a CTO or a VP in the product department. A chief product officer looks to make sure that products are delivered in a smooth manner. A CTO is one who investigates the product development aspect. A CPO is one who makes all the ‘product’ decisions.

Part-Time CTO 16

Part-Time CTO VP of Engineering CTO CTO Hire 16

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. Lead generation tools do change, but the basic motions of sales and marketing haven’t changed much.

Scale 263

Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales Recruiting 263

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

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. And figure out if they really are great: For your prospective VP of Sales, did her top 2 hires at least crush it and blow out their quotas ? Recruiting.

Part-Time VPE 340

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 340

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 165

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire 165

ProfitWell

JANUARY 24, 2020

From its beginnings in 2017, the Canoo team knew they wanted to run an urban electric vehicle company, offering an all-new pod-shaped EV to its subscription offering, which forgoes sales or traditional leases in favor of a recurring revenue model that allows anyone to get into a Canoo vehicle (for as long or as short as they like).

Sales Recruiting 40

Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO Sales Hiring 40

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 11, 2019

I’ve had roles in almost every function from sales to product to customer success. For the first four years, we didn’t even need to build a professional sales organization. This approach meant that the HR buyer only had to go to the group holding the purse strings—the board, finance, CTO, VP of Engineering, etc. – once.

Sales Hiring 40

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Technical Review 40

SaaStr

JULY 21, 2020

Your investors and others will learn a lot more hearing about sales from your VP of Sales, your CTO co-founder … and not you. This also will make you appear to be a much stronger manager. Especially, don’t try to talk over your weakest VPs and managers. All-hands meetings, board meetings, whenever.

Sales Recruiting 352

Sales Recruiting New CTO Scale CTO 352

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2023

Q: Where Should SDRs Report — Marketing or Sales? Continuing the conversation on effective team members, it’s important to hire the right people to manage SDRs. A VP of Sales might seem the logical place to have your first SDR team report. But if they’ve never managed a higher turnover SDR team, they often melt.

CTO Hire 198

CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 198

Point Nine Land

APRIL 9, 2021

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. Early signs that sales and marketing can scale: At the seed stage, we usually see founder-driven sales as opposed to a well-oiled sales machine. Proven ability to recruit.

Marketplace as a Service 59

Marketplace as a Service Payments B2B SaaS Payments 59

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2021

Often folks they convince to once again be a VP of Eng or VP of Sales. The sales leader that did well, but their startup still didn’t quite make it. The sales leader that did well, but their startup still didn’t quite make it. That CTO that doesn’t quite have the traditional background.

Part-Time VPE 239

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 239

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

If you missed episode 125, check it out here: The Power of Authenticity and Emotional Intelligence in Sales with Mykal White. Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. Sales enablement is easy. REGIE uses artificial intelligence to create entire outbound, inbound and even follow-up sales campaigns faster. We’re on iTunes.

Scale 71

Scale Artificial Intelligence Sales Recruiting Consulting 71

SaaStr

OCTOBER 9, 2020

A VP of Sales and Success A VP of Sales and Marketing A VP of Sales and Anything Else. Is usually not really a VP of Sales. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had to recruit a lot of types of folks over the years where my domain knowledge was limited. I’ve had to recruit Ph.Ds. Architects.

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 255

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

Does Bob agree with the notion that channel sales have completely died in the world of SaaS? Bob Moore: And I was t nerdy engineer in college, so getting the opportunity to have to pitch, it’s really a sales job at the end of the day. Or hey, we missed our sales numbers last quarter, it’s got to be a management issue.

Sales Hiring 133

Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services CTO Hire 133

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2018

At our inaugural SaaStr Europa last June, podcast host-with-the-most Harry Stebbings sat down with MuleSoft Founder and CTO Ross Mason to discuss the organization’s sales strategy, building a strong company culture, how to think about international expansion, and much more. That’s all written on our platform.

Technical Advisors 166

Technical Advisors Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 166

SaaStr

APRIL 18, 2019

And I started as an engineer and as an MBA and frankly in business school back then they didn’t even have a class on sales. ” And it’s obvious in a way, but for me also as a founder entrepreneur I realized everything I do today is sales. And I think most of your teams, you need sales engineers, you need founders.

Sales Recruiting 180

Sales Recruiting VP of Engineering Scale SaaS Payments 180

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. We don’t incentivize our recruiters on just hitting hiring targets.

CTO Coach 128

CTO Coach Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 128

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 13, 2020

If you missed episode 130, check it out here: Turning Junior-level Talent into Top Sales Professionals with Eddie Baez. Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. Sales enablement is easy. REGIE uses artificial intelligence to create entire outbound inbound, and even follow-up sales campaigns faster. We’re on iTunes.

Marketplace as a Service 94

Marketplace as a Service CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Data 94

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 8, 2018

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Chris Degnan , Chief Revenue Officer of Snowflake Computing, one of the fastest growing SaaS platforms in the world. Chris walks us through his habits, his principles, and his system for enterprise sales. How to manage your career to solve for upside.

Scale 65

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 65

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. Sales enablement is easy: all you have to do is create perfectly targeted content, stay informed on email best practices, drive more engagement quarter over quarter, spend less money, and do all of this with less time. More sales meetings, start creating better sequences faster, go to go.regie.io

Scale 107

Scale CTO Hire Scaling CTO Coach 107