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Most startup companies in earlier stages don’t have the most mature product. This is where customersuccess comes in. Drata VP of CustomerSuccess Management, Wen Yao, and VP of Customer Experience, Ashley Hyman, share how to scale customersuccess from 0 to 5,000 customers.
Dear SaaStr: How Should Founders Build Their First CustomerSuccess Team? Building a CustomerSuccess (CS) team early is critical for SaaS startups. CustomerSuccess should be a single-digit hire—ideally, your first 5-10 employees should include at least one CS hire.
Dear SaaStr: If a startup is at $1.5M You should find, hire, and manage the VPs of Sales, Marketing, CustomerSuccess, Product and Engineering and even Finance yourself. You should find, hire, and manage the VPs of Sales, Marketing, CustomerSuccess, Product and Engineering and even Finance yourself. I think $1.5m
Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? She should hire leaders for Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Product and CustomerSuccess, or at least most of them. Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? Dear SaaStr: Why did Jason M.
What “Working” Means in the Era of AI Apps: The New Enterprise Benchmarks That Matter One of the most common refrains in the generative AI era is that “startups are growing faster than ever” — often with fewer resources. But the data is telling. Some notable examples? The median enterprise AI company now reaches $2.1M
Most startups play defense when discussing pricing with customers. They dance between asking for too little, leaving money on the table, and asking for too much, only to lose the customer’s interest. The very best companies lead their customers in that dance. Many infrastructure as a service companies do this.
The key here is to focus on your unique strengths—whether that’s customersuccess, product innovation, or a specific niche—and double down on them. Look, No VC Wants to Fund a Startup With So-So Growth. Customer Churn: Retaining customers is just as important as acquiring them. And you should.
In a recent conversation at SaaStr Annual + AI Summit 2025 , Arvind shared the tactical playbook behind Rubrik’s scale, revealing counterintuitive strategies for product development, customersuccess, and AI adoption that challenge conventional SaaS wisdom.
Let’s review everything your customersuccess team has to do in the absence of any customersuccess tools. Collect customer data to calculate complex formulas for tracking metrics, monitor customer health scores, and resolve support tickets while continuously trying to improve retention and expansion.
Offers workshops, networking, and investor matchmaking for startups and enterprises. Key points about SaaStr Annual : Focus on SaaS: Primarily focused on all aspects of SaaS business including sales, marketing, product development, and customersuccess. Held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area (usually in September).
Draws (Sometimes) : Early-stage startups might offer a guaranteed draw for the first 3-6 months, essentially front-loading some of the variable comp while the VP builds their pipeline. Equity : Beyond cash comp, VPs of Sales often negotiate for equity, especially in earlier-stage startups. This can range from 0.5%
Recognized as CB Insights’ most promising startup in healthcare for 2022, picked as a leader from a pool of 7,000 companies. For B2B leaders, this is your opportunity to deploy AI voice agents that complement rather than compete with your existing customersuccess and sales teams. Who Should Evaluate Syllable.ai
5 Things Vanta Got Right and 5 They Got Wrong getting to the first $10m ARR When Christina Cacioppo co-founded Vanta in 2017, security compliance was an afterthought for most startups. billion with over 8,000 customers worldwide, having fundamentally transformed how companies think about trust and compliance. . billion—up from $1.6
Tomasz Tunguz , General Partner at Theory Ventures, shares nine observations from a Go-To-Market survey Theory Ventures did with hundreds of startups, 68% of them early-stage, well-funded, mostly mid-market ACV, and 25% remote. Six months ago, security was the number one prohibition preventing businesses and software companies from buying AI.
And the evidence is mounting that AI startups aren’t just complementing SaaS — they’re actively hunting traditional SaaS incumbents for lunch. The Billion-Dollar AI Unicorn Factory The scale of AI startup funding isn’t just impressive — it’s existential for SaaS: The AI Billion-Dollar Club: OpenAI : $8.4
Successfulstartups balance optimism with realism by presenting a compelling vision while grounding their projections in credible, data-backed assumptions. Use a Bottom-Up Approach for Projections Startups often get into trouble by pitching top-down projections, like “If we capture 1% of a $10B market, we’ll hit $100M ARR.”
B2B Startups Spend 15% of Revenue on Sales and 10% on Marketing, Per SaaS Capital #4. How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel #2. How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel #2. From 0 to 1 Billion Meetings: How Otter.ai
It’s mission-critical to go multiproduct on time — too early is bad but too late is bad too We’ve written this up already a few times recently on SaaStr already as Jason did a deep dive on this just last week and Parker Conrad’s theory of the compound startup from SaaStr Europa is a masterclass on the matter.
It was started in 2014 when founders Daniel and Jonathan were working together at a delivery startup and experienced firsthand how slow background checks were slowing down worker onboarding. Naturally, their first customer was DoorDash and the quickly captured 95% of the gig economy market in their early days.
The best leaders have experience with both startups and scale to navigate the in-between. ” A company is fundamentally a collection of interlocking systems: Lead-to-cash systems New product introduction systems Talent acquisition systems Customersuccess systems The magic happens when these systems work together seamlessly.
Spend the first week or two immersing them in the product, ICP, and customer pain points. Have them shadow customersuccess calls, onboarding sessions, and even product team meetings. This gives them a deep understanding of the customer journey and the problems your product solves.
The Y Combinator Guide to Perfectly Pitching Your Seed Stage Startup with Michael Seibel #4. How Much of Customer Support Will AI Replace? The Top 10 CustomerSuccess Metrics Investors Care About in 2025 with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta #4. Top Posts: #1: 70% of Pipeline from Marketing Comes From Just 4 Things #2.
Picture this: You work for a startup. You know customersuccess is essential. Enter fractional customersuccess leadership: hiring a seasoned CS professional to take on a role on a part-time or contract basis. What is fractional customersuccess leadership? Sound familiar?
Register at meetavc.com before the event to get your startup in front of VCs. Mayfield and SaaStr AI Demo Pitch Finale (Thursday, afternoon) – See the most promising AI startups compete in this high-stakes finale. While meetings aren’t guaranteed, this puts you on investors’ radars before you even arrive at the event.
The Top 10 CustomerSuccess Metrics Investors Care About in 2025 with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta #5. Rippling CEO Parker Conrad’s Theory of the Compound Startup: Disrupting How We Think About Software Why Im Scared to Buy New SaaS Apps Now with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin #4.
by size and stage (startup, closely held private company, newly-public, nonprofit, Fortune 50) by core value (products, services, community) But I have seen that SaaS companies have more in common with other recurring revenue businesses than they might think. 2: Leverage data to drive more personalized experiences.
This democratizes access to powerful tools, whether you’re a startup or an enterprise. From CRMs to payment processors, you can connect your favorite tools to create a seamless, customized workflow that boosts efficiency and data accuracy.
When and how to launch sales and marketing is a tough topic for most startup founders. But sales and marketing are the backbone of every successful go-to-market (GTM) strategy, and getting them right can be the difference between … When and how to launch sales and marketing is a tough topic for most startup founders.
Plus, the ability to create custom NPS dashboards allow you to analyze the results easily without writing a line of code. Pricing : Userpilot offers flexible plans tailored to startups and mid-sized SaaS businesses, with pricing starting at $249 per month for the basic plan.
UserGuiding UserGuiding is an affordable, entry-level tool for startups. Lightweight and fast: Ideal for product and customersuccess teams focused on creating simple, user-friendly flows. No dedicated support: Growth plans lack live chat or a dedicated customersuccess manager. Chameleon vs. Userpilot.
Personalized Event Recommendations : Demonstrate a deeper understanding of customer needs by recommending relevant events that align with their growth goals. Proactive Network Introductions : Use your network to make valuable connections, reinforcing your commitment to your customers’ success beyond the product itself.
GTM 123: Customer Experience Fuels Business Growth, Build a Customer-First Culture with Kim Peretti Kim Peretti is an experienced CustomerSuccess executive with over 25 years in the technology industry. Startups to watch Closinglock – closed their one-millionth home sale through their platform.
Quick Summary: Customersuccess events in 2025 are back in full force, with top picks covering AI innovation, GTM strategy, and post-sale growth. If there’s one team that’s always the first to raise their hand for live events or really any kind of collaboration, it’s customersuccess. And after the last five(?!)
Product Fruits is one of the most affordable user onboarding tools on the market, making it ideal for small startups with a budget under $200. If your user base scales beyond small startup levels (5,000+ MAUs), monthly costs can become significant. amazing support and help with custom use cases. What is Product Fruits?
This simplified startup means businesses can focus on core activities while leveraging high-security standards. Deep customizations might be lacking depending on the vendor, however. Product, infosec, and customersuccess teams gain the tools to manage identity tasks directly without writing code or waiting on engineering.
Many venture capital firms shifted their investments almost entirely into AI startups. Her deep expertise in aligning sales, customersuccess, and operations makes her a standout leader in the GTM space. Startup to watch Jeeva – just launched: your superhuman AI agent for top of funnel.
Dear SaaStr: What Does the Day-to-Day Look Like For a CustomerSuccess Manager? The day-to-day of a CustomerSuccess Manager (CSM) will vary depending on the company’s stage, customer base, and ACV. The bigger the startup, the more it’s about process vs. just getting problems solved. Want Happy Customers?
GTM 135GTM 135: How Marketing Creates Million-Dollar Exits: 6 SaaS Success Stories | Katrina Wong Listen on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , or wherever you get your podcasts by searching The GTM Podcast. Startup to watch DocUnlock – announced a $3M round with a TechCrunch feature, led by GTMfund.
It’s only natural to think that CLG only makes sense once you have a substantial customer base to work with. That’s why many startups focus on PLG, sales-led growth (SLG), or marketing-led growth (MLG) early on, planning to implement CLG later—usually after hitting some ARR milestone. Bringing feedback to the top.
Where there are department handoffs are key areas for creating alignment – for example, around sales to customersuccess: Customersuccess can be introduced to the account prior to the post-sale stage – noted by David Gunn (VP of CustomerSuccess at SundaySky).
Turn CustomerSuccess Into Your Growth Engine Lesson : 50% of Wealthfront’s new clients come from referrals – true organic growth powered by customer satisfaction. Public markets heavily reward profitable SaaS companies. Competitive Moats in Action While larger players like Vanguard ($311B AUM) and Schwab ($80.9B
His unique position spans both product and business functions including sales, marketing, and customersuccess – giving him a holistic view of bringing outside perspectives into product development. This approach doesn’t require a massive customer base. ” This approach requires vision and conviction.
Startup to watch LuminX – announced their $5.5M More for your eyeballs Discover how GTMfund is flipping the script on startup growth through this interview. Rick later took that playbook global, helping scale Meta’s gaming and monetization business to over $11B. Seed round. Early pilots show a 50% drop in unsafe driving events.
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