Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2023

I analyzed the headcount patterns within these companies to shed light on three questions : How are these top companies changing their headcount through the downturn? What percent of headcount is in product & engineering? What percent of headcount is in sales & marketing? The typical company grew headcount by 57%.

Startup 312

Startup Headcount Scale Engineering 312

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 5, 2020

Over the weekend, I analyzed Roger’s data to answer this question. But starting that week, startups began reducing headcount by about 700 per day. However, there doesn’t yet seem to be a daily or weekly increase in the data. On the brighter side, it is a resource for startups looking to hire as they grow.

Sales Recruiting 357

Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount Sales Hiring 357

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 25, 2020

It contains data on go to market team structure, performance by sales function, marketing spend benchmarks, and customer success priorities. I want to thank Nick Giometti who parsed and processed the data and taught me (an R user) a lot about python and pandas along the way. I also want to thank everyone contributed data.

Headcount 364

Headcount Scale Benchmarks Retention 364

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2021

Let’s say you are at $10m ARR and decently funded, you’ll probably have 100 headcount by this point, or at least, by $15m ARR. You’ll probably want to add field sales (for Big Deals) by $10m ARR or so, another 2-3 headcount here, minimum. Let’s assume that takes 5 headcount, minimum, ideally 6. >>

Sales Hiring 349

Sales Hiring Headcount Scale Engineering 349

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

Some good data on this split. There is almost no software and non-headcount budget for CS. This data is interesting. 64% of CS teams spend $200,000 or less a year on non-headcount, with growth stage companies spending the least, just 0.1% A few things stood out to me: #1. of revenue.

Customer Success 347

Customer Success Headcount Churn Revenue 347

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2022

So, did headcount at the Series A. In 11 years, the median headcount at Series A swelled from 15 to 28. [1]. 1] Thank you to the Pitchbook team for running the headcount analysis data. [2] More capital meant the constraints of yester-decade no longer applied. Founders declared a maximum acceptable dilution instead.

Headcount 325

Headcount Venture Capital Finance Startup 325

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2023

The VSB chart shows a bi-modal tilt to the data: most companies observe a moderate increase but about one-quarter have seen a doubling. The antidote: greater pipeline-to-quota coverage ratios by either increasing the top of the funnel or reducing the account executive headcount.

Startup 350

Startup SMB Headcount Sales 350

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2023

If a startup raised a top quartile Seed round, Series A, B, & C, they typically would have grown headcount by about 6% in the last twelve months. The headcount growth rate for all other companies? No statistically significant difference in headcount. Why look at headcount growth? About double at 12%.

Headcount 244

Headcount Startup AI Scaling 244

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2020

We can derive the table above if we look over the entire respondent base and bucket headcount by ARR. But if you were curious about what to expect at each stage of revenue growth, the data illustrates common patterns. Today, we’re answering the question: how do teams grow as a startup scales?

Scale 363

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Software Review 363

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 22, 2023

B2B companies have reduced headcount to a greater extent than at any time since 2020. The current wave of layoffs, a difficult component of the innovation boom/bust cycle, differs from the previous years’ dynamics. In the last three years, B2C startups’ ratio of layoffs have dwarfed B2B layoffs. In 2020, B2C companies cut 8.8x

B2C 321

B2C B2B Headcount Business Model 321

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Some about the data: PLG companies R&D spend hasn’t produced new business at the same rate as a dollar invested in sales & marketing post-Covid. Sales-lead teams cut headcount when account executives don’t attain numbers.

Headcount 344

Headcount Market Research Acquisition Education 344

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Last year, the company doubled its headcount, tripled revenue and landed on G2’s Top 100 Global Software list. . Chorus’s AI has reveled some interesting insights from the data. And some of the marquee customers include MongoDB, Gitlab and Qualtrics. . The funding comes at a point when Chorus is in the hypergrowth mode.

Scale 359

Scale Artificial Intelligence Payments Payment Services 359

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

Do you want a system that automates playbooks, presents usage data to the team, or creates and tracks a health score? Headcount isn’t the right story for them, though. Instead, it was a cross-functional, data-driven, experimental team. Instead, it was a cross-functional, data-driven, experimental team.

Scale 291

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 291

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

But it’s already starting in the contact center, where leaders from Zendesk to Gorgias to Intercom to Talkdesk are automating away 30%-50% of contact center headcount. All unstructured data to be instantly structured and searchable. Search was sleepy for years. Now, it’s front and center.

AI Search 300

AI Search SaaS Headcount AI 300

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

Everyone is basically doing more with not much more headcount (see next point). #4. Growing Headcount, But Much More Slowly That Revenue. Headcount is up 29% year-over-year, but revenue is up 50%. Also you can see sales & marketing headcount is basically flat, while hiring is almost all in engineering / R&D.

Headcount 246

Headcount Scale Sales Hiring AWS 246

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 16, 2024

Today, IT budgets are roughly broken down into: ~50% headcount / personnel, ~25% software, ~15% hardware, and ~10% outsourcing / consultants. As software grows as a percentage, I think we see headcount / outsourcing shrinking. The shift from on prem to cloud data warehouses is a perfect example of this.

Outsourcing Services 276

Outsourcing Services Cloud Software Outsourced Development 276

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 23, 2020

Massive headcount growth presages large software purchases and expansion. Internal data points are critical additions: adoption of new infrastructure technology, dissatisfaction with an incumbent vendor, budget availability, or a new project or initiative. A company anoints a new department head catalyzing change.

Scale 267

Scale Headcount Sales Startup 267

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Deel solved this by scaling the revenue operations team in conjunction to support sales, design quotas, and go-to-market strategies, and leverage data to identify the best strategies. Without headcount planning for the support team, the company’s response time and customer satisfaction scores dipped. Use your data to inform.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 274

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

Integration with underlying systems of record : At Rippling, all products tap into employee data, unlocking unique capabilities. ” By starting with three integrated products centered around employee data, Rippling established its compound identity from day one.

Startup 157

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 157

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2023

Don’t Tie Revenue To Headcount “You want to get away from a business model where every incremental dollar requires incremental hiring,” says Deatsch. So instead of focusing on scaling headcount quickly, work toward growing revenue quickly. Why do they do it this way?

Sales Hiring 261

Sales Hiring Enterprise Headcount Scale 261

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

Get comfortable with headcount gaps, constantly recruit, and build a network of potential hires so you’re prepared when you need to expand your team. Request key data like recent board packs and ask pointed questions about the company’s current state and future plans. Jason says, “There’s no bandaid in leadership.”

Technical Review 298

Technical Review Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Revenue 298

The Angel VC

MARCH 23, 2016

If you have a SaaS startup with a higher-touch sales model where revenue growth is largely driven by sales headcount, the plan needs to be modified accordingly. Blue numbers indicate data-entry cells. Everything else is calculated, mostly using data from subsequent tabs. Fill those cells with your own data and assumptions.

SaaS Payments 217

SaaS Payments Headcount SaaS Payment Methods 217

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 11, 2022

And they’ll be able to do this efficiently, without increasing headcount or hours logged. Of course, we’re acutely aware that many businesses are operating with less headcount, resources, and bandwidth than before so we narrowed down our advice to the five essentials for driving true bottom-line impact.

Headcount 238

Headcount Customer Support Strategy Branding 238

Chart Mogul

MAY 29, 2025

What began as an internal tool to enhance our own customer data quickly evolved into something much more impactful. What began as an internal tool to enhance our own customer data quickly evolved into something much more impactful. Ready to start enriching your customer data? Heres how enrichment powers our own workflows: 1.

AI 52

AI Data Headcount Subscription 52

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

You Mon Tsang, CEO and co-founder of ChurnZero, Colleen O’Sullivan, VP of Integrated Customer Experience at Hubspot, and Jason Lemkin, SaaStr founder and CEO, give their take on where the customer success industry is headed and shares data from the Customer Success Leadership Study done by ChurnZero at the close of 2023.

Customer Success 299

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Headcount 299

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Vimeo just hired their first sales rep 3 years ago to spearhead $20k+ deals … and now they have 100 reps, and are on track to double that headcount. The Key to Upgrades to Enterprise and from Free-to-Paid in Self-Service at Scale is Data. My Top 10 Learnings: #1. 50% of Vimeo’s revenue is international.

Enterprise 299

Enterprise Scale Sales Hiring Headcount 299

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2022

About 20% of those polled will conduct a layoff, and on average will reduce headcount by 20%. To summarize, the data highlights that we’re living in a market in flux. 50% of companies won’t change compensation this year, 33% will increase it, and 17% will reduce it.

Startup 242

Startup Scale Headcount Compensation 242

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

But today, the underlying backbone of all of it is the right data. While science has always been part of sales, it’s hard to ignore the increasing importance of taking a data-driven approach to growing your business. As a sales rep, you need to be comfortable understanding the data behind your pipeline.

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring Metrics Revenue Sales 189

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2023

Security is all about where data is coming from and how you’re training your models. Ai made it possible to engage with students, teachers, and others within the platform, save on customer service headcount, and scale the company. Yet, 79% will struggle to ensure their AI models are responsible, secure, and free of bias.

AI 299

AI Technology Scale Startup 299

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Having a predictable pipeline enables more effective decision-making, from headcount planning to strategic investments in technology and beyond. The third element is data and tools. Every organization needs a single source of truth for forecasting data to avoid swivel-chairing between endless reports and spreadsheets.

Forecasting 284

Forecasting SMB Sales Technical Review 284

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 23, 2022

With increasing business costs and reduced headcount, companies are feeling the squeeze as they also grapple with rising consumer expectations. Let customer data drive your efforts. So, with the expiry of third-party cookies on the horizon, businesses should make collecting, analyzing and acting on first-party data a priority.

Customer Support 212

Customer Support Retention Headcount Customer Lifetime Value 212

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 7, 2022

Capture customer data that helps you to personalize your sales outreach and improve the customer experience. Maintain sales hygiene by integrating with the other essential tools in your sales tech stack to ensure that your data is always up-to-date and synchronized. Increase your leads without increasing your headcount.

Sales Funnel 245

Sales Funnel Sales Headcount Payment Features 245

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

The surge in pipeline is notable given the uncertainty in the market but the close rates are low & sales cycles slow : another confirmatory data point for startups to plan cautiously in 2023. Today, our largest R2 customer is another AI company using us for exactly the purpose of being a neutral place to store their training data.

Cloud 243

Cloud Azure Headcount Software Review 243

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2023

AI & data continue to dominate the funding landscape as founders & investors seek novel applications of the technology. Companies & startups in particular begin to report meaningful improvements in productivity from AI, reducing their headcount growth, butn growing revenue just as much as projected.

AI Search 240

AI Search Headcount Scale AI 240

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2024

Until recently, founders would describe their growth rate by how fast they were growing their company headcount. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today? My advice is to keep the bar high. In addition, recent advancements in automation are making it possible to keep the bar higher for longer when scaling teams. #4.

Scale 271

Scale Headcount Travel B2B 271

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 4, 2024

Toil is repetitive work : reviewing alerts, triaging leads, data entry. Whatever the reason, the challenge is the same facing a hiring manager : difficult recruitment to maintain or grow headcount. What attributes of a market make it attractive to pursue? Those with three attributes : Toil, labor market shortages, and margin pressure.

AI 203

AI Software Review Marketing Systems Review 203

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2021

Yes, you may have to make some educated guesses and get some data from unusual sources. If nothing else, you can pretty reliability track headcount growth on LinkedIn). Are we gaining share — or not? Track it over time, each time. (Yes, As founders, it’s your job to see that, even when others can’t.

Azure 244

Azure Headcount AWS Education 244