Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

will quotas for SDRs & BDRs increase but headcount remain the same? We’ll need to watch the impact to funnel conversion through many sales cycles to develop confidence that any changes are statistically significant.

Artificial Intelligence 150

Artificial Intelligence Scale Headcount Scaling 150

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Without headcount planning for the support team, the company’s response time and customer satisfaction scores dipped. Forecasting can help define revenue numbers, the support you need to provide, headcounts, and opportunities to tap into new businesses. Data is the foundation for developing efficient strategies.

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 235

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

Assume 1 sales manager for each 8 sales professionals, and 1 head of sales development for each 10 SDRs. But in theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, this won’t impact headcount too much. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. SDRs, BDRs, etc.

Scale 287

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 287

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Having a predictable pipeline enables more effective decision-making, from headcount planning to strategic investments in technology and beyond. At the top of the funnel, AE’s rely on business development reps to fill their pipeline and create earlier-stage opportunities. They need support from pre and post-sales partners.

Forecasting 248

Forecasting SMB Technical Review Sales 248

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2021

Bryan shares his learnings, from media sales and heading up the sales development function to Aircall, to his top learnings at SaaStr Inc. But it hindered our support and growth by being behind on headcount. “I You can buy your tickets at SaaStr Annual and use promo code: “Poya30” to receive 30% off. .

Sales Hiring 250

Sales Hiring Headcount Sales Branding 250

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2023

Some define it by headcount, typically around 200-2000 employees, and others by revenue, generally $10M to $1B annual recurring revenue. In rapidly growing companies, the headcount can go from 500-3000 in a matter of months. Develop a killer discovery process to impose order in the chaos of a fast-growing company.

Scale 192

Scale Enterprise Scaling SMB 192

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Avoid These 3 Things 3 pitfalls to avoid when growing and scaling a sales team 1) Thinking that more sales headcount = more revenue This is a pitfall and simply not true. Led by Lars Nilsson , who coined the phrase account-based sales development himself, this will be both a strategic and tactical session. Let’s get into it.

Sales Hiring 105

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 105

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 7, 2022

Increase your leads without increasing your headcount. But one of the major benefits of live chat for sales is that it allows you to capture and qualify more leads without needing to increase headcount. Envoy accelerated lead volume through Intercom. Leads generated by Intercom now make up 33% of Envoy’s leads. Learn more ?.

Sales Funnel 245

Sales Funnel Sales Headcount Subscription 245

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2022

Instead of celebrating headcount, focus on growing efficiently in scalable ways.” . Develop impactful messaging to tell your product story and embed that into your outbound strategy. Develop a laser-sharp ideal sales profile and hire for it, but don’t compromise on efficiency. Unconventional scaling ideas to accelerate growth.

Outsourcing Services 222

Outsourcing Services Scale Sales Hiring Outsourced Development 222

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Lots of SaaS founders are preoccupied with employee headcount as an important growth metric, but this indicator is not always true. Focus on developing your leaders in-house. What does successful company growth look like? Everyone is constantly questioning the value of what they’re doing because no one has time for busy work.

Compensation 219

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 219

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

In this article, you’ll learn how to structure your sales development (SDR) team for maximum efficiency and scalability. Of course, headcount is always a sensitive topic, so start small to show your executives what is possible. If executed right, the headcount is truly an investment. Sales leaders, read on! Navy SEALs.

Scale 85

Scale Development Headcount Sales 85

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2024

His first company was Personify and he went on to be a VP of Developer Relations at Salesforce, then hire number 11 at Dropbox, CEO at Heroku, and an investor and on many boards before landing as the current CEO at Vimeo. Do you see massive disruption in workforces and marketing headcounts shrinking because of AI? “I’m

AI Search 232

AI Search SaaS Advertising Sales Hiring 232

Sales Hacker

MAY 17, 2019

Have you noticed the disconnect between how executives talk about Sales Development and how they treat Sales Development leaders? Companies are beginning to understand the vital role SDRs play in building pipeline , but Sales Development leaders rarely have a seat at the proverbial table. The Reason? Standardizing bandwidth.

Scale 80

Scale Sales Hiring Development Sales 80

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 20, 2021

“These are the kinds of things that help our support org to function more smoothly and impactfully so we can support our customers at scale, without needing to increase budget or headcount”. Starting to build out a support operations function doesn’t necessarily mean adding headcount straight away. Baby steps, for sure.”.

Scale 156

Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 156

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 1, 2021

Over the past year, many support teams have struggled with budget cuts, reduced headcount, and less bandwidth – while the volume and complexity of customer queries has only risen. So how can you manage a larger volume of queries without needing to add headcount? Challenge #1: Limited team bandwidth, resources, and budget.

Underperforming Technical Team 232

Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Scale Headcount 232

IT World

JULY 20, 2022

Apple seems to have confirmed what we already knew: times are tough, and while the company will continue to invest in product development, it will be freezing investment in some of its departments, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg simply says the company will no longer increase headcount in some departments next year.

Headcount 69

Headcount Investment Development Business 69

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

Ryan Johnston, Head of Customer Success at Tanda, explains that as their customer base has grown in recent years, the team has been able to scale their support without dramatically increasing headcount, which has been a big benefit to the team. Here’s how they’re doing it.

Scale 237

Scale Headcount Mobile Communication 237

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

This simplicity is of course shrouded in the complexity of biology, and demands that biotech companies thoughtfully de-risk existential concerns throughout the drug development lifecycle. One powerful avenue is through the use of an exceptionally well-curated, comprehensive, and accessible virtual data room (VDR)! key in vivo data results).

Development Team Review 127

Development Team Review Technical Review Finance Systems Review 127

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 31, 2021

During the past few weeks, finance and management teams will have been busy developing the financial plan for this year. funnel analysis tying sales performance to lead generation and marketing budget for program spend and headcount. The key number is the new bookings which implies the growth rate for next year.

Forecasting 152

Forecasting Sales Hiring Headcount Finance 152

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

AI is likely the next platform, dev tools are strategic given the scarcity of developers, cybersecurity is front and center for enterprises, and the data stack is still going strong. Often, founders are unsure about the headcount split between India and the US. For developer tools and infra, it is skewed towards brand and community.

Scale 220

Scale Sales Hiring Cybersecurity Underperforming Technical Team 220

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. With the exception of the VP of Sales role, sales staff headcount planning is done on the separate "Sales Team Hiring Plan" tab (re-using a model that I've built for this post ).

SaaS Payments 217

SaaS Payments Headcount SaaS Payment Methods 217

BetterCloud

JUNE 12, 2023

Finally, the IT team was building capacity, without building headcount and getting time back to work on strategic projects and improve their knowledge in new areas. Denying the opportunity for professional development hurts career growth and makes employees less valuable in the long-term,” Grossman said.

Headcount 52

Headcount compliance Onboarding Scaling 52

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 8, 2020

It can also guide your hiring process if increasing headcount is required to guarantee 24/7 coverage for customers. A disconnect between your tickets opened and tickets completed may indicate a need for better training of support reps, increased headcount, or the introduction of automation to help reduce the strain on your team.

Customer Support 211

Customer Support Metrics Technical Review Scale 211

ChurnZero

JANUARY 10, 2023

With limited headcount, companies are focused on filling their most critical roles. Companies with complex products and offerings are looking for candidates with prior development experience, advanced excel skills, and stronger analytical abilities. Reduced budgets sharpen employers’ appetite for niche experience. Last year, 63.3%

Trends 52

Trends Customer Success Headcount Scale 52

Buffer Resources

APRIL 22, 2024

Unlike traditional startup founders who seek to grow headcount and scale a product, solopreneurs often are the product. Linkedin Known as the social media platform for professionals, LinkedIn is great for developing thought leadership and growing your business reputation.

Social Media 95

Social Media Scale Growth Hacking Headcount 95

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2023

Every single demo he did was exciting, because he was able to show in real time exactly what the problem was – not understanding whether, say, increasing headcount by 20 people would be too great a burden on the company – and the solution, his company (they’re called Runway ). To be clear, his demo wasn’t sexy.

Social Media 171

Social Media SaaS Underperforming Technical Team Headcount 171

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 20, 2020

How would David Heinemeier Hansson ( DHH ) make time to talk smack on Twitter or go off the grid for three months if he was the sole developer on Rails? To give a flavor, here are some of the questions that managers regularly need to find answers to: What is the ideal headcount for this team? He wouldn’t. Six months?

Engineering 221

Engineering Management Headcount Development 221

SaaSOptics

MAY 2, 2022

If you observe the average sales headcount of early-stage product-led companies, you’ll find that many have already laid the foundation of a hybrid model because (in most cases) a strong sales team is what ultimately allows them to scale and maintain their hold on the market. There Aren’t Many True Product-led Companies.

Scale 97

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales 97

Kellblog

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

As we struggle to hit top-down targets through rounds of cost-cutting, we cut here and squeeze there so much that we can develop a certain myopia. A mindless policy that basically says the C-suite can’t be bothered with headcount resource allocation and will effectively leave it to chance. Why do we forget this?

VP of Engineering 107

VP of Engineering Travel Underperforming Technical Team Headcount 107

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The fastest-growing startups allocate only 7% of their headcount to services and supporting their customers (half that of slower-growing startups). . Companies that have been able to build intuitive, self-serve products reap the rewards of a lower headcount devoted to installing and supporting their product. The takeaway.

Headcount 73

Headcount SaaS Compensation Acquisition 73

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Peter shares his experience with managing headcount. We got a reduced ROI on initial investment on headcount. Peter Caputa As a final note, never stop developing and fine-tuning your strategy and don’t treat PMF as a static point. Yoram Wijngaarde Building out a team is often the next step for companies looking to scale.

Scale 52

Scale Scaling Headcount SaaS 52

SaaSX

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Here’s a super basic overview of the key P&L areas we typically use: Revenue Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Sales & Marketing Expenses (S&M) Research & Development Expenses (R&D) General & Administrative Expenses (G&A). This INCLUDES headcount-related expenses. Not Utilizing a Proper SaaS Chart of Accounts.

Finance 118

Finance Sales Hiring Headcount Scale 118

Sales Hacker

JUNE 1, 2020

Sales still makes up 25% of their headcount on average. Sales and business development headcount increased by 45% year-on-year versus just 33% in non-sales roles (the full data is available here ). Flash forward to 2019, and the company grew sales headcount by 66% year-on-year, which is twice the rate of other roles (31%).

Sales Hiring 75

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 75

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

This is something that I’m doing with fractional headcount allocation. The pilot programs aren’t meant to be these big bells and whistles, not even after you launch an official full-time headcount on something. It’s going to be the growth team, and we’re going to put three to four headcount on it.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Sales Hiring Headcount Scale 98

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

What kind of headcount do you have? As organizations grow their marketing team, they either hire too many generalists or too many specialists and put them in silos where they don’t come together or work together. Depending on where you are in the evolution of your marketing team, think about the capabilities you want to have in the team.

Scale 200

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Marketing 200

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

The best SaaS companies are able to build strong brands, develop scalable products and hire teams to bring those products to market effectively. The chart above shows the headcount growth of the median publicly traded SaaS company from year four through year ten of the company’s life.

Headcount 100

Headcount Sales Hiring SaaS Benchmarks 100

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2022

Their offerings have expanded over the years from personal use to Grammarly Business, Grammarly for Non-Profits, and the recently launched Grammarly for Developers. But as you expand and start productizing everything in your journey, it’s easy to get under the assumption that more headcount equals better performance.

Scale 213

Scale SMB Enterprise Sales Hiring 213