User Pilot

MAY 17, 2021

Are you tracking the right Product Marketing KPIs? With so many product growth insights available to every product marketer, it’s sometimes hard to understand which metrics are relevant and which you should be tracking to measure the success of your product marketing. What is Product Marketing?

Product Marketing 98

Product Marketing Metrics Customer Lifetime Value Marketing 98

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? I have known Deepinder for several years, and he has great product instincts and hustle. I have known Deepinder for several years, and he has great product instincts and hustle. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? Check that out here.

Innovation 224

Innovation Wireless Acquisition Technology 224

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2022

Startups create products. After product-market fit, product teams hew the product roadmap from a panoply of options to the features best aligned with the company’s plans. In much the same way, CEOs architect the organization that builds, markets, sells, and supports the product.

Startup 353

Startup Acquisition Product Marketing Scaling 353

Brian Balfour

JUNE 28, 2017

I’ve been lucky to have been part of building, advising, or investing in 40+ tech companies in the past 10 years. It’s Not Just Product Market Fit The second “go-to” answer is product market fit. While product market fit is a component of the framework, it is far from the answer. Some $100M+ wins.

Product Marketing 111

Product Marketing Growth Hacking Marketing Construction 111

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Alison brings the perspective of all sides of a startup, from investing to SaaS to Cloud. With the marketing team, there are a lot of the classic functions — brand marketing, product marketing, and partner marketing. From there they created an entire marketing studio in six weeks using Vertex.

Cloud 221

Cloud Scale AWS AI 221

SaaStr

JUNE 30, 2023

It’s to give you the opportunity to already be building for the market while it’s still developing.” From 2011 to 2015, the only part of the mobile market that was making money was mobile gaming, but tricking children into buying fish food wasn’t a sustainable business. But if the market isn’t ready, it isn’t ready.

Scale 182

Scale Mobile Venture Capital Scaling 182

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

While we use Zapier here at SaaStr and are super familiar with it, for those who don’t use the tool, it’s a workflow automation platform that connects your data sources and apps to help maximize the efficiency of your teams, tools, and processes without relying on a developer team. Team and organization setup.

Scale 242

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 242

User Pilot

AUGUST 6, 2023

Using customer relationship management (CRM) software to centralize your customer data is a worthwhile investment since it will prevent the formation of data silos and streamline the process of ensuring everyone has access to the information they need. Join the Userpilot Product Marketing & Growth Facebook group here!

Investment 97

Investment Banking Social Media Customer Lifetime Value 97

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

with Olivier Adam, Chief Growth Officer at ReferralCandy Successful Scaling Across Markets, Lessons in Marketing & Building GTM with IvyCap’s MP with Ashish Wadhwani, Co-founder and Managing Partner.

VP of Engineering 222

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder Outsourcing Services CTO Coach 222

Tom Tunguz

JULY 19, 2023

Reflecting on the last three quarters : Startups have parted with colleagues to extend runway in a difficult fundraising market. Some have significant balance sheets & discovered the ostensible product-market fit isn’t as strong as the business may have believed. The M&A & IPO markets are quiet.

Forecasting 148

Forecasting Startup Pricing Investment 148

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 7, 2015

Customer knowledge, both qualitative and quantitative, informed product development, and that research became a key part of AdSense’s success. Is it worth more or less than X product? Ascertain whether the customer believes the return on investment is wildly in their favor. How much do you pay?

Product Marketing 114

Product Marketing Development Team Review Software Review Startup 114

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

From an R&D perspective, they invested in what they called vertical solutions to support those new use cases. So, Calendly decided to invest in going Enterprise. Kate has a simple framework for going upmarket: Product, People, and Process. From a product standpoint, you might think you have product market fit.

Scale 209

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 209

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2022

In achieving over $724M in ARR and growing to 2,000+ employees since its founding in 2015, they have learned a thing or two about developing a business. . Sarah Patterson, Samsara’s Chief Marketing Officer, has been there to learn these lessons along with them. Build your marketing stack. Lesson #3: Journey to Multi-product.

Scale 160

Scale Engineering Marketing Scaling 160

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS, Venture Capital, Bootstrapping, and Valuations – understanding market trends and investment patterns is critical. We’ll explain Jason’s take on the recent market fluctuations, highlighting major deals that shaped investment patterns and their effects on valuation trends.

Venture Capital 198

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 198

Casey Accidental

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

In my recent essay about second products , I talked about how the goal of building a second product is not the traditional concept of product/market fit we’ve all been raised on regarding startups. In some ways, our goal with a second product is easier, and in some ways, much harder.

Underperforming Technical Team 62

Underperforming Technical Team Scale GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Startup 62

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

The four key pillars he lays out are: Product market fit & expansion. Go to market approach & expansion. 1 Product-Market Fit and Expansion. Is your product sound, and does it solve a big problem for customers, enough for you to scale? Competitive differentiation. Building a stage-specific team. #1

Scale 307

Scale Scaling Technical Review Systems Review 307

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2020

The mentors and investors that give you the best advice often don’t sugarcoat i t.You have to develop a thicker skin as a founder. Watch it here: And only then … product-market fit. A bad VC will tell others not to invest. More here: A Simple Commitment Test For You And Your Co-Founders | SaaStr. Or token revenue?

Revenue 359

Revenue Branding Investment Product Marketing 359

Andreessen Horowitz

DECEMBER 4, 2023

Most growth-stage CEOs I work with know how to tell if they’re efficiently allocating capital in every part of their budget with one glaring exception: research and development (R&D). Map your spend to your product roadmap, then attach an expected ROI and timeline for the expected return.

Underperforming Technical Team 118

Underperforming Technical Team Benchmarks CTO Hire New CTO 118

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Go-to-Market matters because sales and marketing spend remain the biggest proportion of SaaS spend, so honing in on that spend to build an engine and drive growth is paramount. But to develop a GTM strategy, you must have Product Market Fit. The Early Stage — $0 to $20M ARR The early stage is crucial for GTM.

Scale 216

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 216

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. However, they were wrong about these assumptions, which kept them from identifying gaps and assessing the extensibility of their Enterprise product-market-fit.

Scale 191

Scale SMB Enterprise Sales Hiring 191

User Pilot

JUNE 20, 2023

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of the product with only core features. Once you launch the MVP, you can use product usage data and customer feedback to inform further iterations. Regular PMF surveys help teams to ensure that their product is still satisfying a valid user need. User interview prep sheet.

Underperforming Technical Team 98

Underperforming Technical Team Social Media Scale Interviewing 98

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2022

Starting with his time as an investment banker and later working in SaaS, Yancey Spruill, CEO at DigitalOcean , watched venture capitalists invest in seemingly strong companies, only to sell them off. What did it take for the VCs to throw their hands up in surrender — and what can be done to prevent this from happening?

Startup 234

Startup Leadership Innovation Scaling 234

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

They grew like crazy when they found product-market-fit and raised a big Series A and B. Most often, you get a call from a function called corporate development. Corporate development executes deals. When you’re growing fast, everything can feel like it’s breaking constantly, and you’re hiring and rehiring people fast.

Underperforming Technical Team 161

Underperforming Technical Team Data Development Team Review Technical Review 161

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2023

You have to develop a thicker skin as a founder. Watch it here: And only then … product-market fit. A bad VC will tell others not to invest. But if your co-founder isn’t great, if they don’t have the right skills to complement yours, and/or if they aren’t committed enough … it won’t work out. And only then … hypergrowth.

Scale 198

Scale Pricing Innovation Revenue 198

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Not all products are made for enterprise customers. Instead, focus on understanding your target market. . The best way to achieve product-market fit is to study your audience as early as possible and comprehensively overview customer segments in your niche. It’s a waste of time to try to get everyone interested.

Scale 183

Scale Scaling Revenue Enterprise 183

Casey Accidental

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

The Summit gathered ~40 CPOs and product leaders to chat through topics centered around product development and product-led growth. After product/market fit, most companies’ obsession is not thinking about how to create their next amazing product. Product/market fit has a positive slope.

Payments 62

Payments Scale Payment Methods Underperforming Technical Team 62

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development. Is a CRO right for you?

Sales Hiring 219

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 219

User Pilot

JANUARY 29, 2023

Without validating features, it’s easy to create products that aren’t aligned with their vision or are difficult to differentiate. Developing features without validation results in bloated products and unnecessarily drives the cost of development up. Product teams should invest in validation when developing the MVP.

Management 98

Management Underperforming Technical Team Interviewing Scale 98

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Overcoming challenges by optimizing for success In the early stages of setting up your SaaS business, it’s always a good idea to invest time thinking about the direction you want to take. You may have a one-person representative in each continent who does the job of an SDR, closes deals, takes care of partnerships, marketing, and more.

Sales Hiring 211

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 211

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

On finding product-market fit in the early stages. Jason identifies product/market fit (PMF) as the stage where a startup that has struggled to get customers suddenly sees growth but they don’t know why. The first product Algolia built never achieved product-market fit. And then boom!”

Scale 221

Scale Sales Hiring Technical Advisors Scaling 221

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2022

Before attracting investors, ensure that your company structure and products are up to par. You do that by hiring a strong time, developing a product without getting attached to it, having a proper business structure, and not being put off by rejection. . Develop your product without getting attached to it.

Scale 180

Scale Marketing Scaling Communication 180

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

David Sacks: SaaS Background and Investments. David’s first foray into SaaS was in 1999 when he joined a startup that would become PayPal, starting as the product leader and later as the COO. David Sacks has invested in over 20 unicorn companies, including Airbnb, Bird, ClickUp, Facebook, Slack, and Uber. Head of Product.

CTO Hire 228

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 228

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 28, 2022

And for Intercom’s VP of Sales EMEA, Sanj Bhayro , scaling is just what you need to invest in to ensure growth becomes as constant and linear as it can be. Attract and develop talent and invest in supporting resources like onboarding, sales enablement, and sales engineering. Building a good foundation.

Scale 210

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 210

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2023

When building a product, organizations are solving a specific need. Of course, building great teams and finding product market fit is critical, but don’t forget about product investor fit. Create a full breakout plan first, then look back and figure out who will invest. That’s a mistake. Absolutely.

Development Team Review 203

Development Team Review Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team SMB 203

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 16, 2018

Here’s a summary of the frameworks and theory that I’ve aggregated over a decade of investing in startups. All of these disciplines fall under product marketing. Well run product marketing teams develop these perspectives before product launch. Why do we set prices?

Pricing 226

Pricing Market Research Interviewing Product Marketing 226

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. b) Some folks like to invest in the company they advise. For developer tools and infra, it is skewed towards brand and community.

Scale 200

Scale Sales Hiring Cybersecurity Underperforming Technical Team 200

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2021

A mentor of mine suggested that I reframe my search to seek out companies that I would invest in, instead of the other way around. He told me, you can invest time, talent, or treasure. Unfortunately for me, I had little experience, not much talent, and lacked the treasure/money to invest. It seemed like the best investment! .

Scale 246

Scale Sales Hiring Sales SMB 246