The Angel VC

APRIL 1, 2017

At the excellent SaaStr Annual 2016 conference about a year ago, a very experienced SaaS CEO said on stage that an internal recruiter can be a startup CEO’s secret superpower. Being willing to invest in an internal recruiter or talent manager (or more broadly, an HR person) early on requires pretty big balls a lot of confidence.

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Software Review 168

User Pilot

APRIL 19, 2024

Effective market research requires clear and measurable objectives, guiding decision-making and ensuring relevance to the project’s needs, and should be accompanied by appropriate methods , including both primary and secondary research. This allows businesses to tailor their offerings and engage more effectively with their target market.

Market Research 52

Market Research Sales Recruiting Marketing Underperforming Technical Team 52

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. Sanj has plenty of experience scaling sales teams at growing businesses, and that’s precisely why, as of November of last year, he‘s overseeing EMEA sales at Intercom.

Scale 210

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 210

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The market need for SaaS products has exploded and investment in SaaS companies has accelerated, requiring more talent to grow and scale. Competitive pressures and changing customer needs can be captured by a great marketing or product marketing lead. Accelerate hiring of internal recruiters.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 8, 2021

Elements of Successful Global Sales Expansion. “Be So, let’s look at four keys to a successful global sales expansion. Make Investments Across the Board, and Make a Plan for the Resources You Have. Global expansion requires strong business partners in all functions, and committed investment across the board.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Technical Review 82

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2019

Prior to Harness, Stephen was VP of Marketing at Glassdoor, managing a team of 52 in product marketing, helping grow B2B revenue from $19m to $90m in just 2 years, leading to their $1.2Bn acquisition. Steve has previously said, “Sales and marketing must be one team.” Why does he believe this is so important?

DevOps as a Service 100

DevOps as a Service Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring 100

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Once a startup has found an initial product market fit, the business must evolve the way it models its growth. Before product market fit, a startup’s financial projections focus on costs. In other words, how much cash investment is required to double or triple or quadruple revenues in the next year.

Sales Recruiting 111

Sales Recruiting Revenue Startup Sales Hiring 111

Kellblog

JULY 17, 2022

Create a product. Get product-market fit (PMF), i.e., determine some problem you solve for some person with some product. Go sell some software to prove there’s a market. Let’s understand what these three elements mean and think about how much to invest in them. Go sell some software.

Branding 130

Branding Startup Software Sales Recruiting 130

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 29, 2021

“You need at least a couple folks on the team who are experienced—not necessarily in the startup process, but with product management or even just business operations.”. Nikita’s Non-traditional Recruiting Approach. Finding and Recruiting the Right Product People. Validating the strategy and plan.

Sales Hiring 60

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Development Team Review Management 60

SaaStr

APRIL 23, 2019

How they came up with the idea of Brex, and product market fit. One of the things that I feel like fintech companies really struggle with is what is product market fit? Did you have a product? How do you really … because it takes a long time in fintech for product market fit. Henrique : Yeah.

Sales Hiring 162

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Payment Methods 162

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 23, 2023

It’s difficult to implement outcome-based roadmaps because stakeholders don’t trust product teams to deliver on business goals. Many companies lack differentiation strategies and drive product development by copying competitors. In other words, the product-market fit becomes weaker for some of the target audience.

Scale 87

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting Software Review 87

FastSpring

MARCH 27, 2023

Ryan Austin had VP-level experience in training when he decided to start a consulting business to help enterprise-level companies with their corporate learning and development initiatives. Founded in 2019, Cognota is the first and only LearnOps platform for corporate learning and development teams.

Payment Solutions 95

Payment Solutions Payment Services SaaS Payments VP of Engineering 95

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Does one have to expand the product line to retain customers? First, what is continuous customer development? Billion story from its launch in 2008 to its 2018 acquisition by Recruit Holdings. When we spoke before about it, you said continuous customer development becomes so crucial. Does one have to move to enterprise?

Scale 128

Scale SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting Payment Services 128

Sales Hacker

MARCH 17, 2021

Strict sales volume does go a long way in achieving long-term revenue growth, but processes and cross-department alignment are what allow sales volumes to scale in the first place. More often than not, first-stage growth was accomplished on the back of a lean management team, potentially just the CEO. The problem?

Scale 93

Scale Revenue Startup Sales Recruiting 93

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. Q: Should Product Marketing Work for Product or Marketing? Pipedrive sold for $1.5B.

Scale 249

Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales Recruiting 249

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2019

As for Andrew, he started his first software development company at the age of 18 and has been running Wrike for the last 13 years alongside advisory roles with both Ditto and Appulate. How does the product and what you invest in proactively need to change as you move into enterprise? What are the benefits of starting in SMB?

Sales Hiring 145

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Sales Recruiting 145

The Angel VC

AUGUST 10, 2011

I recently wrote that investors (myself included) should do a better job of making their investment criteria transparent to founders. One could almost say that CAC and CLTV are for a SaaS company what wholesale price and sales price are for a retailer. Provided that there is some data on these two metrics, that is. along the way.

Sales Recruiting 155

Sales Recruiting Startup Customer Lifetime Value SaaS 155

SmartKarrot

APRIL 12, 2022

Role: Director of Customer Success Location: New York, NY Hybrid Organization: Crealytics As a Director of Customer Success, you will develop strong connections with key client stakeholders to understand their needs and invest in their long-term success. Train the account managers to polish their client-related skills.

Customer Success 19

Customer Success Sales Recruiting Scale Advertising 19

ProfitWell

DECEMBER 10, 2019

When companies put paid programs in place, everything changes—fostering a brand new revenue stream that they can use to invest in new customer-centric ideas. Instead of discounting products, they’re developing relationships.”. Recruit your teammates into the subscription know: recurnow.com to sign up for episodes on the daily.

Sales Recruiting 41

Sales Recruiting Subscription Payment Features Onboarding 41

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

But no matter how thick a skin you develop, it’s never fun to be told ‘no,’ especially after you’ve spent significant time with an investor exploring a potential deal. I passed on one company where we were really excited to invest in, but then the verbal metrics did not match up with the reality,” recalls Sanjiv. “In she continues.

Technical Review 73

Technical Review Scale Development Team Review Software Review 73

OpenView Labs

JUNE 10, 2019

But, they’re urged to de-scope products to a ‘minimally viable’ version in order to release features as fast as possible. They know the immense value of user input and customer development. Here’s some good news: there are tons of amazing product management resources out there. 90% of startups fail.

Management 55

Management SaaS Scale Sales Recruiting 55

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 26, 2021

Catherine Brodigan , Business Development Partnerships Manager, sees this value at work across the sales team. “As We invest in building for the long term and we learn from experimenting in the short term. We enjoy this journey that we’re on together and we look for the fun in what we do.

Sales Hiring 138

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Customer Support Engineering 138

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

Prior to Crossbeam, Bob founded Stitched, a powerful ETL service built for developers that was acquired by Talend in 2018. Does Bob agree with the notion that channel sales have completely died in the world of SaaS? Prior to Crossbeam Bob founded Stitched, a powerful ETL service built for developers that was acquired by Talend in 2018.

Sales Hiring 132

Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services CTO Hire 132

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2020

343: Kyle Parrish is the Head of Sales @ Figma, the company that helps teams create, test and ship better designs from start to finish. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: * How Kyle made his way into the world of SaaS and sales and came to be Head of Sales at one of the fastest-growing companies in Figma. What worked?

Sales Hiring 196

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Advisors 196

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2021

I want to come be your VP of sales and, you’re going to meet me for the first time. Spencer : For me, the key things for a VP of sales is, “OK, tell me about your best reps. We’re trying to recruit someone that’s way above our weight class, so that we can actually scale. You hire a search firm.

VP of Engineering 267

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 267

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2020

356: Pete Kazanjy is the Co-Founder @ Atrium, the startup providing proactive, always-on insights for sales operations, managers, and leaders. Alongside Atrium, Pete is also the Founder of Modern Sales Pros, a community of 15,000 focused on sales operations and sales management. Stop asking questions.

Part-Time VPE 203

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 203

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2020

What Nobody Tells You About Seed Investing with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Cowboy Ventures Founder and Partner Aileen Lee. I think it gives us a perspective that maybe we don’t get in some other places, in addition to many great investments over the years. Aileen Lee | Founder @ Cowboy Ventures. Jason Lemkin | Founder @ SaaStr.

Investment 160

Investment Technical Review Part-Time VPE Development Team Review 160

SmartKarrot

JULY 27, 2021

Role: Head of Customer Success Location: San Francisco, CA, US Organization: Turn/River Capital As a Head of Customer Success, you will work with the leadership teams at 2 to 3 of the Turn/River portfolio companies to develop and implement retention and growth strategies and build operational best practices.

Development Team Review 10

Development Team Review Technical Review Customer Success Systems Review 10

SmartKarrot

AUGUST 21, 2020

As a Customer Success Manager, you will have to ensure the success of the customers by illustrating how the Domo product will provide value to their company. You are responsible to develop and own important relationships with each customer to ensure continued expansion opportunities as well as yearly subscription renewals.

Customer Success 10

Customer Success Sales Recruiting Direct Sales Team Forecasting 10

Unbounce

JUNE 16, 2020

For example, ActiveCampaign’s reseller program offers beefier discounts to partners as they grow, letting them set their own pricing and pocket the difference: ActiveCampaign’s reseller program offers deeper discounts on pricing as more sales are made, creating an incentive to go big. Increased Product Focus. Expanded Reach.

Outsourcing Services 131

Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting Scale SaaS 131

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 3, 2021

Where should you invest your resources? If you’re short on time, here are a few quick takeaways: You can’t balance short-term and long-term investments without considering the existing product strategy. If the product isn’t in good shape, R&D needs to prioritize getting it up to speed before focusing on the next thing.

Strategy 228

Strategy Software Review Development Team Review Sales Recruiting 228

SmartKarrot

MARCH 4, 2021

Customer needs and expectations evolve with time, influence and other products. To handle this evolving requirement, it is important to build a competent profile to initiate progress in product development. This is where companies need another C-level executive to facilitate business growth via products. contact-form-7].

Part-Time CTO 16

Part-Time CTO VP of Engineering CTO CTO Hire 16

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

Basically you can more easily start using products. The second constituent there is the developer. Why do developers love SaaS products? They love SaaS products. They love consuming SaaS products not because of the billing model, but because of the delivery model. This is products that sell themselves.

SaaS Payments 239

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Scale 239

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 25, 2019

In general, growth is a good problem to have – it means you’ve found some measure of product market fit and you’re generating real revenue from active users. Given that the primary metric we measure growth in is revenue, it follows that sales feels growth more acutely than almost any other function.

Scale 136

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 136

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

In this episode of the Sales Hacker Podcast, we have Amy Frampton , Head of Marketing at BambooHR and 15-year marketing veteran. Join us for a hilarious conversation about what’s changed in marketing lately, brushing shoulders with Marshawn Lynch, poaching SDRs and AEs from sales, and tips for employer branding.

Sales Recruiting 79

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Marketing Underperforming Technical Team 79

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2020

At Gainsight Anthony and the team developed a new playbook for B2B marketing that fueled the company’s growth from $0 to over $100M of ARR. How is marketing being pushed further into the realms of CS? What is the optimal relationship between CS and marketing?

Sales Recruiting 175

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 175

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2020

To meet buyers’ high expectations and manage the challenging sales landscape, companies must involve their entire organization in maturing the sales process- including after prospects sign on the dotted line. And it was all about relationship building with our sales reps, which is a super useful tactic.

Scale 215

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 215