Tom Tunguz

JULY 25, 2021

However, equity dollars are replacing those debt dollars in the last 18 months in the early stage. Meanwhile, venture debt dollars have migrated to later stages. Early stage debt origination and round counts peaked in 2019, while later stage debt has increased quite nearly every year.

Finance 338

Finance Startup Acquisition SaaS 338

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How often will a sales engineer also wear a customer success hat in an early stage of an SaaS startup? Pretty darn common. The “traditional” role of a sales engineer is to support the sales team through the close of a deal. And as you scale, the role should likely end there. appeared first on SaaStr.

Scale 221

Scale Engineering Customer Success Startup 221

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What are some of the “ultimate sins” in marketing and sales and success in SaaS in the early stages? This never works out in the early days. May make sense later, but this almost always is just throwing money down the drain in the early days. A bit more here. Hiring a brand marketing firm.

Sales Hiring 224

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 224

SaaStr

JUNE 6, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Much Vacation is Normal for an Early Stage Startup CEO? vacation image from here ) The post Dear SaaStr: How Much Vacation is Normal for an Early Stage Startup CEO? I’ve gotten worse at this. I think many of us have. appeared first on SaaStr.

Startup 188

Startup Management Business Leadership 188

SaaStr

AUGUST 24, 2021

Q: What are the best marketing techniques for an early stage SaaS startup? In the early days, it’s magic if anything works at all. But in the early days, it can be hard to tell who to use, and what to expect. A related post here: The Growth Tactics That Worked For Me in Early Days. It could be content marketing.

Scale 337

Scale Startup Marketing SaaS 337

Tom Tunguz

MAY 4, 2020

Much has changed in the world since we announced our last early stage fund in 2018, especially in the last several months, as so much of our day-to-day lives have been reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic. We’re both excited and grateful to have the opportunity to continue to partner with early stage entrepreneurs.

Startup 258

Startup Business 258

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Should Be The Priorities of SaaS Founders During The Early Stages? The downside: early releases that aren’t Minimum Sellable Products. Is everyone on the early team at least that committed? The post Dear SaaStr: What Should Be The Priorities of SaaS Founders During The Early Stages?

SaaS 235

SaaS Market Research Interviewing Content Marketing 235

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 9, 2020

After I wrote a post on the health of the seed market during COVID , the Angellist team emailed me saying they observed different patterns in their early-stage data and offered to collaborate. This data set is unique because it records transacted deals on the Angellist platform.

Data 342

Data Marketing Startup Investment 342

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

We see hot earlier-stage startups out of top incubators getting funded at record valuations. So net net, a ton more capital went into later-stage deals, but often into startups that did even better during Covid. What about early stage? Valuations for seed-stage deals on AngelList were up 9% in 1Q21 compared to 2020.

Startup 343

Startup Cloud SaaS Data 343

SaaStr

AUGUST 14, 2021

The post 8 Things That Kill Early Stage SaaS Companies. If you can get to even 10 happy customers, you can get to 20, and then 100. And then you are off to the races. Even if your TAM at a practical level isn’t huge at the beginning. And 3 That Don’t. appeared first on SaaStr.

SaaS 271

SaaS Startup Software Revenue 271

Tom Tunguz

MAY 4, 2020

Much has changed in the world since we announced our last early stage fund in 2018, especially in the last several months, as so much of our day-to-day lives have been reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic. We’re both excited and grateful to have the opportunity to continue to partner with early stage entrepreneurs.

Startup 175

Startup Business 175

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2022

Vast amounts of money went into VC in 2021, far more than ever, but: 1/ It’s mostly at the growth stage ; and. 2/ Even before the growth stage, it’s mostly going into a small group of proven winners. Overall Series A and earlier-stage deals doubled to $200B from $101B; but. appeared first on SaaStr.

Investment 240

Investment Startup Revenue SaaS 240

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Startups are able to raise larger early rounds because of the financial environment. One way of thinking about the early-stage fundraising market is as a collection of financial products. As I’ve written about before, there’s now a continuum of financial products available to startups at the early stage.

Marketing 214

Marketing Benchmarks Trends Startup 214

SaaStr

MAY 17, 2023

CoSell aims to unlock the connectors or gatekeepers of the world in a way that makes it a win for them and the early-stage founders looking for real support. Early-stage startups who aren’t yet household names need to find a way to leverage warm intros to companies instead of cold-emailing sales leaders.

Startup 172

Startup Pricing Sales Trends 172

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

In this week’s Workshop Wednesday , Simone Bartlett, the CEO & Co-founder of Hugo, talks about tactical tips for landing enterprise clients as an early-stage company. Recruit advocates (actual insiders) early. Don’t Let The Conversation Die Before It’s Began It’s hard to be popular when you’re at an early stage.

Enterprise 139

Enterprise Technical Review Sales Recruiting Scale 139

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

I’ve seen four stages in early stage software companies. Stage 1: Management by Objectives. In the very earliest stages, the company doesn’t know how to sell or how to price. Stage 2: Logo Based Quota. Bill Binch, former SVP at Marketo, employed this strategy in the early days.

Compensation 166

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 166

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 7, 2019

A share repurchase occurs when the company uses cash on its balance sheet to buy shares from an existing shareholder, typically an employee or an early investor. But when evaluating them, consider the significant opportunity cost of investing those dollars into the business, especially in the early stages of a company.

Startup 169

Startup Investment Pricing Revenue 169

Sales Hacker

JULY 14, 2022

Selling their early hires on why they should join them. . Having been a founder myself and also having worked with more than 150 early-stage technical founders, I want to share with you the five things to master and the five things to avoid when starting to sell. . Are you an early-stage founder?

Sales Hiring 84

Sales Hiring Sales Compensation Sales Funnel 84

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

But this figure is often meaningless for early stage startups. Last, most early stage companies may not have enough samples to calculate LTV with statistical significance. In the early stages, payback period is a better metric to use. How will those businesses’ spend change over time?

Startup 188

Startup Forecasting Benchmarks Acquisition 188

OpenView Labs

MAY 20, 2021

Throughout all of my experience at early-stage growth companies, there’s been an overarching theme: From inception, it’s the people you attract, hire, train, promote, and “communify” who enable and accelerate your time to market and your customer acquisition and satisfaction. The question becomes: “Who do I want on my team—and why?”.

Scale 84

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Software Review 84

Baremetrics

APRIL 27, 2021

Early-stage SaaS founders should spend far more time executing instead of strategizing. At Bigfoot Capital , we fund early-stage SaaS companies. Followed by the first institutional equity (seed) and initial institutional debt , this may just turn into growth-stage venture capital or private equity.

Startup 71

Startup Sales Hiring Venture Capital SaaS 71

Mucker Capital

OCTOBER 10, 2023

However, for early-stage startups with limited resources, a fractional CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) can be a cost-effective option. SDR Hiring Checklist When establishing a sales development team in the early stages, a meticulous hiring process is paramount. Although variations exist, consistency is paramount.

Scale 52

Scale Sales Hiring Outsourced Development Development 52

Sage Intacct

OCTOBER 19, 2022

KPIs are the tools driving change and investment for early-stage SaaS CFOs. Think of your metrics as your company’s vital signs: they can signal that everything is operating as it should be or that there’s a significant cause for concern. They transcend opinions and politics to a shared consciousness on what needs to be done.

SaaS 59

SaaS Startup Investment Metrics 59

InsightSquared

MARCH 25, 2021

Neglecting the Early Funnel. As I look back on my career as a CRO, I admit I rarely spent significant time on the opportunities in the early stage of the sales cycle. This translates to the focus most often being on the mid to late stage opportunities. .

Revenue 71

Revenue Systems Review Forecasting Technical Review 71

SaaStr

OCTOBER 9, 2019

The post Should an early stage SaaS startup go for affiliate marketing or a referral program? And most importantly, before you at least have a mini-brand, it may be tough to get much going with many partners. They want to invest in partners with the highest revenue potential themselves …. A bit more here: [link].

Startup 132

Startup Marketing SaaS Branding 132

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2019

The post For someone just starting out in SaaS sales (entry level Salesforce in November), what are your tips to accelerate growth/ability in early stages? View original question on quora. appeared first on SaaStr.

Sales 230

Sales SaaS Branding Management 230

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 6, 2016

About $1B has been invested in early stage SaaS startups as of November 1. The chart above shows the early-stage investment dollars by buyer within the organization. It clear that the early-stage SaaS fundraising market is healthy despite all the vacillations in the public market.

Artificial Intelligence 100

Artificial Intelligence Trends Marketing SaaS 100

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2024

But as the deals get bigger, the value of domain expertise in the early part of a reps tenure does go up. So my vote is to try both in the early days, if the ACV is large. Even if she isn’t great for your company at this stage … those 1–2 deals may be. At $1k a year, so what? Not all, but most.

Sales Hiring 265

Sales Hiring Sales SaaS B2B 265

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 3, 2020

Editor’s note: This article is part four of a four-part series that covers the most crucial product marketing activities for an early-stage startup. Executing on GTM programs is very collaborative between the two teams—especially at an early-stage startup where we’re doing a lot of testing and learning.

Product Marketing 71

Product Marketing Startup Scale Marketing 71

Entrepreneur - SaaS

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Good news seems to be a scarce commodity for most SaaS companies these days, but it is still very possible to grow a healthy, durable-growth business. Here's how to do it.

Business 93

Business SaaS 93

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 12, 2019

Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on a VP Sales in an early-stage, high-growth company, and for that, we talked to Collin Cadmus of Aircall. A Day in the Life of an Early-Stage, High-Growth VP Sales. The post A Day in the Life of an Early-Stage, High-Growth VP Sales appeared first on Sales Hacker.

Sales 80

Sales Systems Review Cloud Metrics 80

The Angel VC

AUGUST 10, 2011

But early-stage SaaS companies which are still in public beta or just went live don't have this data yet. As early-stage investors, we aim to invest in a company earlier than that so we have to look for other things – leading indicators for great CAC/CLTV ratios in the future, so to speak: Visitor-to-trial conversion rate.

Sales Recruiting 155

Sales Recruiting Startup Customer Lifetime Value SaaS 155

Chargebee

APRIL 28, 2023

You don't become a $100M biz by doing what other $100M businesses are doing today. You become one by doing what they did to get here.

Startup 52

Startup Business 52

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 25, 2016

But early 2016 pace still exceeds the best quarters of 2010-2012. Many startups who raised their early rounds in the 2012-2014 time frame are growing quickly and raising substantially larger follow-ons. Investors are concentrating dollars in fewer early-stage bets.

Marketing 100

Marketing SaaS Investment Startup 100

ProfitWell

MAY 5, 2020

Growing and running a growth stage company is hard. Even working at a growth stage company is hard. The lessons Rand extracted from early failure and how he picked himself back up again as a secondary founder. Founding a company is hard. Because you're literally taking nothing and trying to create something amazing from it.

Software Review 52

Software Review Subscription Payment Features Software 52

SaaS Metrics

JANUARY 13, 2021

The competition to attract attention and get more customers is very high. So, to beat your competitors, you need to use a variety of marketing methods, including digital marketing and email marketing. To that end, starting today, let’s look at some of the best email marketing techniques that can maximize ROI.

Startup 52

Startup Marketing Strategy Business 52

The Angel VC

APRIL 10, 2013

[Update 12/20/2013: I have extended the dashboard to include multiple pricing tiers and annual subscription plans. Check it out here.] Update 01/17/2015: There's a new company called ChartMogul ( which we invested in ) which makes it easy to get a real-time dashboard similar to the template below. Check it out!

Startup 239

Startup SaaS Subscription Payment Features 239