Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 19, 2017

Over the last few days, I’ve been reading Shoe Dog, Phil Knight’s autobiographical tale describing the formation of Nike, and I think it might be one of the very best founding stories I’ve read. Easy to read, brimming with passion, full of harrowing business crises, the book is an inspiration to anyone who has a crazy idea and commits to persevering.

Enterprise 100

Enterprise Management Sales Business 100

The Angel VC

JANUARY 15, 2017

We have a tradition here at Point Nine that once a year, we organize a meetup for the founders of our SaaS portfolio companies. The first meetup took place in SF back in 2012 and gave the founders in our (at that time still rather small) portfolio a unique opportunity to learn about what works and what doesn't work in SaaS, compare notes and share war stories.

SaaS 100

SaaS Software 100

CloseSaaS

JANUARY 18, 2017

Over the last decade, we’ve seen SMS emerge as one of the most common forms of communication used across the world. But until recently, it has not always been considered “good form” to use SMS in a business or sales context.

Communication 52

Communication Sales Business 52

Hitenism

JANUARY 16, 2017

In 2014, Mixpanel’s Series B pitch deck spelled out the company’s expansion plans over the next two years: 3x sales headcount and rapidly race towards distribution. Reduce sales ramp time by 30-50% via sales enablement. Double headcount every 6-9 months. Double down on marketing to widen our lead flow to lower cost per acq. long-term. They raised $65 million dollars with that plan.

Scale 147

Scale Venture Capital SaaS Headcount 147

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Payments

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 17, 2017

I’ve been struggling with the right way to enable commenting on this blog for a long time. In 2013, I wrote a post called Letter to the Editor about my challenges with comments. Most notably, comments meaningfully changed readers’ perceptions of the content they read, even if the comments are not sound. In addition, I haven’t found a way to effectively moderate comments at scale.

Content Marketing 100

Content Marketing Scale Marketing Startup 100

CloseSaaS

JANUARY 16, 2017

Startup sales teams: We’ve made a mistake. In our haste to distance ourselves from the sleazy, Wolf-of-Wall-Street-style salespeople of yore, we’ve over-corrected. Now, instead of being too hostile, modern day salespeople are too friendly; not necessarily with prospects, but with one another.

Startup 52

Startup Sales 52

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 16, 2017

Most SaaS companies dream of attaining the $100M ARR mark. The very fastest attain the goal in 6-7 years. Last week, Workday halted trading to announce it had signed Walmart as a customer. Brian White, research analyst at Drexel Hamilton investment bank, estimated this one customer could generate $100M-$200M per year for Workday in recurring revenue - a single customer.

Scale 100

Scale Sales Hiring Forecasting Finance 100

Hitenism

JANUARY 20, 2017

In online marketing today, you have hundreds of channels to choose from. Within each, there are thousands of tactics that you could use. If you’re like most marketers, you’re trying to tackle a dozen or more of these channels and tactics at any given time. If you try to do too much with your marketing strategy, it quickly becomes difficult to keep the clarity and conviction you need to simplify, focus, and drive key results.

Marketing 237

Marketing Content Marketing Startup Acquisition 237