SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. Great at engineering. If you hire someone to do the first sales, you’ll never understand it yourself. When you go to hire your first sales rep, hire 2. 50% of the job for a VP is recruiting. A bit more here.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 306

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

I’ve had the privilege to invest one way or another in about 35 SaaS companies, both as a VC and as angel. They understand why they got “No”s in the early, pre-traction days, and even, in the early-ish days when they had a handful of customers but wasn’t really taking off yet (my favorite time to invest).

Scale 342

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 342

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

Think about it — who else is so invested in your long-term success? If they’ve bought 7%, 10%, 20% of your company (with no exit on the horizon) … they’re pretty invested personally. They have a good incentive to recruit almost as hard as you do, and network a lot to help you. Your VCs are. More Money.

Sales Hiring 237

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Investment Acquisition 237

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Storyblok started with a leadership-first hiring plan and a recruitment strategy that involved the following: A test to know how candidates handle different tasks and their expertise level. Their first step to achieving this was hiring a sales leader to build a sales team. Outbound: including Account Based Marketing (ABM).

Scale 214

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 214

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

David Sacks: SaaS Background and Investments. In 2008, he founded Yammer, an enterprise software company that David grew to 500 employees and $60 million in sales. David Sacks has invested in over 20 unicorn companies, including Airbnb, Bird, ClickUp, Facebook, Slack, and Uber. Head of Sales. VP Sales (45 Employees).

CTO Hire 266

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 266

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Enough to invest, but not enough to go crazy with. More on that here and a great video discussion below: You’ll probably be ready for your first VP of Sales by $1m in ARR. You’ll need a VP of Engineering by $8m-$10m ARR. 90% of CTOs and founders struggle to hire engineers 10-100. ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2021

In fact, many founders and CEOs struggle with simply talking to their engineers and communicating their needs. The mysterious nature of engineers is also their superpower as they build products that make the seemingly impossible possible. He knows both sides of the executive & engineering equation intimately.

Sales Recruiting 173

Sales Recruiting Development Software Review Management 173

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

They talked about product adoption, sales alignment, freemium models and lessons they have learned throughout their successful SaaS careers. As two CEO who love the art of sales and scaling, this one really was special. 20 VCs do come to me to invest in the company now. Jyoti Bansal: Let’s switch topics to sales.

Sales Recruiting 256

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 256

Buffer Resources

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

I’ve never created LinkedIn content with the “goal” of lead generation or immediate-term sales. Another cool example I really like is Tito Bohrt — he stands out with the pseudo, “ Sales Mad Scientist ” — which demonstrates confidence and a unique identity online.

Sales Recruiting 128

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 128

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

I probably will pass on investing in you if I don’t know you want money. We recently did a New New in Venture event and I asked the question of many top VCs including David Sacks, Keith Rabois, Aileen Lee and more. “Give the VP of Sales More Time” This is always terrible advice. In one sales cycle, or less.

Part-Time VPE 319

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 319

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.” You can’t always expect a great VP of Sales to double sales in 30-60-90 days. But you have to see progress in one sales cycle. If, in one sales cycle, things aren’t improving on several core metrics, they never will. The best VPs of Sales hit the ground running.

Part-Time VPE 200

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 200

Incredo

MARCH 11, 2020

Even industries that found it too informal or unprofessional to use a couple of years ago, are now heavily investing in it. It can also be used to communicate very effectively on an individual level. There are many tools available that make social media management very simple and easy. Its benefits aren’t felt right away.

Strategy 257

Strategy Social Media Sales Recruiting Marketing 257

Sales Hacker

APRIL 19, 2022

In this article, I’ll outline the principles of compensation design , how to build sales compensation plans , and include resources to set OTEs and quotas that keep your reps happy and hungry for more. Why Sales Comp Planning is Key to Rep Retention. Who should be responsible for sales compensation planning?

Compensation 86

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Retention 86

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Chief Operating Officer: Responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, providing strategic advice, and managing the company’s operations. Engineering Manager: In charge of planning, designing, and overseeing projects. They also manage finances and supervise one or more engineering teams.

Sales Hiring 98

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 98

InsightSquared

MAY 15, 2019

It’s one of my favorite questions to ask a fellow professional in sales operations. Insurance sales rep. Account Manager. Sales Operations is Still Developing. Sales operations as a profession is growing, yet it is a comparatively new function in businesses. Sales Ops is Many Disciplines in One.

Sales Recruiting 110

Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Review Sales 110

Point Nine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

P9 Panel on Hiring Sales Leaders — Founders Summit 2023 “You are going to fire your first sales manager!” — A lesson too many founders learn the hard way. The Founder isn’t willing to be the first salesperson Many of the best founders we work with don’t have a sales background and are either product or engineering focused.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

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

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

With power, snacks, and more, we’ll have lounges just for Founders; just for Sales + Marketing professionals; just for Builders (Dev + Product), and just for VCs to issue term sheets. Recruiting Fair. Outside of SaaStr Square park, we’re adding the first-ever SaaStr Recruiting Fair. No VPs or CEOs, please!!

New CTO 268

New CTO Sales Recruiting CTO Coach Scale 268

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 23, 2024

Whether it’s creating better tools to write code and test code, better tools for customers to engage with reps, better tools for sales teams to engage with their prospects, all those things are happening inside of Bill. We’re experimenting with it, but we haven’t made a massive investment. Mind sharing?

Payments 111

Payments Forecasting Payment Services Payment Solutions 111

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

Valuize Consulting

JANUARY 25, 2024

Effective Cross-Functional Collaboration Your Digital CS program should be directed by Customer Success but also requires close partnership with Marketing, Product, Sales, and Revenue Operations. Strategic Resourcing Relying on traditional CSMs for fractional management of your digital program is not sustainable.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Sales Recruiting Scale Strategy 52

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

One of the oldest truisms in sales is that recruiting new clients costs more than retaining them ( five to 25 times more costly, depending on the industry). More than ever, customer success teams must be in complete lockstep with their sales teams—both should treat any renewal as a joint effort and success. Put the buyer first.

Sales Recruiting 110

Sales Recruiting Technical Review B2B Benchmarks 110

Buffer Resources

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

I’ve never created LinkedIn content with the “goal” of lead generation or immediate-term sales. Another cool example I really like is Tito Bohrt — he stands out with the pseudo, “ Sales Mad Scientist ” — which demonstrates confidence and a unique identity online.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 52

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 16, 2023

One of the toughest challenges for founders — and especially technical founders who are used to focusing so much on product features over sales — is striking “product-market fit”. So in that shift from product-market fit to product-market-SALES fit, how much should you optimize your go-to-market for product… and even the other way around?

Product Marketing 80

Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 80

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Building a sales team that can go from $0-$50M (Video + Transcript). Gaetan Gachet | SVP of Sales @Algolia. It’s an honor to be here with this mythical creature, this sales leader that goes from zero to 50 million in the same job. He has a whole French sales team and office that only speaks English in Paris.

Scale 141

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 141

SaaStr

JULY 12, 2022

One of the first what How to Hire a Great VP of Sales at the New York Enterprise Tech Meet-Up (thank you to John Lehr and Work-Bench for setting this up). The Number One Thing You Can Do to Accelerate Your Business Post-Initial Traction is Hiring a Great VP of Sales. Now, I just invest in SasS companies. SaaStr is Turning 10!

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VP of Engineering Sales Recruiting 274

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2020

Prior to Work-Bench, Jessica was a Learning and Development Manager at Cisco Systems, where she worked with the Engineering organization on Agile transformation, innovation and culture. Where does Jessica find managers and founders do pipe reviews wrong? How should sales teams and CS respond to requests for discounts?

Sales Recruiting 184

Sales Recruiting Technical Review Sales Hiring Outsourced Development 184

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2019

Steve has previously said, “Sales and marketing must be one team.” Where does Steve find common points of tension between sales and marketing? How can a CEO determine when is the right time to fundamentally invest in devops? I mean, my career started as a software engineer, and out of frustration, I went into sales.

DevOps as a Service 100

DevOps as a Service Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring 100

Andreessen Horowitz

DECEMBER 12, 2023

In this episode, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with Dimitri Dadiomov, the co-founder and CEO of payment operations platform Modern Treasury, about the challenges of creating a new category, hiring for marketing before you hire for sales, and why developing new features is similar to birding. And so that was what you’re investing in.

Payment Solutions 114

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Payment Services Payments 114

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 7, 2021

In the subscription economy, there’s no debate about whether or not to invest in Customer Success (CS); 70% of rapidly growing businesses say that Customer Success is extremely important ( Hubspot , 2017). When it comes to budget, organizations often haven’t established where the investment is coming from to fund the CS team.

VP of Engineering 98

VP of Engineering Customer Success Sales Hiring Interviewing 98

OpenView Labs

APRIL 13, 2021

Anne’s journey began with a love of technology and problem solving, which led to an internship with IBM in Manhattan working with a systems engineer. How do you get design to work with sales, or engineering to work with customer success? It’s a universal challenge that can make or break an organization.

Sales Recruiting 60

Sales Recruiting Management Engineering Leadership 60

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 2, 2021

By failing to acknowledge the differences early, teams risk misallocating their focus and energy when solving problems, investing too much or too little in each one. “ Investment . Investment. If not, investment will be higher. That said, ranking investment shouldn’t be driven purely by estimating effort.

Innovation 251

Innovation Investment Sales Recruiting Strategy 251

Neil Patel

JANUARY 6, 2023

At the same time, the number of houses up for sale is at historic lows. Using SEO for real estate is when you optimize your website so search engines will increase web traffic and improve the visibility of your real estate listings. As a real estate professional, you may wonder why you need to invest in SEO.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Social Media Sales Recruiting Engineering 84

SaaStr

APRIL 23, 2019

And can you talk a little bit about touching on the hiring point, because you did say that you focused a lot on talent, and recruiting. And we had a lot of experience with payments, and engineering, but with U.S. It was basically engineering and design. Because in a way, they’re also investing in you, in somehow.

Sales Hiring 174

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Payment Methods 174

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2020

403: Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Success @ Loom, the startup that helps you get your message across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. As for Sam, prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce following their acquisition of Quip, a startup Salesforce acquired for $750M where Sam was also the 1st sales leader.

Scale 184

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 184

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 22, 2013

They are the most succinct way of communicating how a business operates to management teams and boards, who weigh the trade-offs of different investments. In the early stages of the startup, financial statements aren’t used much as a management tool. They are most often used to keep an eye on monthly burn rate.

Sales Recruiting 100

Sales Recruiting Communication Sales Hiring Startup 100

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

by Rich Archbold, Senior Director of Engineering at Intercom. In this battle, I’ve found a secret weapon hidden within one of our core engineering strategies, an idea called Run Less Software. When I say “execute”, I don’t simply mean the engineering challenges of building something. The same is true in software. The talent.

Software Review 224

Software Review Outsourcing Services Software Outsourced Development 224