OpenView Labs

APRIL 29, 2021

Recruiting top talent is the common denominator across all scaling startups. It’s an extremely competitive market filled with hundreds of “hot startups” calling on all of the same candidates. It’s an extremely competitive market filled with hundreds of “hot startups” calling on all of the same candidates. It’s a lot.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 81

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2023

Some engineers by training, others in sales or product originally. But a few uniting characteristics of the very best: Relentless Recruiters. You have to be constantly recruiting the best. The best founders usually spend at least 20% of their time recruiting. Some extroverts, some introverts. No Excuses.

Sales Recruiting 230

Sales Recruiting Scale Scaling Engineering 230

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2023

20Dear SaaStr: My Top Sales Rep Made $600,000 a Year — And Just Quit! Why would a sales rep quit a job where they are making top 1%-5% money, respected, treated well, and have it dialed it? It may not be 100% logical, but looking back, here’s where I see it happen: A new VP of Sales comes in. The VP of Sales leaves.

Sales Recruiting 216

Sales Recruiting Sales Startup Engineering 216

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2022

Dear SaaStr: When Should a CEO of a Startup Stop “Doing the Work” and Let Others Do the Work? A great VP of Engineering that can just ship the product from spec with no drama, etc. So you don’t have to directly manage at least several of the key functional areas in the company at all. Inspire the troops.

Part-Time VPE 209

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup 209

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 18, 2018

Startups are business machines engineered to grow quickly. Every lead hired today, whether marketing , sales, engineering or product, will have a very different job nine months from now, much less two years from now. Imagine you work at a startup that is growing headcount 125% year over year. And ship code on time.

Sales Recruiting 269

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Headcount 269

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2022

This happens with some regularity in SaaS, I’ve learned (and to be clear: I’m not talking about any company I’ve invested in, am an advisor to, board member of, etc – Because when it’s still a very small team, with no true management team … co-founders can kind of hack it to $1m-$2m in ARR together.

Sales Recruiting 250

Sales Recruiting Technical Cofounder Scale Investment 250

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2019

If you must choose a long term headquarters for your startup, call an executive recruiter who focuses in that city. VP Engineering, VP Product, VP Sales, VP Customer Success, VP Marketing, or VP Operations. After establishing product market fit, the startups grow their management team to scale.

Sales Recruiting 215

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 215

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

SaaStr 632: CRO Confidential: How To Adapt Your Sales Strategy To The Current Sales Environment with Sam Blond and Hannah Willson, SVP of Sales at Modern Health  2. SaaStr 630: Sales-led vs. Product-led? Today’s Startups Need Both with Jason Eubanks, CRO at Harness  5. Top Podcasts This Week: 1.

Sales Recruiting 130

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Venture Capital Sales 130

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2023

So one recent survey we did really brought out a healthy debate: does your VP of Sales really need to be a product expert? Many of the comments said it was more important a VP of Sales understand process and leadership more than the product itself. They often melt. I say, you just gotta know the product. Not just with buzzwords.

Scale 248

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 248

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 18, 2019

The template is broken into six sections: People, Bookings & Revenue, Cash, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success. People is the first section because people are a startup’s most important element. This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics.

Metrics 209

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup SaaS 209

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

Ah the VP of Sales. The first post is What a Great VP of Sales Actually Does. The second post is a script for you to use (and modify as you see fit) – 10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales Candidate. Just so you know, there are 48 Different Types of VP Sales. The toughest hire. Such a high failure rate.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

SaaStr

JUNE 15, 2023

SaaS eSignature Market: From $1 Million in 2006 to $1 Billion in 2018 to $5 Billion in 2023 | SaaStr Dear SaaStr: I’ve Been Asked to Take Over as CEO of a 1 Year Old Startup with 20 Employees. One of the best sales people. One of the best engineers. What Should I Expect? But you know, neither did any of us in some ways.

Sales Recruiting 227

Sales Recruiting Marketing Sales Hiring Market Segmentation 227

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

When a new leader joins a startup, their impact hinges on their ability to build their teams. Whether you manage a team of engineers, a team of regional sales managers, or the company, your first responsibility is to hire and successfully manage the seven people who will form your leadership team.

Sales Hiring 233

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Management Leadership 233

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Your startup is just getting off the ground. You might have a few account executives and a sales leader in place; maybe some revenue and a handful of customers. The sales team costs real money, and the question before the company is: how do you know what quota plan to assign to the account executives?

Compensation 152

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 152

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

When a startup takes form, the first weeks and months and years are spent furiously. The startup raises capital. To recruit 100 people. To answer these questions, the team must look beyond this today’s one-on-ones and this month’s engineering milestones this quarter’s sales pipeline.

Scale 228

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Startup 228

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Q: What are the top 20 pieces of advice for building a successful SaaS startup? Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. Great at engineering. A bit more here. More here.

Sales Hiring 303

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 303

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 4, 2022

One of the joys of an engineering career is how varied it can be – the size, industry and above all culture of any company entirely determines what an engineering job actually looks like on a day to day basis. I’ve been a Product Engineer at Intercom for just over two years. Joining Intercom.

Engineering 118

Engineering Scale Sales Hiring Company Culture 118

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2021

Some investors bet on the best engineering teams. If I wouldn’t work for you … then I can’t help you recruit folks that will. You’re in sales. Recruit the VPs? CEO Doesn’t like Sales — and The Hunt. Apologies for the title of this post, and perhaps the post entirely.

Sales Recruiting 338

Sales Recruiting Scale AWS Investment 338

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. I couldn’t agree more, and I think startups should make that hire sooner rather than later. Here’s why. So when is the right time?

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Software Review 168

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. At Point Nine, we aspire to continuously share what we learn with our community and the extended startup ecosystem.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

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. In 2008, he founded Yammer, an enterprise software company that David grew to 500 employees and $60 million in sales. Head of Sales. VP Sales (45 Employees). billion in 2012.

CTO Hire 263

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 263

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 125

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 125

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

To some extent, if you have the hottest startup in the world, the full package, you can play some games with investors. 99% of startups aren’t that. For 99% of startups, when you want money, tell VCs you want money. 2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.” But you have to see progress in one sales cycle.

Part-Time VPE 199

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 199

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

379: From how many reps to hire, to compensation models, here are the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales teams and how to avoid them. Announcer: In today’s SaaStr Insider, SaaStr CEO and founder, Jason Lemkin, shared the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales team.

Sales Hiring 191

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 191

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. And then some track record of execution either as the new startup or in the past. Dev Ittycheria : Thank you.

Sales Recruiting 255

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 255

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 11, 2020

A recruiter in the audience submitted a question often discussed in startup boardrooms. If you’re hiring a sales leader, you don’t pass up an awesome sales leader that has a killer track record of closing deals just because in their previous company they sold success software, and then with your company, they’re going to sell MarTech.

Sales Hiring 248

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Acquisition 248

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2021

“The 5 things that kill startups after their seed rounds with Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator” A SaaStr classic from the last SaaStr Annual. #4. “Why Zoom Founder Went Solo & How Being an Engineer Helps You be a Better CEO” A great shorter-bite with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. #8. Learn here how they do it.

Sales Recruiting 145

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Scaling 145

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. A Rockstar engineer really is 10x better than the next tier. He or she doesn’t have to jump start the engine. Head of Sales – What Corners Can I Cut? A bad VP of Sales is a total disaster. It’s true.

Sales Hiring 275

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 275

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 30, 2023

The first goal of sales at a startup isn’t to bring in revenue — it’s to get customer feedback. I’ve spent the last year working to find product-market fit for my startup, Dock. I’ve used our sales process to iterate our way to product market-fit and wanted to share what I’ve learned along the way.

Sales Recruiting 88

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 88

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 9, 2015

As a startup scales and surpasses its first organizational breaking point of 8 employees, it’s time to start thinking about organizational design. The strategy a startup chooses in their market should determine their organizational design. People spans recruiting, training and development. Google is a good example.

Sales Recruiting 101

Sales Recruiting Startup Scale Systems Review 101

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Stephanie has been an executive in 3 successful startups and was most recently the SVP of Sales and Customer Success at Xamarin which has since been acquired by Microsoft. Stephanie joined Xamarin as its first non-engineering hire in.

Sales Hiring 268

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Onboarding Sales 268

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Want to write sales emails like a pro? Manager, Outbound Growth Marketing at Greenhouse) and Will Allred (Co-Founder & COO at Lavender) to get TWO perspectives and TWO approaches on real sales emails, every week on Sales Hacker. Hey Will, I often hear startup leaders tell me finding/keeping IT talent is hard.

Sales Recruiting 77

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 77

Sales Hacker

MARCH 17, 2021

While every entrepreneur dreams of scaling their startup into a multi-million dollar company, many do not understand all that goes into that dream. 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.

Scale 93

Scale Revenue Startup Sales Recruiting 93

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

In this episode of the Sales Hacker Podcast, we have Hakim Myers , Business Recruiter at Nextdoor , where he recruits for people, finance, and legal functions for startups. Join us for a revealing conversation on sales and talent from the perspective of a recruiter in an executive search firm.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Retention Scale Sales Hiring 81

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 14, 2019

Since writing The AI Agency: A Novel GTM for Machine Learning Startups , I’ve been meeting many companies who operate this way. These startups use machine learning to disrupt an industry traditionally dominated by agencies: law, accounting, recruiting, translation, debt collection, marketing…the list is long.

AI 191

AI Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Machine Learning 191

OpenView Labs

JUNE 3, 2021

Anyone who’s ever worked at a startup knows it’s a “get the job done” environment where your title means little and what you do means a lot. Engineering manages IT. Hiring managers take on HR responsibilities. For example, only Finance manages the books, and only Engineering actually writes the code for the product.

Product Marketing 93

Product Marketing Sales Hiring Startup Scale 93

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 92

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 92