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The $939B Question: Is AI Eating SaaS or Feeding It?

SaaStr

Prey Reality The AI Funding Explosion That Should Terrify SaaS Leaders Let’s start with the brutal math that should keep every SaaS CEO awake at night: $100 billion in venture capital went to AI startups in 2024 — an 80% increase from 2023 SaaS companies raised only $4.7 billion in funding xAI : $6.4 billion stake Waymo : $10.5

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5 different paths to launch AI agents (with examples)

Sales Hacker

No engineers required. Lacking in-house engineering. If your tone matters (to investors, recruits, or customers), build a few reference samples into the prompt or system message. Use this if you’re: Technical (or have close access to engineers or AI talent). Use this when you’re: Wearing every hat. Top takeaways here.

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The Latest 20VC + SaaStr: Meta’s $1B Talent Raid, the End of Triple-Triple-Double-Double, and Why AI Laggards Are Getting Left Behind

SaaStr

Bottom Line Up Front Jason’s Directness : “It will be the biggest issue of 2026, I think, in B2B AI is just the inability to recruit talent… If you think your answer is to go hire a VP of AI that wears a tie and is studying things like just shut the startup down.” One founder shared that he’s giving away 0.5-1%

AI
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Dear SaaStr: What Are The Biggest Problems You Face as a Startup Founder?

SaaStr

From $1m in ARR, and Then Forever After: Recruiting Great VPs. You need to learn to become great at recruiting. SaaStr From $10m ARR on: Capital Inefficiency. Why do I need 50 engineers to do what 3 engineers use to do? Why is my sales team less efficient at $20m ARR than at $2m in ARR? It never ends.

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10 Things That Would Have Helped Me Go From $1m to $10m Faster with Less Stress

SaaStr

I thought it would be worth drilling down deeper into each of them, and sharing the learnings and mistakes: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. You can do this.

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What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024

SaaStr

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. Lead generation tools do change, but the basic motions of sales and marketing haven’t changed much.

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The Best of SaaS at YCombinator: A Deep Dive with the CEOs of Gusto, Amplitude and Plangrid (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

You’re in the valley, you raise venture capital. 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. It’s not can they be the best engineer or the best salesperson.