OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 2, 2019

Headcount Planning. But headcount planning is often a useful place to start because the inputs required to make decisions are the least dependent on factors outside of the sales organization. This decision will drive many of your other headcount decisions. Marketing bookings are often the most difficult to scale with headcount, as “low-hanging fruit” may already be captured by current marketing efforts, and additional paid digital advertising, content marketing, etc.

Headcount 41

Headcount Finance Management Advertising 41

Tomasz Tunguz

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Above, I’ve charted the headcount growth rate for 10 of the fastest growing software companies in recent history. I’ve normalized the years for when all the businesses were roughly at the same headcount - fewer than 50 people. What does the “average” hyper growth software company look like in terms of headcount growth? How quickly do the fastest growing software companies build their teams? The answer is incredibly quickly.

Headcount 54

Headcount Scaling Management Software 54

The SaaS CFO

OCTOBER 12, 2021

Operating Expenses Headcount OpExWhen I review a SaaS P&L for the first time, I take a high-level approach to understand the financial health of the business. I break the P&L into two sections, the “top half” and the “bottom half.”

Benchmarks 66

Benchmarks SaaS Headcount Revenue 66

Sales Hacker

JULY 24, 2018

Decreased revenue per rep, High turnover as you scale headcount. “It’s We made our machine more efficient even as we scaled, grew headcount, and skyrocketed our revenue. In the first six months of the year, our team’s headcount grew by almost 60%, yet our revenue outpaced that, growing by 142%. The post 5 Ways to Keep Your Sales Machine Efficient While Scaling Headcount appeared first on Sales Hacker.

Headcount 53

Headcount Scaling Acquisition Interviewing 53

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

Sales-driven SaaS startups end up with about half their headcount in sales and marketing. Then, it sneaks up on you again as you scale and you realize you need to have about 1.5x-2x the sales headcount you thought you did to hit the full plan for this year, and Q1 of next year.

Scaling 271

Scaling Headcount Marketing Sales 271

SaaStr

OCTOBER 4, 2019

But let me suggest one reason I learned when I was an exec in a F500 tech company: Headcount was most fixed for a year. Our group had a fixed headcount of about 800 to manage about $800m in revenue. Getting even a single additional headcount was incredibly difficult. Especially allocated headcount. Even if your “headcount” is fixed, capped and frozen. There are probably a multitude of reasons.

Headcount 140

Headcount Management Revenue Sales 140

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2021

Let’s say you are at $10m ARR and decently funded, you’ll probably have 100 headcount by this point, or at least, by $15m ARR. You’ll probably want to add field sales (for Big Deals) by $10m ARR or so, another 2-3 headcount here, minimum.

Headcount 274

Headcount Engineering SMB Data Analysis 274

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Like many tech companies, Monday added a ton of headcount in 2021. It then added only 63 employees last quarter, and plans to continue with very slow headcount for a while.

Headcount 244

Headcount SMB Scaling Engineering 244

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

If you add $10m this year, maybe increase headcount $5m (worth of com)p. $20m, So it’s hard to miss the layoffs on Twitter and in the media. Even tiny ones seem to get big press, like Salesforce doing a layoff of < 1% of its workforce.

Headcount 186

Headcount Startup SaaS Scaling 186

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2022

Headcount up 7%, while revenue is up 37%. But that only increases total headcount 7% which revenues went up 37%. We last took a look at Atlassian at around $2B ARR , and more subtly has changed than you might think.

Headcount 244

Headcount Cloud Pricing Scaling 244

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 15, 2021

Post-PMF, the organization must evolve: it has to grow headcount and then manage that headcount well. It’s easy to miss that detail when building a headcount plan. There’s a simple secret to hiring quickly and building a strong team. Invest in great managers early.

Headcount 113

Headcount Startup Retention Management 113

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 7, 2022

Learn how tech-savvy Sales Ops teams like Atlassian’s are using a combination of cutting edge tools to automate tedious tasks, escalate requests, justify headcount, and close deals faster. The post Sales Ops Teams Secrets To Closing Deals Faster ?? appeared first on Sales Hacker. Account Executives Community Events

Headcount 61

Headcount Sales 61

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2021

But in theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, this won’t impact headcount too much. But in practice it often adds 20% or so to the headcount in the model.

Headcount 251

Headcount Sales Scaling Revenue 251

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2022

Net headcount rarely declines. This may sound harsh, But any "layoff" of a single digit % of employees is usually just a reshuffling. The bottom 5%-7% are moved out, to replace them with better performers. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #???????????? jasonlk) May 25, 2022.

Headcount 237

Headcount Scaling SaaS Management 237

IT World

MAY 26, 2022

Microsoft will continue to grow headcount in the year ahead and it will add additional focus to where those resources go,” the company said in a statement. Microsoft is pulling back on hiring quotas for its Windows, Office and Teams chat and conferencing software groups.

Headcount 81

Headcount Pricing Software 81

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2022

In theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, and this wouldn’t impact headcount too much. Dear SaaStr: How Many Sales Reps Do I Need? More than you probably would think. You can back into how many sales reps you’ll need in SaaS.

Sales 193

Sales Headcount Scaling Revenue 193

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2021

“Adding headcount in customer success dept” — Hoala Greevy, CEO, PauBox. You can’t cut corners in headcount in success with automation. You just make the headcount more effective.

Churn 262

Churn Headcount Customer Success Consulting 262

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2022

You start making up for it in volume — with headcount. Dear SaaStr: What’s the Harder Part About SaaS Companies, At Each Stage? The hardest part changes every 12–24 months, and the whole company changes every 30-36 months or so.

SaaS 277

SaaS Headcount Leadership Revenue 277

IT World

JULY 20, 2022

Bloomberg simply says the company will no longer increase headcount in some departments next year.

Headcount 64

Headcount Investment Development Business 64

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

But in theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, this won’t impact headcount too much. You can back into it. First, figure out how much revenue you need to close in the next twelve month s. Because that’s more than now.

Sales 247

Sales Headcount Scaling Revenue 247

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

of Customer Success teams have fewer than 50 team members, and most teams surveyed fall well below industry benchmarks on CS team headcount. of respondents reported having non-headcount budgets of $200,000 or less: a severe under-investment in this critical business function.

Trends 69

Trends Leadership Headcount Investment 69

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2022

You start making up for it in volume — with headcount. The hardest part changes every 12–24 months. But a few thoughts on “the hardest part” for the first few stages: From $1-$100k in ARR, the hardest part is often how little revenue you get from each customer.

Headcount 191

Headcount SaaS Revenue Churn 191

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2022

Atlassian plans to double its headcount over the coming few years. So we looked at Atlassian on the 5 Interesting Learning series pretty recently, but given all the tumult in the markets, we thought it was a great one to take a look at again as it’s now crossed $3 Billion in ARR.

Headcount 204

Headcount Cloud Forecasting Business Model 204

SaaStock

MARCH 27, 2019

In the last three years, it has grown from 60 to 225 in headcount, 10x in revenue and now serves 4 different verticals. Tune in for an extra bonus episode of the podcast, hosting SaaStock LatAm speaker André Baldini, CEO of Superlógica who tell us how the company grew revenue 10x. Superlógica was started back in 2001 as an ERP software for condominiums. André Baldini started out as VP of Sales In 2017 he was promoted to CEO.

Pricing 167

Pricing Headcount Banking Revenue 167

Tomasz Tunguz

APRIL 5, 2020

But starting that week, startups began reducing headcount by about 700 per day. ClassPass, one of the fitness startups to reduce headcount, reported a 95% drop in sales in 10 days. Which startup sectors are most affected by coronavirus?

Headcount 99

Headcount Transportation Startup Government 99

Tomasz Tunguz

JULY 21, 2022

Management teams expect to reduce operating expense by 20% predominantly through headcount reductions or hiring freezes - everyone from sardine startups to public megalodons. Software automates manual work, provides leverage, and the total cost is often less than a headcount. “We need to start doing more with less. Finance told us our budget is decreasing by 20%.”

Headcount 46

Headcount Finance Churn Software 46

Navint

MARCH 20, 2020

They’re experiencing billing disputes and mushrooming headcount in sales operations, and a growing reliance upon manual work arounds in Excel® or email. By: Peter Getchell, EVP, ERP Practice, Navint We talk with many CFOs, CROs, and CEOs who are frustrated by the internal friction their teams experience in day-to-day business operations. In many cases these symptoms perplexingly persist even after. Source. Insight

Headcount 40

Headcount Revenue Sales Business 40

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Because headcount is often fixed in BigCos. Because overall headcount might be fixed at say 15,000. Q: What are some of the most overlooked details or challenges when integrating two companies post-acquisition?

Acquisition 175

Acquisition Headcount Business 175

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Hence, Twilio has a very high level of sales efficiency (and relatively small headcount). The lure of freemium (like The Force) is strong. No headaches. Customers try and buy all on their own. Like magic. No salespeople. Well, that can work. For a while.

Sales 271

Sales Headcount Enterprise Revenue 271

SaaStr

JUNE 6, 2021

Even if the decision is made to invest more, future headcount is often sourced from internal team members and processes. Q: After an acquisition, how long before severance packages are offered due to layoffs/downsizing? Layoffs and downsizing are less common in most tech acquisitions today.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Headcount Finance Investment 168

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Last year, the company doubled its headcount, tripled revenue and landed on G2’s Top 100 Global Software list. . Tom Taulli. Behind the Round with SaaStr: Chorus.ai Raises $45 Million. This week Chorus announced its Series C round for $45 million, which was led by Georgian Partners.

AI 277

AI Headcount Technology Leadership 277

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2021

But it hindered our support and growth by being behind on headcount. “I In the run-up to the 2021 SaaStr Annual , SaaStr’s very own Poya Osgouei sits down with Bryan Elsesser, VP of Sales at SaaStr.

Headcount 215

Headcount Sales Branding Development 215

Intercom

AUGUST 11, 2022

And they’ll be able to do this efficiently, without increasing headcount or hours logged. 10Today, retaining customers is more valuable than acquiring new customers.

Headcount 96

Headcount Strategy Customer Support Branding 96

Totango

JULY 26, 2022

This allows you to enhance value and improve CX by utilizing the resources you already have rather than adding more headcount.

Headcount 95

Headcount Scaling Engagement Innovation 95

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2022

Fairly low revenue per headcount, although being headquartered in Utah with a large presence in India does seem to bring costs down. #7. So a great founder doing tens of millions in ARR recently asked me what I thought of doing a “small IPO” at they approached $100m in ARR.

SMB 214

SMB Headcount Banking Acquisition 214

Tomasz Tunguz

JUNE 25, 2020

Marketing teams spend 5-10% of ARR on programs (non-headcount expenses), and this is pretty consistent across ARR. Engineering:Account Executive headcount ratios scale from about 3:1 down to 1:1 as a company scales revenue.

Headcount 114

Headcount Benchmarks Retention Customer Success 114

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2021

They wait for two reasons: first, it’s another headcount, which costs money, which can seem expensive when you have say just $5k-$10k a month in MRR and 6 months of runway left before you’re out of cash.

Customer Success 239

Customer Success Headcount Churn Enterprise 239

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Hoping headcount (alone) will drive revenue. At some point, every SaaS company gets big enough where headcount does drive revenue. We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to hire a Great VP of Sales.

Sales 276

Sales Headcount Revenue Management 276

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2021

If nothing else, you can pretty reliability track headcount growth on LinkedIn). There’s a metric the very top founders track quitely, but ruthlessly, that I find other founders either don’t track, or sort of hide from. That’s % of marketshare.

Headcount 175

Headcount Education Metrics Marketing 175

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

With precise headcount and budget needs. If you want to hit the plan for Q1'22, You need to be hiring all the sales reps you'll need then … Now. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 15, 2021. Recurring revenue certainly has pros and cons.

Headcount 233

Headcount Metrics Acquisition Sales 233