SaaStr

MAY 30, 2023

And very few of you are doubling headcount, vs everyone in 2021. Hiring has way slowed down, but many folks are still hiring, albeit at a reduced rate. 56% of you aren’t hiring, or barely hiring. But a good chunk of you are still hiring, albeit in moderation. This is what we are starting to see across public SaaS leaders as well.

Sales Hiring 233

Sales Hiring Headcount SaaS Revenue 233

SaaStr

AUGUST 18, 2023

Yes many public SaaS companies have done some sort of layoffs the past 12 months, they were often more really reorgs, though, without any net decrease in headcount. The key was “simply” keeping headcount flat. #3. Everyone is basically doing more with not much more headcount. Without really sacrificing growth.

SaaS 202

SaaS Scale Headcount Scaling 202

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2023

At least in the short term, it is turning most of us can do more with about the same headcount in SaaS. #4. Headcount Growing, But Slowly. Staying basically flat in headcount for 3 quarters while growing a stunning 50% (!) They got there, in fact, two years ahead of schedule. 47% Of Revenue Outside the U.S.,

Headcount 292

Headcount SaaS Scale Sales Hiring 292

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

Sales-driven SaaS startups end up with about half their headcount in sales and marketing. 2x the sales headcount you thought you did to hit the full plan for this year, and Q1 of next year. It sounds high at first, until you realize that's just how the math works. Software itself and other departments get leverage.

Scale 342

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Headcount 342

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2022

So, did headcount at the Series A. In 11 years, the median headcount at Series A swelled from 15 to 28. [1]. 1] Thank you to the Pitchbook team for running the headcount analysis data. [2] More capital meant the constraints of yester-decade no longer applied. Founders declared a maximum acceptable dilution instead.

Headcount 286

Headcount Venture Capital Startup Metrics 286

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

Everyone is basically doing more with not much more headcount (see next point). #4. Growing Headcount, But Much More Slowly That Revenue. Headcount is up 29% year-over-year, but revenue is up 50%. Also you can see sales & marketing headcount is basically flat, while hiring is almost all in engineering / R&D.

Scale 205

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring SaaS 205

Tom 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. They write code, author blog posts, publish the website, attract customers, with the goal of achieving product-market fit. On the left, there’s one.

Sales Recruiting 355

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Headcount 355

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

There is almost no software and non-headcount budget for CS. 64% of CS teams spend $200,000 or less a year on non-headcount, with growth stage companies spending the least, just 0.1% I generally see CS reporting to a CRO as a recipe for conflicts, but sometimes it’s the best option: #2. This data is interesting. of revenue.

Customer Success 304

Customer Success Headcount Churn SaaS 304

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. Let’s assume that takes 5 headcount, minimum, ideally 6. >>

Sales Hiring 347

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Customer Success 347

SaaStr

AUGUST 1, 2023

But this time, instead of headcount, it was apps. Yes, some bigger companies went through layoffs too, but in many cases, they hired more folks back, and really just kept headcount flat or slowed its growth. You get all the VPs into a room, and you tell them to make a list. Of the 10% to cut. Apps though they truly cut.

Headcount 215

Headcount SaaS Startup Finance 215

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2023

A classic and great deep dive in terms of how to scale your teams, headcount, and orgs: #2. In advance of that, we wanted to take a look at a few of David’s classic sessions from SaaStr Annuals past: #1. The SaaS Org Chart by Series with David Sacks, Co-founder and General Partner at Craft Ventures.

Headcount 226

Headcount SaaS Startup Scaling 226

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2023

The antidote: greater pipeline-to-quota coverage ratios by either increasing the top of the funnel or reducing the account executive headcount. These benchmarks suggest startups should plan on materially longer sales cycles into 2023. The data analysis uses the results from the 2023 GTM Survey.

Startup 291

Startup SMB Sales Headcount 291

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. What ratio do you want between AEs and other sales roles?

Headcount 41

Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Sales 41

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2023

At the end of the day, in SaaS, efficiency really comes from growing revenue faster than headcount. Almost everyone is doing more with … yes, more headcount, but only a smidge more. Revenue Up 30%, but Employee Count Only up 10%, to 7,055. Salaries and comp are the vast majority of expenses. Including HubSpot. #4.

Scale 257

Scale SMB Headcount SaaS 257

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2023

Slowing headcount growth — like lots of others. Okta headcount grew 32% year-over-year, fairly consistent with revenue growth, but then Okta like others slowed down hiring. Okta is seeing higher SMB churn and more ROI scrutiny, but is also benefitting from some customers wanting to centralize on fewer core vendors.

Scale 286

Scale Headcount SaaS Sales Hiring 286

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2023

1 BDRs are often mapped to AEs at 1:1 ratio & if we assume BDRs account for 25% of sales headcount (the remainder includes AE, sales operations, post-sales, & management). Assume a 15% productivity improvement that results in a 1.5% improvement across the company.

SaaS 305

SaaS Startup AI Scale 305

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

will quotas for SDRs & BDRs increase but headcount remain the same? will the delta between those rates justify more artisanal emails or will the economies of scale of the machine overwhelm the economics with volume? how will sales teams restructure as a result of the mechanization of outbound email?

Scale 133

Scale Artificial Inteligence Headcount Sales 133

Sales Hacker

JULY 24, 2018

Decreased revenue per rep, High turnover as you scale headcount. 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%.

Scale 65

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring Scaling 65

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. Another reminder to go global in SaaS as early as you can! #10. Slowing hiring has been key to driving up free cash flow.

SaaS 293

SaaS Headcount Scaling Revenue 293

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Keeping headcount flat got everyone to be more efficient. Adding Back Sales Capacity Now. I.e., Hiring More Reps. This is a theme we’ll see accelerate the coming months and year. Salesforce also just announced its accelerating hiring again. But you can be too efficient in sales. Samsara is scaling up sales faster now again.

Scale 227

Scale Sales Hiring SaaS Headcount 227

Tom 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. Over the weekend, I analyzed Roger’s data to answer this question. First, let’s look at layoffs by day. Friday spike to more than 1800.

Startup 295

Startup Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Headcount 295

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 22, 2023

B2B companies have reduced headcount to a greater extent than at any time since 2020. The current wave of layoffs, a difficult component of the innovation boom/bust cycle, differs from the previous years’ dynamics. In the last three years, B2C startups’ ratio of layoffs have dwarfed B2B layoffs. In 2020, B2C companies cut 8.8x

B2C 255

B2C B2B Headcount Startup 255

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2023

Don’t Tie Revenue To Headcount “You want to get away from a business model where every incremental dollar requires incremental hiring,” says Deatsch. So instead of focusing on scaling headcount quickly, work toward growing revenue quickly.

Sales Hiring 225

Sales Hiring Enterprise Scale Headcount 225

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

The headcount and other ongoing operating costs do add to expenses and hit earnings, however. If the acquisition fails years down the road, that Goodwill may need to be written off, and impact earnings for a quarter as a one-time expense. But even there, it’s years later, and a one-off expense.

Acquisition 238

Acquisition Investment Headcount Startup 238

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 11, 2022

And they’ll be able to do this efficiently, without increasing headcount or hours logged. Of course, we’re acutely aware that many businesses are operating with less headcount, resources, and bandwidth than before so we narrowed down our advice to the five essentials for driving true bottom-line impact.

Headcount 237

Headcount Customer Support Strategy Scaling 237

Tom 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. Most sales teams ramp AEs (both inside and outside) on six month time periods. This was surprisingly low.

Scale 363

Scale Headcount Benchmarks Customer Success 363

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. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. SDRs, BDRs, etc. 2 Managers. = 22 heads /.75

Scale 300

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 300

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

The headcount and other ongoing operating costs do add to expenses and hit earnings, however. If the acquisition fails years down the road, that Goodwill may need to be written off, and impact earnings for a quarter as a one-time expense. But even there, it’s years later, and a one-off expense.

Acquisition 208

Acquisition Investment Headcount Startup 208

Tom 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. Software does more with less.

Sales Hiring 137

Sales Hiring Software Headcount Churn 137

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. Our group had a fixed headcount of about 800 to manage about $800m in revenue. Especially allocated headcount.

Headcount 150

Headcount Sales Hiring Revenue Sales 150

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 6, 2023

That’s a big difference, especially when you layer in the growth in headcount from 2021 to 2022. Essentially companies grew headcount significantly to add less ARR. We’re obviously seeing the rightsizing of this now with headcount reductions. The second chart comes from the latest MS CIO survey (below).

Cloud 130

Cloud Headcount SaaS Revenue 130

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Sales-lead teams cut headcount when account executives don’t attain numbers. Some about the data: PLG companies R&D spend hasn’t produced new business at the same rate as a dollar invested in sales & marketing post-Covid. Engineering teams do this to a lesser extent.

Headcount 275

Headcount Metrics Revenue Sales 275

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. MaestroQA has driven its ACVs up substantially, but that doesn’t always mean charging more for everything.

Churn 315

Churn Sales Hiring Headcount Customer Success 315

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

By freezing headcount for a year. Mathematically, if you keep the headcount flat and continue growing 50% like Monday or 30% at $2B like Hubspot, you get wildly more efficient. In one year , they went from -20% to +20% operating margins. Hubspot and Salesforce did the same thing. How did they do that?

Sales Hiring 233

Sales Hiring SaaS Retention Headcount 233

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 29, 2022

Napoleon’s March encodes 6 : the geography of the terrain, the route & the direction of the army, the headcount of the troops, the temperature of the battlefield, & the time of year of Napoleon’s doomed quest to conquer Russia. ” Most visualizations plot 2 dimensions. Click to enlarge it.

Data 220

Data Data Analysis Headcount 220

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2022

Headcount up 7%, while revenue is up 37%. But that only increases total headcount 7% which revenues went up 37%. That transition doesn’t happen overnight for legacy customers. 30% of their revenues are still from customers running Jira and friends on their own servers. But it’s now finally in decline, shrinking 12%. #5.

Scale 301

Scale Marketplace as a Service Headcount SaaS 301

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2022

You start making up for it in volume — with headcount. Your life becomes all about recruiting, even more than it was. It’s harder to find that Magical VP that can make a huge difference. At $100m+ in ARR, the hardest part is you have to add a Unicorn each year.

SaaS 348

SaaS Headcount Revenue AWS 348