Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2023

I analyzed the headcount patterns within these companies to shed light on three questions : How are these top companies changing their headcount through the downturn? What percent of headcount is in product & engineering? What percent of headcount is in sales & marketing? The typical company grew headcount by 57%.

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Headcount Startup Scale Engineering 281

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

That works for a while, but you end up with not enough headcount if you do freeze hiring but still want to grow. More on this in our deep dive with co-CEO Eran Zinman: You can’t grow forever with no growth in headcount. You can’t scale a high-growth SLG-led model without more and more sales reps. The latest examples?

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Sales Hiring Headcount Scale Cloud 275

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.

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Scale Headcount Point of Sale SaaS 188

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

PST — Former VP of Customer Success and current founder and Managing Partner at Success Venture Partners, John Gleeson, shares his lessons learned scaling customer success from $1M to $300M in ARR. Headcount maybe goes from 2 or 4 to 10. An ability to scale through a couple of stages of growth. Capacity comes back.

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Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success Scaling 164

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Eran Zimman, monday.com’s co-founder and co-CEO, shares his secrets to scaling and growth in an unpredictable market. Serve customers a CRM or project management first, and as they scale and use it more, they’re exposed to more features. They kept doing it after the economy changed, and they also scaled it. It’s cheap.

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Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 164

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% (!) Staying basically flat in headcount for 3 quarters while growing a stunning 50% (!)

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Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Cloud 278

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

But it’s the $1M+ ones that are fueling the big numbers at this scale. 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%. Billion in ARR. They are growing 80%. #3.

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Headcount Scale Sales Hiring AWS 191

Andreessen Horowitz

JUNE 14, 2023

Before we discuss hiring the right engineering or product leader for your company, it’s worthwhile to step back and ask some questions about how you’re scaling your technical organization. As your company grows and your technical org headcount increases, the … The post Scaling Your Technical Org appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Scaling Headcount Engineering 67

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

How to scale your sales org ? Hire a VP of Sales to help you scale from three sales reps to 300 reps. Unlike building a product team, there is no efficiency when building a sales org: half of your headcount will be in sales at $10m, $50m, or $100m in revenue. Why you need to hire two salespeople ? How to comp your salespeople ?

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Headcount 239

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 20, 2021

Here are three ways to know if it’s time to invest in customer support operations (if you’re looking to scale, it probably is), and a few simple things your organization can do to get started. You’re not scaling as quickly as you’d like. Sound good? What is customer support operations? Baby steps, for sure.”.

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Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 156

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Marketing engine getting more efficient at scale. SaaS leaders at scale often find their cost per acquisition goes up at scale, at they saturate the market, but Monday has gotten better and better here: #8. Like many tech companies, Monday added a ton of headcount in 2021. This slide below I found interesting.

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Headcount SMB Engineering Scaling 282

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.

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Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 210

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2023

HubSpot’s operating margins have scaled into the double-digits the past two quarters for the first time. 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. Including HubSpot. #4.

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Scale SMB Headcount New CTO 245

Sales Hacker

JULY 24, 2018

Decreased revenue per rep, High turnover as you scale headcount. Efficiency Isn’t Something You Worry About After Scaling. We made our machine more efficient even as we scaled, grew headcount, and skyrocketed our revenue. Embrace technology so you can coach at scale. Empower your reps to “self coach”.

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Scale Headcount Sales Hiring Scaling 55

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2023

A reminder scaling SaaS takes real capital. #9. 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. Aiming for Profitability in CY’24. It only grew 4.5% quarter-over-quarter. #11.

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Scale Headcount Sales Hiring SMB 274

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2023

PST, to unveil the data behind effective scaling. Many of them said headcount management and spend were common levers they pulled, given the immediate and significant impact they have on spend. What are companies doing today to scale efficiently? It was a tough growth environment, but it feels like it’s changing in 2023.

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Outsourcing Services Scaling Venture Capital Forecasting 164

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.

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Headcount Startup Scaling SaaS 213

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2021

And they will take at least a tiny amount to scale. I know your first 3 reps are scaled and are crushing it, all hitting 100%. 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. 22 heads /.75

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Scale Sales Hiring Headcount Sales 299

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

You can’t scale either of those channels or people until you’re happy with the efficiency of those people and processes. Do you have to double your headcount to make it from $10M to $20M or even $2M to $5M? When those outcomes are achieved, the hire gets their headcount. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 245

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2023

Facing Challenges Scaling AI 86% of CXOs say they will adopt AI and need it to move forward because it’s critical to their business. How to scale AI across your business. So, how do you build for tomorrow so that when you land those bigger deals, you can scale up rapidly? How to create a competitive advantage.

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AI Technology Scale Startup 229

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.

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Scale Headcount Benchmarks Retention 364

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 20, 2023

At least you don’t have a scale disadvantage. But it’s not unheard of to see strategies you’ve been using fail to drive consistent growth while you scale. Yoram Wijngaarde Building out a team is often the next step for companies looking to scale. Peter shares his experience with managing headcount.

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Scale Scaling Headcount SaaS 52

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Keeping headcount flat got everyone to be more efficient. Samsara is scaling up sales faster now again. 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.

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Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Engineering 228

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 17, 2023

Like the Devops movement, the Dataops movement aims to scale the use of data within companies without increasing the headcount of the data team. On December 14th we welcomed Philip Zelitchenko , VP of Data from ZoomInfo, to talk about how he has built this discipline within his team & it was fascinating. The video is here.

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Data Government Scale Headcount 240

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 2, 2019

How do you ensure a great customer experience globally without adding a ton of headcount? However, that means there is a huge opportunity for businesses who are able to scale personal, effective support. The post Found in translation: How multilingual support helps you scale customer experiences appeared first on Inside Intercom.

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Scale Outsourcing Services Scaling Technical Review 209

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2022

Never let it be said that SaaS can’t generate a lot of cash at scale. #3. I’d argue No until you are at scale. But once you are at scale, they can have a massive impact. #4. Transition to Cloud takes time at scale. Transition to Cloud takes time at scale. Headcount up 7%, while revenue is up 37%.

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Scale Marketplace as a Service Headcount Cloud 286

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 24, 2021

If your business is preparing for a new phase of growth, you need to make sure that your support team is set up for success from the outset, and that you’re creating the right support infrastructure to deliver exceptional customer experiences at scale. Are the tools you’re using capable of scaling with you?

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Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 129

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2022

You might feel confused about where to begin, how to scale up, which mistakes you should avoid, and things you should consider before expanding. Now, let’s look at ten learnings that Dorian gathered while scaling Grammarly from a Consumer to an Enterprise brand with B2B offerings. Enter your email below for the latest SaaStr updates.

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Scale SMB Enterprise Sales Hiring 197

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2023

And they will take at least some time to scale. That may actually be high, especially if you are scaling quickly and make a few hiring errors. In theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, and this wouldn’t impact headcount too much. Third, multiply a yield factor. Not all reps will work out.

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Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 242

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 24, 2018

How do you scale a support organization without breaking the budget or killing the quality of the customer experience? Our belief in a modern support model will never change, but we’ve spent a lot of time iterating on how best to scale our support. Three options when scaling customer support. Automation. Self-Service.

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Scale Customer Support Scaling Strategy 178

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Freezing Headcount is How They Got So Much More Efficient Again, a common story. But for now, AppFolio is staying leaner, with less headcount this year than last — despite impressive +29% growth. #4. Many that did are now re-hiring, from Monday to Salesforce and more.

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Payment Services Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments 227

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2024

1: Capital As an operator, your job is to take money and add headcount and programs to drive the growth engine for your company, You might think of capital as fundraising and budget. When you’re building something, you don’t have the same scale as someone who’s reached product maturity or product market fit. What are the must haves?

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Headcount Scaling Finance Engineering 195

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Deel scaled the sales team from two to 250 account executives, but issues with productivity and enablement of the account executives cropped up. Deel solved this by scaling the revenue operations team in conjunction to support sales, design quotas, and go-to-market strategies, and leverage data to identify the best strategies.

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Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 219

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 11, 2022

In today’s digital era, customer expectations are rising but many support teams lack the modern tools and strategies needed to provide personal, efficient support at internet scale. And they’ll be able to do this efficiently, without increasing headcount or hours logged.

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Headcount Customer Support Strategy Branding 237

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?

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Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Sales 41

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

And they will take at least a tiny amount to scale. But in theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization so in theory, this won’t impact headcount too much. Just scaling here alone will drop your sales efficiency 30%+ even if everything else stays constant. If you do small deals, reps may struggle to close $400k a year.

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Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 287

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.

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Sales Hiring Enterprise Headcount Scale 211