Trint

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

In my 30 years of news reporting for ABC, CBS and CBC News I traveled to more than 40 countries, dodged bullets while reporting on wars, I interviewed prime ministers and presidents. I ran one of my interviews through it. But numbers alone won’t get investment. I was intrigued. I had no idea that could be done.

Branding 130

Branding Advertising Underperforming Technical Team VP of Engineering 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

But I hadn’t really thought of them as a proxy for all SaaS companies until I saw the CEO’s interview from a few weeks back. Vista’s investments are older, established SaaS companies with brands. So it’s less representative of raw startups, but more representative of overall enterprise and mid-market spend.

Cybersecurity 288

Cybersecurity SMB Interviewing Enterprise 288

Teamgate

JANUARY 14, 2019

My journey started working with well-known brands such as VISA and TomTom, and since 2014 I started gradually moving to the world of startups and scaleups. Often startups have very limited funds, so they cannot afford to boost their campaigns with marketing or advertising. Usually startups have either zero or a very low budget.

Interviewing 81

Interviewing Startup Technical Review Technical Advisors 81

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2022

Instead, it sort of makes you think about taking the First Good Offer for your startup. Interview at least 20 potential customers. There are 1000s of startups but only a handful of great opportunities for most of it. And I put in a very large capital commitment into investing. To lose it all. Which is the logical choice.

Scale 358

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital Startup 358

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

In this CMO panel from SaaStr, Rick Schultz, CMO at Databricks, Janine Pelosi, Former CMO at Zoom, and Ryan Carlson, Former CMO at Okta, joined Carilu Dietrich, Advisor at Hypergrowth B2B Startups to talk about the seven biggest mistakes CMOs make. Leading him to some of his biggest mistakes when hiring: Not investing enough time.

Sales Hiring 227

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 227

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Overcoming challenges by optimizing for success In the early stages of setting up your SaaS business, it’s always a good idea to invest time thinking about the direction you want to take. As a startup, it’s hard to know if the timing is right and what to expect. And on to almost $300m ARR today! Listen to your team.

Sales Hiring 210

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 210

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.

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Software Review 168

Chart Mogul

JANUARY 27, 2023

In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, I speak with Matt Lerner, the founder and CEO of Startup Core Strengths. Later, … In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, I speak with Matt Lerner, the founder and CEO of Startup Core Strengths. Later, as a VC at 500 Startups, he led dozens of early-stage investments.

Pricing 52

Pricing Startup PayPal Payment Methods 52

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2023

I see very mediocre executives that came into startups I’ve invested in and really get nothing accomplished in 6-9 months or more … then trade that experience for another VP role. It’s time to do them again: First, have the best VP in that role you know interview the VP candidate you want to hire.

Sales Hiring 214

Sales Hiring SaaS Interviewing Startup 214

Sales Hacker

APRIL 21, 2020

You’ll be able to download the interview scorecard template that I use with my clients. Part two of this scorecard series will help you create a sales interview scorecard to land that sales role you’ve been dreaming about. Who is involved in the interview process, onboarding process, and ongoing support and training process?

Sales Hiring 94

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 94

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

Just note, you’ll need a strong balance sheet and stable investments — it takes money to make money. And there are a lot of people that will aim for a CRO title at a startup but are mid-level sales execs. Market: products that aligned with her experience but that she was emotionally invested in and excited about.

Sales Hiring 218

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 218

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 3, 2023

I’ve spent my career as a student of startups. I’ve worked for two, invested in many, seven of which became unicorns. I study them, benchmark them, analyze them, interview their leaders to understand their mechanics & share what I’ve learned on this blog. Thesis investing is at our core.

Machine Learning 128

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Blockchain Benchmarks 128

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2023

I remember I first started to see this with one company I invested in where some folks described it as “Gong for XYZ”. You can interview. So in Tougher Times for Many, let me boil this down to one key suggestion. I know great jobs are harder to find. You can talk comp. You can even get an offer letter.

Marketing 210

Marketing Sales Interviewing Enterprise 210

OpenView Labs

MARCH 17, 2020

So I’m always on the lookout for provocative interview questions that help you learn much more about the person than just their canned answer to “What’s your biggest weakness?” For example, I met with a new client recently, the CTO of a fin-tech startup. Read more posts about hiring at startups.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team 52

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 17, 2023

He’s invested and advised for over a dozen companies, and launched AccelerateHC seven years ago to help companies think through the organization they need and ultimately help them recruit high performing talent. Chuck lives in the Bay Area with his wife and has two daughters, a junior at UCLA and a freshman at UC Santa Barbara.

Sales Hiring 104

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing SMB 104

Valuize Consulting

MAY 18, 2022

Yet, with all its advances, Customer Success platforms have not reached the ‘must-have’ status of other enterprise software solutions like CRMs, ERPs and Marketing Automation, and many leaders are struggling to showcase the true ROI of their investments in this area due to the continued existence of legacy structures and mindset.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Interviewing Technology Customer Success 52

Mucker Capital

APRIL 2, 2024

Buyers may also struggle to justify investments in new purchases and to convince their leadership team of the worth. Examples include buying software licenses, purchasing materials, or investing in technology solutions like cloud services. This can be done by counting activities like emails, phone calls, or interviews.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Technical Review Enterprise Cybersecurity 52

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

In the early days, it was about setting expectations that startups are hard and you must work hard to succeed. Set and reinforce them early — as early as interviews. We are a tech startup, and in order to be successful, we expect you to put in a lot of hard work. Revenue matters, too. This job isn’t for everyone. Guess what?

Sales Hiring 187

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Sales 187

Chart Mogul

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

But sales is the one thing founders cannot oversee — without it your startup will die. Startup founders are stretched thinly like silly putty. Without sales, your startup dies. Below, I’ll share common pitfalls and avoidance techniques in four fundamental areas of startup sales based on my experience. They get salesy.

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Startup 93

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2021

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from leading product at fast-growing startups, it’s that there’s no one way to lead product. I like to equate this stage to Warren Buffett’s famous law of uninterrupted compounding interest—there is a significant difference between investing early and often into an IRA versus starting later in life. .

Strategy 266

Strategy Scale Innovation Interviewing 266

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

I recently asked on Twitter when folks knew their startup had something … great. What was the moment when you knew your startup was really doing something great? Very rare happened in Malaysia startup scene. Received 6 unsolicited angel investment offers from ordinary people. . 20% conversion.

CTO Hire 269

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Healthcare 269

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

We were coming off an environment where startup funding was as fruitful as ever. For instance, Founders Fund doesn’t really invest in AI, health tech, or edtech, even if you’re growing 5x. In a startup today, everyone’s important. Startups get too many snake oil salespeople. Each VC has a different “flavor.”

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 235

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 16, 2021

In this interview, Naz shares her expertise on how to design a powerful CS strategy that equips your team with the right tools and resources to drive an exceptional employee experience and champion phenomenal growth. Empower your CSMs through efficient processes and a strategic plan for your CS technology investment.

Interviewing 52

Interviewing Customer Success Scale Government 52

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Q: What are the top 20 pieces of advice for building a successful SaaS startup? Do at least 20–30 customer interviews before you start writing too much code. Most SaaS companies invest early in sales, but wait on customer success. Ok my top list, with a SaaStr article on the topic: Take your time to find a great co-founde r.

Sales Hiring 296

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 296

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2021

Four years ago, after launching and failing my first startup I realized I had a lot to learn. A mentor of mine suggested that I reframe my search to seek out companies that I would invest in, instead of the other way around. He told me, you can invest time, talent, or treasure. That left me with only one asset to invest, time.

Scale 245

Scale Sales Hiring Sales SMB 245

SaaStr

AUGUST 17, 2020

Your best bosses, VPs, mentors and others will give you “audibles” — quick bits of micro-advice during pitches, customer meetings, interviews, etc. If you aren’t investing 20% of your time, you’re doing less important things with that time. Yes, startups have to grow or die. Listen to “Audibles” and Act on Them. More here.

Scale 359

Scale Business Interviewing Compensation 359

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

As a startup, it’s tempting to try and do everything. From an R&D perspective, they invested in what they called vertical solutions to support those new use cases. So, Calendly decided to invest in going Enterprise. Lattice had limited resources and a small team, which meant they needed to focus in.

Scale 208

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 208

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

The founders named their startup JFrog because a frog is agile and always leaping forward. Yet the strategy was not to have a conventional startup. They included: Team and Culture : “In my opinion, having the right team and culture in place is the most important thing when it comes to building a startup. JFrog offered 11.6

New CTO 199

New CTO CTO Benchmarks Consulting 199

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

Startup Leadership Challenges. Working on shortcomings in these areas is essential if you want to reduce burnout and improve all areas of your startup. Employee Engagement: Show your employees that you are invested in their career goals and help them build a plan (that they own) to achieve those goals.

Retention 130

Retention Leadership Compensation Communication 130

Kellblog

MARCH 29, 2023

The presentation has three sections: First, an introduction which quickly reviews the ways the startup world has changed in the past 6 months. Just a quick post to share the slides from the presentation I gave today at the KiwiSaaS conference to discuss the SaaS metrics that matter in 2023 and 2024.

Metrics 123

Metrics Compensation Benchmarks Interviewing 123

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 7, 2015

While the ultimate use of the data might differ, the actual investigations and interviews are remarkably alike. During a typical diligence process, we will interview customers and might ask them questions like these: How did you hear about the product? How much do you pay? Is it worth more or less than X product?

Product Marketing 114

Product Marketing Development Team Review Software Review Startup 114

Buffer Resources

MAY 24, 2023

When I launched the Female Startup Club podcast at the end of 2019, I didn’t have any grand plans or intentions for what it might look like in the future. I tried hosting IGTV interviews with female founders but quickly realized that many viewers struggle to watch a long conversation, so I pivoted to podcasts.

Business 88

Business Entrepreneurship Interviewing Social Media 88

User Pilot

AUGUST 20, 2023

The build-measure-learn process is a fundamental part of the lean startup methodology introduced by Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup.” Collect customer feedback with in-app surveys and interviews. Buffer’s landing page MVP when they were still a lean startup.

Development 97

Development Scale Interviewing Acquisition 97

Valuize Consulting

AUGUST 6, 2021

A few of my friends worked at a tech startup (Sailthru) and referred me for a role. One of the most revolutionary things that Splunk did was invest heavily in strategy and operations for Customer Success. What are some ways that organizations can leverage their technology investment to drive efficiency and scalability?

Scale 52

Scale Customer Success Interviewing Strategy 52

Brian Balfour

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

Get the customizable Growth Interview Prep Worksheet that accompanies the post here. You walk into your growth interview after hours of preparation. But there’s one big problem you’ve overlooked - the interview isn’t actually about you. They all tie back to this one core error - thinking the interview is about you.

Interviewing 65

Interviewing Retention Metrics Social Media 65

Kellblog

AUGUST 13, 2019

This is a sister post to my recent one, Career Decisions: What to Look For in a Software Startup. That piece is all about what to look for when considering taking a job at a software startup. This piece is kind of the opposite: what to look out for when considering an executive job at a software startup.

Software Review 76

Software Review Startup Sales Hiring Software 76

Tom Tunguz

JULY 31, 2014

And, that this startup in particular will dominate share in that new world. But in the end, these exceptional storytellers make you want to believe, suspend doubt, and disregard the great risks that all startups face all along their journey, and get involved with the business. Some founders use data. Others use logic.

Startup 100

Startup Scale Interviewing Scaling 100