Kellblog

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

The other day a founder asked me about interviewing because a candidate had described me as “a great interviewer,” and she wanted to know why. I find interviewing and recruiting difficult, have made plenty of mistakes over the years, and the consequences of those mistakes are invariably painful. Check references.

Sales Recruiting 109

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 109

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 30, 2023

The first goal of sales at a startup isn’t to bring in revenue — it’s to get customer feedback. I’ve spent the last year working to find product-market fit for my startup, Dock. I’ve used our sales process to iterate our way to product market-fit and wanted to share what I’ve learned along the way.

Sales Recruiting 89

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 89

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

Q: Should Product Marketing Work for Product or Marketing? Product marketing is a weird art, with many over-indexing. These days, CEOs are looking for too much magic from product marketing. Maybe we expect too much, even up to $10-20M ARR, and expect magic from product marketing.

Scale 241

Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales Recruiting 241

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 satisfied are you with customer support and working with the company?

Product Marketing 119

Product Marketing Development Team Review Software Review Startup 119

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 3, 2020

Editor’s note: This article is part four of a four-part series that covers the most crucial product marketing activities for an early-stage startup. And all heads typically turn toward a marketing leader or marketing team. Play a stronger role in a few go-to-market (GTM) activities. Find the first part here.

Product Marketing 71

Product Marketing Startup Scale Marketing 71

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Alison brings the perspective of all sides of a startup, from investing to SaaS to Cloud. With the marketing team, there are a lot of the classic functions — brand marketing, product marketing, and partner marketing. In particular, many more startups are using Google Cloud to access their models and LLMs.

Cloud 236

Cloud Scale AWS AI 236

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

I recently did a podcast interview with Harry Stebbings of “The Twenty Minute VC” where we talked about the 9 step model for how B2B startups need to get through product/market fit, and then how they should go about finding a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process.

Interviewing 343

Interviewing B2B Startup Product Marketing 343

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

This is so different than the days of 2021 when a $200M ARR company might’ve had 2,000 or more employees, and maybe a startup doing just $50M had 700 employees. A few examples from recruiting and interviewing lately that Jason warns fellow founders against: #1 Beware of the Managers vs the Do-ers.

Sales Recruiting 284

Sales Recruiting Trends Sales Hiring Software Review 284

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Deel overcame these challenges by taking care of these four things: Finding a product focus When Deel got accepted by Y Combinator in 2019, everyone loved the idea but hated the product. As a startup, it’s hard to know if the timing is right and what to expect. Learnings from the growth stage Measure what you can.

Sales Hiring 229

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 229

OPEXEngine

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

What 14 startup investors & advisors taught us about chasing (and finding) product-market fit. Insights from Tribe Capital, Founders Factory, Startup Grind, Mighty Capital, GrowthHackers, and more. You can’t sell a product without delivering value to users who know they want your product to begin with.

Product Marketing 52

Product Marketing Marketing VP of Engineering Scale 52

OPEXEngine

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

What 14 startup investors & advisors taught us about chasing (and finding) product-market fit. Insights from Tribe Capital, Founders Factory, Startup Grind, Mighty Capital, GrowthHackers, and more. You can’t sell a product without delivering value to users who know they want your product to begin with.

Product Marketing 52

Product Marketing Marketing VP of Engineering Scale 52

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2021

But here’s my list of things I don’t think you should do, almost always, in SaaS/B2B: Committing for less than 24 months to get to product-market fit. You’ll run out of money, time, commitment and more, if all the founders don’t commit to 24 months to get to product-market fit. More here: Planning to Do a SaaS Startup?

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Interviewing B2B Product Marketing 278

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

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Mark Roberge, the Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot, has spent 20 years in startups. Sales execution deficiency manifests itself at roughly the same time as product market fit. There might be 20-30 people at the startup which is generating about $1-2M in ARR with 2-5 salespeople.

Sales Hiring 183

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 183

Chart Mogul

JULY 1, 2020

Customer interviews are a powerful tool that can help you better position your B2B product to attract and retain more customers. B2B marketing is much more complicated than consumer marketing. Believe it or not, it’s not rocket science: they perform customer interviews. Types of customer interviews.

Interviewing 76

Interviewing B2B Marketing Underperforming Technical Team 76

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

And there are a lot of people that will aim for a CRO title at a startup but are mid-level sales execs. She decided to take some time off to regroup and thought about what exactly she wanted: a company that’s reached product-market fit but needs to grow, a disruptive technology, and a founder-CEO that would be like a partner.

Sales Hiring 236

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 236

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 3, 2015

After a startup attains product market fit and begins to exceed the first breaking point of the startup management structure around 10 employees, it’s time to codify the company’s values. Last, the values began an integral component of the interview process for new people.

Startup 109

Startup Scale Interviewing Scaling 109

SaaStr

DECEMBER 15, 2020

If you need to maintain optionality — you aren’t ready to do your own SaaS startup. Do 20 customer interviews (more on that here ). 20 interviews and a just amazing co-founder can be the missing pieces, to show you how to really do your own SaaS start-up. … Ok, now what if you aren’t quite there.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting SaaS Interviewing Consulting 363

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2019

Editor’s Note: This article is Part Two of a four-part series that covers the most crucial product marketing activities for an early-stage startup. Our product is ready! This post is part of a series that covers the core Product Marketing work needed in the four critical phases of an early-stage startup.

Acquisition 53

Acquisition Product Marketing Scale Marketing 53

User Pilot

APRIL 24, 2024

Solution : Lisa realized she needed a channel with less distraction and more engagement, leading her to choose our own product for inviting users. Using Userpilot’s survey functionality, Lisa created an interview invite survey and triggered it to the right user segment inside Userpilot. A website for recruiting interview participants.

Interviewing 79

Interviewing B2C B2B Advertising 79

User Pilot

MAY 1, 2024

How did Lenny Rachitsky get started in product management? Renowned for his tenure on Airbnb’s product team, Lenny’s professional journey truly began in 2010 when he served as the CEO of a budding startup named “Localmind.” Lenny’s Podcast homepage.

Underperforming Technical Team 77

Underperforming Technical Team New CTO Interviewing CTO 77

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

I recently did a podcast interview with Harry Stebbings of “The Twenty Minute VC” where we talked about the 9 step model for how B2B startups need to get through product/market fit, and then how they should go about finding … The post 9 Steps to Repeatable, Scalable, and Profitable Growth appeared first on For Entrepreneurs.

Interviewing 130

Interviewing B2B Startup Product Marketing 130

Point Nine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

At Point Nine, we aspire to continuously share what we learn with our community and the extended startup ecosystem. Sales is hard, especially in the early stages of a startup. It helps keep the product team focused on customer feedback and providing value in exchange for revenue. If this doesn’t happen, the company is at risk.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

SaaStr

JULY 16, 2019

Join Rene Yang Stewart, Co-Head and Principal, Vista Equity Partners, and Monica Enand, Founder and CEO, Zapproved, as they discuss growing a company from product market fit to scale. René Stewart: So, Monica, you have, obviously, taken a company from figuring out product market fit to now a company of scale.

Scale 125

Scale Product Marketing Scaling Marketing 125

Chart Mogul

JULY 1, 2020

Customer interviews are a powerful tool that can help you better position your B2B product to attract and retain more customers. B2B marketing is much more complicated than consumer marketing. Believe it or not, it’s not rocket science: they perform customer interviews. Types of customer interviews.

Interviewing 52

Interviewing B2B Marketing Underperforming Technical Team 52

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

We were coming off an environment where startup funding was as fruitful as ever. If they don’t, they never will , and they’ll never learn the product. Whether it’s a little team or portfolio companies, Jason guesses that 80% of candidates who say they’ll do that end up quitting the interview process.

Sales Hiring 254

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 254

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. This will usually center around PMF (product-market fit) or growth. Set expectations starting at the interview process on company values, pace, and vision.

Retention 130

Retention Leadership Compensation Communication 130

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. And a quarter is an eternity in a startup. That’s the thing.”

Sales Hiring 245

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 245

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 23, 2024

At a16z’s recent Connect/Fintech event, a16z Partner Alex Immerman sat down for a broad conversation with Immad Akhund , co-founder and CEO of banking startup Mercury , and René Lacerte, founder and CEO of financial services company BILL. Immad: Yeah, I’ve been doing startups a long time, and like fintech is great.

Payments 96

Payments Forecasting Payment Services Payment Solutions 96

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 29, 2019

Editor’s Note: This article is Part One of a four-part series that covers the most crucial product marketing activities. . I recently presented at Venture Lane , a curated startup hub for early-stage startups, to share more about Product Marketing and how it relates to an early-stage startup.

Product Marketing 40

Product Marketing Development Marketing Scale 40

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. You do, however, need to be intentional about how you lead product. Here’s some advice for other product leaders from our journey at Pendo: $0-5M ARR: All hands on deck. It was brutal.

Strategy 275

Strategy Scale Innovation Interviewing 275

The Marketing & Growth Hacking Publication

MARCH 3, 2019

One thing above all makes a successful startup: people who purchase and love the product. If you have that, it means you’ve managed to offer the market exactly what it needs or, in other words, achieved a product/market fit (PMF). But how come it’s so challenging to reach success as a startup?

Product Marketing 40

Product Marketing Marketing Underperforming Technical Team Customer Lifetime Value 40

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Yet in Mark’s experience working with and mentoring startups, he’s found that many entrepreneurs go with intuition over information. Those risks can be fatal: Mark has found a 75% failure rate for both Series A and Series C startups (as he presented during his 2019 SaaStr talk.). I think that’s message-market fit.

Scale 226

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 226

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

Sales Hacker

APRIL 20, 2021

Lloyed also co-chairs Traction , a community that brings leaders from the fastest growing companies together to share insights into building and scaling startups via weekly webinars, regular meetups, and an annual conference. It’s a good name for a startup. We worked on a few other projects. Sam Jacobs : What did Speakeasy do?

Scale 93

Scale Scaling Startup AI Search 93

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.” ” Over time, companies across different industries have used it as a valuable tool for building successful products.

Development 76

Development Scale Interviewing Acquisition 76

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 30, 2017

Your startup is growing. You suspect you have initial product market fit. Sales, marketing, customer success, engineering, product management. The founders confirm product market fit with the first 10-20 sales and then hire an expert to scale the team and polish the process.

Sales Hiring 160

Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing Engineering 160