FastSpring

APRIL 6, 2022

The first was about conversion optimization (CRO) for SaaS and software. You can find that interview here ). . Specifically, how Fred slashed it by 50% in a previous growth role at a software company. We followed it up with deep dive into churn. Learn more about subscription management with FastSpring.

Interviewing 146

Interviewing Churn Software SaaS 146

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2025

It was terrible software and too expensive. Listen to the Exit Interviews Our vendor finally built this feature because they started taking cancellation calls seriously. Support tickets disappeared into the void. Even worse, social media changed and the product barely worked now. Then they raised prices.

Social Media 179

Social Media Outsourced Development Interviewing Retention 179

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Ask the founders this question when you interview them: How supportive has X person been as an investor? So by the time you get to 8 or 10 million in revenue, if you’re doing software your gross margins should be 80-90% by then, giving you about $8 million of cash to invest back into the company each year.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 316

FastSpring

OCTOBER 11, 2024

When you’re expanding your software business into new regions, industry benchmarking data can help you make better strategic decisions by answering important questions about business in the region. If you’re selling software at the same price into both the U.S. This means that, for example, for every 100 U.S.

Merchant Services 158

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Benchmarks Payment Features 158

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 22, 2025

ARR per employee measured in the millions up 5x or more from the previous generation of software companies. Interviewers also face a new challenge: developing golden standards to evaluate AI fluency. Recruitment has always been a competitive advantage, whether crossing the Antarctic or selling AI software. The new boast of 2025?

Interviewing 114

Interviewing AI Sales Recruiting Construction 114

FastSpring

APRIL 5, 2022

Is conversion rate optimization for SaaS and software different than traditional A/B testing for ecommerce? Traffic, traffic, traffic — that’s what software companies focus on. I’ve seen people miss this opportunity in software companies.”. Interview with Growth Expert Frederic Linfjärd) appeared first on FastSpring.

Interviewing 146

Interviewing SaaS Payment Features Subscription 146

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

They work with consulting firms, hire their own analysts, buy data management software. No face time with customers, no interviews throughout the product roadmap – just a couple of weeks of user testing before launch. She dove into the world of customer interviews, and just like that, she was hooked.

Interviewing 138

Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting Software Review 138

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2024

Hiring and Interviewing Tips: Jason emphasizes the importance of interviewing at least 30 candidates for a role and consulting with an expert in the field to interview the final candidate. software, services) and being honest with investors about the composition of your revenue.

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Scale Interviewing 263

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

And business software spend is set to cross $1 Trillion this year for the first time ever! I bet you get an interview. Gartner: 2024 Will be Tougher Than We Thought, But We’ll Still Cross $1 Trillion in Software Spend The post 64% of You Are Growing Your Sales Teams in 2024 appeared first on SaaStr. So cuts continue.

Sales Hiring 321

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 321

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 10, 2020

These experiences, whether it is observing someone use your product, or interviewing them about your product, need to be wide ranging. The ability to ask perceptive questions is critical to running high signal interviews from which you can learn the most. For example, at Intercom we build customer communication software.

Underperforming Technical Team 291

Underperforming Technical Team Interviewing Communication B2B 291

User Pilot

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Which product feedback software should you choose for your SaaS? In this round-up, I cover 21 of the best product feedback software solutions. In this round-up, I cover 21 of the best product feedback software solutions. Social listening tools : Software for monitoring online conversations, brand mentions, and trends.

Software Review 52

Software Review Software Social Media Underperforming Technical Team 52

TechEmpower SaaS

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

If you're grappling with this issue, identifying the specific cause can be difficult, especially if you don’t have a software background. And in the software world, an A player is worth 10+ C players! When we interview potential developers, we’re always amazed at how many can’t answer basic programming questions.

Underperforming Technical Team 390

Underperforming Technical Team Development Software Review Technical Review 390

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2024

Jason recently interviewed a SaaStr superfan, and about 40 minutes in, the person said they didn’t want to do some of the work required for the job. Jason recently interviewed a SaaStr superfan, and about 40 minutes in, the person said they didn’t want to do some of the work required for the job. But this is software.

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Marketing Scale 307

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2023

More here: A Simple Commitment Test For You And Your Co-Founders – SaaStr Not doing enough potential customer interviews. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. Not committing to building great software. The days of shipping crummy software, IMHO at least, are sort of over. That’s tough. Go talk to 20–30 first.

SMB 278

SMB SaaS B2C Interviewing 278

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

The First Rule About Building Software Is Wrong “If there’s one rule that almost everyone universally agrees with about building software, it’s that focus is really important,” Conrad explains, citing Silicon Valley luminaries Bill Gurley and David Sacks who consistently advocate for narrowing your focus.

Startup 162

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 162

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2024

As a startup, most people who come to an interview appear happy. You interview 30 people. If it’s a role you’ve never hired, find someone great at it and have them do your final interview. A software company needs to be north of 70% margins. How Do You Sift Out the Bitter and Broken Individuals When Hiring?

Sales Hiring 291

Sales Hiring Scale Marketing Interviewing 291

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Do at least 20 potential customer interviews. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. Almost all software is sort of a copy of what came before. A bit more here: If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months | SaaStr. Even if you think you know the market, you will learn a ton.

Startup 279

Startup SaaS Interviewing Market Segmentation 279

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

In our first post about our online community , we mentioned launching the Global SaaS Leaders Slack group because we saw a need for the kind of software-and-SaaS-focused community we’d want to be a part of. Our Guiding Principle: Our Software and SaaS Community Must Be Good for You in Order for It to Succeed. Professional moderation.

SaaS Payments 148

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Merchant Services Software Review 148

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

JFrog is the pioneer of Continuous Software Release Management, or CSRM. In other words, they got first-hand experience of the pains of software development. The initial goal was actually not to build a company; rather, it was just to solve the highly complex problems of managing software updates and delivery. JFrog offered 11.6

New CTO 287

New CTO CTO Benchmarks Consulting 287

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2021

We never sustainably fell behind from what one could actually do with computing and software because of this—not being on-prem didn’t destroy us. If you can nail that for the category you’re in, it will be magic that makes SaaS so much more compelling than the prior era of on-prem software. Don’t neglect your existing customer base.

Scale 298

Scale Cloud Interviewing Scaling 298

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2022

In these instances, you will want to set up informational interviews with strong department heads external to your company in the areas where you’re not an expert. Compare the talent that you meet through informational interviews with the talent you have on your team. Mistake 2: Thinking your CFO is a glorified accountant. “As

Scale 278

Scale Sales Hiring Interviewing Engineering 278

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2022

These pillars helped propel Miro, a visual collaboration software company, to a valuation of $17.5 In this SaaStr Europa 2022 session, Matt Jacobson, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth, interviews Miro’s Founder & CEO, Andrey Khusid, to get insight into how he was able to grow the company so successfully.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Scale Company Culture B2C 246

FastSpring

DECEMBER 7, 2023

In this episode of Growth Stage, Carl will dives into his experience running acquisitions of SMB software businesses, including: His thoughts on what makes a software company a good target for an acquisition by a brand. What factors beyond financials makes a target even more valuable. Jump to highlights. My name is David Vogelpohl.

Software Review 148

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Branding 148

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Do at least 20–30 customer interviews before you start writing too much code. That doesn’t mean a ton of custom software. Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. Great at engineering. Great at marketing. More here. Otherwise, you often are building for an imaginary customer.

Sales Hiring 317

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 317

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2020

Do more market research and especially customer interviews in the early days. The startups that can build more great software, faster, often win. At some level, that’s always true. But don’t settle, anyways. Make sure, if nothing else, that your co-founder is better than you. Talk to at least 20 prospective customers, ideally more.

Startup 281

Startup Market Research Interviewing B2B 281

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2021

Aneesa Sayall (VP of Strategic Operations Customer & Partner Org at ServiceNow) interviews Lara Caimi, the ServiceNow Chief Customer & Partner Officer, about the journey to $15 billion and how building partnerships help propel the business. ServiceNow is a workflow, low-code/no-code software company with over 1500 partners worldwide.

Outsourcing Services 290

Outsourcing Services Scale Scaling Outsourced Development 290

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2021

It will be the largest non-vendor event in the world for business software, by far, and perhaps the one really Tier 1 B2B event this year. Secret #2: most CEOs do not want to be interviewed by their VC board members. This took me a while to figure out, but most successful CEOs do not want to be interviewed by their board members.

Interviewing 276

Interviewing Scaling B2B Investment 276

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2021

There’s one theme we’ve reiterated over the years, at least since 2017 or so when we interviewed the CEOs of Twilio and Veeva back-to-back : To grow quickly after $100m ARR, you probably need a second core product. In fact, now it’s more than 2x the size of its SaaS software alone. The only question is when.

Merchant Services 263

Merchant Services SaaS Payments SMB Payment Solutions 263

Stax

MAY 16, 2025

This shift is not only improving industry efficiency but also opening the door to new possibilities Underserved Sectors Lead the Charge Embedded payments have become pivotal in addressing the needs of industries that require software tailored to their specific workflows. Watch the full interview with Adam Gray and PYMNTS to learn more.

Payments 88

Payments SaaS Payments Finance Payment Services 88

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2019

But real, serious interviews. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. No one needs more business software. If you haven’t, that’s the bare minimum to learn about a market. Even if it’s one you think you already know well. More here: Planning to Do a SaaS Startup? Not building a 10x better product — at least in one key area.

Business 225

Business Interviewing Market Research B2B 225

FastSpring

AUGUST 2, 2023

When TestDome was created, CEO and co-founder Mario Zivic knew the pre-employment testing software company wouldn’t be able to rely on domestic sales to succeed. “As As a startup with only two or three people, it would be absolutely impossible to go international without this kind of platform.” Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

Payment Solutions 148

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Merchant Services AI Search 148

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

In this interview, David Sacks talks about how 70-80% of investor time is spent looking at AI. He did it, and anyone can do it if they’re a product-focused founder who uses software. Find a technical and non-technical founder and build kickass software,” says Lemkin. Q: Should Early-Stage Companies Sprinkle in AI?

Scale 290

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AI 290

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2020

Q: What is a strategy you have employed as a software company to keep sales up during COVID-19? And finally, while we aren’t all at Slack’s scale yet … you can see from our recent interview with Stewart Butterfield that their Free plan has been on fire. And it likely will make you more in the medium and long term.

Scale 225

Scale Interviewing Revenue Strategy 225

SaaStr

DECEMBER 6, 2021

For example, Pagey, our mascot, ended up videobombing me during an interview with CNBC. She’s a SaaStr veteran and has 25 years of experience, spanning mass consumer products to disruptive cloud and software solutions. What’s going to change? Are those changes positive? Will they help you to scale?

DevOps as a Service 278

DevOps as a Service Scale Cloud Interviewing 278

User Pilot

MAY 7, 2024

Product adoption software is the lifeblood of the modern product management process. In this article, we explore what product adoption software does and identify 12 of the best product adoption tools on the market. TL;DR Product adoption software drives users to adopt a product through carefully curated product experiences.

Software Review 105

Software Review Software Scale Onboarding 105

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 16, 2018

In software, we typically see three pricing structures. 2 Part Tariff (2PT) - The analytics software has a base platform fee of $10,000 and each analytics event processed by the system costs $0.10 3 Part Tariff (3PT) - Again, the software has a base platform fee but the fee is $25,000 because it includes the first 150k events are free.

Pricing 240

Pricing Market Research Interviewing Product Marketing 240

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

According to the managers, the most common reasons new employees failed were: And what was the biggest takeaway for managers interviewed? They needed better interview processes to weed out the failures before they joined their teams. To any rational person, this makes no sense. The common denominator isn’t the 46% of employees.

Management 291

Management Software Review Construction Engineering 291