SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

Traditional VCs usually reserve another 1x-2x of their first check for later investments. If the synergies are real, they’ll happen irrespective of some token investment. An investment won’t create a partnership. An investment may anoint one vendor in the space as the preferred vendor over competitors. Be realistic.

Outsourcing Services 329

Outsourcing Services Investment Venture Capital Pricing 329

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Many of you are familiar with this visual, most likely created by an investment firm. This showcases a narrow segment of a niche market, and it’s missing a lot of startups. Any startup in any reasonable category likely has dozens of competitors, and Altman believes the best strategy to compete in 2023 and beyond is multi-product.

Scale 210

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 210

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Our Chairman and Co-founder, Eoghan McCabe , sat down for a chat with Harry Stebbings on the Twenty Minute VC podcast to discuss his startup journey and the lessons he learned while building Intercom. What distinguishes good leadership from bad? So it’s scary, but it’s so rewarding.”. It’s not enduring.”.

Leadership 211

Leadership Scale SMB Innovation 211

TechEmpower SaaS

AUGUST 21, 2023

The explanation from software leadership is often unsatisfying or unclear. Outgrowing your stack: Your tech stack was just right for your startup. Process and Team Review It’s easy for development teams, especially startup teams, to cut process corners in the name of shipping features. Will they resent scrutiny from the outside?

Technical Review 390

Technical Review Software Review Development Team Review Systems Review 390

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Biggest Problems You Face as a Startup Founder? Later, once you have a brand, you’ll be competing with Hot Startups nipping at your heals for top VPs. Once you cross 10% market share in your core niche / segment — start investing in the next one. This challenge never ends. It never ends.

Sales Recruiting 234

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 234

Kellblog

JULY 17, 2022

In general, I think branding is a potential marketing rathole for startups, particularly early-stage ones. Some startups put the cart in front of the horse. In this post, I’ll use a six-point branding framework and share my thoughts on how each element applies (or doesn’t) to startups. For startups, fewer is better.

Branding 132

Branding Startup Software Sales Recruiting 132

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Is It a Bad Idea for Founders To Invest Their Own Money Into a Funding Round? One way or another, every founder is going to invest some of their own money , at least a tiny bit, to get a startup off the ground. But usually, when I invest, part of the reason is to de-stress the money side of things.

Investment 184

Investment Startup Leadership 184

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2023

This year, many companies, including Gong, have been focused on how to optimize and drive value with existing tech stack investments, rather than adding new tools. As Chief Evangelist, Udi oversees Gong’s market leadership through new product launches and thought leadership.

Leadership 287

Leadership B2B Branding Revenue 287

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2023

SaaS Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin and Atrium Founder and CRO Pete Kazanjy sit down to discuss the state of investing in 2023 and what founders should keep in mind for the year ahead. . Since 2016, he prefers to make about three or four investments per year, usually within the $1 – $4 million range. . The Backstory.

Venture Capital 168

Venture Capital Investment Sales Hiring Entrepreneurship 168

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 224

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 224

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2023

If you’re a seed-stage startup, Michael shares the best ways for you to present your company to startup investors. They could talk about how they were starving startup founders who couldn’t pay their rent. If this is week two of your startup, you probably don’t have any traction. Let’s go back to Airbnb. Don’t include it.

Payment Methods 202

Payment Methods Startup Payment Solutions Sales Hiring 202

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

Traditional VCs usually reserve another 1x-2x of their first check for later investments. If the synergies are real, they’ll happen irrespective of some token investment. An investment won’t create a partnership. An investment may anoint one vendor in the space as the preferred vendor over competitors. Be realistic.

Outsourcing Services 169

Outsourcing Services Investment Venture Capital Pricing 169

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 15, 2018

He had to quickly determine which team members displayed a potential for leadership and teach them the fundamentals of management so they could make new hires and scale – without ruining the culture. I hosted Nick on the podcast, where we discussed the differences between management and leadership, fostering diversity in tech, and more.

Leadership 141

Leadership Engineering Part-Time VPE CTO Coach 141

Tom Tunguz

JULY 28, 2018

” I wondered, are we investing enough in our managers? Talent is the largest investment of an early stage company. 80%+ of startup operating expense flows to compensation. Research shows employees leave their jobs because of poor leadership and poor management. How should startup invest in improving its management?

Investment 140

Investment Management Compensation Market Research 140

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

The 4 states of an engineering team is a mental model that resonated with me, and I think it provides a framework for leadership teams and boards to understand the state of a developer team. Repaying Debt - to pay down debt, the team needs more time to invest in reducing the debt. But there’s much more.

Engineering 362

Engineering Software Review Systems Review Technical Review 362

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 9, 2020

Linda’s professional journey has taken her across businesses of all sizes — from startups in hypergrowth mode to mature, multi-hundred million-dollar businesses. It was there that she felt inspired about the impact she could have on a startup, and from there she became a founding member at Tapjoy, and then, Nextbit.

Startup 246

Startup Management Systems Review Leadership 246

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2023

Scaling a tech startup doesn’t come easy, and when you’ve tried all the conventional SaaS advice, it might be tempting to give up. But the drive and passion remained, and leadership didn’t give up. And they mostly did this by ignoring four pieces of traditional startup advice. Sometimes it can take longer.”

Scale 184

Scale Scaling SMB Marketing 184

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2023

Enablement — setting your team up for success and investing in their professional growth. Personality, startup skills, and softer skills are all important — grit and resilience are key for Pugh and should be for any startup SaaS salesperson. How do you set your team up for success and invest in their professional growth?

Scale 202

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 202

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

You Won’t Know The Names Of All Your Employees Almost everything changes once you reach that scale of ten or tens of millions of revenue, including your leadership model. Your leadership style has to evolve to match that. How do you scale leadership? People love startups because they’re fast, fun, and diverse.

Scale 164

Scale Scaling Leadership Company Culture 164

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 11, 2023

Ang shares her 5 P’s of Sales Leadership: Professionalism Preparation Process Performance Play More on these below. Sara So, Ang, I’m curious what drew you to Sales Leadership originally? If I had to pick a moment, it was in the early 2000s when I joined a startup specializing in enhancing online visibility for small businesses.

Scale 63

Scale Leadership Sales Hiring Sales 63

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

You Mon Tsang, CEO and co-founder of ChurnZero, Colleen O’Sullivan, VP of Integrated Customer Experience at Hubspot, and Jason Lemkin, SaaStr founder and CEO, give their take on where the customer success industry is headed and shares data from the Customer Success Leadership Study done by ChurnZero at the close of 2023.

Customer Success 212

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale AI 212

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 15, 2021

An entrepreneur with more than twenty years of startup experience, Godard has seen his share of struggle and failure. And even when he achieved business success, he still battled the anxiety, fear, and depression that is par for the course in the startup arena. . What is Conscious Leadership? Starting with Self Awareness.

Leadership 73

Leadership Entrepreneurship Consulting Engagement 73

SaaStr

OCTOBER 1, 2022

Anu Hariharan works with hundreds of startups annually as Managing Director at Y Combinator. Through experience, she explains five company-altering learnings from B2B startups that founders should consider at the earliest stages of their businesses. . B2B startups are underpricing . Your product may not be as good as you think.

Scale 187

Scale Sales Hiring B2B Startup 187

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2021

One of the most popular sessions at SaaStr Annual, Busting the Myths About Startup Success with BlackLine CEO and Founder Therese Tucker is up at the top of our must-watch list. Bootstrapped because nobody in their right mind would have actually invested in us back then and took it up until 2014 as a bootstrapped company.

Startup 262

Startup CTO Hire Sales Hiring CTO Coach 262

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

At a previous startup she worked for, management was constantly interviewing people from big companies to take leadership roles. So if you never invest seriously in your current workforce, they will stop investing seriously in your business. . They do not hire for leadership positions.

Compensation 194

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 194

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2024

She was able to get into a leadership position immediately and coach people who were hungry for it in a slightly safer space than more tenured folks. The decision to leave a fairly scaled role leading 200+ AEs at LinkedIn to join a smaller-stage startup. She wanted to jump into a full cycle capacity as a sales leader, but she said yes.

Scale 217

Scale Underperforming Technical Team SMB Finance 217

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

In this edition of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond (former CRO at Brex and current Partner at Founders Fund) hosts his former colleague Lucas Fox (GM of Brex for Startups). Churn vs. Expansion: Where to Start As many startup founders know, in the beginning, acquiring customers is key to getting off the ground. Set Up Tracking Processes.

Retention 192

Retention Revenue Startup Sales Hiring 192

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

So the other day I looked back at about 25 SaaS seed investments I’d made that had scaled well past $10m-$20m and reflected on the top themes. 4: Too Much — or Too Little — Outside DNA If you hire everyone from outside the company to your leadership and senior teams, you lose what makes you special. Here they are. More here. #5:

Sales Hiring 240

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 240

Baremetrics

JUNE 16, 2021

The startup world is built on the culture of learning. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How To Build the Future by Peter Thiel 4 4. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things , Horowitz distills years of experience building companies into actionable lessons of leadership. After all, successful businesses aren’t grown in silos.

Scale 97

Scale Startup Sales Hiring PayPal 97

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2023

At SaaStr Europa, UiPath’s Dines shared five insights from growing a company from nothing, so other founders can learn what it takes to scale a SaaS startup to $1B+ ARR. Key Takeaways Scaling a SaaS startup to $1B+ is no easy feat. When you have the courage to be bold, people will take you seriously.”

Scale 188

Scale Artificial Intelligence Technical Review Software Review 188

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

In a special presentation, Secureframe COO Seema Kumar shares common leadership challenges in today’s modern workforce, best practices, and tips for talent retention. Startup Leadership Challenges. But the modern workplace presents a few key leadership challenges that must be overcome to boost employee retention.

Retention 130

Retention Leadership Compensation Communication 130

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

In startups, founders and teams often wear many hats — figuring out what to prioritize, developing and implementing all types of demand gen strategies, attending events and networking, and founder-led sales. Your Startup is in One of Four Stages As a startup, you fall into one of four stages. Through customer stories.

Enterprise 207

Enterprise B2B Scale SMB 207

SaaStr

AUGUST 4, 2021

A SaaS company undergoes four main milestones of growth throughout its journey: Startup Phase: This is when you have a breakthrough idea and you are focused solely on survival. Typically startups have a small team grinding out product improvements based on early customer feedback. Startup Phase: Survival. Growth Phase: Profit.

Innovation 235

Innovation Startup Leadership Investment 235

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2023

In any venture fund of a material size (even just $50m+), the vast majority of the fund is not used for initial checks into startups. Most of the fund is not used for initial checks into new investments! And Second, often $1-$2 is “reserved” for each $1 initially invested. Yes, that’s right. Fees are 2%-2.5%

Investment 203

Investment Startup Branding Leadership 203

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2022

All startups have issues and challenges, and all deals have some “hair” on them. While startups have ups and downs, if you tell the VCs you’re going to hit $250,000 in revenue this month … make 100 percent sure you hit that projection. And if they are seed investing in the round (surprisingly common) — disclose it!

Finance 264

Finance Technical Review CTO Hire New CTO 264

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2022

For whatever reason, the company is ready to exit startup status and prepare to scale-up. Dave Kellogg, Executive-In-Residence at Balderton Capital, breaks down the most common mistakes companies make when going from startup to scale-up. To get a startup off the ground, company operators thrive with those who can figure anything out.

Scale 178

Scale Technical Advisors Sales Hiring Technical Review 178

OpenView Labs

MARCH 9, 2020

What they often forget to think about is the critical component of building their company: their personal leadership. Self-leadership. Invest in self-awareness to build your foundation of leadership. Therefore they commit to studying leadership right alongside their focus on new product releases, sales and operations.

Leadership 52

Leadership Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Investment 52