Navint

DECEMBER 2, 2020

In this insightful webinar, we partner with Salesforce to discuss how businesses can leverage Salesforce Revenue Cloud to create a scalable quote-to-cash process, drive valuable customer insights and improve cashflow. We also share a demo of.

Cloud 52

Cloud Engagement Development Revenue 52

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

You will need a VP of Product to scale your roadmap. You can smother customers with love alone in the early days, but as you scale, you need a seasoned customer success team and VP that has done this before. 95% of the time, your super-smart hacker co-founder is not that person. She can be your CTO forever.

Scale 262

Scale Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE 262

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2024

A VP of Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, Customer Success. But if you hire one truly great one, they will take some of the load off your shoulders. But drop one thing that you know matters — but that won’t move the needle. This always makes everyone feel better. This may not immediately make you feel better.

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Engineering Customer Success Sales 255

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2023

We’ve all gotten worse at getting back to prospects and customers — fast. As a sales exec, you may not know actually the product well. You may not know how to create urgency. You may not know the competitors perfectly. But one thing is in your control today — you can be more responsive.

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Sales Customer Support Startup 267

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

That won’t know the business, the customers, the codebase, etc. And everyone knows startups are tough, and have ups-and-down. Share your “Zero Cash Date” every month. Even if that’s a bad choice — there’s no better choice. As a founder, you know. You know when you’re over your skis.

Sales Hiring 239

Sales Hiring Startup Sales Business 239

SaaStr

APRIL 5, 2024

How to Differentiate from the Competition in a Crowded Space When you think of companies like Hubspot and what they did with inbound marketing in a crowded space, they offered a better in-house solution that wasn’t cobbled together. When you know the value you have to offer, that’s how you win. That depends on how you do it.

Scale 207

Scale Sales Hiring Pricing SMB 207

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

12,000 customers, very high net review retention (NRR) even with SMB customers. What does Jason Know Now That He Wishes He Had Known Earlier in Investing: If you don’t know in 20 minutes that this is one of the best founders you’ve met. If you do not know what to do, just invest more in your best.

SMB 315

SMB SaaS AI Software Review 315

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

I went to my ex-boss and mentor and asked him how I’d know if he was interested. “Oh you’ll know. Because they’ll be just as slow with your prospects and customers. To make it even tougher, I’d never hired anyone for this role at all (a VP of Ops). He’ll respond ASAP.”

Sales Recruiting 223

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales 223

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

It has become much cheaper to build software — You can build high-quality products cheaply in your dorm room with a laptop. We have better tooling and systems — The shoulders we’re all standing on compared to the past are incredible. Libraries and great integrations out of the box mean better products, cheaper and faster.

Scale 251

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 251

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Does A Salesperson Need To Do To “Earn Your Business”? You can’t just go down the street, or to another website, to get a better deal on the Ford F-150. Every vendor usually is better than another in some way at least. This is why the best sales execs have real relationships with their customers.

Business 283

Business Pricing SaaS Sales 283

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

I didn’t really know why until I dug in with Harry: If VC’s were willing to hand a founder $100m to buy some of their shares, what’s wrong with that? Second came the customers. In fact, when we sold EchoSign to Adobe, we had a second offer than was worse for the founders, but better for the investors.

Startup 250

Startup Venture Capital Investment Scaling 250

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2023

I know I have weaknesses, I know I get tired. I know I get behind on recruiting. But I also know I can go the distance. You just get to be sure an expert in your subject, your customers, and your product. 9 times out of 10, you can do it better than someone else. Go fix that first.

Technical Review 265

Technical Review CTO SaaS Scaling 265

SaaStr

MAY 7, 2024

At SaaStr AI Day, Siqi Chen, founder, and CEO of Runway , discussed his belief of why every role will become a prompt engineering role, along with some no-code AI tips showing how to build products without knowing how to code. Then, they draft a customized email for that person and put the draft inside the draft folder of a sales rep.

AI 181

AI Engineering Sales Hiring ChatGPT 181

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2023

So one recent survey we did really brought out a healthy debate: does your VP of Sales really need to be a product expert? Here is what I do know: at least for any startup under $20m-$30m ARR, and probably under $50m ARR, I see VP of Sales fail when they don’t understand the product. I say, you just gotta know the product.

Scale 248

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 248

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2024

A customer success team that can’t drive down churn and drive up NPS = cash drain. And so that’s a great use of your precious, expensive, equity capital. You always know for the first 5, 10, 15, 20. But as you scale, after 40 or 50, sometimes you don’t know. You gotta move on. They have to tilt the curve on retention.

Sales Hiring 212

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Venture Capital 212

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

In Part 2 of Ask Me Anything, Lemkin will answer these questions: How do you balance being authentic as a new startup and getting customers to buy into your vision vs. appearing well put together with everything going on? They’ll know the risks they’re taking. It’s just getting better. How do you fix GTM?

Sales Hiring 252

Sales Hiring SaaS Banking AI 252

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2023

Identify and Use Your Cheat Codes What are cheat codes? They could be your personal network, experience in a specific industry, talent with a certain social media platform, or a strategy you’re particularly skilled at. As a founder, always lean into your strengths. Instead, leverage your network. People you don’t know.

Sales Recruiting 234

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Social Media Sales 234

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2024

Hire your first salesperson when you have closed the first 10 customers and are spending more than 20% of your time on sales. Don’t be swayed solely by impressive resumes or acronyms; instead, seek out those individuals who you would personally buy your product from. Add more structure here, and everything gets better. #6.

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 267

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

In today’s world, there’s a clear shift in what founders, boards, and investors are all after — scalable, low-CAC (customer-acquisition cost) growth strategies. The data above shows it’s a customer acquisition cost on average of $1.05 How to use community as a driver of product-led growth. vs. $1.80, which is a big difference.

Scale 244

Scale Sales Hiring Strategy Marketing 244

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2021

Both have happy, enthusiastic customers. But even though both are now at $1m ARR … one is just so much better positioned than the other for success getting to $5m and $10m in ARR quickly. I know everything can’t go according to plan in any start-up. Not your friends. Not people you know.

Interviewing 355

Interviewing Startup SaaS Enterprise 355

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2024

Never Have a Tough Conversation Over Email Yes, you probably know this. If you have to fire someone for clear issues, email is probably a better way to do it. It makes sure the problematic employee knows for sure the relationship is over. Take your time. Should we raise prices on all our existing customers?

Management 275

Management Sales Hiring Pricing Communication 275

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2023

In part two we head into IPO waters, how to incorporate AI into your products, the best way to drive employee performance, pricing models, and much more. Q: How do you stand out in terms of customer acquisition against large competitors who aren’t incorporating AI? Before, humans graded the outcome of customer support.

Scale 251

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success AI 251

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Customer Success has gotten worse over the past few years. The best Customer Success teams are still amazing. They truly solve your problem. A Huge Vendor Asked Us If We Were Even a Customer. This week we had a minor issue with an app, and the very senior success leader asked me, “Are you even a customer?”

Customer Success 264

Customer Success Systems Review AWS Software Review 264

SaaStr

JULY 21, 2022

Dear SaaStr: A Big Potential Customer Just Asked for Our Financials. And you’re asked for your financials. In the end, what do you do if your balance sheet — is modest? They’ll push for your financials, and cash balance. It just puts you in a different risk category for enterprise customers.

Enterprise 296

Enterprise Sales 296

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top Things to Know Before Starting a SaaS Startup? You have to find someone at least as good as you, ideally better. A mediocre “business guy” that can’t really marketing and sales won’t really get you those key early customers. It’s always better to wait and a great co-founder than settle.

Venture Capital 284

Venture Capital Startup CTO SaaS 284

SaaStr

APRIL 9, 2024

Population growth Productivity growth Debt growth We know that we won’t see population growth until the medium-to-long term. A lot of folks are skeptical about AI and what it’ll do as far as displacing workers, how decisions that are AI-driven will be made, and how we know the data underlying those decisions.

AI 243

AI Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Government 243

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

There’s never been a better time to build a company. With a platform shift with AI and a lot of capital and innovation in the market, who knows what’s to come? That info could be: high volumes of text like blogs contracts how to respond to a customer images video We’re in the early innings of what it means to generate or have GenAI.

AI 276

AI Generative AI Venture Capital SaaS 276

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2024

There is a whole generation of kids out of school and senior folks who were promoted who don’t know what it was like before the easier times. Some people are unwilling to work in the current environment and blame it on customers and the macro. If you compare your company to two years ago, you have to be twice as efficient.

Metrics 228

Metrics Scale Sales Hiring SaaS 228

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2023

They are great at explaining not just what the product does, but what it can do to solve your problems. No one is better than a founder at this. The prior point If you have helped your prospect plan, upgrade and even pilot an important and valuable change to their business process, they you have added value. This is an art.

Sales Hiring 257

Sales Hiring Sales Revenue SaaS 257

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2023

What are 5+ changes you can make today , or at least this week, to do better? Visit all prospects and customers in person that have an ACV of >= $50k. The more of your prospects you visit in person, the more that will close. And the more existing customers you visit in person, the better the upsell and revenue retention.

Scale 275

Scale Retention Scaling Revenue 275

SaaStr

AUGUST 24, 2021

If your price point is very low, this sometimes doesn’t work. You’ll get better at it. Do more for, and with, your existing customers. Do customer dinnners. Do weekly webinars where you highlight The Customer of The Month. Do weekly webinars where you highlight The Customer of The Month.

Scale 341

Scale Startup Marketing SaaS 341

SaaStr

APRIL 22, 2021

Gorgias recently did a very interesting deep dive on its 6,000+ customers for its help desk and contact center solution. While 44% of the 5,000 respondents thought they provided excellent customer support — only 1.3% The more CS agents you have, on average, the better the level of support. Do you know?

Customer Support 313

Customer Support Data SaaS Customer Success 313

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2022

Instead, it sort of makes you think about taking the First Good Offer for your startup. If you can get to $10m in ARR, growing 80-100% or more Year-over-Year, and have happy customers AND a good team … if … then you can’t be stopped. Go Long — if you get to Initial Scale with happy customers and good growth.

Scale 362

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital Startup 362

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top 10 Things to Know Before Starting a SaaS Company? Finally you have great customers and traction — but you can’t afford to hire all the people you need to meet their needs. And it may burn up half your cash and a year of time. Your initial TAM probably is too small. You do get better.

Part-Time VPE 239

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 239

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2022

And most segment it across customer size or other segments. It doesn’t tell you much about your prospects, the future, or your most recent customers. It doesn’t tell you much about your prospects, the future, or your most recent customers. Customer Summit, High NPS Moment.

Metrics 286

Metrics Churn Engineering Innovation 286