SaaStr

JUNE 13, 2025

” I saw a term sheet the other day where a leading VC firm reserved $1m of the round … for hiring a “VP of AI” Leadership teams scrambling to post job descriptions for “Head of Artificial Intelligence.” Include AI experimentation in performance reviews. Think about it. The same applies to AI today.

Sales Hiring 242

Sales Hiring Artificial Intelligence AI Sales Recruiting 242

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2024

How can you bridge the gap between sales and tech to drive customer success? Sarah Polan, EMEA Field CTO at HashiCorp, and Louise Fellows, VP NEMEA at HashiCorp, explore the relationship between Field CTO and sales to help you understand why it exists and how you can leverage this relationship when you have a highly technical product.

CTO Coach 300

CTO Coach CTO Technical Review Customer Success 300

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2025

If your engineering team, your product team, or your leadership team hasn’t shipped meaningful AI capabilities into production by now, that have led to a material increase in revenue — you don’t have a strategy problem. This requires product leaders who viscerally understand the technology, not just the market opportunity.

AI Search 169

AI Search AI Technical Review CTO Hire 169

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

In reality, boards and executives are often reluctant to let go of leadership, recognizing the disruption and challenges that come with replacing key roles. But Jason reveals that these conversations often centre around confidence in your leadership rather than looking for reasons to replace you.

Technical Review 298

Technical Review Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Revenue 298

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

Technical customers report that tasks that previously took weeks are now completed in hours. Beyond their code assistant, they’ve developed Windsurf AI, an agentic IDE allowing non-technical users to build applications – accelerating productivity even further. We should have doubled down on this approach from day one.”

Sales Recruiting 230

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 230

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2025

About Dave Kellogg Dave Kellogg brings a rare combination of marketing and executive leadership experience to his analysis of SaaS businesses. Then one day, while reviewing your P&L, you had a moment of clarity (or perhaps shock): you’re spending twice as much on sales and marketing as you are on R&D.

Sales Hiring 195

Sales Hiring Marketing Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team 195

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2024

Coming from a more technical background, I do like technology driven service businesses and technical infrastructure, and have a keen eye on fintech/crypto, as well as AI driven SaaS platforms and productivity tools.

Technical Review 293

Technical Review Management Investment AI 293

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 6, 2025

” Very often, when I’m doing diligence on a product and ask customers why they went with a specific vendor, the answer I get is, “My boss told me I needed to ship this product yesterday, so I grabbed the first thing I could to ship it as fast as I could.” “I needed this functionality yesterday.”

Cloud 144

Cloud Technical Review Software Review Technical Advisors 144

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. Treading Water - the team sustains a good pace, but can’t embark on new projects or reduce technical debt. Morale is low.

Engineering 363

Engineering Software Review Systems Review Technical Review 363

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2022

During your first or next round of financing, or during any type of financial decision involving a third party, some type of due diligence will be performed by accountants that will define revenue per Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). If they get too technical, ask them to explain it again in non-accountant speak.

Finance 332

Finance Outsourcing Services Systems Review Technical Review 332

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2025

Different buyers value different aspects of your business – some want your technology, others your team or customer base. Pay attention to who they bring to early meetings – tech leaders versus sales leaders tells you everything about their intentions. Leadership changes can kill deals instantly.

Technical Review 198

Technical Review Software Review Development Team Review Sales Hiring 198

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 25, 2022

New research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services reveals that businesses of all sizes – from small businesses to enterprises – are realizing the business value of personal, efficient customer engagement. Creating quality customer experiences has always been important for retaining customers. But they’re facing big barriers.

Technical Review 209

Technical Review Engagement Artificial Intelligence Systems Review 209

FastSpring

MARCH 8, 2021

Tell me you’re a woman working in tech, without telling me you’re a woman working in tech. We’ll go first––only 5% of leadership roles within the tech industry are women. Historically the tech industry has struggled with gender diversity in the workplace. – Sarah McCarty, Senior Customer Success Manager.

Technical Review 148

Technical Review Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Leadership 148

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2025

The Top 10 Product Leadership Lessons from Plaid’s and Brex’s Presidents Product leaders often ask me what it takes to build successful products in the age of AI, especially in fintech where the stakes are incredibly high. “The job of product leaders is to bring the perspective of the outside in,” explains Taylor.

AI 207

AI Scale Sales Hiring Technical Review 207

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 29, 2024

HG Insights has been writing market reports for years as the pioneer of tech adoption and market insights and is trusted by GTM leaders at the likes of Snowflake Five9 and Google Cloud to improve GTM efficiency. Constantly leveraging our GTM LP community network to diligence new businesses and verticals better.

Investment 110

Investment Technical Review Development Team Review Scale 110

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2022

Really do extra due diligence on anyone with a perfect resume at too many hot startups that didn’t stay that long, or were only there in the “lucky” years. Persona #3: The VP That Only Worked in a Small Division of a Big Tech Company. Generally, VCs that don’t know sales (or marketing) love them.

Sales Recruiting 300

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Technical Review Scale 300

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2023

In our early days, we were like elves in Santa’s tech workshop. Let’s talk about implementation and past challenges when deploying technology. That’s when you’ve got to take the diligence to the next level. Be diligent about learning and improving. Mistake #1: Putting too much stock in customer excitement. We’d build.

Technical Review 242

Technical Review Leadership Company Culture Startup 242

SaaStr

JULY 6, 2023

Cognitive Biases Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking and decision-making due to mental shortcuts. This is due to a lack of accountability for individuals in a large group. The Fix: Active Leadership: Take a hands-on, visible approach in guiding board meetings. SaaStr Workshop Wednesdays are LIVE every Wednesday.

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Leadership Consulting Pricing 260

Neil Patel

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

No matter how great the content on your website is, your hard work could amount to nothing without proper technical SEO. Technical SEO gives your site structure, makes it super easy for search engine bots to crawl and index, and helps Google understand what each page is about. Webris – Best for Technical SEO Audits.

Technical Advisors 145

Technical Advisors Technical Review Software Review Engineering 145

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Early customers are often innovators and tech enthusiasts willing to try new solutions, even if the product is incomplete or buggy. It specializes in creating personalized shopping experiences for customers by leveraging machine learning and AI technologies. At this stage, startups face significant uncertainty.

Pricing 108

Pricing Scale SaaS Technical Review 108

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2022

Organize AMA sessions with the leadership. It’s the people working together who make a company, not just the leadership.”. As a small company, you can not compete with tech giants in terms of compensation alone. This includes both the leadership and those in lower- to mid-levels of the company. Look after your people .

Development Team Review 292

Development Team Review B2C Compensation Technical Review 292

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2024

Lemkin emphasizes the need to hire “Pirates and Romantics,” passionate and quirky individuals who are dedicated to the company’s mission, in contrast to the majority of job workers in the tech industry. It’s important to take a vacation and try to find joy in one’s job before moving on.

Sales Hiring 293

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Technical Review Scale 293

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 8, 2021

According to one Microsoft Global State of Customer Service report , 90% of consumers surveyed said that customer service is an important factor in their choice of, and loyalty to, a brand, while nearly two-thirds (58%) would sever their relationship with a business due to poor customer service. Enhanced customer satisfaction (58%).

Technical Review 222

Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team Customer Support Marketplace as a Service 222

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2023

Join us as we uncover lessons from UiPath’s success in creating a new category within RPA Enterprise Automation – Robotic Process Automation – while navigating the challenges inherent in digital transformation powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.

Scale 246

Scale Artificial Intelligence Technical Review Software Review 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Having a predictable pipeline enables more effective decision-making, from headcount planning to strategic investments in technology and beyond. While Customer Success supports the post-sales handoff to ensure smooth implementation and ongoing adoption of the tech they’ve purchased. This team has to follow the golden rule.

Forecasting 284

Forecasting SMB Sales Technical Review 284

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2020

We hypothesize that because buyers have more power than ever with search engines, review sites, influencers, and video content ?they In case you were curious, here are the teams most involved when making a purchase decision for technology or software: Technical Specialists – 47%. Executive Leadership – 43%.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Marketplace as a Service Construction Software Review 315

SaaStr

APRIL 11, 2025

Leverage Technology and Data : Use AI not to do all your work, but to 100% make sure you sound — and are — smart. Learn from Feedback : Review your calls and emails regularly. If you excel here, youll open doors to bigger opportunities, whether thats moving into an AE role, leadership, or another path entirely.

Scale 214

Scale Technical Review Leadership AI 214

Totango

MARCH 1, 2022

workforce, less than one in five employees in the tech industry are women? Like in most male-dominated industries, there are many reasons for the lack of women in tech, including work culture and gender discrimination issues, a significant gender pay gap, and a lack of female representation in the workplace.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Leadership Technology Education 108

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

So you need context from leadership to what you ultimately need to deliver on in your function to be successful. When you get everyone on the leadership team in a room to come up with the best ideas, those people take ownership of the ideas. Build the right leadership team based on your company’s core values and hiring principles.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 306

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2022

When asked about the current market pulse, Franklin said that customers have been exhibiting higher signs of anxiety due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages. Decision-makers are looking to technology to help curb any future headwinds by automating more processes, driving growth, and boosting overall efficiency. .

B2C 283

B2C Scale Marketing Sales Hiring 283

SaaStr

JANUARY 6, 2021

Airtable is a low code, bottoms-up business which means that its users don’t have to be in IT or have a technical background in order to build useful internal databases within Airtable. The bottoms-up philosophy is highly efficient because the unit economics are going to look awesome due to thousands of organic sign-ups every day.

Scale 276

Scale Software Review Scaling Sales Hiring 276

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

HG Insights has been writing market reports for years as the pioneer of tech adoption and market insights and is trusted by GTM leaders at the likes of Snowflake Five9 and Google Cloud to improve GTM efficiency. Deep listening and synthesis: Writing follow-ups manually or reviewing call recordings. Let’s get into it.

Scale 111

Scale Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting Technical Review 111

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2022

First is simply delaying expansion due to the anxiety of crossing a new threshold. Mistake #5: Accumulating debilitating technical debt. Over a decade is a long time for technical debt to accrue while focusing on scale. Ignore technical debt at your own peril.”. Key Takeaways. Stay focused on what you are the best at.

Scale 258

Scale Technical Advisors Sales Hiring Technical Review 258

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 16, 2019

For example, a relatively common type of incident might be a brief outage of Intercom due to a database failover. Communication : When needed, communication with customers, support, sales and leadership can occur. Resolution : The incident is resolved, and follow-up actions like an incident review occur. Defining principles.

Scale 215

Scale Technical Review Management Software Review 215

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

But as you go down the path, look at your CRM, perform win and loss reviews, and understand the personas and actual titles that stick. ” A vital step in prioritizing your TAM is implementing lead-to-account matching technology. Sales engagement tech is a must-have . It deserves respect and frontline leadership.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Development Technical Review Management 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

As Gleklen says, “We actually see this monolith falling apart, and it’s falling apart primarily due to what we view as two of the biggest drivers for value creation today: Machine learning and product-led growth.”. These two drivers influence varying metrics in different ways that don’t necessarily negatively impact cloud business outcomes.

Metrics 272

Metrics Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Technical Review 272

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 1, 2021

And although 69% of respondents say that personalized support experiences are the key to building strong customer relationships, less than half believe that they can deliver those personalized support experiences at scale with their current tech stack. Download your copy of the thought leadership paper now. Sound familiar?

Underperforming Technical Team 232

Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Scale Headcount 232