SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

So we’ve spent a ton of time over the years on SaaS talking about hiring a great VP of Sales. Not only because it really matters, but because hiring the wrong VP of Sales can set you back a year — or longer. So many VPs of Sales disagree with me here — at least at first when I make the point. Sales is hard.

Sales Hiring 220

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 220

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Brendon Cassidy, my VP of Sales wrote a version of this piece a while back. I though an updated version of this would be good for founders thinking about hiring a VP of Sales … VPs of Sales themselves … and VPs-to-be to read — Jason, ed. … 10 Rules to Being a VP of Sales in a Startup.

Sales Hiring 286

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 286

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

They dive into the nuances of topics like: Evolving dynamics of remote work The most effective marketing channels of 2024 Owned assets vs. “walled gardens” The practical realities vs. the hype around AI As everyone here at SaaStr knows, Jason sold his first company, Echosign, for $400M. As a manager, you have to do things differently.

Sales Recruiting 216

Sales Recruiting AI Search B2B Sales Hiring 216

OpenView Labs

APRIL 29, 2021

OpenView, Work-Bench , Primary Venture Partners , and Lerer Hippeau just hosted the fourth and final session of SaaS Growth Camp—a series for the firms’ portfolio companies tailored to the complex ideas behind SaaS growth and go-to-market strategies. Recruiting top talent is the common denominator across all scaling startups.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 81

SaaStr

JUNE 15, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Is a Big Market Really Better than a Niche Market? A big market is better than a small / niche market. Small markets are often, though not always, less crowded. If that’s the case, sometimes starting there and then expanding into a larger market segment can work out well. What Should I Expect?

Sales Recruiting 198

Sales Recruiting Marketing Sales Hiring Market Segmentation 198

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 148

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 148

Kellblog

MARCH 17, 2020

Rephrasing Lewis Carroll, “if you don’t know what you’re recruiting for, any candidate looks great.” ” I liken executive recruiters to Realtors. If you don’t give a Realtor specific guidance on what you want to see, they’ll show you whatever’s on the market. Nice to Have.

Sales Recruiting 76

Sales Recruiting Sales Enablement Startup Pricing 76

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

We’ve discussed most before individually, but let me throw ’em together: It may well take 24 months to get to true product-market fit and Initial Traction. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the startup. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly. If you budget any less, you probably will fail.

Part-Time VPE 210

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 210

SaaStr

AUGUST 14, 2020

A mistake many founders make is hiring a VP of Sales who has many strengths — but not at sales per se. A VP of Sales who is smart, polished, and worked at the right place, in a management-level position. That can talk about quota attainment and sales operations and scaling and number. you might ask.

Sales Recruiting 361

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 361

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

Recently, Redpoint Office Hours welcomed Allison Pickens to clarify the COO role and when startups should consider recruiting one. Whereas a decade ago, a board might have hired a professional CEO to scale the operations of a startup, today, more boards seek COOs. A few hypotheses underpin this trend. The Four COO Archetypes.

Sales Recruiting 192

Sales Recruiting Startup Scale Sales Hiring 192

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2021

Q: What are the top 3 biggest concerns in managing a first sales team? A few of the top ones: Recruiting. Top sales people want to work for a great VP of Sales. If you don’t have one, it’s very hard to attract top sales reps. Too many startups don’t train or onboard reps properly.

Sales Recruiting 245

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Onboarding 245

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2019

If you must choose a long term headquarters for your startup, call an executive recruiter who focuses in that city. VP Engineering, VP Product, VP Sales, VP Customer Success, VP Marketing, or VP Operations. After establishing product market fit, the startups grow their management team to scale.

Sales Recruiting 215

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 215

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2022

Dear SaaStr: When Should a CEO of a Startup Stop “Doing the Work” and Let Others Do the Work? So you don’t have to directly manage at least several of the key functional areas in the company at all. A great VP of Marketing that can just get you leads. management team by 50 employees or so.

Part-Time VPE 183

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup 183

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2022

Great product, driven team, good early product-market fit, great vision. But after that, it starts to break down when you have to recruit a true management team, and in many cases, additional capital. They’ll know … Who can best recruit a management team? Check, check, check and check. My learning?

Sales Recruiting 221

Sales Recruiting Technical Cofounder Scale Investment 221

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. We were coming off an environment where startup funding was as fruitful as ever. On the sales side, people hired way too much. On the sales side, people hired way too much.

Sales Hiring 244

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 244

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

Ah the VP of Sales. The first post is What a Great VP of Sales Actually Does. The second post is a script for you to use (and modify as you see fit) – 10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales Candidate. Just so you know, there are 48 Different Types of VP Sales. Corporate Marketing). The toughest hire.

Sales Hiring 362

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 362

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 18, 2018

Startups are business machines engineered to grow quickly. Every lead hired today, whether marketing , sales, engineering or product, will have a very different job nine months from now, much less two years from now. Imagine you work at a startup that is growing headcount 125% year over year. And ship code on time.

Sales Recruiting 269

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Headcount 269

SaaStr

JULY 12, 2021

Q: What are some common blind spots and mistakes startups make when hiring for and building out a sales team? Some of the top blind spots founders and even VPs of Sales make: #1. You hire a sales rep to sell before you can prove you can do it yourself. If you pay under-market, you get bottom of the barrel.

Sales Hiring 260

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Branding 260

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 22, 2015

On December 2, SaaS Office Hours at Redpoint will welcome Maia Josebachvilli , VP of Strategy and People at Greenhouse, a fast growing recruiting software company. Before Greenhouse, Maia founded Urban Escapes, a DC-based startup she sold to LivingSocial. She was also selected for Inc’s 30 under 30.

Sales Recruiting 100

Sales Recruiting Metrics SaaS Sales Funnel 100

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

The most frequent mishire in startups is the first head of marketing. Many different disciplines fall under marketing’s purview. The question facing founders recruiting marketers is: which is the most important to prioritize? Each of these kinds of marketers have critical skills for a startup.

Scale 214

Scale Startup Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 214

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? Many of the comments said it was more important a VP of Sales understand process and leadership more than the product itself. They often melt. I say, you just gotta know the product. Not just with buzzwords.

Scale 217

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 217

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

So if scaling your sales organization is a priority in 2020, here are the things you need to be aware of to make sure you do so successfully. Marketing and candidate experience will be table stakes. Hiring sales leaders will get harder. So giving them a reason to choose you will be essential next year.

Sales Recruiting 53

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Trends 53

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 18, 2019

The template is broken into six sections: People, Bookings & Revenue, Cash, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success. People is the first section because people are a startup’s most important element. This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics.

Metrics 209

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup SaaS 209

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 88

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 88

SaaStr

MAY 14, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: 15+ of The Top Sales & Marketing Mistakes SaaS Startups Make (Updated) Cloudflare: Our Top Reps Are Hitting 129% of Quota. 7 Things All Founders Should Know About Sales with Dave Kellogg: SaaStr Workshop Wednesday LIVE 2.

Sales Recruiting 189

Sales Recruiting Scale Generative AI AI 189

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

You see this time and time again in startups that are late to “top” their first set of VPs. For example, a great Stretch VP of Sales might get you to from $50k to $500k a month in new bookings. A sign of a marketer that may have reached their limits. What changed? A new revenue team. I see this again and again.

Sales Recruiting 226

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Metrics 226

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2023

So backstage at SaaStr Annual this year, and in a number of other conversations since, I’ve had a chance to get a few quiet moments with maybe two dozen top CROs and VPs of Sales. Yes, macro issues come up, and how they have to sell to more stakeholders now, and sales cycles are longer. But the best long ago adapted.

Sales Recruiting 209

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Onboarding Sales 209

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Chuck is the co-founder of Blueprint Expansion , a GTM roles recruiting firm that has helped over 50 VC-backed companies make amazing Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success hires. By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase.

Sales Hiring 104

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing SMB 104

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

SaaStr 630: Sales-led vs. Product-led? Today’s Startups Need Both with Jason Eubanks, CRO at Harness  2. SaaStr 629: CRO Confidential: Sales Recruitment in 2023 For Candidates and Hiring Managers With Flexport’s Ben Braverman   3. It Was 114x in 2021.

Sales Recruiting 183

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital 183

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

An oldie but a good on that here: Your #1 Sales Rep Should Be Driving an M8 Convertible By Month 12. It also means cutting lose folks who after a sales cycle or two will never hit quota. Sales is hard. Fourth, make the OTE (“On Target Earnings”) market correct. This sets an example for everyone.

Sales Recruiting 226

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Startup 226

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Mark Roberge, the Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot, has spent 20 years in startups. As he told me a few days ago, he has observed the lack of sales management and sales execution skills as one of the most consistent deficiencies limiting the potential of early stage SaaS companies. The first step is hiring a sales leader.

Sales Hiring 184

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 184

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2023

Why VCs Love Founders That Respond to Email Almost Instantly 90%-95% of Salespeople Won’t Make It At Your Startup. SaaStr 628: Revenue Alignment: How to Pull Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success Together with Divvy CRO Sterling Snow  2. A 6 Part Test to Help You Get It Right. Really, Really, Low.

Sales Recruiting 178

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AWS 178

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Your startup is just getting off the ground. You might have a few account executives and a sales leader in place; maybe some revenue and a handful of customers. The sales team costs real money, and the question before the company is: how do you know what quota plan to assign to the account executives?

Compensation 152

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 152

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development.

Sales Hiring 226

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 226

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2022

When You Fall Out of Product-Market Fit. The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin. Top Podcasts This Week: 1.

Sales Recruiting 213

Sales Recruiting AWS Compensation Enterprise 213

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

When a startup takes form, the first weeks and months and years are spent furiously. The startup raises capital. To recruit 100 people. To understand the competitive dynamics in the market. It’s the same with a startup. The team assembles itself. The lightbulb illuminates. To have built a brand.

Scale 228

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Startup 228

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2022

When you think of scaling up, many things may come to mind, like hiring, culture, marketing, and sales. The go-to-market playbook. The go-to-market segment worked together on key metrics across the revenue board. You need people with fresh thinking, especially sales athletes and leaders who know your market.

Scale 169

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 169