SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. A Rockstar engineer really is 10x better than the next tier. And yet … is it worth waiting 6-9 months to hire a VP that’s a true Rockstar, if you’ve struggled to make the hire? It’s true.

Sales Hiring 265

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 265

SaaStr

AUGUST 19, 2021

Q: When should a bootstrapped startup hire a (CFO, COO, CMO)? How can a CEO hire those C-level positions for the first time as a CEO and entrepreneur? Here are some rough rules: You want a VP of Everything (Sales, Marketing, Product, Eng) by about $1m-$2m ARR. You probably have to hire them one at a time, a bit slowly.

Sales Hiring 266

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Startup 266

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Dear SaaStr: When should a bootstrapped startup hire a (CFO, COO, CMO)? How can a CEO hire those C-level positions for the first time as a CEO and entrepreneur? Here are some rough rules: You want a VP of Everything (Sales, Marketing, Product, Eng) by about $5m ARR, and ideally, Sales and Marketing well before that.

Sales Hiring 188

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Startup 188

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2022

While there is no legal definition for CTO or bright line between CTO and VPE, I’d suggest a start-up CTO really only has to do a few things — which are very hard: Assemble a small team (3–9) of very good engineers. That often were never anticipated and aren’t part of the job spec. Dear SaaStr: What Makes a Bad CTO?

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Part-Time VPE Engineering 211

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

I thought it would be worth drilling down deeper into each of them, and sharing the learnings and mistakes: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. These are all full-time jobs by $1m ARR.

Part-Time VPE 245

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 245

TechEmpower SaaS

AUGUST 7, 2023

Should a startup CTO spend their time programming? Here’s a graphic from Socal CTO that illustrates the roles as they change over time: In its earliest days, a startup’s top need is often to produce a product. Hiring a hands-on lead developer might seem like the right move for an early stage startup. What does the role demand?

CTO Hire 390

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Fractional VPE 390

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2021

but you can’t afford to hire all the people you need to meet their needs. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the startup. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly. You have to hire so many functions in SaaS?—?VPS, VPS, VPM, VPP, VPCS, VPE, etc. You will have a Year From Hell here.

Part-Time VPE 276

Part-Time VPE VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) B2C SaaS 276

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Lately I’ve been working with 5+ SaaS companies all hiring their first VP of Product. That means often it’s not entirely clear who the first VP of Product should report to. A few general learnings: A VP of Product that Reports to CTO / Engineering Rarely Meets With That Many Customers.

Part-Time VPE 269

Part-Time VPE Outsourcing Services CTO Hire CTO 269

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2020

In SaaS, it is recruiting your VPs and management team : SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. You’ll need more than 5–6 core engineers to go big. Q: What’s the number one challenge for scale-up founders?

Part-Time VPE 224

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE Sales Recruiting 224

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

No one has time to have coffee with all of those folks. 2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.” You can’t always expect a great VP of Sales to double sales in 30-60-90 days. They know sales processes, objections, and timings, so they bring in a few deals in the pipe to close faster. Hiring someone too junior.

Part-Time VPE 167

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 167

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

And if your team knows how to spend it, correctly — find a way to get them the capital they need to grow even faster than plan. And importantly, you need to spend more time with your existing customers (vs. But even if you’ve hired the world’s best VP of Sales … you can’t opt out of sales entirely.

Part-Time VPE 268

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services 268

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 29, 2020

An organization that has come together voluntarily to take on a mission, at least in part. They’ll revolt when you make a senior or mid-level hire that as a group, they simply cannot suffer one day longer. The three times it happened to me: A very senior engineer that we just HAD to have. Something organic.

Part-Time VPE 269

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 269

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2019

We then had our own mini rocketship, hitting challenges and being acquired, and then being part of an IPO. But I got to part of the management team and make mistakes, and work cross-functionally with the other leaders and managers. But I started to learn what it took to recruit, inspire, and yes fail a team. I’m still learning.

Part-Time VPE 151

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 151

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

You know how everyone says you'll never look and wish you'd kept a bad VP as long as you did? That when you make a mis-hire, you'll always look back and say you should have made a change 3-4 month earlier? A lot of classic SaaStr advice has been how to spot the best potential VPs. When to hire them.

Sales Hiring 208

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Underperforming Technical Team 208

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2022

My general learnings: By 20-30 employees, you should have 1-2 good managers in place such that at least 50% of the company can run based only on weekly staff meetings, 1-on-1s, and “grab me when you need me-s” E.g., a great first VP of Sales that can just handle sales. You spend all your recruiting time just on VPs and above.

Part-Time VPE 176

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup 176

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Were Your Toughest Times Before Breaking Out? My toughest times: COO pulling out after signed term sheet — VCs then pulled term sheet. This of course was my fault — I hired the “wrong” COO. Not closing the epic VP of Engineering I really needed. I tried 5 times, maybe 10.

Part-Time VPE 217

Part-Time VPE Banking Customer Support Engineering 217

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Goodness this is one of the toughest parts of scaling. I remember Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, and I discussed this at one of the SaaStr Annuals, when he lost his VP of Engineering. All I can tell you is this: First, if you hire great VPs, it partially takes care of itself. We’ve all lived it. I still live it myself!

Part-Time VPE 168

Part-Time VPE Scaling Engineering Startup 168

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

But it turns out, the hardest part isn’t the Magic and the Impossible. The hardest part is this phase: the Possible, But Painful. If your VPE, or head of marketing, or someone key quits — you’re almost dead. But if you hire one VP after another, it will just take way too long. So first, buck up.

Scale 250

Scale Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scaling 250

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Internships have sparked millions of successful careers, and they can be a valuable talent pool from which companies can eventually hire full-time employees. Interns are a pipeline for full-time talent. Your company could be one of them by hiring ambitious interns. Recruitment Tips.

Part-Time VPE 146

Part-Time VPE Engineering Startup Business 146

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 24, 2013

He had hired a recruiter to help him grow his team. But at some point in time, most quickly growing startups will need help forming their teams. One of my partners, Tim Haley, was a top recruiter in the valley for many years and having his experience and expertise has been invaluable. How to Pick a Search Firm.

Part-Time VPE 100

Part-Time VPE Interviewing Startup Communication 100

The Angel VC

JANUARY 4, 2015

At the beginning of December we had the idea that it would be cool to put together a "recruiting advent calendar" with job openings from within the Point Nine Family. Contactually is on the hunt for a VP of Engineering Referral bonus: $1,000 to the referrer and $1,000 to a charity of his/her choosing Tweet it!

Sales Hiring 133

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Engineering 133

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Do My VP of Eng and My VP of Product Have to Be Technically Excellent? A Great VP of Engineering must either: Either have been a truly great IC engineer; and/or. A pretty good IC who still is a hacker and enjoys coding in their free time. This has been pretty much my experience.

Part-Time VPE 205

Part-Time VPE Engineering Management 205

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2024

Founder CEO Todd McKinnon was VP of Engineering at Salesforce and left to start Okta in the depths of the last downturn. Customer Count Up 8% Year-over-Year to 18,950 It’s hard to find net net customers after $1B ARR. You usually have to start here, but as time goes on, you need to bring in partners in most cases. #7.

Fractional VPE 197

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Scale SMB 197

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2021

As you try to hire up for your SaaS company, you’re going to be faced with a lot of choices and trade-offs. No hire is the perfect package. You can spend more time with prospects. Hire the smartest, bestest people you can. Do you take a risk on someone a little more junior than you’d like?

Fractional VPE 255

Fractional VPE Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Engineering 255

SaaStr

JULY 12, 2022

As part of that, we wanted to look back at some of our most iconic content and sessions. One of the first what How to Hire a Great VP of Sales at the New York Enterprise Tech Meet-Up (thank you to John Lehr and Work-Bench for setting this up). I’m doing this thing for the first time. SaaStr is Turning 10!

Sales Hiring 239

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VP of Engineering Sales Recruiting 239

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2021

You can catch up on YouTube on many of the top sessions here including : How to hire a Great VP of Engineering with Shopify’s VP of Engineering. How to scale a word-class sales team with Unity’s VP of Sales. How to build a Unicorn with Salesloft’s CEO Kyle Porter.

Part-Time VPE 146

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 146

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2019

Check out the line-up… “How to scale your engineering team” with Scality VP of Engineering Pierre Derome. How to give feedback to your teammates ” with Back Market Senior Engineering Manager Nicolas Tricot. How to set up a great hiring process” with Happn VP of Engineering Sebastien Preneta.

Part-Time VPE 149

Part-Time VPE Scale Engineering B2B 149

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Pricing is an incredibly important part of any SaaS product’s go-to-market strategy. At Hired, we started out with a transactional model that was—at the time—a super disruptive approach and one of our key differentiators. At Hired , we help top R&D, engineering, and tech talent find jobs they love.

Sales Hiring 40

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Technical Review 40

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 15, 2021

That was a shocker for me because I didn’t hear that language growing up and it wasn’t a part of my scope,” she says. As a leader, it’s critical that you make time to listen and learn from others.” Karen recounts an anecdote from when her children were younger and she was struggling to find that balance. “I

Part-Time VPE 209

Part-Time VPE Underperforming Technical Team Leadership Engineering 209

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 28, 2014

Tho two tables below tell the story for VPs of Engineering (VPE) and VPs of Product (VPP) across the US broadly and in the SF Bay Area. In the past 5 years, VPEs have benefitted from a 10 to 16% increase in their cash compensation, but have seen their equity grants fall by 17-19%. Cash +10% +16%. Equity -19% -17%.

Compensation 100

Compensation Part-Time VPE Trends Startup 100

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 5, 2022

Even when you reach the perfect team dynamic – a new hire or budget cut can easily throw things off balance. Over the years, she worked in jobs such as Engineering Director at Etsy and VP of Engineering at Kickstarter, growing emerging tech leaders, demystifying public speaking , and championing engineering management.

Leadership 118

Leadership Part-Time VPE Management Underperforming Technical Team 118

SaaStr

JULY 6, 2020

Just go find the VP you need. Go find the VP you really need. I got the VPs of Sales, Product and Marketing I needed. I got the VPs of Sales, Product and Marketing I needed. But I should have taken a pause and just found our true VP of Engineering. You can miss a quarter if need be.

Part-Time VPE 238

Part-Time VPE Scale Market Segmentation Finance 238

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 19, 2018

It means reducing choices amongst engineering teams and standardizing technology, so our team can spend as much time as possible delivering value to customers. Rich Archbold , Senior Director of Engineering, has been at the forefront of codifying and scaling this philosophy over the past few years.

Outsourcing Services 192

Outsourcing Services Part-Time VPE Software AWS 192

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2022

Anyone who says the developer market is not strong is behind the times. It might even be months later that a VP of Engineering or a CTO or CFO realizes that they’re built on a new platform. The opposite is also true if all those details are frustrating to deal with, like poor documentation or slow loading times.

Underperforming Technical Team 164

Underperforming Technical Team Outsourced Development Development Part-Time VPE 164

30 Day Leadership

MAY 10, 2022

4:33 - Surviving tough times - What were the circumstances that pulled Arash through growing pains? 23:06 - Identifying entrepreneurial mindset - How does Arash identify these traits during a hiring process? 4:33 - Surviving tough times - What were the circumstances that pulled Arash through growing pains?

Part-Time VPE 52

Part-Time VPE Entrepreneurship Leadership B2B 52

30 Day Leadership

MAY 10, 2022

Arash Tadayon, VP of Engineering at Trainual, and I had an interesting conversation about this topic in this week’s episode of the B2B Leadership Podcast…. Find out how Arash has used curiosity to fuel his entrepreneurial and leadership career. If you always ask a question, you will always get a response….

Part-Time VPE 52

Part-Time VPE Entrepreneurship Leadership B2B 52

OpenView Labs

JUNE 23, 2021

It’s a great time to be a founder. Let’s qualify that statement: It’s a great time to be a founder of a revenue-generating, venture-funded company. These are optimistic times. A founder, on the other hand, has deep institutional knowledge, and many times only they know what they know.

Part-Time VPE 71

Part-Time VPE Scale Underperforming Technical Team Outsourced Development 71