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From 0 to $10m ARR, At What Point Do We Start Hiring and Whom?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: From 0 to $10m ARR, At What Point Do We Start Hiring and Whom? From 0 t o $ 10M ARR, the hiring roadmap is critical because every hire has a disproportionate impact on your trajectory. Heres how Id break it down: 0 t o $ 1M ARR: Founder-Led Everything Sales : Founders should lead sales.

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What Order Should You Hire Your Management Team In?

SaaStr

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m ARR VPCS: $2m ARR VPP: $3m-$4m ARR VPE: $5m-$6m ARR CFO: $10m ARR COO: $20m ARR. He’d found several good First VP candidates, in particular, a strong first head of marketing and a strong first head of product. He asked which to hire first.

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VPs That Can’t Hire … They Aren’t Real VPs. At Least, Not Yet.

SaaStr

Perhaps the single most important thing you can ever do in SaaS, at least after $1m in ARR or so, is hire the best VPs you can. We’ve talked a lot over the years about how not to hire a wrong VP of Sales — 70%+ of the first VPs of Sales don’t make it even 10 months. Talk to them.

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Dear SaaStr: How Much Equity Do You Give to Employees at Different Stages of Growth?

SaaStr

Key hires like a VP of Engineering or VP of Product might get 1%-2% each. Senior engineers or designers might get 0.5%-1%. Another way to think of this stage; the first 10 or so should probably get at least twice the equity of others for joining early, if they are mission-critical hires. Executives : 0.3%-1%

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Dear SaaStr: What’s The Number One Challenge for Scale-Up Stage Founders?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: What’s The Number One Challenge for Scale-Up Stage Founders? In SaaS, once you have even a few million in ARR, the #1 challenge is recruiting top-tier VPs and building a truly top-tier management team: SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You will need a VP of Product to scale your roadmap.

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The Top 10 Worst Pieces of SaaS Advice

SaaStr

The advice and thinking that leads you to make important mistakes there really is no need to make: “Ask VCs for Advice When You Want Money, Money When You Want Advice” I don’t know who started this, but they must be smarter and more perceptive than me. Especially the money part. In one sales cycle, or less.

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10 Things That Would Have Helped Me Go From $1m to $10m Faster with Less Stress

SaaStr

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. Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself.