SaaStr

NOVEMBER 5, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Signs a StartUp Team is Going to Underperform or Overperform? Watch the body language, when everyone presents. The post Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Signs a StartUp Team is Going to Underperform or Overperform? Let me take a stab at signs a team will be underperforming. Lack of Interest in Learning.

Startup 357

Startup Scaling SaaS Marketing 357

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 26, 2020

I used to think of a startup as a series of funnels. Thinking through that presentation and reflecting on some recent conversations, I’ve changed my belief. Modern leaders in each of the critical functions of startup teams have been telling me this for a while, describing it in different forms. Funnels simplify metrics.

Startup 279

Startup Onboarding Metrics Enterprise 279

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2024

In a recent Workshop Wednesday, SaaStr Founder and CEO, Jason Lemkin sat down to discuss 9 signs a startup isn’t going to make it. So, let’s look at the nine signs a startup will likely not be a real success. Sign #2: You’re Too Slow to Hire VPs If you want to gauge momentum in a startup, see how quickly they hire VPs.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Startup Scale SMB 306

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2025

From Parabus to Ramp: The Power of Asymmetric Bets When Karim Atiyah, CTO and co-founder of Ramp, first arrived in the United States from Lebanon in 2007, he couldn’t have predicted he’d build not one but two successful startups in the fintech space. But this challenge also presents opportunity.

CTO Hire 216

CTO Hire CTO Coach Scale CTO 216

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

However, what many businesses may overlook is the startup segment. Often, startups are lumped in with small businesses, yet this approach fails to recognize what motivates and attracts these early-stage companies. Why Seek Out Startups? How is it that you want to sell to startups differently than the rest of your customer base?”

Startup 275

Startup Scale SMB Venture Capital 275

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2025

Pitch your startup at the Mayfield AI AI Demo Stage at SaaStr. You’ll meet up for your Braindate on-site at the Braindate Networking Lounge. LAST CHANCE: Apply for the Mayfield AI Demo Stage & Pitch Competition! Screenshot Building the next AI breakthrough in SaaS?

AI 217

AI Travel Consulting Startup 217

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

… 10 Rules to Being a VP of Sales in a Startup. It isn’t going to work in a startup. I went to a startup once where the prior VP of Sales had 13 opportunity stages with an average deal size of 6K. In a startup, million dollar deals are few and far between. Make your pitch/presentation/messaging simple.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 306

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2025

Beyond that here are clear red flags that an investor might not be serious about investing in your startup include: Overly Complex Terms : If the investor presents a term sheet thats unnecessarily complicated, with lots of clauses and conditions, its a bad sign.

Investment 179

Investment Startup Communication Engagement 179

SaaStr

JANUARY 17, 2023

What is the right Go-To-Market strategy for a startup getting out of the gate? What’s his response to startups figuring out which strategy to begin with, product-led or sales-led? “It Once they’ve found you in your community, from a website, or an analyst, you have to present the right kind of content that resonates with them. .

Startup 302

Startup Sales Sales Funnel Education 302

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

Last week’s post on The Most Frequent Mishire in Startups generated the most comments on a post this year. Though the startup may have achieved product market fit, the company may not understand the fit. Over time, the startup’s growth demands a more specialized role. In particular, it was this section. Why is this?

Product Marketing 267

Product Marketing Startup Marketing Interviewing 267

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

From startup to $500M CARR, Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze, shares how Braze scaled a growth and customer success team. As an early startup team, you’re doing every job under the sun. We get lazy writing job descriptions, and taking shortcuts is a luxury most startups don’t have. But that was it.

Scale 296

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 296

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 4, 2021

In preparing for a presentation at next week’s Saastr Build conference, I reviewed this S-1 analysis for DataDog that I had published a few years ago. A 20% delta in net dollar retention (NDR) may not seem like much, just a trifle, but make no mistake, it’s massive.

Startup 361

Startup Retention SaaS 361

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2025

Cross-Vertical Market Expansion Creates Unexpected Innovation Synergies While many startups laser-focus on dominating a single vertical, Sekar’s experience at both Meraki and Samsara showed that deliberate cross-vertical expansion creates powerful network effects of innovation.

Scale 263

Scale Transportation Scaling SMB 263

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 6, 2023

There are 4 questions a startup should ask themselves about building a startup that uses generative AI. I presented those questions & my views on their answers at Saastr’s Workshop Wednesday. The last slide contains the prompts for the images in the presentation. I had a blast putting this deck together.

Generative AI 229

Generative AI AI GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Startup 229

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2023

If you’re a seed-stage startup, Michael shares the best ways for you to present your company to startup investors. Not confirming that the investor understands Many founders screw up if they leave the first slide of the presentation and the investor doesn’t know what they do. Let’s go back to Airbnb. Don’t include it.

Payment Methods 278

Payment Methods Startup Payment Solutions Sales Hiring 278

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2023

At SaaStr Annual , IBM’s VP of Software and Technology Raj Datta and Director of Startups Kylie Rutherford shared how AI is changing the game for companies of all sizes. AI is a very competitive landscape, so startups have to ask themselves how they’re going to gain a competitive advantage with it.

AI 305

AI Technology Scale Startup 305

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

Over the weekend, there was quite a bit of press about the challenged state of startup IPOs this year. Another perspective would compare current stock prices to the IPO price, which presents a far more balanced case with about half of the names appreciating. As the sentiments in the markets shift, they will impact startup valuations.

Startup 229

Startup Marketing Pricing Trends 229

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2020

So, the company starts getting divided up into functional areas, or silos, product management, sales, customers support, marketing and so on, and this siloing of the org chart I think means that not everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and there’s a general feeling of disorganization or chaos in most startups.

Startup 299

Startup Software Review Scale Systems Review 299

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2025

The afternoon features presentations from the CEOs of Snowflake and Box, and IBM, culminating in the Mayfield and SaaStr AI Demo Pitch finale, Jason’s Closing AMA, and the Wrap Party. Signing up early for these sessions is recommended, as some presenters may reach out directly to arrange one-on-one meetings.

AI Search 179

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Transportation 179

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 28, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 299

Cloud AI Scale Scaling 299

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 2, 2021

Your default operating cadence should be to run – it’s important startups don’t compromise on speed. If you are a regular listener, you’ll know that we interview makers and doers from the worlds of product management, design, startups, and marketing. If you can do something this week instead of next quarter, jump on it.

Engineering 178

Engineering Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team Systems Review 178

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 21, 2022

In addition, Lee shared his view on usage-based pricing and defending a startup’s great asset, talent, from poaching during the next recovery. UBP presented an opportunity to reinvent the account executive (AE) compensation model. During the Office Hours, we talked about startups repricing their equity with new 409a valuations.

Startup 204

Startup Sales Hiring Outsourced Development Compensation 204

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2025

The company realizes that the startup space is highly competitive in terms of speed, and therefore, they need to execute extremely fast. The most successful startups are those that resonate with customers and succeed in taking budget from existing solutions without being compared to them, as they offer something new and better.

AI Search 244

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Technical Review 244

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2025

With 10+ years as a CMO at companies ranging from $1M to $1B in revenue, another 10+ years as CEO of companies in the $0-$100M range, and extensive experience as an independent director on startup boards, Dave offers a 360-degree perspective on marketing’s role in SaaS success. This isn’t a generic Marketing 101 course.

Sales Hiring 207

Sales Hiring Marketing Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team 207

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

In this edition of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond (former CRO at Brex and current Partner at Founders Fund) hosts his former colleague Lucas Fox (GM of Brex for Startups). Churn vs. Expansion: Where to Start As many startup founders know, in the beginning, acquiring customers is key to getting off the ground.

Retention 246

Retention Startup Revenue Sales Hiring 246

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

After “Founder Confidential” ends, emerging SaaS startups network in person with leading VCs in our CoWorking area as part of our “ Meet A VC ” program. . Casey Renner, Partner – OpenView – presenting “How to Build an Effective Community Program” . Startup Advice”. No VCs are invited.

Scale 311

Scale Venture Capital Innovation Banking 311

SaaStr

JULY 3, 2020

349: Startups can get messy. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin. And, wouldn’t it be nice if somehow we could turn this s**t show into an army where instead of having this startup chaos, we could get the team working in lock step.

Software Review 269

Software Review Scale Systems Review Startup 269

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

One metric stood out to me I hadn’t seen presented before: just how many private SaaS companies (i.e., startups) have crossed $100,000,000. But it’s a reminder if you want to Go Big in SaaS, your job is to be in The Top 150 of All SaaS Startups. The full session is below and it’s a great watch.

SaaS 340

SaaS Startup Metrics Investment 340

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

If you’re looking for a primer on many of the responsibilities of being a startup CEO, read The Great CEO Within. He founded a company which he sold to MCI and now coaches startup CEOs, amongst other philanthropic efforts. Move away from presentations to written briefs that attendees read at the beginning of a meeting.

Leadership 345

Leadership Startup Management 345

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2025

Again, it’s usually a bit binary for startups. Actionable Insight : Present a clear strategy to your board that includes: A plan to optimize sales and marketing spend (e.g., Instead, reallocate budget strategically: Cut the fat, not the muscle : Identify the least effective sales and marketing initiatives and cut those first.

Marketing 165

Marketing Scale Churn Content Marketing 165

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 21, 2025

OR - if earlier stage companies (not startups, but companies in the $5-$20b valuation range) look to inorganic expansion earlier than they would have otherwise in a more M&A friendly environment. This post and the information presented are intended for informational purposes only. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cloud 188

Cloud Pricing Subscription Payment Features 188

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2021

The best startup pitch decks almost all have great competition slides. They not only explain all the key competition, but optimistically but honestly present the whitespace where the startup can and is still winning. And the best CEOs are really good at explaining not just the present, but also the future.

Startup 290

Startup Marketing 290

Chart Mogul

JANUARY 9, 2025

Here you present how their approach to work might change by implementing your solution. Keep in mind: a sales demo is more than just a sales presentation; its also another step in the ongoing qualification process. The majority of SaaS startups grow from $1M to $10M ARR by growing their subscriber base.

Scale 52

Scale Sales Hiring Startup Sales Recruiting 52

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2023

At SaaStr Europa, UiPath’s Dines shared five insights from growing a company from nothing, so other founders can learn what it takes to scale a SaaS startup to $1B+ ARR. Key Takeaways Scaling a SaaS startup to $1B+ is no easy feat. When you have the courage to be bold, people will take you seriously.”

Scale 246

Scale Artificial Intelligence Technical Review Software Review 246

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

By forcing each functional head to present vs goals at each investor meeting … they’ll sweat it. VPs Should All Present at Your Board / Investor Meetings. To make investor or board meetings help you as CEO, each VP needs to present for at least 15 minutes. It works. #2. Related to the prior two points.

Engineering 357

Engineering Startup SaaS Sales 357

SaaStr

OCTOBER 14, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: How Do VCs Verify a Startup’s Revenue? There definitely is risk here, that what’s presented isn’t quite accurate. The post Dear SaaStr: How Do VCs Verify a Startup’s Revenue? At SaaStr Fund, we also generally do a bank account cash flow test. What can you do, after all? (Is

Revenue 314

Revenue Banking Startup 314

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

A startup doing $300k in ARR is rarely valued at $1.8m And also by the fact they are really a bet on the future, and not the present. A combination of the fact that so much seed capital in the market is keeping multiples close to all-time highs there — at least for the hottest seed and pre-seed startup. post-money these days.

Revenue 326

Revenue AI Startup Investment 326