Tom Tunguz

MAY 15, 2022

As the fiscal quarters of many startups draw to a close, board members and management teams are having one of four conversations: The World is Your Oyster, Time to Strategize, Chewing Gravel, or Go Big/Go Profitable. The x-axis is the Zero Cash Date: when the startup runs out of money. Markets reverse in a moment.

Startup 323

Startup Outsourced Development Scale Banking 323

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Can a startup without any prior experience raise money from venture capitalists (VCs)? They can probably raise pre-product. You need to prove product-market fit and strong growth, at least relatively speaking in the early days. Of course, but the answer is a bit more complicated than that.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Startup Product Marketing Marketing 204

Casey Accidental

APRIL 13, 2021

As a product leader with a background in growth, it’s surprising how much what I actually end up working on is product/market fit. Product people should only be focused on growth i.e. connecting people to the value of a product once they’ve confirmed the product is delivering value.

Product Marketing 145

Product Marketing Marketing Scale Retention 145

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Intro Many potentially great companies fail each year because, while they have an incredible product, they don’t figure out how to get it to market fast enough. Figuring out how to reach customers and break through to Product-Market-Fit remains one of the hardest parts of building a successful startup.

Product Marketing 263

Product Marketing Marketing Startup Sales 263

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2023

If a startup raised a top quartile Seed round, Series A, B, & C, they typically would have grown headcount by about 6% in the last twelve months. Startups with more business than they can handle should be scaling their teams to satisfy market demand. The headcount growth rate for all other companies? About double at 12%.

Headcount 201

Headcount Startup AI Scaling 201

Casey Accidental

OCTOBER 31, 2022

I have written a lot about product/market fit in the past. Whether you are a founder, product or growth leader, being able to recognize and measure product/market fit is a critical tool to make the best decisions on driving success of a company. Cross-Side Network Effects (Marketplaces and Platforms).

Product Marketing 131

Product Marketing Marketing Scale Software Review 131

OpenView Labs

JUNE 3, 2021

If you aren’t clear on what product marketing is, how it’s different from product management, and what the responsibilities of a product marketer are, you’re not alone. Specifically, I’m talking about product management and product marketing. Engineering manages IT.

Product Marketing 93

Product Marketing Sales Hiring Startup Scale 93

Tom Tunguz

JULY 25, 2020

Howeve you may count and divide marketing skills, marketing is the team with the broadest mandate of different techniques to master. To handle this complexity, some startups have split the role under two leaders: a head of product marketing and a head of demand generation. 464k results. This makes sense.

Sales Recruiting 198

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 198

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 16, 2023

One of the toughest challenges for founders — and especially technical founders who are used to focusing so much on product features over sales — is striking “product-market fit”. What does this mean for product design and product management? the night before it was to IPO).

Product Marketing 76

Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 76

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

That’s why some of Intercom’s first marketing hires were product marketers and why we’ve had a “seat at the table” from the early days of the company. . Product marketing looks different in every company, but one common trend is that many product marketing managers (PMMs) feel undervalued.

Product Marketing 138

Product Marketing Marketing Sales Hiring Scale 138

User Pilot

MARCH 9, 2023

Before you rush into creating a product thinking people will love it, it pays to perform a product-market fit analysis. You want to be sure there is a demand for your product, so you don’t have to suffer the embarrassment of a massive flop. What is product-market fit? What is a product-market fit?

Product Marketing 98

Product Marketing Marketing Management Social Media 98

SaaStr

AUGUST 27, 2021

Folks want to start startups because they have a chance to look like this: The true definition of a tech startup is probably one that if it truly achieves product-market fit, can scale almost infinitely. That’s the biggest difference between a small business and a classic tech startup. In 2014, it had 6 employees.

Startup 275

Startup Scaling Investment Product Marketing 275

The Angel VC

AUGUST 7, 2014

Product/market fit is a topic that I've touched on a few times on this blog. It's that extremely crucial but somewhat hard to define (and even harder to measure) step which every startup needs to cross as it goes from an idea to a product to a real, scalable business.

Product Marketing 133

Product Marketing Startup Marketing SaaS 133

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

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Lattice has launched four product suites in the last eight years, and the ideas that drove their growth apply to most companies today. This showcases a narrow segment of a niche market, and it’s missing a lot of startups. What Caused This Crowded Software Market? Startups are no longer fringe.

Scale 214

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 214

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

This is the theoretically ideal organizational chart of a startup. This is the org chart of the typical startup. As a startup evolves from product market fit to scaling, organizational design becomes an executive imperative. In the transition from product market fit to scaling, this is a key step.

Startup 257

Startup Scale Underperforming Technical Team Scaling 257

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 205

Scale Startup Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 205

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. This is the same advice they give YC companies to become much more successful at fundraising when they’re pre-product market fit. If this is week two of your startup, you probably don’t have any traction.

Payment Methods 205

Payment Methods Startup Payment Solutions Sales Hiring 205

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 3, 2020

Editor’s note: This article is part four of a four-part series that covers the most crucial product marketing activities for an early-stage startup. And all heads typically turn toward a marketing leader or marketing team. Play a stronger role in a few go-to-market (GTM) activities. Find the first part here.

Product Marketing 71

Product Marketing Startup Scale Marketing 71

Casey Accidental

JULY 12, 2021

When you actually launch new products to customers (which many teams don’t do), product managers and designers that have focused on scaling issues and optimization have to flex a new type of cross-functional muscle: how to work with product marketing. Product Positioning Is A Delicate Dance.

Product Marketing 120

Product Marketing Marketing Branding Scale 120

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2023

As a founder of two different compound startups, each valued at above a billion dollars, he’s probably the best person in the world to share this alternative perspective. Beyond these two issues, companies face the problem of figuring out how to get to product number two when your entire company is oriented around having just one product.

Startup 199

Startup Software Sales Hiring Pricing 199

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. During the Office Hours, we talked about startups repricing their equity with new 409a valuations. Startups must prepare for the inevitable economic rebound. Usage-Based Pricing.

Startup 147

Startup Outsourced Development Sales Hiring Compensation 147

Chaotic Flow

SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

Finding product-market fit is a central, early stage challenge of every startup. SaaS startups, however, have unique advantages. Unlike consumer Internet products, SaaS products are essential business tools. In other words, SaaS customers want product-market fit as much as the SaaS vendor.

Product Marketing 130

Product Marketing Marketing SaaS Software Development 130

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Does a Typical Day Look like for an Account Executive at a SaaS Startup With Under $1m ARR? Be an SDR, a demand generation person, a cold caller, a product marketer, an opener and a closer. This is a tough and very specific job. Most sales folks can’t do. Your boss may expect you to do it all. Everything.

Startup 204

Startup SaaS Sales Hiring Sales 204

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2022

The life of a startup is not a smooth ride. Migrating from the hyper-growth and chaos of the early days seeking product-market fit is critical to managing growth in customers, employees, products, and geographies. Process is a friend, not a foe, in order to scale. Start-ups can be chaotic places.

Startup 234

Startup Leadership Innovation Scaling 234

Kellblog

JULY 17, 2022

In general, I think branding is a potential marketing rathole for startups, particularly early-stage ones. Some startups put the cart in front of the horse. Create a product. Get product-market fit (PMF), i.e., determine some problem you solve for some person with some product. Go sell some software.

Branding 132

Branding Startup Software Sales Recruiting 132

Kellblog

JULY 24, 2021

I sometimes get asked about how to structure an enterprise software marketing organization and the relative roles of product marketing vs. competitive analysis. My first job in marketing, which served as my bridge from a technical to a sales-and-marketing career, was as a competitive analyst.

Product Marketing 137

Product Marketing Marketing Sales Hiring Payment Services 137

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 205

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 205

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel is featured in one of our most-watched SaaStr videos of all time — so we were delighted to have him back during our SaaStr at Home event to share the top 5 things that kill startups after their seed rounds, and how to avoid them. 1 Fake product-market fit. Lack of strong technical talent.

Underperforming Technical Team 167

Underperforming Technical Team Startup Engineering Retention 167

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 7, 2015

Fast evolving products with great customer support convey to users that the startup cares about delighting them. Do the salespeople in the company overpromise to attain quota, only for the product to disappoint later on? How satisfied are you with customer support and working with the company?

Product Marketing 114

Product Marketing Development Team Review Software Review Startup 114

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Product-market fit is “ the only thing that matters ” early on in the startup journey, wrote Marc Andreessen in June 2007. Conventionally, product-market fit comes down to early signals that the market has voted your product as the best …

Product Marketing 93

Product Marketing Marketing Startup Enterprise 93

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Over the last eight years as Y Combinator ’s Managing Director and Group Partner, I’ve advised thousands of startup founders on their businesses. You’ll learn ten times faster, iterate product ten times faster, solve your customers’ problems, and grow. . Filtering customers is the name of the game in early-stage startups. .

Startup 187

Startup Scaling Banking Product Marketing 187

OpenView Labs

APRIL 3, 2019

90% of startups fail, according to an in-depth analysis of 3,200 companies as part of the Startup Genome Report. It’s no wonder that the startup community obsesses over finding product-market fit. Product-market-price fit. more likely to say they botched their go-to-market strategy.

Product Marketing 63

Product Marketing Pricing Scale Marketing 63

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 18, 2022

Des shares insights from the full range of his career – the chat is packed full of anecdotes and lessons about the origins of Intercom, the most enduring startup myths, his approach to angel investing, the challenge of SaaS product marketing, and much more. ” The Makings of Great Product Marketing.

Enterprise 118

Enterprise Startup Strategy SaaS 118

Tom Tunguz

JULY 19, 2018

MMRs are minimum market requirements; basic features that every customer expects and demands. Differentiators are your startup’s competitive advantage. As a product manager, I’d never thought about this type of roadmap segmentation before. The startup must invest in that differentiation to sustain their market lead.

Investment 212

Investment Startup Churn Engineering 212