SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Solving High Volume, Low Conversion at Lattice Dini Mehta joined Lattice at $3M in revenue when it had just 10 people in seat for Go-To-Market and 7 salespeople. As a startup, it’s tempting to try and do everything. Key Takeaways Creating Sales Acceleration at Lattice There are a few takeaways from Dini’s time at Lattice.

Scale 233

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 233

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

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. More salespeople do not equal more sales.

Sales Hiring 261

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 261

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. The toughest hire. Such a high failure rate.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

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. You don’t let reps go that fail in one sales cycle.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Branding 264

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 233

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 233

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. Redpoint SaaS Metrics Template.

Metrics 210

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup SaaS 210

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 205

Sales Recruiting Scale Generative AI AI 205

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 200

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital 200

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

Sandi Lin, CEO and Co-founder of Skilljar, and Kathy Lord, its CRO, know a thing or two about Chief Revenue Officers. You might never have considered a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) because it’s not been a common role until very recently, and because you might not have the kind of revenue that needs its own manager.

Sales Hiring 243

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 243

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. Done right, sales reps shouldn’t be that expensive in the early days. This sets an example for everyone.

Sales Recruiting 243

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Startup 243

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

A new revenue team. 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. Many first-time VPs just can’t recruit great managers under them. What changed?

Sales Recruiting 237

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Metrics 237

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 193

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AWS 193

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2022

So did startups. VCs funded startups in a day, with limited diligence, sometimes at 100x revenue for the hottest of deals. And startups … well, they moved pretty darn quickly too. But I saw most of the startups I work with cut corners in the Boom Times of 2020 and 2021 just to keep up with hiring. Find 3 good ones.

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 263

Sales Hacker

MARCH 17, 2021

While every entrepreneur dreams of scaling their startup into a multi-million dollar company, many do not understand all that goes into that dream. Getting past the first stage of revenue growth and building an initial customer base is the easy part, but what happens when you hit a revenue plateau and can’t seem to take that next step?

Scale 93

Scale Revenue Startup Sales Recruiting 93

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. Our Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by DemandBase , Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources.

Sales Hiring 103

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing SMB 103

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 153

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 153

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.

Sales Hiring 184

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 184

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2022

Investments I've made that didn't work out: – Momentum investment – CEO a bit of bulls**t artist – CEO good at sales but weak product team / CTO. Some sales-y, some very technical. CEO good at sales, but CTO not that great. — Jason 2022 SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 6, 2022.

Investment 271

Investment Sales Recruiting CTO Startup 271

Point Nine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

P9 Panel on Hiring Sales Leaders — Founders Summit 2023 “You are going to fire your first sales manager!” — A lesson too many founders learn the hard way. At Point Nine, we aspire to continuously share what we learn with our community and the extended startup ecosystem. If this doesn’t happen, the company is at risk.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2022

When you think of scaling up, many things may come to mind, like hiring, culture, marketing, and sales. Here are three things that helped 6sense reach this mark and beyond: Defining their revenue operating model by hiring for RevOps and not taking the common DevOps and SalesOps approach. The go-to-market playbook.

Scale 183

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 183

Mucker Capital

APRIL 2, 2024

In this Mucker Growth session, Mike Genstil with ValueCore delves into the concept of value selling and its application in enterprise sales. As a founder, ideally you want your sellers, marketers, and product leaders aligned in transforming product features into value-based messages to accelerate sales cycles and secure corporate deals.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Technical Review Enterprise Cybersecurity 52

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Q: What are the top 20 pieces of advice for building a successful SaaS startup? Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. Somehow, find enough cash to make it 24 months to first real revenue.

Sales Hiring 300

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 300

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2023

It’s the most common objection you’ll get in SaaS sales … Not Right Now. Every business is mostly running OK already with its tech stack, and it’s unlikely your little app, alone, is going to change the revenue/profits course of any customer. And when you hire a real, great VP of Sales. I Don’t Have Budget. Deliver it for her.

Sales Recruiting 261

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Technical Review Software Review 261

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Once a startup has found an initial product market fit, the business must evolve the way it models its growth. Before product market fit, a startup’s financial projections focus on costs. The company has no visibility into their revenue growth. As a startup hires more fundamental units, the costs increase linearly.

Sales Recruiting 111

Sales Recruiting Revenue Startup Sales Hiring 111

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

I asked this CRO how he’d handle the fact that 66% of their revenue came from indirect and channel. He completely misunderstood the value prop of the startup. It’s so, so easy to stand out in recruiting if you’ve actually done your homework. He said that was the first time he’d heard that. Now I see who they sell to!”

Interviewing 231

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Consulting 231

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 19, 2021

Sales recruiting is broken. The sad truth is that VP of Sales are turning over within 19 months —and that timeline is shrinking. . Not only that, the market has heated way back up and the VP of Sales is one of the most sought after roles. Image from First Round’s State of Startups Report. Therein lies the dilemma.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2021

It’s been a fun experience being on Quora for … a decade We’ve crossed 60,000,000 views of our answers there, so let’s take a look at the Top 50 most viewed SaaStr Answers on Quora in 2020: Why do many startup owners sell their firm and move on instead of planning on making it a big player like Google, Microsoft, etc.?

Software Review 281

Software Review CTO Coach Technical Review Sales Recruiting 281

Baremetrics

JUNE 30, 2021

You've got a brilliant SaaS startup idea. A startup financial model is the plan. In fact, we've already built the SaaS financial model you'll actually use — but let's take a look at why this is especially important for SaaS startups. 1 What Is a Startup Financial Model? What Is a Startup Financial Model?

Startup 98

Startup Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Deferred Revenue 98

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 16, 2020

Database startups, data movement startups, data quality startups, data lineage startups, machine learning startups will be the zeitgeist of the decade as they shape the next wave of massive innovation. 2020 could be the best yer ever for startups. M&As and IPOs continue at torrid rates.

Sales Recruiting 279

Sales Recruiting Blockchain Banking Machine Learning 279

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

Buffer Resources

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

I’ve never created LinkedIn content with the “goal” of lead generation or immediate-term sales. Another cool example I really like is Tito Bohrt — he stands out with the pseudo, “ Sales Mad Scientist ” — which demonstrates confidence and a unique identity online.

Sales Recruiting 127

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 127

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2022

It’s the never-ending stereotype –– marketing and sales are eternal “frenemies.” In this session, Tolithia Kornweibel, CRO at Gusto, shares advice on creating sustainable partnerships between marketing and sales. . Tip Three: Better Recruiting. Tip Six: Both CMO and CRO Should Drive Revenue and LTV.

Leadership 193

Leadership Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale 193

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2020

A few factors that contribute to high-performing sales teams: High quota attainment. The best startups invest in their sales teams and work hard so most of the reps hit and exceed quota. Turning over a sales team is very hard on the organization. A great VP of Sales is worth her weight in gold.

Sales Hiring 325

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Compensation 325

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

379: From how many reps to hire, to compensation models, here are the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales teams and how to avoid them. Announcer: In today’s SaaStr Insider, SaaStr CEO and founder, Jason Lemkin, shared the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales team.

Sales Hiring 180

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 180

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 9, 2013

One number investors use to benchmark SaaS startups across sectors and industries is sales efficiency. There are a handful of variants of this metric, sometimes called the magic number, but ultimately they all aim to provide some sense of the incremental revenue returned by sales and marketing investment.

Benchmarks 120

Benchmarks Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 120

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

As part of our last three annual finance and operating benchmarks surveys, we’ve asked nearly 2,000 startup founders and leaders of B2B SaaS businesses this simple question: “What’s keeping you up at night?”. It’s simply about which areas startup founders feel like they may be coming up short, not doing enough, or missing the mark.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82