Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 23, 2023

I’m watching public company earnings to identify early weaknesses in the software market. Azure ML revenue alone has increased more than 100 percent for five quarters in a row 4. Microsoft’s Ability to Cross-Sell its Suite is Driving Dominance in Many Categories GitHub is now home to 100 million developers.

Azure 246

Azure Underperforming Technical Team Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 246

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2023

Sometimes it’s VP Sales (OK, often, this is the most common mishire — another post here on what a really great VPS can do for you, and how a poor one can wreck your company, coming). The #1 reason to do a start-up is Career Development. 1/ Want the best startup VP Sales candidates in the world? Only money.

Sales Hiring 286

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Startup 286

Point Nine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

We recently hosted the Point Nine Founders Summit, featuring several panels and presentations from founders, CFOs, COOs, and sales execs on building early sales teams and hiring your first successful sales leaders. At Point Nine, we aspire to continuously share what we learn with our community and the extended startup ecosystem.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Unfortunately, things only get more difficult when it comes to running the whole business as a Shopify app developer. This article will cover 10 business tips for improving your Shopify app’s development, marketing, and sales. 10 business tips for Shopify app developers 1. The Shopify QA team are your friends 6.

Payment Solutions 98

Payment Solutions Underperforming Technical Team Outsourced Development Development 98

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

So that has many of us questioning which direction we should be heading toward in our modern day revenue tech stack? Which AI tools are going to make revenue operators’ lives immensely easier? Pipeline analytics: Offers sales managers a view of their teams’ pipelines that goes beyond what’s available in their native SFA applications.

AI 78

AI Revenue Scale ChatGPT 78

OnStartups

MAY 18, 2021

All the points below have been pulled from startup sales teams that I think work pretty well (including the team at CRM software company, HubSpot). Building Startup Sales Teams. Don’t think VP of Sales — think “Revenue Engineer”. First off, just to be clear, I’ve never been a sales person.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Startup 52

Casey Accidental

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

In my recent essay about second products , I talked about how the goal of building a second product is not the traditional concept of product/market fit we’ve all been raised on regarding startups. By general standards, the team found product/market fit, but will never be able to inflect growth of the combined company.

Underperforming Technical Team 63

Underperforming Technical Team Scale GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Startup 63

Kellblog

JULY 11, 2020

Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by UCLA Anderson professor Richard Rumelt is by far my favorite book on strategy. ” Failure to face the challenge. “Bad strategy fails to recognize of define the challenge. ” His dismemberment of bad strategy is so surgical and so deft that it alone is worth the price of the book.

Underperforming Technical Team 109

Underperforming Technical Team Strategy Systems Review Software Review 109

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Do you have two sales teams? Who gets what part of the long-term development budget? And most importantly, multiple products can be very distracting at the management team level. The new product tends to dominate the discussions, yet by definition, is only a tiny percent of the revenues in the early days.

Underperforming Technical Team 353

Underperforming Technical Team Cloud Revenue Acquisition 353

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2021

Not necessarily in revenue, and often not in their core market. Some examples: Okta basically won the corporate side of identity (rocketed to #1) but wasn’t #1 on the developer side. Smaller deals can sometimes just be about experiments, and teams. Buy a pre-revenue startup in space with a strong team.

Underperforming Technical Team 202

Underperforming Technical Team Cloud Acquisition Communication 202

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2020

Lexi Reese, Gusto COO uses her 20+ years of experience to provide advice on building high performing teams using authenticity, empathy and logic. Lexi explains the importance of team trust, driver and passenger mindsets, and much more. So sort of going from older to more and more startup land. Who was the highest engaged teams?

Scale 179

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Scaling Leadership 179

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 14, 2019

Since writing The AI Agency: A Novel GTM for Machine Learning Startups , I’ve been meeting many companies who operate this way. These startups use machine learning to disrupt an industry traditionally dominated by agencies: law, accounting, recruiting, translation, debt collection, marketing…the list is long.

AI 191

AI Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Machine Learning 191

FastSpring

APRIL 26, 2022

“It’s likely that a finance or sales tools will be less susceptible to churn than a marketing tool, simply because it’s perceived to be more directly responsible for revenue.”. Because word-of-mouth for us is actually much bigger fuel than the revenue that we’re collecting or churning or dropping or whatever.”.

Benchmarks 123

Benchmarks Churn Payments SaaS Payments 123

Kellblog

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

With capital scarce and expensive, with companies increasingly trapped in Schrödinger’s startup paradox , and with more startups than ever focused on positive cashflow and The Rule of 40 , it’s safe to say that Silicon Valley is still very much in a cost-cutting mood. It’s been a tough year. Why do we forget this?

VP of Engineering 108

VP of Engineering Travel Underperforming Technical Team Headcount 108

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

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2023

Many startups crash and burn when they hit the Series A crunch — that do-or-die time where many seem to lose their footing even if they’ve been successful up to that point. Mistake #1: Viewing Investors Only As Capital As founders build a team, they focus on obtaining complementary skill sets. That’s a mistake. Absolutely.

Development Team Review 224

Development Team Review Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team SMB 224

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 3, 2019

After your product/market fit, your business model is the most important consideration if you’re to save your business from the startup graveyard. Every team has their own slightly different way of calculating the cost of customer acquisition. Gross margin = Revenue – COGS. How to calculate CAC.

Acquisition 91

Acquisition Underperforming Technical Team Startup Customer Lifetime Value 91

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 20, 2016

The volatility in the stock market, the steady erosion of public multiples, and the broad decline of seed, venture and growth investment in Q4 2015 seem to portend a repricing of the startup market. When should a startup raise immediately? When should a startup raise capital later? This is the riskiest option.

Startup 100

Startup Underperforming Technical Team Forecasting Investment 100

Baremetrics

MAY 7, 2019

There are more funding and financing options for startups today than there ever have been before. There’s also been an explosion in debate and transparency about navigating startup funding and financing. Let’s explore the funding and financing options for your startup. Funding Your Startup. Buffer spent $3.3

Finance 111

Finance Startup SaaS Payments Payment Methods 111

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2021

If you don’t have tickets, lock in Early Bird pricing today and bring your team! That makes up about 35 percent of our revenue now. When you get that thing where you’re a rational person and you think it will be great and 99 out of 100 people think it’s bad, that’s when you have opportunity. Get tickets here.

Sales Hiring 333

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team SaaS Headcount 333

Chart Mogul

MAY 30, 2019

Ingmar, our VP of Customer Success, and our support team cracked the code on first response time and measuring NPS. As we grow, we’re able to spend more time developing the proactive tiers of the pyramid without de-prioritizing a strong foundation of fast, helpful ticket replies and features that delight.

Underperforming Technical Team 78

Underperforming Technical Team Development Strategy Management 78

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2021

Four years ago, after launching and failing my first startup I realized I had a lot to learn. I considered the four companies and chose Gorgias based on my experience with their team during the interview process. When I first joined the Gorgias team, there were two founders, two engineers, and myself as the first non-technical hire.

Scale 263

Scale Sales Hiring Sales SMB 263

Tom Tunguz

MAY 4, 2016

Channel sales (when another company sells, implements and/or supports your startup’s product) can be a big strategic asset for three financial reasons. First, channels can generate more new business and increase revenue without the need to hire more sales people.

Underperforming Technical Team 100

Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Compensation Scale 100

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

In the early stages of most SaaS startups’ lives, the CEO or founder often acts as the initial head of sales. It is important that these friendly connections represent the target persona market you have outlined, as otherwise, the feedback loop is likely to be weak. Iterate the product based on feedback.

Startup 178

Startup Sales SaaS Systems Review 178

User Pilot

APRIL 6, 2023

Developing and releasing sophisticated products with all the bells and whistles imaginable might seem like a great idea. Developers tend to overcomplicate code when they don’t have enough experience or want to show off their skills. Poor prioritization and external pressure are also common causes. Book the demo!

Underperforming Technical Team 89

Underperforming Technical Team Management Interviewing Scale 89

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Christoph Janz, General Partner of Point Nine Capital, shares what it takes to raise capital in SaaS, overall investment activity in 2023, and how to develop a convincing AI strategy. It’s not much worse than 2019, and it wasn’t that bad then. The Proverbial Napkin What does it take to raise capital in SaaS in 2023? that’s pretty good.

AI 194

AI Underperforming Technical Team Cloud Strategy 194

Chart Mogul

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Source 16 Startup Metrics by Jeff Jordan, Anu Hariharan, Frank Chen, and Preethi Kasireddy, a16z We have the privilege of meeting with thousands of entrepreneurs every year, and in the course of those discussions are presented with all kinds of numbers, measures, and metrics that illustrate the promise and health of a particular company.

Scale 52

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring SaaS 52

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Yesterday’s post on distribution partnerships for startups elicited a few comments and questions about other important elements startups should consider when contemplating partnerships. Ideally, a startup should collect data on the performance of a distribution channel before entering into a long-term agreement with a partner.

Startup 100

Startup Underperforming Technical Team Scale Payment Services 100

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Almost every week, Iceberg RevOps’ founder Taft Love gets messages from executives and CEOs at growth-stage companies asking for help with their first revenue operations hire. Related: Is a Revenue Operations Career Right for You? Second, there’s no such thing as a typical career path in revenue operations.

Sales Hiring 70

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Scale Consulting 70

Baremetrics

DECEMBER 7, 2023

The benefits of a well-thought-out process includes increased visibility to your revenues, expenses, and cash flows, and a faster feedback loop to make your forecasting more operationally focused. From our experience, the 3rd question is the most difficult to answer, since it’s the least familiar one to startup founders and CEOs.

Payment Solutions 52

Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments Software Review 52

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Our first is Revenue Grid. Guided selling with Revenue Grid allows you to guide reps step-by-step through every deal, reducing guesswork and increasing consistency so your teams have the best odds with every opportunity in the pipeline. Now, before we get there, we want to thank our sponsors. Remote work?

Underperforming Technical Team 68

Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Systems Review 68

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

It’s an approach that’s served him well along the road to building the HubSpot sales team, where he was CRO for nine years. This has created large amounts of data for running teams. . Yet in Mark’s experience working with and mentoring startups, he’s found that many entrepreneurs go with intuition over information.

Scale 226

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 226

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

They also manage finances and supervise one or more engineering teams. Product Marketing Manager: This person is tasked with developing product marketing campaigns , crafting compelling marketing messages, and coming up with ideas to retain customers. A higher revenue growth rate generally indicates positive business performance.

Sales Hiring 94

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 94

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 1, 2022

I’ve been an SDR , an SDR director, and now run a sales team at a startup. Think account hoarding , unequal opportunity to hit quota , missed revenue , and rep dissatisfaction. Why the old models hurt your sales team’s attainment. I’ve been in the SDR trenches. Related: The Top KPIs for Sales and How to Choose Them.

Technical Review 77

Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team Outsourced Development Education 77

Chart Mogul

APRIL 8, 2020

In a cruel world of startups, you either grow or you die. The road from a small startup to a sustainable business is a bumpy one. To survive the first five years (which only half of all companies do ) and get profitable, your startup needs to grow at a proper pace. And it invariably goes through growth. It’s cold outreach.

Scale 98

Scale Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring 98

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Vertical software companies, a recent important trend in SaaS startups, pursue customers only in a particular industry. These are the strategies I’ve observed: All vertical software companies develop uniquely focused products. Not bad for a business founded in 1987. Consequently, CoStar trades at a 9.1x

Startup 104

Startup SaaS Underperforming Technical Team Marketing 104

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

At some point in your journey, you’ll need to think about your exit strategy from your SaaS startup. It’s natural to lose interest or just not have the resources to keep a startup going or scaling. Develop a Full Marketing Strategy 2. You might feel uncomfortable with the idea of selling your startup. Transferability 2.

SaaS Payments 105

SaaS Payments Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review 105