SaaStr

JULY 12, 2022

One of the first what How to Hire a Great VP of Sales at the New York Enterprise Tech Meet-Up (thank you to John Lehr and Work-Bench for setting this up). The Number One Thing You Can Do to Accelerate Your Business Post-Initial Traction is Hiring a Great VP of Sales. I don’t know anything about sales.

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Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VP of Engineering Sales Recruiting 248

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. But they have to close something in one sales cycle.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Branding 258

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2023

At SaaStr APAC 2023, Scott Pugh, VP of Sales at Figma, shared how to scale these two sales teams while building culture. Pugh’s strategy is simple, albeit not always easy: Recruitment — how to hire the best talent to scale your sales organization. Let’s look at five tips to consider for successful recruiting.

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Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 211

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2022

So did startups. Many mediocre hires were made to fill slots, reference checks not made, etc. 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. A related post here: How To Get Better at Recruiting. (We

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 244

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2023

In this week’s episode of CRO Confidential, host Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund, continues a mini-series on founder-led sales with Colin Zima, founder and CEO of Omni. Leverage Your Network First When you’re ready to hire your first AE, don’t create a job posting and see who comes in. Instead, leverage your network.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Social Media Sales 214

SaaStr

MAY 29, 2022

So we’ve talked so much over the years on SaaStr on how to hire a great VP of Sales, the difference they’ll make, and how the level-up comes quickly. Just not at your startup. And VPs of Sales do, too. A ton of great VPs of Sales have sold sales tools and similar products. They know them.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 243

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Biggest Problems You Face as a Startup Founder? Many will want to quit when you finally have revenues, just not enough to hire anyone else or pay anyone a decent salary. From $1m in ARR, and Then Forever After: Recruiting Great VPs. You need to learn to become great at recruiting. It never ends.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 243

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. If you don’t think you need a great VP of Sales, Product, Marketing, Customer Success, and Engineering — then all that all that means is you’ve never worked with a great one. Should you hire an up-and-comer?

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Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 268

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 17, 2023

This week we have a special 2 guest episode, with the best hiring guru’s in the game, Chuck Brotman & David Teichner. 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.

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SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Brendon Cassidy, my VP of Sales wrote a version of this piece a while back. I though an updated version of this would be good for founders thinking about hiring a VP of Sales … VPs of Sales themselves … and VPs-to-be to read — Jason, ed. … 10 Rules to Being a VP of Sales in a Startup.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 281

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

So there’s a sort of org chart you’ll probably end up with at least twice as you start scaling in SaaS: The “Headless” Sales Org. It’s a bunch of sales reps without anyone to manage them other than … you. But if you end up not hiring a VP of Sales at that perfect moment in time (and most don’t), you’ll end up headless.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 199

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development. Is a CRO right for you?

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 224

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

When a new leader joins a startup, their impact hinges on their ability to build their teams. Whether you manage a team of engineers, a team of regional sales managers, or the company, your first responsibility is to hire and successfully manage the seven people who will form your leadership team.

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SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2020

Nothing matters but recruiting and using your personal network. Sam Blond, CSO at Brex explains why recruiting, networking and employee happiness is the key to this playbook on recruiting your sales team. Sam Blond | Chief Sales Officer @ Brex. I’m doing The Playbook To Recruiting Your Sales Team.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team 125

SaaStr

AUGUST 14, 2020

A mistake many founders make is hiring a VP of Sales who has many strengths — but not at sales per se. A VP of Sales who is smart, polished, and worked at the right place, in a management-level position. That can talk about quota attainment and sales operations and scaling and number. you might ask.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 361

Tom Tunguz

MAY 31, 2021

The cost of a failed account executive hire is about 8 months of lost productivity. What does it cost the organization to hire the wrong executive? In terms of time cost to the startup, a failed executive hire is roughly similar, 9 months. Hiring takes longer and is less fruitful.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Branding 158

Tom Tunguz

JULY 25, 2020

To handle this complexity, some startups have split the role under two leaders: a head of product marketing and a head of demand generation. But I see this company structure more frequently across SaaS startups. By hiring two focused people, the startup is free to find the best person in each role. 464k results.

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Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 205

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Stephanie has been an executive in 3 successful startups and was most recently the SVP of Sales and Customer Success at Xamarin which has since been acquired by Microsoft. Stephanie joined Xamarin as its first non-engineering hire in.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Onboarding Sales 268

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

A MOC document can help you prioritize what jobs you need an executive to do so you can hire against those needs. It’s getting more difficult to hire great talent at the growth stages because many companies were expected to go public and get the associated capital infusion from going public. Key takeaways Write a MOC. Talent in 2024.

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Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 78

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2022

We’ve talked a ton about How to Hire a Great VP of Sales on SaaStr, but I wanted to highlight a few VP of Sales “personas” that I rarely, if ever, see work out. Because again and again, many of your will hire this VP of Sales. Here are the types of VP of Sales that just never work out.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Technical Review Scale 235

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

For part one of this Ask Me Anything session, Jason covers everything you need to know about hiring your first VP of Sales, what he really thinks about AI, what the future of lead generation in 2024 looks like, and much more. Lead generation tools do change, but the basic motions of sales and marketing haven’t changed much.

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Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales Recruiting 230

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2023

Founders are responsible for ensuring a startup always has enough money, setting the vision for the company, and driving things forward. Lesson #1: If You Aren’t Making Mistakes, You Aren’t In A Startup If you do things that always work and maintain the status quo, you’re likely at a major company like Microsoft. And it was true.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Pricing 235

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

What was the first warning sign your VP of Sales wasn't going to work out? A new VP of Sales doesn’t always double sales in 30 days — although it can happen in SMB sales. The old playbook does help, but every great VP of Sales knows they quickly have to evolve it to any new role.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales SaaS 237

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.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 242

Kellblog

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Emboldened by this seeming endorsement, I dashed off what turned into a lengthy email on interviewing and recruiting, a topic about which I am passionate not because I think I am good it, but because I think I am not. Thoughts on The Recruiting Process. Remember it’s a mutual sales process. Use work test samples.

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Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 109

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 5, 2020

Which startup sectors are most affected by coronavirus? Roger Lee is maintaining Layoffs.fyi , which is a table of all the startups who have unfortunately cut staff. On the brighter side, it is a resource for startups looking to hire as they grow. Over the weekend, I analyzed Roger’s data to answer this question.

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Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount Sales Hiring 325

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2020

Brendon introduces his playbook to hiring the first VP of Sales from his experiences as VP of Sales at LinkedIn, EchoSign, Talkdesk and more. Learn the dos and don’ts to make the correct hire the first time and not rush into hiring the wrong VP of Sales, which can cost the company months or even years.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire Scale 151

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.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 169

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. The first step is hiring a sales leader.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 183

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. Then I say … you probably made a mis-hire. They often melt. Be present.

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Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 215

SaaStr

MAY 17, 2021

Q: Dear SaaStr: What is the path to become a great VP of Sales? Each story is different, but there is one clear penultimate step: recruiting and managing a small team yourself. What 95 times out of 100 is a recipe for failure is jumping straight from successful individual rep to VP of sales. Not just managing one.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Startup 157

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2021

Q: What are the top 3 biggest concerns in managing a first sales team? A few of the top ones: Recruiting. Top sales people want to work for a great VP of Sales. If you don’t have one, it’s very hard to attract top sales reps. Too many startups don’t train or onboard reps properly.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Onboarding 245

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

Finally you have great customers and traction — but you can’t afford to hire all the people you need to meet their needs. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the startup. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly. Everyone is.

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Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 207

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2021

Did you hire a good enough VP? 4 part test: – who great did they hire in the first 60 days? Hiring your VPs as a founder is tough. How do you know, quickly, if you’ve hired a “good enough” VP? Or if you hired someone that talked the talk, but isn’t the right fit for your startup?

Part-Time VPE 181

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Metrics 181

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. What is the hardest executive hire you’ve made?

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

As SaaStr Europa 2022 drew to a close, attendees took one more opportunity to ask Jason questions about topics like how to navigate the current market, the future of work, playing in a crowded space, and hiring your first VP of Sales. It was funny for Henry to say he segmented his sales team at 80 million in ARR. Transcript.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 197

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

They had no hiring expertise and little money. They used the competitive advantage of recruiting out of the Midwest, where they knew the markets and the people better. If enough employers defect, it changes the hiring market. As a manager, you have to do things differently. There’s also a cultural element.

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Sales Recruiting AI Search B2B Sales Hiring 222