Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

You were the shoulder I would go and cry on anytime I would have some sort of executive-level problem or executive recruiting problem. We’re coming at it from the lens of not being recruiters. And when you’re in the executive recruiting process, feeling is not scientific. Tell me what the priorities are.”

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Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 89

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. Gabe Larsen enumerates more.

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Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 199

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Biggest Problems You Face as a Startup Founder? From $1m in ARR, and Then Forever After: Recruiting Great VPs. Later, once you have a brand, you’ll be competing with Hot Startups nipping at your heals for top VPs. You need to learn to become great at recruiting. This challenge never ends.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 261

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. Consider a try-and-buy.

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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. Often not.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 263

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Specifically, she champions a metrics-based approach for developing world class recruiting teams. Because of her position, Maia has observed recruiting patterns in hundreds of companies, and has developed best practices for startups. Maia reports these five strategic recruiting metrics to the executive team each quarter.

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Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Data Analysis 109

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

So we’ve spent a ton of time over the years on SaaS talking about hiring a great VP of Sales. Not only because it really matters, but because hiring the wrong VP of Sales can set you back a year — or longer. So many VPs of Sales disagree with me here — at least at first when I make the point. Sales is hard.

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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. But starting that week, startups began reducing headcount by about 700 per day.

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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 282

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

In this post, we’re featuring our Recruiting Manager, Elizabeth Faddis! Priority projects are focused on enhancing the company’s recruiting strategy, processes, and programs to deliver on current and future talent needs. You recently started your Recruiting Manager role at FastSpring, how are you liking it so far?

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Management Technical Review 89

OpenView Labs

APRIL 29, 2021

Recruiting top talent is the common denominator across all scaling startups. It’s an extremely competitive market filled with hundreds of “hot startups” calling on all of the same candidates. It’s an extremely competitive market filled with hundreds of “hot startups” calling on all of the same candidates. It’s a lot.

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Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 81

Kellblog

MARCH 17, 2020

Rephrasing Lewis Carroll, “if you don’t know what you’re recruiting for, any candidate looks great.” ” I liken executive recruiters to Realtors. ” That know-not-what, by the way, is that it’s for sale. Let’s switch to executive recruiting. Sound judgment and maturity.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Enablement Startup Pricing 86

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2024

Dedicated Slack Channel For Every Metric From the early days at Secureframe, they have had a dedicated Slack channel for every metric: every net new sale, every expansion, every churn, and every expense. Work with Great Executive Recruiters ”The first time I saw an invoice for an executive search, I think I had a heart attack,” Shrav joked.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 244

CloseSaaS

OCTOBER 3, 2019

Startup recruiting is hard. The challenge is twofold: finding incredible talent and then making them want to join your team.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Sales 52

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 165

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 223

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2022

The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaStr 602: Secrets To Combining PLG and Enterprise Sales with Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover. ?. SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin.

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SaaStr

JULY 18, 2023

Some engineers by training, others in sales or product originally. But a few uniting characteristics of the very best: Relentless Recruiters. You have to be constantly recruiting the best. The best founders usually spend at least 20% of their time recruiting. Some ruthless with competition, some more zen about it.

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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 363

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.

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Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Scale 190

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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SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2023

20Dear SaaStr: My Top Sales Rep Made $600,000 a Year — And Just Quit! Why would a sales rep quit a job where they are making top 1%-5% money, respected, treated well, and have it dialed it? It may not be 100% logical, but looking back, here’s where I see it happen: A new VP of Sales comes in. The VP of Sales leaves.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Startup Engineering 208

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 145

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

If you can’t do the time, don’t do the startup. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly. If you’re not willing to constantly recruit cross-functionality … you’ll never attract the talent. But the founders and CEOs need to attract even more types of managers, earlier, in SaaS. Everyone is.

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Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 228

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2022

Dear SaaStr: When Should a CEO of a Startup Stop “Doing the Work” and Let Others Do the Work? So you don’t have to directly manage at least several of the key functional areas in the company at all. management team by 50 employees or so. You spend all your recruiting time just on VPs and above.

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Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup 202

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2022

This happens with some regularity in SaaS, I’ve learned (and to be clear: I’m not talking about any company I’ve invested in, am an advisor to, board member of, etc – Because when it’s still a very small team, with no true management team … co-founders can kind of hack it to $1m-$2m in ARR together.

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Sales Recruiting Technical Cofounder Scale Investment 244

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.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 206

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin.

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SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2023

The best VPs of Sales I’ve hired were Directors of Sales before. Everyone wants to give folks a pass here, and for sure, “startup folks” are passionate and often won’t stay 20 years anywhere. But at startups? Maybe once you have a full recruiting team, they can parse some of these.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 272

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 22, 2015

On December 2, SaaS Office Hours at Redpoint will welcome Maia Josebachvilli , VP of Strategy and People at Greenhouse, a fast growing recruiting software company. Before Greenhouse, Maia founded Urban Escapes, a DC-based startup she sold to LivingSocial. She was also selected for Inc’s 30 under 30.

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Sales Recruiting Metrics SaaS Sales Funnel 100

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 18, 2018

Startups are business machines engineered to grow quickly. Every lead hired today, whether marketing , sales, engineering or product, will have a very different job nine months from now, much less two years from now. Imagine you work at a startup that is growing headcount 125% year over year. You hire a head of engineering.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Headcount 263

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.

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SaaStr

MAY 21, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: SaaS Capital: Across 1,500 SaaS Startups, Yearly Contracts Don’t Actually Increase NRR Dear SaaStr: How Long Should a CEO Continue Being the Head of Product? SaaStr CRO Confidential: Howard Lerman, Founder & CEO @ Roam on Founder-led Sales 3.

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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.

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Tom Tunguz

MAY 31, 2021

In terms of time cost to the startup, a failed executive hire is roughly similar, 9 months. Startups that pick the right leaders to build their company benefit from a competitive advantage for all these reasons. Startups should expect successful management hires about 75% of the time. Looker was one of those examples.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Branding 155

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

So if scaling your sales organization is a priority in 2020, here are the things you need to be aware of to make sure you do so successfully. In my experience both as a salesperson and as a recruiter, it’s primarily been four things: They want the work they’re doing to matter to them. Hiring sales leaders will get harder.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Trends 53

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

Leandra Fishman is the Chief Revenue Officer at Apollo.io , a leading go-to-market solution for sales and marketing teams. Previously, as the SVP of Sales and Success for SendGrid, she led the company through a successful IPO and helped double its market cap in its first year as a public company. Brought to you by IPS.

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