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.

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 294

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. Key Takeaways Building a successful startup is hard work, but you can leverage the resources available to you to accelerate that success.

Sales Recruiting 238

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Social Media 238

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.

Sales Recruiting 222

Sales Recruiting Sales Startup Engineering 222

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.

Startup 300

Startup Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Headcount 300

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.

Scale 228

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 228

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.

Sales Recruiting 174

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Startup 174

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.

Sales Recruiting 142

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 142

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.

Sales Recruiting 197

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 197

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. Sales is hard.

Sales Hiring 275

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 275

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.

Sales Recruiting 264

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring SaaS Sales 264

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.

Scale 265

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AI 265

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.

Sales Recruiting 273

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Onboarding 273

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.

Sales Hiring 272

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Startup 272

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.

Sales Recruiting 107

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Data Analysis 107

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.

Sales Recruiting 292

Sales Recruiting SaaS CTO Software Review 292

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.

Sales Recruiting 233

Sales Recruiting Scale Scaling Startup 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.

Startup 190

Startup Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 190

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.

Part-Time VPE 215

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup 215

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.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

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 255

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 255

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.

Sales Recruiting 238

Sales Recruiting SaaS Startup Sales 238

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.

Sales Recruiting 109

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 109

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.

Startup 203

Startup Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale 203

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.

Sales Recruiting 256

Sales Recruiting SaaS Compensation Retention 256

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 269

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Startup 269

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2023

SaaStr 660: CRO Confidential: 3 Secrets For Early-Stage Startups To Acquire Customers With CoSell.io SaaStr 658: SaaStr CRO Confidential: Omni Founder Colin Zima on the Power of Leveraging Your Network for Sales and Recruiting                                 Top Videos This Week: 1.

CTO 225

CTO Sales Recruiting Startup SaaS 225

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.

Sales Hiring 124

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 124

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

SaaStr 632: CRO Confidential: How To Adapt Your Sales Strategy To The Current Sales Environment with Sam Blond and Hannah Willson, SVP of Sales at Modern Health  2. SaaStr 630: Sales-led vs. Product-led? Today’s Startups Need Both with Jason Eubanks, CRO at Harness  5. Top Podcasts This Week: 1.

Sales Hiring 130

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Venture Capital 130

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2021

A ways back, I asked Brendon Cassidy, VP of Sales at LinkedIn, Adobe Sign / EchoSign, and Talkdesk to put together his playbook for double sales. … How We Increased Sales Nearly 100% In One Quarter at HackerRank – Brendon Cassidy. Just an FYI: I’ve done some iteration of this 4 times in early stage startups.

Scale 278

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales 278

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.

Sales Hiring 287

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 287

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

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.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Outsourcing Services 81

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. More power to you.

Sales Hiring 275

Sales Hiring VP of Engineering Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting 275

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.

Startup 260

Startup Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Headcount 260

CloseSaaS

OCTOBER 3, 2019

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

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Sales 52

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.

Sales Recruiting 255

Sales Recruiting Technical Cofounder Scale SaaS 255

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 224

Sales Recruiting Scale SaaS Startup 224