Dear SaaStr: Our Sales Team Has a 7% Win Rate. Are We Failing?
Dear SaaStr: Our sales team has a 7% win rate over last 6 months. CEO has put full revenue accountability on the marketing team. How do I keep sales from failing? Not to be too much of a Pollyanna — but a 7% win rate isn’t necessarily all bad. In fact, if you have an...
Dear SaaStr: How Did You Get Your First Major Customers?
Dear SaaStr: How Did You Get Your First Major Customers? Secret here: every story is different. In my first start-up, it was pure hustle. We had a concentrated number of high dollar customers, so I did “outbound”. I found the right decision makers, got on the phone,...
Dear SaaStr: How Many Options Should I Give to the First Non-Founder Employees?
Dear SaaStr: How Many Options Should I Give to the First Non-Founder Employees of they are making below market but non-zero salaries? Here’s the tough part. It’s really hard. What you should do is give them say 3x their forgone salary in stock — 3x to account for...
Dear SaaStr: Our VC Is Encouraging Us to Hire Aggressively and Increase the Burn Rate. Should We Listen to Them?
Dear SaaStr: Our VC Is Encouraging Us to Hire Aggressively and Increase the Burn Rate. Should We Listen to Them? In my experience, about 66-70% of the time this is bad advice, especially if it is coming from a Very Large VC. Not always — but more often than...
Dear SaaStr: What Were the Biggest Mistakes You Made Getting Your Startups Going?
Dear SaaStr: What Were the Biggest Mistakes You Made Getting Your Startups Going? The biggest two mistakes I made, I made twice, maybe thrice. They were: One, starting with too incomplete a management team. In my first start-up, while the core 3 co-founders were...
Dear SaaStr: Is It Ridiculous To Call Yourself the CEO When Your Startup is Tiny?
Dear SaaStr: Is It Ridiculous To Call Yourself the CEO When Your Startup is Tiny? I used to feel that way, at least a bit. I used to look at tiny little startups and wince when a founder went around talking about himself as “CEO”. But then I had to learn how to Sell...
Dear SaaStr: What Did You Do in Your Startup That Didn’t Scale?
Dear SaaStr: What Did You Do in Your Startup That Didn’t Scale? My list is a bit quirky, but perhaps it will help a few others to accelerate — or drop — a few things: Doing international customer support myself. For months, I did European customer support myself...
Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Lies Founders Tell Themselves?
Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Lies Founders Tell Themselves? #1 Lie. That it will get easier. It never gets easy, but it can get less difficult: You get better. You constantly learn, and in not that long of a time, become one of the experts in your space. At some point,...
Dear SaaStr: As a Founder, How Do You Deal With Stress In a Startup?
Dear SaaStr: As a Founder, How Do You Deal With Stress In a Startup? Dealing with stress is important, especially for founders, who do have to hide … some of it. Per the WSJ and Challenger, Grey, this year more CEOs have left their jobs than any year since 2002...
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition?
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition? It is tough for most of us. We get that the bureaucracy and frictional taxes are going to go up. But it’s seeing the organization make decisions that are...
Dear SaaStr: A Co-Founder is Asking for More Equity Post Fundraising. What Should I Do?
Dear SaaStr: A Co-Founder is Asking for More Equity Post Fundraising. What Should I Do? Listen. It usually means something is wrong. Or at least, off: If you got the equity splits right at first, usually, big issues don’t come up later. This may be a sign you need to...
Dear SaaStr: What’s Your Top Advice For All New B2B Founders?
Dear SaaStr: As a VC, if you could go back to your operational experience (as part of a hyper-growth startup), then what would you remind yourself to take note of? My top list: Slow down big decisions — when you aren’t sure. You have to move fast and break things, but...
Dear SaaStr: My Startup is Nearing The End of its Runway – and I Found Out My CEO Has Been Taking Money from the Company. What Should I Do?
Dear SaaStr: My startup is nearing the end of its runway – and I found out my CEO has been taking money from the company. What should I do? Unfortunately, this is a little more common than you think. Maybe even more common today than a few years back, as VC...
Dear SaaStr: Should a Startup Founder Handle Sales Themself When First Getting Started?
Dear SaaStr: Should a Startup Founder Handle Sales Themself When First Getting Started? The answer is yes – 95% of the time. The “best” sequence for building a repeatable sales engine is roughly: The CEO/founder should close at least the first 10 (or 20 or...
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