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Attention Sales Reps: AI is Coming For Your Job. For Real.
I respond to a lot of outbound emails with questions: "OK, but how can your app really solve my problem?""OK, but what does it truly do better, for my use case?""OK, but …" 98% of time, the AE or SDR can't give me a decent answer AI is coming for their job — Jason ✨Be…
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Dear SaaStr: For High Dollar Vertical SaaS, Does The First VP of Sales Need Domain Expertise?
Dear SaaStr: If you were hiring a head of sales for a high-priced, niche B2B SaaS product, would you focus on general B2B SaaS sales experience or on market/customer knowledge, assuming it will be very difficult to find a candidate with both? This is the scenario when the trade-off is the most acute. Imagine you…
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Median NRR is Still Over 110%. But it’s Fallen to Multi-Year Lows.
So Jamin Ball of Altimeter had a great summary of public company NRR here: The median net retention for the software universe has been steadily declining the last few quarters. More pressure on churn (as companies look to reduce point solutions in favor of platforms) and more difficult upsells have pushed net retention down pic.twitter.com/o5kAVwxdeq…
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The Playbook to Hiring Your First VP of Sales and Not Screwing it Up with Brendon Cassidy (Video + Transcript)
So a ways back we did our first SaaStr Scale event in SF, a 1000 person event just on scaling revenue with top CROs, CMOs, and more. It’s since morphed into digital events and this year, the first SaaStr AI Day on March 27. Sign up for FREE here. Brendon introduced his playbook to hiring…
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Top SaaStr Content for the Week: 2 New Podcasts, New Workshop Wednesday, Vimeo’s CEO and lots more!
The top SaaStr content you might have missed for the week of March 17th, 2023.
6 Reasons It’s So Hard to Sell Your Start-Up Stock as an Ex-Employee
Dear SaaStr: I Have Some Shares in a Successful Start-Up I Worked At, But the Company Won’t Let Me Sell Them. Why Not?? It’s a real issue that isn’t discussed enough. And while it mainly impacts ex-employees, it also impacts angel and seed investors who are often blocked from selling as well. Personally, I’ve lost…
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Should You Hire a Sales Rep First, Or a Sales Manager?
Dear SaaStr: Should I Hire a Sales Rep First, Or a Sales Manager First? The ideal flow is: You (founder-CEO) close the first batch of customers, say the first 10 or 20. If you don’t, you’ll never really know how it’s done. Or be able to help anyone else, really. Then, once you know how to…
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What It’s Like Running a Profitable $400M Public SaaS Company with Vimeo CEO Adam Gross
Vimeo CEO and SaaS veteran Adam Gross and Jason Lemkin, SaaStr founder and CEO talking about running a profitable public company with $400M in revenue.
Try Micromilestones to Push Through Slower Growth: The 2024 Edition
Going though a slow patch is one thing We almost all go through one or two Settling for slow growth is another You never really come back from that one — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin 🇮🇱 (@jasonlk) December 31, 2022 When I was CEO at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, I made a big strategic…
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How To Take Care of Yourself As a Founder
Dear SaaStr: How Do You Take Care of Yourself As a Founder? Quiet quitting, feeling sorry for yourself, working 30 hours a week, etc. — that doesn’t really work for a founder. It may feel good in the short term, but it doesn’t work. It doesn’t get you to success. But you do need to…
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RevenueCat: Free Trials Are Way Up, Pricing is Stable in Mobile Subscriptions
So RevenueCat (where I was fortunate enough to be the first investor) now is the embedded mobile subscription API for 30,000 (!) mobile apps, across 290,000,000 subscribers and $6.7 Billion in tracked revenue. So they do have interesting data. Their 2024 State of Subscription Apps Report is out, and here were my top learnings: #1. …
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Doubling Down: Lucy Deland, Co-founder & General Partner at Inspired Capital
“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. We had a great one last time with Peter Specht, Partner at Creandum. Check that out here. This week we’re focusing on Lucy Deland, Co-founder & General Partner at Inspired…
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Dear SaaStr: How Can You Land Big Customers If You’re a New Startup No One Has Heard Of?
Dear SaaStr: How Can You Land Big Customers If You’re a New Startup No One Has Heard Of? Solve one of their top pain points, for real — that no other vendor is solving. If you haven’t sold to the F500 / Global 2000 before, you’ll be somewhat surprised to learn that between the CIO’s…
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5 Interesting Learnings from Snowflake at $3+ Billion in ARR
So at $3.1 Billion in ARR, Snowflake finally feels a bit … human. Like a truly epic, incredible, generational tech leader. But perhaps, no longer like it’s from another planet altogether 🙂 After years of metrics (170%+ NRR) and growth (110% at ~$1B ARR) like we’ve never seen before, it hasn’t been immune from macro…
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How to Solve Unsolvable Problems with Generative AI for Startups with Google Cloud
The Head of Generative AI at Google talks about the trends and opportunities of GenAI for SaaS Startups with Legal OS, Innovation Endeavors and Ultimate.
Popular Q&A
Dear SaaStr: What Was the Toughest Rejection You Ever Had in Sales?
Dear SaaStr: What Was the Toughest Rejection You Ever Had in Sales? The hardest rejection I’ve had in sales was around renewals. Especially ones I thought we really had earned. But still lost. In particular, in the early days of EchoSign / Adobe Sign, we had a...
Why the Future of Customer Success, Sales and Marketing Has Changed For Good: Ask-Me-Anything Part 2 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
In part one of this week’s Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) with SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin, he answered the community’s questions about whether all anyone cares about is AI anymore, investor appetites going into 2024, vertical SaaS, and thriving as a solo founder....
Is AI the Only Thing in SaaS that Anyone Cares About Anymore? Ask-Me-Anything Part 1 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
In the first part of this open Ask-Me-Anything (AMA), Jason shares his thoughts on the current state of sales and marketing, if anyone really cares about anything other than AI anymore, how to hire great partners, and breaking out of a crowded ecosystem.
Doubling Down: Jay Levy Managing Partner at Zelkova Ventures
"Doubling Down" is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. Kicking us off is Jay Levy, Managing Partner at Zelkova Ventures. #1. What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Why did you...
Dear SaaStr: Can an Entrepreneur Back Out of a Signed Term Sheet Without Damaging Their Reputation?
Dear SaaStr: Can an entrepreneur back out of a signed term sheet without damaging their reputation? In my experience — Yes, probably. As a founder, you can back out of a term sheet if something is off, or even if you just get another offer you prefer. There is a lot...
Why You’re Unfundable in 2023: The Cold, Hard Truths About SaaS AMA Part 2 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder of SaaStr, recently answered our audience’s most pressing questions about the present and future of startups. Here is part 2 of the cold truth about SaaS in 2023.