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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Q&A
Dear SaaStr: Do VCs Like Short, Teaser Pitch Decks?
Dear SaaStr: Do VCs Like Short, Teaser Pitch Decks? I can tell you I don’t. Send the full deck. At least, send enough of it so I already want to invest by the time I’ve read it. The average VC receives 500+ decks a year, maybe more. Why will your 2–3 slide “teaser” deck stand…
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Blog Posts, Early, Sales, Sales
5+ Basic Tips to Assigning Leads to Your First Sales Reps
Some of the ideas in this post are … basic. At least to some. So forgive me. But I’m going to include some of them as I’ve noticed that as SaaS explodes, more and more SaaS companies do better and better in more and more interesting spaces. But they also just miss some of the…
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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Leadership, Q&A
Dear SaaStr: Have You Ever Made a Very Risky Investment That Paid Off Big Time?
Dear SaaStr: Have You Ever Made a Very Risky Investment That Paid Off Big Time? Yes. In my first start-up, the VCs pulled our term sheet between signing and closing. They had a legitimate reason — our COO had pulled out of the deal. Which was my fault, for recruiting a prestigious, but sketchy, COO….
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Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Early, Growth, Leadership, Product, Scale
The Top 5 Secrets for Building Great Products with Leaders at Slack, Rubrik, and Grammarly
Chief Product Officers from Slack, Rubrik and Grammarly dive into the top 5 secrets to building great products and talk alignment, roadmaps and vision
Blog Posts, Growth
The Catch-22 in Hiring Today
So there’s a catch-22 in hiring today. There shouldn’t be, but there is. There’s a general view among many in tech that they’re asked to do too much with too little. They’re now underpaid for too much work. And that every job is risky. That they could get laid off anytime, no matter how well…
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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Leadership, Q&A
Dear SaaStr: What Happens When One Founder Invests Cash and The Others Don’t?
Dear SaaStr: What Happens When One Founder Invests Cash and The Others Don’t? In both my start-ups, I was the only co-founder that invested cash. It didn’t matter that much, but. First, you often can get reimbursed in the first venture round — if amount is small — if that’s what you want. This is…
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Blog Posts
SaaStr Europa or SaaStr Annual: Which Should I Go To?
So both of SaaStr’s mega events are coming up. First up, and soon, is the 5th SaaStr Europa is coming back to London on 4-5 June. 4,000+ of us will get together there to share, scale and learn. From Accel to Lightspeed, from Box to Cloudflare, the Best of the Best in SaaS and Cloud…
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Blog Posts
58% of You Say Sales Cycles Are Even Longer in 2024
So not everyone is seeing tougher times these days. SaaS outside of classic “B2B’ is often holding up well. Klaviyo, Toast, etc. just had very strong quarters. More B2B2C there. And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. Security remains on fire overall as well. But classic B2B SaaS is…
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Blog Posts, Company Culture, Early, Growth, Leadership, Marketing, Marketing, Podcasts, Sales, Sales, Scale
What’s Happening in B2B SaaS in 2024 and Beyond with Zapier CEO Wade Foster and SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin
SaaStr Founder and CEO, Jason Lemkin, and Zapier CEO, Wade Foster, sit down with Casey Hill to discuss the future of B2B SaaS in 2024 and beyond.
Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Leadership, Q&A
Dear SaaStr: Should Founders Start Their Vesting at Date Of Incorporation So They Have Vesting Prior to Raising VC Capital?
Dear SaaStr: Should Founders Start Their Vesting at the point of incorporation so they have shares vested prior to signing a deal with investors? No. At least, don’t do too much of this. I got this backwards, as do most founders. We think “being vested” protects us from VCs. Yes, there can be some corner…
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5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale
5 Interesting Learnings From Squarespace at $1.1 Billion in ARR
So with public SaaS companies continuing to grow, but revenue multiples often at relative lows, it can make sense in some cases to “go private”, invest in more growth for a few years, and try to IPO again down the road. Qualtrics did it, nCino just did it, and the latest is Squarespace. They are…
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Blog Posts, Customer Success, Customer Success, Early, Metrics, Sales
The State of Subscription Apps with RevenueCat’s CEO Jacob Eiting and Growth Advocate David Barnard
RevenueCat’s CEO, Jacob Eiting, and Growth Advocate, David Barnard, share their annual State of Subscription Apps report.
Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Early, Leadership, Q&A
Dear SaaStr: My Co-Founder is Threatening to Quit Unless I Give Him More Equity
Dear SaaStr: My Co-Founder is Threatening to Quit Unless I Give Him More Equity; what should I do? Generally, this is the last, best chance to fix things. Founder equity splits are a tough thing. What seems fair on Day 0 may seem less fair on Day 720. The one that seemed the weaker of…
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Blog Posts, Scale
2021 Was Crazy Because Growth Was Crazy. 2024 is Tough Because Growth is Tough.
We look back on the go-go days of the second half of 2020 and 2021 like it was a time of fools and silliness. Of 1,000 unicorns we didn’t need, of products that in end no one quite really had to have. Fair enough. But if you’re trying to figure out what’s really going on…
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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Leadership, Q&A
Dear SaaStr: Is It Common To Have a VC Fund a Seed Round in Milestones?
Dear SaaStr: Is It Common To Have a VC Fund a Seed Round in Milestones? It’s not common with typical Silicon Valley investors. But outside of that? It’s a little old school, but it’s not that uncommon. And run from a milestone-based “second check”. Because really, it’s just a one-way option for the investor. If…
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Popular Q&A
How To Reverse-Engineer a $100M Exit: SaaStr on My First Million Pod
How do you reverse-engineer your first million as a SaaS startup founder? SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin chats with Sam Parr on the popular YouTube channel and podcast My First Million about what’s required to make it on the map for a $100M exit and then reverse engineers the steps to get there.
Rule 1: New minimum is $400K per employee
Rule 2: Go multi-product
Rule 3: Your second product must be bigger than your first product
Cheat code: Double your prices
Rule 4: 30% of your revenue is international
Rule 5: Localize your product
Cheat code: Remove friction
Rule 6: 100% net revenue retention
Rule 7: Don’t raise double digit millions
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...
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