Dear SaaStr: Does It Make Sense For Your First Marketing Hire Be a Product Marketer?
Dear SaaStr: Does It Make Sense For Your First Marketing Hire Be a Product Marketer? No. Strong Disagree. It does not make any sense, 99 times out of 100. Generally, the CEO or another founder will hack being both the head of product, and head of product marketing,...7 Things to Do When You’re Struggling
Dear SaaStr: What’s Your Best Advice for Struggling Entrepreneurs? Having struggled a lot myself in the early days several times … just a few thoughts to summarize my learnings: 1. Get help & upgrade the team. This is the #1 thing you can do to move...Dear SaaStr: How Big of a Return Are VCs Looking For in a Startup?
Dear SaaStr: How Big of a Return Are VCs Looking For in a Startup? For Angel, Pre-Seed: At least 50x, with a possible chance of more. The loss rate in general is so high here, the winners have to do 50x. And this is after dilution, so 100x from the valuation at...Dear SaaStr: What Are The Common Problems With “Founder CEO’s”?
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Common Problems With “Founder CEO’s”? Founder CEOs are better, all things being equal. They go the distance. They care the most. They know it cold. And in fact, about 90% of SaaS companies that IPO still have their founder...5 Simple Tips to Quickly Improve Sales Performance
Dear SaaStr: What are the best 5 points to improve poor sales performance? Here are my 5 simplest ideas to quickly improve sales performance. They don’t solve bigger problems, but they usually work — and work quickly. Concentrate leads in those who can...Dear SaaStr: Do Net Promoter Scores Really Matter?
Dear SaaStr: Do Net Promoter Scores Really Matter? I used to not believe in NPS. But I was wrong. Why? The fundamental reason is if you talk to any software/SaaS business truly at scale, you’ll hear one common theme — they get 80%+ of their new customers from...Mastering High-Volume, Low-CAC Marketing: Strategies from Gorgias, Vercel, and Hypergrowth
Guillaume Cabane and Martin Gontovnikas, co-founders of HyperGrowth Partners, Axelle Heems, Senior Director of Growth Operations at Gorgias, and Morgane Palomares, VP of Marketing at Vercel come together to share their scalable, low-CAC (customer-acquisition cost) growth strategies.
Dear SaaStr: How Do You Fairly Divide Up Founders’ Shares?
Dear SaaStr: How should shares in a startup be divided between 4 co-founders? If we have equal shares, what if one of us puts in a cash injection at a later date? You’ve got two good, different questions here. Question #1: How should you divide shares up between 4...Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and Jason Lemkin, CEO of SaaStr: Answer Your Top 10 2024 Customer Success Questions
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and Jason Lemkin, CEO of SaaStr, answer your Top 10 SaaS Customer Success Questions of 2024 and what they mean going into 2024.
Dear SaaStr: Can A Startup Without Any Prior Experience Raise Money From VCs?
Dear SaaStr: Can a startup without any prior experience raise money from venture capitalists (VCs)? Of course, but the answer is a bit more complicated than that. The less proven you are, generally speaking, the further along you need to be to raise from VCs. A...10+ Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales During an Interview (Updated)
One of the classic original SaaStr posts was on the Top 10 Questions to Ask a VP of Sales Candidate. All the questions still hold today, interestingly. I wanted to update it for today, and yes there’s been some inflation. So it’s really 13 questions now...Dear SaaStr: My Investor Wants Weekly Meetings. Is This Too Much Time?
Dear SaaStr: I am a startup founder that writes extensive monthly report to investors. We are also doing weekly meetings, are they asking for too much of my time? Yes. Some rough rules: For every 1% of a company an investor owns, they get one meeting a year. This...2024 State of SaaS: Trends and Predictions with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin
At Pavilion’s CEO Summit, SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin, took the stage to share what’s most top of mind for him at the start of 2024.
10 Things in Marketing that Change as You Scale: Lessons from Dropbox, Klaviyo, Lightspeed Commerce with Kady Srinivasan, CMO of Lightspeed Commerce
In the ever-evolving world of SaaS, the role of marketing continually adapts and transforms, especially as companies transition through different stages of growth. Kady Srinivasan, the Chief Marketing Officer of Lightspeed Commerce and a veteran in the field with rich experience from companies like Dropbox, Owlet, and Klaviyo, recently shared her invaluable insights on this topic. In this workshop, we delve into the ten pivotal changes in marketing strategies as companies scale, based on Srinivasan’s expertise.