Dear SaaStr: How Long Should a CEO Continue Being the Head of Product?
Dear SaaStr: How Long Should a CEO Continue Being the Head of Product? Roughly — only for as long as it’s about a 10-hour a week job. Or often, maybe only up to $3m-$5m in ARR or so. These days, especially, I see way too many B2B companies at $8m-$10m ARR or beyond...
Dear SaaStr: What Types of Customers Should be Avoided and How Do I Recognize Them?
Dear SaaStr: What Types of Customers Should be Avoided and How Do I Recognize Them? You will get lots of advice on “bad customers”, “firing customers”, and the like. For the most part, in SaaS, I don’t agree. The “Bad Customer” Myth: Why Your Most...
The 3 Financial Plans You Need for The Year: C-90, C-60 and C-10 (Updated)
Ok it’s time to update a classic SaaStr post. And one that is super important. Here’s how to build your financial plans for next year. Because 80%+ of you are doing it wrong. And 50% of you … well … haven’t even built a real plan at...
Dear SaaStr: What Were The First Five Hires You Made After Product-Market Fit?
Dear SaaStr: What Were The First Five Hires You Made After Product-Market Fit? My first 5 hires at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, beyond the core founding+ team, once we had paying customers and first, if early, product-marketing fit: #1: Full-time sales rep at $8k-ish MRR....
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: As a Founder, What Will I Learn Getting More Involved in Sales?
Dear SaaStr: I’m Pretty Hands Off on the Sales Team. What Will I Learn Getting More Involved in Sales? The most important thing that you will learn is how businesses truly scale on the revenue side. You may think you know this intuitively, but you don’t:...
Dear SaaStr: As a Founder, When Did You Realize You Were Limiting Your Company’s Growth and Success?
Dear SaaStr: As a Founder, When Did You Realize You Were Limiting Your Company’s Growth and Success? As we approached $10m ARR, we were doing very well: growing 100%, cash-flow positive, with 100%+ NRR. But I did see that certain of my weaknesses still were...
Dear SaaStr: How Long Does It Take the Average SaaS Startup to “Exit”?
Dear SaaStr: How Long Does It Take the Average SaaS Startup to “Exit”? I took a look a little while back at how long it took the average SaaS company that was sold for $1B+ to get that acquisition. The answer? 11.7 years on average, with a median of 10.0...
5 Things to Do … When You Don’t Know What to Do
Best things to do when .. you don't know what to do: 1/ More time w/existing customers. Zoom w/5 week, meet 5/mo IRL 2/ Hire 1 great VP 3/ Drive down churn. You grow faster even w/o more leads 4/ Join more sales calls. Everyone loves talk to CEO 5/ Focus leads on...
Webinars Almost Always Work. If You Really Commit. Start Next Week.
One thing if you are a first-time founder in SaaS that may seem as boring as you can imagine is … webinars. You think: You yourself as a founder or exec never go to them. And they seem like something you do, well, later. When you are bigger. And so many seem of...
Yes Customer Testimonials — Done Right — Are Super Important
Do customer testimonials really matter in the age of AI? They still do. Maybe even more so. They are incredibly important. We spend so much time marketing and selling to customers. And building stuff for them. But almost no one thinks enough about what a buyer...
What Happens When You Hire the Wrong VP
You know how everyone says you'll never look and wish you'd kept a bad VP as long as you did? That when you make a mis-hire, you'll always look back and say you should have made a change 3-4 month earlier? Well, everyone is right — Jason ✨👾SaaStr...
6 Key Signs a VP of Sales Can’t Scale Beyond $5m-$10m ARR
The best VPs can recruit in ways I barely understand You need someone for a key role? They somehow have 2-3 strong candidates in a week or two This is so, so hard But the very best VPs make it somehow look almost effortless It's also the only way to scale —...
At Least 20% of Your New Customers Should Come from Referrals and Word of Mouth. Ideally, 50%.
Dear SaaStr: What Percent of My Revenue Should Come from Referrals and Word of Mouth? "Word of mouth is ultimately the only way you can scale in SaaS." pic.twitter.com/UAsIkG4Ixx — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) December 18, 2024 Ultimately, most...
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