So the other day I looked back at about 25 SaaS seed investments I’d made that had scaled well past $10m-$20m and reflected on the top themes. Including — the top mistakes founders make again and again as they cross $10m ARR. Trust me. Here they are. ...
“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. I always learn a lot from these — they are in essence a best practices list from each leader. Last week we had a great one...
Ok so many folks have been in cut, or conserve, or hold down cost mode for a year or so at this point. Great. And if growth is still mediocre, maybe you have to keep doing that. But for many, growth has returned, or remains strong, and for many, it’s even...
So ever since I started in SaaS, I’ve been trying to answer a basic question: how quickly do the best take off and get to $10m ARR? It took us about 5.5 years back in the day, but SaaS was much smaller then. And I worried when I compared us to Dropbox, Yammer,...
Dear SaaStr: When Should The CEO Step Away From Sales? Never. It’s just, as you scale, what you do in the sales process as CEO evolves and changes. I remember when we closed Groupon as one of our Ten (or so) Largest customers, back in the day. They’d brought us...
So the best sales reps are just so, so worth it. They don’t just close 2x the average, sometimes they even close 5x-9x the average rep. And they often do it more efficiently. The best ones really do make your life easier. Why a Great Rep Can Close 9x More Than a...
“My App Stack” is a new series where we dig in with top CMOs, CROs, CTOs and CEOs on just what apps they’re really using to run their business. I always learn a lot from these — they are in essence a best practices list from each leader. Last week we had a great one...
So there’s a question I’ve had for some time in SaaS: does high NRR really equal higher growth? Yes, most of the best in SaaS have high NRR, at least once they are public. But there are multiple ways to build a leader, and startup don’t always...
Ah, hiring those first 1 or 2 sales reps. So often, they are mis-hires. But when you get that Sales Magician — they really can be a game changer. If that’s you, hiring your first few sales reps, here are our Top 10 SaaStr Posts on Hiring Your First Few...
With SaaStr Annual 2023 now just a week away, we’re getting a lot of questions from sponsors wanting to know how to get the best ROI from their sponsorship package. So we reached out to a few of our returning sponsors who absolutely crushed it at the 2015-2022 Annuals...
You’re the founder of a nicely growing SaaS startup that has just raised a Series A, Series B, or Series C funding round. You need to hire rapidly to seize the opportunity. But how much should you hire, what roles should you hire, and what should the org chart look like when you’re done?
David Sacks, co-founder and general partner at Craft will share what works from the 20 unicorns he’s invested in, including AirBnB, ClickUp, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish.
So there’s a situation I see happening with many (not most, but many) SaaS companies as they build out the first management team: They hire a VP of Sales that doesn’t think much of the VP of Marketing. And doesn’t work with them. So they bypass...
Discover how three breakout SaaS companies scaled from an idea to hundreds of employees and $1B+ valuations, all while living their values along the way.
Notion COO Akshay Kothari, Motive CEO and Founder Shoaib Makani, and CEO and Co-Founder of Incredible Health Iman Abuzeid share the secrets of ensuring their company-centered values and purpose remained an anchor amidst hypergrowth.
Dear SaaStr: At what stage should SaaS founders fully stop being individual contributors? I’ve come up with 2 rough rules here to avoid stalling out: Try to have a complete 1.0 management team by $4m ARR at least. Earlier is better, of course. And try to hire at...
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