That Super-Successful VP of Sales. Great? Or Just Lucky?
I get sent this resume to review all the time. Director+ of Sales at Slack / Zoom / Mongo / Datadog / Qualtrics Your Brand Name SaaS Company. Took Hot Start-Up from $0 to $50m as VPS from Day 0. Was there “early” through IPO and did amazing things. That all sounds...
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Traits That Define a Great VP?
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Traits That Define a Great VP? The difference between a Good, a Great, and a Mediocre VP: A Good VP Maintains Velocity in Their Functional Area. This is hard enough as it is. If you grew 100% last year, growing 100% again this year is more...
“What If I’m Not Sure that My VP Sales is The Right Person?”: An Honest 5 Point Test
Dear SaaStr: What if I’m not sure that my VP Sales is the right person? 🤷♀️If you’re not sure your VP of Sales is the right person, you’re already in a tricky spot. The reality is, at the VP level, you can’t “fix” them if they’re not a fit. And that’s...
The 1 Simple Test to Know if You’ve Actually Hired a Real VP of Product or Customer Success … Or Not
I remember the first time I had a “head of product” in SaaS. I’d known him for many years, and knew he was great … but didn’t really know what help he could give us. I just knew we needed help around $2m-$3m so I asked him to help. I...
All Agencies and Contractors Have a Half Life. Move On Once You Hit It.
The best marketer I've ever worked with said to me early that you have to fire all your agencies after 6 months Why? They give you their best upfront, and then turn the gig into an annuity staffed with the mediocre I thought it was a bit aggressive But he was...
Dear SaaStr: How Does a First Time Founder Identify 10x Hires?
Dear SaaStr: How does a First Time Founder Identify 10x Hires? How do you hire a great CTO, a great VP of Product, a great VP of Sales … if you’ve never worked with one? It’s hard. If you haven't worked with one before, then, yes, 10x engineers...
4 Unexpected Learnings from Databricks’ Sales Growth Machine From Its VP of Sales
A little ways back Databricks’ VP of Sales Heather Akuiyibo joined SaaStr to share unexpected things that work well at Databricks’ GTM organization … as well as some things that haven’t worked as well. 4 Unexpected Learnings from Databricks’ Sales Growth...
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Convince My Customers with Monthly plans to Upgrade to Annual Plans?
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Convince My Customers with Monthly plans to Upgrade to Annual Plans? My advice: Don’t. It’s too many calories expended for not enough benefit. Let me explain what I mean … Large customers only pay via invoices, especially for any deal of any...
The #1 Thing That Makes Enterprise Customers See Value: A Great Dashboard
At the heart of almost every great piece of software with an ACV of >$50k is a great dashboard How good is yours? — Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) March 30, 2025 Sales still gets all the attention in SaaS, but the best investment you can...
Dear SaaStr: What’s The Toughest Skill to Learn to Scale in B2B?
Dear SaaStr: What’s The Toughest Skill to Learn to Scale in B2B? You need to learn to become a parallel recruiter. To constantly, painfully, boring-ly be recruiting the next level of management and managers — all the time. Doing 30+ interviews a month — minimum....
In-Person Sales Generate 3x Higher Conversions Per The CROs of Toast, Splunk, Brex and Slice
In SaaS, it’s easy to assume that virtual selling has completely taken over. After all, Zoom is efficient, email is scalable. Hyrid and work-from-home made it the default paradigm for many in B2B sales. Overall, only 27% of B2B customer meetings happen in person, per...
A Simple Commitment Test For You And Your Co-Founders (Updated)
As we’ve talked about before, the great thing about SaaS is it compounds. Once you have something, it builds on itself. But it takes time. It takes 7-10 years to build something real. And probably 20 years to build something for the ages in SaaS. If all...
How Coursera Turned Around Their GRR from 47% to 86% in 12 Months: A Deep Dive
Turning around a struggling renewal rate is the holy grail of growth. When Bradley Lawrence, Senior Director of Customer Success at Coursera, faced a GRR of just 47%, he knew something had to change. Here’s how he did it. He came to SaaStr Annual to share all...
The Top 10 Customer Success Metrics Investors Really Care About in 2025 with Gainsight’s CEO Nick Mehta
Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, the customer success platform that helps businesses deliver value to customers and drive scalable growth. Over the past 12 years, Nick has met with more than 5,000 companies and hundreds of investors, becoming one of the foremost...
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