A holistic and well-executed go-to-market strategy is one of the key pillars that drives sustainable, long-term growth for software companies. But there is a dearth of data that leaders can leverage to inform building out the best team, strategies, and tactics to scale their go-to-market organization. Leveraging proprietary data from over 200 leading GTM executives and tens of thousands of data points related to executive profiles across Sales and Marketing leaders, Doug Pepper, General Partner, and Christine Edmonds, General Partner and Head of Analytics at ICONIQ Growth will share detailed answers to the key go-to-market questions from B2B SaaS leaders including: the latest insights on what “effective” scaling means in today’s environment, the best practices for building out GTM teams and processes, learnings related to what profiles make the most successful IPO-ready executive hires, and how top companies are tweaking tactics in today’s environment to drive efficient selling.
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition? It is tough for most of us. We get that the bureaucracy and frictional taxes are going to go up. But it’s seeing the organization make decisions that are...
So one thing that has exploded in SaaS in the past decade is the role of Private Equity buying both public SaaS companies (to take them private, “fix” some metrics, and IPO or sell them again), and generally later-stage private SaaS companies. E.g., Vista...
Dear SaaStr: Why Do Many Startup CEOs Quit After Their Companies Are Acquired? Five reasons: First, it’s very difficult for most founder-CEOs to work for someone else. They generally don’t mind working with others. They don’t even need to be “the boss”. But being told...
Dear SaaStr: Why Did Loom Have a $1.53 billion Valuation in May 2021 and But Is Now Being Acquired by Atlassian for $975 Million? There will be a lot of these deals. Great outcomes, but at lower than the peak 2021 prices. Why? Valuations were much, much higher in 2021...
Freshworks is a successful public SaaS company that has a humble beginning in the small town of Chennai, India. Founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham shares five big bets that paid off as he scaled this multi-product company.
So first a caveat: I know just enough about financial accounting to be dangerous. Second caveat: I’m way, way oversimplifying things. But with that out of the way, let’s talk just enough about financial accounting to explain why Big Tech Companies both...
Huge congrats to @iDedupe + @elasticull and team @logikcull!! Proud to have been the first venture investor!! https://t.co/nlwPkUnSZJ — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 29, 2023 I was lucky enough to be the first venture investor in a next-gneration...
Dear SaaStr: When should a CEO walk away from an acquisition? I’ve thought about this a lot. I’ve walked from acquisitions where I, to be honest, did want the money but still walked. And I’ve taken several offers, too, sometimes when it turned out to be the wrong...
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Pros and Cons of a Double Trigger with a 6 year Vest for Founders of a Startup? I think there are no cons and this is a great idea. First, a 6+ year vesting schedule protects you from the less committed founders. The last thing you want is...
Dear SaaStr: How Do You Know When It’s Time to Sell Your Startup? First off, the axiom that companies are bought, not sold, is mostly right. 95 times out of 100, you can’t wake up some morning and just go sell your start-up. Unless there are pre-existing...
Dear SaaStr: What Happens To Employees When a Company Gets Acquired? The truth is, it varies, and it’s fair to have anxiety here. Generally speaking in most acquisitions: All engineering and most/all product employees will be retained. Many times, with a retention...
Dear SaaStr: We sold 30% of our Company Pre-Money During our Friends and Family Round. Will VCs Care? No. In the old days, 30% in your friends-and-family round was pretty common. It may become common again, as times are tougher for many these days in venture. What...
Dear SaaStr: Do Late Stage Startups Prefer to Get Acquired or Go Public? It really varies. Especially these days, when the IPO markets are closed. When it was literally an IPO a Day in 2021, it seemed almost easy. And today — it seems so far from easy. It Was...
