Dear SaaStr: Why did Jason M. Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups?
Dear SaaStr: Why did Jason M. Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? I try to work with (and invest in) CEOs that are better than me. I found, when I was a SaaS CEO, that the CEOs that complained about needing a COO early,...Dear SaaStr: If a Startup at $1.5M ARR is Hiring a COO, How Much Equity Should They Get?
Dear SaaStr: If a startup is at $1.5M ARR and is looking to hire an experienced COO how much equity should they give him/her? 0%. I think $1.5m ARR is too early for an experienced COO in 95 cases out of 100 — unless it’s a total rocketship and you plan to...Dear SaaStr: How Many Options Should I Give to the First Non-Founder Employees?
Dear SaaStr: How Many Options Should I Give to the First Non-Founder Employees of they are making below market but non-zero salaries? Here’s the tough part. It’s really hard. What you should do is give them say 3x their forgone salary in stock — 3x to account for...Dear SaaStr: I Don’t Know Marketing. Should We Try to Do It Ourselves or Hire an Agency?
Dear SaaStr: I Don’t Know Marketing. Should We Try to Do It Ourselves or Hire an Agency? I’ve never seen a marketing agency get a startup qualified leads, especially at the earliest start-up phases. The only value I’ve really seen in agencies is helping you with...Hiring a Great VP of Sales: The New, Latest Edition with Jason Lemkin (Video + Pod)
Ready to elevate your sales game in 2024? Join Jason Lemkin as he updates SaaStr’s classic insights on hiring the perfect VP of Sales and navigating common pitfalls.
How to Implement a Customer-First Strategy and Structure with Dashlane’s CPO
Donald Hasson CPO at Dashlane shares insights on how to solve hard problems for customers and how to optimize for the best results for your business.
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....A 4 Point Test To Know If You Are Ready to Hire BigCo Folks
As you approach $50m, $60m, $100m ARR You can hire folks that always worked at Big Companies You'll need them Then — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.AI Sept 10-12✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 24, 2024 It’s easy to say “only hire people with start-up...The Top 10 Questions to Ask a VP of Marketing in an Interview (Updated)
There is a lot to do in marketing But a new VP of Marketing will really only do 3 things Ask them what those top 3 are before you hire them You may need something different — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.AI Sept 10-12✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 4, 2021 I’ve interviewed...Avoid Trapdoor Decisions: 5 Lessons Learned from Stripe’s First COO Claire Hughes Johnson (Video + Pod)
As we gear up for 2024 SaaStr Annual, Sep 10-12 in SF Bay, once again on our 40+ acre indoor-outdoor campus, I wanted to take a look back at a few sessions that I’ve come to appreciate more with time. This was one, when Stripe’s first COO, Claire Hughes Johnson, came...Dear SaaStr: What’s #1 On The Path to Becoming a Great VP of Sales?
Dear SaaStr: What’s #1 on the path to becoming a great VP of Sales? Each story is different, but there is one clear penultimate step: recruiting and managing a small sales team yourself. From scratch. What 95 times out of 100 is a recipe for failure is jumping...Top 5 Lessons Learned from Scaling GTM Teams at Notion, Asana, and Dropbox
Robbie O’Connor, GM EMEA at Notion and first European hire at Asana and Dropbox walks through the building blocks required to scale GTM teams and operations
7 Pieces of Advice Entrepreneurs Never Hear That They Need to Hear with Jason Lemkin
What is the top advice entrepreneurs never hear that they need to hear? SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin shares 7 pieces of wisdom for founders.