Be careful — because different angels have very different approaches here. Many Silicon Valley-style angels roughly have a 1-or-2-out-of-50 model. They expect 1 or 2 big hits to cover 48–49 losses and mediocre outcomes. That’s a tough loss ratio, much...
For me, the life lesson in 2017 was to try to only work with people you’d want to work for — for the next 10 years. As a start-up CEO, I never really thought about this too much. I was just trying to get things done, find the best people, the best resumes,...
Well, ideally you do both at the same time 😉 But personally, I’ve done it each way. In my first start-up, I identified the opportunity (implantable batteries made from nanomaterials), and then talked my co-founder into joining me. The gap was only a few weeks, but I...
In less than two weeks, we’ll be kicking off the fourth annual SaaStr Annual conference at the Hilton Union Square in downtown San Francisco in front of our audience of 10,000. We have 200 speakers and 60 hours of content over the course of three days, featuring the...
Are you coming back again to the SaaStr Annual this year? If so — Thank You. We sincerely appreciate it. We’ve been planning for an entire year to make it better this year. Last year, while overall the feedback was quite strong, we heard there were a...
We all know who VCs are and what they do, but where exactly do they get their money? The investors that give them their money–the funds that could eventually end up in your SaaS company–want 3x return for every dollar. So when a VC is pounding on you to...
Dear SaaStr: What’s the one key trait/skill or experience you look for when assessing an inside sales candidate for SaaS? I break it into two stages: In the early days, when you as founder/CEO are recruiting and managing the salesperson yourself — the #1 most...
VP of Marketing. Whatever you do, at $4m in ARR, don’t hire mid or low-level marketers yourself. It’s way, way too late. There’s too much to do. You need the head of marketing in place — now. Hire a true VP of Marketing and give her (x) a revenue commit and (y)...
I’m not sure it impacts morale that much. Why? First, venture partnerships last 10–12–15–20 years. 10–12–15 years is how long funds last, and they typically raise multiple funds, which extends a partnership to 20+ years. And partners are...
So we’re just a bit more than two weeks out from the 4th SaaStr Annual. It’s amazing how quickly this has scaled from ’15. It’s going to be crazy — we’re running about 140% in terms of size of last year, and we’re got the...
