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SaaStr Q&A
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Blog Posts, Fundraising, Q&A
How VCs Think About Departed Co-Founder Equity Stakes
Q: What is the highest % equity that a departed / non-working co-founder can own that VCs are comfortable with? Single digits. VCs will be worried about a founder that…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
The Biggest Sales Mistake I Made. And I Made It Again and Again.
Q: What’s the biggest sales mistake you’ve ever made? I think the biggest sales mistake I’ve made at the CEO level is not being patient enough. As odd as that…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
Top 5 Pieces of Advice for First-Time Founders (Or Anyone Starting Up, Really)
Q: What is your top advice for a first time young entrepreneur? My top advice, in order: Take your time to find a great co-founder. Some of us can do…
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Blog Posts, Customer Success, Q&A
As You Scale, Most Of Your New Revenue May Well Come from Existing Customers
Q: Can the majority of a SaaS company’s revenues come from existing customers? Yes, especially once you are at scale. In fact, as you get bigger, it gets pretty common…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
When Does a Venture-Backed CEO Get Fired?
Most SaaS CEOs don’t truly get fired. As you can see here, the vast majority of public SaaS companies are in fact run by founder-CEOs. Boom! But as companies scale,…
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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Q&A
3 Things That Make a Good VC Pitch Deck … Great
I try to avoid raw pitches at all at this point. Send me the deck ahead of time, with as much detail as possible. I promise to read it carefully,…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
5 Things That Change Once You Are a Founder-CEO
CEOs often start off as normal people, but then the job after maybe 18 months … rewires your brain. What changes: Your mind thinks about work 24x7x365 — in some…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Marketing, Q&A, Sales, Sales
A Low Win Rate is Just a Huge Opportunity-in-the-Making
A very high close rate sounds great But really, it means you aren't doing any effective marketing — Jason ✨BeKind✨ Lemkin ⚫️ (@jasonlk) March 25, 2021 Few things will demotivate…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
10 Things Maybe Not to Do In The Earlyish Days
A lot of rules are just that — guidelines. You can blaze your own path. 1 founder, 5 founders. Bootstrapped, overfunded. There are many ways to get there. But here’s…
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Blog Posts, Early, Hiring, Human Resources, Q&A
10 Tips To Getting Better at Hiring in the Earlier Days
Q: What are some top hiring tips for early-stage startups? My top list: Hire an internal recruiter as soon as you are making 1 new hire a month. It’s worth…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Marketing, Q&A, Scale
Why Getting Prince Harry to Join BetterUp Was Smart
Q: What are your thoughts about Prince Harry’s new job as Chief Impact officer at BetterUp (startup)? I think it’s smart: BetterUp seems to be the highest-valued, and likely the…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
The 5 Best Pieces of Advice I Got From My Mentors
Q: What is the best advice you have received from a mentor? I’ll make a short list: When you don’t know what to do — go visit your customers. Yes,…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A
3 Things You Can Do … That the Bigger Competition Can’t
Q: How can a SaaS startup survive in a crowded market? Find a segment of the market to win in. Where you can build a 10x feature, and then a…
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Blog Posts, Leadership, Marketing, Q&A
The #1 Thing Your VP of Marketing, VP of Sales and CEO All Have to Agree On
Q: How do I drive alignment between my new VP of Marketing and my VP of Sales? The simplest forcing function to help your first VP of Sales and Marketing…
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Blog Posts, Q&A
The Annual Per-Seat SaaS Contract: Not Quite The Gold Standard It Used To Be
Q: Why do SaaS companies bill annually up front? Perhaps they shouldn’t. A lot of SaaS pricing originally comes from classic enterprise software. In the old days, a customer…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Q&A, Sales, Sales
What Core Metric Should Your VP of Sales Be Responsible For? It Really Matters What You Pick.
Congratulations on finally hiring your VP of Sales! That’s the hardest part of all. But next up is a more nuanced choice — what should her core goal / KPI…
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Blog Posts, Q&A, Sales
8 Ways to Motivate the Sales Team After a Rough Month or Quarter
Q: How do you motivate your sales team after a disastrous month? It’s definitely a challenge. Because everyone in sales knows. They know if the competition is getting stronger. If…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Hiring, Marketing, Q&A
What are the differences between a VP of Marketing and a VP of Demand Gen?
Perhaps nothing, but in most cases, likely everything. A classic VP of Marketing will do 4 things (although of course, no one is great at all 4): Brand and Corporate…
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Blog Posts, Q&A
The Pros and Cons Of Working in Venture Capital
Q: What are the pros and cons of working in the venture capital space, and why? I’ll list the pros and cons, but before we get there, it’s important to…
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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Q&A
Yes, VCs Pay For Intros to Top Deals. Just Not In The Ways That You Think.
Q: Why are venture capitalists often reluctant to pay success fees for intros to deals? First off, it’s true — VCs are very reluctant to pay any fees to deal…
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Blog Posts, Fundraising, Q&A
Want to Raise a Venture Fund? 6 Things LPs Look For
Q: As an early stage investor turned first-time VC, what should I do, dance, boast, celebrate, blog about it, call future potential LPs? – when a portfolio company has a…
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Blog Posts, Early, Metrics, Q&A
No, Free Pilots and Free Trials Aren’t Revenue. Keep it Simple — And Real.
Q: Can SaaS free pilots and trials periods count towards gross revenue then deducted as a marketing expense? No. First, if you really want to do this — i.e., net…
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Blog Posts, Early, Q&A, Sales, Sales
Should You Pay Reps More For Deals They Hunt Themselves? Sometimes. Here’s When.
Q: Should sales reps be compensated differently based on how much prospecting they do? For example, if all of their leads come inbound (without effort on their part) should they…
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Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Q&A
7 Signs a CEO Isn’t Really Going For It (Updated with NEW Video!)
Q: What are the signs that an entrepreneur will always be small time? “Always” is a bit extreme. But let me share what I’ve learned are signs an entrepreneur likely…
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Blog Posts, Early, Fundraising, Q&A
What VCs are Really Looking For: A Super Simple Guide
Q: What do venture capitalists look for in startups to grant them seed funding? Simply put: Seed VCs are looking to make 100x their money. Founders just don’t get this,…
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Popular Q&A
The Top 50 SaaStr Answers on Quora in 2020
It's been a fun experience being on Quora for ... a decade 🙂 We've crossed 60,000,000 views of our answers there, so let's take a look at the Top 50 most viewed SaaStr Answers on Quora in 2020: Why do many startup owners sell...
The 3 Types of Day 1 Pricing: Low End of Normal. Identical. And Anchor High.
Q: As an entrepreneur starting out, is it better to overprice your product or underprice it? For most of us, as we build up our confidence, the best initial pricing strategy to start is the Low End of Normal. Why? It creates the least friction. And you want the least...
7+ Tips On How To Build Your First Sales Team
Q: How do you structure a sales team when you’ve got zero experience doing sales? Well, first go get some experience with sales. 🙂 At least, close the first 10 customers yourself. If you don’t, you’ll never have any idea how to do it. And the odds your first rep...
Can an Entrepreneur Back Out of a Signed Term Sheet Without Damaging Their Reputation?
Can an entrepreneur back out of a signed term sheet without damaging his/her reputation? I’m going to say Yes, probably. There is a lot of drama around broken term sheets. Mostly around VCs backing out, not founders. But here’s the thing — term sheet are term sheets....
The Playbook to Scaling Your Team in Hypergrowth with Flexport CRO Ben Braverman (Video + Transcript)
Ben Braverman explains how Flexport entered a competitive market with a unique model and continues to grow. Hiring senior leaders can set companies up to fail and see how sticking with a current, successful model can be the key to hypergrowth. Rely on your success,...
Defining Your Customer Journey From Prospect to Champion with Sage People SVP Kathy Lord (Video + Transcript)
Creating champions requires detailed focus on the journey. Kathy Lord, SVP of Sage People explains how asking hard questions, embracing feedback and making personal connections with your customers can move the sales journey from prospect to champion. Want to see more...
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