Things Not to Share With VCs (and Others) Pre-Term Sheet
In the pre-diligence phase with either VCs or acquirers, I’ve learned you want to hold some things back. Not through the whole process. But at least until you are past the Second Date.
One of the Biggest Mistakes Enterprise Startups Make
The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. “We want low-touch or zero-touch businesses” was the mantra. I believe it’s flawed. While I have some sympathy with [...]
Hyperaggresiveness … Can You Do It?
Recently I’ve met with several of my friends who are moving on, or have moved on, to their next SaaS company after some real success in their first one. SaaS 3.0 entrepreneurs, I guess. They all have some measure of initial success in their next venture. To me, given their backgrounds, and their ability to [...]
Why Your Marketing Campaign Sucks
Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled [...]
Measure Your Churn. But What’s Even More Important is to Measure Your Almost Churn. 5 Tricks to Help You Here.
Churn is a paramount topic in SaaS, as we all know. If every dollar of ARR is worth $6+ in the long term, including upsells and second order revenue … then of course, by the same token, for every dollar of ARR that churns … you’re losing $6 of notional ARR. Lose a $100k customer? [...]
Consequences. And The Decisions We Make. Or Don’t.
Every decision has consequences. We often don’t fully perceive the consequences because they are often hidden by the compromises that make us feel better. Every step forward requires a decision. Or the inverse – indecision. Or as I call it, “decision, by indecision,” which is insidious. It rots the core very slowly until you don’t realize [...]
The Importance of Benevolent Dictators
I believe that groups coming together to make tough decisions driven by consensus tend to make poor decisions. This is especially true in startups where speed matters and where there is a need to constantly calibrate direction and where these decisions can have existential outcomes. Should you increase your burn rate by adding 2 senior [...]
The Virtues and Opportunities in Being #2
In our insular tech world, we’re all obsessed with being #1. Look at Google Search vs. Bing + Yahoo! Facebook vs. Google+. Salesforce vs. nobody else of any scale. Etc. etc. We all know in tech, in internet, almost all the spoils go to #1. Except … Often, not always. In fact, there are a [...]
3 Tips for Building Discounts into Your SaaS Pricing Model (from OpenView Labs)
The good folks at OpenView Labs did an interview with SaaStr and broke it up into a few articles. The first they published the other day, on Pricing, reproduced below. They have a lot of interesting SaaS insights and advice on their blog that ties into the same themes we’re working on here at SaaStr [...]
Your Customer Success Team. Hire Early. And No Squishy Goals — It’s All About the Numbers.
If this is your first SaaS company, you may not have ever hired or built a Client Success team. This one isn’t nearly as risky as a VP of Sales, or a VP of Marketing hire. If you hire a great, experienced Client Success leader as your first hire here, and you like him/her, and [...]
10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales During an Interview
Ready to hire your first VP Sales? But haven’t done it before? Let me give you a partial interview script that may help a bit. You’ll have to vary it for different types of SaaS businesses — a bit. But it will basically work for all SaaS companies from say $200k in ARR to $10m [...]
The Most Interesting Online Video Trend & Where It’s Headed
By now many of you know the Harlem Shake but what you may not appreciate is the broader trend behind the video and it has mirrored my general views on how TV will work in the future Harlem Shake is a YouTube phenomenon that in just 2 weeks has gone from nothing to on air on both [...]
I Was Wrong. Associates at VC Firms Are a Great Way to Get Funded.
I’ll admit to a blatant bias. I thought associates at VC firms, no matter how well intentioned, did nothing but waste founders’ time. At EchoSign, I’d get dozens of “Big Fan of Your Product” emails from VC associates, at a time when I really didn’t need any capital, and they’d each burn an hour of [...]
Why There Is a 50/50 Chance You’ll Tilt Upmarket in SaaS
When you’re starting off in SaaS, it’s very tempting to target small businesses. After all, when you launch, your product will be pretty feature poor. You won’t have the resources to service the Fortune 500. And in fact, unless you’ve worked and lived inside the Fortune 500, you won’t understand them at all. How they [...]
What a Great VP Sales Actually Does. Where The Magic Is. And When to Hire One.
In SaaS, #1 most common mishire, with a bullet, is the VP/head of sales. In fact, there a VC saying that I used to really hate. It goes something like “You’ve Got to Get Past the Carcass of Your First VP of Sales” or “It’s The Second VP of Sales When You Really Start Selling” [...]
