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Browse: Home / 1 – Stage

1 – Stage

The One Best, “Secret” Hack to Getting Venture Funding

The One Best, “Secret” Hack to Getting Venture Funding

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 11, 2018

I am fairly confident there are at least 10,000 Medium posts, 20,000 WordPress articles, and over well over 1,000,000 Tweets on How to Get Funded. It bores me personally, but I know it’s an important topic.  Raising money for many CEOs is one of the their top 5 priorities.  Without venture capital, I’d be nowhere.  […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, venture capital

When to Stop Doing It All Yourself

When to Stop Doing It All Yourself

By Jason M. Lemkin on September 14, 2017

Perhaps the biggest difference between most first-time founders and most second-time founders is how long they try to do it all themselves. This isn’t a criticism first time you usually sort of have to.  You have less capital to hire a team, and less experience building teams. But then after that there are at least […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Hiring & Operations, Metrics & Operations, scale

One Simple Rule on When to Build a “Custom” Feature

One Simple Rule on When to Build a “Custom” Feature

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 28, 2017

“Custom” features …  I feel this is perhaps the point founders get the worst advice of all. Especially from VCs, B2C folks, and folks that have never sold bigger deals and into the enterprise. One-off customization per se is bad. This is SaaS, not a services business. But Being paid a lot to build something […]

Posted in Technology | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, pricing, product, Product & Competition, scale

The Two Things to Do.  When You Don’t Know What to Do.

The Two Things to Do. When You Don’t Know What to Do.

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 15, 2017

There may come a time, or two, in your company when you just don’t know what to do. You aren’t growing fast enough.  or The competition seems to be getting the best of you.  or You can’t raise financing.  or You just lost an important deal.  Or maybe more than one.  or That great new […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Customer Success, Early, growth, Sales & Customer Success

One Tough (But Rewarding) Job:  Being the First Sales Rep at a SaaS Startup

One Tough (But Rewarding) Job: Being the First Sales Rep at a SaaS Startup

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 9, 2017

Ah, the first sales rep. Being the first salesperson into a start-up in a rewarding — but very tough job: Your Founder Boss likely will never have managed a salesperson before. She likely won’t know what you are supposed to do 40+ hours a week. Your Founder Boss may have strong views on what you […]

Posted in Business | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Building a Sales Team, Early, Hiring & Operations

Last Minute Tips & Tricks for The SaaStr Annual!

Last Minute Tips & Tricks for The SaaStr Annual!

By Jason M. Lemkin on February 6, 2017

It’s almost here.  The 2017 SaaStr Annual. Just a few extra last minute tips: It Will Be Packed.  We’ll have ~10,000 nominal attendees which realistically means about 5,000 on-site at any given time at the Bill Graham (not everyone will be there at all times, etc).  The Bill Graham is a super fun venue, the […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, exit, growth, scale, The Journey

Why The Law of Large Numbers is Just an Excuse

Why The Law of Large Numbers is Just an Excuse

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 18, 2017

Everyone has tough quarters, and usually, at least one tough year (more on that here). As we approach $10m, and then again as we approach $20m, and then again as we approach $X0m … we often blame a factor that I believe rarely is really real — The Law of Large Numbers. The Law of […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Getting to Initial Scale, growth, Sales & Customer Success, scale, Traction & Scale

The Top 10 Worst Pieces of SaaS Advice

The Top 10 Worst Pieces of SaaS Advice

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 18, 2017

Advice is very context sensitive, so take this post with a grain of salt. But for me, it’s “Blue Monday” … so I thought I’d take a stab at the Top 10 Pieces of Classic SaaS Advice … that in my experience at least are usually Just Plain Wrong. The advice and thinking that leads you […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, exit, growth, Sales & Customer Success, scale

Time Doesn’t Kill All Deals.  But It Puts Them At Risk.

Time Doesn’t Kill All Deals. But It Puts Them At Risk.

By Jason M. Lemkin on October 12, 2016

There’s a little bit of death-by-a-hundred cuts that many SaaS companies box themselves into. As they scale, they get out of the hackey way they do contracts, NDAs, proposals, and other documents.  They have their controller, then their VP of Finance, then their CFO review things, then hand off to the General Counsel.  Which takes […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Getting to Initial Scale, scale, Traction & Scale

A Newbie’s Guide to Dreamforce.  Hint:  You Can Go For Free.  And You Will Learn at Ton.

A Newbie’s Guide to Dreamforce. Hint: You Can Go For Free. And You Will Learn at Ton.

By Jason M. Lemkin on September 30, 2016

Next week is the largest SaaS event on Planet Earth:  Salesforce’s Dreamforce.  (The SaaStr Annual ’17 will be #2).  I’ve been going since 2005, from ’06-’11 as a vendor, and ’12-today as a participant / speaker / etc.  I went first in ’05, when I knew nothing about SaaS.  Back then, I think it just […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged #df16, 1 - Stage, Early, scale

Small Deals at Large Companies.  Hooray!!  And 100% At Risk.

Small Deals at Large Companies. Hooray!! And 100% At Risk.

By Jason M. Lemkin on July 6, 2016

Every customer you close, the next day, is at risk of churn.  A month-to-month customer can basically cancel anytime.  An annual contract customer can sort of cancel anytime, but really probably won’t for a year, or even 3 (more on why Year 3 is the biggest risk for bigger customers here).  You know this, of […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, competition, growth, pricing, Product & Competition, sales, Sales & Customer Success, scale | 1 Response

e-Staff Meetings and 1-on-1s:  You Gotta Do Them

e-Staff Meetings and 1-on-1s: You Gotta Do Them

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 21, 2016

For the first time in my career, I’ve worked with amazing first-time managers as CEOs.  Before I was a CEO, I was a mid-level manager, a director.  And then a VP.  Across a few start-ups.  Before I was first a founder.  Those management team weren’t perfect, and I wouldn’t copy everything they did.  But at […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Getting to Initial Scale, scale, Traction & Scale

4 Tips To Earn Respect as a Young CEO

4 Tips To Earn Respect as a Young CEO

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 21, 2016

While age ultimately doesn’t matter — results do — in SaaS, starting off as younger-than-average can create stress in a sales and customer-driven environment. But Aaron Levie started Box at 19, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates dropped out at 19-ish, you know all this. Some some hacks: Start with SMBs. It’s easier to get taken seriously, […]

Posted in Business | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Early, Getting Going, saas-startups

Why The LinkedIn Acquisition is So Important to SaaS

Why The LinkedIn Acquisition is So Important to SaaS

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 15, 2016

So, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $25.6 billion dollars.  That headline shocked all of us the other day.  But if you step back, it’s not that impressive, the raw number itself. After all, as a public company, LinkedIn was worth $32 billion just a few months earlier, and had been on one heck of a run […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, exit, Fundraising & Exits, IPOs & Exits, m&a

The Easiest Ways to Get From $1M ARR to $10M ARR

The Easiest Ways to Get From $1M ARR to $10M ARR

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 15, 2016

The most important thing is not to chase the shiny penny, assuming you are growing at least 60% Year-over-Year. You’ve done the Impossible. You’ve gotten 50, 100, whatever # of businesses to pay you $1,000,000 a year. There are 10,000 new apps out there. It’s “impossible” to get to $1m. You did it. Now, the […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged 1 - Stage, 2 - Topic, Getting to Initial Scale, scale, Traction & Scale

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