Is Growth Bad for Startups? Feat. Think3 (Video + Transcript)
Alex Western, Managing Director at Think3, talks about the problem he has seen consistently across SaaS startups that have VC funding – overgrowth. Overgrowth normally happens because of misalignment in VC initiatives and founder initiatives. Because VCs want to make 15x on their investments, founders aren’t realizing that overgrowth is actually dangerous for their companies. […]
9 Things First-Time Founders Get Wrong About The Journey
Want to start your own SaaS company? Do it. It is hard, harder than you can imagine. But if you do it right, and for real — it can last 30+ years. If you haven’t done it before, though, here’s my list of the top 9 things founders get wrong before they start: It almost […]
From Burn-Out to $100M in ARR with Jason Cohen of WP Engine (Video + Transcript)
Metrics are important, but so is making the tough, gut-wrenching decision to part ways with a key employee. Product strategy is important, but a fixation on the competition is counter-productive. A successful exit can set you up financially, but how do you avoid the fate of (statistically) the majority of founders who become sad and […]
5 Traits to Look For When Hiring An Early Marketing Team For Your Startup
As the CRO at SaaStr, I am doing a lot of hiring these days! A lot. And that means spending countless hours skimming through resumes, taking phone screens, and meeting candidates in person. Quick shameless plug–seriously, I am hiring for a lot of people, so if interested in working at SaaStr–check out our open jobs […]
The One Best, “Secret” Hack to Getting Venture Funding
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. […]
The Two Things to Do. When You Don’t Know What to Do.
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 […]
One Tough (But Rewarding) Job: Being the First Sales Rep at a SaaS Startup
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 […]
Last Minute Tips & Tricks for The SaaStr Annual!
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 […]
The Top 10 Worst Pieces of SaaS Advice
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 […]
A Newbie’s Guide to Dreamforce. Hint: You Can Go For Free. And You Will Learn at Ton.
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 […]
4 Tips To Earn Respect as a Young CEO
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, […]
Don’t Let Them (Your Best Employees) Go
Now that a handful of next-generation SaaS companies have IPO’d, you can start to see the turnover more viscerally that you can observer at quieter, privately-held start-ups. You see the VPs moving on. 6-12 months after almost any IPO, and especially after one that doesn’t create a slew of millionaires … folks leave. It’s a […]
The Lead Plateau You May Hit Just As It Gets Good. How to Plan Around It.
Many SaaS companies hit an “organic lead plateau” at several phases: When you get Really Big, at some point, every company in the world is an Opportunity. Box, Salesforce, etc. really don’t have many new opportunies to hit up. Instead, they have to work them better. This can hit you around $50-$80m-$100m ARR or so. […]
At $50k in MRR, Running Out of Money Is No Longer an Excuse
We’ve talked a lot about SaaStr on the challenges in getting from nothing to that first $1m-$1.5m in ARR, “Initial Traction”. That is takes longer than you think. That if you get 10 customers, you can get another 10, 100, and so on. There’s a particular moment in time I want to focus on here […]
