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echosign

Don’t Worry About Losing All Your Investors’ Money

Don’t Worry About Losing All Your Investors’ Money

By Jason M. Lemkin on April 10, 2015

In both my start-ups, I was constantly worried about losing all my investors’ money.  The first time, my first start-up which we haven’t talked about, NanoGram Devices, I mainly worried about it because I realized we’d almost never have enough capital to achieve our long-term goals.  So, FBOW, we sold for $50,000,000 after 12.5 months. […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged echosign, investment, Investor, Metrics & Operations, Seed money, Series A round, Startup company, The Journey, venture capital | 1 Response

5 Tips To Make The Journey More Fun

5 Tips To Make The Journey More Fun

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 23, 2015

Really, there’s nothing I’ve done in my life that is harder than being a founder CEO. Nothing. It’s 100x harder than being a VP. Even if the actual work is easier. It’s 100x harder than being a VC.  Even if delivering top returns as a VC is maybe even harder than as a founder. But I […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged customer relationship management, echosign, Entrepreneurship, Initial public offering, InsightSquared, SaaStr, salesforce.com, software as a service, startups

SaaStr Podcast on Time, Core Metrics and More on “Million Dollar Insights”

SaaStr Podcast on Time, Core Metrics and More on “Million Dollar Insights”

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 18, 2015

Do you podcast? If so, Cara Hogan of InsightSquared has kicked off a great SaaS podcast series of which I was fortune enough to participate. We talked quite a bit about the learnings on the SaaS Journey.  Feel free to listen below or download on iTunes here. The draft notes and script I used (we went […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged dropbox, echosign, hubspot, Jason Lemkin, Podcast, SaaStr, software as a service

One Weird Trick to Build a Personal Brand

One Weird Trick to Build a Personal Brand

By Mark Suster on February 4, 2015

My long-time friend Jason Lemkin is on the verge of launching a spectacular SaaS conference called SaaStr this week. What Jason has achieved in no time flat in VC is astounding. Without inventing the browser he has single-handedly created a personal VC brand on a shoestring. And as I’ve written about before – building a […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged dropbox, echosign, Entrepreneurship, hubspot, saas, SaaStr, software as a service, startup lessons, startups, vc funding, venture capital

All These Enterprise IPOs:  Why It’s Just Getting Good.  Why These are The Best of Times for SaaS.

All These Enterprise IPOs: Why It’s Just Getting Good. Why These are The Best of Times for SaaS.

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 19, 2015

Reading the tech press you might get the sense that The Enterprise is something they are sort of forced to write about because it’s having a good run.  We had a great Consumer run, a nice set of Multi-Billion Dollar deals around Social Networking, a WhatsApp/Snapchat fad around mobile messaging, an Alibaba, Instacart, Fab-ulous e-commerce […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged box, Box IPO, dropbox, echosign, Eloqua, Entrepreneurship, hubspot, ipo, MobileIron, saas, salesforce.com, startups, wall street

The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine

The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 13, 2015

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to get from $1m to $10m, $2m to $5m, $10m to $30m, etc. etc. One area we haven’t talked as much about is getting from say $100k in ARR to Initial Traction, or $1-$2m in ARR.  A bit, but not as much. The reason is while I […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged dropbox, echosign, Entrepreneurship, Getting to Initial Traction, Google Drive, product, saas, software as a service, startups, viral app

Don’t Fire Your “Worst” Customers.  Hire Them a Psychiatrist Instead.

Don’t Fire Your “Worst” Customers. Hire Them a Psychiatrist Instead.

By Jason M. Lemkin on October 13, 2014

There’s a lot of Internet advice that makes a lot of sense, but not necessarily in SaaS.  Somewhat bad advice that entrepreneurs share again and again, without having really tested the ideas behind that advice. One bit of advice you hear again and again, that I 93% disagree with, is “Fire The Customers That Don’t […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Customer base, echosign, Entrepreneurship, revenue, saas, software as a service, startups

SaaStr on RedditAMA (“Ask Me Anything”) Tomorrow, Th 3/27, at 2pm PST

SaaStr on RedditAMA (“Ask Me Anything”) Tomorrow, Th 3/27, at 2pm PST

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 26, 2014

If you have time, tomorrow at 2pm PST I’ll be online at Reddit answering your questions on SaaS, or I guess, about just about anything. Since it’s called Ask Me Anything. I’ve set aside at least 2 hours so if you want to ask anything you haven’t gotten an answer to, please come by and […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged echosign, Entrepreneurship, Reddit, saas, SaaStr, startups, Uncategorized

Is 5x the New 2x in SaaS?

Is 5x the New 2x in SaaS?

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 3, 2014

Back in 2012, when the SaaStr audience was about 1/30th of what it is today, I wrote a post that a lot of folks didn’t like:  ”Workday is Growing 90% this Year.  At $250m in ARR.  So Wake Up:  You Probably Need to Do A Lot, Lot Better.“ In fact, it was the first post […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged 5x, echosign, Entrepreneurship, growth, saas, software as a service, startups, venture funding, whatsapp, workday

Don’t Ever Make Anyone “Head of Sales / Marketing / Engineering / Whatever” in SaaS

Don’t Ever Make Anyone “Head of Sales / Marketing / Engineering / Whatever” in SaaS

By Jason M. Lemkin on February 24, 2014

A few months ago, I gave a great SaaS Founder CEO a Gift. A real gift. This founder CEO was at about $1m in ARR, doing well, but with only a smidge of angel funding and limited resources. And I gave him an insanely great VP of Sales candidate.  An amazing fit for his company, […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged echosign, Entrepreneurship, hiring, saas, sales, software as a service, startups, whatsapp

I’m Presenting at Dreamforce.  Right Before Marissa Mayer.  Come See the Hottest Two Speakers at Dreamforce ’13.

I’m Presenting at Dreamforce. Right Before Marissa Mayer. Come See the Hottest Two Speakers at Dreamforce ’13.

By Jason M. Lemkin on October 31, 2013

OK maybe SaaStr doesn’t quite have the following of Marissa Mayer.  But it’s a solid pairing, don’t you think?  In any event … If you are in SaaS and haven’t been to Dreamforce before, let’s stop the discussion here: You Should Go to Dreamforce.  You need to Go.  Why?  Dreamforce is the #1 largest SaaS […]

Posted in Enterprise, Entrepreneurship | Tagged #dffoundersforum, df13, dreamforce, dropbox, echosign, Entrepreneurship, getsatisfaction, Marissa Mayer, mark suster, saas, startups

The $2 Million Dollar Man (/Woman):  How to Think About Scaling Your Customer Success Team

The $2 Million Dollar Man (/Woman): How to Think About Scaling Your Customer Success Team

By Jason M. Lemkin on October 1, 2013

In SaaS, there are a lot of great “rules” that do make sense overall but can be confusing or borderline misleading at times.  E.g., Sales +Marketing Expenses < First Year ACV = Success?  Great rule — at Scale.  But maybe not while you are scaling.  E.e.g., if Churn > 2% = Bad, Just Terrible.  Well […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged customer support, echosign, Entrepreneurship, saas, startups

An Initial Sales Rep Comp Plan to Lower Your Stress Level, Increase Cash, and Make Everyone a Lot of Money

An Initial Sales Rep Comp Plan to Lower Your Stress Level, Increase Cash, and Make Everyone a Lot of Money

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 21, 2013

I’m not ashamed to admit that when I set up our first SaaS comp plan, I had no idea what I was doing.  In my first start-up, yes I sold to the enterprise.  I sold $6m our first year (man, that sounds good looking back on it).  But I did all the sales myself, and […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged compensation, echosign, Entrepreneurship, OTE, saas, sales, sales compensation, salescomp, salesforce.com, startups | 1 Response

Don’t Confuse Room at the Bottom with Disruption

Don’t Confuse Room at the Bottom with Disruption

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 4, 2013

Recently, a very wise VC asked me what I thought about a small but scrappy competitor in the space of my last company, EchoSign. I told him I didn’t know the company that well, but from what I’d seen, some things might seem appealing.  I bet the freemium metrics appeared good, with positive growth and […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged echosign, Entrepreneurship, market share, saas, startups

When Big Companies Can Kill You.  And When They Can’t.

When Big Companies Can Kill You. And When They Can’t.

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 25, 2013

I remember every day, every moment, of both my start-ups with hyper-lucidity.  But a few moments especially stand out.  Those times when BigCo calls you up to their fancy office, and tells you they are going to enter your space and kill you. It happened to me twice at EchoSign.  I’m not going to share […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged bigco, echosign, Entrepreneurship, evernote, google, Google Keep, saas, startups

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