• Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
CloudAve
Software in Business. The Business of Software.
  • Business
    • Analysis
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Marketing
    • Strategy
    • Small business
  • Technology
    • Application Software
    • Infrastructure
    • Open Source
    • Mobile
    • Platforms
    • Product reviews
    • Security
  • Misc
    • Design
    • Just for fun
    • Trends & Concepts
  • Your POV
  • Sponsors
Browse: Home / Getting to Initial Traction

Getting to Initial Traction

The Lead Plateau You May Hit Just As It Gets Good.  How to Plan Around It.

The Lead Plateau You May Hit Just As It Gets Good. How to Plan Around It.

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 16, 2016

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. […]

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

Your Sales Efficiency Will Probably Plummet Toward $10m ARR.   Plan For It.

Your Sales Efficiency Will Probably Plummet Toward $10m ARR. Plan For It.

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 22, 2016

  When a great SaaS business starts to come together, and crosses Initial Traction ($1-$1.5m), growing nicely (8-10%+ Month-over-Month Growth) … often times, the founders start to see the first bit of real economic returns on the model.  It finally starts to make sense, this SaaS stuff. As you cross $2.5m, $3m in ARR, you can […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, sales

Hacking Demo Days like an SDR

Hacking Demo Days like an SDR

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 7, 2016

  So it took me a little while to grok and figure out Demo Days.  They are overwhelming.  Too many start-ups presenting, too quickly.  Too many charts and graphs with unlabelled X and Y axises.  Not enough detail, not enough time, too canned, too polished, not polished enough. But with 20 institutional and angel investments […]

Posted in Application Software, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, venture capital

How Awful It Was in ’08-’09 … And What We Learned

How Awful It Was in ’08-’09 … And What We Learned

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 8, 2016

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but recently, the public markets have been in a bit of turmoil.  Or at least, under a bit of pressure. Below is the other day, on the left.  And ’08 on the right. In the grand scheme of things, all we’ve seen recently is some volatility: Still, for now […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, Pricing & Revenue, saas-startups

Don’t Fear Business Process Change.  It’s (Usually) a Good Thing.

Don’t Fear Business Process Change. It’s (Usually) a Good Thing.

By Jason M. Lemkin on November 30, 2015

Recently I was having a discussion, not quite a debate, but a discourse with an extremely smart VC — far smarter than me — who was relatively new to SaaS, having spent more time in B2C. Like a lot of folks tip-toeing from B2C to SaaS, his first stop was in freemium.  He was obsessed with […]

Posted in Featured Posts, Trends & Concepts | Tagged Customer Success, Getting to Initial Traction

Don’t Worry Too Much If All Your Customers are in “Tech”

Don’t Worry Too Much If All Your Customers are in “Tech”

By Jason M. Lemkin on November 17, 2015

I remember at EchoSign, Back in the Day, I met with a Top 5 VC.  The one question they asked me did stump me: “So many of your customers are in tech.  What’s your plan to go bigger?” It wasn’t like 100% were in tech.  But sure it was the majority.  At the time, I […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, Metrics & Operations

What Your First 100 Hires Will Look Like

What Your First 100 Hires Will Look Like

By Jason M. Lemkin on July 9, 2015

There’s an exercise I’ve been through with many founders that are just getting to Initial Traction, say $1m in ARR or so, sometimes less, where I map out their future hiring. They are often a bit shocked at how many people they are going to need to hire.  Because SaaS requires so many functions beyond […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, Hiring & Retention

Customer Success Is A Single Digit Hire

Customer Success Is A Single Digit Hire

By Jason M. Lemkin on July 2, 2015

We’ve talked on SaaStr about leaning in on Customer Success as much as possible. We’ve walked through why Second Order Revenue (i.e., the revenue ultimately generated or supported by Customer Success) is the key to growing a SaaS business. We’ve talked about how all the Second Timers are hiring in customer success way early, ahead of sales, […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Customer Success, Getting to Initial Traction

How to Sell to SMBs And Still Get to $100m in ARR

How to Sell to SMBs And Still Get to $100m in ARR

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 26, 2015

There’s a certain type of SaaS company I run from. This type of company has great customers, a great product, and decent customer acquisition costs, in an interesting space.  A true winner if you stop there. But … It sells to SMBs for anywhere from $5 to $199 a month. I sort of run at those […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction

A Quiet Plan B For When The Good Times Are a Smidge Less Good

A Quiet Plan B For When The Good Times Are a Smidge Less Good

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 20, 2015

“So my answer was: Nothing. No change.”

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, saas-startups

Just Remember, We Don’t Really Need Any More SaaS Products. Then You’ll Do Far Better.

Just Remember, We Don’t Really Need Any More SaaS Products. Then You’ll Do Far Better.

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 1, 2015

I guess in some ways SaaStr is a digest of mistakes we all make in recurring revenue businesses, how to avoid them, or at least, make fewer. There’s one important mistake folks tend to make consistently in the early days.  It’s the mistake of thinking anyone, any company, actually needs their product. And because they […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Customer, Getting to Initial Traction, google, google apps, saas-startups

See How Far Your VPs Can Take You. You May Be Surprised.

See How Far Your VPs Can Take You. You May Be Surprised.

By Jason M. Lemkin on April 2, 2015

The other day, I met with a great founder who talked with me about how he was about to top his VP of Sales.  This VP had gotten him from $0 to $1.5m in ARR in pretty short order, recruiting a great small team of reps under her, and had really nailed the formula.  But […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Traction, Hiring & Retention

If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months

If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 6, 2015

It seems like everyone wants to be a SaaS founder these days.  I meet with great VPs of Sales and Product in particular who are Ready.  It’s time.  To go out on their own.  Start their own SaaS company. Awesome. I get it.  I’d like to recruit you to be a VP at one of […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged cloud computing, Entrepreneur, Getting to Initial Traction, Instagram, saas-startups, salesforce.com, software as a service

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

feed mail facebook twitter linkedin

Popular Posts

  • Home
  • SaaS Startup Strategy – Three SaaS Sales Models
  • Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle Org Chart
  • Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2011: Idea Management Enlightenment
  • The Feature Adoption Framework for Social Collaboration
  • 10 Critical Requirements for Cloud Applications
  • IBM PureApplication Systems: It Is Not PaaS. Period. But
  • The Documentation Maturity Model (infographic)

Archives

Authors

  • Adron Hall
  • Chirag Mehta
  • Christian Reilly
  • Dan Morrill
  • Derek Pilling
  • Hutch Carpenter
  • Jarret Pazahanick
  • Jason M. Lemkin
  • Joel York
  • John Taschek
  • Krishnan Subramanian
  • Mark Suster
  • Michael Krigsman
  • Ofir Nachmani
  • Paul Miller
  • Quinton Wall
  • Randy Bias
  • Robert Duffner
  • Sadagopan
  • wprss
  • Zoli Erdos
Sponsored by: