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. […]
Your Sales Efficiency Will Probably Plummet Toward $10m ARR. Plan For It.
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 […]
Hacking Demo Days like an SDR
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 […]
How Awful It Was in ’08-’09 … And What We Learned
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 […]
Don’t Fear Business Process Change. It’s (Usually) a Good Thing.
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 […]
Don’t Worry Too Much If All Your Customers are in “Tech”
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 […]
What Your First 100 Hires Will Look Like
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 […]
Customer Success Is A Single Digit Hire
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, […]
How to Sell to SMBs And Still Get to $100m in ARR
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 […]
A Quiet Plan B For When The Good Times Are a Smidge Less Good
“So my answer was: Nothing. No change.”
Just Remember, We Don’t Really Need Any More SaaS Products. Then You’ll Do Far Better.
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 […]
See How Far Your VPs Can Take You. You May Be Surprised.
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 […]
If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months
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 […]
The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine
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 […]
