The Journey to the Billion Dollar Exit with ServiceMax and Emergence Capital (Video + Transcript)
Hear how Dave Yarnold, CEO of ServiceMax, in partnership with Jason Green, General Partner and Founder at Emergence Capital, navigated the challenges that every CEO faces when building a billion dollar business. Also, don’t miss out on SaaStr Annual happening in less than one month!. FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW Dave Yarnold– CEO of ServiceMax Jason […]
Why Culture is a Key Criterion for Raising Capital and Driving Growth with Idinvest partners (Video + Transcript)
What are you doing to build and maintain the culture in your startup? Or has culture been put on the backburner as you have scaled? Well, it’s time to put culture at the forefront of your startup if you are looking for more funding in 2019. Jonathan Userovici, VC at Idinvest Partners, talks about culture […]
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 […]
Why You Can’t Search for a Job From a Remote Location
I’ve had this conversation many times. A friend calls me up from: Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, wherever and says, “I’m thinking about moving to Los Angeles (or SF, NY, etc) and I’d love to start interviewing. Let me know if you hear of anything interesting.” I usually slip into counsel mode and tell […]
Don’t Ever Make Anyone “Head of Sales / Marketing / Engineering / Whatever” in SaaS
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, […]
Everything is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value)
As you try to hire up for your SaaS company, you’re going to faced with a lot of choices and trade-offs. No hire is the perfect package. Do you take a risk on someone a little more junior than you’d like? Someone from a company a little larger than you’d like? Someone from a very […]
If Your VP Sales Isn’t Going to Work Out — You’ll Know in 30 Days
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to make that critical hire: the VP Sales. I’ve done it right, and I’ve done it wrong. When it’s good … it’s just so good. It all clicks. But when you make a mis-hire, it’s about the worst mis-hire you can make. Because you’ll lose not just […]
Purple Squirrels
It is fashionable to talk about talent shortage in the silicon valley. People whine about how hard it is to find and hire the “right” candidates. What no one wants to talk about is how the hiring process is completely broken. I need to fill headcount: This is a line that you hear a lot […]
Should Your VP Sales Start Off as a Player-Coach?
The moment comes when it’s time to hire your first VP Sales. We’ve talked in the past about the 48 Different Types of VP Sales, What a VP Sales Really Does, and even given you a Script to Use When Interviewing a VP Sales. So then that time comes. Probably, unless you have a ton […]
By The Time You Give Them a Raise, They’re Already Out The Door
There’s an endless amount written on the ‘net about hiring Rockstars. Finding them, not settling, and all that. That you need to spend 20%+ of time recruiting (I said that myself here). That the #1 most important thing you can do is put together a great team. Which is absolutely true. But the #2 most […]
Why Hiring From Your Direct Competitors Usually Doesn’t Work Out
The time will come when you are first tempted to hire someone from your competitor. They must know so many things we don’t. Have so many skills. It’s pretty tempting. People will tell you about the risks in litigation, trade secrets, etc. I don’t think any of those are necessarily a big deal or a […]
What a Great VP Sales Actually Does. Where The Magic Is. And When to Hire One.
In SaaS, #1 most common mishire, with a bullet, is the VP/head of sales. In fact, there a VC saying that I used to really hate. It goes something like “You’ve Got to Get Past the Carcass of Your First VP of Sales” or “It’s The Second VP of Sales When You Really Start Selling” […]
Post-Traction, You Need to Spend 20% of Your Time Recruiting
Love him or hate him, Nick Saban is the most successful college football coach of the current generation. Winner of 3 out of 4 of the last national championships. And how often is he recruiting? Every. Single. Day. In fact, every single day he and his team go into their Recruiting War Room, and analyze […]
Do You Scale? It’s Harder in SaaS.
Generally speaking, I think scaling product in SaaS is about 10x easier than consumer internet. Not easy mind you, but 10x easier. Why? Even Salesforce.com only has a tiny fraction of the concurrent sessions of Twitter, let alone Facebook. Your SaaS apps? It will likely barely tax a couple of instances at AWS. I […]
