The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
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891 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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SaaStr 293: OpenView Partner Ashley Smith on Using Product Led Growth as an Indicator for Investment
19 december 2019 · 19 min
Congratulations you've built a product that's proven itself in the marketplace! So how can you leverage that product's success to obtain the valuation and funding you need to scale? Ashley Smith, Venture Partner at OpenView will provide insight on what investors are looking for in product metrics and growth indicators so you can capitalize on your product's story for funding. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19
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SaaStr 292: Most Downloaded Founder Episode of 2019 with Manny Medina, Founder & CEO @ Outreach
16 december 2019 · 27 min
This interview originally aired as Episode 229 on April 29, 2019. Lees meer
Manny Medina is the Founder & CEO @ Outreach, the market leading sales engagement platform that turns your team into a revenue driving machine. To date, Manny has raised over $114m in funding from some great people including friends of the show in the form of Alex Clayton @ Spark, Mayfield, Trinity Ventures and DFJ Growth, just to name a few. Prior to founding Outreach, Manny spent 7 years with Microsoft where he ran the Latin America and Canada business development group for Microsoft's emerging mobile division, representing $50M of yearly revenue. Befofe that Manny was a Senior Product Manager @ Amazon where he engineered the compensation system for Amazon Associates and Web-Services which accounts for 15% of Amazon's traffic.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Manny made his way to found the leader in sales engagement from product management at Amazon and Business Development @ Microsoft.
How does Manny fundamentally approach managing top of funnel? What are the 2 big dangers of not managing it aggressively? What can be done to ensure not only full but high quality top of funnel?
Why does Manny believe it is so important to track pipeline coverage as one of your core metrics? What does good look like when it comes to pipeline coverage? How does this change if you are creating vs in an existing market? How does Manny think about specialisation within the sales function? Why are SDR's 99% of the time not able to carry leads to completion?
How does Manny think about quota construction today? Does Manny err on the side of setting high to be ambitious or setting low to increase confidence? How can managers really empower their reps to be aggressive in hitting their quota and exceeding it? How does Manny think about resource allocation on the individual rep level? What is sufficient? What is excessive?
Does Manny believe that the founder should always be responsible for selling their product at o…
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SaaStr 291: LucidChart CEO Karl Sun on Top Lessons Learned From Our Best and Worst Marketing Experiments
12 december 2019 · 24 min
Lucidchart has been recognized as one of the most mature Product Lead Growth business models in the market, driving over 700,000 registrations per month, combined with a hyper-efficient B2B business model. It didn't happen by accident. It happened through experimentation: from extensive A/B testing (with over 500 marketing tests completed in 2018), to testing crazy brand videos (which have garnered over 200 million views and was named the only ad campaign that truly mattered in 2018 by Adweek), to constant iteration and expansion of the business model. Lees meer
Experimental marketing brings together the science and art of marketing, allowing for creativity that drives results. It's an essential skill in the toolkit of the modern marketer, and one that's easy to get started with, no matter your company scale.
Key Takeaways:
- Discover how to start or extend your marketing experimentation.
- Learn how marketing experimentation can apply across funnels, brands, and business models.
- Get tips on how to build a culture of experimentation that fosters creativity and drives business results.Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19.
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SaaStr 290: How To Sell To CIOs Successfully; Discounting, Freemium, Trials, Multi-Year Contracts, Transparency on Product Roadmap; The Ultimate Guide with Yousuf Khan, Serial CIO, Startup & VC Advisor
9 december 2019 · 37 min
Yousuf Khan is a serial CIO, start-up and VC advisor. Most recently Yousuf was the CIO & VP of Customer Success @ Moveworks, the advanced AI built for enterprise providing automatic resolution of IT issues. During his time at the company, they raised over $108m from Lightspeed, ICONIQ, Kleiner, Sapphire and Bain Capital. Pre Moveworks, Yousuf was CIO @ Pure Storage during their period of hypergrowth both as a private and public company. Finally, before Pure, Yousuf's first role in the valley was with Qualys again as CIO where he owned the entire global IT budget. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Yousuf made his way from the UK to the valley and how that led to his becoming one of the leading CIOs today in the rising prominence of CIOs in enterprise?
How open and can transparent can CEOs be with CIOs? Do CIOs know the state of early-stage companies in terms of their cash situation, fundraising etc? Does that ever put them off buying? What is the right tone and temperament to take with those CIOs in the first meetings? How does Yousuf advise founders on quality or quantity of logos in the early days?
How does Yousuf advise CEOs approach CIOs when it comes to discounting? Do they make a difference to the buying decision of the CIO really? Should founders offer discounts in exchange for customer testimonials? How can CEOs provide alternative forms of social validity to other CIOs in the ecosystem, other than case studies?
How does Yousuf advise founders approach CIOs when it comes to multi-year deals? Does the mindset of the CIO change when the deal is paid upfront? How should the founders position that? When it comes to implementation, how important is time to value in the mind of the CIO? What is the worst thing a founder can do when discussing implementation?
Yousuf's 60 Second SaaStr:
What separates good from great when it comes to CIOs?
What makes the best board members?
What are Yousuf's biggest strengths and weaknesses?
Read the transcript on our blo…
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SaaStr 289: Salesloft CEO Kyle Porter, Zoom Head of Sales Ops Hilary Headlee and FireEye VP of WW Commercial SalesChristina Foley on 7 Key Tips & Tricks to Getting More Revenue Per AE
5 december 2019 · 23 min
Salesloft CEO Kyle Porter, Zoom Head of Sales Ops Hilary Headlee and Fireeye VP of WW Sales Christina Foley share the seven tips and tricks to getting more revenue per AE. Lees meer
This episode is an excerpt of a SaaStr Annual 2019 session. You can see the full video on our YouTube channel.
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SaaStr 288: Why Marketing Is The Gatekeeper of Customer Experience, The Relationship Between Customer Success and Marketing Today & How To Reduce Friction in The Hand-Off From Marketing to Sales with Des Cahill, CMO @ Oracle CX Cloud Suite
2 december 2019 · 37 min
Des Cahill is the Chief Marketing Officer for Oracle CX Cloud Suite, an integrated set of marketing, sales, commerce and service solutions that power customer experience for thousands of leading global brands. Prior to Oracle, Des was the CMO @ Kerio Technologies marketing to over 60,000 SMB customers and 5,000 channel partners. Before Kerio, Des was the CMO @ Ensighten, where he helped grow the customer base from 10 to 100 and revenues from $2M to $14M. Des has also spent time as CEO having founded and grown Habeas Inc from 0 to 450 customers, $9M in revenue and raising 3 rounds of venture financing. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Des made his way into the world of startups and came to be CMO of Oracle's CX Cloud suite?
Why does Des believe customers are more unpredictable now than ever before? How is their behaviour fundamentally changing? What are some great examples of how Des has seen companies amend to the changing consumer demands?
How does this change the role of the marketer today? How does this change the prioritisation of customer experience for marketers? What are the challenging elements of this change? How does the role of marketing also integrate with the post-sale and customer success with much of their content being used there?
How does Des think about the relationship between marketing and sales teams? What are Des' biggest tips on how to reduce friction in the handoff from marketing to sales? What works? What does not work? What is the right OKR to measure marketing teams? Does it have to be tied directly to revenue?
Des' 60 Second SaaStr:
Biggest breakdown in the working of an efficient funnel?
Who is killing it in SaaS marketing today and why?
Advice in SaaS you commonly hear but disagree with?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Des Cahill
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SaaStr 287: Slack's Head of NA Sales Kevin Egan and Head of Mid-Market Sales Dannie Herzberg on going From Freemium to Enterprise
28 november 2019 · 23 min
Kevin Egan, Slack's VP of North American Sales and Dannie Herzberg, Slack's Director of Sales as discuss their strategies for going from Freemium to Enterprise at Slack. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
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SaaStr 286: The Biggest Sales Hiring Mistakes and Lessons From Them, How To Win At Hosting B2B Events & How To Apply True Customer Segmentation and Focus To Your Customer Base with Allie Janoch, Founder & CEO @ Mapistry
25 november 2019 · 33 min
Allie Janoch is the Founder & CEO @ Mapistry, the startup that makes environmental compliance simple. As for Allie, prior to founding Mapistry she started her career in MIT's Lincoln Lab before joining IQ Engines (acquired by Yahoo). Post acquisition, Allie integrated the technology built at IQ Engines into Flickr search. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Allie made her way from the world of Yahoo to founding the game changer of environmental compliance in Mapistry? Having had both big company, small startup and founding experience, what would Allie advise new graduates entering the workforce today?
What were the biggest mistakes that Allie made when it comes to sales hiring? What were the learnings from those mistakes? How does Allie advise other founders on scaling sales teams? How does Allie think about sales rep payback period? How can one determine the effectiveness of a sales rep when they are engaging in 9-12 month sales cycles?
How does Allie think about the importance of focus applied to customer segmentation today? How does Allie measure true customer success? NPS? Churn? Product analytics? How does Allie explain the macro market size to VCs when they initially see the small customer segment?
Why did Allie start doing their own events with Mapistry? How should startups think about whether events are the right strategy for them or not? How should founders think about resource allocation and budget when it comes to events? How does Allie measure the ROI of events?
Allie's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Allie know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
What would Allie most like to change about the world of tech and Silicon Valley?
What is the biggest challenge for Allie today with Mapistry?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Allie Janoch
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SaaStr 285: Adyen CCO Roelant Prins and Felicis Ventures Partner Aydin Senkut on How to Build a $18B+ Success Story Far Far Away from Silicon Valley
22 november 2019 · 22 min
Hear about Adyen's journey from a Dutch payments startup to a global public company with more than 15 offices around the world working with large global companies like Facebook, Spotify, Uber, and Microsoft. CCO Roelant Prins shares lessons from the company's own global growth path and will be giving practical tips for companies who are thinking about expanding their business globally. Roelant is joined by Felicis Ventures Founder, Aydin Senkut, who shares the commonalities he sees in successful companies...starting with culture. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
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SaaStr 284: Why We Need To Remove The Title of CRO, What Happens If You Apply Customer Success To A Venture Portfolio & Why Net Retention Is The Most Important North Star Metric In SaaS with Travis Bryant, Partner for Founder Experience @ Redpoint Venture
18 november 2019 · 38 min
Travis Bryant is Partner for Founder Experience @ Redpoint Ventures, the venture fund with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Netflix, Zuora, Hashicorp and Juniper Networks just to name a few. As for Travis, prior to joining Redpoint, Travis was head of Customer Growth at Front, after spending 5 years building the global Sales organization at Optimizely, the world's most popular experimentation platform. During his time at Optimizely, the company grew from from $7 to >$90M in ARR and from 40 to 400 people. Before Optimizely, Travis spent 6 years at Salesforce in a number of sales roles including building the first Platform Sales team. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Travis made his way into the world of venture as the first ever Partner for founder experience at Redpoint? What were the 2 biggest lessons Travis took from Salesforce? How transformational is the 12 quarter year for Salesforce?
Why does Travis believe we need to abolish the title of CRO? Why does it suggest misalignment between customer and vendor from Day 1? What aspects of CRO's roles is Travis in favour of? What elements is he not in favour of? What does Travis advise founders when it comes to uniting customer facing teams?
Why does Travis believe that SaaS has upended the economic model but not the engagement model? How does the engagement model with customer need to shift? What does this do to the structure of the conventional funnel?
Why does Travis believe net retention must always be the guiding North Star? How does Travis think about the different steps to customer qualification today and what makes the best SDR's? What does Travis advise founders when it comes to churn analysis? What questions must you ask? What metrics must you look for?
Travis' 60 Second SaaStr:
What motto or quote do Travis frequently revert back to?
What is the most challenging element of Travis' role with Redpoint?
How should startup operators coming out of larger organizations determine which startup…
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SaaStr 283: SocialChorus Co-Founder Nicole Alvino on What I Learned About Corporate Ethics From Enron
14 november 2019 · 18 min
Nicole Alvino, founder of SocialChorus, shares some 'truth is crazier than fiction stories' about her time in structured finance at Enron and how she applied what she learned to build a company that has 10 of the Fortune 50 as customers. In your constant effort to grow and win, you'll get the 5 most important lessons on how to push the envelope just far enough - while keeping your ethics in check. Lees meer
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SaaStr 282: The Ultimate Guide To Remote Work; All vs Part Remote Teams, How To Maintain Culture Across Teams, Should Compensation Be Location Adjusted, How To Structure Internal Processes with Remote Teams, How Remote Teams Impact Hiring, Sales and Fundr
11 november 2019 · 27 min
Michael Pryor, Co-Founder & CEO @ Trello, now Head of Trello Product with Atlassian following their recent acquisition. Lees meer
Kolton Andrus is the Founder & CEO @ Gremlin, the failure as a service startup finds weaknesses in your system before they cause problems.
Dylan Serota, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer @ Terminal, the startup that helps you create world-class technical teams through remote operations as a service.
Rachel Carlson, Co-Founder and CEO @ Guild Education, the leader in education benefits offering the single most scalable solution for preparing the workforce of today for the jobs of tomorrow.
Sid Sijbrandi, Founder & CEO @ Gitlab, a single application for the entire software development lifecycle.
Jeppe Rindom is the Founder & CEO @ Pleo, the simple spending solution for your company automating expense reports and simplifying company expenses.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How should founders think about the debate between all remote vs part remote teams? How does life and operations change with each? What are the pros and cons? Is it possible to move between the two overtime?
What can one do to maintain culture with remote teams? What processes need to be in place to ensure a cohesive and streamlined communication process? What technical architecture needs to be in place? Where are the breakpoints when it comes to communication? How often does one need to do in person off-sites?
How does being remote or part remote impact fundraising? How do VCs think about this new structure of operations? What is the right way to present it? How does being outside a core tech hub impact one's ability to raise? How should one run a fundraising process if outside a core hub?
How important is it for your team to be near your customers? How does this change according to sector and customer base? How important is it for your team to be near your investors? Does having an exec and sales team in one place and the rest of the team elsewhere work?
Jason Lemk…
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SaaStr 281: Vista Equity Principal Rene Yang Stewart and Zapproved CEO Monica Enand on From Product Market Fit to Scale
7 november 2019 · 21 min
Rene Yang Stewart, Co-Head and Principal, Vista Equity Partners, and Monica Enand, Founder and CEO, Zapproved discuss growing a company from product market fit to scale. Vista Equity Partners invested in Zapproved in 2017. Hear perspectives from both the investor and founder on growth to scale. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution, and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!
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SaaStr 280: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Mixmax Head of Revenue Don Erwin on The Secrets to Managing a Successful Sales Team
4 november 2019 · 23 min
How do you manage a sales team when you're at a company with both Free and Freemium Sales-Driven Segments? What about SMB vs. Enterprise Sales? SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin sits down with Mixmax's Head of Revenue Don Erwin to discuss it all. Lees meer
Find notes for this episode on our blog.
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SaaStr 279: Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman on Building a $1B Marketplace
31 oktober 2019 · 21 min
Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman and Battery Ventures' Neeraj Agrawal walkthrough Glassdoor's $1.2 Billion story from its launch in 2008 to its 2018 acquisition by Recruit Holdings. Hear about the early days of Glassdoor; tactical lessons on scaling—from building a business model and recruiting an all-star management team to advice on building a compelling, innovative company culture; and learn why Glassdoor's $1.2 Billion acquisition is just one milestone in the early innings of the company's story. Lees meer
Follow SaaStr and our guests on Twitter:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Robert Hohman
Neeraj Agrawal
Sponsor message: Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution, and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!
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SaaStr 278: Do You Have To Scale From SMB To Enterprise Customers, How To Make The Transition Successfully, What Changes About Customer Acquisition and Support & Why Continuous Customer Development Is The Most Important Thing You Can Do With Krish Subrama
28 oktober 2019 · 30 min
Krish Subramanian is the Founder & CEO @ Chargebee, the startup that lets you go beyond billing, payments and recurring invoices — to delivering subscription experiences that "wow". To date, Chargebee have "wowed" some of the world's leading VCs to the tune of $38m including the likes of Insight Venture Partners, Tiger Global, Steadview and Accel Partners. As for Krish, under Krish's leadership the team has grown to over 300 people and over 5,000 clients making it one of the next generation in truly global SaaS businesses started in India. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Krish made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found one of India's fastest growing SaaS companies in Chargebee?
What does Krish mean when he says, "in SaaS, you either sell to one of 2 customer profiles"? How does Krish think about purely serving the SMB market? Does one have to move to enterprise? Does one have to expand the product line to retain customers? How does he think about the mortality rate of SMBs?
First, what is continuous customer development? Second, why does Krish believe it is one of the most important things any company must do? What is the process to do it efficiently? Does it have to be in person? What questions reveal the most? How should this data feedback into your product roadmap and pipeline?
How does Krish think your customer acquisition and GTM strategy has to change with the movement from SMB to enterprise? What are the biggest challenges in making this transition? How does your customer success and customer support functions change with the move to enterprise?
Krish's 60 Second SaaStr:
Biggest lessons from working with Lee Fixel?
How does one know when is the right time to introduce a new product?
What does Krish know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
…
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SaaStr 277: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Shopify Plus GM Loren Padleford on Revenue, Ecosystems and The Right Time to Go Upmarket
25 oktober 2019 · 45 min
When is the right time to go upmarket and how do you serve small, medium and large customers in the same company. SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin sits down with Shopify Plus GM Loren Padelford to discuss. Lees meer
Read the transcript on our blog.
Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution, and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!
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SaaStr 276: Airtable's VP of Customer Engagement Liat Bycel on Why "Hands Off Leadership" Does Not Work, How To Align The Ambitions Of An Individual With The Objectives of The Company & Unpacking The Dilemma of Whether To Go Horizontal Or Vertical When It
21 oktober 2019 · 31 min
Liat Bycel is VP of Customer Engagement @ Airtable, the startup that works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power to organise anything. To date, Airtable has raised over $170m in funding from some of the best in the business including Thrive, Coatue, Founder Collective, CRV and individuals like Patrick Collison, Ashton Kutcher and Raymond Tonsing to name a few. As for Liat, prior to Airtable, she was the Chief Revenue Officer @ Assist. Before Assist, Liat spent 6 years at Twitter where she first hand saw their hyper-growth, managing a team of 40 across New York and SF and also Liat achieved 102% to quota on average every year. Finally before Twitter, Liat was VP of Sales @ Revolution Prep where she led and managed 7 offices. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Liat made her way into the world of SaaS and came to be VP of Customer Engagement at one of Silicon Valley's hottest startups in Airtable?
What were Liat's biggest lessons from Twitter on how to hire successfully? What were some of the key takeaways from that experience on how, why and when to fire? Is there ever a right way to do it? How does Liat think about aligning both the personal ambitions of the person with the wider objectives of the company? Why does Liat reject the notion of "hands off leadership?"
Companies often worry about whether to go horizontal or vertical, how does Liat personally think about this choice? What does she advise founders as a result? What are the core questions they should ask to determine their strategy? What are the biggest challenges of having such a vertical product? How does it impact messaging and brand? Product roadmap? Pricing?
How does Liat think about challenging the traditional sales model? How does that challenge the structure of the conventional AE and SDR structure? How does Liat think Airtable is pushing up against the traditional customer success model? How has having children impacted how Liat thinks about operating today? What changes with children?
L…
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SaaStr 275: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta on Founder Struggles from Imposter Syndrome to Vulnerabilites
17 oktober 2019 · 31 min
SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin sits down with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta to discuss what it means to be a SaaS leader. What are the day-to-day struggles? The fears and the worries and what it means to be "crushing it" today. Lees meer
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Nick Mehta
This episode is sponsored by Owl Labs.
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SaaStr 274: Messagebird CEO Robert Vis on Scaling To A $60M Series A, Why You Should Not Try To "Scale" & Why You Need To Build Your Business Like A House
14 oktober 2019 · 30 min
Robert Vis is the Founder & CEO @ MessageBird, the company that allows you to talk to your customers via Voice, SMS and Whatsapp. The company raised a monster $60M Series A from Accel and Atomico with only one prior investor being Y Combinator. As for Robert, prior to MessageBird, he was co-founder and CEO of Zaypay.com which focused on driving mobile payments into 50+ countries, enabling 1.5bln users to pay for virtual goods through their phones (sold to Mobile Interactive Group (MIG). Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Robert made his way into the world of startups and SaaS and came to found Messagebird? What was the a-ha moment for him?
Why does Robert believe the most important element of being a founder is "thinking big"? How as a founder do you balance between thinking big with investors and then the day to day in the weeds with the team? How does Robert as Europe's mentality of thinking big today? Have our ambitions exceeded what they have been before? How does being in Benelux change how Robert thinks about global ambitions and growth ambitions?
What does Robert mean when he tells founders, "don't try to scale"? How does Robert think about knowing when a business is ready to scale? Where do many founders go wrong in the preparation for scale phase? What does one need to get in place before scaling?
Why did Robert wait 6 years before raising any VC money? Why did he decide then was the right time? Once the raise was in, did he feel the pressure of suddenly having a lot of VC funding? How did his mindset to capital allocation change post-raise? How did he see his decision-making process change post raise? How did raising from the US differ from raising in the UK?
Robert's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Robert know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time with Messagebird?
What keeps Robert up at night?
What are Robert's strengths and weaknesses?
What advice in SaaS does Robert most often hear that he disagrees with?
Read the transc…
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SaaStr 273: Atlanta Tech Village Founder David Cummings on 7 Lessons Helping Start Pardot, SalesLoft, and Calendly
10 oktober 2019 · 24 min
David Cummings is the co-founder of the Atlanta Tech Village, Pardot which sold to ExactTarget/Salesforce.com, Hannon Hill, Rigor, SalesLoft (raised over $75M in capital), Terminus (raised over $25M in capital), and several more. Hear his lessons learned over the years from Pardot to Calendly. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what David talks about:
How large a role does funding play?
Matching pricing to value
How to continuously level up talent
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution, and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!
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SaaStr 272: Asana's Head of Marketing Dave King on How We Are Entering The Third Wave of SaaS Marketing, What That Means For SaaS Marketers and Companies Today & What B2B Marketing Can Learn From B2C
7 oktober 2019 · 29 min
Dave King is the Head of Marketing at Asana, the work management platform that teams use to stay focused on the goals that grow their business. To date, Asana has raised over $210m from some of the biggest names in tech including Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreesen, Ben Horowitz, Sean Parker, Ron Conway, Benchmark, Founders Fund and more incredible names. As for Dave, prior to joining Asana, he led the marketing teams at Percolate, Highfive, and Salesforce Community Cloud. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did Dave make his way into the world of SaaS and startups? When did he realise his love of marketing SaaS companies?
What does Dave mean when he says, "we are entering the 3rd wave of marketing"? What were the 1st and 2nd chapters? What does the "3rd wave" of marketing mean for marketers today? How does it change what marketing should be focusing on? How does it change how marketing works with sales and customer success?
What does Dave mean when he says, "offsites serve as a crutch for 2 core elements of the marketer's role"? How does Dave advise marketers on crafting their playbook? What are the core questions to ask? Where does Dave see many going wrong here? How does one turn a playbook into a repeatable, measurable process? With channel volatility being so high, is it possible to have a repeatable and predictable process?
What are Dave's biggest observations on what B2B marketers can learn from B2C? How does that change how Dave thinks about new campaigns and community building with Asana today? Who does Dave think has done this particularly well in the world of enterprise? Are there any challenges to trying to carry over B2C into the world of B2B?
Dave's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Dave know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his career in marketing?
Biggest breakdown in the working of an efficient funnel?
A moment in Dave's life that has served as an inflection point and changed the way he thinks?
Read the transcript on …
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SaaStr 271: Talkdesk SVP of Client Services Gillian Heltai on How to Build a CSM Team that Generates 130% Net Retention
3 oktober 2019 · 24 min
Talkdesk SVP of Client Services Gillian Heltai oversees Talkdesk's Customer Success and Technical Support teams, partnering closely with customers to achieve their CX vision. In this session, Gillian will walk you through how to build a high performing CSM Team. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Gillian talks about:
How to build a CSM team
Avoiding the mistake of over defining the candidate profile
How to divide responsibilities across roles
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution, and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!
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SaaStr 270: How To Scale Leader While Retaining Humanity and Personality, Why Starting At SMB Actually Makes Culture Easier & How To Make A Part-Remote Team Your New Superpower
30 september 2019 · 31 min
Jeppe Rindom is the Founder & CEO @ Pleo, the simple spending solution for your company automating expense reports and simplifying company expenses. To date, Jeppe has raised over $78m in funding for Pleo from some European favourites of mine in the form of Creandum and Vaestfonden and then also their most recent round led by Stripes Group in NYC. As for Jeppe, prior to founding Pleo he was the CEO @ Nodes, a design and development house that worked with brands including Loreal, BMW and Lego. Before that, Jeppe was the CFO @ Tradeshift where he first hand saw their scaling to 190 countries with offices in 6 different locations. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did Jeppe make his way into the world of startups and SaaS with his becoming CFO @ Tradeshift? What were his biggest learnings from Tradeshift and how did that impact his operating mentality? What was that a-ha moment for him with Pleo?
Why did Jeppe decide to focus on SMBs from Day 1? How does the product build in the early days differ when building for SMB vs enterprise? Why does Jeppe believe that building for SMB makes it easier to build a great culture internally? How does Jeppe think about when is the right time to move into enterprise? What changes?
How does Jeppe respond to 3 common concerns VCs have with SMBs:
The price points are so low that it takes huge volume to scale to meaningful revenue?
The mortality rate of SMBs is so high that you are going to always have high churn due to the customer segment?
Serving SMBs in the way that Pleo does is an intensely competitive space, is this a winner-take-all market? How does Jeppe think about competition?
How does Jeppe think about NPS today? How does Jeppe approach the problem of agency when the buyer is not the user? How does Jeppe think about being customer informed but not customer-driven?
Pleo has a part-remote work structure, why does Jeppe advocate for this structure in the face of many saying it either has to be remote or not? What has P…
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SaaStr 269: Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre on How to Close your First 1000 Customers Based Solely on Data
26 september 2019 · 22 min
Gorgias helps brands automatically respond to basic questions, and track the impact of customer service on sales so support becomes a profit center. Join CEO Romain Lapeyre as he walks you through how to close your first 1000 customers based solely on data. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Romain talks about:
How to build a growth machine
How you can tailor onboarding to customers
Using data to your advantage
You can find the full video and transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Traditional customer beta testing can't keep up with the speed of Agile or the demands of continuous delivery. Centercode's approach to real-world Delta Testing fuels product and engineering teams with actionable quality and UX insights before every new release. Visit Centercode.com to learn more.
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SaaStr 268: G2 CMO, Ryan Bonnici on Lessons Learned From Scaling Marketing Team From 5 to 70, The Most Important Role of The CMO Today and How To Create Alignment Between CRO and CMO
23 september 2019 · 41 min
Ryan Bonnici is the CMO @ G2, the company that allows you to get the right software and services for your business with over 897,000 user reviews to help you make smarter buying decisions. As for Ryan, prior to G2 he was Senior Director of Global Marketing at Hubspot where among many other achievements, he scaled HubSpot's marketing-generated sales revenue by 330% year-over-year. Before Hubspot, Ryan was Head of Marketing @ Salesforce (APAC) where he led his team to achieve 227% YoY net-new sales sourced through marketing. Due to his success, Ryan has been named to Forbes' List of World's Most Influential CMOs. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Ryan made his way into the world of SaaS from Sydney, Australia and came to be one of the world's leading CMOs with G2 today? What were Ryan's biggest takeaways from his time at Salesforce? How did it change his mindset?
What are the core differences when comparing marketing functions at the likes of Salesforce to smaller companies like G2? What can they learn from each other? Where does Ryan sit on whether marketing is an art or a science today? How did Ryan turn a $6,000 initiative at Hubspot into a product that generated $64m net revs?
What have been Ryan's biggest lessons in what it takes to acquire the best talent? How does Ryan build candidate pipe? What works most effectively? How does Ryan structure and run the process? What core questions does Ryan ask and find most revealing of the individual's character? What does Ryan love to see in a candidate?
Does Ryan agree that marketing teams should always be held directly accountable to a number tied to revenue? What type of CMO would Ryan bucket himself as; demand gen or brand? How does Ryan think about the relationship between the two?
Ryan's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his career in marketing?
What is the biggest BS that Ryan often hears in the world of marketing?
Which marketing leader does Ryan mo…
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SaaStr 267: Menlo Ventures Partner Naomi Ionita on 3 Lessons in Monetization - Matching Price to Value
19 september 2019 · 24 min
SaaS is about creating long-term value for your customer, and being compensated appropriately for that value as a business. Learn actionable monetization tips from a Product/Growth operator turned VC, Menlo Ventures Partner Naomi Ionita. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Naomi talks about:
How to avoid underpricing your product
Fitting your businesses' product to the market
This podcast is an excerpt of Naomi's session at SaaStr Annual 2019. You can watch the full video on our website.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Naomi Ionita
Today's sponsor: Traditional customer beta testing can't keep up with the speed of Agile or the demands of continuous delivery. Centercode's approach to real-world Delta Testing fuels product and engineering teams with actionable quality and UX insights before every new release. Visit Centercode.com to learn more.
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SaaStr 266: Zoom CMO Janine Pelosi on Why MQLs and SQLs Are Not Helpful As Labels, How To Create Alignment Between Sales and Marketing & How The Role of CMO Has Changed So Dramatically Over The Years
16 september 2019 · 23 min
Janine Pelosi is the CMO @ Zoom, the next-generation enterprise phone system. Prior to their very successful IPO, Zoom raised funding from some of the best in the business including Sequoia, Emergence Capital, Horizons Ventures and 2 of my favourites in the form of Matt Ocko @ Data Collective and Dan Scheinman. As for Janine before joining Zoom, she spent 11 years at Cisco where among many incredible achievements she led worldwide demand gen for WebEx and led their worldwide digital marketing team with a $25M annual budget. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Janine made her way into the world of SaaS and came to be one of the leading CMOs today with Zoom?
How has the role of the CMO changed over the last 5 years? Would Janine agree with Jason Lemkin that "the role of the CMO is to execute the vision of the CEO"? What makes Janine and Eric's relationship so successful? What makes Eric the special leader that he is? How does the changing power of the CMO affect their relationship with the CEO?
When is the right time for startups to hire their first CMO? What should they look for in that ideal candidate? What should they have in place in terms of infrastructure, prior to hiring the candidate? What does the right onboarding process look like for a CMO? Where does Janine see many going wrong when hiring their first CMO?
How does Janine look to create alignment between sales and marketing? Why does Janine not believe in having the labels of "MQLs and SQLs"? How does Janine look to reduce the friction when handing off between marketing and sales? What are the common causes? How are we seeing marketing also blend with customer success?
Janine's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Janine know now that she wishes she had known at the start of her time at Zoom?
Who does Janine most respect in the world of marketing today? Why?
What would Janine most like to change about the world of SaaS today?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about …
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SaaStr 265: WP Engine SVP of Global Sales Matt Schatz on Building a $100M ARR Sales Team - The Second Time Around
12 september 2019 · 24 min
Matt Schatz is SVP of Sales at WPEngine, responsible for defining and executing the global sales strategy. Matt has nearly two decades of senior leadership experience in sales and customer growth, specifically for technology companies with customers around the world including Bazaarvoice, CityVoice and Rackspace. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Matt talks about:
Getting your "first story"
What is a lucky lead and how does that turn into predictable growth
Building trust across time zones
This podcast is an excerpt of Matt's session at SaaStr Annual 2019. You can watch the full session on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
WP Engine
Today's sponsor: Traditional customer beta testing can't keep up with the speed of Agile or the demands of continuous delivery. Centercode's approach to real-world Delta Testing fuels product and engineering teams with actionable quality and UX insights before every new release. Visit Centercode.com to learn more.
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SaaStr 264: Gainsight COO Allison Pickens on Why Customer Success and Product Management Are The New Sales and Marketing, How To Approach Building and Scaling "Services" As A Revenue Line & How To Build A CS Team On A Tight Budget
9 september 2019 · 33 min
Allison Pickens is the COO @ Gainsight, the company that provides everything you need to turn your customers into your biggest growth engine. To date Gainsight have raised over $184m from some of the world's best VCs in the form of Lightspeed, Bessemer, Insight Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and Salesforce Ventures just to name a few. As for Allison, in her 5 years at Gainsight her list of achievements in endless from running all functions that drive value for Gainsight customers, now a 150 person team, to building out the corporate development function to being the right hand to the CEO. Allison is also an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners and sits on the board of RainforestQA. Before Gainsight, Allison started her career in NYC with stints at Bain and The Boston Consulting Group. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Allison made her way into the world of SaaS with Gainsight from her start in finance at Bain in New York?
What does a strategic plan really mean to Allison? What is included in it? How should it be structured? In terms of ambition, how does one set ambitious enough plans to be a stretch but not a stretch too far? How does one tie their strategic plan to their financial plan? What is the right way to communicate this throughout the organisation?
Why does Allison believe product marketing and customer success are the new sales and marketing? What have been Allison's biggest lessons on how to effectively measure adoption? Who is accountable to this number? CS or product management? Does Allison believe that marketing needs to be held accountable to a number directly tied to revenue?
How does Allsion respond to the common negative of "services revenue"? What is an acceptable ratio of services to software revenue? How can one approach setting up a services team for scale? Why is having such a great CS team actually bad for product development in the long run? How can one mitigate this?
Allison's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does All…
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SaaStr 263: Eventbrite SVP of Platform Pat Poels on Engineering Your Own Luck - The 3 Key Rules of Building Globally Distributed Teams
5 september 2019 · 25 min
Building a company made up of distributed teams presents a plethora of complex challenges that can derail productivity and impact employee retention. But with it comes immense benefits and competitive advantages such as the diversification of ideas, speedier product development, and representation in important regions and time zones. Come and hear about the typical pitfalls (and how to avoid them) from Eventbrite SVP of Platform Pat Poels, an executive with over seven years under his belt leading Eventbrite's now 300+ strong engineering team that sits across North America, South America, and Europe. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Pat talks about:
Engineering your own luck
How to build an engineering team
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
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SaaStr 262: Box's Jon Herstein on How Customer Success Teams Should Structure, Schedule and Execute on Customer Check Ins, Why Delight is Important But Insufficient & Why Customer Success Is Not Responsible For Upsell
2 september 2019 · 37 min
Jon Herstein is the Chief Customer Officer at Box, the company that provides one platform for secure content management, workflow and collaboration. Prior to their IPO, Box had raised funding from some of the best in the business including Andreesen Horowitz, Bessemer, DST, Emergence and Meritech, just to name a few. As for Jon, prior to being Chief Customer Officer at Box, he was Senior VP of Customer Success, responsible for all post-sales services Box provides from implementation to user adoption and more. Before Box, Jon spent 4 years as VP of Professional Services at NetSuite and prior to that, close to 8 years as Senior Director of professional services at Informatica. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did Jon make his way into the world of SaaS and come to be one of the leading figures in the rising tide of the customer success movement?
What does Jon mean when he says, "you have to constantly bring your customers to the forefront of your employees minds"? For non-customer facing roles, what can one do to give them that perspective? Does it work to ensure every function spends time in customer support? What is challenging about that? What can be done in the onboarding phase to ensure the individual has the most empathy for the customer, regardless of function?
For those in CS, what is the right communication cadence to check in with their accounts? What should the agenda look like? What outcomes should they drive towards? Should they be involved in the upsell process? How does Jon think about post-mortems on churned clients? How do they structure them? What lost client stands out to Jon and what would he have done differently to retain them?
From Jon's experience seeing Box in hyperscaling, at what stages do SaaS orgs start to break down? Why does Jon think that is? What can be done to proactively try and mitigate this? How does Jon think about the structuring of roles and responsibilities with scale? What does this done well look like? Where do many p…
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SaaStr 261: Workday EVP of the Planning Business Unit Tom Bogan on The Top Lessons Learned in Getting to $100M ARR
29 augustus 2019 · 22 min
Tom Bogan, CEO of Adaptive Insights, a Workday company, will review the key principles to building a successful SaaS company. From team to vision to metrics to funding and more, these principles provide the framework for high-growth, high performing SaaS companies. Lees meer
How can you develop a winning culture? How can you set aggressive but realistic goals? What's needed to build the right team in SaaS today?
Missed the session? Here's what Tom talks about:
The important maxims about team building
Insights on fundraising and why you might not want to always raise at the highest valuation
Personal stories from his time building Adaptive Insights
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
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SaaStr 260: HelloSign COO, Whitney Bouck on How Startups Can Attract The Most Seasoned Execs In SaaS, How To Determine Whether A Seasoned Exec Has True Startup Fabric & What Separates Good From Great When It Comes To COOs
26 augustus 2019 · 40 min
Whitney Bouck is the COO @ HelloSign (now a part of Dropbox). For those that do not know, HelloSign is the company reimagining how you approach your most important business agreements with their award-winning e-Sign solution. As for Whitney, she directly leads the organization's go-to-market efforts, including sales, marketing, business development and customer operations. Whitney is also an advisor to companies funded by the YC Continuity Fund, focusing on enterprise strategy, go-to-market strategy, leadership and execution. If that was not enough, Whitney is also on the board of Ekata, building the global standard in identity verification. Finally, prior to HelloSign Whitney spent close to 5 years at Box where as SVP Global Marketing & GM Enterprise she took on all of marketing globally for Box and was responsible for reshaping the company brand from SMB to enterprise. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Whitney made her way into the world of SaaS originally with Box and how that led to her coming one of today's leading COOs with HelloSign? What were Whitney's biggest takeaways from seeing the hypergrowth of Box? How did that change her operating mentality?
What does truly successful exec leadership look like in Whitney's mind? When is the right time for founders to think about building out their first exec team? What common mistakes do they make in the process? What can founders do to attract seasoned SaaS execs to their early-stage company? What are the questions that suggest an individual has a startup culture to them? What are the indications that they are a "big company" person?
What does Whitney believe is the new role of the CIO? What has changed about their tole and what has driven this change? With their coming front and centre in the org, how does that change both the reporting and operating structure of the business? What are the nuances and intricacies of this role that many do not often consider?
COO is thrown around as a term today, what does it…
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SaaStr 259: Pipedrive SVP of Global Sales Tara Bryant on Addressing the Ugly Side of Growth
22 augustus 2019 · 23 min
Our guest today is Pipedrive SVP of Global Sales Tara Bryant. Lees meer
Globalization opens up a world of opportunities for sales growth. We often focus on the positive sides of growth—but what about taking a look at the ugly sides? Even what we could consider "good problems" need preparation, and it starts by understanding your team and your goals, including knowing when and how to recruit members of your team, and building in a way that compliments your growth. Do you need more man-power on the customer facing side, or do you need to bring in new management to keep everything in line? Growth isn't always linear, and the steps to success aren't always one after the other. How do you prioritize and organize to bring the best possible results? This side of success can be scary, but knowing how to prepare can set you up to reach your companies long term growth goals.
Missed the session? Here's what Tara talks about:
What does the ideal candidate look like?
How to hire your core staff really well
Enabling salespeople to share learnings
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
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SaaStr 258: Plaid CEO and Co-Founder Zach Perret on How to Build a Platform that Fuels an Ecosystem
15 augustus 2019 · 25 min
Companies that have access to more accurate financial data have the ability to develop seamless exchanges of information, providing consumers with improved ways to manage their finances. But how do companies gain secure access to that data in the first place? Enter the platform company. Hear from Plaid co-founder and CEO, Zach Perret and CNBC's Ari Levy as he walks through his lessons learned building Plaid and how it found itself at the center of the fintech ecosystem. Lees meer
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Zach Perret
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SaaStr 257: How To Scale Sales Culture Successfully and Sustainably, The Leading Indicators of Burnout and What To Do & The 2 Inflection Points In SaaS Growth Where Things Start To Break with Justin Welsh, Former SVP Sales @ PatientPop
12 augustus 2019 · 26 min
Justin Welsh is the former SVP Sales @ PatientPop, the startup that offers the first all-in-one practice growth platform that's HIPAA-compliant and is proven to grow your practice. During his 5 years at PatientPop, Justin grew sales from $0 to $56m alongside the full build-out of the sales team. Before PatientPop, Justin was one of the first 10 employees at ZocDoc, where he spent 4 years in different roles including Director of Strategic Sales. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Justin made his way into the world of Sales and came to be one of the industry's leading scale up Sales leaders with PatientPop and ZocDoc?
How did Justin experience burnout? What were the first indications and signals for him that he was suffering from it? How did it manifest itself in how he carried himself and his behaviour? How did Justin communicate the situation to his bosses? What does Justin advise others in communicating burnout to their superiors?
As a manager observing their team, what are signs that an individual is burning out? What is the right way to approach them to discuss the situation? What options do managers have available to them when faced with a burned out employee? How does micro-management fit into the signals that suggest clear burnout of the individual?
Justin has said before that "culture must precede performance", what did he mean by this? What actions and communications must they adopt to ensure that this feeling of culture over performance is accepted by the team? With that in mind, how does Justin think about KPI and goal-setting? What can leaders do to create an environment of safety for their team? Where do many leaders go wrong here?
Having seen multiple scaling culture, where do SaaS organisations tend to break down both in terms of culture and process? What are those inflection points? What can be done to actively mitigate these 2 significant points of failure?
Justin's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Justin know now that he wishes he had known when…
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SaaStr 256: Google Cloud VP of Engineering Eyal Manor and Zenoss CMO Megan Lueders
8 augustus 2019 · 20 min
As a global technology provider powering thousands of SaaS companies, Google is at the forefront of driving exciting and innovative technologies to market. Eyal Manor and Megan Lueders host a fireside chat between Google Cloud and Zenoss, a leader in software-defined IT operations. They discuss the most common and emerging challenges facing SaaS companies today. You'll also learn how leading SaaS companies are able to scale and thrive in this complex, dynamic environment. Join us for this lively discussion between two innovators. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Eyal and Megan talks about:
How to develop software faster
The emergence of new A.I. services
Why the "strongest" conversations need to happen between engineering and marketing
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
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SaaStr 255: Why Enablement Must Be An Early Investment and How To Structure It, Why The SaaS Incumbents of Today Are Not As Strong As We Think & How To Build A Sales Culture of Confidence Without Arrogance with Vikas Bhambri, SVP Sales and Customer Experi
5 augustus 2019 · 36 min
Vikas Bhambri is SVP Sales and Customer Experience @ Kustomer, the startup providing Real-time, actionable views of customers with continuous omnichannel conversations and intelligence that automates repetitive, manual tasks. To date they have raised over $113m in financing from some of the best in the business including Tiger Global, Battery Ventures, Boldstart, Canaan, Cisco and Redpoint just to name a few. Prior to Kustomer, Vikas spent over 20 years implementing, consulting, marketing, and selling CRM and ContactCenter solutions with companies like LivePerson and Oracle. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Vikas made his way into the world of SaaS and came to be at the rocketship that is Kustomer?
Why does Vikas believe that a wave of SaaS incumbents are about to be displaced or disrupted? What about the changing tech stacks and infrastructures makes them vulnerable to up and comers? Does this not lead to a consolidatory environment? How does Vikas see the space play out in the coming years when it comes to acquisitions?
What have been the dramatic changes that have happened in sales over the last few years? What is the right way for startup founders to address sales rep onboarding? Why is it so crucial to invest in enablement in the early days? How should this enablement be structured? How does this change sales rep payback periods? What is a good payback period?
How does Vikas feel about discounting? If accepted, what must the startup ask for in return? How does Vikas think about multi-year deals? When are they good? What sort of terms make them less beneficial for the vendor?
How does Vikas think about professional services? What is a good margin for professional services? What ratio of revenue is healthy for professional services to account for? When should one look to hire their first customer success reps? What should they look for in those reps?
Vikas' 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Vikas know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What i…
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SaaStr 254: HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan on The Funnel is Dead, Long Live the Flywheel.
1 augustus 2019 · 22 min
The age-old sales funnel has worked fine for decades…until now. Flaws are being exposed, and a new model is imminent. Why is the sales funnel alone no longer an appropriate way thinking about customers? What will emerge to supplement or replace it? HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan and NEA's Hilarie Koplow-McAdams explore the evolution of the marketing and sales funnel you've been using for decades to generate traffic and convert and leads into customers. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Brian talks about:
Why a flywheel instead of a funnel?
What does the Grateful Dead have to do with Marketing…?
What role do T shaped people play?
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Brian Halligan
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SaaStr 253: TaskRabbit Founder Leah Busque on Lessons Learned from a Product Reboot
25 juli 2019 · 24 min
Leah Busque is currently a General Partner at Fuel Capital, an early stage venture fund located in Silicon Valley. She likes to invest across consumer, B2B saas, and technology infrastructure companies at the earliest stages. In 2008 Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world. She spent nearly a decade involved with the company as CEO and Executive Chairwoman before she sold the company to IKEA in October of 2017. Hear about her takeaways from a product reboot with TaskRabbit. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Leah talks about:
What are the lessons learned from a product reboot?
When bringing a product to market - what are the BHAGs?
How to navigate a product pivot.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Leah Busque
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SaaStr 252: How To Make The Transition From Founder Led Sales To Sales Team, The Truth About Raising a Series A Round As a Non-Bay Area Company and Why Employee 50 Is Such a Big Turning Point
22 juli 2019 · 28 min
Eric Christopher is the Founder and CEO @ Zylo, the software management system built for the cloud pioneering a new standard in software management. To date, Eric has raised over $12m for Zylo from some of the best in the business including Byron @ Bessemer, Salesforce, GGV, Semil @ Haystack and the team at High Alpha. Prior to founding Zylo, Eric was the VP of Sales @ Sprout Social leading the revenue operations for over 11,000 customers. Before Sprout Social he was VP of Sales at Shoutlet, responsible for global direct and channel sales teams and developing and managing strategic relationships. Finally, prior to Shoutlet, Eric spent over 7 years at ExactTarget as a Senior Business Development Manager which is where he met High Alpha's Scott Dorsey. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Eric made his way into the world of startups and SaaS? What were his biggest takeaways from working with Scott Dorsey @ ExactTarget? What was the founding moment with Zylo?
What have been Eric's biggest lessons when it comes to making the transition from founder led sales to sales team? What would we have done differently with the benefit of hindsight? What were the biggest challenges in the process?
How does Eric think about the importance of quantity vs quality of logos when acquiring your first few customers? Do big logo brand names really provide social validity or is it over-hyped? How does Eric think about discounting in the early days? What can founders do to really extract the most value from the discount they are giving away?
Why does Eric believe that hitting the employee 50 mark is a huge moment for founders and the scaling of the company? What fundamentally changes? What gets harder? What gets easier? How has Eric seen his role evolve with the scaling of the team? How does Eric think about goal and KPI setting with a much larger team? What needs to change? How does one create and retain accountability and ownership at scale?
Why does Eric believe that the bar for exe…
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SaaStr 251: Y Combinator Michael Seibel on a Decade of Learnings from Y Combinator
18 juli 2019 · 23 min
Michael Seibel is CEO and a partner at Y Combinator and co-founder of two startups – Justin.tv and Socialcam. He has been a partner at Y Combinator since 2013, advised hundreds of startups, and has been active in promoting diversity efforts among startup founders. Hear his take on the future of work with a decade in learnings from YCombinator. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Michael talks about:
How quickly should you hire?
When is the right time to sell a startup?
How large a differentiator will investors make in your company?
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Michael Seibel
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SaaStr 250: Why Enterprise Is Hard Again, Why To Be Successful in SaaS Today You Have To Find The Crumbs Falling From Incumbent Mouths and Why Large Orgs Are So Dysfunctional and How To Poach Talent From Them
15 juli 2019 · 35 min
Peter Yared is the Founder & CEO @ InCountry, the startup that allows you to operate globally with data residency as a service meaning they store your mission-critical data in it's country of origin, without compliance. To date, Peter has raised $8m for InCountry from some of my very favourites including Bloomberg Beta, Felicis, Ray Tonsing @ Caffeinated and CRV just to name a few. Prior to InCountry, Peter founded six and sold 6 enterprise software companies that were acquired by Sun, Citrix, VMware, Oracle, Sprinklr and Prograph. Previously, Peter was also the CTO/CIO of CBS Interactive where he brought CBS into the cloud. At Sun, Peter was the CTO of the Liberty identity consortium that designed SAML 2. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did Peter make his way into the world of enterprise SaaS with the founding and selling of 6 companies and how did InCountry come about? What is that founding moment?
Why does Peter feel like it enterprise is really hard again? Why is it no longer to come into large enterprises with a small contract and expand? How does Peter think about enterprise pilots today? Do they really mean anything? What proof points suggest an enterprise is really bought in? What benchmarks should startups bake into the agreements?
How does Peter think about and approach market sizing today? Why is market risk no longer a risk he is willing to take? Where do many entrepreneurs make mistakes when it comes to market timing? In terms of timing, how should entrepreneurs think about whether to start at SMB and move to enterprise or start enterprise and move to SMB? What are the considerations?
Why does Peter believe that large orgs are so dysfunctional today? What can founders do to extract the truly special talent out of these large orgs with big pay packets and troves of options? How has Peter found the transition from CTO to CEO this time? What have been some of the challenges? Where has he asked for external help?
Having built numerous successful r…
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SaaStr 249: New Relic CRO Erica Ruliffson-Schultz on Five Critical Steps to Scaling Enterprise
11 juli 2019 · 25 min
CRO Erica Ruliffson-Schultz has led New Relic through massive growth, scaling the company's enterprise business 10x since she joined the business pre-IPO. Growing a company's revenues, customer base, team, process, and product doesn't just happen without major work and strategy. Erica will share the five critical steps (and some lessons learned along the way) for scaling in the enterprise. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Erica talks about:
How to change up your marketing mix
How to transition from SMB to enterprise
Identifying your sweet spot target customers and leveraging your network to access those companies.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
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SaaStr 248: What Early Stage SaaS Companies Can Learn Most From Late Stage SaaS Co's, How Marketing Functions Change In SaaS Co's With Scale & Why The Most Powerful Mentorship Is Mentorship From Below with Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing @ Pendo
8 juli 2019 · 30 min
Joe Chernov is the VP Marketing @ Pendo, the startup that understands and guides your users allowing you to create products they cannot live without. To date they have raised over $108m in funding from some of the best in SaaS including Meritech, Salesforce, Battery, Spark Capital and Sapphire just to name a few. Prior to Pendo Joe was Chief Marketing Officer at Robin and before that he was the CMO @ InsightSquared where he led the transition from an email-driven leads model to an account-based marketing model. Before InsightSquared, Joe was Head of Content Marketing at Hubspot where he increased blog traffic by more than 1M visits/month and increased leads by 40%. Finally, pre-Hubspot, Joe held VP of Marketing roles at Kinvey and Eloqua. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Joe made his way into the world of startups and SaaS marketing many years ago? Does Joe really believe in the saying that, "no one really knows what they are doing?" Where are the nuances to it?
Joe has been CMO and then #2 and alternated between the 2 roles many times, so what the continuous alternating? How does switching from CMO to VP of Marketing prepare you better for each subsequent role? Does Joe agree with the saying that the best in marketing are able to "throw the playbook out of the window"?
What does Joe mean when he says, "the most powerful mentorship is mentorship from below"? What makes the best #2's just so good? What do they do? What advice would Joe give to a #2 in a role today? What can the individuals do to foster a relationship of deep trust and transparency?
Having worked at both early and late stage companies, what does Joe believe the early companies can learn from later stage companies? Does installing very severe ops not reduce the creativity of a young company? What does Joe believe that later stage companies can really learn and take from early-stage companies?
How do the marketing functions differ in both structure and process when comparing early to late stage…
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SaaStr 247: Hired CEO Mehul Patel on How to Move from Transactional to Recurring Revenue
4 juli 2019 · 21 min
Hear from Hired's CEO Mehul Patel on how to move from transactional to recurring revenue. Hired is a marketplace that matches tech talent with innovative companies. Hired combines job matching with unbiased career counseling to help people find a job they love. Through Hired, job candidates and companies have transparency into salary offers, competing opportunities and job details. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Mehul talks about:
How to leverage your company values to drive stability.
Hiring people, strategically.
Finding your pricing sweet spot.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Mehul Patel -
SaaStr 246: Dropbox CCO Yamini Rangan on 5 Myths That Stop SaaS Companies From Moving Upmarket
27 juni 2019 · 24 min
Dropbox Chief Customer Officer Yamini Rangan draws on 20 years of experience to challenge five common misconceptions about SaaS success. From beating the competition to over (or under) relying on Outbound, she offers a practical perspective on the frameworks that are holding businesses back from reaching their full potential in a changing landscape. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Yamini talks about:
How to increase the odds of reaching $1B in ARR
What is the pull upmarket, why do companies focus their attention there?
Common go-to-market myths and lessons.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
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SaaStr 245: The Ultimate Guide To ACVs; When and How To Increase Them, Revenue Optimisation Per Lead & What It Means To Truly Be An ARR First Company
24 juni 2019 · 26 min
David Skok is a serial entrepreneur turned VC at Matrix Partners. He founded four companies: Skok Systems, Corporate Software Europe, Watermark Software, and SilverStream Software and did one turnaround with Xionics. Three of the companies he founded went public and one was acquired. Lees meer
Jason Lemkin is the Founder @ SaaStr, the world's largest SaaS community and leading early-stage SaaS fund with investments in Automile, TalkDesk, Algolia and more.
Jason Vandeboom is the Founder of ActiveCampaign, a sales and marketing automation platform that enables small businesses around the world to meaningfully connect and engage with their customers. Since 2013 with their transition to SaaS have grown to more than $50 million in ARR in less than five years, while maintaining profitability.
Dave Kellogg is a leading technology executive, independent board member, advisor and angel investor. In his most recent role, Dave was the CEO @ Host Analytics where he quintupled ARR, halved customer acquisition costs and increased net retention rates before selling the company to a private equity sponsor.
Fred Shilmover is the CEO and co-founder of InsightSquared, one of Boston's premiere tech startups paving the way in the sales intelligence space. Throughout the InsightSquared journey, Fred has raised over $25m in VC funding from the likes of DFJ, Bessemer, Salesforce and Atlas Venture.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
Does David Skok believe that ACV should sit at the top of the metrics stack? What are the 4 metrics that fundamentally matter in your business? What can founders do to their pricing model to extract as much value from each customer? How do the very best businesses structure their pricing for value extraction?
If ACV increase is a core focus for our startup, should we hire a sales rep solely selling to enterprise? What are the biggest mistakes founders make in this scenario? What can founders do to optimise revenue per lead? How does on need o approach lead targeting a…
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SaaStr 244: Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen on How to Build a Truly Global Business from Day One
19 juni 2019 · 24 min
Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen will share what he has learned about scaling culture, expanding globally, raising venture capital (or not), and using technology to improve legacy industries. Lees meer
Missed the session? Here's what Ryan talks about:
How Flexport grew to a multibillion-dollar business.
How the company broke into the $2T freight forwarding industry.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
Ryan Petersen