The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
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SaaStr 143: DigitalOcean CEO, Ben Uretsky on Scaling To 1m Customers with No Sales Team, Key Learnings From Raising $123m & Why It Is Not Just About Culture Fit
18 september 2017 · 30 min
Ben Uretsky is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Digital Ocean. Under Ben's leadership, DigitalOcean has risen from a cloud startup for developers to the second largest and fastest growing cloud computing platform. To date, more than 1m developers have deployed more than 50 million cloud servers, and the company has expanded its worldwide infrastructure footprint with multiple datacenter locations around the globe. The company has raised $123 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Access Industries, IA Ventures, CrunchFund, and Techstars. Prior to DigitalOcean, he co-founded and built a managed hosting provider that supported some of the top websites online and generated million-dollar annual revenues. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Ben made the move from co-founding a bootstrapped startup competing with Rackspace to co-founding DigitalOcean and competing with Amazon?
What have been Ben's big learnings in raising $123m for DigitalOcean? How does Ben suggest building a trusted relationship with VCs?
How have DigitalOcean scaled to over 1m customers without a sales team? What are the core tenets that have made this possible? How does the team prioritise customer acquisition channels at DigitalOcean? How does Ben say is the right way to build a community?
Sean Rad has said before the hardest part is scaling with the firm. How has been seen his scaling as CEO with the firm? How has his personal relationship to the company changed with the scaling? Hear an inflection point in the scaling of DigitalOcean and how Ben's leadership changed as a result?
60 Second SaaStr
What hire des Ben wish he had made earlier?
What does Ben know now that he wishes he had known earlier?
What are the key inflection points in SaaS businesses?
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
Ben Uretsky
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SaaStr 142: Why CAC/LTV Is The Most Important Metric In SaaS, How To Analyse Churn Correctly & Why Bookings Are Inaccurate and Easy To Manipulate with Dave Kellogg, CEO @ Host Analytics
11 september 2017 · 32 min
Dave Kellogg is the CEO @ Host Analytics, the leader in cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM). Previously, Dave was SVP/GM of Service Cloud at Salesforce and CEO at unstructured big data provider MarkLogic. Before that, Dave was CMO at Business Objects for nearly a decade as the company grew from $30M to over $1B. Dave has also worked in various capacities with the likes of Breeze, GainSight, Tableau and MongoDB and previously sat on the boards of ag tech leader, Granular (acq by DuPont for $300M) and big data leader Aster Data (acquired by Teradata for $325M). Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Dave made his way into the world of SaaS with Salesforce, came to be CMO at Business Objects and now running his own SaaS company as CEO at Host Analytics?
What does David believe is the single most important metric in SaaS? How should SaaS companies structure the first four lines of their financial statements? Why is retention and renewal not always an accurate sign of customer satisfaction?
How does Dave look to analyse churn? What is the post-mortem? What is more important, logos or expansion? If a startup's churn is too high, what is the top 3 things they should do? Why must you have a "standard taxonomy" for churn? How can you construct this?
How does David think about taking existing customer and up-selling them? How does he view this in contrast to cross-sell? Does Dave agree with David Skok on the need for more than 1 variable pricing mechanism? Why does Dave not encourage usage based pricing?
How does Dave analyse the benefits of multi-year contracts paid upfront? How does this distort TCV and inflate the figures? Does upfront payment misalign the provider and the consumer, in terms of care and support? With that in mind, how does David view billing frequency? Contract durations?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Dave know now which he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What is the 90 day rule? Why is it important?
How much ARR should a good…
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SaaStr 141: How To Scale & Segment Your Sales Team Efficiently, How To Move Upmarket With Speed & How To Raise Over $50m in an "Unsexy" Industry with Classy Founder, Scot Chisholm
5 september 2017 · 29 min
Scot Chisholm is the Founder & CEO @ Classy, the world's leading fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations As a result they have raised close to $50m in VC funding from the likes of Salesforce Ventures, our friends at BullPen Capital, Mithril Capital and many more great investors. With support and funding like this, since 2011, Classy has helped more than 3,000 nonprofits and social enterprises raise hundreds of millions of dollars and be named to "The World's Most Innovative Companies in Social Good" and to the "100 Brilliant Companies" by Entrepreneur Magazine. As for Scot, he is also a prolific angel investor, investing out of a fund called Mixture that includes investments in Change.org, inDinero, Iodine, Casetext and more. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Scot made his way into the world of SaaS and how a "pub crawl" came to be the founding story for Classy?
What have been the key learnings for Scot in raising $50m for Classy, in an industry that is maybe not so sexy for investors? Why did Scot choose to raise both the seed and A round from angels? What advice would Scot give to aspiring founders, looking to raise?
How has Scot seen the evolution of his sales team? What are the key inflection points in the scaling when elements tend to break? How important is it to segment the sales team? When should this be done? At what speed is optimal?
How does Scot evaluate startups looking to move upmarket? How does the decision to move upmarket change the internal decision-making with regards to product roadmap and strategy? How does it change the role of CEO in the organisation?
How does Scot look to balance the attainment of short term objectives with holding the vision for the future? How far is too far to plan ahead? How should founders think about investing in areas of the business ahead of time?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Scot know now that he wishes he had known when he started?
Challenges as a first time CEO/entrepreneur?
The key challenge…
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SaaStr 140: Key Requirement To A Cash Flow Positive SaaS Business, How To Land Your First "Whale" & How To Incentivise Your Sales Team Aligned To The Company Mission with Mark Organ, Founder & CEO @ Influitive
28 augustus 2017 · 28 min
Mark Organ, Founder & CEO at Influitive. Influitive helps B2B companies mobilize their army of advocates for more rapid and profitable revenue growth. They have raised close to $50m in VC funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Lightspeed, First Round Capital, prior guest Cindy Padnos @ Illuminate and Nick Mehta @ Gainsight, just to name a few. Prior to Influitive, Mark was the founding CEO of Eloqua, growing the business to over 150 people, hundreds of clients and a major presence around the world in 7 years. Eloqua was eventually bought by Oracle in 2012 for a reported $810m. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Mark made his way into the world of SaaS, came to found Eloqua and then what the catalyst was for the founding of Influitive?
How did Mark make the decision to make profitability a goal? How did Mark communicate his desire to focus on profitability and unit economics over aggressive growth to his investors? What type of SaaS startups should consider this route more?
To what extent is "landing whales" crucial to getting to cash flow positive? What are some of Mark's big learnings in how to attain those "whales", having done it so successfully before with Eloqua? Where do most founders go wrong and how should they approach pricing whales?
Why does Mark believe paying sales reps on signing misaligns incentives? Why does he believe it is optimal to pay half on signing and half on cash being received? How do you communicate that to your sales team?
To what extent should SaaS startups consider debt financing as a respectable and appropriate form of company financing? What type and stage of SaaS company does debt make perfect sense for? When is it wrong in the lifecycle to take debt?
60 Second SaaStr
What hire does Mark wish he had made earlier?
What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
Pros and cons of running a SaaS startup not in Silicon Valley?
If you would like to find out more about the …
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SaaStr 139: Why Hiring Sales People Is Like Being Thirsty, Why You Have to Separate Between Customers and Money & Why Time Kills More Companies Than Dollars with Mike Dauber, General Partner @ Amplify Partners
21 augustus 2017 · 26 min
Mike Dauber is a General Partner @ Amplify Partners, the fund that backs technical founders, building technical products for technical buyers. Their portfolio consists of the likes of DataDog, Fastly, Engagio and many more incredible companies. As for Mike, prior to joining Amplify he spent more than six years at Battery Ventures, where he lead early-stage enterprise investments on the West Coast. While at Battery, he was on the Boards of Cask, Duetto, Interana, and Platfora (acquired WDAY). Mike also lead Battery's investment in Vera, which is also in Amplify's portfolio. He also previously invested in Splunk (SPLK) and RelateIQ (acquired CRM). As a result of this success, Mike was named to Forbes' Midas Brink List in 2014. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Mike made his way into the world of early stage enterprise investing with Battery and came to be a GP with Amplify?
What does Mike mean when he says he looks for "practitioner founders"? What are the benefits of these types of founders? Why do they find product market fit faster? Does this tunnel vision not sometimes mean a lack of naivete, which can be good?
Why does Mike believe that hiring sales people is like being thirsty? How can founders discover the optimal cadence for expanding the sales team? Why must founders differentiate between customers and money?
Why does Mike believe that everyone needs to find their Hobbesian advisor? What characteristics should this person have? How can you find this advisor? What should their incentives be?
Why does Mike believe that founders need to set the hook for VCs in the first meeting? How does this compare to how founders traditionally pitch? What should they look for in those early VC meetings?
60 Second SaaStr
Why does Mike disagree with deal attribution in VC?
Cyber investing: Should you invest if not a domain expert?
Is enterprise investing spreadsheet investing?
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can f…
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SaaStr 138: The Rule of 40% For A Healthy SaaS Company, Why It Is Not All About Top Line Growth In Enterprise & Why Land & Expand Is Wrong with Vineet Jain, Founder & CEO @ Egnyte
14 augustus 2017 · 26 min
Vineet Jain is the Founder & CEO @ Egnyte, the startup that delivers smart content collaboration in the cloud or on-premises. They have raised over $60m in VC funding from the likes of Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and one of our favourites here, Mike Maples @ Floodgate. Prior to Egnyte, Vineet founded and successfully built Valdero, a supply chain software solution provider, funded by KPCB, MDV and Trinity Ventures. Before that, Vineet held a variety of senior operational positions at KPMG and Bechtel. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Vineet made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found his second startup in Egnyte?
Vineet states that it is not all about top line growth, how does he look to satiate VC appetitie for growth with this mentality? Why does he think that we should discuss EBITDA margins more often within business models in Silicon Valley?
Considering this conservative approach, how does Vineet determine when is the right time to put the "pedal to the metal" and raise a large round of funding and really look to gain the market? What metrics suggest product market fit to this extent?
Why does Vineet argue that land and expand is all wrong? What alternative does Vineet offer for those looking to sell to enterprise?
How does Vineet evaluate "The Rule of 40% For A Healthy SaaS Company"? What are the inherent flaws in this model? How can this model be gamed by posting enormous growth figures? What figures should startups input into this ratio?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Vineet know now that he wishes he had known earlier?
How long is long enough to give someone who is not performing?
What hire does Vineet wish he had made earlier?
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
Vineet Jain
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SaaStr 137: How To Scale A Sales Org The Right Way, What Makes A Truly Effective SaaS Board & Why SaaS Leaders Need To Be Vulnerable with Max Yoder, Founder & CEO @ Lessonly
7 augustus 2017 · 25 min
Max Yoder is the Founder & CEO @ Lessonly, the modern learning software used by teams to translate important work knowledge into Lessons that accelerate productivity. They have raised funding from the likes of former ExactTarget CMO Tim Kopp, OpenView Ventures and New York Times Bestseller Jay Baer just to name a few of the impressive figures involved. Fun tact; they are based in Indianapolis and so Max brings a fantastic perspective on scaling and operating a growing SaaS business outside Silicon Valley. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Max made his way into the world of startups and came to found Lessonly, one of the hottest SaaS startups outside of Silicon Valley?
Max has previously stated that 'SaaS scaling happens in 3 stages'. What are those stages? What is the most challenging stage? How does the CEO need to transition with each stage?
How does Max view the scaling of the team? Why does Max think it is bad to give large and often inflated titles in the early days? How can CEOs most effectively look to place people in the right place to ensure the most productive of scaling?
What does Max most look for in potential Lessonly employees? Why is it so fundamental that candidates have experienced some form of professional hardship before?
How does Max view the role of the board in the scaling of a SaaS organisation? What are the components that make the best boards? What are the components that make the best board members?
60 Second SaaStr
What one hire does Max wish he had made sooner?
What SaaS reading material can Max not live without?
Pros and Cons of running a SaaS startup outside the valley?
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
Max Yoder
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SaaStr 136: What Role Should The CEO Play With The Marketing Strategy, What Do CEOs Most Often Get Wrong About CMOs & What Makes The Optimal CEO-CMO Relationship with Stacey Epstein, CEO @ Zinc
31 juli 2017 · 25 min
Stacey Epstein is the CEO @ Zinc, the secure communications platform for workers in front of customers, not computers. They have backing from some of the best in SaaS investing including the likes of Jason Green @ Emergence, CRV with George Zachary and GE Ventures. Prior to Zinc, Stacey was CMO at Banjo. Before Banjo, Stacey was CMO at ServiceMax where she helped fuel 5 consecutive years of triple-digit growth. Finally, before ServiceMax, Stacey was the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at SuccessFactors. During her tenure with SuccessFactors, Stacey pioneered the marketing function in 2005, and was instrumental in the company's successful IPO in 2007, which led to a $3.4B acquisition by SAP in 2010. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Stacey made her way from Executive Assistant working for another Executive Assistant before moving to CMO and today as CEO?
What were the fundamental lessons Stacey took from her career as CMO to now being CEO/ What were some of the hardest elements of the transition?
What role should the CEO play in the marketing strategy and execution? What do CEO's most often get wrong about CMO's?What is the optimal and most efficient working relationship between CEO and CMO?
How does Stacey create alignment and strong and successful communication between the traditionally conflicting sales and marketing? How does transparency help drive better business results?
How can one look to instill these values and communication standards on inherited organisations they they did not found? Are there any drawbacks to transparency and communication?
60 Second SaaStr
What hires does Stacey wish she had made earlier?
What can females do to master the art of negotiating?
Recruiting in the valley today, how tough and top tips?
When is the right time to hire your CMO?
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
Stacey Epstein
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SaaStr 135: Auren Hoffman on Why Raising Prices Is Not A Good Idea, How Fewer Employees Can Mean Fast Growth & Why The CEO Must Never Delegate HR
24 juli 2017 · 25 min
Auren Hoffman is the Founder & CEO @ Safegraph, the startup that is unlocking the world's most powerful data so that machines and humans can answer society's toughest questions. They have backing from likes of Naval Ravikant and prior guests of the show including SignalFire, IDG Ventures and David Rodnitzky just to name a few. Prior to Safegraph, Auren has an astonishing 5 successful exits under his belt with one being, LiveRamp (sold to Acxiom for $310m in 2014). If that was not enough, Auren is also a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of ThumbTack, Rainforest QA, Brightroll and Groupon. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Auren made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found his 6th SaaS startup in Safegraph?
Auren has said before there are two types of successful sales people, what are these two types and what are their character profiles? What type of company should have each different profile? How does each profile interact differently with the rest of the company?
Why does Auren take the contrarian view and saying that highering your price is not always the right answer? In what markets is it right to higher or lower your price? When is it the wrong time? What percentage of revenue should sales and marketing be at a healthy SaaS startup?
Why does Auren believe that you can actually grow faster by having fewer employees? In what situation and start does this work and when does it not? ?
Why does Auren believe that the CEO should never delegate HR? What does Auren mean when he says the best HR professionals are real capital allocators?
60 Second SaaStr
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
Auren Hoffman
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SaaStr 134: The Crucial Difference Between Mentorship & Advocacy, Why You Have To Practice Upward Empathy & How To Make The Successful Transition from Services Based Business to SaaS Based Business with TapInfluence CEO, Promise Phelon
17 juli 2017 · 30 min
Promise Phelon is the CEO @ TapInfluence, bringing the first ever influencer marketing platform to the Fortune 1000. Under Promise's leadership the company has enjoyed a 300% increase in revenue in 2015 alone, they made the successful transition from a services to a SaaS model and were successful in raising a fantastic $14m Series B. Prior to TapInfluence, Promise was the Founder and CEO at 2 startups, one of which, The Phelon Group, grew to 8 figure revenues and was successfully acquired in 2009. Before that, Promise got her start at BEA systems. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Promise made her way into the world of SaaS and came to be at BEA systems, one of the most exciting companies in the valley at the time?
How does Promise view the importance of building long lasting relationships with colleagues? How does Promise suggest is the right way to leave a job and sustain the best communication and relationship with former employers and colleagues?
What does Promise mean when she states the importance of upward empathy? What are the benefits of installing this in your organisation? What is the right way to breed a culture of upward empathy?
How does Promise differentiate between 'advocate' and 'mentor'? What is the right way to attain each of these? At what point in one's career is the right time to have each of these?
What does Promise believe is the formula for making the successful transition from a services based business to a SaaS business? How can one make the change without significant customer churn and revenue loss?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Promise know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
How does motivating people differ when outside of the valley?
Should customer success be able to upsell?
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
Promise Phelon
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SaaStr 133: 3 Fundamentals SaaS Founders Have To Nail To Get To $30m+ ARR & What First Time SaaS Founders Can Do To Increase Their Chances of Product Market Fit
10 juli 2017 · 25 min
Ashu Garg is a General Partner @ Foundation Capital whose portfolio includes the likes of Uber, Lending Club, Adroll and Netflix, just to name a few. As for Ashu, at Foundation he has led investments and naming just a few of them here, in the likes of Conviva, Localytics and TubeMogul, later going public in 2014. Prior to Foundation, Ashu was the General Manager for Microsoft's online advertising business. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Ashu made his way from completing to the Rubik's cube as a kid in 25 seconds to being a leading SaaS VC?
How does Ashu really define scaling a SaaS company? What does product market fit really look like with regards to ARR growth?
What are the 3 fundamentals that SaaS founders have to nail if they are to scale to $30m+ ARR? Why does Ashu believe it is so important to have a single insertion point? What does this mean for SaaS founders?
What does Ashu advise first time founders making their first foray into the world of SaaS? How should they think about obtaining and building an ecosystem of mentors? How should they manage weaknesses within their own skill sets? Does Ashu believe with Aaron Levie @ Box, "anyone can learn to be a great CEO"?
Where do technical founders most often struggle? What can be done to help them go from 0-1 on customer acquisition? Where do business led founders most often struggle? How must they think of the engineering element as a core part of the founding team?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Ashu know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
Chats: Fad in the enterprise or here to stay?
Biggest inflection points and breaking points in SaaS company growth?
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
Ashu Garg
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SaaStr 132: Why The 1 Metric You Have To Know Is "Magic Number", Why Measuring The "Time To Money Is Crucial" & Why You Must Switch From Metrics to KPIs with Kurt Bilafer, CRO @ WePay
3 juli 2017 · 29 min
Kurt Bilafer is the CRO @ WePay, the most complete payments solution for platforms. To date, they have raised close to $75m in VC funding from some of the best in the business including Max Levchin and August Capital just to name a few. As for Kurt himself, prior to WePay he has had experience both in startups and large corporations with his founding of Pilot Software, sold to SAP in 2007, where he spent a further 7 years holding titles such as a Global Vice President of Sales and Director of Strategic Accounts. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Kurt make his way into the world of SaaS? What were Kurt's big takeaways from seeing the internal machinations of SAP?
What is the one metric that guides Kurt's thinking? How can you calculate your "magic number" for your business? Why must SaaS founders switch from activity based metrics to KPI's?
How does Kurt assess scalability and repeatability of revenues? What is a reasonable ratio for sales and marketing expense to revenue?
Why should SaaS founders focus on the LPI of "time to money". How can they look to optimize this? How has Kurt seen the enterprise sales cycles change since his time with SAP?
How does Kurt assess conflict within the sales and marketing teams and customer success and product teams? How can managers look to implement an element of prioritization into what sales teams submit to product teams?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Kurt know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What is the worst piece of SaaS advice that Kurt commonly hears being given out?
What should one look for in their VP of Sales?
What mistake does Kurt see most in the world of SaaS?
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
Kurt Bilafer
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SaaStr 131: The Secret To Selling To SMBs & Creating A Sales Model That Scales with Jens Nylander, Founder & CEO @ Automile
26 juni 2017 · 22 min
Jens Nylander is the Founder and CEO @ Automile, the startup that makes fleet and asset management much much easier. They have backing from some of the best in the business including Godfather of SaaS himself Jason Lemkin, the wonderful team at Point Nine, Justin Kan and Dawn Capital in London. As for Jens, he really is a serial entrepreneur with past endeavours including creating Sweden's largest music player and founding Jays, the manufacturer and developer of innovative headphones that went public and is listed on the NASDAQ. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Jens make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Automile?
How does Jens look to build a repeatable scalable sales process with Automile? What are the core infrastructure requirements needed to make the process as automated as possible?
How does Jens evaluate selling into the SMB market? How does Jens look to optimise the onboarding process to maximise conversion? How does Jens look to minimise churn with a market as potentially unstable as SMB's?
Why does Jens prefer technology minded sales teams? What benefits do they bring in terms of process to the sales cycle? What should founders look for in potential new engineering led sales teams?
Jens is increasing transparent, posting numerous figures on Twitter, what are the benefits of such transparency? How does that help the team to achieve the wider goal? Are there any cases, such as fundraising or exits, where transparency has negative consequences?
60 Second SaaStr
What was the hardest element of leaving Europe to go big in the US?
What does Jens know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What hires does Jens wish he had made earlier?
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
Jens Nylander
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SaaStr 130: Accel's Steve Loughlin on Founding RelateIQ & Lessons From Working with Marc Benioff, How Founders Can Determine Which Is The Right Market For Them & Evolutions in The Enterprise AI/ML Landscape
19 juni 2017 · 28 min
Steve Loughlin is a Partner @ Accel in San Francisco, one of the leading funds with prior investments in the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Atlassian, Slack and many more incredible companies. Prior to Accel, Steve was the CEO and co-founder of RelateIQ, later named SalesforceIQ following the acquisition of the company by Salesforce in 2014 for $390 million. Steve was also president and CEO of Affinity Circles, a professional social network that connected more than 18 million professionals. Steve has also advised or invested in the likes of Palantir Technologies, Addepar, and Roam Analytics. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Steve made his way into the world of SaaS with the founding of RelateIQ and then came to be a Partner at Accel on the other side of the table?
Why does Steve believe the hardest balance a founder has to consider is the balance between building for the future and building for the present? How can this short to long term dichotomy be considered effectively by the team?
RelateIQ was early to the AI/ML landscape, what does Steve think they did so right with RelateIQ? Does Steve agree that for an enterprise ML play to be interesting it must fundamentally change the go to market strategy?
What were the key learnings from working so closely with Marc Benioff on the Salesforce exec team? What is it about the internal structure and operations of Salesforce that make it the massively profitable behemoth that it is today?
Having been a founder himself and now a VC, how does Steve look to help founders specifically? Where has Steve found that early stage founders need the most help? Where do VCs proclaim to help the most but really do not at all?
60 Second SaaStr
What is the worst advice Steve often hears being given?
What is something that Steve has changed his mind radically on over the last few years?
What is Steve's favourite SaaS reading material?
What does Steve know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
If you would like to…
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SaaStr 129: How To Quadruple MRR Growth With SDR Training, The Right Way To Scale Prospect Search & Why Startups Can Immediately Be In The Enterprise Market with May Habib, Founder & CEO @ Qordoba
16 juni 2017 · 28 min
May Habib is the Founder & CEO @ Qordoba, the best platform for building truly localized products across apps, websites and marketing content. It is the fastest, most scalable way to grow from one market to many. We do also want to say a big congratulations to May for recently raising a fantastic Series with the likes of Upfront Ventures and Rincon Partners leading the round. Prior to founding Qordoba, May was Director of M&A at Mubadala and an investment banker at Lehmann Brothers and Barclays in New York. May has also been named to the 30 Under 30 and CEO of the Year award. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How May made her way from North Lebanon to founding one of the hottest early stage SaaS companies on the West Coast?
May has quadrupled her MRR growth since last year through 'turning her SDR's into the smartest people in the space'. What does this mean? How can this be done and replicated? What "SDR best practices did May follow that damaged her?
May has a unique approach to scaling prospect search, how does this play out Does May agree with Mark Suster with regards to always calling high on customer outbound? Why does May think there is only value in outbound to seriously qualified leads?
Why does May believe that startups are wrong to think that they have to start at SMB and then move up to enterprise? How can startups immediately start with enterprise? What advice does May have in terms of asking for those big ACV's as a small startup?
What advice did May receive during her fundraising that she found particularly jarring? What other than funds does May believe fundraising can be particularly good for?
60 Second SaaStr
What does May know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
What is May's favourite SaaS reading material?
Hardest moment in the journey with Qordoba?
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
May Habib
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SaaStr 128: Algolia's Nicolas Dessaigne on The Journey To $10m in ARR, Why You Must Separate The Work You Do From The Culture You Build & How To Successfully Create A Developer Community
12 juni 2017 · 20 min
Nicolas Dessaigne is the Founder & CEO @ Algolia, the most reliable platform for building search into your business. Just last week they raised $53m in funding led by Accel with participation from Jason Lemkin @ SaaStr, Point Nine Capital, AppDynamic's Jyoti Bansal, Intercom's Des Traynor and InVision's Clark Valberg and more incredible investors. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Nicolas made his way to YC and came to found Algolia?
What are the key things that change when you cross the 10m in ARR milestone? What have been the fundamental learnings in the march to $10m in ARR?
Jason Lemkin has said before that 'the first 10 unaffiliated customers you get is the first sign of pre-success'. Does Nicolas agree with him here? When are the first signs of pre-success for Nicolas?
Does Nicolas agree with Jason that $1m-$2m in ARR is always the hardest for a scaling SaaS startup? Which element did Nicolas find most challenging? How has Nicolas seen himself change and develop as a leader with these inflection points?
What are the fundamental to building a successful developer community? What have Algolia done to do this so successfully? What mistakes do other startups normally make in their pursuit of this?
60 Second SaaStr
What hires does Nicolas wish he had made earlier?
What does success look like for Nicolas with Algolia?
What does Nicolas know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
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
Nicolas Dessaigne
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SaaStr 127: Why $1-2m ARR Is Not The Hardest Phase Of A SaaS Startup, Why Your Developer Talent Pipeline Is Broken & How To Approach Regrettable and Non-Regrettable Churn with Ryan Carson, Founder & CEO @ Treehouse
5 juni 2017 · 24 min
Ryan Carson is the Founder & CEO @ Treehouse the startup that teaches you to code and learn the skills needed to launch a new career. They have backing from some of the best investors in the business including the likes of Social Capital, Greylock Partners and then notable individuals such as Reid Hoffman, Josh Elman and Mark Suster just to name a few. As for Ryan, prior to Treehouse he was the creator of famous The Future of Web Apps Conference, showing his unparalleled access to the top tier of West Coast founders. Due to the success of the conference, Ryan later sold the event to another events company. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Ryan made his way into the world of startups and came to found Treehouse?
How does Ryan think all founders can build a truly diversified pipeline for developer talent? How does Ryan detect the seeds of potential in young engineers? How does he nurture them to grow and fit the desired role?
How does Ryan approach regrettable and non-regrettable churn? What is the dunning process? Why is it so important to instantly increase retention and reduce churn?
Does Ryan agree with Jason Lemkin that the hardest element of SaaS scaling is the $1-2m phase? Does Ryan agree with Jason in suggesting that your first 10 unaffiliated customers is the first sign of product market fit?
Ryan has previously said, 'as a founder, there is one thing you need, otherwise you will quit'. What is the one thing? Why is it so important?
60 Second SaaStr
Why does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known when he started?
What is Ryan's favourite SaaS reading material?
Freemium in SaaS: What are the pros and cons?
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
Ryan Carson
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SaaStr 126: Box's Chief Strategy Officer on How To Build High Performing Teams & Why You Must Only Monetise To 30% of Your Value
29 mei 2017 · 30 min
Jeetu Patel is Senior Vice President of Platform and Chief Strategy Officer of Box where he leads the Box Platform organization, driving the strategy of the platform business and developer relations. He also oversees the corporate strategy and development organization for Box. Before joining the company, Patel was General Manager and Chief Executive of EMC's Syncplicity business unit. Prior to EMC, Patel was president of Doculabs, a research and advisory firm focused on collaboration and content management across a range of industries. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Jeetu made his way into the world of SaaS and came to be one of the key executives at Box?
What are Jeetu's 3 tips to startup founders looking to build high performing teams? Why does Jeetu believe that team sizes must always remain small? What are the inflection points in team size when dynamics change?
What does Jeetu argue that founders must pursue really hard problems? What are the benefits of this when hiring new people to the team? How does Jeetu balance between visionary hard problems and unrealistic?
What does Jeetu mean when he says, 'do things that do not scale so you can do things that sustainably scale? What are some examples of how this has been done effectively? Where do most startups go wrong in scaling sustainably?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Jeetu believe that most around him do not?
Fave SaaS reading material?
Why businesses will find the rules of the future very different to the rules of the past?
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
Jeetu Patel
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SaaStr 125: Why You Should Always Be Premium? Why You Have To Create An Outbound Sales Culture As Early As Possible & Why There Are Only 2 Real Ways To Hire with Laura Bilazarian, Founder & CEO @ Teamable
26 mei 2017 · 28 min
Laura Bilazarian is the Founder & CEO @ Teamable, the startup that allows you to recruit the best talent from your network. They have raised funding from some stellar investors including the likes of True Ventures and SaaStr. As for Laura, she started out her career on Wall St before making forays into the world of Vietnamese hotel building and being a National Rugby Champion. Laura has also spent time with the likes of Fairmount Partners where she worked on dozens of M&A transactions to large public companies. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Laura make her way from Wall St to rugby captain to founder of SaaS startup, Teamable?
Why does Laura believe that "you should always be premium"? What are the benefits to this? How does this affect how Laura views both freemium versions of products and free trials?
Why does Laura believe that you have to "create an outbound sales culture as early as possible"? Why is this? Does this change according to the differing customer profiles?
How can SaaS businesses aid in the closing of their clients? What can they do to make this process as seamless and easy as possible? What are the requirements for this process?
Why does Laura believe there are only '2 ways to hire'? What are those 2 ways? What methods of inbound applications must be ignored? How can founders ensure continued quality when hiring at scale?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Laura know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
What is Laura's fave SaaS reading materials?
Competitive advantages of being a female CEO?
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
Laura Bilazarian
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SaaStr 124: Upfront's Mark Suster on The One Thing That Kills Sales, Why You Have To Price High and Discount & Why Sales People Are Either Farmers or Hunters?
22 mei 2017 · 30 min
Mark Suster is Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures which he joined in 2007, having previously worked with Upfront for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Mark is also the writer of one of my favourite VC blogs, Both Sides Of The Table which is a centre piece to the whole VC community and is a must read for all interested in entrepreneurship and VC. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Mark made his way into the world of startups and came to invest in SaaS with Upfront today?
What are 4 reasons why startups should prioritise professional services in the early days? Why do most VCs disagree with this? How did Salesforce do this right in their period of hyper-growth?
How should early stage startups approach the topic of pricing? How can they evaluate whether to call high or low? What are the pros and cons of doing both?
Mark has previously discussed the importance of finding your champion in the buying process. How can startups determine whether your champion is a decision-maker? What questions can you ask to find this out?
What changes as a SaaS business scales? What are the key inflection points of company development? How does Mark view the amount B2B startups are raising today? How does Mark evaluate responsible and right spend?
60 Second SaaStr
What should your first sales reps be really good at?
How has Mark seen early stage SaaS startups go wrong most often?
IPO markets, frothy or fantastic?
What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known before?
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
Mark Suster
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SaaStr 123: Top 10 VP of Sales Lessons In Scaling To $100m in ARR with DFJ, TalkDesk and Predictable Revenue's, Aaron Ross
19 mei 2017 · 22 min
Today's show is centred around The Top 10 VP of Sales Lessons Learned In Scaling To $100M ARR. Leading this conversation is Aaron Ross, author of best selling book, Predictable Revenue, providing the framework for the outbound process & sales team Aaron created for Salesforce.com. During his time at Salesforce as Director of Corporate Development and Acquisitions, Aaron added an extra $100 million in revenue in just a few years. Joining Aaron from the sales perspective we have Andrew Bothwell, VP of Sales @ TalkDesk and Aaron Schilke, VP Enterprise Sales @ Talkdesk, one of the fastest growing SaaS startups today. Providing insight from the other side of the table we have Josh Stein, Partner @ DFJ where his current board responsibilities include Box (NYSE: BOX), Chartbeat, LaunchDarkly, LendKey, SugarCRM, and previous guest with me on SaaStr in Talkdesk. But enough from me so without further ado I am going to hand over the reigns to Aaron Ross. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
What does Josh Stein believe is the toughest growth stage in SaaS? Which stage separates the men from the boys?
Why is growing to 100 a case of simple maths? How does this maths affect how you should think about your sales hiring pipeline? How does this maths affect your view of forecasting?
How do TalkDesk look to build a repeatable and scalable sales process? What have been their major learnings? Where do most startups make mistakes and falter?
How should VPs of sales approach feedback with their reps? Why has a VP failed if a rep is blindsided by a particular piece of feedback?
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
-
SaaStr 122: How To Successfully Scale The 1-10 Customer Phase Of Any SaaS Business, The True Signs Of A Great Sales Person & How To Analyse NPS Effectively with Edith Harbaugh, Founder & CEO @ LaunchDarkly
15 mei 2017 · 26 min
Edith Harbaugh is the Founder & CEO @ LaunchDarkly, the startup that allows you to fearlessly and swiftly release software by separating feature rollout from code deployment. They have raised over $10m in funding from many previous guests of The Twenty Minute VC including Andy McLoughlin @ SoftTech, Josh Stein @ DFJ and the wonderful team at Bloomberg Beta. As for Edith, prior to LaunchDarkly, she was a Director of Product @ Tripit and Concur. Edith also holds two patents in deployment from her time in engineering at Vignette. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Edith made her way into the world of SaaS and came to found LaunchDarkly?
Does Edith agree with Jason Lemkin that the hardest element is the 1-10 customer phase? How has Edith navigated this process with her differing companies?
How does Edith look to structure her sales team to successfully close Fortune 500 deals? What is the fundamental difference in selling to enterprise rather than SMB?
What can founders do to make NPS a more intelligent metric? How can NPS be analysed effectively to tell you more about the state of your business?
What are the signs of a truly great sales person? How do they aid not only their company but the customer they are serving? What is their required knowledge base?
60 Second SaaStr
What is Edith's fave SaaS resource?
What does Edith know now that she wishes she had known before?
Oakland Office: Why not SF? What are the benefits?
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
Edith Harbaugh
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SaaStr 121: Box's VP Marketing on Why ARR Pipeline Is Not Just The Responsibility of The Sales Team, Why Lead Nurturing Does Not Stop At Email & Why Lead Segmentation is Key To Success with Lauren Vaccarello
12 mei 2017 · 25 min
Lauren Vacarrello is VP of Marketing @ Box, one of the leading enterprise B2B brands today. At Box, Lauren leads a 50 person team that involves demand generation, global campaigns, events and more. Prior to Box, Lauren was VP of Marketing @ Adroll, where she built and scaled a 25 person global marketing team from the ground up. If that was not enough, Lauren is also the Co-Author of "The Retargeting Playbook" and "Complete B2B Online Marketing". Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How does Lauren view the relationship between sales and marketing? Why does Lauren believe the ARR pipeline is not just the responsibility of the sales team?
Why is lead nurturing not just about email? What are the other core components to ensure successful progression of leads through the funnel?
How does Lauren view successful lead segmentation? Why does Lauren like to segment leads into 3 distinct buckets? How does this strategy play out at different ends of the market?
What is the role of marketing post-purchase? How has Lauren seen this change since the early days of her career? How does this differ when comparing SMB to enterprise?
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
Lauren Vaccarello
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SaaStr 120: Sequoia Partner, Aaref Hilaly on How To Manage Up Your Board & Keep The Happy Even In Hard Times
8 mei 2017 · 18 min
Aaref Hilaly is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world's most successful VC funds with investments in the likes of Apple, Google, Paypal, Whatsapp and LinkedIn just to name a few. As for Aaref he came to the valley with 2 suitcases and the ambition to start a company. That he did and had 2 companies that were Sequoia backed, first CenterRun and then ClearWell Systems where Aaref was instrumental in the company's growth from 0 to a $100m revenue run rate in just 4 years, prior to their $410m acquisition by Symantec. Today Aaref draws on this incredible operational success to illustrate how to manage up and have a very happy board. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
Why does Aaref advocate for founders not to manage the board but to engage them? How can this be done effectively?
What does Aaref state are the dangers of focussing on metrics with your board? Why should you focus on product instead? How does this shift change the dialogue with the board?
When things do go wrong and the company misses a quarter, how should the founder react? Why does Aaref suggest that founders need to own the miss? How should they structure these conversations? What should they not do when they miss a quarter?
How can founders most effectively put their board to work? How should this be communicated and then followed up on by the founder? Where has Aaref found the board can provide the most value?
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
Aaref Hilaly
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SaaStr 119: The Sales Mistakes That Can Kill Your Startup & How To Avoid Them with Mark Roberge, Former CRO @ Hubspot & Michele Law, Former COO @ OpenDNS
5 mei 2017 · 22 min
Mark Roberge is a Senior Lecturer @ Harvard Business School where he teaches entrepreneurial sales and marketing. Prior to his role with HBS, Mark was the Chief Revenue Officer @ Hubspot where he increased revenue over 6,000% and expanded the team from 1 to 450 employees. As a result, Mark has been named Forbes' Top 30 Social Sellers in the World and awarded the 2010 Salesperson of the Year by MIT. Lees meer
Michele Law is an investor and advisor specialising in building and executing on go to market strategies, creating new revenue models and the operations to support them. Michelle has sat on both sides of the table having been a Principal at Greylock for 8 years before moving to be COO at OpenDNS where she led the sales and customer success team growing enterprise revenue from $0 to $20M ARR in 4 years, prior to the company's acquisition by Cisco for $635m. Michele then moved to Castlight Health where she grew revenue from $13 to $75m.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
Why it is fundamentally dangerous to prematurely focus on growth? How can founders know when is the right time to focus on growth? What does the path to growth phase look like?
How should founders assess and structure the core components: customer success, unit economics and growth? In which order should they be prioritised? What does the funnel look like?
What should the profile of your first sales hire be? How can founders understand who and when to hire? From Hubspot days, when has Mark seen the transition from generalist to specialist?
What should your sales compensation plan look like in the early days of the company? Why does Mark believe that churn is rooted in the sales compensation plan?
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
-
SaaStr 118: Why Tension Has Shifted From Sales vs Marketing To Customer Success vs Product & Why You Have To Hire For Ahead Of Where You Are Now with Todd Olson, Founder & CEO @ Pendo.io
1 mei 2017 · 26 min
Todd Olson is the Founder & CEO @ Pendo, the startup that allows you to capture all user behaviour, gather feedback and then provide contextual support. They have raised over $30m in VC funding from some of the very best in the business including Neeraj @ Battery Ventures, Megan @ Spark and Matt @ Salesforce Ventures just to name a few. As for Todd, prior to Pendo he held various different roles in product as well as co-founding 2 prior startups. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Todd make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Pendo?
Why does Todd believe that there is inherent tension between customer success and product teams? How has this changed from sales and marketing team tension? What does Todd suggest to mitigate this tension?
How does Todd evaluate his hiring process? At what stage does one become a specialist vs a jack of all trades? Why does Todd always believe that you should hire ahead of where you are?
Todd has previously said that 'money is not all the same'. How does Todd look to select his investors? What value adds are most desired for Todd? What do the best investors do that make them so?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Todd know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
What is Todd's favourite SaaS reading material: Mattermark Daily, Tom Tunguz
Creating a startup culture for adults?
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
Todd Olson
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SaaStr 117: How, Why & When To Launch A Second SaaS Product & Is There A No Man's Land In SaaS ACV's with Amit Agarwal, Chief Product Officer @ Datadog
28 april 2017 · 23 min
Amit Agarwal is the Chief Product Officer @ Datadog, the startup that provides cloud scale monitoring that tracks your dynamic infrastructure and applications. They have raised over $140m in VC funding from some of the best in the business including Index Ventures, IA Ventures, OpenView and RRE just to name a few. As for Amit, before Datadog, Amit was the Director of Product Management at Quest Software (now Dell), where he led the team responsible for application performance monitoring. Previously, Amit held product management roles at Datamirror (now IBM) and Embarcadero Technologies. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Amit make his way into the world of SaaS and come to be Chief Product Officer @ Datadog?
Why did Datadog not have a marketing strategy for the early days? What would Amit advise early stage founders with regards to optimising their marketing in the early days?
Obviously a multi-product line is crucial for a SaaS startup to be successful, what is Amit's take on how, when and why to launch a second product? What have been his big learnings on this from Datadog?
Amit has said before that it is tough to sell to large enterprises in the early days, does that mean startups should always start with SME's? At what price point does it become a challenge? Does Amit agree that if you are between 25K-100K you are in the valley of death price wise?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Amit know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
What is Amit's favourite SaaS reading material?
When is the right time to hire a CPO and why?
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
Amit Agarwal
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SaaStr 116: The Most Important Metric For Your Startup, When To Ship Your Second Product & How To Structure Your Sales Team For 7 Figure Deals
24 april 2017 · 26 min
Tim Eades is the CEO @ at vArmour, the industry's first distributed security system that provides application-aware micro-segmentation. Tim joined vArmour as CEO in October, 2013. Prior to that, he was the CEO at Silver Tail Systems until the company was acquired by RSA, the security division of EMC in late 2012. Prior to leading Silver Tail Systems, Tim was CEO of Everyone.net, an SMB focused SaaS company that was acquired by Proofpoint. Tim has also held sales and marketing executive leadership positions at BEA Systems, Sana Security, Phoenix Technologies and IBM. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Tim make his way from punk rock fan in the UK to leading Silicon Valley CEO?
Why does Tim believe Incremental Account Opportunity (IAO) is one of the most important metrics for a growing startup?
Why does Tim believe that most founders are far too late to ship their second product? How can they identify adjacent markets? When exactly is the right time to know when to ship your second product?
What does it take in terms of sales team structure to successfully orchestrate the 7 figure deals that Tim does? What does that look like in terms of sales team compensation?
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
Tim Eades
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SaaStr 115: Why Not All Companies Should Invest in SEM? Why No Demand Channel Is An Island & How To Ensure For Dollar Efficiency with SEM with David Rodnitzky, Founder @ 3Q Digital and Loretta Jones, VP of Marketing @ Delighted
21 april 2017 · 22 min
David Rodnitzky is founder and CEO of 3Q Digital, a leading digital agency that was acquired by Harte Hanks in 2015. Prior to 3Q Digital, he held senior marketing roles at several Internet companies, including Rentals.com (2000-2001), FindLaw (2001-2004), Adteractive (2004-2006), and Mercantila (2007-2008). David currently serves on advisory boards for several companies, including Marin Software, MediaBoost, Mediacause, and a stealth travel start-up. Lees meer
Loretta Jones is the vice president of marketing at Delighted, the fastest way to gather customer feedback and put it into the hands of those who can act on it. Prior to Delighted, Loretta's marketing programs grew Insightly, a CRM for small business, from 100,000 users to over 1.2 million users. Prior to Insightly, Loretta worked at Adobe Sign (formerly Adobe EchoSign) and grew the EchoSign brand to $25 million.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
Should all companies invest in SEM?
How does SEM differ for SaaS SMB businesses vs enterprise SaaS businesses?
How much of a role should iterating and testing play with regards to SEM? What are the strategies that can be used to ensure for maximal dollar efficiency?
David has said before that 'no demand channel is an island'. How does SEM work together with the other channels (SEO, display ads etc) to form a cohesive marketing strategy?
As LTV takes a considerable time to figure out and can be inaccurate, should startups focus on their CPA (cost per acquisition) more than any other metric?
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
David Rodnitzsky
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SaaStr 114: Redpoint's Tom Tunguz on The Rise of Machine Learning In Enterprise SaaS & How Existing SaaS Startups Can Incorporate ML Into Their Offering?
17 april 2017 · 21 min
Tom Tunguz is a Partner at Redpoint Ventures and one of the pre-eminent thought leaders in the rise of SaaS. Tom has made investments in the likes of Demio, Axial, Chorus.ai and more incredible companies. Tomasz is also the co-author of Winning with Data: which explores the cultural changes big data brings to business, and shows you how to adapt your organization to leverage data to maximum effect. Before joining Redpoint, Tomasz was the product manager for Google's AdSense social-media products and AdSense internationalization. If you have not checked out Tom's blog that is a must and can be found here. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
What are the 4 dominant ways startups are incorporating machine learning into their feature set? Why does Tom not believe in AI and discuss prefers to discuss machine learning?
What 3 things have caused the rise of machine learning? Why now will machine learning happen in core categories in SaaS? What role does deep learning play in this rise?
What are the 5 precepts of the type of companies that Tom wants to invest in using ML in SaaS? Why should startups discuss their value proposition over their technology?
How does Tom advise startups can gain access to proprietary datasets? How would Tom like to see data access change in the coming years?
How does Tom approach the aspect of building out a team of experts in machine learning for your startup? What should founders look for?
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
Tomasz Tunguz
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SaaStr 113: The Most Important Metrics To Assess The State Of A SaaS Startup, Why Customer Payback Period Is Crucial & The Right KPI To Measure Customer Success On with Dan Adika, Founder & CEO @ Walkme
14 april 2017 · 23 min
Dan Adika is the Founder and CEO @ Walkme, the cloud-based service designed to help professionals guide and engage prospects and customers, and complete online tasks. They have raised over $90m in VC funding from some of the greats of the industry such as Rory O'Driscoll @ Scale Venture Partners and the team at Insight Venture Partners. As for Dan, prior to Walkme, he spent time at HP as a software engineer and before that spent 5 years in The Israeli Army's elite computing unit. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Dan made his way from the elite computing unit of the Israeli army to San Francisco to found Walkme?
What does Dan believe are the most important metrics to assess the growth and potential of a SaaS startup? What does Dan believe is a good customer payback period?
What does Dan consider a good retention rate? How does Dan calculate sales rep productivity? What metric would suggest a successful rep and at what level should one be concerned?
What is the KPI that Dan uses to measure customer success? When is the right time to hear your first CS rep?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Dan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
Fave SaaS reading material?
When is the right time for startups to look to acquire other startups?
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
Dan Adika
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SaaStr 112: Brad Feld on Structuring Your SaaS Startup For Scalability, How The Role Of CEO Should Adjust To The Growth Of The Organisation & What Makes The Most Effective Board Members
10 april 2017 · 31 min
Brad Feld is one of the world's leading VCs having Co-Founded Foundry Group, Brad has made investments in the likes of Zynga, Makerbot and Fitbit, just to name a few. Brad is also Co-Founder of Techstars, one of the world's most prominent startup accelerators, whose portfolio companies have raised over $1.3bn in funding. If that wasn't enough Brad is also a best selling author having co-authoured Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC and Startup Communities: Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your Community. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Brad made his way into the world of VC and came to found Foundry Group?
Brad has previously stated that companies can be segmented into 3 different core components? What does he mean by this? How can startups be structured internally for scalability?
Why does Brad hate the word culture? How should culture be viewed and approach internally within startups?
How has Brad seen his personal development with regards to being a board member? What has he got better at? What does he believe makes a great board member?
Why is CAC the easiest metric to game in SaaS? How should the CAC/LTV ratio be approached? How can entrepreneurs use this to attract VC investment?
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
Brad Feld
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SaaStr 111: How To Build & Scale A Customer Success Team & Why You Must Hire Full Stack Engineers with Dan Burkhart, Founder & CEO @ Recurly
7 april 2017 · 25 min
Dan Burkhart is the Founder & CEO @ Recurly, the startup powering much of the subscription success, trusted by the likes of Twitch, CBS Interactive and Hubspot just to name a few. They have raised over $20m in VC funding from leading investors including Greycroft, Freestyle, Harrison Metal and more. As for Dan, his background spans 14 years with the likes of eBay and NBC Internet in the marketing, business development and strategic partnership realm. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Dan make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Recurly?
How does Dan perceive a good CAC/LTV ratio? Does he agree with the hallowed 3:1 often cited by founders and investors?
How does Dan manage and measure customer churn? How does he approach regrettable and non-regrettable customer churn?
What is the post-mortem analysis of customer churn? How does Dan insert an element of accountability without creating a sense of churn?
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
Dan Burkhart
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SaaStr 110: Why Payback Period Is The Single Most Important Metric, How To Optimise Sales Efficiency & 3 Fundamental Developments In SaaS with Scott Friend, Managing Director @ Bain Capital Ventures
3 april 2017 · 21 min
Scott Friend is a Managing Director @ Bain Capital Ventures where he has made investments in the likes of Jet and Rent The Runway. Scott joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2006 after selling the company he co-founded, ProfitLogic, to Oracle. At ProfitLogic, Scott saw the immense scaling of the company from its initial three founders to a 300 person global software and solutions business serving the retail industry. As a result, in 2005, Scott was named a winner of the Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year Award". Following the acquisition, Scott was Chairman of the Executive Advisory Board and VP of Marketing and Science for Oracle Retail. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Scott make the transition from building a 300 man SaaS startup, ProfitLogic to being a VC with Bain Capital Ventures?
What are the 3 fundamental ways SaaS has changed over the last decade? What does this mean for SaaS founders and investors today?
What is the single most important metric for Scott when evaluating a SaaS investment opportunity? Why is this and how has that thought process changed?
How can startups optimise for sales efficiency? Where does Scott see most startups make mistakes in this field?
When is the right time to hire your first customer success rep? Does it have to be embedded within the founding team? How can startups look to scale this and analyse risk over time?
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
Scott Friend
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SaaStr 109: Scaling SaaS Teams With Startup Hyper-Growth & When Is The Right Time To Hire A COO with Mat Ellis, Founder & CEO @ Cloudability
31 maart 2017 · 20 min
Mat Ellis is the Founder & CEO @ Cloudability, the startup that provides cloud cost efficiency at scale and they have raised close to $40m in VC funding including from our good friends at Foundry Group and Data Collective. As for Mat, prior to Cloudability, Mat held executive positions with four startups, and key technology roles at Frito-Lay, Pepsi Cola and Goldman Sachs and he currently sits on the boards of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network and the Technology Association of Oregon. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Mat make the move from the UK to SaaS startup founder in Portland, Oregon?
How has Mat seen elements change within the business when moving through the stages of company growth? What were the challenges when going through these strategic inflection points?
At present, many SaaS founders are looking to hire COOs, what does Mat believe about this hire? When is the right time to make the hire? What should one look for in their first COO?
How does Mat assess the balance of sustainability and growth? How does Mat balance between this tough line? What are the inherent challenges?
What are Mat's thought on culture maintenance when startup move into hypergrowth? What is core to retain this startup culture with the scaling through stages?
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
Mat Ellis
-
SaaStr 108: Growing To $500m In ARR & How To Hit 7 Figure Sales with Veeva Systems Founder, Peter Gassner
27 maart 2017 · 23 min
Peter Gassner is the Founder & CEO @ Veeva Systems, the industry cloud for life science systems. With just $4m in capital raised, Peter has taken Veeva to almost $500m in ARR and a prominent force in the rising tide of enterprise SaaS. As for Peter, prior to Veeva, Peter was a Senior Vice President of Technology at Salesforce where he experienced the successful IPO of the company and their rise into the most successful SaaS platform in the industry. Before Salesforce, Peter was with PeopleSoft for 9 years where he led a team of 450 professionals to support PeopleSoft's technology platform. I do also want to say a big thank you to Jason Lemkin for the intro to Peter today without which the episode would not have been possible. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Peter make the move from Salesforce to founding one of the leaders in SaaS, Veeva?
Why did Peter not want to be CEO in the beginning? What was the catalyst for his changing mindset? How has view of CEOship evolved over the Veeva journey?
How does Peter assess the attractiveness of a market? What are the 2 questions Peter asks before going into a market? Is it wrong to move into smaller adjacent markets?
How does Peter assess the suitability of potential board members? What does he mean when he says all founders should use the 'grocery store rule'?
What is required to close 7 figure enterprise deals? How can sales teams look to build this relationship with large co's in a natural and non-transactional way?
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
-
SaaStr 107: How Hiring Is Just Like Being A VC, Why You Have To Pay Up For Great Talent & Why Multi-Tasking Is Not Always Wrong with Daniel Ruch, Founder & CEO @ Rocketrip
24 maart 2017 · 25 min
Daniel Ruch is the Founder and CEO @ Rocketrip, the startup that reduces travel spend by rewarding employees to save. They have backing from some incredible investors including the likes of Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and Y Combinator. Prior to Rocketrip, Dan was a VP in Europe for Tremor Video and before that he held several director and managerial level positions at TACODA until TACODA's sale to AOL. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Dan make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Rocketrip?
How important is accountability for the founder and CEO? How do you convey this commitment and responsibility to the team? Are there any downsides?
At what stage does Dan believe the generalist transitions to the specialist? How has Dan seen his team evolve from stage to stage? What have been the challenges within each stage?
How does Dan approach hiring strategy? How does he look to determine people/company fit? Dan has said before that he 'would not hire without a track record', why is this?
How does Dan view internal budgets? What are the fundamentals to cost saving within the business? How does Dan think one can cut cost without lowering morale?
60 Second SaaStr
What is Dan's fave SaaS reading material?
What does Dan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
Carrot or stick, what does Dan prefer to implement?
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
Dan Ruch
-
SaaStr 106: Why Early Stage SaaS Metrics Do Not Matter, The 5 Things To Look For In Early Stage SaaS Companies & How To Negotiate A Term Sheet The Right Way with Alex Rosen, Managing Director @ IDG Ventures
20 maart 2017 · 33 min
Alex Rosen is a Managing Director with IDG Ventures where he focuses on investments in cloud infrastructure, SaaS applications, ad tech, and consumer marketplaces. Alex currently serves as board director at Chubbies, Krux, MindMeld, Minted, Smartling, Tempered Networks, and Uplift. He also led IDG Ventures' investments in multiple companies including Appboy, Datanyze, Indiegogo, Nuzzel, The League and many more incredible companies. Previously, he was a General Partner at Sprout Group, where he was head of the Internet and Software group. Huge thanks to the team @ Sapphire Ventures for the intro to Alex today. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Alex make his way into the world of SaaS investing and come to be Managing Director @ IDG?
SaaS businesses can be massively affected by changes in a few very small data points. So what would you say is one of the single most important metric points?
What is a booking? How should we break it down into the 3 different MRRs? What element of those metrics do you want to see growing?
How important a role does unit economics play? What are the couple of forms: customer + sales person? How much ARR should a good sales rep add to in ARR in relation to comp?
What is negative churn? How can you take a customer you have already sold and make more money from them? Upsell or cross-sell? What does this to the pricing axis? Why do you want more than 1 axis?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Alex know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
What are the greenfield opportunities in SaaS for Alex?
What is Alex's fave SaaS reading material?
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
Alex Rosen
-
SaaStr 105: Why Marketing Is Eating Sales, How To Make Data-Driven Marketing Decisions & Why Companies Need To Have A Strong Point of View About The World with Nadim Hossain, Founder & CEO @ BrightFunnel
17 maart 2017 · 23 min
Nadim Hossain is the Founder and CEO @ BrightFunnel, the startup that shows marketing true impact on revenue. They are backed by many past guests of the show including Matt Garratt @ Salesforce Ventures, Tim Kopp, and James Cham @ Bloomberg Beta. As for Nadim, prior to founding BrightFunnel, Nadim was VP of Marketing and Sales Development at PowerReviews, paving the way to a $170M exit. He was also a product marketing executive at Salesforce.com during their hyper-growth years. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Nadim make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found BrightFunnel?
To what extent is marketing an art or a science in today's data driven world? How can marketers use and analyse data to drive decision making?
How can founders determine which channels are a must have as opposed to a nice to have? What metrics should determine this? Does brand building not count in the revenue driven world today?
Nadim has previously said, 'marketing is eating sales'. What does Nadim mean by this? How does Nadim evaluate the expansion of the marketing funnel?
What are the biggest mistakes B2B companies make in today's environment? How can they rectify this and sustain a brand that will deliver for the long term?
60 Second SaaStr
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
Nadim Hossain
-
SaaStr 104: Trello Founder, Michael Pryor on The 3 Key Elements That Make A Great CEO, The Fundamentals To Make A Pivot Successfully & The Secrets To Building The Most Efficient Workforce
13 maart 2017 · 27 min
Michael Pryor is Co-Founder & CEO @ Trello, now Head of Product with Trello at Atlassian following their recent acquisition. For those that do not know, Trello lets you work more collaboratively and get more done. Prior to the acquisition they raised from some of the best in the business including the likes of Spark Capital, Index Ventures and Box Group. Michael is also a board member at StackOverflow. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Michael make his way into the world of startups and come to found Trello?
What does Michael believe is fundamental to making a market transition successfully? What were the challenges of the early market transition with Trello?
What does Michael believe are the 3 key elements that make a great CEO? How does Michael approach the element of cash burn? Does Michael agree for the need of sustainability within growth?
How does Michael look to continually recruit the best talent? What are the secrets to running a 60% remote workforce so efficiently?
How did the Atlassian deal come about? What was the thought process behind the sales vs raise more venture funding? How did Michael broach the process with regards to transparency within the team?
60 Second SaaStr
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
Michael Pryor
-
SaaStr 103: Why You Must Sell Your Product Before It's Done Being Built, Why Product-Organisation Fit Is Key & Why The Best Sales Process Is The Customer Success Process with Matin Movassate, Founder & CEO @ Heap
10 maart 2017 · 22 min
Matin Movasatte is the Founder and CEO @ Heap. the startup that provides analytics infrastructure to automate away the annoying parts of user analytics. They have raised funding from some of the best in the business including our friends and former guests of The Twenty Minute VC including Pejman Nozad, Alexis and Garry @ Initialized, Josh Reeves at Gusto, Redpoint and more incredible investors. As for Matin, prior to Heap Matin was a product manager at Facebook and spent time at both Google and Mozilla. I would like to say a big thank you to Jason Lemkin for the intro today. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Matin make his way into the world of SaaS having been at Facebook and Google?
What were Matin's biggest takeaways from seeing how Facebook operate? What were the pros and cons of their operations? How has this influenced how he builds Heap today?
Why does Matin believe that you should always sell your product before it is done being built? What benefits does this have in terms of pricing and iteration? What are the dangers of asking for payment upfront?
Why does Matin think it is crucial to hire your customer success team before your sales team? How do customer success drive customer acquisition?
What does Matin mean when he says that "product organisation fit" is so important? How can startups determine the fit? What can be done to optimise this?
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
Matin Movasatte
-
SaaStr 102: Why You Should Not Pay Your Sales Team Commission, Why There Is Such Little Innovation In Go-To-Market Strategy & Why Adaptability Is Key Not Efficiency with Didier Elzinga, Founder & CEO @ Culture Amp
6 maart 2017 · 31 min
Didier Elzinga is the Founder & CEO @ CultureAmp, the world's most powerful employee feedback and analytics platform. They have raised funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Index Ventures, our friends at Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. As for Didier, he previously co-founded technical academy award winning Rising Sun Research and is non-executive director at Tourism Australia, the Atlassian Foundation and Slingsby Theatre. I also have to say a huge thank you to Ilya @ Index and Niki @ Blackbird for the intro, without which the show would not have been possible. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Didier make his way into the world of SaaS? What was the a-ha moment for him with CultureAmp?
What were Didier's biggest takeaways from watching Scott and Mike build Atlassian? How did that affect and alter how he structured CultureAmp?
How does Didier evaluate product market fit? What are the signs? What metrics determine whether you have it or you do not? Why did Didier decide to bootstrap until $1m ARR?
Why does Didier believe there is so little innovation in the go to market strategies of today? What would he like to see change and where does he see opportunity?
Why does Didier not believe in paying sales teams commission? How does this affect his ability to hire? How does this affect the internal compensation structure of the firm?
60 Second SaaStr
Didier's Fave SaaS resource?
What does Didier know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What has been the most challenging element of the CultureAmp journey?
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
Didier Elzinga
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SaaStr 101: How To Scale From Early Adopter To Mass Market, Why Organisations Are Not A Good Way To Get Work Done & How To Perfect Upsell Mechanics with Fayez Mohamood, Founder & CEO @ Bluecore
3 maart 2017 · 24 min
Fayez Mohamood is the Founder and CEO @ Bluecore, the company that is transforming the way eCommerce marketers use data and automation to communicate with customers. They have raised nearly $30m in funding from some of the best in the business and past guests of the show including the teams from FirstMark Capital and Felicis Ventures just to name a few. As a result they have enjoyed some rapid scaling having seen the team grow from 50 to over 100 in just 10 months. As for Fayez, prior to Bluecore he was Head of Product at BigDoor and before that he founded, Gameday Tycoon, a fantasy sports game that runs on Facebook. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Fayez make his way from fantasy sports game to successful SaaS founder with Bluecore?
To what extent does Fayez consider B2B marketing an art or a science with the rise of data? How can SaaS startups use data to drive conversion and upsell? What metrics does Fayez hone in on?
What 2 methods does Fayez use to harmonise the sales and marketing team? How can these teams be structured to ensure for a clear communication channel and culture of transparency?
With the team growing from 30 to over 100, what does the hiring process look like for Fayez? How has this altered and developed over time? What have been the big lessons in the rapid scaling of the team?
How does Fayez view efficiency within organisational structures? What must founders watch out for in the scaling process of their companies?
60 Second SaaStr
Advantages and disadvantages of being a SaaS firm in the US?
Fayez's fave SaaS reading material?
What does Fayez know now that he wishes he had known when he started?
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
Fayez Mohamood
-
SaaStr 100: Box's Aaron Levie on The 3 Stages of Company Scaling, Why Most Enterprise Software Is 'Dumb' & The Future For Enterprise Software with Artificial Intelligence
27 februari 2017 · 24 min
Aaron Levie co-founded Box with three high school friends in 2005 when they discovered there wasn't a modern solution for sharing and collaborating on work.They created Box to provide businesses with an easy way to share, access and manage information with enterprise-grade security, compliance and governance.Eleven years later, Box has been adopted by nearly 65% of the Fortune 500 and has nearly 70,000 paying business customers. The company went public in January 2015, and remains one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Aaron with 3 friends from high school come to found one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in Box?
How does Aaron view the convergence of enterprise and consumer products in the coming years? How does this convergence effect IT providers?
How does Aaron view transparency within organisations? How does this affect information flow? What must CEO's consider when contemplating transparency within their organisation?
How does Aaron evaluate the inflection points in the growth of Box? What were the challenges in overcoming these hurdles? How did he have to change as a CEO to combat these changes?
What does the rise of AI mean for businesses and enterprise? What does the rise of VR allow the enterprise that was not previously possible? How do these emerging technologies affect the product and strategic roadmap at Box?
60 Second SaaStr
Aaron's favourite SaaS reading material?
What will it take for Box to be 10x from here?
What does Aaron know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
What does Aaron spend most his time on that he would like to change?
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
Aaron Levie
-
SaaStr 099: How To Hire & Assess The Best Demand Gen Candidates & Where To Put Focus In The Demand Gen Process with Luke Retterath, Head of Demand Generation @ Duo Security
24 februari 2017 · 29 min
Luke Retterath is the Director of Demand Generation @ Duo Security, the most loved company in security. They have the backing of some of the best investors in the business including Benchmark, Redpoint, Google Ventures and True Venture just to name a few. As for Luke, his role is to develop, execute, and manage demand generation programs assessing the effectiveness of all marketing programs as well as defining goals, metrics and ROI's for the differing programs. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Luke make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found unicorn startup, Namely?
What are the 3 practical tests Luke uses to assess demand gen candidates in the hiring process? What are the right questions to ask? Is it right to look for badges on the CV?
Once the demand gen team is in place, how do we get the team jump started? Where should the focus be placed?
What are the 5 things that have helped drive growth at Duo? How can founders implement these into their demand gen strategy to 3x revenue for 3 years?
How should one plan and forecast when it comes to demand gen? How does Luke approach the topic of MQLs? How does this change for the inside sales 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
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
-
SaaStr 097: Zendesk's Douglas Hanna on How To Build A Platform? How To Scale A Platform? How To Measure The Success Of A Platform?
17 februari 2017 · 25 min
Douglas Hanna is the GM of the Developer Platform @ Zendesk, one of the world's fastest growing SaaS startups. Before joining Zendesk, Douglas was the Founder & CEO @ Help.com where he grew the business from 1 to 16. Prior to Help, Douglas was the CEO of A Small Orange, the web hosting firm that was acquired by Endurance International Group where Douglas was on the Executive team when they went public on the NASDAQ. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Douglas make his entry into the world of SaaS and Zendesk?
What were the big adjustments that Douglas had to make from founding and working in smaller companies to working at Zendesk? What is the core to making the successful move?
How can companies go about building a platform? What are the fundamentals to consider once you have decided on the platform approach? What are the challenges?
How can a startup measure the success of their platform? What are the benchmarks and metrics that must be observed? How does testing and iteration play a role in platform success?
How does Douglas approach the go to market element with regards to platforms? How has the world of platform go to market changed in the world of omni-channel?
60 Second SaaStr
Biggest mistake companies make with their platform approach?
Fave SaaS reading material?
What does Douglas know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
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
Douglas Hanna
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SaaStr 096: How To Sell SaaS To Fortune 500s, What Drives Decision-Making In Large Corporates & Why Enterprise Is Middle Up Not Top Down with Jonathan Lehr, Co-Founder @ WorkBench
14 februari 2017 · 28 min
Jonathan Lehr is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Work-Bench, where he focuses on early stage enterprise technology investments in areas including big data analytics, machine learning, data-defined security and more. Prior to Work-Bench, Jon founded the NY Enterprise Technology Meetup in January 2012 and organizes monthly meetups of the 5,000+ person group as a way to promote collaboration for the enterprise tech ecosystem in New York. Jon has also worked at Morgan Stanley on the Office of the CIO team in IT. In that capacity, he partnered with internal technology clients to facilitate the selection and on-boarding of emerging technology vendors. He has also written about enterprise technology trends for publications such as The Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal and TechCrunch. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Jonathan make his way into the world of enterprise investing with WorkBench?
Jon has previously said that enterprise tech is like chess, so what are the rules to play by? What can startups do to increase their chance of winning the game?
How can startups build scalable and natural relationships with decision makers in large enterprise clients? What are the fundamentals to doing this successfully? What does this conversation look like?
What does the buying decision making process look like in large corporates? How does that differ from space to space? How does that affect the sales cycle?
Why is NYC the best place in the world to start an enterprise tech company? What are the pros and cons of being in NYC?
60 Second SaaStr
Greenfield opportunities in enterprise technology?
What does Jonathan know now that he wishes he had known at the start?
Jonathan's fave SaaS reading material?
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
Jonathan Lehr
-
SaaStr 095: Trello's JD Peterson on Why Now Is The Best But Hardest Time To Be A Marketer, How To Unify The Sales & Marketing Team & How The Role Of Data Effects Marketers Today
3 februari 2017 · 32 min
JD Peterson is CMO of Trello where he heads the company's marketing and customer service teams. A true child of Silicon Valley, J.D. has been helping startups for nearly 20 years. Before Trello, he held positions as the CRO and interim CEO at Scripted, the VP of Marketing at Zendesk, and the VP of Products at Marketo. JD takes pride in building world-class teams, helping companies accelerate growth, and ensuring the customer remains at the center of every strategic effort. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did JD make his slightly unconventional entrance into the world of SaaS?
Having picked Marketo and Zendesk, what does JD assess when picking companies? Once picked, how does JD evaluate culture? How does JD measure this?
How does JD approach lead qualification? How does JD measure the effectiveness of lead generation, revenue or amount of leads? How does JD unify the sales and marketing team?
JD has previously said that now is 'the best but hardest time to be a marketer'. Why is this and what is behind this thesis? What are the pros and cons of the data driven marketing world? What are the commonalities among the best marketeers?
JD has seen many companies scale into hyper-growth, when does JD believe is the right time to hire and expand aggressively? What roles should be filled first? What does JD optimize for in the hiring process? When is the transition point needed to have a VP?
60 Second SaaStr
Is SaaS marketing B2B or B2C?
What does JD know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
Biggest mistake companies are enacting with their current marketing plans?
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
JD Peterson
-
SaaStr 094: The $100m Question All SaaS Founders Must Ask, Learnings From Working with Marc Benioff at Salesforce & Scaling Zuora To A $Bn Valuation with Tien Tzuo, Founder & CEO @ Zuora
30 januari 2017 · 28 min
Tien Tzuo is the Founder and CEO @ Zuora, one of the fastest growing SaaS companies that has been at the forefront of the rise of subscription business models. They have funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Benchmark, Sequoia, Redpoint and Marc Benioff, just to name a few. As for Tien, before Zuora, Tzuo was one of the 'original forces' at salesforce.com, joining as employee number 11. In his 9 years at salesforce.com, served in numerous different roles including as Chief Marketing Officer for two years, and most recently as Chief Strategy Officer. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Tien make his way from being an early employee at Salesforce to founding Zuora?
What were the big takeaways for Tien from seeing the meteoric rise of Salesforce? How has that experience moulded his running and strategy with Zuora today?
What does Tien see as the fundamental benefits of a subscription model? What products and services does it work best for? What are the keys to assembling this model successfully?
Tien has previously referred to scaling as 'the climb'. How does he approach this analogy What was the most challenging element of scaling for Tien? How did he overcome it?
Tien has previously said that market strategy is the $100m question all founders must ask. So how does Tien approach go to market? What are the fundamentals to think when considering different go to market options?
60 Second SaaStr
Biggest mentor and how the relationship came about?
What does Tien know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
Highlight of the Zuora journey so far?
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
Tien Tzuo
-
SaaStr 093: Why You Cannot Be Excellent For Anyone If You Are Not Willing To Be Ok For Someone & How To Manage NPS Effectively With Scaling with Lexi Reese, Chief Customer Experience Officer @ Gusto
27 januari 2017 · 29 min
Lexi Reese is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at unicorn startup, Gusto and is one of the top female executives in Silicon Valley. Lexi's passion for serving customers was sparked by her early career in microfinance as a public policy advocate with ACCION International—giving loans to people living in poverty to start their own ventures. She later worked at Google for eight years, most recently serving as Vice President of Programmatic Sales and Strategy globally. Lexi also started the Cambridge AdWords team for Google's small business organization. Now at Gusto, Lexi ensures that Gusto is continuously going above and beyond to serve all customers. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did Lexi make her way from the world of Google and Facebook to SaaS with Gusto?
What were the biggest takeaways from spending 8 years at Google and seeing the immense hyper-growth there? How has Lexi applied those learnings to Gusto today?
How does Lexi look to put the 'customer first' thesis into practice? What does this look like in reality and from day 1?
How can one maintain such high levels of customer service with an ever increasing customer base? How can one insert elements of repeatability to make this easier?
Question from Hunter Walk: How do you fundamentally measure customer satisfaction? What benchmarks do you calibrate against to consider success?
60 Second SaaStr
What does Lexi know now that she wishes she had known in the beginning?
Most challenging aspect of Lexi's role?
Question from Tien @ Zuora: How do you look to avoid the hype culture that pervades the valley?
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