In this illuminating session, ICONIQ Growth general partner Doug Pepper and head of analytics Christine Edmonds will share some of the latest insights from ICONIQ's annual “Growth and Efficiency Study” which utilizes aggregated operating data from a large set of enterprise SaaS companies, about half of which have gone on to IPO and/or been named to the Cloud 100 list. From the metrics most indicative of healthy business fundamentals and what top quartile performance looks like across these KPIs,...
Feb 24, 2023•28 min
Stripe CTO David Singleton shares insights from the company's focus on going the extra mile to obtain user feedback and even more extreme lengths to turn that feedback into successful products. He’ll show how one simple rule helped the company grow from a single API to a sophisticated platform, and discuss the challenges of managing change, defining product-market fit, and designing infrastructure that can scale. Video: https://youtube.com/live/N2BPdAk_riU Want to join the SaaStr community? We'r...
Feb 22, 2023•26 min
While the allure of customer acquisition can pull a founder’s attention, it’s equally important to dedicate resources to fighting churn and expanding revenue from existing customers. One company that has unlocked the secret to solid retention and revenue expansion is Brex, an easy-to-use corporate cards and spend management software in an integrated global solution. In this edition of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond (former CRO at Brex and current Partner at Founders Fund) hosts his former colleague...
Feb 17, 2023•39 min
What do some of the most successful PLG companies have in common? How do you build a best-in-class go-to-market model to get to 100mn ARR and beyond? Iconic PLG companies share how they integrated GTM into their growth strategy to go from single digits to over a billion in ARR. Lightspeed Partner, Anoushka Vaswani, is joined by Raj Sarkar, CMO at 1Password, Kim Walsh, SVP, Sales, Partnerships and Customer Success at Apollo.io, and Chris De Vylder, CRO at Sentry, to pass along key lessons from th...
Feb 15, 2023•34 min
As Chief Product Officer at DigitalOcean and a developer-turned-entrepreneur himself, Gabe Monroy is deeply familiar with some of the pitfalls that founders encounter on the road of product development. In this session, Gabe will discuss how founders can avoid the trap of over-engineering products, as well as why focusing on the must-haves (developing “painkillers” for your customer’s problem) will better serve your business versus focusing on the nice-to-haves (developing “vitamins”). Video: ht...
Feb 10, 2023•29 min
Every week, more and more companies are doing big layoffs. As news of layoffs continues, many are left wondering what happened and how to shift course. Many startups missed 2022 revenue goals and are forecasting slower growth for 2023, especially compared to the explosive growth of teams and revenue during the Boom of 2021 and early 2022. In this week’s episode of CRO Confidential, Founders Fund Investor Sam Blond sits down with the SVP of Sales at Modern Health, Hannah Willson, to discuss how c...
Feb 08, 2023•33 min
Jason recently joined Harry Stebbings on 20VC to discuss VC in 2023. Hear why you shouldn't wait to raise (if you're fundable), even though the venture landscape will look better by the end of 2023. This episode is an excerpt of Jason and Harry's discussion. You can watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/dHIWdwljt7Q Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.co...
Feb 03, 2023•28 min
What is the right Go-To-Market strategy for a startup getting out of the gate? Sales-led vs. product-led is a hot topic right now, and Jason Eubanks, Chief Revenue Officer of Harness, shares the answer. At Harness, Eubanks leads go-to-market. Everything is defined by customer interactions, from how they find Harness to becoming a customer. What’s his response to startups figuring out which strategy to begin with, product-led or sales-led? “It doesn’t really matter where you start because you’ll ...
Feb 01, 2023•29 min
As the past few years have demonstrated, it’s wise to expect the unexpected, especially when it comes to hiring. In particular, hiring for your sales team is critical in an uncertain economic outlook. Additionally, sales professionals looking for a new role should choose their next company wisely. In this edition of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and former CRO at Brex, discusses the current SaaS sales landscape and tips for hiring in 2023 with guest Ben Braverman, Head of...
Jan 27, 2023•41 min
In many companies, the longtime dispute between sales and marketing prevents them from collaborating or agreeing on a goal. Divvy’s CRO, Sterling Snow, created a structure aligning these two teams with others to create a formidable revenue team. This structure drove the company to a $2.5 billion-dollar acquisition by Bill within five years. In this episode, Snow shares the journey to realizing the strength of revenue alignment through sales, marketing, and customer success and the principles for...
Jan 25, 2023•23 min
Sure, strong collaboration between Sales and Marketing is critical - but this CPO and CMO contend that the Product to Marketing connection might just be the most critical dynamic within your executive team. Learn how Meron Colbeci (CPO) and Leela Srinivasan (CMO) are driving the right outcomes through close collaboration. Full video with Q&A: https://youtu.be/gWub2D4XZCQ Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://w...
Jan 20, 2023•21 min
Reaching unicorn status is nice validation, but the luster fades when founders can’t navigate the hidden challenges that come with uncharted territory. David Cancel and Elias Torres, co-founders of Drift, share their insight on steering a company to a $1B valuation with both the tenacity to problem-solve and a fearlessness to fail. They’ll take you through their own personal experiences, from creating a scalable product strategy to building an enduring company that puts people and purpose before...
Jan 18, 2023•22 min
Join Colin Jones, CRO at Wiz, as he shares key takeaways from building and scaling a sales organization that went from $0 to $100 million ARR in less than two years, making Wiz the fastest company to reach the $100M ARR. Colin will share key lessons he learned along the way, along with real-life examples of things that break when you grow at such unprecedented speeds, how to fix them, and how to build a team that consistently performs with grace under pressure. Full video with Q&A: https://y...
Jan 13, 2023•23 min
Jason and Pete chat about SaaStr Fund, the state of VC funding in Q1 2023, and whether LPs play a role in the former "grow at all costs" mindset that prevailed in 2021 and early 2022. Video: https://youtu.be/cvYe2jf2gOE This conversation is an excerpt from a Modern Sales Pros fireside chat. You can find that video on their channel: https://youtu.be/fVckRPSUG-U Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/s...
Jan 11, 2023•16 min
In any given day, the enterprise buyer has many priorities that will come before your product. How do you ensure your solution gets implemented and retained? In this session, we walk through some of the lessons learned at Attentive on their path to over 5,000 customers in 5 years. We will dig into real world examples for reducing friction in sales, product and customer success. Full video: https://youtu.be/47ReBgKEgEY Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B softw...
Jan 06, 2023•22 min
It may seem counterintuitive to seek out a sales leadership hire during this time of slowed hiring, but it’s the number one topic that many founders talk about and many SDRs, AEs, and sales managers ask about. Founders may ask, “how do I find the right sales leadership hire?” While someone in sales may ask, “how do I become a CRO someday?” In today’s episode of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund, discusses these very questions with the previous CRO of Lattice, Dini Mehta. Vide...
Jan 04, 2023•37 min
Join Cliff Bockard, Senior Vice President of Revenue at DigitalOcean, as he discusses how DigitalOcean has won “big numbers” from “small customers” by tapping the underserved market of startups and SMBs. Cliff will discuss how companies can prioritize the success of their customers and benefit in turn, as well as why customer-centric and responsible, profitable growth matters more than ever. Full video: https://youtu.be/vbj20ekVKsE Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community...
Dec 30, 2022•21 min
Ready to kick-start 2023? Worried about team morale after a less-than-stellar Q4 (and Q3)? Jason shares 8 ideas that you can use right now to keep your sales team motivated and have a better Q1. Full video: https://youtu.be/ji8mYoAGGjU Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.qu...
Dec 28, 2022•27 min
Join Sarah Patterson as she shares key lessons on scaling marketing engines from her experience as a Marketing EVP at Salesforce and now the CMO at Samsara. Sarah will share three key lessons she has learned along the way, from building successful feedback loops to knowing when to invest for the long term or push for rapid growth. Video: https://youtu.be/z7qITAzT5wc Blog: https://www.saastr.com/3-lessons-from-building-a-marketing-engine-to-grow-pipeline-from-millions-to-billions-with-samsara-cmo...
Dec 23, 2022•25 min
For many SaaS companies, serving the world’s largest businesses requires evolving some of its most critical business strategies and operations. In this session, Airtable’s Howie Liu sits down with Coatue’s Caryn Marooney to share the lessons he’s learned from scaling Airtable. From how to think about competitors and categories, to the importance of building the right organizational culture, Howie and Caryn reveal what SaaS leaders need to consider as they move upmarket. Video: https://youtu.be/i...
Dec 21, 2022•31 min
In today's CRO Confidential, Sam chats with Rippling VP of Sales Matt Plank. Matt was employee #5 and the first sales hire at Rippling. In this episode, he shares how he built and scaled Rippling's sales team. Video: https://youtu.be/yAloXeNI1Qw Blog post: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-cro-confidential-founders-fund-partner-sam-blond-rippling-vp-sales-matt-plank-pod-617-video/ Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https:/...
Dec 16, 2022•33 min
There are so many interesting things everyone selling to SMBs can learn from HubSpot. Don't miss this talk with Hubspot's and SaaStr's CEOs Yamini Rangan and Jason Lemkin where they'll dig into how HubSpot is growing a stunning 41% year-over-year at $1.7 Billion in ARR. Yamini and Jason discuss: -why Hubspot chose to "take a step backward" by moving from sales-led to product-led -why focusing on free makes your product better -the importance of having multiple products -why NRR should be a North...
Dec 14, 2022•28 min
SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin recently moderated a session with 3 of the best investing in SaaS: Doug Pepper, GP at Iconiq, Arun Mathew, GP at Accel, and Alex Kayyal, VP and head of all of Salesforce Ventures. The four deep-dive on the real state of venture capital today and into 2023. This podcast was recorded live during G2's digital reach event. Check out the rest of the sessions over at Reach.G2.com This episode is an excerpt from the session. Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/hTvNqr395nY Wan...
Dec 09, 2022•25 min
Sam, Jason, and Jameson discuss: Category creation: what Gong did well and what didn't go so well The importance of content marketing, especially in very early stages maintaining team morale in the current economy the importance of messaging and customer relationships Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/27...
Dec 07, 2022•37 min
To scale your business customers need to be at the center of all you do. The reason for your business is to solve their largest problems and be mission-critical to their success. If your customers succeed your business will too. However, what if you can’t find or engage your target buyers? The way technology is bought and sold today has dramatically changed. The buyer’s journey is not linear but something they want to control. According to Bain and Co study, 94% of prospective buyers are well in...
Dec 04, 2022•27 min
SDRs are the most efficient channel for predictable B2B pipeline generation, but successfully scaling a team isn't easy. This session will cover the pillars of effectively recruiting, training, aligning, and empowering SDRs from the early stages of revenue through a global operation. Lars Nilsson has designed and built 25+ SDR operations at B2B SaaS software companies, and currently leads Snowflake's 200+ SDRs. Come have a listen to what all the buzz in SDR-Land is about! Want to join the SaaStr...
Nov 30, 2022•27 min
Building a flexible platform for your products and a strategic ecosystem around them is the key to fueling sustained growth. But when you’re in the throes of putting it together, it’s challenging to track the countless workstreams, investments, and partnerships involved – not to mention bringing all these pieces into alignment. Join Atlassian’s Chief Revenue Officer, Cameron Deatsch, to learn how to invest in an ecosystem, how to optimize your platform for innovation, and why long-term thinking ...
Nov 28, 2022•27 min
Keeping a Saas unicorn on the track of profitable, responsible growth requires clear alignment across the leadership team, and a purposeful approach to making decisions that drive the corporate mission. In this session, Algolia's Bernadette Nixon and Michelle Adams will discuss the dynamics of building a highly effective, open, direct and empathetic relationship between the critical CEO and CRO roles on the leadership team. Full video: https://youtu.be/tJAPaW5GoxU Want to join the SaaStr communi...
Nov 23, 2022•28 min
The two biggest mistakes business leaders can make in a competitive space are thinking their competitors are too smart or, alternately, too dumb. The game on the field has shifted dramatically over the past 12 months, and what matters to a startup today is much different from a couple of years ago. In the second installment of CRO Confidential, Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond, previous CRO at Brex, goes head-to-head with the CRO at Divvy, Sterling Snow, previously bitter rivals turned curious co...
Nov 18, 2022•32 min
At the end of Day 3 of SaaStr Annual 2022, Jason opened up the mic for an AMA. This episode is the second half of the session. In this episode, Jason discusses: Advice for very early-stage founders Why real customer support is critical Bootstrapping What's next for SaaStr The first half of the session was published in Episode 607. You can watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/apc5GwLlaDI
Nov 16, 2022•24 min
