Dear SaaStr: Is it True VCs Don’t Like to Invest Where Founders’ Equity is Fully Vested?
Dear SaaStr: Is it True VCs Don’t Like to Invest Where Founders’ Equity is Fully Vested? Yes, it’s true but … #1. VCs Are Less Rigid Here Than They Used To Be If a deal is hot and you have multiple offers, VCs won’t push as hard here as...
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Traits That Define a Great VP?
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Traits That Define a Great VP? The difference between a Good, a Great, and a Mediocre VP: A Good VP Maintains Velocity in Their Functional Area. This is hard enough as it is. If you grew 100% last year, growing 100% again this year is more...
Dear SaaStr: How Does a First Time Founder Identify 10x Hires?
Dear SaaStr: How does a First Time Founder Identify 10x Hires? How do you hire a great CTO, a great VP of Product, a great VP of Sales … if you’ve never worked with one? It’s hard. If you haven't worked with one before, then, yes, 10x engineers...
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Convince My Customers with Monthly plans to Upgrade to Annual Plans?
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Convince My Customers with Monthly plans to Upgrade to Annual Plans? My advice: Don’t. It’s too many calories expended for not enough benefit. Let me explain what I mean … Large customers only pay via invoices, especially for any deal of any...
Dear SaaStr: What’s The Toughest Skill to Learn to Scale in B2B?
Dear SaaStr: What’s The Toughest Skill to Learn to Scale in B2B? You need to learn to become a parallel recruiter. To constantly, painfully, boring-ly be recruiting the next level of management and managers — all the time. Doing 30+ interviews a month — minimum....
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Unspoken Downsides of Being a VC or Angel Investor?
Dear SaaStr: What Are The Unspoken Downsides of Being a VC or Angel Investor? Look the downsides are small folks. As a founder, you are often days away from total failure. This basically never happens for VCs, and even when it does, it happens over a decade+ (life of...
Dear SaaStr: What Are Great Examples of Fast Follower Companies That Become Market Leaders?
Dear SaaStr: What Are Great Examples of Fast Follower Companies That Become Market Leaders? In many ways, All of Them. Microsoft. Bought 86-DOS, turned into MS-DOS (which Gates did not invent), which in turn was an improved clone of CP/M. Did not invent BASIC, either....
Dear SaaStr: Should SaaS Startups Really Have CROs or COOs? Is That Too Many Management Layers?
Dear SaaStr: Should SaaS Startups Really Have CROs or COOs? Is That Too Many Management Layers? A few years ago, I would have said No. There’s no way a SaaS startup needs a “CRO” or “COO” or other C-level Officers Without a Clear, Single Functional Area to Own Until...
Dear SaaStr: What’s a Good Example of a Monthly Investor Update?
Dear SaaStr: What’s a Good Example of a Monthly Investor Update? The #1 key: design a template that is simple enough you can send it out on the first of the month, every month. That way you will actually get it done. Beyond that, in SaaS, I love a short update...
Dear SaaStr: What Should I Do if My Co-founder is a Complete Jerk?
Dear SaaStr: What Should I Do if My Co-founder is a Complete Jerk? It if’s that bad — it’s just not going to work. The issue isn’t so much that he’s a complete jerk. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, or most likely, it’s somewhere in the...
Dear SaaStr: When Should You Hire Your First Demand Generation Marketer in SaaS?
Dear SaaStr: When Should You Hire Your First Demand Generation Marketer in SaaS? My overly specific rough rule is about $20k in MRR. A deep dive on that and why here: I Hired My VP of Marketing at $20k MRR. It Wasn’t a Week Too Early. | SaaStr I Hired My VP of...
Dear SaaStr: Who Should Our First Head of Customer Success Report To?
Dear SaaStr: Who Should Our First Head of Customer Success Report To? Ah, who should Customer Success report to. It’s not super simple. And it’s changed a lot the last 18-24 months in SaaS and Cloud. There are generally 3 options in the early and middle days:...
Dear SaaStr: How Do You Price a SaaS Product in a New B2B Market?
Dear SaaStr: How Do You Price a SaaS Product in a New B2B Market? I’ve lived it. It’s not as complicated or as hard as it sounds. The simplest answer is usually to copy the pricing from the closest public company or other break-out leader you can find that is...
Dear SaaStr: What is a Good Refund Policy for a SaaS Product?
Dear SaaStr: What is a Good Refund Policy for a SaaS Product? SaaS startups, especially those that sign customers to annual customers, will have customers that want to cancel those un-cancelable contracts and get a refund. Even customers that pay monthly on credit...
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