Kristen Koh Goldstein (Scalus): 10 Things That Change When You Stop Bootstrapping (Video + Transcript)
(Less than 30 days to SaaStr Annual 2017. Do you have your tix yet?) You’ve finally done it – you received that big round of funding and you’re ready to say goodbye to your cash-starved bootstrapping days. But with all this new capital comes several hard truths you’ll have to face. Matt Holleran, General Partner […]
Keith Rabois (Khosla Ventures): Building Amazing Teams (Video + Transcript)
(Less than 30 days to SaaStr Annual 2017. Do you have your tix yet?!?!) The challenges of attracting top talent, keeping them on board, as well as successfully maintaining a rapidly growing team are all too familiar to founders and CEOs. In today’s technology-fueled world, trends come and go, but building world-class teams that are passionate, […]
Fred Stevens-Smith & Farlan Dowell (Rainforest QA): Morphing into a Rocketship: Learning to Love Sales (Video+ Transcript)
(Only 30 days to SaaStr Annual 2017. Do you have your tix yet?) We talk a lot about sales here at SaaStr (obviously), but that doesn’t mean that everyone is in love with sales funnels, hitting quotas, and nurturing MQLs into SQLs. A lot of SaaS companies struggle with building sales teams that bring in […]
Marketo: Winning, IPOing, and Going Upmarket (Video + Transcript)
In anticipation of the upcoming SaaStr Annual 2017, we’ll be releasing the full series of transcripts and videos from all the awesome 2016 sessions. We were super excited to have Phil Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Marketo, sit down and talk to us about the triumphs (and struggles) leading Marketo from inception to IPO. Phil […]
When the Player-Coach is Just That. And No More.
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about not screwing up that VP of Sales hire. Done right, it will accelerate your company to the next level. Done wrong — you can lose the better part of a year, and half of your last round of capital. And we’ve talked a lot about the trade-offs in […]
Why Equal Pay is So Important
It’s great to see Marc Benioff focusing more time and energy on Equal Pay. A sustained effort here should open more eyes. Since this is SaaStr, I’d like to add a few more tactical thoughts here. Now yes, I am a White Male who grew up On a Coast and went to a Top College and […]
Successful vs. Very Successful SaaS Companies
Should you join that Successful SaaS start-up? The one that just raised a nice seed round, that has $20k in MRR, and a cool product? Maybe. The key is understanding if it’s merely a pre-success you are meeting with … or one that potentially can be very successful. And it turns out, at least in my […]
5-6 Years Is About As Fast As You Can Mint a True VP of Sales
We’ve talked a lot about hiring a VP of Sales at SaaStr, and if you hire a stretch VP of Sales (as most of you will) … how much you can stretch. A related question is — just how quickly can you gain the requisite experience to be a true first time VP of Sales? […]
Why ‘Perfect’ Is the Enemy of Diversity
How to achieve diversity in the SaaS workplace, and why it’s important, is a super important topic I haven’t hit head on, for a variety of reasons. Mostly because it’s an important to get really right. Bro-cultures in sales teams. All-male VC firms. Young managers hiring people just like them. There are a lot of […]
7 Things as CEO You Can Do Today To Be a Better Manager
This new-ish phase of my life as a VC is really the first time I’ve ever worked with CEOs who weren’t formally (or at least, informally) trained as managers. My bosses all came up through the ranks. I went from Director to VP to Founder to CEO. Most of my SaaS CEO peers, back in the […]
