SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. A Rockstar engineer really is 10x better than the next tier. And yet … is it worth waiting 6-9 months to hire a VP that’s a true Rockstar, if you’ve struggled to make the hire? It’s true.

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 278

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And he made an observation to me that I’d been thinking about for a very long time, but didn’t know how to express. You really can’t know how hard it is, even if you were a VP at a great start-up, even if you were the first employee, even. In many ways, your Quality of Life will simply be awful. Being great.

Part-Time VPE 286

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire AWS New CTO 286

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2024

Founder CEO Todd McKinnon was VP of Engineering at Salesforce and left to start Okta in the depths of the last downturn. Customer Count Up 8% Year-over-Year to 18,950 It’s hard to find net net customers after $1B ARR. AWS alone generated $175m of contract value for Okta, growing 130%. Wow, what an engine at $2.5

Fractional VPE 276

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Scale SMB 276

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 19, 2018

It means reducing choices amongst engineering teams and standardizing technology, so our team can spend as much time as possible delivering value to customers. Rich Archbold , Senior Director of Engineering, has been at the forefront of codifying and scaling this philosophy over the past few years.

Outsourcing Services 192

Outsourcing Services Part-Time VPE Software AWS 192

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2021

As part of the run up to 2021 SaaStr Annual in the SF Bay Area Sep 27-29 , we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite classic sessions. (And You’ll find out tomorrow. Another piece of very, very good startup advice that I’ve given myself a hundred times is the “Do one thing exceptionally well.”

Part-Time VPE 283

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 283

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I actually think I never met any company that have not made a few mistakes about build versus buy and most of the time it’s linked to the long term cost. First of all, I think any good engineer can easily give you 10 good reason to build instead of buy. It’s super easy, like we never find enough arguments to buy.

Scale 164

Scale Scaling CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 164

Outseta

MAY 8, 2020

I find that refreshing. Beyond just being smart, I’ve routinely come across people in tech that are tenacious, objective, and have high emotional intelligence—so much so that I often find myself thinking, “It’s too bad so many of these smart people are building email marketing software!”

Part-Time VPE 102

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 102