Clouded Judgement

APRIL 11, 2024

My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., It looks at the YoY dollar change in quarterly revenue from the hyperscalers (just looking at Azure / AWS because the data goes back further) going back a few years. Is Software Rebounding?

Cloud 184

Cloud Software Azure AWS 184

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2020

It has a portion of its revenue that’s very sensitive to the economy and a lot of startups in the customer base, good and bad, right? We’re seeing pockets of strength and then we’re seeing pockets of startups that overnight not only are struggling but might even want to immediately stop their spend, right?

Merchant Services 265

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 265

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2024

You can see the growth on the platform side with Azure, Google, and AWS and how much it’s accelerating in AI. How does a startup benefit from this? They’re very SMB and just closed their first $750k TCV deal. If you squint, this is the top 10% of all VC-backed startups by top-tier seed funds. Dell fell 15% last week.

CTO Hire 147

CTO Hire AI Venture Capital Sales Hiring 147

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

They did call out sequential growth in Confluent Cloud every quarter this year which was a big positive Still seeing elongated deal cycles and less expansion revenue The Bad AWS: Headwinds Getting Worse Their quarter ended in March, but on the earnings call they called out weakening growth in April.

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2019

Before I joined the venture capital industry many years ago, I was a software developer, and I worked for a startup around the 2000 time period. Retail was mentioned twice, that’s it, and AWS was mentioned 78 times, so it’s probably not surprising that they’re doing this. I think it’s a really staggering stat.

Cloud 113

Cloud Scale AWS Artificial Intelligence 113

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2019

Unlike when selling into SMB businesses that kind of can go from a demo, to a conversion, to a close in a matter of days, enterprise sales is a lot more complicated and it’s hard to navigate through. So as Lauren sort of alluded to, we started by focusing on SMB’s. They gave a presentation to their boss.

Underperforming Technical Team 222

Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring SMB Enterprise 222

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

AWS and other infrastructure providers have been using UBP for nearly a decade. Simpler segmentation approach : By bucking the good, better, best seat-based pricing model, a single price point can be used to satisfy cost-conscious SMB customers as well as mid-market/enterprise businesses. The takeaway.

Headcount 73

Headcount SaaS Compensation Acquisition 73

Mucker Capital

APRIL 6, 2023

Hila Qu joined Mucker’s Tony Yang for an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) conversation about Product-Led Growth (PLG) for Startups to kickoff the 2023 Mucker Growth Series. Hila Qu has been the Head of Growth or VP of Growth at a number of different companies and startups, most notably Acorns and GitLab. should you be focusing on first?

Startup 52

Startup Scale CTO Hire Outsourced Development 52

OpenView Labs

JUNE 17, 2019

The truth is, A+ candidates will always have options… they are investments that make startups money and they know it. Think about the last time you went to buy something and had an awful experience with a sales rep (in any capacity – the mall, a store, online, or at work). Many startups are still struggling to get this right!

Sales Recruiting 53

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 53

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 5, 2019

Far too often clients come to us to help them recruit heavy hitting enterprise salespeople after they’ve tried the segmented model, cut costs to hire SMB AEs dressed up as enterprise sellers, or someone that hasn’t done the job they need them to do, and seen it implode as a result.

Sales Hiring 41

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales AWS 41

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2025

OnRamp is hosting a CCO Happy Hour from 5-7 ahead of the CCO Summit on Wednesday The AI Frontier Scaling Agents & Driving Innovation in SMB and Enterprise side event from 6-8pm in Mountain View with Nebius, CEO of Otter.ai, VP AI at EvenUp, CEO HeyBoss AI, and more. CFOs and VPs of Finance with tickets are invited! Will be fun!

AWS 147

AWS SMB AI Innovation 147

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 7, 2025

With a background that includes leadership roles at AWS, Microsoft, and Lenovo, Fred brings a wealth of experience in building high-performing teams and driving revenue growth. And I know you’ve had some great experience, particularly while you were at AWS, running different partner sales, channel sales. They cannot resell.

Outsourcing Services 118

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development AWS 118

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 13, 2018

But as the college-dorm-room startup matures, there’s a fascinating twist to be found in the way it applies its new mission to Workplace, a B2B startup within the (former) startup. You really have to think of Workplace as a SaaS startup within Facebook. When Workplace became a real thing at Facebook, I was in London.

Scale 151

Scale Marketplace as a Service Mobile Sales Hiring 151

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

A few can, Andreessen and maybe Sequoia, but 99% of the VCs you meet, legally, they can only invest in startups, whether they’re late stage or early stage. Don’t wish that you ran a hotter startup. I’m going to get the numbers wrong, I think Amazon has 10,000 open positions out in AWS. Don’t move on.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 246

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2020

And then I’ve watched, since she made this comment to me about 13 months ago, then I’ve watched with some startups I’ve worked with, where the first marketing hire comes in, and I asked them what their top five priorities are, and then I asked the CEO. And I remember being at that Dreamforce in 2009, which was awful.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 246

Casey Accidental

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Canva was more of a single player and SMB tool. More recent startups like Instacart have needed to manage a significant component of the delivery of the value prop, which means its monetization potential out of the gate is much worse. Here is where you see how marketplace strategy has needed to evolve over time.

Payments 113

Payments Scale Payment Solutions Technical Review 113

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Nikki Ivey is Cofounder of SDRDefenders and Head of Growth Development at Cultured Perspective, a Black owned Startup Consultancy. It took me a long time to admit to myself that I don’t enjoy transactional SMB sales. My passion now lies in working for mission-driven startups and helping to build their sales teams.

Scale 137

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 137

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 18, 2023

I encourage startups to treat it like a new product/company and test that market with an open mind. Seth Hammac , Global Partnerships & Alliances @ AWS Ok so what CAN you do to set yourself up for success? More for your eyeballs : Cool to see Capchase featured in Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2023.

Scale 90

Scale VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Enterprise 90

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2025

” Head of AI Dialpad: “How to Build AI at Scale” GTM/ B2B Speakers: CEO HubSpot Yamini Rangan : “Going More Multiproduct, Going More AI, and Going More SMB and More Enterprise” CEO Dropbox Drew Houston : “DropBox’s Third Act: AI & Content Intelligence” CEO Calendly Tope Awotona “Open AMA and (..)

VP of Engineering 263

VP of Engineering VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) AI Scale 263

OnStartups

JULY 7, 2021

Sam: Prior to that, you had another startup that you sold for a significant amount of money, we can talk about that. Sam: You're an angel investor in a lot of different startups, including Coinbase and things like that. And we're going to talk about, do you ever invest in non startup stuff? That's pretty funny. Let's jump in.

Payment Methods 140

Payment Methods Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions 140

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2019

276: Liat Bycel is VP of Customer Engagement @ Airtable, the startup that works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power to organise anything. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: * How Liat made her way into the world of SaaS and came to be VP of Customer Engagement at one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups in Airtable.

Sales Hiring 160

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Underperforming Technical Team 160

OnStartups

JULY 7, 2021

Sam: Prior to that, you had another startup that you sold for a significant amount of money, we can talk about that. Sam: You're an angel investor in a lot of different startups, including Coinbase and things like that. And we're going to talk about, do you ever invest in non startup stuff? That's pretty funny. Let's jump in.

Payment Methods 40

Payment Methods Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions 40

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 13, 2025

Reaching around $10 million ARR, most startups face a pivotal crossroads: do you hire ahead of demand to fuel future growth or risk being perpetually understaffed? Each segment, whether SMB, mid-market, or enterprise, has its own nuances, but they all share a familiar core. That’s when you go from being a builder to a doctor.

Scale 109

Scale Sales Hiring Artificial Intelligence SMB 109