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Startup CTO or Developer

TechEmpower SaaS

But hiring a lead developer, or even a VP of Engineering, can create a gap between the founders and the developers. Check out our blog post 53 Questions Developers Should Ask Innovators. Closing the Gap: Hiring A Fractional Startup CTO We’re not suggesting that early-stage startups should hire a full-time CTO.

CTO Hire 390
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Everything is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value)

SaaStr

But there’s one thing I can tell you in SaaS, at least: Almost Everything Except the Product Itself is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value) Level. One VP of Product. One VP of Marketing. The post Everything is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value) appeared first on SaaStr.

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What’s The #1 Challenge After $1m-$2m ARR?

SaaStr

You can smother customers with love alone in the early days, but as you scale, you need a seasoned customer success team and VP that has done this before. Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. You’ll need more than 5–6 core engineers to go big.

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Dear SaaStr: What’s The Number One Challenge for Scale-Up Stage Founders?

SaaStr

You can smother customers with love alone in the early days, but as you scale, you need a seasoned customer success team and VP that has done this before. Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. You’ll need more than 5–10 engineers to go big.

Scale 274
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5 Interesting Learnings from Okta at $2.5 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

Founder CEO Todd McKinnon was VP of Engineering at Salesforce and left to start Okta in the depths of the last downturn. Seat Contractions Have Brought NRR Down From 120% to 111% While 111% NRR is still quite an engine at this scale, the drop in NRR from seat contractions explains a good chunk of the headwinds Okta has seen. #2.

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7 Pieces of Advice Entrepreneurs Never Hear That They Need to Hear with Jason Lemkin

SaaStr

That placeholder for the VP of Finance never gets the financials done, and the VP of Marketing talks and talks but hasn’t ever worked with a sales team. When you hire that VP of Engineering who never learns the product, it doesn’t work. There is a 0% chance it works. Founders need to be honest about it, though.

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How to Hire A Great VP Sales: The Full Video and Transcript

SaaStr

If you’ve hired the VP of Engineering, impossible hire, but when they love something, they jump. My real point is with the VP of sales you’re probably not going to get the perfect hire. Maybe you’ll get that in your VP of engineering or VP of product, possibly, your VP of marketing.