SaaStr

MAY 26, 2023

Dan Robinson, current Advisor and former CTO at Heap , shares five essential learnings from nearly a decade of building a SaaS business. What Your Job Is (And What It Isn’t) Your Job is to Make the Company Win A CTO may imagine their primary job is to provide technical expertise, lead engineers, and help build the product.

CTO Coach 242

CTO Coach CTO Hire CTO Leadership 242

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

You really need a great CTO, not just a good business team. A mediocre tech team, a part-time CTO, or even just a decent CTO just doesn’t get you there. Finally you have great customers and traction — but you can’t afford to hire all the people you need to meet their needs. Everyone is.

Part-Time VPE 298

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 298

TechEmpower SaaS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

In the 25 years that TechEmpower has been in business, we’ve seen thousands of companies come and go. While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. cto , product , saas tew_cta text="Do you have an idea for a software project?

Software Development 443

Software Development Development Software Review Software 443

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Founded by Sanjit Biswas, former CEO at Meraki and John Bicket former CTO at Meraki[link] Samsara builds software to manage physical operations: truck fleets, mining, food & beverage, oil & gas. If a business has to manage physical assets with drivers, there’s a Samsara product for it.

CTO Hire 362

CTO Hire CTO Coach Benchmarks Scale 362

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

You’ll need to hire aggressively to get to the next level and continue that rapid growth. But what roles should you hire for, and what will your org chart look like at each stage? David considers product to be its own department that should also report directly to the CEO, instead of falling under the CTO. CTO (40 Employees).

CTO Hire 287

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 287

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Including: CEO Snowflake CEO HubSpot CEO DropBox CEO Descript CEO Clio CEO Flock Safety CEO Own CRO ServiceTitan CMO Databricks CMO Infinite Reality CTO Rubrik CCO Canva CCO Bill CCO GitHub VP AI Wiz CEO Calendly and 100s more!! Investor Connections and Funding Opportunities — And $5m AI VC Pitch Stage!!

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

TechEmpower SaaS

JULY 24, 2023

Still, if you’re a business leader and your developers haven’t asked you these questions, look for a Fractional CTO to help navigate the critical early stage of development. Background Questions Let’s start with some background questions about the business and product. Tell me about the business.

Innovation 780

Innovation Development CTO Hire Technical Review 780

SaaStr

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Anyhow the one thing I learned, beyond getting help screening and hiring for these positions from domain experts, is to look for Flags. For signs the prospective hire just won’t work out, no matter how strong they might look on paper. Just pass here, nine times out of ten at least. Why join a start-up? Just Write Owner.

Sales Hiring 258

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 258

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2021

But what they don’t have is a good enough founding team: Sometimes, if the prospective founder isn’t super technical, then the CTO/VPE isn’t really great. They’ve got a rent-a-CTO. Or sometimes they are great, but the team members are just not great enough for their new C-level roles (CEO, CTO, CMO, CSO, CBO, C?O).

Part-Time VPE 261

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire New CTO CTO 261

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2024

Kevin Scott, CTO of Microsoft, framed the opportunity in AI this way : work on problems that used to be impossible, but are now really hard. What business problems are newly solvable? Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote a post about the minimum viable average contract value to justify a sales team.

CTO Hire 216

CTO Hire Outsourced Development Sales Hiring CTO 216

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2020

Hire not just 1-2 reps, but 10. That it’s time to bring in someone that knows. But I’ve found many great SaaS founders take longer, too long, to decide to hire the other VPs. But I’ve found many great SaaS founders take longer, too long, to decide to hire the other VPs. I Need a VP of Sales.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Scale 363

Valerian Tech

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The role of a Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is to provide technical expertise and leadership to a company on a part-time or temporary basis. This includes identifying new technologies and innovations that can help the company achieve its goals and stay competitive.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2024

They hire a VP of Sales who doesn’t want to sell or learn the product. You also don’t want to hire a VP of Sales who won’t carry a bag. If you joined a startup at $2M and wanted to get to $6M with reps doing $400k, that VP of Sales would need to hire ten reps. 90% of the time, sales falls when a founder steps out of it.

CTO Hire 210

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO Venture Capital 210

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2023

Almost all of them had an amazing CTO or CPO, and hired a simply epic VP or two. I love the session below with Okta’s CEO on how everyone knew the identity space matters, but no one thought it could be that huge as a business. Bulldozing through the tougher times. The tough times really almost kill you.

CTO Hire 285

CTO Hire CTO Investment Marketing 285

SaaStr

JANUARY 16, 2023

Hiring a reliable team is an all-encompassing issue where startups dive in head-first but fail to optimize it for success. . Hiring an expert produces 1000x better results than someone with interests elsewhere. . “A Hiring in a streamlined manner with a rigorous selection process initially builds momentum for long-term goals.

Scale 261

Scale CTO Hire Cloud Scaling 261

Valerian Tech

JANUARY 5, 2023

It can be beneficial to hire a fractional CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in a variety of situations. When you don't have an in-house technology leader: If you don't have a CTO or a similar technology leader on your team, a fractional CTO can fill that role.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

You have to be careful to pair that with someone strong to manage the relationship, that has more time and that also can be trusted. As a founder, you’ll just run out of time to properly manage key customers and partners yourself. Hire that person, and make sure they are someone the top customers can really trust and count on.

CTO Hire 327

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO CTO 327

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2024

Jason Warner , who was CTO of GitHub before and during my time as COO there (and a former partner at Redpoint!) Our check sizes range from the low single-digit millions up to around $20M, depending on the stage of the company, market and the capital needs of the business. What’s your most recent disclosed investment?

Management 276

Management CTO Hire New CTO CTO 276

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2019

What makes a bad CTO? What are the advantages of being a startup vs being an established business? Do all SaaS companies in the USA put late payment fees in their contract? What was the biggest ousting of a CEO that ever occurred? Do startups ever have one founder with substantially more equity than the other founder(s)?

CTO Hire 170

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Payment Methods 170

TurnKey Labs

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) play a critical role in steering technology-driven businesses and tech startups towards success. From keeping pace with ever-evolving technologies to leading development teams effectively, the responsibilities of a CTO are multifaceted.

CTO Coach 57

CTO Coach CTO CTO Hire Technology 57

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

For part one of this Ask Me Anything session, Jason covers everything you need to know about hiring your first VP of Sales, what he really thinks about AI, what the future of lead generation in 2024 looks like, and much more. There are no Cloud magicians, and you can’t hire a PLG magician. Let’s jump right into the questions.

Scale 287

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AI 287

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

Which role should you hire for first? For starters, your first hire should be someone who can complement your skills, someone who is strong in areas where you’re weak, but it goes much deeper than that. This is Dan, CEO of WalkMe, and Wade, CEO of Zapier, and Mallun, Chief Business Officer of RPX, and Craig from Dialpad.

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 263

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

At the same time – there are only 1,000 Fortune1k companies, right? And hundreds of thousands of downmarket businesses that could get value out of ZoomInfo. We make sure that we can continue to maintain the new business sales motion while we’re doing that to see if we can get to a place where it’s additive.

New CTO 314

New CTO Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 314

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2020

Brendon introduces his playbook to hiring the first VP of Sales from his experiences as VP of Sales at LinkedIn, EchoSign, Talkdesk and more. Learn the dos and don’ts to make the correct hire the first time and not rush into hiring the wrong VP of Sales, which can cost the company months or even years. Roughly 90%.

Sales Hiring 231

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire Scale 231

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2021

Co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah shared with us how they got there — and the top mistakes they made — just 3 quarters after their IPO. We have someone that probably 98 percent of you know virtually or socially in some sense, Dharmesh Shah, founder and CTO of HubSpot. But of course, it wasn’t always quite that big!

Part-Time VPE 293

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 293

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2024

Is the CTO involved in these decisions? App contraction is still happening, and AI is absorbing all of the energy in the industry. You can lose deals to feature gaps, and Jason has seen rampant loss of business due to not having feature parody. Q: What Teams Should Be Involved to Fully Leverage AI and Get in Front of the Wave?

AI 302

AI Pricing Artificial Intelligence Scale 302

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 11, 2020

Intercom has responded by hiring a diversity and inclusion consultant, updating our recruitment strategy and hiring practices to reduce bias, scheduling allyship training for all employees, and amplifying Black voices in our podcast and blog. We take so much pride in the work Intercom is doing to take a stand against racial injustice.

Technical Review 289

Technical Review Software Review Systems Review CTO Hire 289

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2021

With 3 full days of sessions, featuring over 300 speakers from the best SaaS companies around the world, SaaStr Annual will be filled with actionable thought leadership to help grow your business. I retired from SunGard Treasury Systems as their CTO. Oh my gosh, you can run into him all the time. Transcript: [background music].

Startup 287

Startup CTO Hire Sales Hiring CTO Coach 287

Crafty CTO

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

I’ve learned so much … most importantly, I think, that I love being a fractional CTO, a role that allows me to make use of everything I’ve learned and experienced over a long technology-focused career. And that is precisely the gap that a strong fractional CTO can fill.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Headcount 40

USIO

JUNE 28, 2024

is committed to empowering businesses to build powerful enterprise grade applications without the need for extensive coding expertise,” said Ben Hubbard, CTO at ues.io. Usio Payfac-as-a-service solution offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to simplify payment processing for businesses of all sizes. application.

Payments 130

Payments Merchant Services Payment Solutions Payment Services 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Your core models for sales, for marketing spend, for hiring and engineering and product. Because this could happen to any business here. And the best CTO I know in the world is the CEO. Then I was the CTO at another YC company, Standard Treasury, acquired by Silicon Valley Bank. And I don’t mean in an edgy way.

Outsourcing Services 243

Outsourcing Services Banking CTO Hire New CTO 243

FastSpring

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

If you’re running a smaller digital business, you may find it challenging to hire great talent. Larger technology companies can pay more, offer more benefits, and provide a more marketable brand on a candidate’s resume. I know you focus in your business a lot on the gaming industry. Listen or watch now!

SMB 99

SMB Sales Recruiting Branding Sales Hiring 99

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

You have to see: A couple of good hires brought in Improvement on some metrics A big deal or two hanging out there, brought in and closed Things taken off your plate. More time may make them better if they’re already progressing, even if it’s just 10-15% in the first sales cycle. Hiring someone too junior. That often compounds.

Part-Time VPE 242

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale CTO Hire 242

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 27, 2018

Intercom’s mission is to make internet business personal. Uptime is critical to the success of our business, and not just because our customers are paying us, but also because we heavily dogfood our own product. Being on call out of office hours is inherently disruptive to your life. The history of on call at Intercom.

Engineering 209

Engineering Software Review Technical Review Systems Review 209

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2022

Doing Business with Developers. According to Gartner, 98% of companies plan to use APIs in their business, either internally or publicly. Anyone who says the developer market is not strong is behind the times. The contract size grows. Twilio, for example, built a next-generation telecom through an API.

Outsourced Development 212

Outsourced Development Underperforming Technical Team Development Part-Time VPE 212

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Here’s what SaaS businesses need to know about simplifying sales tax. Software as a Service is currently taxable in about one-third of US states, and that number is only growing as outdated state sales tax laws slowly catch up with the way we’re doing business today. . hiring in-house talent). Identify and mitigate risks.

Merchant Services 205

Merchant Services Technical Review Scale Sales Hiring 205

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

In part, my shift in thinking could pertain to not being the “front man” handling the pitch. But thanks to our VP of Business Development, I realize team-based selling for an early-stage startup or company is still likely a necessity, and far outweighs specialization when your sales org is fewer than five people or so.

Underperforming Technical Team 131

Underperforming Technical Team CTO Hire CTO Coach Technical Review 131