Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Called field sales or outside sales people, their compensation starts at about $250k per year for on-target earnings (OTE - combination of salary and sales commission). If an AI agent replaces a role that is compensated for specific outcomes, then pricing could align with those outcomes.

SaaS Payments 281

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 281

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

By restructuring compensation plans to focus more on actual revenue realization, Lindsey was able to better align seller behavior with company objectives. Lindsey took that specific incentive out and started spiffing compensation on revenue realization, which is better for the customer.

Revenue 299

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 299

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2025

” – Compensation plans for sales leaders are tricky, and this post provides a clear framework thats been widely adopted. .” – A short but impactful post that highlights the power law in SaaS and what it takes to scale to $1 billion in ARR. “ A Basic Structure for a VP, Sales Comp Plan: 50/50/25+.”

Sales Hiring 261

Sales Hiring AI Scale Compensation 261

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What are the typical components of a CEO’s compensation? A related post here: The All-In Dilution from an Outside CEO: Just Make Sure You Do the Math The post Dear SaaStr: What Are The Typical Components of CEO Compensation? How are CEO contracts typically structured? How are CEO Contracts Typically Structured?

Compensation 246

Compensation Management Leadership 246

SaaStr

JUNE 8, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Should I Design a Sales Reps Compensation Plan at Just $10k MRR ? A bit more and a deeper dive here: A Very Simple Sales Comp Plan For Your First Sales Reps The post Dear SaaStr: How Should I Design a Sales Reps Compensation Plan at Just $10k MRR? Then try it again (e.g., a new market, a new vertical, etc).

Compensation 246

Compensation Scale Sales Business Model 246

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

You have to go all in.” The Enterprise Pricing Journey Is All About Unbundling Stripe learned this the hard way.

Scale 278

Scale SMB Enterprise Enterprise readiness 278

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Meghan Gill, SVP of Sales Ops and Sales Dev at MongoDB, shares different consumption-based compensation models that drive the right behaviors. Compensation will drive it and have unexpected results. If you want to get rid of the cobras, paying for every cobra killed clearly wasn’t the right behavior to compensate.

Compensation 182

Compensation Sales Azure AWS 182

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2025

Source: Pave CFO Cash Comp by Capital Raised: Segmenting compensation by amount raised (like the chart below) will be less meaningful in the future as companies raise less money, but it demonstrates the right theme. As you might expect, the CRO is typically the highest paid person at the company on a cash basis, but the CFO is close behind.

Scale 319

Scale Finance Headcount Leadership 319

The SaaS CFO

JANUARY 7, 2025

Sales compensation plans play a critical role in the success and scaling of SaaS companies. A well-designed sales compensation plan motivates teams, aligns with corporate objectives, […] The post How to Create a Sales Compensation Plan for SaaS appeared first on The SaaS CFO. Higher ARR, higher valuation.

Compensation 65

Compensation Scale Sales SaaS 65

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2024

f you are starting from the ground floor, first, bear in mind your compensation will be just OK, you won’t really get any “carry” (i.e., Dear SaaStr: How Do I Become a VC? VC looks a lot more glamorous than it is.I share of the profits on the investments) for a long time, if ever — and your job likely will be to hunt.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Compensation Branding Investment 306

Predictable Revenue

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Learn how to keep your outbound sales team motivated to reach quota with this step-by-step guide to building an effective SDR compensation plan. The post Quick Guide to SDR Compensation appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Compensation 147

Compensation Outbound Sales Team Revenue Sales 147

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

Dear SaaStr: As An Employee, As an acquired employee, How Do I Negotiate My Compensation in an Acquisition? Because it’s seen as their money, as “extra” compensation on top of the deal price. The post Dear SaaStr: As An Employee, How Do I Negotiate My Compensation in an Acquisition? appeared first on SaaStr.

Compensation 185

Compensation Acquisition Sales Hiring Finance 185

Predictable Revenue

APRIL 4, 2024

This time, we're diving into the nuanced world of startup sales compensation with Graham Collins, Head of Partnerships at QuotaPath. The post Crafting Sales Compensation Plans with Graham Collins appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Compensation 130

Compensation Sales Startup Revenue 130

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

Create Compelling Economic Incentives For sales talent, compensation is critical. When you bring in excellent operators early, it creates a snowball effect that attracts additional talent. in just four months and became a leader As Graham noted: “Success in sales is defined by how much money you’re making.

Sales Recruiting 236

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 236

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Sales compensation planning can be a tricky beast to tame — but know that you’re not alone. Then, I’ll help you take it to the next level with QuotaPath’s newest free resource — our Compensation Hub. Then, I’ll help you take it to the next level with QuotaPath’s newest free resource — our Compensation Hub.

Compensation 124

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Finance 124

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2021

No marketing budget can compensate for a substandard SaaS product. Why should they tie their career and compensation to a second-tier offering? Why should they tie their career and compensation to a second-tier offering? Presented By: Henrique Dubugras – CEO – Brex – @hdubugras.

Compensation 344

Compensation Scale Enterprise Software 344

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2020

If the founders are the highest compensated people in the start-up, at least pre-Scale (e.g., So once you’ve raised a bit, if you make sure at least someone else on the team makes more than the founders … that great VP you just hired for example … you’ve probably found the right compensation level for you as CEO.

Venture Capital 346

Venture Capital Sales Hiring Scale Compensation 346

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2023

What’s changed is the majority of startups that are venture-backed don’t seem to get the CEO’s and founders’ compensation packages approved by the board anymore. Eventually, everyone does when the company adds a true CFO and outside directors and even a compensation committee pre-IPO.

Compensation 278

Compensation Government Finance Startup 278

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2020

CEO hires 2 reps, in the beginning, each barely pays for themselves, but by months 4–6 they are able to close 3x-5x their total compensation. By 15 sales reps, you probably need a first head of sales operations to handle training, onboarding, compensation, quotas, etc. Then: Have to scale from reps 3–8 or so.

Sales Hiring 308

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 308

SaaStr

APRIL 9, 2022

Transparent compensation information is concern #1. Second, many of us worry about being fully transparent with compensation. It’s time to get over it. Second, many of us worry about being fully transparent with compensation. Concern #1 was a lack of transparent compensation information. Fix this today.

Revenue 306

Revenue Sales Hiring Compensation Startup 306

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2023

CEO hires 2 reps, in the beginning, each barely pays for themselves, but by months 4–6 they are able to close 3x or more of their total compensation. By 8-10 sales reps, you probably need a first head of rev ops / sales operations to handle training, onboarding, compensation, quotas, etc.

Sales Hiring 328

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Compensation 328

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Are you compensating your teams to sell recurring revenue? Compensation is a great motivator to make your team care and think about different clients and which verticals are likely to get higher revenue. .

Scale 297

Scale Sales Hiring Compensation Sales 297

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

They may not necessarily raise another round anytime soon, but they’re definitely not out of the mix – so at best their presence in 2024 will make sales compensation even more confusing than it already is. They’ll have much more budget than the rest of us, and it will warp and distort sales compensation this year. #4.

Sales Recruiting 317

Sales Recruiting Trends Sales Hiring Software Review 317

Tom Tunguz

JULY 10, 2022

A key part of the formula: crafting the right account executive compensation structure to reward this strategy. But, as Lee Kirkpatrick, former Twilio CFO, shared during Office Hours , Twilio employed this strategy to achieve top quartile NDR while achieving strong ARR predictability with a usage-based pricing model.

Strategy 356

Strategy Sales Compensation Retention 356

Buffer Resources

AUGUST 7, 2024

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Radoslav Bali (@radoslavbali) Set a budget and compensation plan Kicking off with an example, we worked with influencers on our Threads launch. Remember that influencers are professionals who expect fair compensation for their work — as they should.​

Social Media 111

Social Media Compensation Technical Review Branding 111

SaaStr

OCTOBER 19, 2023

One thing I have learned, though: If the founders are the highest compensated people in the start-up, especially pre-Scale (e.g., The second time, I funded the prototype myself ($0 salary) and then we raised a $2.6m seed and I took a small salary (no need to be $0 anymore, but anything large would decrease the runway).

Scale 299

Scale Sales Hiring Compensation Marketing 299

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2023

On commissions / pay-out: For start-ups where cash matters, I strongly suggest compensating the reps mainly on cash brought in. Or just the part attributed to your current year? Approaches vary here. First, what you pay on vs. quota retirement can vary.

Compensation 288

Compensation Churn Revenue SaaS 288

SaaStr

JUNE 12, 2024

Paid $419 million to buy Spiff Saleforce has said they are putting big acquisitions on hold for now, but they did pay more than $400m to buy sales compensation management platform Spiff. # That’s a big change. #3. 4: 33% of Revenue Outside North America; APAC Growing Fastest # 5.

Compensation 305

Compensation Scale Acquisition AI 305

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2022

The reasons for this kind of nomadism can be complex—compensation, a growing remote-first workplace, morale, or a company’s reputation might contribute to their decision to leave. How do they sufficiently value and compensate an engineer’s skills in such a competitive market? Individual Growth. Key Takeaways.

CTO Coach 278

CTO Coach CTO Hire New CTO Engineering 278

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2022

Last, the plan compensates those responsible for growing accounts with a quota - in line with Frank Slootman’s philosophy. This land & expand team construct recognizes the difference in difficulty between landing & expanding accounts; also, the potential difference in ideal AE for each role.

Startup 342

Startup Construction Sales Compensation 342

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Mistake #3: Not designing a sales compensation plan for PLG. “We We are using the sales compensation models from the 1970s, and these models drive quota-fulfilling behavior.”. In a sales-led compensation plan, the team is rewarded more for the first revenue from a customer and less for the expansion revenue.

Technical Review 290

Technical Review Technical Advisors Scale Compensation 290

SaaStr

AUGUST 24, 2024

Because Customer Success — they’re compensated on avoiding churn. But as you get bigger and better, your customer success team can get more and more involved as you pass stage 5. They’ll get the check for you if in the end, A/R doesn’t with a dedicated process like the above. And if at all possible.

SaaS Payments 290

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Payments 290

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2024

The Top 8 SaaStr Tips to Building an Effective First Sales Team The most important tips and best practices for founders when building out their first sales team: Get sales experience yourself first Close the first 10-20 customers yourself to understand the sales process This will give you critical insights to effectively train and manage your first (..)

Sales Hiring 290

Sales Hiring Scale AI Search Compensation 290

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2023

QuotaPath is the most adaptable compensation solution to bring Sales, RevOps, and Finance all on the same page. Motivate reps and retain top talent with a better way to design compensation structures and automate commissions. Organizations using Bob are able to accelerate hiring, retain the best talent, and elevate employee engagement.

Cloud 264

Cloud Scale Startup Sales Hiring 264

Predictable Revenue

JANUARY 31, 2022

Learn how to incentivize sales team behaviors that drive revenue, reduce turnover, and create a positive work environment–without relying on financial compensation. The post How To Incentivize Sales Team Behaviors appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Sales 260

Sales Compensation Revenue Strategy 260

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

But building a sales compensation plan that both aligns your sales team’s compensation with your customers’ objectives and recruits top salespeople can be incredibly difficult in usage-based pricing. The problem comes down to incentives. The more customers like and use your product, the more revenue you bring in.

Compensation 92

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Systems Review 92

Tom Tunguz

JULY 11, 2024

It will require changing sales compensation plans & customer contracts, which database companies have navigated successfully. If an AI agent replaces an SDR who is compensated for meetings, then why not charge this way? This aligns value well, but may inject unpredictability into the pricing model. There are challenges here too.

AI 238

AI Pricing Software Compensation 238