SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Driving Stock-Based Compensation Much Lower. Quality Management is Their Biggest AI Play at the Moment This makes sense. Using AI to understand the efficacy of contact center agents is a big use case. #4. New Share Grants Are Down -60%.

Scale 278

Scale SMB Compensation Cloud 278

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 286

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 286

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2025

Pre-Seed / Seed Stage (Pre-Revenue or <$1M ARR) At this stage, you’re compensating for high risk with high equity. Equity becomes less of a motivator, and cash compensation takes precedence. Youre competing with larger companies, so equity needs to be paired with strong cash compensation. Executives : 0.3%-1%

Part-Time VPE 202

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Compensation 202

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2023

So leading growth stage VC Iconiq has published its latest and very detailed Definitive Guide to Sales Compensation here. The post Sales Reps Really Do Have to Close 4x-5x What They Take Home, and More: Iconiq’s Sales Compensation Guide appeared first on SaaStr. Everyone should have a read. A great report!

Compensation 294

Compensation Scale Sales SMB 294

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

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 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

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

MAY 26, 2025

Addressing the Compensation Question How do you compensate a team that’s half human, half AI? But ultimately, it may mean sales reps just plain have to close more to earn what they earn today: Team-Based Incentives : Compensation might ultimately tie to overall territory performance rather than individual deals.

Scale 236

Scale Sales Hiring AI Sales 236

SaaStr

JUNE 15, 2025

Don’t Overthink Compensation A good AE should pay for themselves within 3-4 months. If you’re selling to enterprise, hire someone who’s comfortable with long sales cycles and complex deals. Don’t expect someone to adapt to a completely different sales motion than what they’ve done before—it rarely works.

Sales Hiring 231

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Compensation 231

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 255

Sales Hiring AI Scale Compensation 255

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2025

All-in, including base salary and bonuses, the total compensation for an AE usually ends up being about 20-25% of the revenue they close annually. This is pretty standard for inside sales reps working on mid-market or enterprise deals. For smaller deals, or in lower-margin businesses, it might be a bit less.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Revenue Scale Compensation 176

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

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

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 294

Sales Hiring Compensation Branding Investment 294

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

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

We go to market with our platform in three ways: Core, Pro and FinTech products.

Benchmarks 299

Benchmarks Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 299

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 309

Scale Finance Headcount Leadership 309

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 15, 2025

In addition, Snowflake has heavy stock-based compensation expenses that creates sawtooth patterns in their profitability. Databricks achieved profitability for the first time in the most recent quarter. Meanwhile, Snowflake tends to operate between -30% to -40% net income margin.

Data 179

Data Compensation AI Cloud 179

SaaStr

MARCH 29, 2025

Compensate Relatively Generously. Use the early months to refine your process, adjust compensation plans, and learn what works. You can hire folks from all different backgrounds to work for you directly in sales. But they have to, have to be folks you’d honestly, truly buy your own product from. Otherwise they never work out.

Scale 188

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Compensation 188

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

More here: Sales Reps Really Do Have to Close 4x-5x What They Take Home, and More: Iconiq’s Sales Compensation Guide 4. You can also start introducing monthly or quarterly quotas to drive consistency and pace within the team. Late Stage ($50M+ ARR): At this point, you’re optimizing for efficiency and predictability.

Scale 167

Scale B2B Benchmarks Sales 167

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2025

If you are going to do it anyway, it is big move, and structuring their compensation correctly is critical to aligning incentives and ensuring theyre motivated to drive growth. Alignment with Company Stage : If youre early-stage, cash compensation should be modest, with equity being the primary driver.

Scaling 167

Scaling Compensation Retention Startup 167

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

JUNE 4, 2025

You need to: Map your current sales processes to identify which tasks can be AI-enhanced or eliminated Pilot AI tools with your top performers first to build internal case studies Redesign territory assignments and quota structures to account for expanded coverage capacity Retrain your sales team on new workflows that blend human judgment with AI efficiency (..)

Scale 244

Scale AI Underperforming Technical Team Sales 244

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2025

Compensation & Performance Metrics Fuel a Culture of Winning: Codium structured its compensation and quota models to create immediate success. Setting Up the Right Compensation & Incentives Codium ensured early sales hires were set up to win , both in terms of ramp expectations and compensation structure.

Sales Hiring 176

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting AI 176

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

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 341

Compensation Scale Enterprise Software 341

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 269

Compensation Government Finance Startup 269

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 297

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 297

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 321

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Compensation 321

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 230

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 230

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 294

Revenue Sales Hiring Compensation Startup 294

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Compensate Democratically: Managing up culture brings us all down. Muralidharan says, “Compensation is a very powerful motivator, so if there are certain behaviors you want to incentivize, then make sure that your compensation process is kind of aligned with those behaviors.” However, many companies participate in “managing up.”

Compensation 258

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 258

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 285

Scale Sales Hiring Compensation Sales 285

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

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

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 286

Scale Sales Hiring Compensation Marketing 286