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., Second, there are so, so many startups so you’ll really have to learn what the partners like. Dear SaaStr: How Do I Become a VC? VC looks a lot more glamorous than it is.I Not everything.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Compensation Branding Investment 306

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2022

Most startups operate between 0.15-0.25. Last, the plan compensates those responsible for growing accounts with a quota - in line with Frank Slootman’s philosophy. Last, the plan compensates those responsible for growing accounts with a quota - in line with Frank Slootman’s philosophy. We agree there!

Startup 342

Startup Construction Sales Compensation 342

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Your startup is just getting off the ground. Knowing about the options ahead of time may help you figure out the right sales plan for your startup. The ultimate goal of any compensation plan is to ensure account executive success at each stage. I’ve seen four stages in early stage software companies.

Compensation 195

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 195

SaaStr

MARCH 29, 2025

Its where many startups hit roadblocks, but if you do it right, its a game-changer. Compensate Relatively Generously. Early sales reps are taking a risk by joining a startup, so you need to make it worth their while. Use the early months to refine your process, adjust compensation plans, and learn what works.

Scale 205

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Compensation 205

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. appeared first on SaaStr.

Sales Hiring 328

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Compensation 328

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2023

Startups are solving the world’s important challenges with agility, innovative technology, and determination. So whether you’re starting out, building your startup, or scaling up to meet the needs of consumers, business, and society, we connect you with the right people, products, and best practices to help you thrive and grow.

Cloud 264

Cloud Scale Startup Sales Hiring 264

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Dear SaaStr: The Startup I’m Working At is Getting Acquired. Because it’s seen as their money, as “extra” compensation on top of the deal price. The post Dear SaaStr: The Startup I’m Working At is Getting Acquired. How Much Can I Negotiate? You can try a little, but it’s rough. How Much Can I Negotiate?

Startup 305

Startup Sales Hiring Compensation Finance 305

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2022

Top 10 Insights from the 2022 Startup Sentiment Survey. 50% of companies won’t change compensation this year, 33% will increase it, and 17% will reduce it. There’s no correlation between the amount of money a startup has raised and its runway. The typical founder feels 6.0

Startup 242

Startup Scale Headcount Compensation 242

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

Codeium has emerged as one of the hottest AI startups, growing from 30 to 150 employees in just one year, with a valuation already exceeding $1 billion. Create Compelling Economic Incentives For sales talent, compensation is critical. I really liked this one and wanted to write up a few more learnings.

Sales Recruiting 247

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 247

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 21, 2022

In addition, Lee shared his view on usage-based pricing and defending a startup’s great asset, talent, from poaching during the next recovery. UBP presented an opportunity to reinvent the account executive (AE) compensation model. Compensation. Startups must prepare for the inevitable economic rebound.

Startup 203

Startup Sales Hiring Outsourced Development Compensation 203

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2023

During that session, she alluded to a book sharing her expertise in building exceptional teams at two of the most successful startups. Millions of businesses around the world—individuals, startups, and large enterprises—are open for business only if we are. That book, Scaling People : Tactics for Management & Company Building.

Startup 229

Startup Scale Systems Review Compensation 229

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

You’re two or three years into your startup. Startups should pay key people market rate to retain them. Otherwise, they may leave the business, lured by the promise of greater compensation elsewhere. Otherwise, they may leave the business, lured by the promise of greater compensation elsewhere. Year 1 2 3 4 5 6.

Startup 189

Startup Compensation Retention Pricing 189

SaaStr

APRIL 9, 2022

Today, it’s hard because there are 1000x more SaaS startups before. Transparent compensation information is concern #1. So many startups screw this up, but you can fix it now. Second, many of us worry about being fully transparent with compensation. Concern #1 was a lack of transparent compensation information.

Revenue 306

Revenue Sales Hiring Compensation Startup 306

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2023

Maybe it was a lot of startups just plain not having real boards of directors. 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. Maybe it was the investing craziness of late ‘20 through late ‘21.

Compensation 278

Compensation Government Finance Startup 278

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2020

Q: What is a typical organizational structure for a SaaS startup with sales reps? 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. A rough structure from 1–25 sales reps: Early days: CEO acts as VP of Sales. Earlier if you can afford it.

Sales Hiring 308

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 308

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2025

As startups scale, effective sales implementation becomes the difference between stagnation and sustainable growth. After analyzing hundreds of sales organizations across startups, I’ve distilled the key pieces of advice that founders and leaders should keep in mind.

Scale 182

Scale Sales Hiring Startup Compensation 182

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 8, 2015

See also: Innovator’s Solution for SaaS Startups. In short, new startups leverage a distribution advantage to acquire SMB customers at scale. Early on, the SMB customers finance a startup’s growth and enable the startup to build a broader product over time that eventually becomes more attractive to enterprises.

Innovation 208

Innovation Startup Scale SMB 208

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

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 4, 2016

It’s the most provocative idea about employee compensation I’ve found. But, this compensation strategy must be complemented with a plan to reward the exceptions, the 10xers. I’ve seen these types of rewards work well at startups, too. And for most of the company, this strategy works very well.

Compensation 100

Compensation Startup Benchmarks Engineering 100

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 10, 2015

Compensation structures are one of the most interesting questions facing customer success organizations in software startups. How should customer success leaders structure their team’s compensation in order to align the objectives of individual customer success managers with those of the larger business?

Compensation 100

Compensation Customer Success Startup Communication 100

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

How much should your startup budget for its employee stock option pool? Another way is to look at the cash based cost of the stock based compensation. The chart above shows the average stock-based compensation (SBC) per employee by years since founding across the basket of publicly traded SaaS companies.

Compensation 100

Compensation Startup Benchmarks SaaS 100

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

Dear SaaStr: When My Startup Raises $10m, Would It Be Appropriate to Take a $170k Salary (no co founders)? Image from here The post Dear SaaStr: When My Startup Raises $10m, Would It Be Appropriate to Take a $170k Salary (no co founders)? Yes, not a problem. I don’t write $10m checks. appeared first on SaaStr.

Startup 306

Startup Investment Marketing Compensation 306

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Mark Roberge, the Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot, has spent 20 years in startups. There might be 20-30 people at the startup which is generating about $1-2M in ARR with 2-5 salespeople. There might be 20-30 people at the startup which is generating about $1-2M in ARR with 2-5 salespeople.

Sales Hiring 184

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 184

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2023

So Carta recently put together some dat a on a topic I’ve wondered about: just how many startups allow option exercises beyond the traditional 90 day window? The answer: the general trend is just over 10% of startups have extended windows beyond the traditional 90 days for departing employees to exercise stock options.

Startup 278

Startup Trends Data Compensation 278

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2022

The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin. Each week, we round up our most popular content so you can catch up on anything you may have missed.

Sales Recruiting 306

Sales Recruiting CTO Compensation Software Review 306

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

At a previous startup she worked for, management was constantly interviewing people from big companies to take leadership roles. Compensate Democratically: Managing up culture brings us all down. At Expensify, every single employee gets a say in the compensation of every other employee.

Compensation 264

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 264

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

” Microsoft is now compensating their salespeople for selling Snowflake more aggressively than in the past, perhaps as a competitive joust to Databricks. ” For startups operating within data, which tops buyers’ lists , this news further signals a stronger market in 2024. And we’re seeing the effects of that.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 187

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure Data Startup 187

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Who Should Approve Startup CEO Expenses ? In a startup, the reality is a CEO can probably do almost anything they want — up to a point. More here: Founders: Get Your Comp Package Approved By Your Board of Directors The post Dear SaaStr: Who Should Approve Startup CEO Expenses? Transparency builds trust.

Startup 243

Startup Finance Compensation Leadership 243

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2021

Here’s how: Align Compensation: If you plan to close enterprise deals, you must be prepared to pay for the right salespeople. At TripActions, the sales reps are compensated based on the customer’s adoption and successful use of the platform. Stop Selling Like a Startup. Subscribe. Create a Sales Engine.

Scale 299

Scale Sales Hiring Enterprise Sales 299

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

Dear SaaStr: My startup is nearing the end of its runway – and I found out my CEO has been taking money from the company. This startup most likely isn’t going to make it either way. The post Dear SaaStr: My Startup is Nearing The End of its Runway – and I Found Out My CEO Has Been Taking Money from the Company.

Startup 298

Startup Finance Company Culture Compensation 298

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2020

So, the company starts getting divided up into functional areas, or silos, product management, sales, customers support, marketing and so on, and this siloing of the org chart I think means that not everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and there’s a general feeling of disorganization or chaos in most startups.

Startup 299

Startup Software Review Scale Systems Review 299

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

The ones you actually just have to catch up? The 2023 list below! And sign up for FREE Workshop Wednesdays here. The Seven Things all Founders Should Know About Sales. Tunguz, MongoDB, Nick Mehta, Bessemer and More!!

Generative AI 290

Generative AI Scale Compensation AI 290

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2024

And that startup did end up selling for over $1 Billion (!) — so it’s not a firm “No.” Decisions took much longer, more egos were involved, especially on compensation. I’ve done it — once. At least with 5 true co-founders. But it did have the exact issues you’d expect. The downside? The company was a lot less nimble.

Investment 264

Investment Compensation Startup Scaling 264

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2023

In a startup, folks that ask for a raise than have underperformed … tend to just highlight that they’ve underperformed. But here’s the thing — startups are often even worse than BigCos in giving feedback. A related post here : The post Dear SaaStr: Is It Rude to Ask for a Raise Just 6 Months After Joining a Startup?

Startup 55

Startup Compensation 55

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin.

Sales Recruiting 297

Sales Recruiting Compensation Cloud Retention 297

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Over the last few years, I’ve been lucky to work with founders and management teams to sell about $5b of startups. Startups are sold to individuals, not to companies. The champion - often a product leader, the CEO, or a general manager - risks their career by buying a startup. As Simon Sinek would say, start with the why.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Construction Compensation Acquisition 279

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2022

The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin. 5 Interesting Learnings from Duolingo at $360,000,000 in ARR. When You Fall Out of Product-Market Fit.

Sales Recruiting 296

Sales Recruiting AWS Compensation Enterprise 296