SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. 95% of the time, your super-smart hacker co-founder is not that person. She can be your CTO forever. That’s a different, and critical, job than CTO. Marketing is also an art and science.

Scale 244

Scale Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE 244

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How does a First Time Founder Identify 10x Hires? How do you hire a great CTO, a great VP of Product, a great VP of Sales … if you’ve never worked with one? There’s a reason almost every founder you talk to had a mis-hire for their first head of sales. It’s hard.

Sales Hiring 204

Sales Hiring CTO Hire CTO Coach CTO 204

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2022

SaaStr 564: Top 10 Learnings Architecting a High Throughput Critical API with RevenueCat CTO Miguel Carranza. SaaStr 565: Classic Episode: The Importance of Company Values, a Great Hiring Process, and Ownership Culture with Gusto Co-Founder & CEO Josh Reeves. Product-Led Growth: Panacea or Boondoggle?

CTO Hire 207

CTO Hire CTO Sales Hiring Innovation 207

Crafty CTO

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Fractional CTO services can be a valuable asset for businesses that want to take advantage of technology to grow and improve their operations, but don’t have the resources or expertise to do so in-house.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Technology 40

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 204

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO Venture Capital 204

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m He asked which to hire first. If you have a few nickels in the bank, and you somehow find a great VP a half stage or even full stage early, just hire her. Hiring is so hard as it is. Make the hire now. ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m More here: [link].

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2022

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: Be Careful Hiring “Dualies” — Folks That Are a VP of More Than One Thing. SaaStr 565: Classic Episode: The Importance of Company Values, a Great Hiring Process, and Ownership Culture with Gusto Co-Founder & CEO Josh Reeves.

CTO Hire 217

CTO Hire CTO Sales Hiring Scale 217

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2024

He made many great leadership points, but one in particular rattles around my head a lot and I think deserves its own post: You usually won’t know if you’ve made a 10x hire … when you make the hire. A good / great employee can become 10x in a new environment was part of Auren’s point. But I didn’t know they were truly 10x hires.

Sales Hiring 217

Sales Hiring CTO Hire New CTO CTO 217

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. Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote a post about the minimum viable average contract value to justify a sales team. Imagine a product offerd at a $10k contract value sold by an AE.

CTO Hire 212

CTO Hire Outsourced Development Sales Hiring CTO 212

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. The innovator/developer relationship needs to be a conversation.

Innovation 780

Innovation Development CTO Hire Technical Review 780

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Many companies believe excellent product design comes from hiring the best engineers and signing up for the latest software instead of building from the users’ perspectives. Stripe’s CTO, David Singleton, shares how they use a system of feedback, iteration, and fast shipping to create products that meet users’ expectations.

CTO Hire 229

CTO Hire CTO Payment Methods Payment Solutions 229

TurnKey Labs

MARCH 6, 2023

Knowing how to hire a CTO is one thing—knowing when to hire a CTO is another. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve put together a strong team and dynamic product, and have realized you’re missing an integral piece of the puzzle. If […]

CTO 57

CTO CTO Hire Technology Scaling 57

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2022

Miguel Carranza, CTO at RevenueCat, shares ten learnings from firsthand experience in architecting an API & SDK that is currently on 5,000+ apps and has seen 3x growth Year-over-Year. . Instead, the CTO suggests that you avoid adding new pieces of infrastructure until absolutely necessary. What makes a great API?

CTO Hire 209

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Scaling 209

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. What’s changing, rather, is the entity I’m delivering through – a new company called Crafty CTO.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Headcount 40

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. True in B2C too of course.

Part-Time VPE 216

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 216

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2024

I felt part of your core job as CEO was to assemble a management team, not complain about how you couldn’t get it all done. Or couldn’t stand your CTO. I still believe a CEO should “do it all” in terms of building a decent management team first before hiring a COO. Hiring a strong COO between Management Team 1.0

Sales Hiring 196

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale Startup 196

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2022

Co-founder and CEO of Plato, Quong Hoang, the #1 mentoring platform for engineering leaders , helped moderate a discussion between CTO of Change.org, Elaine Zhou, and Head of Engineering at Notion, Michael Manapat, on this subject. Focus on retaining your engineers from day one. More like this at 2022 SaaStr Annual, Sep 13-15 in SF Bay Area!!

CTO Coach 215

CTO Coach CTO Hire New CTO Engineering 215

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Perhaps the single most important thing you can ever do in SaaS, at least after $1m in ARR or so, is hire the best VPs you can. We’ve talked a lot over the years about how not to hire a wrong VP of Sales — 70%+ of the first VPs of Sales don’t make it even 10 months. You need to hire up-and-comers. Get on jets?

Part-Time VPE 313

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 313

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 173

CTO Coach CTO Hire CTO Leadership 173

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2020

Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. 95% of the time, your super-smart hacker co-founder is not that person. She can be your CTO forever. That’s a different, and critical, job than CTO. Marketing is also an art and science.

Part-Time VPE 234

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE Sales Recruiting 234

TechEmpower SaaS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. cto , product , saas Quality of Work: The end product should not only look good but function as expected. Don't be charmed by an impressive aesthetic at the expense of functional results.

Software Development 443

Software Development Development Software Review Software 443

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. Why join a start-up? Well reason #1 is personal and career advancement.

Sales Hiring 253

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 253

TurnKey Labs

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

From keeping pace with ever-evolving technologies to leading development teams effectively, the responsibilities of a CTO are multifaceted. However, this role comes with its unique set of challenges and complexities. In this environment, the significance of mentoring becomes […]

CTO Coach 57

CTO Coach CTO CTO Hire Technology 57

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Lately I’ve been working with 5+ SaaS companies all hiring their first VP of Product. And critically, most have a really strong CEO-CTO partnership. A few general learnings: A VP of Product that Reports to CTO / Engineering Rarely Meets With That Many Customers. I just see this time and time again.

Part-Time VPE 287

Part-Time VPE Outsourcing Services CTO Hire CTO 287

SaaStr

MAY 20, 2020

He joined StubHub as CTO, but didn’t get nearly as much equity as the other CTO — because he “wasn’t committed enough.” If your customers love your product now, hire reps. ” Times of crisis are actually great times to find hard problems to solve.

CTO Hire 334

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Airlines 334

Andreessen Horowitz

JUNE 14, 2023

It’s common for founders to assume the role of chief technology officer (CTO), who either runs the day-to-day work of engineering or focuses on a long-term technological vision. While this … The post Hiring a Senior Vice President of Engineering appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

VP of Engineering 75

VP of Engineering Part-Time CTO CTO CTO Hire 75

Valerian Tech

MAY 4, 2023

In this article, we'll explore the benefits of DevOps for legacy businesses and how a Fractional CTO can help overcome the challenges of DevOps adoption. This may involve training employees, hiring new talent, and creating a culture of innovation. How can a Fractional CTO help legacy businesses implement DevOps practices?

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Business 52

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 239

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 239

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. The first is the company sell 3 or 5 year contracts that are non-refundable and non-cancellable at relatively small ACVs of $35k.

CTO Hire 348

CTO Hire CTO Coach Benchmarks Scale 348

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2023

The best we made our CTO. But what if our CTO gets hit by a bus? They feed on each other, hire other toxic people, and turn the company against the mission and each other. Once in a while, the toxic but critical employee does mature out of it in time. Sometimes, still hire them. Well he was toxic. For a while.

CTO Hire 210

CTO Hire CTO Technology Engineering 210

TurnKey Labs

JUNE 6, 2023

Ah, the age-old question: How do you hire a great backend developer when you’re running a startup or company? As a CEO/CTO/COO, you know that hiring the right team member is paramount to your company’s success.

CTO Hire 57

CTO Hire Development CTO Software Development 57

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

The first 2 scaled reps you hire that hit plan (some may churn before then) get special training. They get CTO training. And so we see reps 3-10, or reps-from-#3-until-The-VP-of-Sales-is-Hired … fail. Simplify to a 1 page contract. And the others perform so poorly vs. the 2 that are doing well? So what can you do?

Scale 336

Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO 336

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2023

Startups come in all shapes and sizes on various stages of a timeline, yet it’s not surprising how many have the same questions and concerns about how to scale from x to y to z, the right time to hire and fire, and how to keep a team motivated during hard times. But I’ve almost failed every time.”

CTO Hire 171

CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 171

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 193

Scale CTO Hire Cloud Scaling 193

Valerian Tech

JUNE 5, 2023

The Role of Fractional CTO in Enhancing Cybersecurity A Fractional CTO can provide invaluable expertise and guidance in strengthening an insurance company's cybersecurity defenses. Partnering with a Fractional CTO brings the necessary expertise and guidance to enhance an insurance company's cybersecurity defenses.

Cybersecurity 52

Cybersecurity CTO Hire CTO compliance 52

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. Competitive Rates and Flexible Contracts: Benefit from Usio competitive pricing and avoid long-term commitments. Through this partnership, ues.io application.

Payments 130

Payments Merchant Services Payment Solutions Payment Services 130

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2023

Almost all of them had an amazing CTO or CPO, and hired a simply epic VP or two. Some wicked smart, some merely very smart. Some direct, some warm and friendly. But what made them great: Ability to attract amazing co-founders and execs. Not just great, but epic. Ability to iterate pretty darn quickly.

CTO Hire 212

CTO Hire CTO Investment Marketing 212