SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How often will a sales engineer also wear a customer success hat in an early stage of an SaaS startup? Traditional customer success, and/or a specific team for deployments, can take the baton from there. Pretty darn common. And as you scale, the role should likely end there.

Scale 274

Scale Engineering Customer Success Startup 274

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2023

So I think 2023 may mark The End of Customer Success as We Knew It. The Massive Push to Efficiency As almost every public SaaS company got cash-flow positive and radically more efficient, and most startups had to stretch their dollars much further — customer success took a lot of the brunt. What happened?

Customer Success 300

Customer Success AI Pricing Enterprise 300

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2021

We’ve talked on SaaStr about leaning in on Customer Success as much as possible. the revenue ultimately generated or supported by Customer Success) is the key to growing a SaaS business. We’ve talked about how all the Second Timers are hiring in customer success way early , ahead of sales, ahead of revenue.

Sales Hiring 293

Sales Hiring Customer Success Headcount Churn 293

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

Q: Who Should Our First Head of Customer Success Report To? Ah, who should Customer Success report to. So usually, she can easily also manage Customer Success as well as all her reps. In most startups, your head of sales has the most people hiring and managing experience. It’s not super simple.

Customer Success 311

Customer Success Sales Hiring Finance Churn 311

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Most startups play defense when discussing pricing with customers. They dance between asking for too little, leaving money on the table, and asking for too much, only to lose the customer’s interest. The very best companies lead their customers in that dance. Many infrastructure as a service companies do this.

SaaS Payments 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2025

The Top 10 Customer Success Metrics Investors Care About in 2025 with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta #5. Rippling CEO Parker Conrad’s Theory of the Compound Startup: Disrupting How We Think About Software Why Im Scared to Buy New SaaS Apps Now with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin #4.

AI 268

AI Venture Capital Sales B2B 268

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Offers workshops, networking, and investor matchmaking for startups and enterprises. Key points about SaaStr Annual : Focus on SaaS: Primarily focused on all aspects of SaaS business including sales, marketing, product development, and customer success. Held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area (usually in September).

Software 243

Software Scale Venture Capital SaaS 243

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

From startup to $500M CARR, Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze, shares how Braze scaled a growth and customer success team. As an early startup team, you’re doing every job under the sun. You have to be scrappy at this stage, and Braze was trying to find product market fit with no product, no revenue, and no customers.

Scale 291

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 291

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

The landscape of customer success has been evolving rapidly. So much so that we seem to be releasing new content on customer success just about every week. Today we’re focusing on actionable insights you can use to drive down churn with customer success in today’s new era of SaaS efficiency.

Customer Success 299

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Headcount 299

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

However, what many businesses may overlook is the startup segment. Often, startups are lumped in with small businesses, yet this approach fails to recognize what motivates and attracts these early-stage companies. Why Seek Out Startups? How is it that you want to sell to startups differently than the rest of your customer base?”

Startup 271

Startup Scale SMB Venture Capital 271

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2020

Hire stretch reps if you want, but someone without any closing experience likely can’t close at your startup no one has ever heard of. Startups are a journey and you need reps that want to be on the journey. Maybe OK for customer success. They are no good at generating them. A bit more here. Hiring just 1 rep.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 363

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What is The Biggest Difference Between Running a 10 Person Startup and a 100 Person Startup? You won’t be able to scale this far without a full management team — VPs of Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, Customer Success at least. But the toughest personal challenge for many CEOs is letting go. (VP

Sales Hiring 301

Sales Hiring Startup Scale Engineering 301

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

The other day Nick Mehta CEO of Gainsight invited me to talk about the latest trends in Customer Success. Every SaaS startup now has 2-10 public SaaS companies that are somewhat similar in customer make-up and product. If you aren’t there yet, that’s job #1 in customer success. Aim for 140%.

Customer Success 271

Customer Success Churn Trends Startup 271

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 26, 2020

I used to think of a startup as a series of funnels. There’s the customer conversion funnel, the recruiting funnel, the customer success funnel. Examine the yield from each stage to gauge success. Funnels simplify metrics. Start to finish. That’s the end of the people funnel, but not the people cycle.

Startup 279

Startup Onboarding Enterprise Metrics 279

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

Is it the end of an era for customer success in SaaS? We just wrote up how some of the biggest changes of SaaS are now coming, specifically in Customer Success and Sales. Customer Success Is Vulnerable to Cuts Jason shared that he didn’t realize how vulnerable customer success was to cuts until 2023.

Sales Hiring 320

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 320

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Tomasz Tunguz , General Partner at Theory Ventures, shares nine observations from a Go-To-Market survey Theory Ventures did with hundreds of startups, 68% of them early-stage, well-funded, mostly mid-market ACV, and 25% remote. Six months ago, security was the number one prohibition preventing businesses and software companies from buying AI.

Venture Capital 331

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 331

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What does a COO do in a tech startup/company? Or customer success. A COO can also double your coverage with customers and prospects. Your biggest prospects and customers will close at a higher rate in the deals where the CEO shows up on a jet. How would the team be structured? Can you give an example?

Scale 279

Scale Sales Hiring Startup SaaS 279

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Dear SaaStr: What Were Aspects of Your Startup That Were Easier Than Anticipated? The part I didn’t originally get as a first-time SaaS founder was how relatively easy is it to grow exising accounts and account size if your customers are happy. 120% NRR: Your revenue doubles in 5 years even with no new customers.

Startup 284

Startup Retention Customer Success Revenue 284

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Even with late stage VC capital much harder to get now, and the IPO markets still frozen, I see many folks on my LinkedIn feed saying Sales and Customer Success are underpaid. Well, for most of time, about 10% of the “profit” on a deal has done to sales, and about 5% of renewals have gone to customer success.

Scale 283

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales 283

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Is It Ridiculous To Call Yourself the CEO When Your Startup is Tiny? I used to look at tiny little startups and wince when a founder went around talking about himself as “CEO”. But then I had to learn how to Sell to Big Customers, and Sell to Power. And what I learned is customers care.

Startup 284

Startup Innovation Customer Success Retention 284

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Startups are innovation machines. Others want to innovate in every dimension and re-invent every discipline from pricing to marketing to support to customer success. They identify market opportunities, develop novel products and go out to change the world.

Pricing 277

Pricing Startup Sales Hiring Innovation 277

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2019

If you must choose a long term headquarters for your startup, call an executive recruiter who focuses in that city. VP Engineering, VP Product, VP Sales, VP Customer Success, VP Marketing, or VP Operations. After establishing product market fit, the startups grow their management team to scale.

Sales Recruiting 255

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 255

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Hire stretch reps if you want, but someone without any closing experience likely can’t close at your startup no one has ever heard of. Startups are a journey and you need reps that want to be on the journey. Maybe OK for customer success. A lot of folks don’t want to visit customers in person anymore.

Sales Hiring 284

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 284

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2020

Speaking with startups, I’ve collected a list of disciplines that are going to become very important in the next period. Customer success and account management teams should focus on understanding customer health. Some startups may face meaningful attrition within their customer bases.

Startup 247

Startup SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods 247

SaaStr

APRIL 20, 2024

Marketing teams can make a 20% improvement in customer NPS or customer success within one quarter. Founders should encourage honesty and feedback from customers, even if it’s negative. Building a Brand Building a brand is essential for long-term success. Consistency is key in marketing.

Sales Hiring 301

Sales Hiring Startup Marketing Technical Review 301

SaaStr

OCTOBER 18, 2024

It’s mission-critical to go multiproduct on time — too early is bad but too late is bad too We’ve written this up already a few times recently on SaaStr already as Jason did a deep dive on this just last week and Parker Conrad’s theory of the compound startup from SaaStr Europa is a masterclass on the matter.

Sales Recruiting 305

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 305

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

It was started in 2014 when founders Daniel and Jonathan were working together at a delivery startup and experienced firsthand how slow background checks were slowing down worker onboarding. Naturally, their first customer was DoorDash and the quickly captured 95% of the gig economy market in their early days.

Revenue 293

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 293

SaaStr

JANUARY 17, 2023

What is the right Go-To-Market strategy for a startup getting out of the gate? Everything is defined by customer interactions, from how they find Harness to becoming a customer. What’s his response to startups figuring out which strategy to begin with, product-led or sales-led? “It Sign up here to join them FOR FREE!

Startup 297

Startup Sales Sales Funnel Education 297

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Do You Do When Your Startup is Not Growing Anymore? The post Dear SaaStr: What Do You Do When Your Startup is Not Growing Anymore? First, be honest about why. You can blame it on macro issues if you want, but if growth has radically decelerated, it’s likely because you are less competitive than you were before.

Startup 307

Startup B2B Metrics Product Marketing 307

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Why Do VC Backed Startups Seem To Almost Always Be Running Out of Money? A customer success team that can’t drive down churn and drive up NPS = cash drain. The #1 issue I see is not understanding what investments really are accretive — and which aren’t. And so the money goes far, far faster than anticipated.

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Venture Capital 267

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

So we’ve been talking about customer success at SaaStr longer than almost anyone else, going back to our very first posts in 2012, including on Second Order Revenue. CLTV Isn’t The Whole Story. Don’t Shortchange Second-Order Revenue. Especially in this new age of efficient growth.

Customer Success 201

Customer Success Scaling Management Churn 201

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

From seed funding to going public, Spenser Skates, CEO, and co-founder of Amplitude will discuss his journey building Amplitude’s Digital Optimization System from the ground up and empowering organizations of all sizes — from startups to Fortune 100 companies — to build better products. Why Customer Success and Product Should be Best Friends.

AWS 246

AWS Customer Success Scale Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hacker

MAY 14, 2024

Holly Chen is the Managing Partner of ExponentialX, a Marketing and Growth Advisory Collective for high-growth SaaS startups, advising companies like Miro, Loom, ServiceNow, Appsflyer in their growth journeys. The post GTM 94: Mastering Branding, Pricing, and Customer Success for AI Startups with Holly Chen appeared first on GTMnow.

Customer Success 125

Customer Success AI Branding Pricing 125

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

In this edition of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond (former CRO at Brex and current Partner at Founders Fund) hosts his former colleague Lucas Fox (GM of Brex for Startups). Churn vs. Expansion: Where to Start As many startup founders know, in the beginning, acquiring customers is key to getting off the ground.

Retention 246

Retention Startup Revenue Sales Hiring 246

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: 5 Interesting Learnings from Docebo at $145,000,000 in ARR Fractional CROs and CMOs: The Only Times I’ve Ever Seen Them Work 90%-95% of Salespeople Won’t Make It At Your Startup. A 6 Part Test to Help You Get It Right.

Scale 245

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales Hiring 245

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2022

Dear SaaStr: When Should a CEO of a Startup Stop “Doing the Work” and Let Others Do the Work? ” I see far too many founders these days get this far without a head of sales, marketing, customer success, product and often engineering. You’re just holding yourself back for the next phase if you done have a 1.0

Part-Time VPE 266

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup 266

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

The Y Combinator Guide to Perfectly Pitching Your Seed Stage Startup with Michael Seibel #4. How Much of Customer Support Will AI Replace? The Top 10 Customer Success Metrics Investors Care About in 2025 with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta #4. Top Posts: #1: 70% of Pipeline from Marketing Comes From Just 4 Things #2.

Scale 162

Scale AI Sales Customer Support 162