SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

Their product is generating an impressive 45% of developers’ code on average. Beyond their code assistant, they’ve developed Windsurf AI, an agentic IDE allowing non-technical users to build applications – accelerating productivity even further. We’ve corrected this now, but we lost some early momentum.”

Sales Recruiting 242

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 242

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Growing up on construction sites with parents in the industry, he developed an intuitive understanding of the challenges contractors face daily. Under his product leadership, Procore has grown exponentially, went public in 2021, and recently crossed the coveted $1B ARR milestone.

Construction 251

Construction Scale SaaS Travel 251

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 22, 2021

After writing An Elegant Puzzle about the challenges of engineering management in high-growth organizations, his focus shifted to a career path that’s much less understood – the technical leadership track. If you’re a senior engineer and want to further your career, what skills should you develop? How do we fix it?”

Technical Review 274

Technical Review Leadership VP of Engineering CTO Coach 274

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2021

Founders’ Personal Development & Relationships With Investors. Personal development for founders should be important to investors just as much as company success. Company Culture of Personal Development. The more I share, the more I think that I help myself out, and I think I help others.” .

Development 284

Development Entrepreneurship Company Culture Leadership 284

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2025

Prior to Datadog, Alex held leadership positions at several high-growth SaaS companies and has a proven track record of building marketing engines that deliver consistent, measurable growth. And just like product development, they take time to mature into something stable and reliable. The problem?

Scale 242

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Marketing 242

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Key points about SaaStr Annual : Focus on SaaS: Primarily focused on all aspects of SaaS business including sales, marketing, product development, and customer success. Large Audience: Considered the biggest SaaS conference with a large number of attendees from leading SaaS companies, startups, and venture capital firms.

Software 243

Software Scale Venture Capital SaaS 243

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

The most important leadership framework is to establish and grow this team culture. At Databricks, we have a defined cadence for success that draws a line straight from leadership to each sales rep and committed deal. At the leadership level, we’re focused on overall performance and the direction we want to take the company as a whole.

Scale 261

Scale Leadership Sales Hiring Sales 261

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2023

If you understand the market, the ideal customer, and the product, you’ll be more successful in developing a simple strategy. Leadership needs to consider funding areas, not just a single feature, because more supplemental subfeatures and finetuning will be required every time. However, you mustn’t miss the context.

CTO Coach 242

CTO Coach CTO Hire CTO Leadership 242

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2025

Previously, he led design teams at LinkedIn where he built recommendation products for product onboarding and developed AI chatbots. That’s what Calendly’s leadership team discovered as they embarked on their AI journey. His background combines deep product strategy with practical AI implementation experience.

AI 202

AI Scale Education User Experience 202

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2021

Q: Dear SaaStr: How Can I Develop Confidence as a Startup CEO? The post Dear SaaStr: How Can I Develop Confidence as a Startup CEO? We’ve all been there in the early days — and even beyond. You can have 1000% conviction in your start-up but still not be 100% confident in yourself as a CEO yet. It’s OK. It’s natural.

Underperforming Technical Team 293

Underperforming Technical Team Development Startup Leadership 293

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

This inefficiency stemmed from the high costs associated with maintaining sales development representatives (SDRs), customer success managers (CSMs), and account executives. Strategic Transformation The company’s leadership, including CEO Tim Sang, recognized that their challenges extended beyond typical growing pains.

Scale 162

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 162

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

Platform plays are emerging: WatsonX’s full-stack approach signals a shift from point solutions to comprehensive AI development platforms. What’s Next The next 12-18 months will be critical for SaaS companies looking to establish leadership in vertical AI. IBM’s Instruct Lab approach, delivering 98.5%

AI 185

AI Scale SaaS Government 185

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

“The hardest part of closing any deal is finding it,” says Lars Nilsson, VP of Global Sales Development at Snowflake. Over his 35+ year career, Nilsson has managed 100+ Sales Development Representatives (SDR) across four continents, six countries, and ten cities. It deserves respect and frontline leadership.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Development Technical Review Management 246

TechEmpower SaaS

AUGUST 21, 2023

We hear them explain that their current software development is expensive, deliveries are rarely on time, and random bugs appear. The explanation from software leadership is often unsatisfying or unclear. These are classic inflection points for a development team. But as you’ve grown, it’s become cumbersome and constraining.

Technical Review 390

Technical Review Software Review Development Team Review Systems Review 390

Buffer Resources

AUGUST 6, 2024

Early in my career, the idea of “thought leadership” wasn’t on my radar. My passion for narrative naturally evolved into a commitment to thought leadership, where I leverage the art of storytelling for myself and my clients to share insights, provoke discussions, and influence change.

Social Media 114

Social Media Business Leadership Sales Hiring 114

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2021

Maybe you think developers are weird beasts that type on a keyboard pushing out code, and then as soon as they become indispensable, they quit. At his core, Jeff Lawson is a software developer first, and the CEO of Twilio second. In turn, developers need to adapt. You may ask, “When can we ship this?”

Sales Recruiting 239

Sales Recruiting Development Software Review Management 239

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

The 4 states of an engineering team is a mental model that resonated with me, and I think it provides a framework for leadership teams and boards to understand the state of a developer team. If you manage engineering teams or are a startup leadership member, I highly recommend reading Will Larson’s book.

Engineering 363

Engineering Software Review Systems Review Technical Review 363

Predictable Revenue

JUNE 28, 2024

The post GTM vs. Revenue Leadership with Chris Riklin appeared first on Predictable Revenue. In this episode of the Predictable Revenue Podcast, Collin Stewart interviews Chris Riklin, co-founder and Head of Revenue at Topline.

Leadership 130

Leadership Revenue Interviewing Development 130

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2024

Deeper Bio: Early Life and Education Graduated with a Computer Science degree from The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo Demonstrated early interest in technology and software development Served in the Israeli Defense Forces’ Intelligence Corps, where he developed technical and leadership skills Early Career Began career as a software developer (..)

Scale 252

Scale SaaS Company Culture Leadership 252

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2023

Dear SaaStr: None of The 3 SaaS Products I Developed Have Any Sales. A related post here: The 10 Ways to Get Marketing Going in the Early Days The post Dear SaaStr: None of The 3 SaaS Products I Developed Have Any Sales. What Am I Doing Wrong? You may not have product-market fit. There are 100,000+ SaaS apps out there. Keep at it!

Development 244

Development SaaS Sales Content Marketing 244

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2024

Who is Peter Gassner CEO and Founder of SaaS Leader Veeva Systems Peter Gassner has established himself as a significant figure in enterprise software, particularly through his leadership at Veeva Systems. Gassner’s leadership style is known to be product-focused and customer-centric.

SaaS 261

SaaS Leadership Cloud Enterprise 261

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2022

You iterate and develop your products according to your customers’ needs, which first requires you to listen to them. Building a great product and a customer support team to match its quality, both lead to the development of trust between your company and its customers. Organize AMA sessions with the leadership.

Development Team Review 292

Development Team Review B2C Compensation Technical Review 292

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2022

But for the long-term health of your company, taking the time to develop clarity of purpose can do wonders for not just your bottom line, but for your growing work-family and culture. Know when to diversify leadership. Focus on the long-term, and be willing to create a leadership that can handle the tasks ahead. Key takeaways.

Startup 312

Startup Leadership Innovation Scaling 312

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Algolia’s Bernadette Nixon (Chief Executive Officer) and Michelle Adams (Chief Revenue Officer) have spent the past few years developing this relational toolbox. A tenant of leadership is not just building trust, but vulnerability. That vulnerability can be a building block for team trust and solid leadership. Key takeaways.

Underperforming Technical Team 313

Underperforming Technical Team Leadership Outsourced Development Finance 313

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Bringing your leadership team to SaaStr Annual allows for compressed learning experiences that would otherwise take months to acquire. Teams can divide and conquer across different tracks, then reconvene to share insights and collaboratively develop action plans.

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2022

For that reason, scaling teams require different leadership chains inside the company. Poorvi Shrivastav, GM and VP of Products at HubSpot, shares her passion for team development and discusses her journey of leading cross-geographical product teams and revealing how to execute the scaling plan successfully.

Scale 246

Scale Scaling Company Culture Leadership 246

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2025

About Dave Kellogg Dave Kellogg brings a rare combination of marketing and executive leadership experience to his analysis of SaaS businesses. And see everyone at 2025 SaaStr Annual, May 13-15 in SF Bay for 300+ more sessions, workshops, and braindates like this!

Sales Hiring 202

Sales Hiring Marketing Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team 202

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2022

Are you coaching, developing, and showing the existing team that you’re committed to their growth and their career? Develop a process that works for the team. Territory Development. How are you measuring this for territory development? Utilize leadership for final decision making when necessary. Mid Term Needs.

Sales Recruiting 246

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise 246

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

The Scaling Stage: Building Market Leadership The scaling stage is where a SaaS company seeks to solidify its position as a market leader. Market leadership requires not only a compelling product but also strong brand recognition, robust customer support, and a scalable infrastructure.

Pricing 112

Pricing Scale SaaS Technical Review 112

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

At a previous startup she worked for, management was constantly interviewing people from big companies to take leadership roles. Despite having a ton of leadership experience, Anu started at the bottom of the totem pole. They do not hire for leadership positions. Focus on developing your leaders in-house.

Compensation 261

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 261

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2020

Estimating this ahead of time is an important exercise before developing a new financial model. Sixth, leadership. Great leadership is different than great management. Management and leadership are different. Leadership is about identifying change and opportunities to evolve, and inspiring people to pursue them.

Startup 247

Startup SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods 247

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2024

If you treat people well and give them the tools to succeed, there’s not much in the way of developing a strong culture. The Difference Between Kind and Nice Hannah asks how you balance a culture of hiring for kindness with the leadership team’s intensity for hard work, ambition, and getting things done. It’s worth it.

Scale 261

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 261

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2023

Culture — developing sub-cultures within sales that enable the team to scale successfully. Instead, develop a scalable, streamlined enablement process to eliminate any bottlenecks in success. A scalable buddy system allows people to learn coaching and leadership skills. Don’t discount empathetic leadership.

Scale 273

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 273