SaaStr

MAY 12, 2023

Next up is Jason Cohen, founder of $100m+ WP Engine. What would you ask in an interview, to see whether they’re good? That happened to us at Smart Bear and WP Engine with features and entire products. People don’t actually know what they’ll buy, or at least you’re probably not good enough to use interviews to figure it out.

Engineering 292

Engineering Sales Hiring Interviewing Scale 292

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 12, 2021

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering is a curious book. Richard Hamming, the author, was a professor of science and engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School and researcher at Bell Labs. He knew quite a bit about science and engineering. I was expecting questions a candidate might be asked in a consulting interview.

Engineering 200

Engineering Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Consulting 200

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2025

Force Yourself to Interview 30 Candidates for VP Roles Yes, 30. Use Screening Filters Create simple tests to weed out unqualified candidates before the first interview. For example, ask engineers to complete a quick coding challenge or have marketing candidates critique your product.

Software Review 162

Software Review Interviewing Engineering Startup 162

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 17, 2024

As the co-founder and CEO of Intellimize (acquired by Webflow), Guy brings a unique perspective from his journey through iconic companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, as well as his background in aerospace engineering. And then originally trained as an aerospace engineer. Jin, my co-founder, was an engineering leader.

Scale 102

Scale Engineering Acquisition Scaling 102

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 2, 2021

For the very first time, we’re releasing Engineer Chats , an internal podcast here at Intercom about all things engineering. Previously hosted by Jamie Osler , a Senior Product Engineer at Intercom for over seven years, it’s now up to Principal Systems Engineer Brian Scanlan to pick up the baton and keep the chats going.

Engineering 178

Engineering Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team Systems Review 178

SaaStr

JULY 4, 2019

I’m the SVP of sales for WP Engine. Then fast forward to WP Engine. I’ve been with WP Engine for the last five-and-a-half years. One of the things that I do at WP Engine I’ve always done is I overembellish that. When you talk to people at WP Engine and you say what do you enjoy most?

Sales Hiring 217

Sales Hiring Scale Engineering Sales Recruiting 217

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

And what I wish I’d done better as a SaaS CEO: Force yourself to interview 30 candidates for each VP position. You’ll have to, to get through 30 interviews. After each of those 30 interviews — email over a note on your feedback. Programming tests if you want / believe in them for engineers. So be cool to them.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Interviewing Scale 363

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2019

Come and hear about the typical pitfalls (and how to avoid them) from Pat Poels, an executive with over seven years under his belt leading Eventbrite’s now 300+ strong engineering team that sits across North America, South America, and Europe. I started right at the end of 2011, and I started in the role of VP of engineering.

Engineering 184

Engineering Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale 184

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2024

If you aren’t sure if your technical co-founder is good enough, ask the top engineering leader you know what she thinks. At least do 30+ customer interviews and really listen on if they’d paid for real, and then go validate that some more. Make 100% sure the market will actually pay for your product. Not just like i t.

Startup 307

Startup CTO SaaS Interviewing 307

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2023

First, interview at least 30. But by interview 10-15, you’ll find at least 1 that stands out. Watch SaaStr videos, Plato videos for engineering, etc. to interview your top candidate. Here’s how to hire a 10x VP or other hire in any are you don’t … fully understand yourself.

Sales Hiring 288

Sales Hiring CTO Hire CTO Coach CTO 288

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

According to the managers, the most common reasons new employees failed were: And what was the biggest takeaway for managers interviewed? They needed better interview processes to weed out the failures before they joined their teams. One of the best things about being an engineer at a fast-moving company is the feedback loops.

Management 291

Management Software Review Construction Engineering 291

FastSpring

APRIL 6, 2022

You can find that interview here ). . You can hear much more about Fred’s churn reduction engine in our chat. The post How to Lower Churn for SaaS and Software (Interview with Growth Expert Frederic Linfjärd) appeared first on FastSpring. The first was about conversion optimization (CRO) for SaaS and software.

Interviewing 146

Interviewing Churn Software SaaS 146

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

SaaStr Annual attracts thousands of high-quality SaaS professionals across functions like engineering, product, marketing, sales, and customer success. Many companies strategically use the event to meet potential hires, conduct interviews, and build their talent pipeline.

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

SaaStr

OCTOBER 2, 2024

Same with marketing, engineering, everything. And have them interview the top 1-2 candidates for each role. Because … then you don’t know. If you hire a VP of Sales and have never done sales yourself, you won’t really know. If they are good, bad, or full of it. You don’t really know until you’ve worked with a great one. They’ll know.

Sales Hiring 284

Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing Engineering 284

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2022

In these instances, you will want to set up informational interviews with strong department heads external to your company in the areas where you’re not an expert. Compare the talent that you meet through informational interviews with the talent you have on your team. Mistake 2: Thinking your CFO is a glorified accountant.

Scale 273

Scale Sales Hiring Interviewing Engineering 273

SaaStr

DECEMBER 15, 2020

Because it’s just so hard to get recurring revenue engines going. Do 20 customer interviews (more on that here ). 20 interviews and a just amazing co-founder can be the missing pieces, to show you how to really do your own SaaS start-up. Later, there will be fat, once you get to $5m ARR or so. The cavalry will come.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting SaaS Interviewing Consulting 363

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Q: When interviewing a co-founder, what are some of the things you look for/look out for? Look for: Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at engineering. You'll see. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2020. Great at sales. Great at marketing.

Interviewing 286

Interviewing Engineering Sales SaaS 286

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2024

And Not Being Curious Enough Way too many VP of Sales candidates these days try to (1) turn every interview around to interviewing the founders back and (2) talking all about process. I see so many candidates basically run this playbook when interviewing with CEOs and board members: “So, tell me more about the company.”

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 307

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 1, 2019

The post How we’re building a marketing engine to move upmarket appeared first on Inside Intercom. If Shane’s vision for our Marketing team excites you, check out our open roles.

Engineering 177

Engineering Marketing B2C B2B 177

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

You’ll figure out how to manage a small team of engineers. Getting great engineers, great VPs, great anythings … to pick you over Uber, over Google, over Stripe is hard. This often means 20+ interviews a week! You’ll figure out how to sell your product in the early days — after all, you know it better than anyone else.

Scale 293

Scale Interviewing Engineering Content Marketing 293

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2020

But he also did it before as SVP of Engineering at WebEx. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. A few engineers. Q: What are the challenges that a SaaS business owner must overcome to be successful? My list: Finding a truly great co-founder. Yes, some can do it on their own. Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom did. Why do you have that?

SaaS 293

SaaS Interviewing Engineering Startup 293

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2024

If you are the best engineer in the world, the best CRO, sure take a few days to get back to them. Don’t Tell Them The 1 or 2 Slots You Are Free Instead, just tell them you’ll make almost anytime work for the interview. But maybe at the very end of the first interview. The rest of us? Respond in minutes if possible.

ChatGPT 282

ChatGPT SaaS Interviewing Startup 282

SaaStr

JUNE 13, 2021

. “From Developer to Founder to CEO: Engineering to Enterprise with Elastic” Elastic’s CEO Shay Banon doesn’t speak that often, so this was a special session on how Elastic became the global leader it is today. #3. “From Burn-Out to $100M in ARR with Jason Cohen of WP Engine” Another SaaStr classic. #9.

Scale 273

Scale Enterprise Interviewing Engineering 273

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2020

We’ve posted a script to use when interviewing a VP Sales. When your VP Sales comes in, hopefully, you have something in the pipeline, some in-bound leads, some sort of mini-engine. Maybe it’s just a sputtering 1 cylinder engine … but something. You’ll end up with a crummy sales team under a mis-hire.

Sales Recruiting 360

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Engineering 360

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 10, 2020

These experiences, whether it is observing someone use your product, or interviewing them about your product, need to be wide ranging. The ability to ask perceptive questions is critical to running high signal interviews from which you can learn the most. But our PMs, Designers, Engineers don’t work in Support.

Underperforming Technical Team 291

Underperforming Technical Team Interviewing Communication B2B 291

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Nailing the interview process: Here’s one way to nail the interview process once the interview is landed: 1. Have the 1st interview. Interview them just as much as they interview you. Try to find a mutual connection who knows that initial interviewer and get someone to ping them with a note of support.

Interviewing 121

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 121

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at engineering. Do at least 20–30 customer interviews before you start writing too much code. A bit more here. Find a co-founder complementary to your skills, ideally. Great at sales. Great at marketing. More here. A bit more here.

Sales Hiring 313

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 313

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2021

We don’t often summarize interviews in other media, but I really liked this piece in FT on the changes Yamini Ragan made when she became HubSpot’s CEO, promoted from CCO. How often do you meet with individual top AEs, or CSMs, or engineers? Moving from Churn to NRR as the Core Retention Metric. Not enough.

Metrics 61

Metrics SMB Scale B2C 61

TechEmpower SaaS

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

When we interview potential developers, we’re always amazed at how many can’t answer basic programming questions. And the #1 symptom relates to that old software engineering adage: The first 90% of a project takes half the time. It’s hard to know if a developer is an A, B or C player, or a player at all.

Underperforming Technical Team 390

Underperforming Technical Team Development Software Review Technical Review 390

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2022

There is too much to do in SaaS — sales, customer success, product, engineering, demand gen, etc. They don’t do enough interviews, meet enough potential customers, do enough work, etc. Dear SaaStr: What Should Be The Priorities of SaaS Founders During The Early Stages? Some ideas: Find a truly great co-founder.

SaaS 284

SaaS Market Research Interviewing Content Marketing 284

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

Define your ideal account executive profile and use that when interviewing potential reps. When we interview someone to become an account executive at Databricks, part of that process is going through a mock sales call or meeting. This score is then taken and compared to top performers already in our sales organization. Key takeaways.

Scale 261

Scale Leadership Sales Hiring Sales 261

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2022

Most of you think sales reps you interview need to know your product at least well enough to ask good questions. But if a sales rep isn’t curious enough to learn enough about your product to ask and answer some decent questions before an interview … then I never see them really perform. #30. Do better. #35.

Sales Hiring 281

Sales Hiring Interviewing Revenue Sales 281

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 3, 2020

We know it’s hard to apply and interview for a new job. When you interview for a design job, the process is usually mysterious: did you say the right things? When you interview for a design job, the process is usually mysterious: did you say the right things? On-site interviews. Show the right work? 5 ways to stand out.

Interviewing 290

Interviewing Systems Review Compensation Travel 290

SaaStr

JANUARY 26, 2021

You can’t train someone to be a rockstar engineer, a great product manager, an innate sales wizard, etc. Interview them, learn from them … but generally, stop there. You’ll overvalue their seemingly “perfect” domain expertise and underweight what it really takes to be a great employee.

Sales Hiring 287

Sales Hiring Interviewing Engineering SaaS 287

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2024

Jason recently interviewed a SaaStr superfan, and about 40 minutes in, the person said they didn’t want to do some of the work required for the job. While different than ‘typical’ interviews Jason notes as leaders, we all need to recalibrate what we expect out of people. You can listen to the full podcast here. #1:

Sales Hiring 302

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Marketing Scale 302

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

Determine the skills you want and how you’ll discover them in an interview. Customer success at Braze was a big umbrella, with onboarding, CSM, tech support, sales engineering, and more under it. The first stage within the CSM department at Braze was hiring leaders to lead sales engineering.

Scale 291

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 291

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2022

Most of you think sales reps you interview need to know your product at least well enough to ask good questions. But if a sales rep isn’t curious enough to learn enough about your product to ask and answer some decent questions before an interview … then I never see them really perform. #30. Do better. #35.

Sales Hiring 339

Sales Hiring Pricing Scale Interviewing 339