article thumbnail

Startup CTO or Developer

TechEmpower SaaS

But hiring a lead developer, or even a VP of Engineering, can create a gap between the founders and the developers. Closing the Gap: Hiring A Fractional Startup CTO We’re not suggesting that early-stage startups should hire a full-time CTO. Instead, they should consider a Fractional CTO who can help close the gap.

CTO Hire 390
article thumbnail

Everything is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value)

SaaStr

But there’s one thing I can tell you in SaaS, at least: Almost Everything Except the Product Itself is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value) Level. One VP of Product. One VP of Marketing. The post Everything is Sort of the Same at a Given ACV (Annual Contract Value) appeared first on SaaStr.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Dear SaaStr: What’s The Number One Challenge for Scale-Up Stage Founders?

SaaStr

You can smother customers with love alone in the early days, but as you scale, you need a seasoned customer success team and VP that has done this before. Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. You’ll need more than 5–10 engineers to go big.

Scale 243
article thumbnail

5 Interesting Learnings from Okta at $2.5 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

Founder CEO Todd McKinnon was VP of Engineering at Salesforce and left to start Okta in the depths of the last downturn. Seat Contractions Have Brought NRR Down From 120% to 111% While 111% NRR is still quite an engine at this scale, the drop in NRR from seat contractions explains a good chunk of the headwinds Okta has seen. #2.

article thumbnail

What’s The #1 Challenge After $1m-$2m ARR?

SaaStr

You can smother customers with love alone in the early days, but as you scale, you need a seasoned customer success team and VP that has done this before. Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. You’ll need more than 5–6 core engineers to go big.

article thumbnail

What were 5 distinct milestones that you encountered on the road to becoming a CEO?

SaaStr

To hire our CTO, our first VPE, etc. And to close $6m in customer contracts through founder-led sales. Bootstrapping is far better. But if you do need to raise money, it’s the CEO that has to do it. And I learned to recruit. I’m still learning. View original question on quora.

article thumbnail

7 Pieces of Advice Entrepreneurs Never Hear That They Need to Hear with Jason Lemkin

SaaStr

That placeholder for the VP of Finance never gets the financials done, and the VP of Marketing talks and talks but hasn’t ever worked with a sales team. When you hire that VP of Engineering who never learns the product, it doesn’t work. There is a 0% chance it works. Founders need to be honest about it, though.