SaaStr

MAY 19, 2023

It’s a time when SaaS and Cloud spend are also at record highs , and many Cloud leaders are still growing at strong rates … yet many startups have stopped growing at all. Reference other great investments they’ve made, and why they are similar. Another month of progress, another set of new customers, etc. Share lots of details.

New CTO 306

New CTO CTO Banking Cloud 306

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Alex Kayyal and Julie Kainz, Partners at Lightspeed, shared at SaaStr Annual a framework they developed around how to think about this new era of Artificial Intelligence in SaaS, what opportunities are out there for startups, and how to think about incumbents. CRM wasn’t a new category, but they were done on-premise.

AI 294

AI Artificial Intelligence New CTO Healthcare 294

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. It’s too much to learn on the fly for most new VPs of Sales.

CTO Hire 242

CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 242

SaaStock

MARCH 8, 2019

Because, as she says, building a startup is simply much more fun. Before getting into the investment world, she started and sold two successful companies in edutainment, and made a prominent name in the tech field around the world. Diane is also passionate about everything startup, digital transformation in our lives, and psychology.

VP of Engineering 264

VP of Engineering CTO Coach Venture Capital SaaS 264

Scytale

MARCH 12, 2025

As the UKs tech startup ecosystem continues to thrive, visionary founders are driving innovation across various industries, shaping the future of technology , finance , healthcare , and beyond. In this article, we highlight the top 10 tech startup founders in the UK for 2025 (who you should be following if you arent already!),

Startup 59

Startup Scale Cybersecurity AI Search 59

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

Indeed this was also my #1 mistake and the #1 I see from so many startups learning to go upmarket. “That it was much easier to do more in order to keep that customer than to get a new “top” customer. ” — Echeyde Cubillo, Co-founder and CTO, Acme Ticketing. They don’t show up in person.

CTO Hire 328

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO CTO 328

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

You’re not building a product or getting any new customers. Q: What are the Odds of Success for a Startup to Hit $100M in Revenue? All startups are trying to figure out how to grow. There’s a stat floating around about how many startups fail. Talkdesk is worth $10B, and he invested when it was just five people.

Scale 290

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AI 290

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2024

Some are decades-old problems, while others have emerged from this new world we’re in. GTM Mistake #1: A VP of Sales That Can’t Sell or Demo the Product Mistake number one has always been an issue, and it’s the number one reason startups struggle in today’s world. Also, determine whether you have the right CTO to handle these changes.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO Venture Capital 211

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Since 2010 we’ve seen more startups, funds, and capital than ever before, but with this drastic increase, investors are seeing unexpected new trends reshaping the future of the industry. The panel that we are in is called Is Seed the New Series A, and this is a question that I’ve been asking informally yesterday and today.

New CTO 182

New CTO Sales Hiring B2C CTO Hire 182

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

They were aware of it, but startups that I work with closely or invested in, if they got all the way to 25 million with 75% NRR, I would tell them to quit today. Jason Lemkin: I think I noticed a pattern, and I wrote it up a couple of years ago and refreshed it, and then I’ll add a new anecdote. I want to invest in her.”

Outsourcing Services 243

Outsourcing Services Banking CTO Hire New CTO 243

The Angel VC

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Last night I read this question on Quora : In general terms, what is the ideal size and make-up of a team for a pre-revenue SaaS startup? I do have a slight preference with respect to the team size as well, but it's light because I've seen and worked with very successful SaaS startups with different team sizes.

CTO Hire 106

CTO Hire Startup Sales Hiring New CTO 106

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2021

Co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah shared with us how they got there — and the top mistakes they made — just 3 quarters after their IPO. We have someone that probably 98 percent of you know virtually or socially in some sense, Dharmesh Shah, founder and CTO of HubSpot. But of course, it wasn’t always quite that big!

Part-Time VPE 296

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 296

Valerian Tech

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The role of a Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is to provide technical expertise and leadership to a company on a part-time or temporary basis. This can be a useful option for startups or small businesses that may not have the resources to hire a full-time CTO or may not need one on a permanent basis.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2024

Growth is still good for them, but they had no net new customers last quarter. HubSpots NRR has fallen to 100%, so to grow 23%, they must add 23% net new customers. How does a startup benefit from this? Are brand-new companies that seem epic with no revenue really worth $1.5B Every VC wants to invest. in 12 months?

CTO Hire 147

CTO Hire AI Venture Capital Sales Hiring 147

Scytale

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

Whether you’re a new entrepreneur in the software industry, scaling your startup, or a seasoned SaaS provider, securing a SOC 3 audit report can be a game-changer for your business , helping you strengthen customer trust while demonstrating your unwavering commitment to data security. The good news?

compliance 52

compliance Underperforming Technical Team Scale Technical Review 52

OpenView Labs

APRIL 12, 2019

Does a new senior member have the right to challenge a historical decision made by a junior developer? We needed a CTO. If the challenges around hiring a senior developer late in the game are high, hiring a CTO can be even tougher. Engineering is a huge component of many startups. Let’s talk about the CTO.

CTO Hire 64

CTO Hire Investment New CTO CTO 64

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

When the company was first founded, two of its co-founders, Wade and CTO Bryan were freelancing on web projects and soon noticed a pattern around their clients who were asking for more and more integrations built from one app to another This is where the idea for Zapier was born. “The Cadence: How to Turn Your SaaS Startup into an Army.”

Payment Services 113

Payment Services CTO Hire Payments New CTO 113

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

They’ve invested in all of these other businesses. Jason Lemkin: 50 reps in a new city that you’ve never met, and hired in 60 days when you’re in the low millions ARR. So number six, thinking you’re getting away with under investing in management, up scaling in HR. We all under invest.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale Investment 246

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 19, 2018

Ciaran, our CTO , came up with this magical line. We invested more heavily in particular types of training in order to build even more muscle in those core technologies, and we built some interesting tooling to support those core technologies. Not every startup is able to handle our throughput or reliability needs.

Outsourcing Services 192

Outsourcing Services Part-Time VPE Software AWS 192

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

This is my third startup. As you said, people take it hard if suddenly you say, “Hey, this is your new EVP. If I wasn’t at the programming background, probably a CTO was a good idea, but for us it was sales, definitely sales and marketing. It makes sense that that would be the role that comes in as the CTO.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 264

Baremetrics

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Here’s an overview of the series: Part 1: How to Categorize Expenses in a SaaS Startup v2.0 What’s their new CAC Payback Time? New Gross Margins? Start by creating a new account from clicking the button New on the top-right. If spending $20,000 meant 200 new customers, spending $25,000 would result in 250.

Startup 90

Startup Merchant Services DevOps as a Service SaaS 90

Kellblog

MAY 10, 2023

Startup CEOs can learn an important lesson from pilots. In my work with startups, I periodically see CEOs surprisingly stop flying the aircraft first. I’m no longer excited about the new product that we’re building, but I want to keep funding it because we’re out raising money and VCs like it as part of the pitch.”

New CTO 112

New CTO Airlines CTO Investment 112

OPEXEngine

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

In this framework, you’ll learn how to design a scoring system that aligns to your growth strategy, brainstorm and select leader indicators of success, and operationalize the system across your startup. Drive new levers of growth. Through this work, it can drive new revenue opportunities. Strategically allocate CS resources.

Startup 91

Startup Scale Systems Review Technical Review 91

The SaaS Garage

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

The product development is led out of Germany by Jan Riedel, a software engineer virtuoso and veteran, who Loyalty Prime was able to win as their new CTO at the beginning of 2019. Christoph Straub, Loyalty Prime’s founder and CEO is excited about this new chapter of his company. link] Contact BayBG: josef.krumbachner@baybg.de

Generative AI 90

Generative AI Artificial Intelligence CTO Coach Venture Capital 90

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 21, 2022

Along the way, we’ve interviewed trailblazers, business leaders, makers and doers to share their experience and insights on all things startup strategy, product management, design, marketing, customer experience, and much, much more. For Slack, that was clearly the engineering and dev communities, who love new tools.

Outsourcing Services 215

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring CTO Hire Acquisition 215

User Pilot

MAY 1, 2024

Renowned for his tenure on Airbnb’s product team, Lenny’s professional journey truly began in 2010 when he served as the CEO of a budding startup named “Localmind.” He has also invested in businesses, like Figma, Vanta, and Webflow, among others. How did Lenny Rachitsky get started in product management?

Underperforming Technical Team 102

Underperforming Technical Team New CTO Interviewing CTO 102

Chart Mogul

MARCH 9, 2020

CEO Joel Gascoigne tells us about the decision to invest in new analytics tools and how Buffer sustained long-term growth thanks to growing their ARPA. The Solution: Invest in a revamped data infrastructure. Joel had what he calls “an honest conversation” with Buffer’s CTO Dan. What is Buffer. Click To Tweet.

Payment Solutions 113

Payment Solutions Payment Features Payments Social Media 113

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2019

He was a VP of product at a series D startup, so a little bit ahead of us and we just had a real connection. The catch was he had just moved his family four kids to New York city. We had no New York city presence. I had my CTO and everyone would be like, “You can’t do this. This was a problem.

CTO Hire 178

CTO Hire Travel Underperforming Technical Team CTO Coach 178

Sales Hacker

JUNE 12, 2020

In it, Co-Founder and CRO of Kronologic, Aaron Bollinger, shows us how to close enterprise level deals when you’re a startup. All right guys, welcome to the Sales Hacker’s Success Summit presentation, How To Close The Enterprise When You Are Just A Startup. This is a relationship worth investing in. What You’ll Learn.

Enterprise 82

Enterprise CTO Hire Startup Technical Cofounder 82

Andreessen Horowitz

MARCH 20, 2024

And so, the thing that was really new about LLMs was the ability to, at extremely low cost, generate an answer instantly to any question. Adam: And so, based on all that, we landed on building Poe as a new chat-oriented AI product. We thought about, [as Quora] , what is the role that we’re going to play in this new world with AI?

AI Search 143

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Scale 143

Neil Patel

AUGUST 23, 2021

Niche: Entrepreneurship, investment, mindset. Why Rand is Successful: Rand speaks frankly and with humor, as shown in his book Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Guide to the Startup World. Why Larry is Successful: Founder and former CTO of WordStream, Larry has tenured experience in the digital realm. Gary Vaynerchuk .

Marketing 128

Marketing CTO Coach Entrepreneurship AI Search 128

Unbounce

JUNE 24, 2020

I mean the sly, step-by-way manner in which new tech slides neatly into your existing stack and subtly reframes the game on you. Today, customer recommendations are a very small portion of Amazon’s total investment in AI. Say you’re part of a small team or a startup tight on resources. Yosem Reichert-Sweet, CTO, Unbounce.

Artificial Intelligence 145

Artificial Intelligence AI Search Machine Learning Marketing 145

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 21, 2021

With that in mind, before we welcome the new year and all the good things to come, we’ve gathered our favorite insights and nuggets of wisdom from 2021 in a special wrap-up episode. Will Larson , CTO of Calm. Des Traynor , Co-founder and CTO of Intercom. Speed is every startup’s biggest competitive advantage.

VP of Engineering 118

VP of Engineering Technical Review Scale Outsourcing Services 118

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Customer Onboarding Specialist: Responsible for helping new customers get up and running with the company’s products. For example, a startup might not need a sales manager or a fully-fledged sales team in its early days, but a UX designer is an absolute necessity. Average salary: $95,566/yr. Average salary: $46,035/yr.

Sales Hiring 98

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 98

SaaStock

MARCH 29, 2019

Don’t overextend your resources when testing new SaaS growth ideas. Here is what he writes: Kieran Flanagan , VP of marketing at HubSpot, shared some interesting insights on approaching new ideas for scaling up your business. You can use them the next time you need to convince your manager brand investment makes sense.

Scale 103

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Social Media 103

Natalia Luneva

APRIL 30, 2021

Announcing new features, increasing customer satisfaction and retention are among the top functions of an online community. . #1 Our community is the best way for us to inform our customers about upcoming updates and new features. For example, before releasing/starting to develop a new feature, we run it by our community first.

Marketing 98

Marketing Social Media SaaS New CTO 98

BetterCloud

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Our new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andra Milender defected from a medical career track before finding her footing on a technology path. It was a little more of a journey than a direct mission, and it was all because of a teacher who took the opportunity to invest in his students that initiated my pivot to technology.

Part-Time CTO 8

Part-Time CTO CTO New CTO Technology 8