SaaStr

MAY 27, 2021

For the past 10 years, I’ve been a sales advisor for the portfolio companies of early stage venture capital firm True Ventures. It’s fascinating work for a sales mind like mine that’s focused on helping brilliant people turn ideas into revenue-driving businesses. . In his piece, Jason recommends hiring VPs in a certain order.

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Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital Sales 253

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Perhaps the single most important thing you can ever do in SaaS, at least after $1m in ARR or so, is hire the best VPs you can. We’ve talked a lot over the years about how not to hire a wrong VP of Sales — 70%+ of the first VPs of Sales don’t make it even 10 months. You need to hire up-and-comers.

Part-Time VPE 352

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 352

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Hiring too junior a resource to own product is almost always a huge mistake — 9 times out of 10. You can take a lot of “stretch” risk in sales. Sales breeds leadership. But what I’ve seen time and time again is “product managers” who haven’t actually owned anything. You can’t go too junior here.

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Sales Hiring Management Leadership Engineering 300

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2024

I felt part of your core job as CEO was to assemble a management team, not complain about how you couldn’t get it all done. Or didn’t want to do sales. I still believe a CEO should “do it all” in terms of building a decent management team first before hiring a COO. Hiring a strong COO between Management Team 1.0

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Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale Startup 264

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. If you don’t think you need a great VP of Sales, Product, Marketing, Customer Success, and Engineering — then all that all that means is you’ve never worked with a great one. So I’d hire earlier here rather than wait.

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Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 291

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2024

At this week’s Workshop Wednesday, Lucas Price, former SVP of Sales at Zipwhip and founder and CEO at Yardstick, shares his insights on how to hire and build a high-performing sales team. During that time, he wasted a lot of money on failed sales hires and decided to learn everything about hiring sellers.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 245

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2024

How Do You Sift Out the Bitter and Broken Individuals When Hiring? If it’s a role you’ve never hired, find someone great at it and have them do your final interview. For sales, product, or customer success, the best question you could ask is, “What would you do your first couple of weeks?” Don’t hire those people to lead.

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Sales Hiring Scale Marketing Interviewing 292

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2024

He made many great leadership points, but one in particular rattles around my head a lot and I think deserves its own post: You usually won’t know if you’ve made a 10x hire … when you make the hire. But I didn’t know they were truly 10x hires. Hire the very, very people you can. They more often rise up.

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Sales Hiring CTO Hire New CTO CTO 302

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Whether you manage a team of engineers, a team of regional sales managers, or the company, your first responsibility is to hire and successfully manage the seven people who will form your leadership team. Irrespective of the actual number, the point is great managers prioritize building that team.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Management Leadership 263

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2021

The time comes for every growing SaaS company when you need to hire your first managers. Not VPs, but Directors and managers under them. Some rough rules: You need one Sales Director for each 8 sales reps. Your VP can’t directly manage more than 8. Each 10 SDRs, even 8 ideally, need a manager.

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Sales Hiring Scale Management Engineering 325

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development. Is a CRO right for you?

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 306

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. “Marketing is fluffy and unmeasurable” – Unlike sales, which has clear metrics like quota attainment, founders often believe marketing can’t be measured.

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Sales Hiring Marketing Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team 208

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2025

Dear SaaStr: I’m Starting as a New VP of Sales. A new VP of Sales can add value immediately by focusing on a few critical areas that drive results and demonstrate leadership from day one: Assess and Support Top Performers : A great VP of Sales will immediately identify the top-performing reps and double down on them.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Leadership 166

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2020

To hire 3-4 folks to do what you used to do mostly yourself. To want a head of sales operations and a director of sales to help carry the load not later … but on Day 1. To not have to manage any customers yourself in customer success, and instead be a strategist. Or at least, with just 1 or 2 key hires.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting SaaS 304

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2023

It may seem counterintuitive to seek out a sales leadership hire during this time of slowed hiring, but it’s the number one topic that many founders talk about and many SDRs, AEs, and sales managers ask about. . Founders may ask, “how do I find the right sales leadership hire?”

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Sales Hiring Scale Leadership Sales 245

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2022

You need engineering, product in all start-ups — but in SaaS, even in the very early days, you also need sales, client success, true support, demand gen marketing, etc. Why didn’t we just hire another 3 guys in TechOps much, much. I was lucky to have a great hire who handled our first few large customers.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Scaling 300

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Our VC Is Encouraging Us to Hire Aggressively and Increase the Burn Rate. Most of the first-time founders I’ve invested in aren’t “spending enough” in that they are a bit too slow to make accretive hires. The best version of this advice is to help founders learn where to make certain hires faster.

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Sales Hiring Venture Capital Investment Customer Success 288

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2023

As the past few years have demonstrated, it’s wise to expect the unexpected, especially when it comes to hiring. In particular, hiring for your sales team is critical in an uncertain economic outlook. Additionally, sales professionals looking for a new role should choose their next company wisely.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Compensation 244

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2022

It’s the never-ending stereotype –– marketing and sales are eternal “frenemies.” However, this push-and-pull doesn’t have to be part of your organization as long as you hire and empower the right leadership. Tip One: Don’t Believe the Hype As You’re Hiring. Your market model will guide your leadership model.

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Leadership Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale 244

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2021

Did you hire a good enough VP? 4 part test: – who great did they hire in the first 60 days? Hiring your VPs as a founder is tough. How do you know, quickly, if you’ve hired a “good enough” VP? Or if you hired someone that talked the talk, but isn’t the right fit for your startup?

Part-Time VPE 253

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Metrics 253

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

379: From how many reps to hire, to compensation models, here are the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales teams and how to avoid them. Announcer: In today’s SaaStr Insider, SaaStr CEO and founder, Jason Lemkin, shared the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales team.

Sales Hiring 240

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 240

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2023

At SaaStr APAC 2023, Scott Pugh, VP of Sales at Figma, shared how to scale these two sales teams while building culture. Pugh’s strategy is simple, albeit not always easy: Recruitment — how to hire the best talent to scale your sales organization. Define your hiring profile. Focus on the hiring profile.

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Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 279

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2022

When sales teams succeed, the company succeeds. But running a high-performing sales team isn’t an easy task. How can you ensure success within your sales organization in a way that scales with you? The most important leadership framework is to establish and grow this team culture. How do you want your team to be defined?

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Scale Leadership Sales Hiring Sales 265

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

But like many things my views have evolved "The Rise of CRO: The Challenges of Unchecked Growth" @davegerhardt + @jasonlk pic.twitter.com/VL3S6MAFOw — Jason SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15 Lemkin (@jasonlk) June 11, 2024 Three trends have fueled the rise of hiring COOs and CROs closer to $10m ARR than $50M ARR: Faster Growth.

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Sales Hiring Startup Management SaaS 214

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2024

How much more could you accomplish with your sales organization? Justworks CRO, Robert Lopez, and Director of Sales, Valeria Avila, show you how to create longevity in your sales organization and why it matters. If you’re hiring great people and giving them the tools to succeed, get out of their way. They’ll step up.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Education 294

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2020

Justin Welsh, former SVP of Sales at PatientPop explains how he started in SaaS in 2009 as the second sales hire at Zocdoc. Justin used Sales Culture to grow a successful PatientPop team to 140 employees and 55 million in revenue. Justin Welsh | SVP Sales @ PatientPop. Want to see more content like this?

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 332

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2024

Dear SaaStr: If you were hiring a head of sales for a high-priced, niche B2B SaaS product, would you focus on general B2B SaaS sales experience or on market/customer knowledge, assuming it will be very difficult to find a candidate with both? You’ll be very tempted to hire someone with a seemingly magical rolodex.

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Sales Hiring Sales SaaS B2B 318

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2022

Having learned from thousands of customers and prospects, Sarah Lash, Envoy’s head of enterprise sales, will talk about what it takes to guide and scale enterprise sales programs during an uncertain future. In my first six months at Envoy , I grew the sales team from six to 17. Combine Strategies To Drive Sales.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise 246

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2023

A strong sales leader is vital to any company hoping to scale. With this in mind, hiring for the Head of Sales role is one of the most important things a business can do. Unfortunately, too many companies focus on the wrong things when hiring their sales leaders, which can lead to hires that aren’t the best fit for the business.

Sales Recruiting 244

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 244

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

In the latest episode of CRO Confidential, host Sam Blond, partner at Founders Fund and former CRO at Brex, sits down with Ashley Kelly, VP of Global Sales Development at Rippling. For context – Ashley had previously helped Sam scale Brex’s outbound sales from $2M to over $300M in ARR as Senior Director of SDR.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Outbound Sales Team 316

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

Kyle Norton CRO of Owner is kicking off a new podcast for Pavillion with revenue leaders, and we were lucky enough to be guest #001 here: It’s a great convo on many SaaStr themes — but from the perspective of a VP Sales / CRO. Never play the blame game As a revenue leader, it’s crucial we take accountability for sales performance.

Technical Review 304

Technical Review Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Revenue 304

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2024

As it grows, it changes significantly, especially as you move from hiring people who can do everything to hiring more specialized roles. What is the CEO’s role in hiring during different stages? What is the CEO’s role in hiring during different stages? So that support person, Mafalda, started doing sales, too.

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Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 264

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2023

So the other day Colin Cadmus, who was VP of Sales at Aircall, summarized a career question I’ve thought about many times over the past 10+ years. If you are a great AE, a great sales exec … I know you might want “more” … but is it really better to be a VP of Sales? VP of Sales is a tough job.

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Sales Hiring Sales Startup Leadership 291

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2023

So one recent survey we did really brought out a healthy debate: does your VP of Sales really need to be a product expert? Many of the comments said it was more important a VP of Sales understand process and leadership more than the product itself. They often melt. I say, you just gotta know the product. At least a little bit.

Scale 298

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 298

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2024

Robbie O’Connor, the GM EMEA at Notion and the first European hire at Asana and Dropbox takes the stage at SaaStr Europa to talk about the building blocks required to scale GTM teams and operations. Unlike product-led or sales-led growth, Notion is focused on community-led growth. You can get this wrong.

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Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Innovation 314

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

We’ve talked a ton on SaaStr over the years on how to make sure your VP of Sales and top hires really work out. We can pretty much summarize a lot of it into the following: Your VP of Sales should have lots of experience selling at your average ACV. for that type of sale. That they are the right ones.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 334

SaaStr

APRIL 20, 2022

This famous quote from self-help author Robert Collier applies to every sales organization because excellent results come through repeatable activities, not one-off wins. Alice Katwan , SVP at Twilio , discusses how you can build a high-retention sales team while being remote. Implement systems to attract great talent.

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Sales Hiring Scale Retention Sales 278