SaaStr

MARCH 29, 2025

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Best Ways to Transition From The Founder-Led Sales Stage? Transitioning from founder-led sales to a commissioned sales team is one of the most criticaland trickysteps in scaling a SaaS business. You Never Get to Leave Sales. This is non-negotiableeven if you hate sales. Be specific.

Scale 199

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Compensation 199

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Anyone who has managed a larger BI deployment has faced the challenge of managing hundreds, perhaps thousands of metrics. Marketing & sales define revenue or leads or cost-of-customer acquisition differently. In the BI tool, a marketing analyst finds three metrics: cost_of_customer_acq, CAC2, & new_CAC.

Metrics 308

Metrics Acquisition Innovation Technology 308

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

5 Key Learnings from Scaling from 3 to 75 Go-To-Market Team Members in Less Than 12 Months The latest SaaStr CRO Confidential is out and Sam Blond did a great deep dive with Graham Mareno, VP of Worldwide Sales at Codeium. Create Compelling Economic Incentives For sales talent, compensation is critical.

Sales Recruiting 242

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 242

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2024

They experimented with pricing and packaging until they figured out how to reduce the limits back down to one user without hurting any of their key metrics. The key theme of how these successful SaaS companies have scaled and adapted their pricing is the value exchange of pricing and what your success metric is.

Payments 284

Payments Pricing Scale Revenue 284

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2025

The Journey: From WiFi to IoT Fleet Management Sekar’s journey began unexpectedly when he joined Meraki (founded by MIT researchers Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket) to help them figure out marketing and sales “from first principles.” Now well above $1.3B The Five Lessons 1.

Scale 260

Scale Transportation Scaling SMB 260

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2025

So Lightspeed Venture Partners suryed 154 top venture-backed mostly B2B start-ups for their sales metrics. One analysis that was great was on the top reasons sales teams lost deals. You have to dig deeper, and push the sales team harder, if you want the real reason a deal didnt closer. The full report is here.

B2B 283

B2B Metrics Sales 283

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

When Lindsey joined, she inherited an already built-out self-serve/PLG model for small businesses and a mid-market and enterprise sales, customer success, and post-sales team. But at the start of its expansion play, Checkr’s enterprise motion failed, and sales cycles were slow, taking up to a year for $100k & up deals.

Revenue 293

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 293

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 28, 2021

Throughout this transition upmarket, the company has sustained a strong sales efficiency number with an implied payback period of about 17-18 months. UIPath’s metrics rank it as one of the fastest growing and capital efficient businesses today. Lastly, let’s touch on UIPath’s revenue streams.

Payment Services 359

Payment Services Metrics Payment Solutions Payments 359

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Many mid-market software companies price with the goal of revenue maximization, negotiating for the highest possible price in each sale. Penetration pricing leads to land-and-expand sales tactics. Salesforce sells CRM seats based on an aggregate ROI of increased sales productivity for example.

SaaS Payments 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

When Marc Benioff started Salesforce, he codified the sales playbook. Then Mark Roberge , former Hubspot CRO, wrote The Sales Acceleration Formula with deep insights into quota structures. The biggest challenge to that outlook is an increase in the sales cycle. That elongated sales cycle created pipeline supply shocks.

Venture Capital 331

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 331

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2022

It created a lot of discussions and was more controversial then — that NPS was a great core metric. Back then, I wrote that when I was a SaaS founder, I thought Net Promoter Score (“NPS”) was a somewhat dumb, Big Company metric. I didn’t want a metric that was abstracted away from revenue. I was wrong.

Metrics 293

Metrics Churn Engineering Innovation 293

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

So we’ve covered HubSpot more than any other SaaS leader on this 5 Interesting Learnings series, in part because so many of us use HubSpot ourselves, and in part because its metrics and use cases are so like many of the apps we build and sell ourselves. Sales Hub, i.e 5 More Interesting Learnings then: #1.

SMB 312

SMB CTO Onboarding Scale 312

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Dave Kellogg, EIR at Balderton Capital and 25-year C-level veteran, shares the top 14 signs that you have a SaaS metrics problem, the five reasons those symptoms exist, and a SaaS metrics maturity model with five layers to help you move the needle at every stage. The 15 Types of Misuse and Abuse of SaaS Metrics #1: Bludgeoning.

Metrics 339

Metrics Sales Hiring Benchmarks SaaS 339

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

From Sales-Led to Product-Led: How Apollo.io This analysis examines their journey from a struggling sales-led organization to a successful product-led growth company, resulting in over 880,000 paying customers and substantial revenue growth.

Scale 162

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 162

Tom Tunguz

JULY 8, 2023

In There’s No Such Thing as Series A Metrics , Charles Hudson explains that there is no magic milestone to raise a Series A. The second reason for a lack of consistent metrics for Series A has to do with perturbations in purchasing behavior. In this environment, I agree. The $1m ARR figure used to hold in 2018 & early 2019.

Metrics 297

Metrics Forecasting Finance Startup 297

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2024

Let’s jump right into this set of community questions focused on SaaS metrics, growth, and efficiency. What metrics should we expect in this environment? Sales is much harder than in 2021. Therefore, sales and marketing practices made no sense in 2020. How Does That Impact Sales and Marketing?

Metrics 272

Metrics Scale Sales Hiring SaaS 272

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

We land with our Core product, which offers a base-level functionality across all key workflows, including call tracking, scheduling, dispatching, end-customer communications, marketing automation, estimating, job costing, sales, inventory and payroll integration. Together, we refer to our Pro and FinTech products as “add-on products.””

Benchmarks 299

Benchmarks Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 299

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 29, 2024

Dan, a Stanford-trained engineer with experience guiding companies like Intuit, understands how to optimize your product metrics for growth by focusing on retention and building a product users truly value. Understanding the product metrics Let’s have two products – A and B. Customers leave as fast as new ones come in.

Metrics 105

Metrics Scale Acquisition Retention 105

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2025

I know your sales team probably hates pilots, because in a sense, it means they have to sell the deal twice. Having an “opt out” clause after a pilot ends helps, but still, it’s a double sale. Faster Decision-Making : A successful pilot can accelerate the sales cycle. You can fight doing paid pilots.

Enterprise 242

Enterprise Leadership Investment Metrics 242

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2025

Dear SaaStr: Should I Let My VP of Sales Go? All Your VPs Really Need to Do is Tilt the Curve A great VP of Sales should show meaningful progress within one sales cycle. All Your VPs Really Need to Do is Tilt the Curve A great VP of Sales should show meaningful progress within one sales cycle.

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Onboarding 168

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. The event is known for its focused content on SaaS growth strategies, metrics, and best practices, making it particularly valuable for B2B SaaS companies.

Software 243

Software Scale Venture Capital SaaS 243

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2024

What are the three most under-discussed metrics on social media, with VCs, and especially with founders? It turns out that if you don’t close customers, pay your sales teams as much, or cut down marketing, you get more efficient, but that’s now what building a business is about. This should be your North Star metric.

Metrics 300

Metrics SaaS Scale Social Media 300

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.

Sales Recruiting 162

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Leadership 162

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2022

Last week, Office Hours welcomed Bill Binch, former CRO at Pendo, EVP Worldwide Sales at Marketo & operating partner at Battery to share his views on building world-class sales organizations. Bill & I exchanged emails about Deliberately Underselling as Sales Strategy. Logo-based quotas focus the team on speed to close.

Startup 342

Startup Construction Sales Compensation 342

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

How Codeium /Windsurf Built A Billion-Dollar AI Company and a Winning Sales Machine #2. The Top 10 Customer Success Metrics Investors Care About in 2025 with Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta #4. Dear SaaStr: Whats a Fair Amount of Founder Secondary in a Series B VC funding round? Top Pods and Vids: #1.

Scale 162

Scale AI Sales Customer Support 162

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2023

So over the past decade-and-a-half we’ve come up with a lot of yardsticks, metrics and rules for SaaS companies. E.g.,: CAC of < 12 months is Good-to-Great Paying sales reps 25%-30% of what they close is Good A burn ratio of 1 or less is Good These metrics do sort of work, if you have some capital to spend (i.e., They don’t.

SaaS Payments 278

SaaS Payments Metrics SMB Payments 278

Tom Tunguz

JULY 13, 2022

Yesterday, Office Hours welcomed Lars Nilsson, VP Sales Development from Snowflake to talk about his learnings across 5 companies he helped take public. Throughout the hour, Lars provided insightful perspectives on how to build sales organizations. At Snowflake, sales development lives within the marketing team.

Scale 324

Scale Sales Hiring Development Sales 324

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Theoretically, the relationship between sales and marketing should be easy –– after all, these teams are responsible for pulling in more business and increasing revenue. Reconciling the Past and Present Experience can be the best teacher, and Passi can draw on his past career as a sales leader at an early-stage company.

Enterprise 284

Enterprise Marketing Sales SaaS 284

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

What data and metrics do you need to convince SaaS investors you’re in good shape and aligned with what they care about? These metrics are more targeted to those preparing for a Series A or B round and could make the difference between an excited-to-invest-in-you investor and a pass. What Goes into That Sheet? It’s pretty easy.

Metrics 184

Metrics Sales Hiring Retention Churn 184

Tom Tunguz

MAY 17, 2022

With all the talk of recession, changing market dynamics, and the importance of efficient growth, many teams will be looking to boost their sales efficiency. How can the company drive more sales with less expense? Let’s start with the formula for sales efficiency. Each strategy is viable.

Sales 303

Sales Startup Acquisition Pricing 303

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2023

So leading growth stage VC Iconiq has published its latest and very detailed Definitive Guide to Sales Compensation here. Corners were cut in the boom times of 2021, but we are back to sane sales models. Renewals, if they are done by sales, are paid out at about 40% of an initial commission. Everyone should have a read.

Compensation 301

Compensation Scale Sales SMB 301

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

Other places this feedback loop worked well were: Adoption loop metrics. Customers crave metrics about how teams are using all AI products. Other Learnings in the GTM Journey GitHub has had to adjust to new sales stages and new buyer personas. Deciding where you don’t want to spend your time.

Scale 261

Scale AI Scaling Marketing 261

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2025

Marketing leaders face crushing expectations from all sides: Management wants leads Sales needs collateral Product needs launches The team wants career growth The instinct is to spread your resources across everything: blogging, analyst relations, PR, events, SEO, paid search, content marketing, and more. The problem?

Scale 242

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Marketing 242

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2024

Selling stock is sales. Look at your metrics objectively. Would you invest, yourself, based just looking at the communications and metrics? Because it says it isnt a priority. 95% of the best founders I work with schedule the meetings themselves when its important. # Dont Take Any Of It Personally. So dont take it personally.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Investment AI Metrics 274

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Here’s why domain data matters: Tighter accuracy gains : Domain-specific data allows you to optimize for specific use cases while maintaining general capabilities Vertical specialization : Different industries have different needs – Dialpad can tune their models for sales teams vs. support teams Competitive moat : While anyone can access (..)

AI 262

AI Scale Government compliance 262

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What are the signs that an enterprise SaaS startup is ready to scale by hiring more sales people? For a higher-velocity, in-bound driven SaaS product, most sales reps will have trouble processing more than 50 or so truly qualified leads a month. Before $10m ARR or so, more qualified leads = more sales. To a point.

Sales Hiring 301

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Sales 301