SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2025

With 17 years of venture capital experience, Ethan began his career in consumer investing before pivoting to B2B, where he developed particular expertise in developer platforms and B2B software. Focus on the right metrics : Be transparent about your key metrics rather than relying on vanity numbers.

Technical Review 163

Technical Review Venture Capital Outsourced Development ChatGPT 163

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2020

Speaking with startups, I’ve collected a list of disciplines that are going to become very important in the next period. If a meaningful fraction of customers no longer pay the balance of their annual contract on the renewal date, then your startup’s cash flows will worsen. First, transparent communication.

Startup 247

Startup SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods 247

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

Codeium has emerged as one of the hottest AI startups, growing from 30 to 150 employees in just one year, with a valuation already exceeding $1 billion. Their product is generating an impressive 45% of developers’ code on average. I really liked this one and wanted to write up a few more learnings.

Sales Recruiting 248

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 248

FastSpring

JUNE 9, 2022

Fred, who is the current director of growth at Planday and an advisor to FastSpring, explains that SaaS companies can scale much faster when they focus development on things that directly add customer value. Fred has worked with companies of all sizes, from startup to enterprise, and offers specific insights for different stages.

Outsourced Development 147

Outsourced Development Merchant Services Scaling SaaS 147

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 21, 2022

In addition, Lee shared his view on usage-based pricing and defending a startup’s great asset, talent, from poaching during the next recovery. Second, UBP reduced friction for individual developers to tinker with the APIs. AEs retired quota by closing annual contracts for a base level usage. Usage-Based Pricing.

Startup 203

Startup Sales Hiring Outsourced Development Compensation 203

Neil Patel

OCTOBER 20, 2020

The best HR outsourcing services exist to make your life easier. How to choose the best HR outsourcing service for you. There are countless different HR outsourcing services to choose from. Handling HR for large companies is vastly different than doing the same at a startup or small business. The size of your business.

Outsourcing Services 118

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 118

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 28, 2021

If you would like to create switching costs, per seat pricing with annual contracts establishes some lock-in. Michelin developed a much more durable tires. I’m grateful to Madhavan for joining us and sharing his insights, and for the audience’s participation in this very popular session the most vexing topic for startups.

Pricing 279

Pricing Strategy Startup Scale 279

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Innovative startups. The first army are innovative startups. are making it easier and faster for software developers to develop complex software applications atop this infrastructure. What took you months to ideate, design and develop can now be copied in days or weeks thanks to these new tools.

Outsourcing Services 224

Outsourcing Services Software Review Software Outsourced Development 224

Neil Patel

OCTOBER 13, 2020

But the answer more and more business owners are turning to is a simple one: outsourcing. Outsourcing is giving your work to someone else outside of your main business. You could even outsource by shipping a business process like manufacturing overseas. Understand Why You Want to Outsource. Make a List of Common Tasks.

Outsourcing Services 141

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Sales Hiring Technical Review 141

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 22, 2022

For web3 startups to thrive, their marketing teams will need to spend marketing dollars to acquire users efficiently. There’s an entire marketing ecosystem for startups to build - and it will explode as all the venture dollars web3 startups have raised rushes to find new users. This is my mental model for it today.

Marketing 355

Marketing Blockchain Advertising Government 355

SaaStr

OCTOBER 21, 2021

Everyone today wants to start a SaaS startup. You can outsource development. You can do a single co-founder startup. But more broadly, Successful Startups can be built a lot of ways. They have an idea they are passionate about. And maybe they are. What does it take? Nice, but Not Required. Product-market fit.

Outsourcing Services 318

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Startup Product Marketing 318

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2023

At SaaStr Europa, UiPath’s Dines shared five insights from growing a company from nothing, so other founders can learn what it takes to scale a SaaS startup to $1B+ ARR. Insight #1: Embracing Honest Feedback from Customers One key aspect in developing a successful RPA program is listening to what your users have to say about it.

Scale 246

Scale Artificial Intelligence Technical Review Software Review 246

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2017

The cash conversion cycle is a key metric for startups, but one that often isn’t talked about until a business hires a CFO. Sales cycle is the number of days from first engaging a customer to when the customer signs a contract. The paragraph above illustrates why CCC is a metric most startups begin to measure after hiring a CFO.

Startup 189

Startup Sales Hiring Payment Solutions Payment Services 189

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 9, 2022

The y-axis spans the average contract value (ACV) from $1k to 150k+. Self-serve small ACV companies have developed the hybrid CSAM role ( customer success account managers). Ideal for freemium low-ACV startups and some PLG-motions , CSAMs shoulder the responsibility of both technical support and account expansion.

Customer Success 336

Customer Success Outsourced Development Technical Support Startup 336

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2022

in startup market cap. With fewer than 100 accounts willing to spend $20-50k on a software contract, every interaction is precious, especially those larger accounts which dominate revenue. On the other hand, the software purchased by Sales & Marketing and Research & Development teams isn’t included in that line item.

Payment Solutions 351

Payment Solutions B2B Software Payment Services 351

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

with Yamini Jain, Co-founder at Global roots inc How to manage a SAAS startup effectively? Straight from a SaaS CCO with Yellow.ai’s CCO with Shekar Murthy, Chief Customer Officer at Yellow.ai Straight from a SaaS CCO with Yellow.ai’s CCO with Shekar Murthy, Chief Customer Officer at Yellow.ai

VP of Engineering 299

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder Outsourcing Services CTO Coach 299

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2022

The first week at any SaaS startup is about doing everything you can to acquire leads. Outsourcing: If the economics don’t make sense by hiring sales reps in your location, consider outsourcing work overseas until the unit economics work out. As a result, the company earned 2-3 times more per customer. “

Outsourcing Services 288

Outsourcing Services Scale Sales Hiring Outsourced Development 288

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 27, 2015

Quota attainment is an incredibly powerful diagnostic tool when understanding your SaaS startup’s go-to-market health. To achieve best-in-class quota attainment, a startup must execute the go-to-market strategy well across five dimensions. First, the startup must supply the sales team with a growing volume of high quality leads.

Sales Hiring 197

Sales Hiring Startup Scale Marketing 197

Tom Tunguz

MAY 5, 2022

Public markets do impact startup fortunes, but only inasmuch as the prices at which venture rounds clear. If customers cut their software spend, startups should expect a harsher climate. Rather than reading these reports, startups ought to perk up their ears to the echoes of budget contraction within their customer bases.

Outsourced Development 301

Outsourced Development Forecasting Startup Acquisition 301

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2024

1: Don’t Outsource Recruiting Founders and sales leaders often ask Sam, “Which external recruiting firm do you recommend for sourcing and hiring sales leaders, AEs, or whatever the hire-of-the-day is?” Founders think outsourcing recruiting will: Save them time Find them the best candidates Sam believes both of those things are wrong.

Sales Recruiting 297

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Outsourced Development 297

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

How can a sales leader develop similar repeatability? This hypothetical startup amassed 2.3x If the sales cycle lasts 45 days, the startup has time to move Stage 2 opportunities to Stage 6 before quarter end. The startup starts the quarter with 70% of the target bookings in late-stage conversations. PQR at Stage 3+.

Scale 331

Scale Sales Forecasting Outsourced Development 331

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2020

So, the company starts getting divided up into functional areas, or silos, product management, sales, customers support, marketing and so on, and this siloing of the org chart I think means that not everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and there’s a general feeling of disorganization or chaos in most startups.

Startup 300

Startup Software Review Scale Systems Review 300

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2022

But I almost never see mediocre outsource SEO really work for B2B. As a tiny startup who might be commercializing its first product, are there any general guidelines that you can stick to that would prevent the massive companies out there from crushing the baby? But even the CEO of a four-person startup. So, thanks man.

Scale 299

Scale Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 299

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

I’m tired of running my (very) successful (VC funded) startup after 5+ years. What is your advice for the 21st Century Startup Founder? Why are founders and startup employees expected to take minimal salaries while VC partners rake in $500K-$1M per year plus carry? How can a SaaS startup survive in a crowded market?

Outsourcing Services 233

Outsourcing Services Venture Capital Outsourced Development Web Development 233

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

TJ Nahigian, co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners, and Luci Fonseca, Partner, deep dive into the current GenAI landscape, incumbents vs. startups, and the six questions founders should ask themselves to drive value from GenAI. Startup platforms are OpenAI, Hugging Face, and Cohere. How are they doing this?

Generative AI 299

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 299

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2020

CEO Lew Cirne, after regretting selling his first startup in the space to CA for $375m, tries again with New Relic. It can be a bit scary to move from fixed contracts. New Relic is one of my favorite Cloud stories. Today New Relic is worth more than 10x that, at $4.3B. This is a big deal in B2D/API companies.

Scale 342

Scale Outsourced Development SMB Cloud 342

Tom Tunguz

MAY 1, 2023

When a startup is born, founders lead sales. Design partners, pilots, or founder-led sales - they have many names - these customers work with a startup to solve a problem. Conversations about contracts & pricing are kicked down the road until the customer sees value & the path to capture it.

Scale 211

Scale Engineering Outsourced Development Sales 211

Chart Mogul

JANUARY 9, 2025

The beginnings of a sales playbook Develop a place where you can store fungible assets that help you throughout the sales process. Only when you have developed a keen understanding of your customers needs can you earn the right to ask questions about their decision-making process. Where do sales and revenue operations fit in all this?

Scale 52

Scale Sales Hiring Startup Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Austin Hay is the Co-Founder of Clarify, a new intelligent CRM built as a platform that developers love. With a background leading marketing technology teams at high-growth startups like Ramp, Branch, and mParticle, Austin brings a wealth of expertise on the evolving MarTech and RevTech landscape.

Outsourced Development 125

Outsourced Development Startup Technology Branding 125

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2024

The speaker’s motivations have evolved over time, but initially, he was driven by a desire for meaning and a sense of guilt about selling his previous startup too early. Even small startups should build a marketing team as everyone needs support to achieve their goals.

Sales Hiring 300

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Technical Review Scale 300

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2020

I think it would be a tremendous exercise to share these ideas with your team and see what folks think they should change / implement at your startup. In your contracts. “Pacakage in extras, all users, projects, features into the price and reduce any hidden costs in contracts. “Simplicity. In everything.

Sales Hiring 344

Sales Hiring Sales Outsourced Development Technical Review 344

Incredo

JULY 8, 2019

The team of software engineers and testers is the main asset of any SaaS company – they develop, test and improve the product so the company can attract more and more interested users. What about moving your startup to the growth stage when you get more leads, customers, and revenue? See what comes next on our list! #2

Outsourcing Services 200

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development Sales Hiring 200

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2018

Annual prepay contracts - wherein customers pay for a year’s cost on day - is a free loan from customers. And every startup can benefit from this advance. Then the startup develops a go-to-market to identify others who belong to that segment, and sells the basic product to them. Phase 2 may take many forms.

Sales Hiring 226

Sales Hiring Outsourced Development Finance Startup 226

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2022

As your business grows in complexity, these drags on your infrastructure can impact your product development. You can now outsource most of your business needs, from e-commerce (like Shopify) to website building (like Wix). You get a service, you get a service, you get a service—everything is a service now.”. Key takeaways.

Payment Features 262

Payment Features Payment Services Outsourcing Services Payment Solutions 262

The Angel VC

APRIL 1, 2017

At the excellent SaaStr Annual 2016 conference about a year ago, a very experienced SaaS CEO said on stage that an internal recruiter can be a startup CEO’s secret superpower. I couldn’t agree more, and I think startups should make that hire sooner rather than later. Here’s why.

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Software Review 168

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2023

Founders are responsible for ensuring a startup always has enough money, setting the vision for the company, and driving things forward. Lesson #1: If You Aren’t Making Mistakes, You Aren’t In A Startup If you do things that always work and maintain the status quo, you’re likely at a major company like Microsoft.

Sales Recruiting 300

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Pricing 300

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2023

Marketing teams develop a portfolio of different strategies to acquire leads. I saw this effect a few times for tomtunguz.com & then I saw the phenomenon replicated within startups. Big Data, DevOps, microservices, AI, data contracts. I think of marketing teams as hedge funds. Some days, content marketing works.

Marketing 230

Marketing Outsourced Development Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 230