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The Top 10 Things to Know Before Starting a SaaS Company

SaaStr

We’ve discussed most before individually, but let me throw ’em together: It may well take 24 months to get to true product-market fit and Initial Traction. A mediocre tech team, a part-time CTO, or even just a decent CTO just doesn’t get you there. Wait until you find a great partner here.

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Hiring Your VPs: When Can You Compromise?

SaaStr

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. A Rockstar engineer really is 10x better than the next tier. And a Rockstar VP is really what you need in every position. So I’d hire earlier here rather than wait. Head of Marketing – Where Can I Settle?

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The Top 5 Things Everyone Should Know Before Starting a SaaS Company

SaaStr

The top 5, with links to the related posts: It may well take 24 months to get to true product-market fit and Initial Traction. but you can’t afford to hire all the people you need to meet their needs. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the startup. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly.

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

SaaStr

In SaaS, once you have even a few million in ARR, the #1 challenge is recruiting top-tier VPs and building a truly top-tier management team: SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. She can be your CTO forever.

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Job #1 Once You Hit Initial Traction — Stop Owning Anything

SaaStr

But I think the biggest, #1, mistake successful first-time entrepreneurs in SaaS make time and time again these days is they micromanage too long. I think it’s a byproduct, in part, of the fact that founders are just so much better these days. Engineering. Go hire them. In every single function.

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

SaaStr

1: Don’t hire a VP (or anyone in the early days) that you aren’t 95% sure is great. Founders between a million and $250M are talking about lowering the bar for hiring because they aren’t sure if the person is great or they’re trying to fill a gap. If you aren’t meeting that many, you aren’t taking hiring seriously.

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Stop Following These 10 Terrible Pieces of SaaS Advice with SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin (SaaStr Podcast 682)

SaaStr

No one has time to have coffee with all of those folks. 2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.” You can’t always expect a great VP of Sales to double sales in 30-60-90 days. They know the product or learn it fast, bring a couple of ringers with them, and move out low performers. Hiring someone too junior.