The Latest from SaaStr: Be Careful Hiring “Dualies”

By Jason Lemkin · Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | Hiring, Human Resources

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had to recruit a lot of types of folks over the years where my domain knowledge was limited.

the one thing I learned, beyond getting help screening and hiring for these positions from domain experts, is to look for Flags.  For signs the prospective hire just won’t work out, no matter how strong they might look on paper.

And I’ve learned again and again, including quite recently, there are 4 types of hires to just avoid.

Read the full article: Be Careful Hiring “Dualies” — Folks That Are a VP of More Than One Thing

By Amanda Beaty · Monday, June 21, 2022 | Fundraising

If you’re in the early stages of fundraising for seed rounds or Series A, the pressure is on to impress a VC firm. An impactful deck that explains your business and the opportunity waiting for investors can often clinch the deal.

Logan Allin, Managing Partner at Fin Venture Capital, has reviewed hundreds of deck submissions and shares the secrets to crafting the perfect presentation to win over investors.

Read the full article: Build a Winning Deck and Make Investors Believe That You’re the Next Unicorn with Fin VC Founder and Managing GP Logan Allin (Video)

By Jason Lemkin · Monday, June 20, 2022 | Blog Posts

After an incredible SaaStr Europa, we’re gearing up for 2022 SaaStr Annual in-person again in the SF Bay Area, at the spacious 40+ acres San Mateo County Fairgrounds, Sep 13-15.

As part of that, we are (of course) bringing back our Equality, Inclusion and Balance program to set aside 1,000 no cost VIP Passes to Annual.

Please join us.  We want this to be the most inclusive Annual ever!

Read the full article: Juneteenth Reminder: The SaaStr Annual Inclusion Program is Back: 1,000+ No-Cost VIP Passes

By Jason Lemkin · Monday, June 20, 2022 | Career Growth & Advice, Leadership

Being a founder and especially being a founder-CEO changes you.  Not at first.  The first year or two are a lot like “before”, just more intense.  Now it’s all on your back, and your shoulders.  But over time, your brain does get rewired.  You get focused.

And as part of that change, you will lose friends on many levels if you build a successful start-up.

Read the full article: The Friends You’ll Lose. And The Ones You’ll Gain.

By Jason Lemkin · Sunday, June 19, 2022 | Career Growth & Advice, Q&A

I got my best advice when I went to meet with one of my angels and mentors when things were probably toughest at my last start-up.

My co-founder had walked out the door. We had about 4 months left of cash. I was out of ideas. Yes, we had customers — hundreds — but not nearly enough. It simply “wasn’t working”, at least as I saw it narrowly at the time.

Read the full article: Dear SaaStr:  What Was The Best Advice You Ever Got From an Angel Investor

By Jason Lemkin · Sunday, June 19, 2022 | Career Growth & Advice, Q&A

Each week, we round up our most popular content so you can catch up on anything you may have missed. Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos!

Read the full article: Top SaaStr Content for the Week: Flexport CEO, RevenueCat CTO, ZoomInfo CEO, Samsara CPO

By Jason Lemkin · Sunday, June 19, 2022 | Hiring, Sales

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to make that critical hire: the VP Sales.  I’ve done it right, and I’ve done it wrong.  When it’s good … it’s just so good.  It all clicks.  But when you make a mis-hire, it’s about the worst mis-hire you can make.  Because you’ll lose not just some incremental revenue, but potentially far more. 

Read the full article: If Your VP Sales Isn’t Going to Work Out — You’ll Know in 30 Days

By Jason Lemkin · Saturday, June 18, 2022 | Growth

These are Strange Times Indeed in SaaS and Cloud.  The best SaaS companies from Datadog to Snowflake to HubSpot to Salesforce are growing faster than ever, even past $1B or more in ARR.  And yet, the stock market has taken a big tumble, leading among other things to dramatic change in the VC ecosystem.

Venture funding almost overnight gotten twice or more as hard, often at half or less the valuation.

And in tougher times in venture, the most important thing is keeping your investors’ confidence.

Read the full article: 10 Things That Make Your Investors Lose Confidence

By Jason Lemkin · Saturday, June 18, 2022 | Customer Success

“Churn” is a term we all use in SaaS as a core metric, but its roots, as near as I remember and can tell, come from our B2C colleagues.  Folks churn out of their Verizon plan, their Netflix subscription, etc.

Churn is a good term for your SMB and freemium customers.  They will come and go, and their lifetime values often will be relatively small & short, so your customer acquisition strategies will have to be extremely precise.

Read the full article: Big Companies Don’t Churn. They Quit You.

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