Hey SaaStr Community,

So Capital Efficiency is Back in Fashion.

But … You Still Gotta Grow.

With the whiplash from the public markets falling more than 50% in 2022, and venture markets in turn basically freezing up in the later stages, focus turned away from growth to cash conservation.  

And to capital efficiency.

The same happened in the public markets, as everyone suddenly had to march toward profitability faster.

But … it’s not a free lunch.  Just cutting costs but not growing doesn’t work outside of very short windows.

So how fast do you have to grow, even with less capital, and a need to be more efficient?

So this last year was one of so much change.  Change at a pace we haven’t seen since 2008, when the world of SaaS was just so, so much smaller.

Just 12 months ago, Bitcoin was at near-highs, as were many SaaS stocks, and multiples.  

And then … crash.

The SaaS public markets fell -52% in just one year.  Venture fell even further, even if mark-ups in many cases weren’t taken.  Interest rates and inflation exploded out of nowhere. 

But it’s worth remembering just 2 things.

So Okta is one of the leaders in SaaS that has always just kept growing.  They had a bit of dip in growth as they worked to integrate the mega-acquisition of Auth0 — but then went right back to growth. 

Even now, even in times of tighter scrutiny of budgets.

Okta is now crossing $2B in ARR, growing a stunning 37%.

Up Next: Wednesday, January 11th @ 10AM

Topic: Sales-led vs. Product-led? Today’s Startups Need Both

Speaker: Jason Eubanks, CRO @ Harness.io

Workshop Wednesdays is new series where we’ll be bringing some of the best SaaStr speakers to you LIVE, every Wednesday. 

Each workshop will be hosted in a live, interactive 30-minute format at 10am Pacific each and every Wednesday. This workshop will be 100% LIVE, not pre-recorded, and will be hosted in an, interactive 30-minute format, including Q&A.

So for many years, I was one of those guys.

I never loved Salesforce the company, nor personally enjoyed using the software.  But I would tell every startup I invested in or worked with to move onto Salesforce — at least once they hire a real VP of Sales.  

I told them they’d need to get there anyway.  I told them their VP of Sales would be used to Salesforce and pick it as their CRM, and you had to let them pick their tool of choice.  And I told them you sort of needed to know Salesforce the product and the API to really understand how SaaS worked.  And that you’d likely integrate with it at some point anyway.

That advice was good advice for many years, but it’s broken down.

So a New Year is a time for reflection, and for many, it will be a time for change. A new role, a new company, maybe even starting one yourself.

That time comes. We all know it when it does.

I remember the first time I felt it.  In my first tech job, I was working at a firm helping startups … and then I knew one night, it was time. It was time for me to join one. I gave my notice the next day, with no job lined up, and zero savings. I just knew.

But I did give 60 days notice. That 60 days notice sounds long, but one of my bosses really needed it. And it cost me. I did end up joining a startup, and the strike price for my options doubled over those 60 days, costing me about $400,000.

Time has gone on, though. And I worked with that boss several times thereafter, including as my investor. It was worth it.

So we just updated our SaaStr New Year’s Resolutions here, and it’s a great list.  Pick a few and you will without a doubt grow faster this year.

But a lot of advice takes some time to pan out. 

What are 5+ changes you can make today, or at least this week, to do better?today, or at least this week, to do better?

A few thoughts.

It's the New Year, and you may be seeking out new Sales Leaders.

You might be wondering, “how do I find the right sales leadership hire?” While someone in sales may ask, “how do I become a CRO someday?”

In today’s episode of CRO Confidential, Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund, discusses these very questions with the previous CRO of Lattice, Dini Mehta. 

Workato is looking for a Commercial Sales Executive who can help their team manage customer relationships from prospecting, qualification, close, to post-sales growth. 

SalesIntel is seeking an Account Executive who can who can recognize opportunities and turn leads into long-lasting partnerships. As well as 

following up with prospects several times throughout the sales cycle to ensure needs are being met.

• SaaStr 621: Big Numbers from Small Customers: How DigitalOcean Accelerated at Scale with DigitalOcean Senior Vice President of Revenue Cliff Bockard

• SaaStr 622: CRO Confidential: What's Changed for Hiring a VP of Sales in 2023 with Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond and Stage 2 Capital LP and Former Lattice CRO Dini Mehta
  
• SaaStr 623: Removing Friction: How to Turn More Than 40% of Your Prospects Into Long Term Enterprise Customers with Attentive Co-founder and CEO Brian Long

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts or Spotify

A big moment in 2023 will be the first high quality SaaS IPO

There are lots of great B2B companies at $200m+ ARR with decent growth that can IPO now

It’s just, no one wants to IPO at a 5x ARR valuation

When someone really good does in 2023, it will reset a lot of things

CAC is one of the most misunderstood metrics in SaaS

The reality is customers are generally either Really Cheap or Free to Acquire ... Or Very, Very Expensive to Acquire

Most of us have a bunch of the former. Just not enough.

Folks that complain consume about

20x the energy of those that just get sh*t done

Simplify the team for 2023

© SaaStr 2023

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