The Latest from SaaStr: 5 Interesting Learnings from Doximity at $450M ARR

Did you know there is a “LinkedIn for Doctors”?  That is doing $450,000,000 in ARR … growing a fairly mature 18%, but at an insane profitabilty level with a 43% (!) adjusted EBIDTA margin?

Well, there is.

It’s called Doximity and it’s worth $6.5 Billion Dollars. 

That’s 12x ARR even with fairly mature growth.  Why?  Profits.  Lots and lots of profits.

So … you looked far and wide to find that VP you really needed.  And you finally made the hire! 

And you … well … you think they will work out.  But you aren’t 100% sure.

No VP is perfect, and no VP can do it all.

So you have to make sure you both back them, and do everything possible to make them succeed.  But also, if you have some doubt, make sure you are looking for the right flags.  Especially if you saw some of them during the hiring process.

So let me outline the negative aspects of managers that in my experience have, 99.99% of the time, led to them leaving / quitting / washing out in 3–9 months.

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by MERGE

Merge’s Unified API allows you to access 150+ integrations across HR, payroll, ATS, accounting, CRM, and ticketing systems.

How did the largest product-led growth enterprise company in the world find success?

In this week’s episode of CRO Confidential, Cameron Deatsch, CRO of Atlassian, shares his wisdom with Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond. 

Atlassian is trading at over $40B with revenue north of $3B. When the company started 20 years ago, it didn’t hire salespeople. Not because they planned to start as a product-led company but because they couldn’t afford to. 

So what should earlier-stage companies do: immediately build out a big sales team or focus on product-led growth? 

IMHO what matters is the ratio is fair.

Perhaps one of my biggest takeaways is most public SaaS companies do not have equal co-founder equity ratios.

In fact, the average public SaaS company has about a 2:1 ratio for founder CEO:co-founder equity.

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by LARK

Lark is a collaboration tool designed to improve team productivity. Get chat, email, video conferencing, calendar, and docs together in one place.

Many companies got sucked into the 2021 vortex of a low-interest rate environment and high multiples when they should have focused on growth and efficiency. 

General Partner of ICONIQ Growth, Doug Pepper, and General Partner and Head of Analytics, Christine Edmonds, joined us for Workshop Wednesday last week to unveil the data behind effective scaling. 

Pepper shares that ICONIQ, a venture capital firm with $10B under management, made fewer investments last year than ever before. It was a tough growth environment, but it feels like it’s changing in 2023. 

We've set aside 1,500 no-cost VIP tickets to SaaStr events in 2023, including SaaStr Europa in London this June, and SaaStr Annual in the Bay Area this September. 

We believe that true innovation depends on hearing from, meeting with, and listening to people with a variety of perspectives and diverse backgrounds. We strive to make all of our events, and the community and companies who participate in them, inclusive and encourage, and recognize people of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities, religions, sexual orientations, and military service.

Last year, our incredible community helped us make SaaStr Europa and SaaStr Annual 2022 a more inclusive event with over +1,000 participants to our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion programs. 

Now — we’re hoping to grant 1,500 members of underrepresented groups in the B2B / SaaS community no-cost passes to SaaStr Europa, June 6-7 in London and/or SaaStr Annual, Sept 6-8 in SF Bay Area. 

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