Hey SaaStr Community,

Having struggled a lot myself in the early days several times … just a few thoughts to summarize my learnings:

1.  Get help & upgrade the team. This is the #1 thing you can do to move the needle.   Don’t be ashamed to ask for help.  Especially if you are struggling.  And if you can, just go hire 1 great leader, one great VP or even 1 incredible individual contributor.  It really does make a difference, adding one more truly great one to the team.  It always does.  In my toughest times, it was always adding one great leader that turned things around in the end.  Just one great one.

2. You may be doing better than you think.  This is a mistake many entrepreneurs make once they have the tiniest bit of product-market fit.  I know you aren’t doing as well as Figma or OpenAI.  But it’s possible you are doing better than you think.   If you got 10, 50, 100 businessess to actually buy Yet Another SaaS Product — that is something. Real.

3.  Get a (better) mentor if you can. This doesn’t have to be Marc Benioff.  What it does need to be is someone at least 18-24 months further down the road than you.  They’ll help you see what’s working and what isn’t. 

So layoffs still fill the headlines in 2024.  Even now.  I thought we’d be behind them by now, that the cuts were sort of a one-off for the most part.  But now everyone is focused on getting more and more efficient.  To $300k-$400k+ per employee at scale.  So cuts and slower hiring continue.

But don’t let the headlines obscure what’s really happening, because they tend to shout out quieter trends.

According to our latest unscientific but directionally correct survey of over 2,000 SaaS execs, 64% of you are growing your sales team in 2024.

And 22% of you are growing the team 50% or more.

So if you’re looking for your next role — stop sending 1,000 random resumes without a cover letter or any research.  Slow it down.  Find those still hiring, and find 5 or 10 that truly are a match for your skills.  Watch their webinars, do a product demo, learn as much as you can in 60 minutes.  And write them the best cold email ever.  On why you’d truly crush it there, for real.

I bet you get an interview.

In 2021, no one wanted to sell. In 2022, no one knew what was going on.  In 2023, it was all about cutting.

2024 isn’t easy for everyone. But it is a year when everyone is more rational. This is surprisingly rare.

Take advantage of the vibe to think about if some sort of acquisition could truly move the needle for you, and be possible:

• Think about acquiring another startup with an A+ team and/or A+ second product
• Think about possibly merging with your top competitor. Hard but can open up interesting dominance opportunities when done right.
• Think about possibly merging with a good partner to get to scale. E.g., one of you at $40m and the other at $40m with so-so growth might be meh. But together? You might be able to IPO in a few years.

I’m not saying do any of this for sure.

I am saying 2024 is the right year as founders to think about maybe, maybe doing one of these. Just one.

MARCH 6, 2024 / WYNWOOD

SaaStr is coming (back) to Miami for an epic evening of networking and community to kick-off a year of events.

Join 300 SaaS execs, founders + VCs. 
Grab your ticket to join us on Wednesday, March 6, and get ready to meet some incredible SaaStr speakers and talk about all things SaaS!

Featuring Amazing content! with:

• Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder of SaaStr
• Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and Host of CRO Confidential,
• and Adam Gross, CEO of Vimeo

So times are tougher for some, but for the most part, not in leaders in Cloud security. Cloudflare is a great example.

While it saw some slowdown last year, it’s now accelerating again with 2 record quarters of new bookings in a row.

At ~ $1.5 Billion in ARR, it’s still growing 32% and it’s gotten pretty darn efficient, with 14% free cash flow margins now.

And the markets really like Cloudflare.  Really, really like it.  It’s trading at a stunning $36 Billion market cap, or 24x ARR!

The key?  They are seeing no slowdown at all in revenue growth from $100k+ customers.

Reaching social media, tech press, and blog posts you’d think everything was about efficiency. Heck, the 5 Interesting Learning series on SaaStr is all about efficiency.

And for many in SaaS, especially those that sell mainly to startups and tech, it’s often been a rough 2 years. With no more funding coming, and growth way down.

So can you pay less these days? Is hiring any easier? Not really. Or at least, not that much. Not for most of us.

Why?

Well, the best in SaaS and venture and Cloud are not just still growing at epic rates, but they’re acquiring so much funding … they can still run the 2021 playbook.

More or less. The companies that can run this playbook today are only the best of the best. But they can, and are, still running it.  The best can still burn million and millions a month and pay top-tier salaries.  Put differently, maybe 80% of unicorns can’t do this anymore.  But the top 20% can, and often are.

This edition of the SaaStr Weekly is sponsored in part by ChurnZero

In the Forrester Wave™ Customer Success Platforms, Q4 2023 Report, Forrester recommends that CS platform buyers look for providers that:

• Prioritize digital-led strategies for success at scale.
• Leverage AI and machine learning to harness predictive analysis and optimize resources.
• Include rich reporting and integrations out of the box.

“CS teams need to find alternatives to high-touch models and manual processes and invest in digital-led programs designed to meet customers where they are,” writes Shari Srebnick, principal analyst, Forrester.

Want to partner with SaaStr? Click here to Sponsor our events, podcasts, newsletters and more.

How do you build out a Sales Development (SDR) function at your SaaS company?

Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and host of SaaStr’s CRO Confidential shares his advice for building an SDR function in 2024 based on his experience as CRO at Brex. 

We’ll cover everything from setup to efficiencies in setting up an SDR function, including:

• The benefits of SDR
• When to hire your first SDR
• Who to hire
• How to measure performance
• Scaling the team 
• Trends in outbound

• SaaStr 724: CRO Confidential: Bringing Product-Led and Sales-Led Growth Together For Go-To-Market Success with Giancarlo Lionetti, CRO of Zapier. Hosted by Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund

• SaaStr 723: Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder of SaaStr: Answer Your Top 10 2024 Customer Success Questions

• SaaStr 722: 2024 State of SaaS: Trends and Predictions with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin

Listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcasts

Brand Marketing: 

$1m ARR: Makes Little Sense

$10m ARR: Ok Let’s Do Some

$100m ARR: Most of Marketing

$1B ARR: All of Marketing

One of the most dangerous personas for a VP of Sales hire:

The candidate everyone loves

That one — never pushes everyone to the next level

If the VP of Sales isn’t a bit of a threat to the status quo, you won’t get there

Years ago, when I was in a services business, I learned from my boss there are only 2 ways to win in a services business:

Be the Absolute #1 Best in your niche. Or Be Hyper-Responsive.

It turns out this is true in sales and customer success too.

If you literally are the world's #1 subject matter expert, you can be slow to respond to customers and prospects, take a few days, etc. The customers will wait for the best help in the world.

Or -- you can respond instantly, give some decent help, and then go find better answers after.

But way, way too many are neither. Neither instantly responsive, nor the deepest subject matter expert.

At least be one.

© SaaStr 2024

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