Inc - The Catch-22 in Hiring Today

So there’s a catch-22 in hiring today. There shouldn’t be, but there is.

• There’s a general view among many in tech that they’re asked to do too much with too little. They’re now underpaid for too much work. And that every job is risky. That they could get laid off anytime, no matter how well they do. Etc.
• And there’s a general view among many founders and CEOs that turnover will remain perpetually high. That no matter how fairly they try to pay folks, and do their best with work-life balance, and support hybrid and other more flexible environments, that folks will just … leave at higher rates than before. No matter what they do to retain them.

These feed off each other.

I’ve seen this reach a peak recently with many employees asking for there not to be a one-year cliff in stock grants anymore. From the employee’s perspective, it seems like a fair ask given all the uncertainty out there.

But from the employer’s perspective, it seems like the loss of the last token incentive to even stay 12 months. It seems to clearly say, “hey, I’m probably out of here before Month 12 anyway, so …”

Who wants to truly invest in someone already planning to leave before they start? Founders used to presume folks would stay, if given good work, decent pay, and ownership.  Now, they aren’t sure anymore.  They just … don’t know if folks will stay.  No matter what they do.

So we’re almost there!! 

2024 SaaStrEuropa.com is June 4-5 in London!

Join us for 2+ fun-filled days, great parties, 100s of braindates and workshops, 1000s of connections, and so much more!  And meet everyone from Harry Stebbings to the CEO of Gong!

Last chance to save $100 on the final tickets. 

As Product leaders, you have to build trust with CEOs and founders, align on vision and strategy, stay focused on the customer’s problem, and effectively navigate misalignment to ensure your product has the greatest chances of success right out of the gate. 

But how do you tactically achieve all of that? Tamar Yehoshua, former CPO at Slack and Partner at IVP, Anneka Gupta, CPO of Rubrik, and Noam Lovinsky, CPO of Grammarly, shared practical advice at SaaStr Annual from the trenches so you can build great products and great teams all at once. 

And see everyone at 2024 SaaStr Annual on Sep 10-12 in SF Bay!!

In both my start-ups, I was the only co-founder that invested cash.

It didn’t matter that much, but.

First, you often can get reimbursed in the first venture round — if amount is small — if that’s what you want. This is what I did the first time. As the amount I put in exceeded my savings.

Second, you can find some formula to convert it to more stock — often relatively cheaply. This is what I did the second time. I came out way ahead and made 10x on this amount.  Although it didn’t seem risk-free at the time.

It’s good to be equally committed. 

But this doesn’t mean everything has to be equal. You do what you have to, to win in a start-up. What that means for each founder can vary.

If nothing else, if one founder puts in material cash and another doesn’t, convert that amount to stock at a fair price.

I see that all the time on cap tables.

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

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This full-day summit has three different tracks (CFO, Controller, and RevOps) to help you build the processes and teams within fast growth SaaS, AI, and high-tech companies needed to drive efficient growth.

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So not everyone is seeing tougher times these days.  SaaS outside of classic “B2B’ is often holding up well.  Klaviyo, Toast, etc. just had very strong quarters.  More B2B2C there.  And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc.  Security remains on fire overall as well.

But classic B2B SaaS is definitely in many cases seeing tougher times. Not just for now, but going into a third year of tougher times.  Is 2024 any easier?

The other day HubSpot, despite growing 23% at a $2.5 Billion in ARR, said No. Things aren’t getting any easier.  Things in “classic B2B” haven’t bounced back to easier yet.  ZoomInfo, another pure play in B2B on the data side, isn’t seeing any bounce back yet, either.

On the first episode of the Angles and Insight podcast, SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin chats with Zapier CEO Wade Foster about the future of B2B SaaS in 2024 and beyond.

They dive into the nuances of topics like:

• Evolving dynamics of remote work
• The most effective marketing channels of 2024
• Owned assets vs. “walled gardens” 
• The practical realities vs. the hype around AI

As everyone here at SaaStr knows, Jason sold his first company, Echosign, for $400M. He is a top VC in the industry and runs SaaStr, the largest SaaS event in the world. Wade Foster, founder and CEO of Zapier, runs a category-creating brand that makes all your tech work together seamlessly – no coding required. Zapier was last valued at over $5B.

First, we’ll look at both of these legends’ viewpoints on the hybrid work environment and the best way to approach it in 2024.

So both of SaaStr’s mega events are coming up.

First up, and soon, is the 5th SaaStr Europa is coming back to London on 4-5 June.  4,000+ of us will get together there to share, scale and learn.  From Accel to Lightspeed, from Box to Cloudflare, the Best of the Best in SaaS and Cloud will be there!

Next up is the 10th SaaStr Annual in the SF Bay Area, Sep 10-12, once again in sunny San Mateo in the SF Bay Area on our 40-acre campus right between Palo Alto and San Francisco.  12,000 of us will gather there this year.  11 stages, 1000 mentoring sessions and braindates, 800+ VCs.

Which should you join, if you are picking one?

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