So is AI truly disrupting every category in SaaS and business software?  We’ll see.

It’s clearly radically disrupted many categories at least on one level — it’s created 1000s of new competitors. Fueled in part by billions and billions of venture capital flowing into AI. And 1000s of entrepreneurs excited to use AI to remake existing categories.

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr over the years about how to hire a great VP of Sales — and how to course-correct if you’ve made a mis-hire.

The two fastest-to-surface signs of a mis-hire:

• No one great joins them in the first 30 days. Every great VP of Sales has 1 or 2 folks that want to follow them from their last role.  And also has been quietly recruiting a few great folks anyway to join them at their next role.  Great VPs of Sales, even stretch VPs, are constantly networking to build the team they need both now — and later. 
• Nothing gets better in 1 sales cycle.  You don’t always need to see magic in your VP of Sales, especially at first.  Revenue doesn’t have to double in 1 sales cycle. But you do need to see things get better. OK, but some of you will still give them … more time.  Even if they sort of fail the above test.  Your investors will probably encourage you to give them more time.  You may not have the energy to deal with it.

So let me tell you the #1 sign a VP of Sales just isn’t going to make it:  It’s when they Hide from a Miss.

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So when growth slows, watch out for Fake Marketing on the team.

What’s that?

It’s stuff that OK sure is marketing … and is often seemingly free or cheap … but won’t move the needle.

It’s not what you need. But it takes a lot of time and fills the gap when folks are otherwise out of ideas, energy, or both.

Some examples of Fake Marketing:

• 99% of “Digital Events”. No one comes or shows up. But a huge amount of time and effort, and it feels like you are doing something that matters.  But does it?  We’re not in lockdown anymore.  No one wants to sit in front of their laptop all day and watch a boring “digital event”.
• YAP: Yet Another Podcast. Will anyone actually listen? But again, a huge amount of time and effort goes into these.
• Poorly Attended Side Events. Want to do a side event at Dreamforce or Inbound or SaaStr Annual? Great. But if you can’t somehow drive high engagement and attendance, don’t pretend it’s Real Marketing. Doing field marketing right often is a lot more work than just this.
• Mediocre PR. A little of this is OK. But hiring a PR firm and spending a lot of time on very minor placements gets you nowhere.
• Crappy AI content, crappy AI campaigns. Sure, you check the box.  Sure they take almost no energy or work.  But they don’t perform.
• Too Much LinkedIn + TikTok and Other Social Media. Yes, LinkedIn is great for B2B — up to a point. But spending a huge amount of time here because you are out of other ideas isn’t going to restart growth. If your shorts are getting 50 views, what’s the point?  It ain’t gonna move the needle. Not at scale, especially.

So yesterday OG SaaS pioneer Zuora agreed to be acquired by PE to go private for $1.7 Billion by GIC and Silverlake.

This is good for SaaS.

CEO Tien Tzuo is an OG SaaS leader since being one of the very first leaders at Salesforce.

Zuora was very early to subscription management — maybe too early (2006) — and built a mature $400m ARR business focused on enterprise subscription management (and more).

• $416m ARR
• 9% growth
• 11% free cash flow margins
• 104% NRR
• 445 $250k+ customers

So … $1.7 Billion is 4.25x ARR. And that’s with an 18% premium to go private.  Before, it was trading at $1.5 Billion, so less than 4x ARR.

That’s not a huge multiple, and in that sense, it’s a reminder that growth matters more than profitability today.

But it’s also great to see PE continue to believe that can re-ignite growth in SaaS and make 3x+ their money here.

When Marc Benioff started Salesforce, he codified the sales playbook. Then Mark Roberge, former Hubspot CRO, wrote The Sales Acceleration Formula with deep insights into quota structures. For the subsequent ten years in software, we’ve optimized every little bit of how we sell it.

But today, it’s different because the kinds of software we sell aren’t the same. It isn’t predictable. Six months ago, security was the number one prohibition preventing businesses and software companies from buying AI. Today it’s ROI. 

Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures, shares nine observations from a Go-To-Market survey Theory Ventures did with hundreds of startups, 68% of them early-stage, well-funded, mostly mid-market ACV, and 25% remote. Here’s what they found.

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So some Cloud and SaaS stocks are on fire, even now.  And then … there is Palantir.  The fire of the fire.

It’s up +162% in the past year, and is now worth $95 Billion (!) at $2.7 Billion ARR.

That’s a jaw-dropping 35x ARR.  Goodness.

Why is Palantir the highest valued public SaaS and Cloud stock?

• $2.7 Billion in ARR
• Growing 27%, and importantly — re-accelerating.
• 22% free-cash margins, and now GAAP profitable
• Customer count up 41% year-over-year

It’s the bright, AI-driven future folks are excited about.

Let’s dig in.

So I want to tell you guys something a bit soul-crushing. We had 20+ of our top sponsors at SaaStr Annual this year tell us they got “Too Many Leads” from the event. Too many!

What?

We’ve spent years trying to make SaaStr Annual, Europa and APAC great for all 3 legs of the tripod: attendees, speakers, and sponsors. You need all 3 to be an A/A+ to really scale, and it’s hard. Part of that is delivering 100s of qualified leads to sponsors. You gotta do it.

In 2006, BILL CEO and Founder René Lacerte set out to define a category around financial operations for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Needless to say, he succeeded.

At SaaStr’s AI Summit during the SaaStr Annual, René chatted with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin about how BILL has reached nearly half a million customers and $1.3B in revenue.

• SaaStr 769: The State of SaaS Go-to-Market with Theory Ventures General Partner Tomasz Tunguz

• SaaStr 768: Approaching Half a Million Customers: How to Win in SMB with BILL CEO and Founder René Lacerte

• SaaStr 767: The Future of AI in SaaS Sales with Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo and SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin

Listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcasts

If the company is doing reasonably well

And your boss is a good boss

And your team is a good team

Then any other job is likely worse

If you want a job somewhere in tech

Just reach out to whomever you want to work for with a >truly< great email

Almost no one does this

And almost every CEO and every VP is looking for at least one great hire

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