So the 2021 GTM Playbook is Dead. Almost all of us agree on that.

That playbook was fueled by a desire to load up on 100s of new SaaS apps to fuel a pandemic-inspired buying spree. Today, SaaS and Cloud is back, and AI-fueled B2B spend is on fire.  But we’re not expanding the total number of apps customers pay for by all that much.  Our app count is staying flat. And competition has exploded. AI has ushered in 100s of new competitors in each category. And changed the game at the product level. Customers now expect so, so much more for their SaaS dollar.

So if the 2021 GTM playbook is dead, what has replaced it? Or will replace it?

It’s still murky.

The reality is, the 2025 GTM Playbook is mostly the 2021 one done much more aggressively, with more effort (not less), with better tools, but tools and AI alone are not the answer. Not yet at least.

What doesn’t work nearly as well today, but so many are still doing:

• Endless generic outbound emails. The hit rates here keep going down.
• Low energy digital “events”. No one comes anymore.
• Break-up emails. It’s not about you.
• 2021 SEO strategies. Still work, but in rapid decline in many cases.
• 2021 mass-scale content strategies (1000s of pages of content).  Google doesn’t like this anymore.
• Spending all day on LinkedIn.  No, for 95% of folks, this isn’t “social selling”.
• Most traditional press and most basic PR strategies.  Who reads to day?
• “Customer Success” teams that are just there to upsell and not help.  This might get you more revenue today. But it doesn’t fuel the word-of-mouth engine and create more new customers and leads.
• Endless price increases on the base.  This may help you hit the plan in the short term but again does not fuel word-of-mouth.  It certainly does not create new leads and customers.

Hey SaaStr Fans,

Time is running out!

Ticket prices for SaaStr Annual 2025 go up on February 28, and this is your last chance to save $200 on your pass.

Join 12,500+ SaaS leaders, VCs, and founders for 3 days of tactical content, hands-on mentorship, and networking that will help you scale to $100M ARR and beyond—with less stress and more success.

• 10,000+ SaaS + AI leaders.
• Legendary speakers from Snowflake, HubSpot, OpenAI, Canva, and more.
• Unmatched networking, fundraising, and deal-making.
• New AI Demo & Pitch Stage—your chance to win up to $5M in funding!

Don’t miss your chance to lock in your tickets before rates increase!

This is arguably too conservative, and may sound awfully abstract to founders at earlier stages … but if I was a founder at a hot start-up growing quickly today, I wouldn’t raise at > a $300m valuation until I was 100% sure I was on the IPO track for real.

That’s $500m ARR growing 50%.

That’s what all the last 5 SaaS IPOs, all the SaaS IPOs since 2021 in fact, were doing at IPO: Rubrik, Klaviyo, ServiceTitan, OneStream and Sailpoint. And that’s what it takes to fuel a $10B+ outcome.

If you are on that track for sure, raise at $1B-$3B valuation. It will work out most likely.

The 5 Key Things You Need to Know About Modern Go-To-Market.

Adam Gross, former CEO of Vimeo and Heroku and and veteran of Salesforce and Dropbox joined SaaStr Annual for a deep dive on the evolution of SaaS go-to-market strategies. What he shared was pure gold for any SaaS founder trying to navigate the complex world of GTM motions.

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

Pre-built connectors get you most of the way there... but what about the gaps? That’s where custom connectors come in. Join Prismatic on 3/19, to learn how to add essential connectors to your lineup.

2025 SaaStrAnnual.com will be here before you know it!  May 13-15 in SF Bay!!  Yes, there will be 10,000 of the best in SaaS, AI and Cloud there.  And yes, it’s a chance to meet and learn from the best.

But time is precious.  Here are 10 reasons you should come.

A few years ago, I would have said No. There’s no way a SaaS startup needs a “CRO” or “COO” or other C-level Officers Without a Clear, Single Functional Area to Own Until $40m-50m+ in ARR.

But … like many things … my views have evolved.

Three trends have fueled the rise of hiring COOs and CROs closer to $10m ARR than $50M ARR:

• Faster Growth. If you are growing 40% at $10m in ARR, a COO may be a luxury. If you are growing 150%, it may be a necessity to get help in ASAP to run a material part of the business.
• Specialization. As we’ve all gotten more experienced in SaaS, we’ve specialized more. If your VP of Sales is your closer, you have a VP of Accounts, and a VP of CS … who is going to manage them all? CRO. You want each revenue leader doing what they do best. Not trying to manage departments they have less passion for and/or that distract from their core goals.
• Veterans. We now have a lot, lot more veterans in SaaS than we did 5–10 years ago. A great VP of Sales who took a company from $1m to $50m may want to try CRO now. Similarly, a VP of Product might want to own more as COO. If you get a great veteran that really has passion for a startup, and you are at $5m-$10m+ ARR … maybe carve out a portion of the company for her to run. COO or CRO are two good ways to do this.
• Title Inflation. So many folks that would have been fine being a VP of Sales a few years back just want to be a CRO today.  You can fight this, or you can acquiesce.  Sometimes it’s easier to not fight it.

IMHE — you don’t.

We all feel this way at times, or at least most of us do. The business gets even a bit bigger, and unless you’re a second time successful founder, you haven’t done it before.

Couldn’t someone else do it better?

95 times out of 100 — No.

Instead, the answer is to hire VPs and other execs under you that have done it before. 90% of B2B IPOs have the founder CEO still CEO at IPO. 90%.

Most of them didn’t know how to go that far. But they kept hiring great leaders under them.

Founders know so, so much about the product, the markets, the customers, the feature gaps. the partners, the ecosystem. Even just 24 months in, you know so much.  An outside CEO almost never does in my experience.

© SaaStr 2025

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