8 Things That Kill SaaS Companies. And 3 That Don’t; Plus Weekly SaaS News and Updates

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Hey SaaStr Community,

A look at my top list of what causes SaaS startups to fail:

#1 - Not committing to 24 months to get to first $1m+ in revenue — whatever it takes. It can easily take that long in SaaS.

#2 - Running out of money. Sounds obvious, but startups do all the time, when they didn’t have to. They just assume VCs will be there, or bail them out. Assume instead no one even writes you another check.

#3 - Not recruiting a strong enough team. In the end, a great team with 24 months of runway almost always can do amazing things. They never seem to fail. They often come close. But great teams pull it out.

#4 - Not leaning into the market and customers you end up having initial traction in. The folks that end up buying your product are often not the same you imagined! Some founders just aren’t willing to build software and sell to the customers that want them. They just don’t want to take it where it goes.

> 8 Things That Kill SaaS Companies. And 3 That Don’t

SaaStr Annual 2021 is back, in-person! Join 10,000 SaaS professionals on Sept 27-29.

New This Week

You’ll Know if That New VP is Going to Fail at the First Board Meeting

Now first, this hack requires you have your VPs present at board meetings. And of course, that you have board, or at least investor meetings, at all. But if you do, make sure each VP presents for 10 minutes at least. And each new VP, give them a little extra time at their first board meeting.

Watch and listen for these signs -->

This edition of the SaaStr weekly is sponsored in part by Capchase

Churn is Always High for Single Seat Customers. 8 Ideas on What to Do About It.

Everyone talks about hitting 120%+ NRR these days But the truth is, single-seat users & very small businesses churn at a high rate. Often 3% a month. Squarespace has 85% NRR, for example. That sort of churn hurts.

Because it’s so high, just doing better can have a huge impact -->

Your Deal Size is Your Sales Team as Much As It Is Your Product

I was recently catching up with one of the top early sales reps at a SaaS company that just crossed $100m ARR. He was there from $1m – $50m ARR or so. He said when he was there, and while they grew like a weed on $25k-$50k deals … they could never close a $1m deal.

The sales leadership you bring in will favor a certain price segment -->

This edition of the SaaStr weekly is sponsored in part by Kintone

What's A Fair OTE for a VP Sales With a $1M quota?

You probably aren’t ready for a real VP of Sales until $1m ARR or so … and then their job is to take you to $2m, $3m, $4m or more in the coming year and years. With a team that they build. So that team quota should be much higher.

A few considerations for their OTE -->

5 Tips to Reduce the Enterprise Sales Cycle With TripActions’ GM

Selling to enterprise is no easy feat, and it can be a lengthy, complex process. So how do you simplify and speed up your sales cycles? Michael Sindicich, GM of TripActions Liquid, shares what it takes to close big deals and boost enterprise win rates.

Watch now -->

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