The Latest From SaaStr: What If There Are No Natural Acquirers For Your Company?

By Jason Lemkin · Thursday, January 13, 2022

I had coffee with a very successful VC and we chatted about our views of what’s happening in SaaS.  

The things we are both interested in are very similar, our thoughts on risks and markets were well aligned.  At the end, he noted how the key final thing he looks for in SaaS start-ups is potential acquirers.  

• Would Salesforce buy this company?  
• Would Google?

I totally get it.  Indeed, I've lived it and practiced it.  Of the 4 start-ups I've been a part of, 2 as a co-founder and 2 as an executive -- 3 out of 4 were acquired by a Logical Acquirer than was predicted at Day Zero or close enough.

Read the full article: What if there are no natural acquirers for your company?

By Jason Lemkin · Wednesday, January 12, 2022

On both SaaStr University and Twitter, we had 30+ founders, CEOs and execs share their top, tough learnings from losing one of their top customers.  There are some great teachable moments here, and also some deja-vu if you’ve been through it!

“If it’s a surprise, then you’re doing something wrong. If not, then let it go and keep on growing.” — Margot Schmorak, CEO & Co-founder Hostfully

“If a customer does not complain it is not a good thing.” – Yair Weinberger, Co-Founder of Alooma (acquired by Google)

Read more learnings: 30+ Tough Learnings from Losing a Top Customer

By Amelia Ibarra · Tuesday, January 12, 2022

When sales teams succeed, the company succeeds. Revenue goes up, productivity increases, and ideally, the team continues to grow. But running a high-performing sales team isn’t an easy task. How can you ensure success within your sales organization in a way that scales with you?

Heather Akuiyibo, VP of Sales at Databricks, shares her four adaptable frameworks for high-performing sales teams and how those frameworks helped Databricks’ sales teams succeed.

Such as:

• Establish a solid company and team culture.
• Define your ideal account executive profile and use that when interviewing potential reps.

Read the full article for Heather's other frameworks: Proven Leadership Frameworks for a High-Performing Sales Team with Databricks VP of Sales Heather Akuiyibo (Podcast 517 and Video)

By Jason Lemkin · Monday, January 11, 2022

The open air, festival style of Annual 2021 was such a hit we’re sticking with it.  Everyone will have more fun, and be more comfortable, being outdoors and open air, across 40 acres again in 2022.

The 8th SaaStr Annual will again be:

• SF Bay Area again, Sep 13-15, at San Mateo event center
• 100% outdoors and open-air again
• Same 40+ acre campus
• Up to 10,000+ attendees from across the globe
• More stages
• 400+ mentorship sessions
• 250+ speakers
• 100+ unicorns
• 100% vaccinated, tested, and more

Read the full article: SaaStr Annual 2022: Outdoors Again, Festival Style Again, All Kinds of Awesome

By Amelia Ibarra · Monday, January 11, 2022

Canva hit $1B in ARR at the end of last year. (Whoa.) Launched in 2013, it has over 2000 employees and more than 60M active users. Zach Kitschke, the CMO at Canva, has been a part of this hypergrowth since the beginning.

After a couple of years in building out Canva’s people functions, he is now investing in growing the company as a CMO. He sits down with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin to share his five lessons learned in nearly a decade of hypergrowth at Canva, and how it paved the path to their billion-dollar achievement. 

Read the full article: Lessons Learned Scaling to $1 Billion ARR with Canva’s CMO Zach Kitschke and SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin (Podcast 516)

By Jason Lemkin · Monday, January 11, 2022

Events and trade shows. They’re back, but they’re expensive. You don’t get enough booth traffic. The folks that do come by are too junior. It sucks up days at a time. The air is convention-center nasty. Too much ice cream, too much alcohol, too many almost-all-dudes parties.

How can it be worth it?  Even just $25,000 for the worst possible booth, plus tickets, hotels, schwag … and taking 3-4 people out of the office for days at a time.

No thanks, you might think.

But … you have to do the right ones.  At least the top ones your customers go to.  You have to.

Read the full article: How to Think About The Huge Expenses of Events and Tradeshows

MANAGE EMPLOYEES TIME SPENT WITH TIME TRACKING

By Amelia Ibarra

Leading the way in time clock technology, OnTheClock provides a seamless solution for businesses to track hours worked and connect with payroll providers, including QuickBooks, Gusto, Thomson Reuters & more. They're giving the SaaStr community a free 30-day trial. Get started today. 

IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMER DATA ONBOARDING

By Amelia Ibarra

Import customer data into your SaaS application with one click. Flatfile helps SaaS companies scale by simplifying customer data onboarding. See how.

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