Why You Need To Zoom With At Least 6 Customers a Week; Plus Weekly SaaS News and Updates

Hey SaaStr Community,

One long-term theme at SaaStr is getting on jets.  Something I never really enjoyed, the travel part of visiting customers. But over time I learned two things. 

First, you learn so much more when you visit customers in person.  They tell you things about the product, about what they need, about what they are thinking, that you never get over email or a quick phone call.  And second, it built relationships.   

We literally never lost a single customer at Adobe Sign / EchoSign that I visited in person.

And you can do something now your calendar didn’t permit before.  And that maybe only sort of made sense before.  You can Zoom with 6+ customers a week.

You Need To Zoom With At Least 6 Customers a Week. Ideally 10.

So every VC is trying to figure out exactly what is going on in the public markets, and many later-stage VCs are quite stressed.

This version of the BVP Nasdaq Index illustrates the question.  Was the “Covid Boost” in Cloud multiples just an anomaly?

Put differently, if you look at multiples of revenue for top SaaS and Cloud companies above from 2014-2022, you could come to one of (at least) two conclusions today.

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

These days folks just … aren’t doing reference checks like they used to.

Maybe it’s changed, but in the age of the Great Resignation, reference checks may be more important than ever.  To make sure it’s really, truly a fit for both sides.

But we are in a fast paced time.  Here’s how to do a reference check in 60 seconds, or close to it.

Probably, unless you have a ton of funding, the time to hire your VP Sales will come after you have Initial Traction but well before you are at Initial Scale. So some money is coming in, but not enough on its own yet to make the business sustainable or at least achieve the type of velocity you want.

So at this stage, the VP Sales, while necessary, sure looks expensive. So should they carry a personal quota?

SaaStr Build 2022 our first digital mega event of the year, is just a few days away!

Focusing on how to build better, strong faster products to $100M and beyond, SaaStr Build is a live, global digital event on Wednesday, March 16th.

It’s completely free to sign up and tune into this incredible lineup of content, including the CPO of Samsara, CPO of Notion, CMOs of Digital Ocean and Automattic, and much more!

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

We get a lot of questions about how to distribute founder equity if one founder is more (or less) involved than the others.

But what's fair for a founder who is integral to the company, but wasn't there at the very beginning?

Reaching the first billion is a milestone for every SaaS company, so what’s the best way to get there? During his SaaStr Annual presentation, Tom Clayton, CRO of Bill.com, shared his insights and advice for growing revenue streams to maximize business success. 

• SaaStr is seeking a VP of Digital Marketing to execute our global, digital marketing strategy from end-to-end, including: driving attendees, meeting or exceeding ticket revenue, leveling up communications to build awareness, website improvements, conversation rate improvements, community-building, and anything that will drive our community to the forefront of SaaS and Cloud.
• Capchase is looking for an Account Executive to take on full ownership for guiding our customers through their funding and financial planning strategy. You'll be part of the GTM team, working closely with the Growth, Sales, and Customer Success team.

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From SendGrid to DigitalOcean: Hacks for Founders of High-Growth Startups with DigitalOcean CEO Yancey Spruill

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The Path to a Billion Dollars: How to Create Multi-Revenue Streams with Bill.com CRO Tom Clayton

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Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts or Spotify

Much written about how fees drive behavior in venture

More should be written about how mark-ups drive behavior in venture

Especially since they don’t really matter and don’t make anyone any real money

Some of us wondering just how much revenue Mailchimp was really doing

It wasn’t public and had no investors, after all. No need to share.

Turns out the answer is / really was $1B in ARR

One of the highest value things you can do as an investor, if the startup isn't super-hot ...

Is simply commit to the next round early

Not sure most folks get how epic it is that at $1.5 Billion in ARR,

HubSpot still gets 26% or so of its customers from SEO

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