Why All Platforms Have Their Favorite Partners; Plus Weekly SaaS News and Updates

Hey SaaStr Community,

There’s a common thinking that sales teams should be relatively high churn.  That they almost sort of have to be. That the bottom 15-20% of the sales team almost has to churn each year, because it’s survival of the fittest. Reps have to fight for the best leads, prove the highest close rates, exceed the mean of the bell curve, to not just thrive, but survive.

Maybe this is true if you are a mortgage broker. Selling a completely fungible product. Maybe. I’m not sure.

But for many SaaS start-ups, I think accepting this is not only a huge mistake, it’s a recipe for tragic underperformance.

The Beauty and ROI in The Zero Voluntary Attrition Sales Team

We haven’t spent as much time on SaaS security companies in the 5 Interesting Learning series as perhaps we should have.  We’ve dug deep on Okta at $1B in ARR, but spent a bit less time at apps that run below the application layer.  But there’s so, so much growth there.  And CrowdStrike is a break-out leader.

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

Even with some recent bumps in the public markets, this is still close to the Best of Times for venture capital.  1000+ new seed funds, and hundreds and hundreds of unicorns and decacorns.  And as part of this, more and more big corporations are adding and expanding their venture arms.

For the most part, this is a great thing.  More options are almost always better for founders.

Let me share a quick list of Pros, Cons, and Not Big Deals of Corporate VC.

Recently I was catching up with an exec from a SaaS company well in excess of $100m ARR.  One of the key platforms their app integrates with has started to … slow down their access.  Slow down access to new features, to semi-documented APIs.  Slow down access to their team.  In fact, the partner’s sales team appears to have quietly dropped them entirely as a recommended app.

Why?

That’s the way it goes.  Because turns out no matter how open a platform looks, there are always favorites.

SaaStr Europa 2022 is back this June in Barcelona! 

We'll be bringing the best in SaaS to Spain for 2 days on 7-8 June. 

A few of our incredible speakers already include:

• Andrey Khusid, CEO @ Miro
• Dave Kellogg, Principal @ Dave Kellogg Consulting
• Eléonore Crespo, Co-Founder and Co-CEO @ Pigment
• Bill Binch, Operating Partner // Former CRO @ Battery Ventures // Pendo
• Phil Fernandez, Co-Founder @ Marketo
• Henry Schuck, Founder and CEO @ ZoomInfo
• Laura Urquizu, CEO @ Red Points

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

The short answer is that it really depends on the rep. Read on for a deeper dive.

Everyone makes mistakes—even the smartest business leaders in the world. What truly defines success is learning from your mistakes—and the mistakes of others—to avoid repeating history. ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck shares a look under the hood into starting a business from scratch and growing it into one of the most successful IPOs of the 21st century—and what it was really like...the good, the bad, and most of all, the ugly. He reflects on where he went wrong, what he would do differently, and why he’ll never make those same mistakes again.

• SaaStr is seeking a Director of Customer Success to be an integral part of our revenue team ensuring that our largest sponsors have a wonderful experience with SaaStr.

• Sastrify is looking for an Head of Product Marketing to build the core product marketing muscle that will attract, educate, convert, and help grow Sastrify customers across their lifecycle journey from prospect to raving fan.

541

How to Set and Hit Revenue Targets with Sam Blond, CRO at BREX

542

5 Rules to Win When Competition is Everywhere With Atlassian COO Anu Bharadwaj and Boast.AI Co-Founder Lloyed Lobo

543

The Office is Back!! But What Will It Be Like? Jason Lemkin & Justin Bedecarre of Raise.Work

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts or Spotify

You'll probably be fine

It's the folks that raised $100m+ and are at $20m ARR, growing slowly, with a high burn

Those are the ones with no real answers today

Literally some of the worst senior-ish sales and marketers I have ever worked with are selling books or courses or both

You've been warned

Run toward bad news

Sometimes you need a moment.

That's OK.

But after that, hiding makes it worse.

Process it ...

Then:

Address it

Share it

Talk about it

Make a plan

Act on it

Your team and investors will rally

Venture-backed startups are just a mess from an ops, documentation, finance, etc. perspective

The only thing worse is bootstrapped startups

© SaaStr 2022

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