Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) — what they write about and why it works

Founders notice everything. Every bug, Every screwed up deal, Every employee that didn't give it their all, Everything every competitor does, Every moment that ever mattered. Everything that matters. Just make sure you keep most of it to yourself.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Your top performers will take on a lot of responsibilties not in their job description when they see critical gaps That doesn't mean they want to be responsible for all of them forever, though Don't make them be

Opens with direct address

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Try this exercise as CEO: * Create brand new email account * Fire up Incognito Then .. * Sign up for your app from scratch, slowly * Click on support * Try full onboarding * Read wiki * Try each feature anew * Use it on Android You'll find so many things you .. can't believe

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

First-time managers often focus on getting junior hires in that will work for them, and whose comp fits in a careful, tiered schema Then later you learn you just want hire the best possible people Especially people that are better and more experienced than you

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

10 Things That Would Have Helped Me Go From $1m to $10m Faster with Less Stress: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them 2/ Hiring a full-time head of biz dev once I had a few key partners 3/ Getting on more jets

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Black founders: I don't do that many investments a year (I am a slow+quiet investor), but please email me your decks and pitches: jason@saastrfund.com I will try to only meet/Zoom with black founders in June

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Who's speaking at 2020 t.co CEO Box CEO Airtable CEO Zoom CEO Pagerduty CEO Front CEO Okta CEO Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO StackOverflow CEO Pagerduty COO Github COO Squarespace CTO Intuit CTO Gusto CIO Adobe CEO Gitlab CEO Superhuman COO Cloudflare

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Specialists are great, and it's natural to want to hire them, especially in areas new to you But often, an A+ generalist can pick it all up in 90 days anyways Most of the time, that's a better call

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Been investing for 5.5 years. I have returned almost no capital, but have lead 1 round from seed investor->unicorn, 1 more coming shortly, and another hopefully a bit later in year. So I have at least learned some things. Here are my learnings for New GPs/Managers, fwiw:

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Things you don't think >really< matter in the early days: 1. culture 2. brand 3. customer visits 4. continuous recruiting All that matters after $10m ARR: 1. culture 2. brand 3. customer visits 4. continuous recruiting

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If the company is doing reasonably well And your boss is a good boss And your team is a good team Then any other job is likely worse

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Founders are builders I have been stressed a lot Worried a ton Almost failed thrice But only depressed when I wasn't building

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Things you think are hard to recover from: - Losing a top customer - Not getting VC funding - Competitor winning key deal Things that are actually hard to recover from: - Wrong co-founder - Wrong key VP hire - Wrong largest VC

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If you are in a start-up and unhappy in your job, you can - move on gracefully - quit - sulk - complain to others or maybe - go talk to the CEO, tell her you believe in the company but are struggling to find your niche maybe she can just fix it

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

The simplest way to sell more, for a customer from $500-$50,000: Sell faster. - Simplify your contract - Get the contract out within 15 minutes of the call - Don't create review in legal - Make pricing simple & fair - Don't force someone to talk to a BDR if they don't want to

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Your weapons to win: Try Harder Never Quit Interview Just One More Ask Why Nurture Talent Be Grateful Work Harder For Longer Find Better Mentors Retreat as Necessary, But Never Settle The others won't do this

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If you are early to a market, just be prepared for: - lots of smart people + VCs telling you it is too small and unimportant - prospects that seem interested ... but never exactly want the product you have - a very slow first 2 ys - the standard playbook only sort of working

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

I know you want to think your killer UI will win deals in the enterprise But it won't, for the most part What does: * best solution * most trusted solution * willing customize to work with their business process * critical integrations * most secure * best partner * visits f2f

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m ARR VPCS: $2m ARR VPP: $3m-$4m ARR VPE: $5m-$6m ARR CFO: $10m ARR COO: $20m ARR More here: t.co

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

A great salesteam is almost a guaranteed pick-me-up for any startup. The energy of winning deals reminds everyone that are building something real, that matters. Sometimes hard to tell staring at a monitor.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

In any billion dollar or larger space, There is almost always at least $100m or more in revenue at the bottom of the market underserved. You can always start there.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

VC: Your job as CEO is: - recruiting - fundraising - strategy All true, but job #1 really is Keeping the Magic If you do, you will figure out the other 3

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

In my first start-up, my CTO and co-founder was not our best engineer. Not close. But whatever A+ engineer we needed, somehow, the next week they were there, working for her. No matter how obscure the need, how niche. I took this for granted. Now I see it is Magic.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

For every hyper-well funded Silicon Valley startup at $2m-$3m I generally find there's another, bootstrapped one somewhere else, you've never heard of, doing something pretty similar, at the same ARR (But usually at that stage, without capital, they aren't growing as fast)

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

It's work, but perhaps best way to do diligence on a VC: Find a portfolio company that sold for about 1.5x-3x the amount raised Talk to that CEO You'll learn the most in these outcomes (vs. huge wins and total losses)

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Who's speaking at 2020 SaaStr Annual CEO Box CEO Airtable CEO Zoom CEO Pagerduty CEO Front CEO Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO StackOverflow CEO Pagerduty COO Github COO Squarespace CTO Intuit CTO Gusto CIO Adobe CEO Gitlab Get your tix now: t.co

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Not everyone is cut out for management However, ultimately 1 person can only scale so far Management in BigCo is human capital management Management in startup is learning how to be a force multiplier

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If I had 1 mentor, just 1, Who said: If you are at $10m ARR, Growing 100%, With 150% net revenue retention, With 80% viral and free lead acquisiton, And 50+ NPS, Then, You have already build a unicorn-in-waiting. If i'd had just 1. Find yours.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Best deal in tech: Get into YC Get customers from YC Get PR from YC Get brand halo from YC Raise at 3x the price of your home city Give up no control Best deal in tech

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Black Swan events I've experienced: - Landlord voiding an 8 year lease for no reason - Key partner aligning with top competitor after saying never would - $50m in customer contracts cancelled in 1 week - COO quitting night before closing Series A with no notice, VCs pull out

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

You might not be a great CEO, especially not yet But anyone else: - wouldn't really know the product cold - wouldn't really know the customers - wouldn't really know crazy nuances of the market - wouldn't see the future - wouldn't care so much So you are probably the right CEO

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

A top trend I have noticed past 3 years: Startups are MUCH, MUCH worse at finance. Like, all of them. No proper finance or account until even after raising millions, even to $5m+ ARR. The issues are real and include:

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Dear founders: if you are past $1m ARR and have happy customers, This is already likely the best job you will ever have in your lifetime.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

It used to be you basically had two options to make money as a founder: * hope for an IPO many years down the road. * Or maybe get acquired by a handful of BigCos. Today, startups have so many more options for founder liquidity:

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Don't let ego get in the way of a good business decision Your partners owe you nothing. No matter how hard you worked for them. Your unhappy customers owe you nothing. No matter how long the pilot, etc. VCs that ghosted you owe you nothing. Just focus on winning.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

It helps to have a thick skin until about $20m ARR or so, probably longer You'll hear: - It's been done before - It's been done better - It's too small - It's not that important - You aren't growing that fast - You're not as hot as A,B,C,D - You're not fundable etc etc etc etc

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

What would you be doing, if not this? Sitting on a beach? Great for a month. Getting in shape? You can do that now. Being a VC? Well, that's OK if you can't do it anymore yourself. Founders are builders. Go build it.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Every successful start-up had a Magical Sales Rep in the early days: * often from a non-traditional background * >really< got the product, + every use case * knew how use the product to >truly< solve prospects' problems * clever enough to work around big gaps * part evangelist

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

"Churn" is a term we borrowed from our B2C friends It makes sense to use when you have 10,000+ small customers When the deal size is large, and the customer count small though, Replace "churn" with "customers we failed"

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

I found raising VC capital challenging, but not THAT hard Of course: - I am/was white male of privilege - Went to the Top Schools - Had VC-funded ex-bosses/CEOs doing warm intros to Top VCs - Had savings to bootstrap to VC funding - Had tons social proof - Had working spouse

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Job of CEO after about $3m ARR or so, generally speaking: 1. Recruiting 2. Recruiting 3. Customers 4. Product Strategy 5. Recruiting Also Keeping company funded

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

You’ll have brand equity probably as early as $1m in ARR. As soon as you have 100 happy customers or so. Protect it zealously. In the end, it’s how most non-early adopters choose which apps to use and buy.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Once you have 5% market share, even in a niche, and it's growing ... you can run the tables You have a mini-brand Now just: - continue to innovate - be present. be everywhere - get your customers together - lean in everywhere 5% -> 10% -> 25% -> .... 80%?

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

When a key customer churns, When a top partner dumps you, When someone leaves to go to the competition, Say, "I'm bummed, but Thank You. Thank You for being part of the journey. And I hope we work together again in the future." Or something like that

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Proud of you all Every CEO I work with: Adjusted the plan, Reforecasted, Communicated to the team, Communicated to investors, Iterated approach to customers, Showed strong leadership, Reworked the playbook. Already. Somehow, you were built for this.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Marketing tip: Sponsor the top podcasts in your industry 100k folks in your industry actually >listening< to your ad is really hard to get anywhere else Maybe impossible

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

When you think about #goinglong and mental health, and staying int he game, remember that Benioff early on decided to spend 25% of the year in Hawaii Working, but in Hawaii I thought it was crazy the first time I learned of it But he's still running Salesforce

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Arc of raising venture capital: - Youth: Raise It, Raise It, Raise It! And Raise More!! - Late Youth: Evil. Avoid Giving Up Control. - Post-1st Exit: Oh. Dilution Matters. - Mid-Career: It's Just a Tool. - Late-Career: Use It To Win. Otherwise, noise.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

90% of folks do not want to do what it really takes to do great things wait until around Employee 500 to hire those ones

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Imagine you are only growing 40% a year at $10m ARR That's not great But if you just go heads down, and keep it up: 2020: $10m 2021: $14m 2022: $20m 2023: $28m 2024: $38m 2025: $53m 2026: $75m 2027: $105m 2028: $148m 2029: $206m 2030: $290m

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

When a VC invests in you, they'll be thinking: "How can I make at least the size of my fund here?" I.e., a VC at a $50m seed fund will want a shot at making $50m off the check At a $500m fund, a shot at making $500m Do that math before you take the money

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Many VC firms giving blanket advice to freeze hiring today Probably good advice on average, today, across a portfolio But if your cash runway is long/deep, I would use this time to hire those 3 really great engineers you need

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

The customer may be annoying The customer may be stupid, I guess The customer may be wrong But the customer is never the enemy They trusted you

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Types of investors: Angel: even forget some deals they invested in Seed: can write off any deal Series A: can write off 1-2 deals Series B: it better work Series C: if it doesn't work, I might lose my job

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Founders do not make better investors But they do have one superpower: They know in 10 minutes or less when they meet a founder that is better than them

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

You are always about 2 years ahead of any clone They don’t know the market yet anything like you do However, they have 0% of your technical debt So the truly better team often still wins here

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Visa: We could see ourselves going as high as $500m P: huh? Visa: $900m P: gotta run Visa: $1.5b P: thx but did you see the last round price? Visa: OK $5.3B IT IS

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Some quick definitional help: ARR = MRR * 12 MRR = ARR / 12 sorry but anything else is incorrect feel free to comment but i may mute

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

2001-2004: Outsource, outsource, outsource 2005-2007: Outsourcing isn't any cheaper, we need to run fast 2007-2011: Outsourcing + distributing to add capacity 2011-2017: Highly distributed teams are 1/2 the price 2018+: Distributed teams are 1/3 the price of SF

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

There is no such thing as a "VP Sales and Customer Success". Can only be VP of one. Many will disagree. But later, will agree.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

How to close a $100k deal -- for most of us: First, close a $10k deal Then, ask the next prospect like them for $20k Close the $20k deal Then, ask the next prospect like them for $40k Close the $40k deal Then ...

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Startups generally are either sales-focused or product-focused Sales-focused by nature becomes more short-term focused But ... if it yields additional growth, that lets you hire more product people #itscomplicated

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

At first, you do it to do it Then maybe to make money Then to win And then, at some point in life, you are doing it for your team So they can do it

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

$1m ARR, growing 6% MoM = good product $1m ARR, growing 10% MoM = product-market fit $1m ARR, growing 15%+ MoM = market pull

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

What limits growth: Very Early: no customers Pretty Early: scarce leads Then: mini-brand After that ... Recruiting Recruiting Recruiting Recruiting

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

At $1m ARR, you have to stop worrying about $1k customers At $10m ARR, you have to stop worrying about $10k customers At $100m ARR, you have to stop worrying so much about $100k customers And then new competitors just fill those voids

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Your cold email is likely >seen< At least the title Even by the CEO of a $100b+ company. Even by the top VC. But then, it's gone into the ether Make it count No virtual coffees. No 5 minutes of time. Make that subject line A Solution To My Top Problem That gets opened

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

one thing that makes me sad is when great founder becomes a VC & then in like 6-12 months has that VC look in his eyes & all meetings become transactional & judges everyone by how hot the deal is and it's all about "my partner this" and founders become lines on a chart

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

"We need a product guy" "Ok, but we aren't ready for a VP yet. Let's just hire a junior person from a top logo like Slack/Box/etc" ... 90 days later ... "Why does he just write spec docs at his desk all day long while the engineers all ignore him?"

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

We're getting to the point in the year where prospects and deals will start to push to January This just makes sense It's too late to deploy this year It's time to buy presents It's time to focus on internal projects And yet ... the best sales teams still crush it in December

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

About 20% of the advice from a great mentor should make you uncomfortable and even a bit annoyed They will know where you aren't pushing hard enough, but should be

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Before you sell, Before you quit, Before you step down At best, we have 3 >real< start-ups in us as founders. Often just 1 or maybe 2. If you have any traction at all -- maybe find a way to make this one work.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Distributed sales teams are the last frontier So many startups now are distributed ... except for sales But sales needs it even more

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Almost none of us have done this before But once you get to $2m, $10m, $20m, $50m, $100m ARR ... You can hire folks that have

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Early stage investors are paid to take risk What they don't want to do is have to discover risks that weren't disclosed Don't: - hide your MRR or growth with other psuedo metrics - hide customer concentration - hide founder issues - omit who is an employee and who isn't

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Yes, WeWork and Uber have confusing and maybe unsustainable business models. And had crazy and problematic CEOs. I do think the apps have made the world a better place, though, and my life much easier. I am still rooting for them.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

You blame sales, But is it really marketing? I.e., are there enough leads? _________ You blame marketing, But is it really product? I.e., is the product really good enough to close the leads you >do< have?

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If you want to quit every day, that's a bad job If you want to quit say once a quarter, that can be a sign of a challenging but rewarding job

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Sometimes, you cannot make it work Still, if I'd quit each time smart people: - told me it was impossible - told me we wouldn't get there - showed me the #s and said it wouldn't work - quit and walked out the door when it looked grim Well, if I'd quit then, I'd have nothing

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Your revenue may be flat, or even shrinking right now That is what it is But that's not an excuse not to grow >somewhere< - Grow users - Grow sign-ups - Grow pipeline - Grow traffic - Grow presence - Grow brand - Grow NPS - Grow CSAT - Grow referrals

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Who is your "lead" investor? She/he is: - most responsible for bringing in next round investors - responsible for leading any bridge round - responsible for being #1 champion for you with VPs, VCs, etc. - most responsible for recruiting Who is she/he? I bet you don't know

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Your job as CEO: Bridge the Gap We will return to normalcy. We don't know when. * When we do, growth will likely be strong * When we do, the top brands will benefit No global answers. But your job is Bridge the Gap

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

I have talked to a lot of high growth SaaS companies that get 30%-40% of their pipeline from events Maybe virtual events can do that But I doubt it We will soon learn

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

I'm a B2B guy But we have now sold almost $20,000,000 in tickets to SaaStr events Here's what I've learned about B2C All really obvious I guess: 1/ Discounts work. It doesn't even matter from what. 2/ Being too clever doesn't work. KISS. KISS. 3/ A/B tests really work

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

M&A pricing is so odd to me If you want it, buy it for the price that clears It is either worth a lot more than you paid in the end, or basically nothing But it is never worth A Little Bit Less

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

#1 thing I've learned sitting on boards with VCs who have invested in companies worth $100b+: They are just human beings too They aren't always right They shoot from the hip, too It is still your company

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Ok my annual tweet on costs at events at scale for a little fun SaaStr Annual 2020: Cost to rent Convention Center: $866,835.40 Cost for basic Food & Beverage: $1,165,220.15 Cost to wrap building: $85,972.00

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

SaaS: 1 Year: Find a customer 2 Years: Pay the rent 3 Years: Mini-brand 5 Years: Can't Be Killed 8 Years: Pre-nicorn 10 Years: Unicorn 15 Years: Leader/Public 20 Years: $1b+ ARR. Just Getting Going.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Dead: Blogging Sponsored Posts "Thought Leadership" Used to Be "Dead", Not Dead Now: Twitter LinkedIn Was Never Really Dead: Email Lists Newsletters Webinars Events Dunno: Video for B2B

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

So many SaaS companies firing their CMO or VPM right now Are they really going to find someone better? Or do they plan to do zero marketing at all?

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

please please please please no COOs, "co-founders", "advisors", CFOs or others reaching out for funding gotta be the CEO (at least until Series C/D+)

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

After say $3m ARR it might be OK if the board meeting was just the following slides: Hiring Great People Hiring Great People Hiring Great People Hiring Great People Burn Rate That almost might be enough

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If you can do say 140% net revenue retention ... Then when you hit $100m ARR. You can still grow 40% without even closing a new customer. Thats crazy. That's why we have SaaS decacorns.

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Got got a message from a founder that took 20 years to get to $2m ARR 20 years But now ... now he's growing 100%+ #howbadlydoyouwantit

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Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

* CEO should not drink at work, at least not more than 1 * Do not have dated / sexist events like alcohol-centered Presidents Clubs * Almost all male executive teams can be toxic * You are a steward for your team and customers. It is not about you.

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

“Don’t start chasing new segments where you have zero customers. You already have a well established pattern of customers at $50k in MRR (industries, use cases, segments, etc.). Double down there. You have so few resources. Don’t chase shiny pennies.” t.co

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

WeWork is the Starbucks of corporate offices Looks cool but only at first Super convenient Default choice Consistent quality Dominant brand if have discretionary $$ You are going to go anyway I wouldn't bet against either

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

The best product does win Just remember, best includes: - best brand - best solution - best platform - best perceived value - best trust - best partners - best support - best sales processes, Not just best features

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Triple Double Double is a good goal, but tough to skate to in practice 10-100-110 is enough 10m ARR 100%+ growth 110%+ net revenue retention Do that, you will build a unicorn

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Salespeople: Remember than while 80% of the world likes to negotiate, 80% of CEOs don't. At least, not for smaller things. They just want to get it done. If you are selling to a CEO -- make them a sales proposal that is 100% clear and fair They'll probably just sign it

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Databricks worth $62B, sounds like a lot but: - Crossing $3B ARR - Growing 60% (!) and >accelerating< - 80% Gross Margins - 500 $1m+ customers 20x ARR doesn’t seem >that< high

Opens with a number

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

There isn’t too much venture capital There are far more good and great startups being formed than new funds. But at least one thing has happened: There are >enough< funds now that VC firms don’t collude on every deal anymore That wasn’t fun let me tell you

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

The customer that always complains, it's annoying. But that probably means they care. And will renew. The customer that has never complained in years, but is complaining now ... That means it's a real issue. Fix it now. They are already looking for another vendor.

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

There are really very few customers you want to fire If the big ones are driving you nuts, it's probably because they care. If they didn't, they would just quietly churn If the small ones seem too much trouble, build a team just for them. They are your vast army of ambassadors

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

* A pause is better than a cancel * A downgrade is much better than a cancel * A downgrade is not logo churn. It is just a downgrade. * A positive customer experience, even for a customer that leaves, is a new brand ambassador for your product. You need a lot of these to win.

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Most of the top VCs I know sit in the lobby until the founder takes their term sheet. Sometimes for hours. Or sit on the chair outside their desk or office and just wait until they will meet Or wait in the parking lot It's a business of hustle

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

I have done B2C, B2B, VC, frontier tech, media, telecom. Honestly I don’t care what product I build, sell, evangelize, improve, etc. So long as it is truly awesome. And I get to work with great people.

Opens with a number

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Sometimes, it can feel like nothing is working But usually, if you get a little perspective, you'll see >something< is working One part of sales One area of product One type of lead gen One tiny market you win Celebrate that part And quietly focus on upgrading one other part

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

The startup fantasy job you imagine does not exist But perhaps, if you have a great boss, a good mission, and are truly appreciated You can makes yours be something close

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

After $1m-$2m ARR, you can do it your own way, a different way, your special way Or you can do it the way it's already been done 1000s of times in the past Usually, it's your product that's unique, not your processes It's up to you

Opens with a number

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Can feel good to burn bridges on the way out FWIW, here's what my past bosses did for me though: - Use their social capital and intro'd me to a dozen top VCs when I knew none - Intro'd to + got me my first VP job - Help me as mentors to get past critical blocks as CEO

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

More later, but in end the most frustrating part of the past 30 days is that our tiny team of 9 became as near as I can tell, the world's leader in health & safety at events No one did as much as us, and as early as us But we shouldn't have had to Where were best practices?

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Capital-efficient start-ups look like the smart play today 3 weeks ago, momentum investing was the smart play The smart play is happy customers, a reasonable burn, and a kick-arse team In fashion in any season

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Not sure it's happened yet, but if the downturn gets a lot worse, venture-backed CEOs should understand the pressure VC funds may get to deploy capital more slowly Why? LPs (the folks that invest in VCs) quickly get "overexposed" to venture. Here's the math:

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Facebook, Google: February 2020: "Compete with Zoom? That's just like WebEx not our thing." March 2020: "How many DAUs? Are You Sure? That Zoom?" April 2020: "300M DAUs?! DUST OFF THE OLD CODEBASE ASAP"

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Imposter Syndrome: Harvest it to stay young at heart, and keep driving to do great things Or let it haunt you so you are never happy with what you've already accomplished

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Are you bringing your Customer Success team to 2020 Annual? New sessions you can't miss! "10 Things I do to Meet 500+ Customers a Year As CEO with Gainsight" — @nrmehta, "How Slack Scales Customer Experience" —@alirayl, @SlackHQ and more!! Get Tix: t.co

Opens with a number

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

When I went into venture capital in 2013, it felt like an episode of Mad Men I was genuinely uncomfortable being in a packed room of rich men, watching the rare woman CEO pitch It was gross and clearly wrong @AllRaise is a movement and a force of nature and super important

Opens with a story

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

#1 investor learning from 2013-2019: Even if you are conservative ... with the very, very, very best founders ... always fund them if they have 10 happy customers. b/c 100% chance of success only Q is how much

Opens with a number

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

If your startup, fund, etc is "hot" Leverage it. Hire more. Raise more. Get on stage more. Strike more partnerships. Because being "hot" is a real, but ephemeral asset.

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

SMBs do churn, generally speaking, at a higher rate than enterprises But they also generally have a much higher viral coefficient, and “word-of-mouth” coefficient Don’t favor large customers over small ones for superior churn rates alone

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

My first start-up was the only one that saved lives, literally. We made implantable batteries that improved your odds of surviving cardiac arrest. And yet, no one ever seemed to care. No credit in Silicon Valley for that. Perhaps the exit was too small, the product too niche.

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Long sales cycles are real in the enterprise However, they can't be an excuse Because you just layer a bunch of 'em on top of each other

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Don't worry too much if you aren't sure you can get to $100m ARR Worry more if you can truly build a world-class team, and get to $10m ARR After that, you will know so much, this world-class team will know what to build to then get to $100m Like, always

Opens with a "stop doing this"

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

"Mid-market customers are the worst. They need all the handholding and onboarding of a large enterprise customer, but they only pay 3x-5x what an SMB pays" Fairly common view, with a lot of truth Yet, what if you got really good at this?

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

When I was at Adobe, it was the very tail end of the era when every engineer got their own, quiet office I thought it was crazy But boy that's how you get work done

Opens with a story

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

A great boss is someone that Lets you grow Helps you grow Ensures you grow Has your back Pays you fairly Believes in you Plans a career path Backfills your weaknesses Expects the best Challenges you Pushes you Shares But that can be a lot

Opens with an observation

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

90% transparency is usually about the right amount as CEO 100% of everything and you overload the team Less, then best case, you have to constantly remember what you share and what you don't

Opens with a number

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin@jasonlk

Hardest part of running a SaaS company, up to $1m ARR: great software Hardest part of running a SaaS company, $1m-$100,000m ARR: great people

Opens with a number

Every post of theirs in the library

Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin

What they write about

How they open

Every post of theirs in the library