Dave is joined by Jason Lemkin. Jason is the founder of SaaStr, the world’s largest community of SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs. Before SaaStr, Jason founded EchoSign, which was sold to Adobe in 2011.
They discuss:
- Why Jason started SaaStr
- What makes a great VP of Marketing in SaaS and how to hire one
- How tech and SaaS have changed since 2020
- CROs vs CMOs
- Importance of alignment between the CEO and marketing team
Timestamps
- (00:00) - - Intro
- (07:23) - - Understanding the Importance of Revenue Goals
- (10:47) - - Evolving Motivations and Changing Perspectives
- (14:53) - - From Solopreneur to Founder: The Journey of Exit Five
- (18:49) - - The Challenge of Transitioning from Solopreneurship
- (20:48) - - Insights into Jason's Content Creation Process
- (23:32) - - Efficiency in writing: a five-minute rule
- (30:15) - - LinkedIn: A Haven for Text-Based Writers
- (31:41) - - LinkedIn's Good Community and Marketing Potential
- (36:17) - - Importance of Building Relationships in Business
- (41:02) - - Marketing Essentials: Brand, Field, Demand, Growth
- (43:39) - - Finding the Right Fit: Aligning Marketing Roles with Company Vision
- (46:44) - - Finding Alignment: The Role of Marketing in Company Leadership
- (50:56) - - CROs and Marketing
- (53:45) - - Balancing Heads: Sales, Marketing, and Post-Sales in SaaS Leadership
- (57:05) - - Event Planning
- (59:00) - - SaaStr: Connecting Founders and Revenue Professionals
Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.
Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?
Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.
That’s where Walnut comes in.
Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.
That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.
And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.
Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?
Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!