The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

SaaStr 705: Decoding the 2024 Market: How to Scale from Go-to-Market Through IPO for the Year Ahead with ICONIQ Growth’s General Partner Doug Pepper and Head of Analytics, Christine Edmonds

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Dec 5, 2023

Guest

Christine Edmonds

Guest

Doug Pepper

Doug Pepper, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth, and Christine Edmonds, Head of Analytics at ICONIQ Growth, share insights on scaling go-to-market strategies in the SaaS industry. They discuss building a go-to-market strategy, the importance of go-to-market strategies for SaaS companies, revenue generation, international expansion, and evaluation for IPO-ready companies.

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INSIGHT

Product-Market Fit & Growth Plateau

Early-stage SaaS success hinges on product-market fit, not solely on venture capital or benchmarks.
Founder-led selling and early adopter enthusiasm diminish around $15M ARR, necessitating a broader GTM strategy.

ADVICE

Early Sales Team Structure

Hire your first AE before a Head of Sales, letting founders initially lead sales for crucial customer feedback.
Transition sales leadership around $10M ARR, focusing on a leader who can navigate the growth phase.

ADVICE

Prioritizing Experience in Early Sales Hires

When hiring an early Head of Sales, prioritize quota-carrying experience over the title itself.
Look for candidates with experience managing quotas 25x your current ARR, even if they haven't been a CRO.

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A holistic and well-executed go-to-market strategy is one of the key pillars that drives sustainable, long-term growth for software companies. But there is a dearth of data that leaders can leverage to inform building out the best team, strategies, and tactics to scale their go-to-market organization.

Leveraging proprietary data from over 200 leading GTM executives and tens of thousands of data points related to executive profiles across Sales and Marketing leaders, Doug Pepper, General Partner, and Christine Edmonds, General Partner and Head of Analytics at ICONIQ Growth will share detailed answers to the key go-to-market questions from B2B SaaS leaders including:

The latest insights on what “effective” scaling means in today’s environment
Best practices for building out GTM teams and processes
Learnings related to what profiles make the most successful IPO-ready executive hires
How top companies are tweaking tactics in today’s environment to drive efficient selling

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