The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Nick Caldwell has built and grown product and engineering organizations at PowerBI (0 to 300 engineers), Reddit (500M MAU) and Looker ($2.7B sale to Google). Nick will share 5 big lessons he's learned along the way that you can use as you build your company's product and engineering functions from its earliest days to its largest successes. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/growing-product-and-engineering-orgs-from-zero-to-ipo-with-twitter-and-redpoint-ventures/

In today's SaaStr Insider, SaaStr SVP & GM, Amelia Ibarra, sits down with Alon Alroy, Co-Founder & CMO at Bizzabo on What's Next For the Future of B2B Events. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/whats-next-for-b2b-saas-events-2021/

There are a lot of problems with calculating churn rates. Moreover, public companies don't generally release churn rates. Learn what they are and how to calculate them correctly. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/churn-is-dead/

Ryan Sandler is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Truework, the company that gives employees control over employment, income and other identity data. To date, Ryan has raised over $44M with Truework from the likes of Sequoia, Khosla, Menlo and from the founders of companies such as Plaid, Seatgeek, Mino Games and Checkr. Prior to founding Truework, Ryan spent 3 years as a Senior Product Manager @ LinkedIn. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Ryan made his way from LinkedIn Product Manager to founding Sequoia backed Truework and changing the world of identity data? Why does Ryan believe it is such an advantage to sell into mid-market? Where do most people go wrong here? How can startups show credibility to mid-market when they are so small? How can founders use case studies and references to build social credibility early on? What have Ryan's lessons been when it comes to pricing? How does Ryan think about and approach discounting? How does Ryan feel about pilot plans? What elements can founders negotiate on to get the best pricing? Why does Ryan believe SEO is the best-kept secret in SaaS? How has Ryan structured his content and marketing team as a result? How can one automate as much of the content creation process as possible? How long should one expect in terms of lead times to see returns on the SEO strategy? Ryan's 60 Second SaaStr: Hardest element of Ryan's role with Truework? What would Ryan most like to change about the world of SaaS? What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-380-with-truework-co-founder-and-ceo-ryan-sandler/ If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Ryan Sandler

From how many reps to hire, to compensation models, here are the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales teams and how to avoid them. Full video: https://youtu.be/SrHKclELBEg Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-379-with-saastr-ceo-and-founder-jason-lemkin-the-top-10-mistakes-founders-make-when-hiring-their-first-sales-team/ Sponsor message: Are you looking to better educate your audience on the value you deliver? Build products or service recommendation tools, create assessments to identify areas they can improve, and build savings calculators? Find out how you can build these same tools for your business at outgrow.co/saas.

In this lively discussion, Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator and experienced mentor, delves into the top pitfalls that threaten startups post-seed funding. He highlights how founders can mistakenly perceive fake product-market fit and the dangers of letting investors dictate operations. Michael emphasizes the importance of honest KPIs, maintaining low burn rates, and fostering strong co-founder relationships. He also warns against the perils of slow product development and shares strategies to accelerate progress, ensuring startups thrive beyond initial funding.

Dave McJannet is the CEO @ Hashicorp, one of the fastest-growing enterprise companies of our time providing consistent workflows to provision, secure, connect and run any infrastructure for any application. To date, the company has raised $349M in funding from some of the best in the business including Bessemer, Redpoint, True Ventures, IVP, Mayfield, TCV and GGV to name a few. As for David, prior to Hashicorp, he held some incredible roles including VP Marketing at Github and Hortonworks, Senior Director of Product Marketing @ VMWare and then also spent over 5 years at Microsoft. Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-377-with-hashicorp-ceo-dave-mcjannet/ If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr

In part two, ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck shares how he built a business from scratch and grew 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 how to avoid making the same mistakes he did. This episode is an excerpt from Jason and Henry's session at SaaStr Annual @ Home. Full video: https://youtu.be/WKODWISCL7A Transcript of this podcast: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-376-with-zoominfo-ceo-henry-schuck-10-mistakes-the-ceo-of-zoominfo-made-on-his-journey-to-ipo-part-2/ Part 1 of this interview can be found in episode 374.

GitHub's COO, Erica Brescia, shares her experiences and lessons learned from her former life on the front lines of being a co-founder of her own company, and how those lessons apply to her current position overseeing operations for GitHub. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/5-leadership-lessons-everyone-needs-right-now-from-github-coo-erica-brescia/

ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck shares how he built a business from scratch and grew 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 how to avoid making the same mistakes he did. This episode is an excerpt from Jason and Henry's session at SaaStr Annual @ Home. Full video: https://youtu.be/WKODWISCL7A Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-byron-deeter-elliott-robinson-henry-schuck-and-jason-lemkin/