Perspectives

Moving Upmarket: Q&A with SalesLoft's Sean Murray

March 27, 2019

Nearly every SaaS company eventually tries move upmarket shifting selling smaller businesses Fortune 500 allure larger contracts marquee logos landing page often resist process far difficult looks convoluted decision-making processes dozens stakeholders thorny implementation requirements adept sales team trip fall trying sell large sat Sean Murray CRO Salesloft engagement platform helps teams set execute cadence phone email social communications convert targets customers talk exactly right Since joining doubled ACV bookings number employees twelve months Previously helped take Xactly public led several segments CEB acquired Gartner 1 Help stakes failure look moving market milestone accomplish hitting 5M net ARR survive contacts people network banking capital built years persuade prospects buying product up-market straightforward business plateau short term drive away grow first place else Startup typically attracted grassroots organizations scale quickly Big risk takers dreamers border-line daredevils lose growth losing different employee gets read established logo bigger marketing less buggy products etc entire value prop shifts drastically least 2 time startups begin around 10M annual recurring revenue assumes use case applicable obvious caveats single customer 8M contract push higher overwhelming majority companies hit found significant enough traction pushing levers 3 define success win favorite metric beyond scoreboard churn Acquisition Costs CAC efficiency calculated taking gross dividing spend Put simply ratio money coming S+M going Aim 100 means flowing direct never perfect times healthily drop brand campaigns events always keep top mind metrics vary historically looked three 85 renewals per basis drops dig deep service renewal understand quitting retention 110 sticking purchasing double quicker losses churned Adoption high Usability scores impactful driving rates score low solving problems rating thank End users tend new buyers across today's buyer opinion 4 easiest fail changing growing superpowers required build scratch approach hiring salespeople screen candidates six core competencies Commercial strategy previous experience working project manager minimum clearly make decisions Persuasion markets industries geographies need uncanny ability necessarily think Negotiation ACVs increase complexity managing expectations finding mutually-beneficial solutions disagreements results slow unnatural urgency translates faster cycles closed deals Problem unique challenges overcome agree trial feet creatively 5 Outside hire needs change internal changes seen succeed exhaustive list rather jumping point reorganization engineering 35 total R&D best used alternating quarters quarter focused reliability bug fixes stability speed features innovative risky bets pay prospect interviews ask interview current chose open uncommon 20 30 failed willing PM walking issues Chief Security Officer customer's data important ever GDPR SOC2 compliance table dedicated proactively protecting personal building sustainable foundation Head Ops someone find story inside Focus deliver insights calculate optimal compensation reps 6 advice recognize Everybody wants braced inevitable mistakes failures come infrastructure likely easily Work closely honestly person thrive

Set Yourself Up for Series A Pitch Success

March 18, 2019

Learn minds behind decks raised 1.9B Every great startup needs story Whether fundraising hiring selling product need compelling inspire audience sat Chris Laughlin Jared Bloom co-founders 4th King pitch agency whose helped raise venture capital public market funding interview part recent Open Door Day quarterly event seed-stage female founders building enterprise SaaS companies Want invite Let know 1 Makes Series Unique telling going significantly different told Seed simple inserting traction slides adding new VP Sales team slide first recommend honest assessment stand company proven since raising round evidence seeing product-market fit confident go-to-market de-risked technology business model last additional investment accelerate growth Confronting questions working put right mindset point development Investors looking concrete signs progress vision carries massive scale Balancing execution critical effective deck 2 Started fire Keynote eating frog kicking process toughest answer shoes prospective list expect walk room generic i.e CAC LTV ratio others specific fail tried Developing clear concise answers give blocks become end appendix keep back pocket arise make sure covering bases start thinking narrative 3 Capturing Investor's Attention heard 1000 times description Problem customers facing Solution bringing nothing inherently wrong approach believe interesting engage demonstrate bat something offer beginning likely asking person lead think quickly possible today tell mobile devices planet thought-provoking sharing believable fact already instead tells used construction job sites follow core insight upon built combination surprising counterintuitive phrase helps bridge truth example talked prevalence internet connections spotty best apps rely consistent bandwidth abandoned established adopted paint picture possibility ahead saying figure serve environment enable transformation 1T industry pretty flexible formula find crystallize efficient 4 Rehearsal Feedback important consider ask seeking members entrepreneurs remember audiences perspectives potential help communicate ideas clearly cut unnecessary detail advice attract go directly source course unrealistic able practice proxies existing invest expertise space stage either case group weighted heavily lucky enough front investor waste opportunity prepared someone hard time separating message delivering seem familiar delivery negative question seen finish open-ended invites swap worse excited valuable completely changes dynamic conversation accept three Yes clearer actionable asks act based feel promise nobody ever

Marketing AI: Q&A with Salesforce Einstein’s Jim Sinai

March 4, 2019

age AI important back basics feels Artificial Intelligence everywhere integrated sold whenever possible often without clear explained benefits adding landing page enough anymore Every company needs defined strategy demonstrating value product Last month sat Jim Sinai former VP Marketing Salesforce Einstein suite currently making 2B+ predictions daily customers 1 start SaaS companies lead beginning understand valuable data Google Facebook worth billions dollars reams collected enterprise looking follow footsteps main advantages leading materials first latch onto features competitive differentiator peers software bought means need craft narrative different Second sets expectations leveraged used productive consumer apps afford hide mask use personal buyers products far sensitive risks associated leaks public competitors 2 difficult normal machine learning ML algorithm's unclear Day benefit great comes small UX improvements hard measure robust customer ROI metrics dirty secret behind calculations wholly dependent run business built processes enable massive allowed terrible attempt solve everything fall apart problem proof going customer's specific implement 3 advice give marketers Let team story AI's sake teams succeeding talking AI-enabled world talk three years stopped mobile ago commonplace standard inevitable decline ever focus fundamentals end want question answered successful 4 surprising see believe build demos potential form-based quickly generate find fake tools roadblocks building datasets create meaningful outputs partner scientist engineer's help Another ways remove unintended biases model created bias real underlying dataset biased based conscious unconscious prejudices become prejudiced resume screening tool hiring found factors indicative job performance name Jared whether played high school lacrosse good conversation involve Empower exclude gender ethnicity applicable example instead hiding head dirt

Scale Faster Than Your Competition: Leverage Global Technical Talent

February 12, 2019

Talented engineers lifeblood software startups Unfortunately Silicon Valley short supply competition services fierce Instead competing high salaries expensive perks seen portfolio companies open engineering offices outside initially skeptical come appreciate competitive advantage global talent pool order help thinking hiring globally sat handful CEOs learn experiences 1 benefits Scale Faster surprisingly far cost-effective However factor overhead management lost efficiencies due geographic distance cost savings often worth headache particularly team small critical three times tap good vein particular region able hire 10-20 month rare startup quality speed feasible internationally Better Retention frequently mentioned reduced rate turnover teams constantly hounded recruiters LinkedIn Productivity number pointed remote actually productive reasons cited fewer distractions work home avoiding onslaught random conversations certain cultural patterns 2 select location set shop real estate agent tell everything Every CEO gave exact advice choose already know someone absolutely trust find almost anywhere first person ground recruit best top specific advantages Tax credits governments subsidize make attractive example Canada generous SR&ED credit program allows earn 35 qualified R&D expenditures 24 hour support monitoring India China Southeast Asia popular locations mention advantageous opposite time zones allow Access key markets Western Europe Ireland great create easy foothold launch sales 3 Closing people next determining success technical implement flows processes integrate organization point collaboration tools including Zoom Yammer Skype Hall Hipchat setup uses Slack platform ties variety systems JIRA project Github code Heroku deployment Zendesk customer service receive automated notifications development Using central information repository slick keep everyone informed date across geographies successful must least unfair Leveraging nature provides retain reap today's modern discovery accessible ever eager take

5 SaaS Hacks to Conserve Cash Without Cutting Costs

February 8, 2019

hard benchmark costs Everybody's situation company different forcing startup CEOs walk fine line cash burn spend little grow fast enough achieve escape velocity run life difficult cut overspending rational laying employees hurts morale disrupts culture kills revenue momentum point muscle recommend five financial hacks help conserve without actually cutting 1 Sell annual contracts collect upfront sales reps naturally inclined opt monthly subscription easier smaller commitment Unfortunately subscriptions paid kill flow couple ways First churn higher rate Second require months pay back initial cost acquire customer CAC place example say gross profit pays nine losing money minimum cancel six permanently lost usage Instead default payment front now immediately positive guaranteed earliest year sounds simple Incentivize team customers small discounts Plus nice bonus lower 2 Implement faster invoice upsell enterprise bill application implemented live deep integrations training set-up time often delay weeks best improve change signing However always possible next option compress signed contract deployment added new goes success make happy hopefully additional features seats number speed phases attempting rolling product entire focus onboarding individual teams facilities geographies start charging access quickly legwork Bring specialists work clients speeding implementation whether running educational webinars writing documentation working users onsite Crowdsource ramp others reinventing wheel learn efficient distill efficiency repeatable process 3 Tie commissions speedy terms match timing actual flows opposed paying creative causing disruption making restructuring parts commission structure tandem year-end key take sure see system fair transparent 4 Slow accounts payable receivable constantly amazed startups bills thinking big maximize float setting automatically close due date importantly let borrow 90 days interest free test receivables Ask prepayment large invoices uncommon 30-50 beginning wait send build email drip campaigns remind Keep short 30 standard law Experiment changing 7 14 Offer early switch Put net 60 afterthought material agreement alignment around exercises impact 6M bookings outstanding long takes someone able extra 500K 5 Shift capital expenses operating Stop expensive rent office security deposits furniture computers save renting stuff converting recurring dozens companies willing built-in warranty Apple directly offers financing solutions phones end day ultimately building sustainable GTM strategy Use give breathing room find scale meantime

The 10 Deadly Sins of Sales Ops

January 31, 2019

Salespeople sell alone Every great sales organization backed equally Operations team design manage streamline entire go-to-market strategy sat Hilary Headlee head Enablement Zoom video-first unified communications platform home billions meeting minutes month seen happen dozens times Companies product-market fit scale quickly organically suddenly slow begin drop Churn spikes nobody articulate exactly went wrong clear something missed Building designing growing garden scratch focus cultivating hundreds different plants varieties account executives business development representatives managers dealing whatever weather happens come competitors raising funding changing regulations customers going everything kill weeds Sure think need beginning empty dirt failing plan inevitable clean data defined communication methods data-driven strategies stop tracks dire impacts leaving hide plain sight reps quit competitive environment professionals accustomed organized workplaces leave Infighting Internal teams start shirk responsibility nitty gritty falls departments job become common excuse Customer service suffer Without processes solve customer-facing issues forced make ad-hoc decisions important parts point decide deal committed sins part fifteen years working Ops across six Learn mistakes 1 Dirty produces unorganized left mildew poorly named folders Lists prospects jumbled together Excel incomplete Salesforce records scripts scribbled backs expense reports opportunities actually drives product Moreover leads bad learnings age anybody run complex state pipeline previous incorrect accessible lead workers fewer caused tech process Thankfully fix Determine buckets dangerous actively destroy team's ability improve less almost always undesirable Find culprits Figure create move change delete answer includes problem bigger Revoke access likely revoking inputting negotiating want route efficiently Asking front decreases volume Negotiate either accept B+ Cleaning first step Beyond understanding databases duplicates work specifically delegate capturing verifying updating long-run mean existing science insights lobbying build Nix Noise asked sent email Everybody engineering finance people Whether informing new features getting approval specific implementing hard especially talking large groups asynchronously miss unreasonable long complicated to-do list expect follow Check box enough facilitate structure efficient Recurring update meetings Instead send updates set touch blasting monthly all-hands clearly explain reasoning behind Time-boxed emails expecting watch inboxes day force types instance tips Mondays use subject lines Condition employees pay close attention include line emoji listservs chat rooms mailing channels overwhelming everyone let members required group eventually invite serve dial maximize amount time ping incessantly 2 Cluelessly Confusing Correlations powerful context around leaders surprising emerge Individual days conversion rates spike 50 Periods closed deals double digits week simply seem certain country often larger qualitative drivers shifts successful discounted campaign period dropped company off-site site sign-up flow drawing conclusions funnel true insight needs consistently reviewed audited correctly tagged rather months later 3 Mis-Managing quickest blow turn inbox feature request hotline rep person reach Zero establish relationships calling identify pieces information constantly productivity grinds halt greatest skills Manager bring pattern identification complaints requests translated outcomes needed problems bubble correct call intake collect dedicated JIRA tickets web form ask know issue worth investigating waste people's Five questions good benchmark Second scope conversation stakeholder see looking metrics drive proposed Third prioritize sort ranking scoring system currently queue Fourth communicate prioritization bottom stack appreciate feedback better hone submissions risk alienating individuals whose fulfilled Optimize type far single POC direct managing three chains 4 Prodigious Piles Projects drown faster justify saying practical marginal improvements current practices place harder looks wants help high-impact well-executed campaigns tied measurable results assuming making positive impact based Trying favorite phrase various Feel confident belong take random Say demonstrated project owner lobby resources vertical De-prioritize impactful goals easily-prioritized highest quite 5 Fighting Fame grow revenues increase hyper-specialized previously core responsibilities management swallowed centralized Systems department analysis consumed compensation benchmarking moved It'll carved eyes terrifying natural healthy Lean grasping straws strong ancillary stresses deadlines emotions go understate transition transitions happening smoother Treat ownership activity Attempting assign umbrella myopic becomes increasingly cross-functional define driving approving contributing hold accountable ongoing done complete frequently meet commissions transitioned ultimately responsible 6 Factual Fairness deliver love perfect distribution commission realistic Fair feeling best provide consistency providing policy quotas vacation policies KPIs exceptions personal obsessively tracking decision justification used Defining non-standard able consistent reasons accepted denied marquee made cycle discounts applied recorded Allowing quota relief discussing adjustment rules guide towards right faced impossible choice 7 Mastering Manual works coverage models unintentionally tip scales someone's favor next outliers Look consequences intentional unethical behavior fine fireable offense intelligent Manually document task easily automate computer algorithm attempt concisely must reflect guiding feels arduous clunky time-consuming boring weeks implemented review 8 Day-to-Day produce tens thousands points lagging indicators success leading high quality percentages tell story piece controls surfaced throughout rest accidentally write fairy tale horror company-wide documentation locations pull analyze practice Tableau Domo house key 9 Thinking takes village employee Turning low-impact tediously datasets scalable professionally draining plumbing year Connect greater community LinkedIn conferences Twitter experiences expertise wins happier productive office public speaker writer mentor Karen Colligan encouraged speak four last certainly enjoyed traveling Atlanta Boston San Diego Francisco talk met along remember Networking network learning learned immensely willing chance Kyle Porter Manny Medina Doug Landis Jill Rowley Joe Chernov Lars Nilsson Dennis Dube Max Altschuler course impressive Michelle Obama Billie Jean King Interested hiring

A Multi-Cloud Future: Our Investment in LogDNA

December 11, 2018

excited announce led LogDNA's 25M Series helping developers spend less time sorting logs building products change world works data moving cloud every Multi-cloud architectures future Rather hand blank check single solution Amazon Web Services Google companies increasingly picking combining best individual provider users win compete business applications scale various clouds generate ever-growing stream log files record interaction application infrastructure supports regularly review understand performing often searching root causes bugs errors Unfortunately current management solutions developer-friendly Archaic incumbent Splunk prohibitively expensive struggles parse analyze search ever-increasing datasets Newer general purpose Elastic require set maintain systems Neither sustainable LogDNA gives power back architecture on-premise public private combination deployment options quickly using natural language query required jump specific build custom reports dashboards cost 1 800 per GB costs 36 born pivot founders Twitter YouTube Discord Chris Lee began focusing tool help ecommerce optimize sales big log-reporting product originally built internally diagnose problems powerful original idea startup since scaled thousands engineers track petabytes including teams Instacart Lifesize scooter-rocketship Lime natively available IBM's tens save dig deep work Branch Metrics dozens machines running apps used physically manually look able aggregate place game-changer company's cofounders Nguyen Liu uniquely suited tackle opportunity third together first JobLoft jobs board acquired 2007 left start TeamSave white-labeled eBay Classified portfolio scaling team fifty 500 000+ transactions billion emails truly businesses financially technically gotten know consistently impressed dedication culture Whether highlighting members all-hands meetings wins deeply embedding values interview process

The Next Generation of Emergence Capital

November 14, 2018

past fifteen years grown three friends dinner SFO Marriott family 28 across five funds totaling billion dollars management Today excited recognize next generation Emergence Joe Jake Kara promotions General Partner Principal respectively Carlotta joining new Senior Associate demonstrated ability discover foster invest founders change world works learned immensely wait see teach Joe's passion unmatched supportive going quickly identifying best support project44's mission team continue scale company working GTM strategies growing incredible promotion GP investors worked starting tomorrow first call Jett McCandless CEO project44 tirelessly Textio's growth truly stands central thinking kinds topics pertaining development everything executive hiring business fundamentals invests deeply people special glad Kieran Snyder Textio witnessed impact made since early days hard intelligent willing whatever takes help companies succeed detailed research fostering connections informed opinions huge asset thrilled earn Stacey Epstein Zinc means perfect hoping lessons grow roles within rewarding part venture building relationships teams user time watched consideration taking done highlight learnings discovered along doubt rise occasion 01 Trust gut jobs include short frequent feedback loops Salespeople track conversion rates benchmark success peers Marketers cost-per-acquisition campaign CEOs revenue operating profit every week lucky Great fundamentally contrarian bets successful returns traction Instead relying external confirmation articles urgency investor interest impressive metrics build internal algorithm core theses inspire 02 Push step Nobody important challenge pushing explore fields industries arguments conflict assumptions job characteristics frequently territories Dig deep models right now popped mind already dug answers find something deeper 03 meeting counts easy try visit conference take simply check boxes certainly tried beginning optimizing volume sitting possible optimize number quality contributions make worst waste founder's travel company's office better picture culture room able say yes founder meet Introductions potential insights experience analysis sales leads pitch advice Benchmarked targets budgets R&D G&A accurately assess Provide honest empathy unique ask questions understand giving amazed learn 04 marathon sprint reputation among built day decades Avoid temptation shortcuts risk term gains Always negotiate spirit knowing side table LP co-investor seconds break forever repair Congratulations said rest care last six proves Increasingly looking leadership mentorship know blend metric-driven world-shifting Salesloft Mya Systems WhereTo Total Expert inspired words champion everyone Silicon Superhero energy drive contagious high standards set Guru others impressed clear communication skills framework-driven leader become gives unparalleled connect UpKeep Top Hat Insightly role Play strengths passions makes entire position blown away IQ EQ carry far immense community work love industry zero sum game succeeds everybody wins future hands

A Capital Idea: Our Investment in Clearbanc

November 12, 2018

delighted announce led Clearbanc's recent round powering three-year-old company founded provide flexible financing options entrepreneurs online businesses every business right fit venture capital funds included fund five seven companies year expecting percentage portfolio grow go public acquired next decade startups model Founders want run profitably years keep practice lean focused pass children retirement Traditional banks fill void either requires personal guarantees credit long application processes Faced less ideal choices looking working often end bootstrapping growth compromising mission Clearbanc fits small loan providing millions need require warrants equity team's scores Instead measures startup's financial health analyzing data platforms used typically Shopify Stripe Facebook Teams approved day anywhere 5k 10M repay scale revenue set repayment date interest company's co-founders Michele Romanow Andrew D'Souza team lead serial angel investors first-hand experience challenges encounter serves Dragons popular Canadian startup funding show Den regularly hears pitches hoping convince Dragon invest joint experiences met hundreds great non-traditional diligence process continuously impressed customer's enthusiasm product results helps drive owner Vinebox wine discovery subscription service able 500 received demand alternatives large growing fact track 100M financed 500+ high-growth past 12 months play huge role economy driving innovation fueling jobs thousands succeed work fills gap existed excited partner help