The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Arnaud Bonzom, Founder and Managing Director @ Black Mangroves moderates a panel with Carmen Yuen, General Partner @ Vertex, Jenny Lee, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital, and Piruze Sabuncu, Partner @ Square Peg Capital on what founders should look out for when raising a Series A.

In this panel, Carmen, Jenny, and Piruze will discuss the lessons learned at Vertex, GGV, and Square Peg on the common pitfalls to look out for when you are raising your Series A. For each pitfall, they will provide tips and tactics on how to overcome them.

This episode is an excerpt of the VC session. You can watch the full video: https://youtu.be/nFUUTXlnaa0

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What if you could prospect in a single click?And what if that click came with accurate, intent data you need to meet your goals? Meet Klarity with One-Click Prospecting by DemandScience. Let's make your job easier. Visit demandscience.com

Sage Intacct is a powerful cloud-based financial management system that delivers automation around billing, accounting, and reporting. Voted market leaders by G2, Sage Intacct is the ideal Finance Solution to scale your business. Visit us at sage.com/uk/intacct.

SaaStr Annual will officially be back in 2023. Join 12,500 SaaS CEOs, Founders, Revenue leaders, and investors. Annual 2023 will take place September 6-8, 2023 in the SF Bay Area. Podcast listeners can use code FAVE100 to save 100 off tickets. Use FAVE100 when you buy your tickets at saastrannual2023.com

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Generative AI has taken the world by storm, and VCs and SaaS founders are looking at new opportunities it can bring. Even considering the more conservative fundraising market in 2023, there are opportunities for startups to get investor attention with AI.

Tomasz Tunguz, Founder & General Partner at Theory Ventures, believes that with the right GTM plan and capital efficiency, it is still possible to get funding. It's simply a matter of watching your burn: "The main difference in the market between 2021 and today is that efficiency matters more than growth."

Full video with Q&A: https://youtube.com/live/xiYzzLe9BAs

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Sage Intacct is a powerful cloud-based financial management system that delivers automation around billing, accounting, and reporting. Voted market leaders by G2, Sage Intacct is the ideal Finance Solution to scale your business. Visit us at sage.com/uk/intacct.

What if you could prospect in a single click? And what if that click came with accurate, intent data you need to meet your goals? Meet Klarity with One-Click Prospecting by DemandScience. Let's make your job easier. Visit demandscience.com.

SaaStr Europa is back! And this time, we're heading to London for 2 fun-filled days of content, networking, and SaaS. Join us June 6th and 7th for SaaStr Europa 2023. Use code FAVE100 for $100 off tickets at saastrlondon.com.

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/

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Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh

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In a crowded and distracted world, it can be hard to break through with customers, the media, recruiting and investors. Capturing the zeitgeist is more important than ever in making you stand out. In this session Josh will share his story building DoNotPay and how building a movement has given his company an advantage and the non-traditional lessons that he has learned.

Video: https://youtu.be/kORBMIxRLs4

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh

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Not every leader is created equally. A bad experience with a revenue operations leader might taint your view of the position at all future companies, but that would be a mistake, as CRO Confidential podcast host Sam Blond learned first-hand.

In this week's CRO Confidential episode, Blond talks to one of the best revenue operations leaders on the planet, Cherishma Shah, where she shares insights into the Rev Ops role, why your startup might need one, and how to maximize impact with this powerhouse position.

Shah is the Senior Vice President of Go-To-Market Strategy, Operations, and Enablement at Guild Education and formerly held the same role at Brex, working alongside Blond.

1:40 Intro

2:57 How Rev Ops fills critical gaps in the sales org

4:35 Cherishma's background, how that led to Rev Ops, and what a great Rev Ops candidate looks like

8:45 How to define Rev Ops

12:43 When is the right time to hire dedicated Rev Ops

20:47 More on the ideal candidate profile

24:11 Mistakes Cherisma has seen startups make as they make the first Rev Ops hires or build out the function

28:26 Where should Rev Ops sit within the org

35:07 Biggest opportunities for impact on the business for first hires

38:33 Scaling the Rev Ops org

40:35 How to structure the Rev Ops team and how to measure impact

47:00 Tactical examples of success Cherishma and Sam have seen

Video: https://youtu.be/S5JpOvgNtSY

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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The SMBTech economy is very different from enterprise software, and there is massive opportunity to capture it. There are over 400M small businesses worldwide. That's more than 90% of companies and 40-50% of GDP.

In this episode, Jeff Richards and Tiffany Luck, Managing Director and Partner at GGVCapital, share what it takes to win as a SMBTech startup in today's economy.

Full video with Q&A: https://youtube.com/live/pcgXYRMX2XU

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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There is plenty you could go deep on when talking about what it takes to scale a business from 1m to 1bn+, but in this session you'll hear 30 years of experience doing exactly that - compressed into a handful of key focus areas that really matter - principles that have proven to make the difference when surrounded by options and chaos.

Video: https://youtu.be/CQdAzSfhz54

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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Significant strides in digital technology combined with the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted the world of corporate summits, events, and tradeshows. Many businesses changed their strategy to incorporate virtual or hybrid events recently. Before the pandemic, hybrid and virtual gatherings accounted for only 18.9% of all events. But after the pandemic, the number shifted, with 59.5% of event planners stating that they will focus more on hybrid events.

Is there still room for in-person events in 2023 and beyond? Further, can it drive value for your business? For Todd White, Co-Founder of GUIDEcx, the answer to both questions is a resounding yes. In this episode, Todd shares with SaaStr's Poya Osgouei why GUIDEcx finds live events so valuable, even beyond sales, and the playbook he uses to ensure his team gets the most out of events.

Watch the full webinar for even more about GUIDEcx and tips for successful events.

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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Back in the early 2000s, people didn't entirely accept that a virtual machine could be as good as a physical one. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

Ed Lenta, the SVP and GM of Databricks, had the rare opportunity of scaling three hypergrowth companies — VMware, AWS, and Databricks. All of which were disruptors when they first came on the scene.

Is there a recipe or formula that will predict the success of a pre-growth, high-potential company? Lenta shares his lessons learned through scaling these early-stage companies.

Full video: https://youtu.be/FvYovHfm7rs

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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Buying software has changed significantly over the past 27 years. Despite the economic headwinds we've seen, buyers still buy a lot. The average mid-size company has 111 SaaS applications. By next quarter, that's estimated to rise to 119.

Of course, companies are experiencing some economic impact, and average spend is coming down slightly. Chris Perrine, the Vice President of G2, Asia Pacific, shares what's holding up buyers in today's economy and how you can meet them where they are.

Video with Q&A: https://youtu.be/S9yQ1Oe30zU

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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If you're on the path to building a startup, you know what it means to fail. In this week's Workshop Wednesday, Tracy Young, CEO and Co-Founder of TigerEye and PlanGrid, says that "everything is going to fail." Young took PlanGrid from nothing to $100M ARR before passing the baton and shares the biggest lessons learned, the biggest failures, and how to navigate them.

Full video with Q&A: https://youtube.com/live/w9-lMhAyJeo

Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.

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Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh

Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8