The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

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:

1. Hardest element of Ryan's role with Truework?
2. What would Ryan most like to change about the world of SaaS?
3. 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.

Investment can create more problems than it solves and founders may trick themselves into thinking they have product-market fit when they don't. Michael Seibel, CEO @ Y Combinator explores the top risks founders should be aware of after funding and his best tips to avoid them.

Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/5-things-that-kill-startups-with-y-combinator/

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/

Bessemer's 5th Annual State of the Cloud Report returns for a definitive look at the cloud industry today. Byron Deeter and Elliott Robinson, partners at Bessemer Venture Partners, offer macro trends in the public and private cloud markets, strategic advice to cloud founders, and insights into why entrepreneurs should feel auspicious about the future.

This episode is an excerpt from a session at SaaStr Annual @ Home.

Full video: https://youtu.be/WrGhD0qaIow

Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-byron-deeter-elliott-robinson-henry-schuck-and-jason-lemkin/

Latane Conant is the Chief Marketing Officer at 6Sense, the company that allows you to achieve predictable revenue growth by identifying accounts looking for your solution, prioritise efforts and then engage the right way. To date, the company has raised $120M in financing from Battery Ventures, Insight, Venrock, Costanoa, Bain Capital and Salesforce Ventures to name a few. As for Latane, before 6Sense she was CMO and sales leader at Appirio where she drove 5X more effective field marketing programs and an increase in inbound leads by 300%. If that was not enough, Latane is also on the Advisory Boards of both Mediafly and Atrium.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

• How did Latane make her way into the world of SaaS and come to be the rockstar CMO and ABM thought leader she is today with 6Sense?
• What does the preparation process look like pre-sales kick off week? What is involved? Who is involved? What needs to be ready? How does Latane feel about putting comp plans as part of the week?
• How important is a theme to having an engaging week of content? What can teams do to bring their themes to life? How does Latane advise others when it comes to keeping the content fresh and exciting?
• What is the right way to end the week? What are the right follow up steps to take? Where do many people go wrong here?

Latane's 60 Second SaaStr:

1. Hardest element of Latane's role today with 6Sense?
2. What would Latane most like to change about the world of SaaS?
3. What does Latane believe that most around her disbelieve?

Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-372-with-6sense-cmo-latane-conant/

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

Latane Conant