The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Matt Murphy is a Managing Director @ Menlo Ventures where he focuses on multi-stage investments across cloud infrastructure and AI-first SaaS applications. Since joining Menlo, Matt has led investments in Heap Analytics, Usermind, and Veriflow. Previously, Matt was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins for over 15 years. Matt was also an observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in '08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining applications on the iOS platform), and led KPCB's investments in AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP, 2010) and Aerohive Networks (Nasdaq: HIVE, 2014). Before joining KPCB, Matt worked at semiconductor startup Netboost (acquired by Intel) and prior to that at Sun Microsystems.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

• How Matt made his way into the world of VC and enterprise investing? What were his biggest takeaways from working alongside John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?
• How is the enterprise investing landscape changing? What fundamental shifts have we seen and what have been the dominant repercussions of this?
• Nakul Mandan stated that 'we would see the 2nd wave of consumerisation of enterprise through business model'. Does Matt agree with this and what key trends is Matt most excited about in SaaS?
• How does Matt look to evaluate early stage SaaS valuations? What are people fundamentally misvaluing and how should the topic be approached?
• Is it harder now for SaaS companies to raise than ever before? What metrics does Matt look for in a Series A investment opportunity?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Matt's Fave SaaS reading material?
2. What are the greenfield opportunities in SaaS today?
3. What was Matt's biggest takeaway from working with John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?

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

Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy is a Managing Director @ Menlo Ventures where he focuses on multi-stage investments across cloud infrastructure and AI-first SaaS applications. Since joining Menlo, Matt has led investments in Heap Analytics, Usermind, and Veriflow. Previously, Matt was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins for over 15 years.  Matt was also an observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in ’08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining applications on the iOS platform), and led KPCB’s investments in AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP, 2010) and Aerohive Networks (Nasdaq: HIVE, 2014). Before joining KPCB, Matt worked at semiconductor startup Netboost (acquired by Intel) and prior to that at Sun Microsystems.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How Matt made his way into the world of VC and enterprise investing? What were his biggest takeaways from working alongside John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?
• How is the enterprise investing landscape changing? What fundamental shifts have we seen and what have been the dominant repercussions of this?
• Nakul Mandan stated that ‘we would see the 2nd wave of consumerisation of enterprise through business model’. Does Matt agree with this and what key trends is Matt most excited about in SaaS?
• How does Matt look to evaluate early stage SaaS valuations? What are people fundamentally misvaluing and how should the topic be approached?
• Is it harder now for SaaS companies to raise than ever before? What metrics does Matt look for in a Series A investment opportunity?  

60 Second SaaStr

1. Matt's Fave SaaS reading material?
2. What are the greenfield opportunities in SaaS today?
3. What was Matt's biggest takeaway from working with John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?

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

Matt Murphy

Brandon Bruce is the Co-Founder and COO @ Cirrus Insight, the plugin for Gmail and Outlook that automatically updates Salesforce as you work. Cirrus is a bootstrapped startup with triple-digit yearly growth since it's founding 4 years ago and has grown from 2 co-founders in 2011 to a team of 55 people today. And I have to say a huge thanks to Aaron Ross, Author @ Predictable Revenue for the intro to Brandon today. Likewise, if you want to join me and Jason for mojitos at SaaStr Annual 2017 and also want an incredible 20% off ticket prices, then all you have to do is click here!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

• How did Brandon make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Cirrus Insight?
• What does Brandon mean he says he likes to take the road less travelled in Sales? What have been his learnings from his interactions on the front line of sales? How has it changed how he approaches sales?
• How are Cirrus so efficient at events in terms of getting more leads, meeting and sales? What is the strategy going into events? How can we optimise this?
• Speaking of events in general there, how does Brandon look to define prospect and buyer personas? How important is this for events? How narrow and specific do these personas have to be?
• Brandon has stated before in the importance of learning and doing manual before automatic with the future in mind. What do he mean by this and how does it affect his roadmap and thought process to the future going forward?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Favourite SaaS reading material?
2. What does Brandon know now that he wish he had known at the beginning?
3. The biggest challenge of running Cirrus and how Brandon looks to combat it?

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

Brandon Bruce

Brandon Bruce is the Co-Founder and COO @ Cirrus Insight, the plugin for Gmail and Outlook that automatically updates Salesforce as you work. Cirrus is a bootstrapped startup with triple-digit yearly growth since it's founding 4 years ago and has grown from 2 co-founders in 2011 to a team of 55 people today. And I have to say a huge thanks to Aaron Ross, Author @ Predictable Revenue for the intro to Brandon today. Likewise, if you want to join me and Jason for mojitos at SaaStr Annual 2017 and also want an incredible 20% off ticket prices, then all you have to do is click here!

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How did Brandon make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Cirrus Insight?
• What does Brandon mean he says he likes to take the road less travelled in Sales? What have been his learnings from his interactions on the front line of sales? How has it changed how he approaches sales?
• How are Cirrus so efficient at events in terms of getting more leads, meeting and sales? What is the strategy going into events? How can we optimise this?
• Speaking of events in general there, how does Brandon look to define prospect and buyer personas? How important is this for events? How narrow and specific do these personas have to be?
• Brandon has stated before in the importance of learning and doing manual before automatic with the future in mind. What do he mean by this and how does it affect his roadmap and thought process to the future going forward?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Favourite SaaS reading material?
2. What does Brandon know now that he wish he had known at the beginning?
3. The biggest challenge of running Cirrus and how Brandon looks to combat it?

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

Brandon Bruce

John Barrows is essentially the Godfather of Sales. We often have VPs of Sales from tech titans on the show but who trains those VPs and sales reps to be the best in the world at sales? That is where John Barrows comes in, with clients including Dropbox, Box, Marketo, Twilio and many more, John has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience allowing him to provide the most proactive sales tips and strategies to optimise the sales process. If you have not checked out his blog, that really is a must and can be found here.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

• How did John make his way into the world of SaaS and more specifically sales optimisation?
• How has John seen the sales landscape evolve? What has been the effect of the segmentation of roles pioneered by Salesforce?
• What will be the catalyst that causes teams to shift from current sales methods and teams to AI replacing the sales team? What does this depend on?
• How does John view the integration of sales and marketing? How does the rise of ABM change this?
• How can sales reps perfect the balance of being direct and being rude? How important is a summary email? What is the optimal structure and how should sales reps follow up on summary emails?

60 Second SaaStr

1. The most common question asked to John by VPs of Sales?
2. What are the benefits of Top Down prospecting?
3. Do execs need structure?

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

John Barrows

John Barrows is essentially the Godfather of Sales. We often have VPs of Sales from tech titans on the show but who trains those VPs and sales reps to be the best in the world at sales? That is where John Barrows comes in, with clients including Dropbox, Box, Marketo, Twilio and many more, John has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience allowing him to provide the most proactive sales tips and strategies to optimise the sales process. If you have not checked out his blog, that really is a must and can be found here.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How did John make his way into the world of SaaS and more specifically sales optimisation?
• How has John seen the sales landscape evolve? What has been the effect of the segmentation of roles pioneered by Salesforce?
• What will be the catalyst that causes teams to shift from current sales methods and teams to AI replacing the sales team? What does this depend on?
• How does John view the integration of sales and marketing? How does the rise of ABM change this?
• How can sales reps perfect the balance of being direct and being rude? How important is a summary email? What is the optimal structure and how should sales reps follow up on summary emails?

60 Second SaaStr

1. The most common question asked to John by VPs of Sales?
2. What are the benefits of Top Down prospecting?
3. Do execs need structure?

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

John Barrows

John Gleeson is VP of Customer Success @ Affinio where John was employee #1. 2 years and a half years later, John is the VP of Customer Success following their Series A and has seen the team expand to over 40 people and have offices in New York, Toronto, Halifax and Ireland. John has written a special blog post just for SaaStr listeners today outlining his ultimate guide to customer success reading, it is my go to guide for customer success.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

• How did John make his way into the world of SaaS and more specifically customer success?
• John has previously described customer success as 'The Analogue of Sales', what does he mean by this? How does it affect the way he views customer success
• How does John view the role of sales vs customer success in large accounts? How do they partner to drive expansion?
• How customer success managers be truly productive at the enterprise level? How can they measure their success with this productivity increase?
• Moving downstream, why does John believe the $2m benchmark per CSM is the hardest phase? What skills do you need to be successful at this stage? With so many accounts, is it possible to be proactive?

60 Second SaaStr

1. The biggest mistake most companies make when it comes to customer success?
2. Most common questions asked by CSM leaders?
3. Measuring customer success?

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

John Gleeson

John Gleeson is VP of Customer Success @ Affinio where John was employee #1. 2 years and a half years later, John is the VP of Customer Success following their Series A and has seen the team expand to over 40 people and have offices in New York, Toronto, Halifax and Ireland. John has written a special blog post just for SaaStr listeners today outlining his ultimate guide to customer success reading, it is my go to guide for customer success.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How did John make his way into the world of SaaS and more specifically customer success?
• John has previously described customer success as ‘The Analogue of Sales’, what does he mean by this? How does it affect the way he views customer success
• How does John view the role of sales vs customer success in large accounts? How do they partner to drive expansion?
• How customer success managers be truly productive at the enterprise level? How can they measure their success with this productivity increase?
• Moving downstream, why does John believe the $2m benchmark per CSM is the hardest phase? What skills do you need to be successful at this stage? With so many accounts, is it possible to be proactive?

60 Second SaaStr

1. The biggest mistake most companies make when it comes to customer success?
2. Most common questions asked by CSM leaders?
3. Measuring customer success?

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

John Gleeson

Lawrence Coburn is the Founder & CEO @ DoubleDutch, the category leader for event marketing automation. If you are at SaaStr and have the pleasure of using the SaaStr app, yep that is DoubleDutch! They have raised more than $75m in VC funding from some of the best VCs in the world including Index Ventures, Bessemer, Floodgate and Bullpen. As for Lawrence he is a three time entrepreneur, Lawrence also founded RateItAll, a top ten consumer review property, and LocationMeme, a blog about location based services. Lawrence is also the geo-location editor for The Next Web, is a mentor at IO Ventures, a San Francisco based incubator, and on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

• How did Lawrence made his way into SaaS and then came to found DoubleDutch, the category leader for mobile social events?
• How does Lawrence look to use SDR as a growth engine and does he think it is important to invest in this early to build the machine?
• How has Lawrence found the transition in terms of moving upmarket from SMB to Enterprise? How does Lawrence look to differentiate himself in such a crowded market?
• How has Lawrence seen the evolution of the team? Does he agree there are different people for different phases of the growth cycle?
• How does Lawrence look to use customer success as a bridge to cover gaps in product?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Fave SaaS resource?
2. What does Lawrence know now that he wish he had known at the beginning?
3. What is the biggest challenge Lawrence faces to this day?

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

Lawrence Coburn

Lawrence Coburn is the Founder & CEO @ DoubleDutch, the category leader for event marketing automation. If you are at SaaStr and have the pleasure of using the SaaStr app, yep that is DoubleDutch! They have raised more than $75m in VC funding from some of the best VCs in the world including Index Ventures, Bessemer, Floodgate and Bullpen. As for Lawrence he is a three time entrepreneur, Lawrence also founded RateItAll, a top ten consumer review property, and LocationMeme, a blog about location based services. Lawrence is also the geo-location editor for The Next Web, is a mentor at IO Ventures, a San Francisco based incubator, and on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How did Lawrence made his way into SaaS and then came to found DoubleDutch, the category leader for mobile social events?
• How does Lawrence look to use SDR as a growth engine and does he think it is important to invest in this early to build the machine?
• How has Lawrence found the transition in terms of moving upmarket from SMB to Enterprise? How does Lawrence look to differentiate himself in such a crowded market?
• How has Lawrence seen the evolution of the team? Does he agree there are different people for different phases of the growth cycle?
• How does Lawrence look to use customer success as a bridge to cover gaps in product?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Fave SaaS resource?
2. What does Lawrence know now that he wish he had known at the beginning?
3. What is the biggest challenge Lawrence faces to this day?

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

Lawrence Coburn