We closed out SaaStr AI 2026 with our deep dive AMA, and the theme this year: software is the least static it has ever been. The products we run change more in a month now than they used to in years. The old playbooks work but they are just … too slow. Planning once a…
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The Discount That Would’ve Kept Us So we’re going to churn off Adobe Marketo. The irony: I was one of the first 10 Marketo customers. Ever. I’ve been a customer (with a break) for goodness, the better part of two decades. And a reference account for years. I did the calls. I told other B2B…
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Dear SaaStr: What Happens if One Founder Wants to Quit When the Startup Has Just Raised VC Funding? This, unfortunately, is more common that you might think. First, be completely upfront with your investors immediately. As tough as this may be, it’s not the first time. Let them know, and let them know you are working…
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Someone on X this week made a claim that has truth in, but also radically overstates things: “I’ve built AI agents that do everything HubSpot would have done for me and more. And I’m not technically inclined.” I believe him. Because we’ve done a version of it ourselves. At SaaStr AI we now run a…
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Dear SaaStr: From 0 to $10m ARR, At What Point Do We Start Hiring and Whom? From $0 to $10M ARR, every hire has an outsized impact, and there’s little to no redundancy. So timing and prioritization are critical. Here’s how I’d break it down: $0 to $1M ARR: Founder-Led Everything Sales: Founders should lead…
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Our jaws drop at Anthropic’s growth rate, and its valuation. But sometimes we can lose sight of just how big it already is … versus everyone else in software. Anthropic exited 2025 at roughly $9 billion in run-rate revenue. By February 2026 it was $14 billion. Then $19 billion in March, $30 billion in April,…
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A lot of classic SaaStr content has been how to spot the best potential VPs. When to hire them. How to interview them and qualify them. What they really do. Etc. etc. Some classics here: How My VP, Sales Doubled Our Sales in 90 Days. And No, It Wasn’t Magic. If Your VP Sales Isn’t…
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Dear SaaStr: What’s The Best Way to Set Targets for the Sales Team? First, I try to model 3 overall plans for the year: C-90, C-60, and C-10, not just for the sales team, but the whole company. The C is for “Confidence”. The odds you think you can hit it, from the CEO’s perspective. …
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Two things are true in B2B right now, and they look like they can’t both be true. Total software spend is growing 15% this year, the fastest in a decade, up from 12.8% last year. Gartner has it going from $1.2T to $1.4T. At the same time, public software is trading at a discount to…
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Google Cloud’s VP of Global Demand & Growth, Sarah Kennedy Ellis, joined us for a day-three session at SaaStr AI 2026. She ran marketing at Marketo (sold to Adobe for $4.75B) and led marketing for Adobe’s enterprise software division before Google, so she has lived through more than one platform shift. Her core argument: Google…
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Just got an email from a CEO yesterday that they closed a $450,000 TCV deal from a buyer they met at SaaStr Annual in September Don’t say events don’t work Be where your customers are. Even in the age of AI. — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) December 21, 2024 Events. They are seemingly everywhere now,…
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Dear SaaStr: How Much Do B2B Sales People Make in Commission? "How to Build a Successful Sales Team Where Everyone Makes Good Money" @lennysan + @jasonlk More here -> https://t.co/XTFG4gqi0v pic.twitter.com/yD3Ub0VROa — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 20, 2024 Dear SaaStr: How Much Do SaaS Sales People Make in Commission? In SaaS, the fundamentals haven’t…
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On the latest episode of The Agents, we brought on Sam Blond, founder and CEO of Monaco, the AI-native revenue platform, and one of the agents we actually run in production. Sam has run outbound at Brex, Zenefits, and EchoSign, spent time as a partner at Founders Fund, and is now building one of the…
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Churn is not a GAAP metric. It doesn’t have a universal definition. Public companies and startups all seem to define churn differently. And even hide it in part, by doing so. I learned this myself starting out as a B2B CEO. I compared us to the only public company in our space, back in the…
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Dear SaaStr: When should I pay the commission for SaaS sales? All of our trial signups will get an automatic email from an account executive. How do we decide if the AE was responsible for the sale versus the sale just happened organically? Every company with a self-serve component and a sales-driven component frets a…
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