So “SaaStr Inc” will cross $100,000,000 in cumulative revenue a little later this year. Not ARR, and not in 1 year. But since our beginning.
It wasn’t originally intended to make any money, and didn’t have any revenue for years, but it’s been 10 years, and we’ll soon cross that milestone.
A few learnings:
#1. Non-recurring revenue doesn’t really scale.
It can look like it repeats, and it sort of repeats, but it’s not remotely the same as 100% NRR. This is why so many media companies do struggle to maintain growth as they get bigger.
#2. The people side of sales never gets easier. The rest does.
Yup. The playbook gets known, the brand gets stronger, you have more and more revenue to renew as time goes on. But finding great people? That never gets easier. Good markets or bad.
#3. CMOs have a really tough job.
If you say No to too much, you lose your job. Not enough pipeline. If you say Yes to the wrong things, you lose your job. Wrong pipeline. You can’t stay in place too long.
#4. The world outside of tech is full of corruption.
The vendors we’ve worked with that take back-channel payments, that charge for work never done, etc. might shock you.
#5. What worked 4 years ago only sort of works today. What worked 8 years ago does not work at all today.
We all know this, I’m just relearning it 🙂
#6. 10x Folks Matter Now Even More Than Ever. You can’t let them go.
And you have to seek them out like a heat-seeking missile.
#7. Bootstrapping isn’t Better or Worse. But it is more flexible.
The pressure is real but it isn’t the same without as many external forcing functions.
#8. Most folks just want to work at a classic SaaS company selling the same way as the rest.
If you do something a bit different from that, you will have to expand the talent pool you bring in.
#9. Paying poorly backfires, but paying top of market isn’t a magic happiness vehicle.
I’ve had a chance to run experiments on big profit sharing, big bonuses, and lots more. They are fun, but ultimately, don’t move to needle either way on happiness or retention. Not in the end.
#10. Do Free Stuff for Free, but Don’t Do Paid Stuff for Free. A lesson re-learned.
100% of SaaStr content is free, and 99% of SaaStr stuff overall is free. But we do charge for sponsorships, and charge tickets to offset some (not all) of the costs to put on our IRL events. We’ve tried doing a lot of free stuff for our sponsors and partners over the years. In the end, they don’t care or remember. They have their one goal. I guess we all do.
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
