Todd Olson

Ignore the link-bait title, because this is a great article from Jason Lemkin characterizing what it’s like as a mid-sized or large SaaS companies right now, and some excellent advice on “what to do.”

7

2 Comments

Inefficient meetings, unnecessary meetings, meetings for the sake of meetings... It's so prevalent that books, workshops, articles and trainings are constantly being offered on how to effectively manage meetings. An entire industry is built around it. One common principle, though, to helping make meetings more efficient is that of leveraging data in order to focus the attention and effort on the issues/initiatives that matter. StrtifyPro is a differentiator when it comes to collecting, managing and providing the data that enables real-time insights. These insights empower collaboration and guide us toward the best solutions. All of which results in more efficient use of our time and efforts. No more guessing games - collaborate effectively with data as your compass! Learn more about StratifyPro and watch your meetings transform! Get a demo today https://lnkd.in/gt2CjFTV #collaboration #meetingsthatmatter #StratifyPro #Strategy #Vision-to-Outcomes

7

1 Comment

🔬**New Research Alert**: Meet **Planetarium**, a strategic touchstone guiding language models to translate unstructured verbiage into cohesive planning directives. 🔀💡**Perplexed?** Envision harnessing this mechanized accuracy while steering your robust tech startup or digital product endeavor - a dance between humans and AI. 💼**Planetarium's Promise**: An impressive step forward, ushering us towards organized, reliable project management, especially handy in the rapid-fire milieu of dynamic tech startups and digital product firms. ☑️✔️**1.** Meld varied stakeholder inputs into PDDL-like, organized designs, ✔️**2.** Check these assignments against the base truth for sharp execution, ✔️**3.** Discern complexity layers for agile task navigation. 💫And voila? A stride towards AI-powered project management that independently navigates tasks, bouts, and beyond. ✨Ponder over this: The accuracy and unwavering consistency of machine talk translated back into human parlance - an innovatively conceived accessibility decoding elusive algorithms for a larger audience. 🧠Such frameworks could allow a diverse range of stakeholders, inclusive of non-tech team members, regulators, and patrons, to comprehend, wield, and utilize intricate algorithms. Additionally, it opens up a way towards transparency within corporations, a coveted characteristic in today's competitive arenas! By crafting a complex web of understanding, we can set sail on an innovative course to project management. Concur? What are your views on utilizing AI for a distinctive method to project planning? #AIPddlProjects #TransparencyInTech #GamechangerPlanetarium

Great conversation with Joey Brodsky! Definitely one of the sharpest guys I know. I love his passion, drive and unique perspectives. I have followed his podcast for a long time and was super happy to be able to be a guest. I will share more insights from our time together but wanted to post a quick thank you to Joey and share the episode. #NextGenSales

10

3 Comments

What does bold leadership look like in 2024? In this latest Product Thinking episode, I sit down with Margaret (MJ) Jastrebski, the SVP of Product at Tegus. We dive into the key strategies for uniting teams, breaking down silos, and leading with transparency. Margaret knows the investor research space inside and out from her work at Tegus, a platform that consolidates key company intelligence to help investors make smarter bets. With experience spanning product, sales, and marketing at companies like Stylitics and TXI, Margaret brought a unique 360-degree view. We discussed: ►Uniting fragmented teams behind one vision ►Breaking down silos between product, marketing, sales, etc. ►Leading with transparency to build trust and alignment Margaret emphasized the need for product leaders to externalize their decision-making process. By communicating rationale openly, you empower teams to truly understand and even constructively challenge your calls. Whether you're an up-and-comer or a seasoned pro, you'll want to hear Margaret's insights on casting a clear vision, tearing down organizational barriers, and inspiring teams to achieve big outcomes. What strategies have you found effective for aligning teams and leading with transparency? Share your insights below! Listen Now: https://lnkd.in/gAdV7k56 #ProductLeadership #Alignment #Transparency #BusinessStrategy

23

I just posted about Ploze to Product Hunt: https://lnkd.in/ebtktneU - I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look. (Unlock and integrate your digital life using Ploze: Load your data on-device from exports from a myriad of services, and view it all in an integrated searchable timeline. There is no cloud component to Ploze - it works on your computer.)

8

I have been living and practicing #GTM for a decade+. A unified GTM is the right strategy - integrating market, product, marketing, customer success, and sales (in that order). You can see the light bulb going off at more and more companies. This is not a fad, not a buzzword, and it's not a #salesmarketingalignment thing. In my experience, this focus has been an inhibitor to success. It's already hard enough to create a successful company and value solutions that markets need and want. Having held roles in #marketing, #sales, #product, and #customer success and now three years in a business 100% focused on unified GTM, it works. It's natural, and it makes sense. I know it's not easy. The larger the corporation, the harder it is to unify strategy, people, systems, processes, and data (emphasis on the people). And it is definitely not about technology. Tech plays a role but supports the strategy, It's exciting to see GTM teams who commit to adapting to the changing buying and decision-making process and align with what businesses and tech leaders prioritize. It's not #SaaS. GTM Partners

63

7 Comments

Two posts I shared with my team this week about LLM's impact on SaaS. SaaS has always been about solving a problem. Engineers I interview often ask me "Why spend so much time on the LLM stuff?". Aka, "Why are we working on all the hard stuff that is barely working, when there's plenty of problems to be solved the old way?". Brett Queener's tweet about the UI. He talks about a world where most of a software product's user interface will be a prompt or a recommendation. "..its far better user experience than forcing people to hunt and peck across your tabs, list views, form views and dashboard for them to get done what they want to. It also means that what you used to compete on / differentiate on traditionally (I have these capabilities / better easier to use screens / yada yada yada) are kinda irrelevant" Matt Turck's LinkedIn post, "Is SaaS dead?" SaaS vendors are currently perceived as “last generation” despite best efforts to add AI quickly. Customers trying to build themselves, since it's pretty easy to get started. He says what happens next: "* customers realize that “build” is a headache, not always good * OpenAI / Azure etc can’t / doesn’t want to build hundreds of problem specific/ vertical specific apps * Takes time, but legacy and new SaaS companies truly become AI-first (not just marketing), abstract away complexity of deploying LLMs * macro environment eventually rebounds * AIaaS becomes the new SaaS - what is old is new" Both are linked in the comments. #who-moved-my-cheese

7

7 Comments

The past couple of years have been super challenging for B2B SaaS marketers and sellers in building the pipeline to hit sales targets. Unfortunately, those market challenges often bubble up during tense weekly pipeline meetings. #pipelinemeetingpain Dan's post highlights how those S&M challenges compromise company growth rates, make fundraising hard/impossible, and result in headcount reductions to give VC-funded start-ups more time to weather the storm and ramp up their business performance. The post also breaks down how you can proactively turn the tide and take control of your GTM.  Understanding your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) at a deep level can and will enhance your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) performance, guide your content strategy, bolster sales enablement, and significantly increase the productivity of your outbound efforts. Read on to learn more. 

15

2 Comments

Had a great convo with Emma Cimolini 🍎 on building out RevOps systems for product-led growth (PLG) SaaS companies. I asked her what the core components of a marketing and RevOps system architecture need to be for these types of companies. Here's what she said: - Your SaaS app itself (obviously) - A billing system ( eg. Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly) - A CRM (eg. HubSpot, Salesforce) - Customer support/success (eg. Intercom, Zendesk, HubSpot, Salesforce) - In-app analytics (eg. Mixpanel, Amplitude, Heap | by Contentsquare) - Web analytics (eg. GA4, HubSpot, or even Mixpanel) As the company gets larger and more mature, it will probably also set up a data warehouse and some ETL/middleware tools to sit at the center of all of this and route data traffic through as well. But it might be overkill at the beginning of the company, and might be best added in later. Even without the data warehouse, this can seem like a lot to set up! It certainly requires more technology systems than some other types of businesses like professional services or home services or real estate. Emma recommends starting with choosing what questions you want answered first off, and then setting up the tools and data to answer that question. That's a much better approach than the other way around: spending your time first setting up large amounts of systems and instrumentation, and then after that deciding what sort of questions you're looking for answers for. You'll be setting yourself up for multiple rounds of redoing all your setup work over and over if you approach it that way. 😱 Check out this clip where Emma and I talk about all this. And be sure to check out the full episode from our podcast as well! I'll post the link in the comments.

10

8 Comments

To win in the world of AI/ digital disruption, progressive startups are embracing structural change . #1. Right prioritise your planning model ( short vs long).The short game (i.e. short term planning and execution) is critically important until you get to $50 M ish, more important than the long game ( i.e. long term vision) #2. Right size-mix your organization model (i.e. hire special forces vs full time employees / build small teams vs large teams) #startup #scaling #winning #longtermvsshortterm #specialforces #growth

4

People over tools, but when I started my last company the impact of good vs bad tools was wild. In the last edition, the founders of toby list some of the exact issues I ran into. Specifically how bad Rippling is, and how much better it was to work with Gusto. Founders sharing recommendations and feedback helps one another avoid the crap out there that seems good because they have unlimited marketing spend. Lori Berenberg is documenting this on her substack, give it a sub.

7

1 Comment

The latest from Harry Stebbings + me: a deep dive on Seed Investing Today, The Best and Worst Investments, SMB vs. Enterprise SaaS, "Acceptable" Churn, and When to Go Multi-Product. And more ;) https://lnkd.in/gsD_x2Pi

39

2 Comments

In a recent survey by SaaStr co-founder Jason M. Lemkin, over 58% respondents said that their SaaS sales cycle has lengthened in 2024. That’s not good news for an industry already under pressure. ⏰ ➡ With third party information sources proliferating, buyers have more control over the product evaluation process - which is an overwhelmingly positive development. However, the process of vetting information credibility is likely to lengthen the evaluation phase of procurement even further. 📑 ➡ With more stakeholders involved in rationalizing business spends, it is getting harder for deal/project drivers to find budget for new technology purchases. Sellers have their work cut out for them in convincing an increasingly cautious roster of decision-makers. 💰 ➡ Deployment, implementation and integrability are under the scanner, as buyers seek to simplify procurement right out of the gate, since they are on the clock to demonstrate RoI quicker than before. 📈 These are some of the reasons why we talk so much about how cloud marketplaces are built around the modern buyer’s priorities, while solving for seller efficiency. Rick Buijserd, Sr. Marketplace Development Manager EMEA, Amazon Web Services (AWS), provided some color to this context in our recent blog. Linking it here if you're looking for an interesting read - https://lnkd.in/d-XqFMVM 

10

1 Comment

It’s rare to find someone who has gone through a decade scaling developer workflows in a single company. I sat down with Kent Wills recently discussing the evolution of developer platforms at Yelp and dove into their ownership architecture. Listen to full episode on Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Youtube: https://lnkd.in/g722icVw Some key takeaways: 1️⃣ Yelp transitioned from a monolithic codebase to a service-oriented architecture that improved code ownership and productivity. 2️⃣ Yelp has internally built most of the tooling circled around ownership to handle tech debt and track vulnerabilities. 3️⃣ Yokyo Drift is an internal tool to support migrations across the organization Pre-commit is an internal tool (now open source) to help standardize the coding practices 4️⃣ AI-powered coding assistance has the potential to further enhance productivity and reduce repetitive work. #developerproductivity #ownership

26

2 Comments

There are some interesting thoughts from Esben Friis-Jensen on PLG company org design in this article. Simple is almost always better. We’ve been thinking a lot about the VP GTM role and recently hired one for one of our portfolio companies to lead marketing and sales. Revenue leaders traditionally come out of the sales discipline. In PLG companies, which rely more heavily on inbound demand generation, self-service, and a sales-assist motion, I expect we’ll see more young PLG companies consolidate revenue teams under leaders from a marketing background. https://lnkd.in/gjhgYNuF

27

4 Comments

If you're on the fence about taking a Revenue Architecture course, either in-person in Santa Cruz June 3-4 (see comments) or remote (see our website), please read what CEOs, RevOps Leaders, GTM Strategists, CMOs, Chief Customer Success Officers, and others have to say about this program: “THAT. WAS. AWESOME. 👏” “WOW. This course blew my mind.” “The "funnel" was turned on it's side.... literally....” “I wish I had taken this course years ago, but I'm so glad to have this information in my brain now.” “📜 This course has been an absolute game-changer, equipping me with the essential models for sustainable growth that constitute the Recurring Revenue Operating Model.” “This course is simply outstanding!” “World class instructor and the course content. It was fresh, appropriate for today's realities and most importantly - tangible". "You learn it and tomorrow use it”. “I highly recommend this course as it's super relevant for revenue leaders looking to add more science and data to their recurring revenue operations”. “Anyone wanting to deepening knowledge of how to drive growth and success with a company or division should absolutely take the Revenue Architecture class” “While I thought I had an amazing understanding of SaaS and Revenue models from years of building models, board decks and working with revenue teams and leaders...not to mention my MBA classes and focus in data analytics… I learned a ton!” “I can't say enough good things about this program." "I'm really fortunate to have had the opportunity to sharpen our tools and thinking." “Highly recommend it to every revenue & marketing operations professional out there!” “This course has given me a deeper understanding of the specific, proven models and frameworks to consistently achieve revenue goals 📈” “Incredible instruction! I can’t wait to elevate what I’ve always done with the teachings from this course! 💪🏻” “The methodology taught in this course allows you to architect your revenue in a way that achieves sustainable growth by understanding the fundamental principles of recurring revenue and the specific frameworks to apply across your GTM team.” “This course has been a game-changer for me. It was an incredibly insightful journey that taught me the fundamental models for sustainable growth that make up the Recurring Revenue Operating Model and provided a wealth of practical tools and resources. Honestly, it's one of the best courses I've taken professionally! 💯” “What a great course by Winning by Design on understanding the ins and outs of recurring revenue business 📈” "This will enable you to do the right thing at the right time to maximize success 🚀” “The Revenue Architecture course was an incredible course. I learned ways to increase growth by making some minor improvements, look at GTM motions and make sure they align with my business, and take the "right" action at different inflection points on the growth curve so my company doesn't flame out.”

55

6 Comments

Let’s face it: there’s no room in the #B2B space for ugly, clunky ROI and TCO spreadsheets. Think about it. How are your customers supposed to believe you can solve their complex sales, revenue, accounting, financial, or security issues if you’re using a 20-year-old tool to convey their potential outcomes to them? Here’s everything you need to know about the end of times for ROI and TCO spreadsheets in #sales and #marketing. Learn more about what works better here! https://hubs.li/Q02xPwj00 #ValueSellingTools #ValueDrivenSales #B2BRevolution #EndOfSpreadsheets #SalesSuccess

11