Sam Jacobs

"When is the right time to hire your first sales leader?" I sat down with Eric Boduch, Founder of 24 and Up, CEO of Revcast, and co-founder of Pendo.io, to discuss the key signals every founder should look for before making this critical hire. Check out Episode 449 of The Full Ratchet for his expert insights! Link to the full episode is in the comment section below.

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That's why it's often very difficult to recognize new leaders – their ideas go beyond the conventional frameworks we're accustomed to. Keep your mind open. Don't let yesterday's templates define your future. #Leadership, #Innovation, #OpenMind, #FutureThinking, #venturethinking,   https://lnkd.in/eASPGsuu

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I enjoyed going on Nick Telson-Sillett’s podcast, Pitch Deck by Forward Pursuit. Nick is a serial founder and investor (founded and exited DesignMyNight) so knows both sides of the table which always makes for an enriching chat. Some things we discussed: - The perceived power dynamic between VCs and founders can hinder productive conversations. - A compelling product demo can significantly influence investor interest. - Founders must focus on solving real customer problems to succeed. - Hiring standards are crucial for building a successful startup team. - Behavioural roadblocks can prevent the adoption of new solutions. - Validation from potential customers is key for pre-revenue startups. - The early-stage funding landscape has become more efficient and selective. - Pace of execution is a critical factor in attracting investment.

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The Techstars B2B Services Guide is live. This guide connects you with over 300 Techstars companies offering a wide range of B2B solutions  – from legal automation to employee benefits. Worth a look if you're scaling your business. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gEs5pci9 

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Advisory boards have been pivotal throughout my career, and this new report from the Boardstream team is a must-read. It’s packed with actionable insights on how to build and leverage an advisory board that truly drives impact and growth. Well done, Evan Kraut and Marina Ilishaev! 👉 https://lnkd.in/dPTAS4-Y #AdvisoryBoards #CAB #Leadership #Boardstream #WhitePaper

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So many SaaS companies lead their sales process with their sales team. Great idea, right? Wrong. Find out how we do things differently to create stronger relationships with our clients—and how it benefits you—in the video below. --- PS—Book a call with Integrate.io to experience it yourself.

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Rolling into another day of the Primary Summit. Hit me up if we should connect onsite. Kudos to the Primary Ventures team so far, as yesterday’s Pre-Seed Summit was on point. Mar Hershenson, Benjamin Sun, Chris Douvos, Zach Weinberg, and Graham Pingree all dropping helpful nuggets for fund managers. Some paraphrased highlights: - Chris Douvos (AHOY Capital) - Most fund decks are terrible. Start with your people (not your strategy) and know you have about 6 slides of his attention. - Zach Weinberg (Curie.Bio ) - beleives SF’s AI talent is a significant advantage over NY, wouldn’t build AI in NY. Also questions if VC exits can keep up with VC expansion (generally hilarious and smart Twitter follow) - Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) - VC is so much more competitive now. It’s not enough to be an ex-founder with a great network and domain expertise. Have a better “why you are different” or do something else! - Benjamin Sun (Primary Venture Partners)- still sees arbitrage in going long NY venture (vs. SF). Do the work to keep various influential networking nodes aware of what you’re doing and how you think.

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Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

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A few highlights from our discussion on next-gen pipeline building with Lauren Schwartz (VP Enterprise Sales, Fivetran) & Kim Graves (Head of Sales, Notion) from 20SALES: (1) Cold outbound is rough. Seek W.A.R.M outbound: "W" is for 'within your ICP'.  It’s important to be very targeted, know your buyer, and the tech stack they're using. "A" stands for 'authority or credibility'. Do you have credibility in the space? Have you talked to other companies like them and have insight to share? "R" is for 'relevance'. Why is it relevant to have the conversation now? "M" is for ‘make it personal.’ It can't feel like AI. (2) Next-gen pipeline building requires a holistic approach: Pipeline coverage should be 4-5x in this market (rather than 3x) and requires rigor around the right channel mix  (3) AI is enabling, not replacing outbound: AI can help automate away many parts of your workflow, particularly non-customer facing ones. The most useful tools today provide data aggregation/enrichment and intent-based signaling. (4) Partnerships can be an accelerant: Find power in collaborating with complimentary tech (“It’s called a tech stack for a reason”).  Consider other players who could act as an extension of your sales team to help you generate pipeline. If you have prospects with these companies already in their stack, the quality of that pipeline is usually higher. (5) You are the CEO of your territory: Good sellers know that they are in control of their own destiny. Never assume that the pipeline is going to come from other channels or become overly reliant on marketing or partners.  (6) Find your “Renaissance rep”: Your first sales hires should be very adaptable, great communicators, problem solvers, and process builders. Reps should also be very collaborative and constantly bringing feedback from customers back to the team. We all benefited from your wisdom - thanks for joining our community of founders & GTM execs at Menlo Ventures! CC: Kandace Elam

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KNOW YOUR REAL BUSINESS ECONOMICS • GAAP Revenue • Cash Flow • Cash • Contribution Margin • CAC • CAC Payback FUNDRAISING: PRESENT & SUBSTANTIATE FINANCIALS • Investor needs to know what your forecasts are • They need to believe them David Weiden, Khosla Ventures

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Did you know the differences between Bookings, Billings, and Revenue in SaaS?! I tried to break it down in this little cheat sheet:

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Hiring alert! One of our newest MKT1 portfolio companies is hiring a founding marketer. nodaFi is vertical SaaS that understands a wedge-in strategy. The team is scrappy and values marketing--and really understands their ICP - facilities managers. If you're based in the Bay Area and interested in helping bring a tech-first approach to an industry that operates with pen & paper, take a look. The founders are awesome (cc Jacob Pandl & Michael Loyda) JD link in the comments.

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A recent chat with a portco founder reminded me that #B2Bsales 101 says you can’t sell your product to anyone - the customer has to buy it. Which means, the product you think you are selling is not necessarily what they are buying. A classic example would be a kitchen knife. Who buys a kitchen knife just to put it in a drawer? No one. People buy a way to chop vegetables. If it’s a knife, a sword or a lightsaber - doesn’t matter. They want their vegetables chopped. What are you really selling? A way to chop vegetables. That means your first task in a B2B sale is to find out: what does the customer think they are buying? What do they actually need? If it’s chopped vegetables, show them how neatly you can cut them; don’t spend time showing how amazingly long the knife is or how well the sun reflects off the blade. Or in the B2B context: hey Mr. Customer, what is the problem you’re trying to solve? Great, let me show you how my product solves it for you. Extra points: give your customer credit that they’ve tried other products. It’s perfectly valid to ask: “what have you tried so far? What is it you did not like about the other solutions? (=this is the unmet need. Focus on that and you increase the changes to close the deal)

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Great article from PitchBook on why domain expertise amongst VCs matters. TL;DR -- in verticals like healthcare, having investors with high amount of domain expertise can result in up to 40% higher odds of achieving an IPO, 20% higher chance of being acquired and 30% higher chance of an overall successful exit. Importantly, the marginal value of having investors with domain expertise varies by sector and stage, and is not uniform, so your mileage may vary, and generalist investors still have a very important role to play in the venture ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/dXpi8gzm Curious to hear from founders: Do you have examples of seeing specialist investors be helpful in unique ways that you can share? Or alternatively, do you have an experience with a generalist investor who has been more helpful than the specialists?

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Customer Success isn’t just about keeping clients happy, it’s a boardroom-level conversation that investors will scrutinize. ⬇️ At #SaaStr2024, Nick Mehta from Gainsight broke down 10 critical questions that every founder and customer success leader should be ready to answer when engaging with investors. #CustomerSuccess #SaaS #TreeAndLeafPartners #NickMehta #Investor #Leaders #SaaStr2024

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Founders need to think deeply from early days about how to translate the clarity and vision that fuels their own drive into something that resonates with their team. It’s not enough for a founder to work hard — real progress happens when the entire team shares that sense of purpose and commitment. THIS is culture - the underpinnings that drive and sustain high performance for everyone. Secondly, navigating conflict, building trust, and influencing others are essential skills. These "people dynamics" are core to a founder's success because they shape how effectively a team works together. More importantly, one of the most challenging, surprising, and time-consuming aspects of a founder's role is managing people-related issues—whether with co-founders, customers, board members, employees, or investors. The ability to handle these complexities is what often distinguishes successful founders, as they build and sustain the relationships that support the company’s growth and resilience

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Are you a start-up founder looking for your first VC money and a ton of guidance from GTM experts to get your revenue engine going? See below to apply to Stage2's Catalyst program - applications are open now. The insights you'll get from GTM experts will be transformative.

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