Shelley Perry

🔑 The Power of a Written Exercise in Interviewing Revenue Leaders 📝 Hiring the right revenue leader can make or break an organization. As we search for smart folks to drive our revenue growth at Vanta, one approach has consistently proven to be a game-changer: the written exercise. 🔍 Why a Written Exercise? Clarity of Thought: A well designed exercise reveals a candidate's ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and concisely. This skill is vital for revenue leaders who must communicate strategies across diverse teams and stakeholders. Strategic Insight: Through real-world scenarios, candidates demonstrate their strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities. This helps us gauge their approach to challenges and opportunities unique to our business. Analytical Prowess: Written exercises allow candidates to showcase their analytical skills. By dissecting data and presenting actionable insights, we can see how they drive decisions that lead to growth. Cultural Fit: How a candidate approaches a written task can also give us a glimpse into their work ethic, attention to detail, and alignment with our company values and culture. Elliot Goldwater has really nailed this practice, and it's incredible how much the exercise can swing a process towards or away from a candidate. 👥 Have you implemented written exercises in your hiring process? What has been your experience? #RevenueGrowth #Leadership #HiringTrends #Interviewing #TalentAcquisition #Strategy

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🚀Just Dropped a New Episode on the Unsold Podcast on simplifying homepage messaging for early-stage SaaS companies! 🚀Join me, Santhosh Venkatesh, for an enlightening conversation with Robert Kaminski of FletchPMM. 🎙️ Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gpki2KGw 🔑 Takeaways: Expertise Unpacked: Robert reveals how simplifying homepage messaging can dramatically bring clarity to product value for potential customers of early-stage SaaS companies. Strategic Deep Dive: We discuss the frameworks that have propelled numerous startups to clarify their message and sharpen their market positioning. Interactive Discussion: The episode features a dynamic Q&A session, drawing from some of Robert’s insightful LinkedIn posts on effective SaaS marketing. Tune in to discover how the right messaging on your homepage can help your ideal buyers quickly understand your product's top most benefits. Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/giJEQEkp Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g7_Y-Ku6 Thanks to Gowtham kashyap for producing the pod. #SaaSMarketing #B2BStrategy #StartupTips #MarketingInsights #UnsoldPodcast

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𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆-𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀! We're conducting a benchmarking study to define success metrics specifically for vertical software companies. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Existing SaaS benchmarks just don't cut it for your unique industry needs. This research will provide the data-driven insights to measure and optimize your vertical software business. 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽? A few minutes of your time can make a big difference.

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Founders know Rippling is where to go. Where to go to build your business from seed stage to IPO, but also where to go as a former founder if you want high accountability, runway, and an opportunity to build something big. Thanks for the shoutout Garry Tan! Let’s build together!👷🏼‍♂️🚀😀 https://lnkd.in/guAtia7i

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We use Circle for our community at Exit Five, and Matthew Carnevale has become a Circle power user (he runs our community). They did this awesome write about how to grow a community with insights from Matt and Exit Five sprinkled in. • How to use your community as an audience growth multiplier • 5 systematic community growth strategies • Why you should treat your community like a product, and • Best practices for growing your community https://lnkd.in/e9vs32NQ

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SaaStrAnnual.com 2024 is ALMOST HERE!! Sep 10-12 SF Bay CEO Klaviyo CEO Bill CEO Apollo CEO Attentive CEO Vimeo CEO Ironclad CEO Jasper CBO Stripe President Brex President Plaid CPO Rubrik CPO Webflow CPO Procore CPO Loom CPO GitHub CPO Buffer CPO Onfleet CRO Rippling CRO Notion CRO GitHub CRO DeepL CRO Carta CRO Owner CRO One Paper Lane COO Checkr CMO Seismic CMO Sprout Social CMO Deepgram CTO AI Five9 CTO AI Zoom CTO Gorgias SVP Slack VPM OpenAi VPM Cohere VP Pricing Splunk VP Pricing Miro VP AI Freshworks and 100s more!! See. You. There!! It's Where the Cloud Meet

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"The best offsites create space for serendipity." ✨ That was our guiding principle for Clarify‎'s recent team gathering in Seattle. The result? A transformative experience that's already paying dividends in team cohesion and product innovation. 🙌 Our key ingredients for offsite success: 🤝 Prioritize unstructured bonding time  💼 Mix work (hello, hackathon!) with 🤿 play (who's up for a lake plunge?)  ❤️Create opportunities for vulnerability and deep connection   💸 Keep it budget-friendly without sacrificing impact But the real magic? Watching our team of 11 take all their energy and use it to ship 6 awesome customer projects in the week following our return. Austin Hay‎ packed all our insights, learnings, highlights, and even a few missteps into the latest Clarify blog. Whether you're planning your first offsite, looking to level up your team gatherings, or just want some recommendations for things to do in Seattle, we've got you covered. 🌆 Bonus: We're turned the Notion and Google Sheets project docs we used to plan everything into templates you can steal for your next offsite.  You can find the link to the full write up w/ our templates in the comments. 👇

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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

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NVIDIA Jensen Huang manages 60 direct reports and skips 1-on-1s. His reasoning? *Equal Access to Information*: Empowerment through shared knowledge. *Flattening Hierarchies*: Reducing organizational layers for efficiency. *Public Feedback*: Enhancing team learning by addressing issues openly. Why 1-on-1s Are Outdated: Private feedback often benefits only the manager, depriving the team of collective learning opportunities and slowing down information flow. Lesson Learned: Open, collective feedback and transparency can foster a more informed, agile, and cohesive team. #Leadership #Management #Teamwork #Transparency #LearningCulture

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What do startup founders wish they'd done sooner? Some lessons from 8 great CEOs: 🔹 Prioritize external communication 🔹 Focus on product quality 🔹 Invest in better infrastructure 🔹 Hire leaders 🔹 Bring in a VP of Finance (at ~100 headcount) 🔹 Deeply understand your ICP 🔹 Focus on getting PMF More gold here:

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Looking forward to attending SaaStr 2024! The last time I attended was ~10 years ago when I was in the VC business and chasing vertical software companies. We had a good run and a number of the investments were objective success stories (Zendesk, Twilio, RelateIQ LLC). Some of vertical SaaS companies of that era went on to become great public companies, others were acquired (early or late) by incumbents in their vertical, and still others didn't make it. The ones that didn't make it crashed like small waves against the giant rocks that represent legacy platform players. Rough analogy and even rougher reality. 🌊 Some verticals require a bigger, bolder, platform play to survive and deliver significant value to customer. The HR, IT, and Spend verticals fit this description and that's why Rippling was built the way it was. To hear more about how software has been built all wrong for the last 20 years, check out this podcast with Parker Conrad! https://lnkd.in/gWWfqsei Lastly, check us out at SaaStr if you want to hear more about Rippling for your business or just the Rippling philosophy for software development - two events below: 1. Kicking off SaaStr 2024 with Opp-toberfest!  Join us for an evening of German fare, refreshing drinks, and amazing networking at Wursthall in San Mateo.   Tuesday, September 10th 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM PDT Wursthall, 310 Baldwin Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401RSVP here!artup Battlefield RSVP: https://lnkd.in/g3eG5q3U 2. How Sales Teams are Evolving in 2024 and Beyond with Rippling's CRO, Matt Plank, and former Brex CRO, Sam Blond. Plank is one of the rare sales leaders that can scale a company from seed stage to IPO and know how to sell, do the math, and manage a large org every step of the way. This will be an action packed session.     Thursday, September 12th  9:00 AM - 9:40 AM PDT The "Where the Cloud Meets" Main Stage

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Now that we’ve delivered custom workforce management solutions for a few contractors in California, I’ve had a chance to really see the folks in the field and the management issues that trace back to the days when laptops were a luxury thing. (I’m talking about small to mid-sized organizations here.) It turned out to be quite a conservative vertical, with many still relying on outdated stuff. Challenges Faced by Field Service Businesses: A survey by Verizon Connect highlights the most challenging issues: - Customer satisfaction (56%) - Profit margins (48%) - Talent acquisition and retention (47%) Other challenges include: Technology Alignment: Many companies use multiple outdated technologies that don’t integrate whatsoever. Operational Cost Increase: Dispatches generate revenue but also generate crazy overhead. Talent Pool: Poor technology frustrates field staff, leading to higher turnover. When it comes to field service management, some industries are particularly notorious for poor management. The top five industries that struggle the most with FSM are: Telecommunications: Companies in this sector often face challenges with scheduling, dispatching, and maintaining the vast network infrastructure, leading to delays and inefficiencies​ Utilities: The management of services like electricity, water, and gas supply is complex, often plagued by outdated systems and equipment, leading to frequent service disruptions and customer dissatisfaction​ Healthcare: Field service in healthcare involves the maintenance and repair of critical medical equipment. Issues here can severely impact patient care and safety due to delays in service and equipment downtime​ Construction: Managing field services in construction is challenging due to the dynamic and fragmented nature of projects. Poor coordination and communication often result in project delays and increased costs​ Manufacturing: This industry deals with maintaining machinery and equipment both in-house and at customer sites. Ineffective FSM can lead to prolonged downtimes and significant productivity losses​ TBC

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AI in Vertical SaaS ____ I've been learning from SaaStr content for over a decade now. I loved Jason M. Lemkin's recent interview with Mangomint's Founder / CEO, Daniel Lang, about the growth of vertical SaaS. The entire video resonated with my own vertical SaaS founder experience at CampusLogic as well as the high-growth vertical SaaS companies I have invested in at PHX Ventures (e.g., Virtuous, equipifi, Nurture Boss, Soraban, eVisit, Rivia Health, Botco.ai, Coursedog, etc.). This clip below captures why I am bullish on AI in a vertical SaaS context. I believe the next decade will be the biggest period of productivity gains in my lifetime in most industries. It's a great time to be building an AI-driven vertical SaaS company. ___ PS - I hope everyone has a great week at SaaStr Annual 2024. #b2b #saas #founders

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I believe two of the big winners over the next 10 years in the SMB category will be PE who are rolling up the businesses and GenAI powered software that makes running these businesses significantly more turnkey and/or profitable. Thanks for having me on Jay Kapoor. If you want spicy takes fast forward to 25 min mark. If you want to get deep in market analysis buckle in for the whole thing. https://lnkd.in/d8M7Jyrx

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In case you missed it last week, one of my favorite SaaS benchmark reports was released. Thanks to High Alpha and OpenView for the work and having us as a partner! This thing is stuffed full of insights on everything from growth rates, net revenue retention, ARR per FTE, and more. You can't build a great SaaS business without it! https://lnkd.in/ghKT_tBY

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Another day, another app out in the wild! 📲 🌱 The new Clear Choice mobile app allows Washington residents to shop from 2 of their stores in Tacoma & Bremerton, from the comfort of home or work. -Search for specific brands and locate which store has it on stock. -Fun in-app shopping - not your mobile website mirrored on your app -Engaging rewards -Order tracking & more Check it out on the App Store today. 🌱 #clearchoice #newapp #custommobileapps #washington #digitalawesome

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Churn isn't always a bad thing – in fact, it can be a strategic move that boosts your bottom line. In this article, Chargebee's CMO, Guy Marion explores the concept of Strategic Churn and how it can be leveraged as a powerful tool for growth and optimization. Check out the full piece here: https://chrge.be/45m1s6c #SubscriptionManagement #RetentionStrategies

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SaaStr in San Mateo is back, and this year we’re doubling the team! Last year was a huge success (a bit of a surprise, honestly) – we connected with so many CFOs, controllers, founders, and CEOs who had major concerns about their billings and revenue. This year, I’m excited to discuss key topics like: • Hybrid growth strategies • Efficient growth approaches • The mix of sales-led and product-led growth • Ensuring the right data is available for decision-making Come meet me and the Younium team at booth G106 or spot us by our signature pink hats! Let’s connect and talk about how we can help drive your growth! #saastr #saastr2024 #hybridgrowth #subscriptionmanagement

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As a founder and CEO, I’ve learned that true founder-market fit isn’t just about understanding your industry, it’s about the tenacity to push through when the inevitable challenges hit. Budget freezes, talent moves, customer churn, investor pullback, lost sales, and product or service quality issues are all part of the journey. Startups aren’t linear; the road is bumpy, and you need to be ready to navigate the unexpected. Building startup businesses in any sector is difficult but surviving and thriving in the technology arena is not for the faint of heart. You can have the best product-market fit in the world, but without the grit to keep going when constant change is afoot, key talent departs, or when you lose a big deal you thought was in the bag, it won’t matter. Your deep understanding, experience, expertise and comfort of the market gives you an edge, but it’s the ability to adapt, stay committed and push forward every day that ultimately drives success. Tenacity isn’t just a trait... it’s the backbone of every successful founder. It’s waking up every day, hungry to improve, iterate, and win. A results and outcomes disposition is key. Founders who embrace the uncertainty and keep the faith are the ones who move industries forward.

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