SaaS Masterclass: 3 Top SaaS Thought Leaders & Their Best Blog Posts
I made a terrible mistake last year.
Ironically (or idiotically?), I rarely posted about B2B SaaS.
Even though I have 15+ years of experience scaling B2B SaaS companies.
I made the classic startup mistake where you forget — or don’t realize — how much you learn along the way!
Well, folks, this egregious oversight ends today.
2024 is the year the O’Daily gets SaaSy.
(Not to be confused with “sassy” which we’ve been for years. 😂 💃)
Starting with some of my favorite SaaS thought leaders and the content we referenced most often from the trenches!
Here a 3 great SaaS thought leaders with 3 of the top articles from each.
1. Jason Lemkin via Saastr
What started as an awesome blog by Jason Lemkin, founder of EchoSign, is now a world-wide sen-SaaS-tion!
The 48 Types of VP Sales. Make Deadly Sure You Hire the Right One.
Evangelist - Make It Repeatable - Go Big - Dashboards chart is legendary.
Unending list of urgent priorities but no resources to address them? Correct! 🙃 But it does get better! (Circulated frequently at early Pardot 😂)
Customer Success Is A Single Digit Hire - I may be biased (just a few articles on Customer Success on the O’Daily)…but Jason lays out the financials and experiences to back me up!
#PROTIP
The SaaStr Annual conference is excellent! I attended and loved it. Relevant, actionable content and tons of SaaS founders, leaders, and investors who “get” it.
2. David Sacks
Ex-Paypal, founder of Yammer (acquired by Microsoft) who started Craft Ventures that invests exclusively in B2B SaaS. He’s a no-BS, numbers-oriented dude who has seen a ton and knows the playbook (and pitfalls!).
Simple Math To Set Up A Sales Team - base salaries, quotas, commission, CAC
The Dark Side of Sales - 10 potential pitfalls of fast growing sales teams
Key SaaS Metrics - what they are, how to calculate them
#PROTIP
Hear David Sacks’ current insights on SaaS, tech, and business every week on the All-In Podcast which is one of my favorite podcasts and a great way to understand how VCs think!
3. David Cummings
DISCLAIMER: I was part of two successful SaaS companies that David founded and invested in. Oh, and he founded Atlanta Ventures where I’m a partner now!
He’s written over 3000 (!!??🤯) blog posts on entrepreneurship and built multiple successful SaaS companies, so yeah, he’s a great resource!
12 Ideas To Strengthen Culture - culture is the only sustainable advantage a founder has complete control over. No one is better on practical, actionable strategies for this than David.
4 Reasons for Startups to Avoid Big Partnerships - not talked about as much as it should be; check out the “related articles” for more tips.
5 Controllable Factors In The Pardot Success Story - applicable to your SaaS company too!
#PROTIP
One of the best behind-the-scenes look at the early years of a now-multi-billion dollar SaaS company with David and Kyle Porter talking shop (as yours truly moderates).
What are some of your favorite SaaS articles or thought leaders? What resources do you reference frequently?
Fantastic references, excellent sources of key information and inspiration!