Building a hypergrowth SaaS business - talk delivered at the Wharton Entrepreneurship conference February 2015

1. Wharton Entrepreneur Conference
Feb 28, 2015
Building a Hypergrowth
SaaS company
Daniel Chait, CEO
greenhouse.io

2. Introduction
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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3. Introduction & background
Department by department
Company level stuff
Agenda
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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4. Software engineering degree from University of Michigan
Entrepreneurial career:
1997-2000
Business Velocity:bank presentation software
2002-2011
Lab49: Financial technology consulting company
2012-present
Greenhouse:SaaS recruiting platform
About Daniel Chait
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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5. Lean startup approach
First optimize for learning, then
for growth
Machine building
Systemize everything. If it’s not
a system it doesn’t exist.
Company building methodology
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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6. SaaS department by department
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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7. Mutually
Interdependent
Sales
Marketing
Customer
Success
Product
Company structure
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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8. Generate leads
Qualify leads (SQLs)
Close business
Sales objectives
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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9. Sales development
representatives (SDRs):
[outbound] lead generation
Account executives (AEs):deal
closers
Renewals
Sales roles
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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10. Generate qualified leads (MQLs)
Sales enablement
Sales strategy & tactics
Generate & utilize advocates
Talent marketing
Marketing objectives
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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11. Primary alignment w/ customer lifecycle stages
Top of funnel
Awareness & Interest – Demand gen, content
marketing, campaigns, email, social, nurture
Sales funnel
Buying process – product marketing, sales
enablement, ops
Customer funnel
Customer marketing – meetups, newsletters, updates
Advocate program – referrals, customer advisory
board, customer summit events
Marketing roles
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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12. Take over immediately post-sale,
provide great onboarding
experience
Ensure effective usage and broad
adoption within customer
Identify hotspots & proactively
turn around unhappy customers
Generate & utilize advocates
Customer success objectives
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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13. Chat support – immediacy,
responsiveness, friendliness
Account manager – product expert
Strategic accounts manager – large,
complex, or challenging accounts
Trainer – systematize learning
NOT Renewals – these go back to sales
(this is a revenue specialty)
Manage scale by specialization
Customer success roles
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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14. Objectives
Balance requirements between
stakeholders
Prioritize backlog
Agile development
Product team
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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15. Company level stuff
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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16. Never going to be perfect
Key is balance between lead
generation, sales closers, and account
management
Bias towards too many leads
It’s all tradeoffs but with more leads
you will have better problems than
with not enough leads
How it all fits together
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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17. Recruiting
Fundraising
Management
Additional stuff we can talk about
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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18. Greenhouse www.greenhouse.io
Tomasz Tunguz www.tomtunguz.com
Jason Lemkin www.saastr.com
Hiten Shah www.hitenism.com
Aaron Ross www.predictablerevenue.com
@dhchait
Wharton Entrepreneur Conference Feb 28, 2015
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Resources / further reading