Jason M. Lemkin argues SaaS founders need to get out from behind their computers and hire aggressive sales talent. He contrasts viral consumer products with deliberate SaaS go-to-market strategies, frames $100M ARR as the goal, and warns that competition for talent is fierce.
If a bomb dropped on this building right now, the entire SaaS industry of San Francisco would disappear. Really hit a nerve that the idea of talking about these new routes to market and these new business models, there's not an empty seat in the room. We've got people here today that flew in from India, Australia, New Zealand, Paris, the uk. Everybody here is trying to build a company, and building something from nothing is a lot of hard work. My first piece of advice would be to drink more coffee. If you ever interview a salesperson and they drink tea, you should run for the hills. Was it from the data or was it strategic? He has people calling all across the country. I think a lot of founders, they have this dream of, hey, I'm going to code a product and people just come in and buy it. This isn't Yik Yak or Snapchat. It's not going to explode on you in 30 days. There's a big difference between being a nice to have and a must have solution. Get out from behind your damn computer. Go talk to people. Today, the competition is fierce. The entrepreneurs are so much better.
It's similar to playing in the NFL. The best talent in sales and the best talent anywhere wants to compete with the best.
You can't do it half baked. Let's all try to do this better so we can get to 100 million in revenue faster with less stress. And that's kind of the vision.
