Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Unlocking Growth Potential Don't Underestimate the Power of Key Hires

11 Nov 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:49

Jason M. Lemkin argues that startups often mistakenly believe they "can't afford" senior hires (VPs of Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Engineering). He contends that once a company has modest runway or revenue (after the earliest bootstrapped stage), these roles can be ROI-positive because the hire can drive features, deals, or growth that pay for their compensation.

Questions this video answers

$500,000 to $700,000 in cash

$250,000 comp package

Millions or even tens of millions in revenue

Chapters

We can't afford a VP of marketing. We can't afford a VP of Sales. We can't afford customer success. We can't afford a VP of engineering. It's just not true, folks. The reason you're saying that is you've never worked with a great one. Now listen, in the very early days, if you have no money, 500,000, 700,000 in cash, maybe you can't afford it. Okay? There are certain. There are certain just base salaries you can't afford. But after even a couple million in error, you can afford any higher if they're accretive. Now we've done this math on Saster before, but I want to repeat it because almost every day I talk to some founder doing millions or even tens of millions of revenue and says they can't afford something that is ROI positive. If you think you can't afford a VP of Engine, let's say that VP of Eng wants a $250,000 comp package and you ship two more huge features that let you close two big enterprise deals they've paid for themselves.