Eric Hazan’s Post

🚀 Exciting Read for Aspiring Leaders in the SaaS Industry! 🚀 Navigating the journey from a start-up to a thriving enterprise is truly commendable. McKinsey's latest article, "From start-up to centaur: Leadership lessons on scaling," delves deep into this complex process, specifically for B2B SaaS businesses. Eric Hazan, thanks for sharing this insightful piece that offers actionable strategies for ambitious leaders aiming to scale their ventures. #Leadership #SaaS #BusinessScaling #StartupGrowth #Innovation

A laser-focused approach can propel startups to remarkable heights. By concentrating on key metrics that drive impactful results, companies can transform potential into explosive growth. Imagine an expert with a sharp eye for revenue generation dissecting your business model to pinpoint the exact strategies with the highest growth potential. This targeted approach allows SaaS companies to allocate resources efficiently, avoiding the pitfalls of scattered efforts. Metrics like 𝑪𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑨𝒄𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 (𝑪𝑨𝑪), 𝑪𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 (𝑪𝑳𝑽), 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒍𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒖𝒆 (𝑴𝑹𝑹), and others are more than just numbers. They provide actionable insights into the health of your business, guiding decisions that can make or break your growth strategy. Strategically leveraging advanced revenue metrics combined with a disciplined focus on key initiatives enables SaaS companies to uncover growth opportunities, refine strategies, and drive operational efficiency. These metrics provide the insights needed to fine-tune business models, align teams, and foster a culture of continuous improvement, while a focused execution ensures that efforts are concentrated where they will have the greatest impact. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 '𝐊𝐏𝐈' 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭

Management Related Processes - Numbers 19 to 25 Growth & Scaling Workshop #3 is on process and process management for systemization. You can only scale when you have these designed, tested and documented well. Otherwise, havoc is likely to ensue. You need to do 100+ things well to scale a company. Only 1 in 400 companies ever reach $10M in sales, and 1 in 6,300 reaches $100M. Most people fail to systematize their operations, management, finance, marketing and sales well. And fail to develop and control their culture too. This is just an extract from our monthly workshops on scaling companies. Register for a free workshop on growing companies at: https://lnkd.in/g3uTpuYk This monthly event is for CEOs at $1M plus companies and those preparing to scale in the years to come. It is held on the first Wednesday of each month and replays are sent to registrants. And get lots of free resources for startups under $1M annual sales at www.EntrepreneurshipU.com. We help companies get to $10M, then $100M in sales after product-market fit is achieved by installing everything needed to scale. See www.AirTightGrowth.com.

The Challenge of Balancing Innovation and Resource Allocation in Early-Stage SaaS In the fast-paced world of B2B SaaS, maintaining a balance between innovation and resource allocation is a constant challenge. As companies grow, the pressure to deliver new features while managing limited resources can be overwhelming. For early-stage startups, this balancing act often determines whether they can scale effectively or stumble under the weight of their ambitions. 🌟 One of the most effective strategies is to invest in tools and technologies that enhance efficiency without compromising innovation. By automating routine tasks, teams can focus on what truly matters—delivering value to customers and staying ahead of the competition. However, it’s not just about automation; it’s also about making informed decisions on where to allocate resources to maximize impact. Leadership plays a crucial role in this process. Leaders must continually assess which areas of the business need investment and which can be streamlined or automated. This requires a deep understanding of both the technology landscape and the specific needs of the business. The companies that succeed are those that can adapt quickly, making the most of their resources while continuing to innovate. Are you finding it tough to balance innovation with resource constraints? Let’s discuss how early-stage SaaS companies can navigate these challenges successfully. 💬 #SaaS #Innovation #ResourceManagement #TechLeadership #GrowthMindset

How have you managed to scale a business successfully? Founder CEOs with a clear-eyed vision for their growth journey find themselves well positioned to achieve scaled innovation. The journey can be difficult—but it is possible. Founder CEOs of fast-growth companies and their investors should view organizational scaling as something within their grasp. But a deliberate approach is crucial, requiring founders to develop strong practices to succeed and excel during each growth phase. Approaches should encompass companies’ scaling strategy as well as their talent and organizational decisions to execute critical moments of growth effectively. While all successful start-ups iterate between building their product and validating it in the marketplace, the path they choose to take is dependent on their goals and capabilities. Three paths are most prevalent, each having a particular focus: sales-first, product-first (or “lean start-up”), and tech-first: (1) Sales-first companies quickly sell their proposition to a broad group of customers and build their product based on these sales. They tend to be more opportunistic in their target market but must be careful to prevent tech or product debt, which results from prioritizing the delivery of a product over the functionality of it. They also optimize their sales, marketing, and customer success functions early. (2) Product-first companies iterate with customers via minimum viable products to validate and generate demand. These companies tend to start with medium or small businesses as customers to generate enough demand to iterate on the product propositions. (3) Tech-first companies start by building deep technical capabilities and find growth through novel technology. They rely on their technological superiority compared with the competition and balance tech innovation with customer iteration. Talent with excellent R&D skills is critical for these companies to stay ahead of competitors. Regardless of the path, high-performing scale-ups optimize their operating models for their growth; they scale quickly, rapidly expand into new industries or geographies, and aim to disrupt an industry. Many start-ups may think the lean approach to finding product–market fit is the most straightforward route, but depending on a company’s goals, another path may be more suitable. Each path has a distinct operating model, with specific talent, culture, and ways of working to enable success. #leadership #mckinsey #growth #b2b #sales #scaling

Passion, Pace, Priorities, Perseverance! These have become my new 4 Ps! Any marketer will know what I'm talking about! Joining GoodBards has been the biggest leap of faith yet in my career. Not because I don't have faith in GoodBards, but because it meant really backing myself up, leaving the corporate world behind and putting 25 years of Marketing experience into a product and a team that I feel excited and passionate about. That said, I am beyond grateful for us to have an amazing team of Advisors that jump in whenever we need to take a step back and get some perspective and help in decision making. So today we are introducing Roman Bartik, our powerhouse commercial Advisor. Never stop learning and don't hesitate to ask for advice, has never been more true for me than it is now! #startup #advisors #leadership #innovate

At some point in the last 2-3 years we in tech got totally high on our own supply regarding one particular growth motion: PLG. I’m not here to say anything bad about PLG — if you can achieve product led growth, that’s fantastic and you know it. BUT I am here to say that in the last couple of years I’ve seen a lot of startups hard-assume that they are “PLG companies” when they, in fact, are not. Now, the tricky thing about B2D is that your growth model is usually a blended. The ability for developers to use your product without having a conversation is essential, but if you’re trying to sell a product of import any customer that isn’t a tiny startup usually wants to have a conversation. So! Where does that leave us? It leaves us with more than we’ll cover in today’s blog! But I reached out to the amazing Shani C. Taylor because I was thinking about just this topic. We're talking about Champion Led Growth, which I would map as a flavor of sales-led or really customer success led growth, with one of tech’s leading experts on the subject. Shani was one of the key team members who helped uncover Airtable’s champion-led growth model which accounted for a much of the company’s early success. We'll cover: 📣 What is champion led growth? 🗺️ Metrics for identifying champions and measuring success overall in this model 🏃♀️ How to scale this very hands-on growth model 🤝 Cross functional integration in a champion led growth model 📝 Tips for running top tier customer success organizations You can check it out at calyx.substack.com!

When you see a great case study...ask them what their client*** did to contribute to those results. Case studies are never one sided. They require deep collaboration and investment from both sides. I've provided the same service to dozens of companies now. Taken the same approach to build their strategy. Given the same advice. Followed the same cadence and reporting. And not all of those companies have had the same results. Some show up prepared. Some are really invested in learning. Some are collaborative and take real ownership of their deliverables. Some are transparent and bring me into important conversations and decisions. And some don't. The same is true for software. The ROI you get is largely correlated to how engaged you are during implementation (and therefore how successful it is), how much time your team spends learning how to use the software, and how well you stay engaged as new features and functionality are rolled out. It's important to remember that any vendor or service provider only has so much control over the outcome. The best results are the product of really great partnerships and mutual accountability. If you want to be their next best case study, ask them how you can mimic their best clients.💡 ________________________ If you don't know me well, I'm Jess 👋 . Fractional CRO + CMO and Founder Led Sales Transition expert. Making go-to-market simple(r) and scalable for founders and sales reps, one startup at a time. #gtm #founders #startups

7️⃣ things that surprised me about start-up growth when we interviewed Founders/CEOs of B2B SaaS ‘centaurs’ (>$100m ARR)🦄 1. All companies iterate on their product, successful ones also continuously iterate on the best market or buyer, even when already having reached product market fit. A company like Via moved from a successful B2C business to B2B/B2G and quadrupled revenues within a year 2. M&A is not just something for large companies, all start-ups we interviewed did this and some even did it early on 3. Going upmarket or expanding to new geographies? Being ‘org ready’ is important to prevent ‘org debt’ that piles up 4. Most companies tackle customer success when it’s too late, while it is actually a strong driver for growth, for example for a company like Natural Intelligence 5. Building an ecosystem around a product can have a strong flywheel effect, and this is hard to achieve 6. When you’re in rapid growth, within just one year headcount can double, revenues can double, structure changes, culture changes, and so on. Being one step ahead of these changes is key to success 7. Bringing in experienced leaders is not just for big enterprises, in fact a ‘10x leader’ can be a huge catalyst for growth In this article that I wrote with Shahar Markovitch, Claudy Jules, Ph.D., and Charlotte Seiler, we explore these and other insights from successful Founders/CEOs

Sustainable success in the fast-paced world of tech startups requires more than just innovative ideas. 💡 According to Brent Gleeson's latest article in Forbes, there are 5 key strategies to achieve lasting success: 1. Define Your Why: Clearly articulate your purpose and values to drive direction and decision-making. 2. Build a Strong Culture: Foster a positive, inclusive environment that attracts and retains top talent. 3. Focus on Customer Needs: Prioritize understanding and solving real customer problems. 4. Drive Continuous Innovation: Encourage experimentation, learning, and adaptation. 5. Measure What Matters: Set meaningful metrics and track progress to inform data-driven decisions. Let's focus on building a strong foundation for sustainable success! 🚀 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g6jDmugZ #TechStartups #SustainableSuccess #Innovation #Leadership #GrowthMindset