SaaStr
Narrative intelligence for SaaStr: 9 tracked articles, claims, and spin patterns across AI and technology coverage.
Related Articles
Dear SaaStr: One of Our Most Respected Team Members Quit and Folks Are Leaving. What Do I Do?
A SaaStr advice column addresses leadership attrition by recommending immediate internal promotion of respected team members to mitigate talent exodus and retain domain knowledge.
Aug 19, 2026
Dear SaaStr: What’s Your #1 Opener in Sales?
The article offers sales advice centered on using competitor or peer customer ROI examples as a sales opener, arguing it builds credibility and reduces perceived selling pressure.
Aug 15, 2026
Dear SaaStr: Our VC Is Encouraging Us to Hire Aggressively and Increase the Burn Rate. Should We Listen to Them?
A SaaStr analyst advises startup founders to resist VC pressure to increase hiring and burn rate, arguing that most founders naturally learn optimal spending rhythms as revenue scales.
Jul 10, 2026
Dear SaaStr: How Should I Specialize My Sales Team?
The article advises SaaS founders and sales leaders to specialize their sales teams early by segmenting AEs along dimensions like company size, geography, industry, deal size, or inbound/outbound function to improve efficiency and performance.
Published May 18, 2025 · Analyzed Jul 28, 2026
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Learn to Close Big Enterprise Deals … Better?
A SaaStr analyst column offers tactical advice for startups transitioning from SMB to enterprise sales, emphasizing stakeholder mapping, multi-level relationship building, ROI-focused pitching, pilots, patience, in-person meetings, and simplifying procurement.
Published Apr 14, 2025 · Analyzed Jul 26, 2026
Dear SaaStr: The CEO of Our Competitor Wants to Meet – What Should I Do?
A SaaStr advice column addresses a founder's question about whether to meet a competitor's CEO who expressed acquisition interest, recommending open engagement while guarding highly confidential information.
Published May 18, 2023 · Analyzed Aug 16, 2026
Dear SaaStr: I Was Fired Without Cause. Should I Tell My Story Publicly?
A SaaStr advice column addresses a reader's question about whether to publicly share their experience of being fired without cause, advising against it on grounds of perceived professional reputation risk and narrative futility.
Published Feb 25, 2023 · Analyzed Aug 19, 2026
12 of the Most Common Mistakes Scaling Your First Sales Team
A SaaStr analyst article identifies 12 recurring, high-frequency errors founders make when scaling their first sales team — grounded in observed patterns across startups, not empirical study — offering prescriptive hiring, compensation, and role-design guidance.
Published May 17, 2021 · Analyzed Aug 4, 2026
Dear SaaStr: What’s The One Trait You Look for When Assessing an Inside Sales Candidate?
A SaaStr analyst offers advice on hiring inside sales candidates, emphasizing founder-aligned buyer empathy in early-stage startups and delegation to sales leadership during scaling.
Published Jan 22, 2018 · Analyzed Jul 7, 2026
Related Claims
01 The best opener is sharing how a very similar company or a competitor uses your product — and the exact specific ROI that customer gets.
02 Just meet. Meet all your competitors. You never know where it will go.
03 Promote someone great that everyone respects into a leadership role. Right now. This is really the only answer I’ve seen to this situation.
04 In my experience, about 66–70% of the time [VC encouragement to hire aggressively and increase burn rate] is bad advice, especially if it is coming from a Very Large VC.
05 No one cares [about your story of being fired without cause].
06 Specialization always leads to better results after just a few sales reps because it allows your AEs to focus on what they’re best at and build expertise in a specific segment.
07 A few key mistakes I see start-ups making > 50% of the time
08 The #1 most important criterion when hiring an inside sales candidate in the early days is that you would buy your product yourself, from them.
09 SMB sales and enterprise sales have almost nothing in common.
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