HR
The other day a founder asked me about interviewing because a candidate had described me as "a great interviewer," and she wanted to know why. (And for that matter, so did I.) Emboldened by this seeming endorsement, I dashed off what turned into a lengthy email on interviewing
Management
I'd previously posted a video of my SaaStr 2021 presentation, A CEO's Guide to Marketing, but it was a bit of hack (a link into the stage stream) done favoring time-to-market over production values. In this post, I'm embedding the official SaaStr 2021 video
Management
Some friends wonder why, as someone who considers himself a strategist, I care so much about execution. Is it because I'm a perfectionist? Well yes, but that's only one reason (and perfectionism is a weakness [1] in business, not a strength). Is it because I like
Management
Is your leadership team world-class? Are some of your executives holding your company back? Could you grow faster if you replaced your head of sales? Does your board think you have the right leadership team? Heck, does your leadership team think you have the right leadership team? Do your rank-and-file
Growth
In my new capacity as an EIR at Balderton Capital, I recently gave a presentation to a leadership meeting at a high-growth, Balderton-backed startup offering my perspectives on growth and the challenges that come with it. I discussed these five challenges: 1. Next-levelitis, an obsessive focus on scaling everything to
Management
Say you're a $40M SaaS business growing at 40%. Is that good? Is that bad? How do you know? In this post, we'll take a quick look at three lenses you should look through in considering this question. * The plan lens * The benchmark lens * The market
CEO
"Data, data everywhere. Nor any drop to drink." -- adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge [2] In a world where many executives are overwhelmed with sales and marketing metrics -- from MQL generation to pipeline analysis to close-rates and everything in between -- I am writing this post in
Management
Please join me on October 13th at SaaStock EMEA, a free European SaaS event, for my presentation entitled "How to Make a Marketing Machine" on October 13th at 9:05 am PT (6:05 pm CET). While west coasters will have to wake-up early to attend some of
Boards
A corporate lawyer friend once told me to think about director protections as a triangle with three legs [1]: * D&O insurance, which stands for directors and officers insurance (and with which most people are familiar) * Indemnification agreements (with which some people are familiar) * Charter provisions (with which it
Management
A few days ago, Steve Pockross released a new episode of his Yes, And Marketing podcast on which he interviews a series of "eclectic and enlivening" marketers where "your weird shower thoughts and disparate liberal arts references take a road trip." I was last week'
Boards
There's only one executive who should ever say, "the board brought me in," and that is the chief executive officer (CEO). Yet, you'd be surprised how often you hear other executives -- chief revenue officers (CROs), chief marketing officers (CMOs), chief product officers (CPOs)
Competition
I sometimes get asked about how to structure an enterprise software marketing organization and the relative roles of product marketing vs. competitive analysis. In this post, I'll share my (somewhat contrarian) thoughts on this topic. My first job in marketing, which served as my bridge from a technical