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Business Design: Focusing on the Customer’s Job to be Done
The Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework serves as a powerful tool for innovation. We use this framework to uncover opportunities, by first seeking to understand the JTBD, or the problem a customer wants to solve within a particular circumstance.
Your First Startup Budget: How Much Should You Burn?
I’ve found that before landing on a budget and a plan for cash burn, it’s helpful to first consider a few important questions.
How to Hire and Evaluate an All-Star Startup Marketer: 7 Questions to Consider
One of our CEOs recently asked for advice and resources around interviewing and evaluating a potential marketing hire. I thought I would take some of those suggestions and share them here in a more cohesive way.
The Changing Standard of the MVP Part 2: Build or Sell First
Do you need a strong technical advantage to accelerate your go-to-market or does a strong go-to-market accelerate technology development?
6 Keys to Enterprise B2B Marketing
How do you become a category leader? High Alpha's Scott Dorsey shared six keys to enterprise B2B marketing that you should be thinking about when looking to become the dominant leader in your space.
The “Bottom Line” Isn’t “The Bottom Line”
When I started my first software business, I was no longer concerned with the bottom line, but rather almost all of my focus shifted to the top line. Specifically, how fast we were growing it.
How to Successfully Hire Your Initial Tech Team
Congratulations—you’ve successfully raised your first round of funding and it’s time to form the initial team of technical aces to execute on your SaaS vision. Here's what you should consider.
Startup Operators: Improve Decision-Making by Using an Opportunity Cost Framework
Using an opportunity cost decision framework can help re-orient and improve decision making to drive the outcomes you’re really looking for.
The Changing Standard of the MVP Part 1: Designing for the Enterprise
Great products must convey the value of their products while not burdening the customer for extracting that value.
Things to Think About Before an Acquisition
While an exit seems pretty simple in theory — someone is paying you money (hopefully a lot) in order to buy your business — it can be a grueling effort with a ton of small, yet meaningful, points in the process.
Culture Is a Product You Build
As we work with, found, and invest in many different startups, we often advise our leaders to begin thinking about company culture as early as possible.
What Is an Entrepreneur?
It’s important to note that these traits aren’t just found in a founder or CEO. No matter the size of your company or your title, you can act like an entrepreneur.
How To Hire From Your Friends
I spend a good amount of time speaking with people who are considering joining one of our companies. One of the things I always enjoy sharing is the power of the High Alpha network.
Startup “Flight Instruments” Vol. 2: Total Market Opportunity
When it comes to early funding, execution is often hard to quantify and prove, so one of the most important metrics that early stage investors look for is TAM (Total Addressable Market).
Startup “Flight Instruments” Vol. 1: The Nautilus
Let's talk about the “Nautilus,” a tool we use at High Alpha to describe the potential of a business through big ARR goals and milestones.
Walking The Tightrope Of An Early-Stage Startup
Balancing is key. Companies need to have the agility to lean in and test one direction, but always quickly rebalance. Here are four examples of the strategic startup balancing act.
The Best VCs are “Listeners”
The more I’m around entrepreneurs, the more I realize the special one’s are all great listeners.
Why You Need a Great Product Manager
Every B2B SaaS business needs engineers and salespeople, but what about other roles, such as product management?
Sprint Week: A Forcing Function for Innovation
Businesses have a bias toward operating over innovating. Our business is creating businesses, so we created a forcing function to innovate: Sprint Week.
VCs Move Fast When They Want To
There are three ways to build a high level of conviction and a sense of urgency with investors. Let's dig into it.
The (Second) Greatest Sales Deck and Pitch I’ve Ever Seen
It’s from Salesforce — the godfather of strategic storytelling. Here’s why their sales deck and pitch is the best we've ever seen.
The Importance of a Competitor
Startups who are going after new markets are often better served by having competitors.
Startup Forecasting: 5 Actionable Tactics for Responsible Financial Management
There are a number of steps a startup CEO or finance leader can take to mitigate the risk of a worst-case scenario. Check out our advice for responsible financtional management.
The Art of Storytelling
Last month, we were privileged to welcome Doug Landis, Growth Partner at Emergence Capital, to share his thoughts on “The Art of Storytelling”.
Innovation Looks a Lot More Like Science Than It Does Art
Because most of us don’t understand innovation, we like to revere it as art — something that cannot be deconstructed, replicated and scaled. The truth is, innovation looks much more like science than it does art.
Want A Map To $1M ARR? Build A Financial Model.
Cash reigns, and you need a plan to manage it. But what are the right cost estimates to set, revenue goals to target, and how do you predict when you’ll need to raise your next round?
Top 20 Things SaaS Founders Should Know About Finance
There are patterns that begin to emerge after working with multiple early-stage startup companies. The list below is an attempt to identify some of the most common finance-related questions and challenges that B2B SaaS founders face.
5 Traits of Successful Product-Led Growth Companies
At SaaStr Annual 2017, Blake Bartlett, a partner at OpenView Venture Partners, dove into what truly defines a successful product-led growth (PLG) company.
Want To Raise A Seed or Series A? Here’s A Tip: Don’t Have Impossible Financial Projections.
Use your financial projections to gain credibility with potential investors, not lose credibility with them.
5 Marketing Lessons from Aaron Levie and the Early Box Marketing Team
Anthony Kennada (Gainsight), Menaka Shroff (BetterWorks), and Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, took the stage in the final day at SaaStr Annual to discuss five key learnings from the early marketing engine at Box.
