Jason Lemkin

Founder at SaaStr

Founder of SaaStr, the world's largest community for SaaS and B2B founders with 15,000+ attendee conferences, previously CEO of EchoSign which he grew to over 100M ARR and sold to Adobe, known for deeply tactical advice on building sales teams, SaaS go-to-market strategy, and the hybrid PLG-plus-sales model.

The Growth Architect The Growth Scientist

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 60%

Execution & Craft 55%

Data & Experimentation 35%

Growth & Distribution 85%

Team & Leadership 55%

User Empathy & Research 45%

Key Themes

building your first sales team hiring two salespeople not one being honest about your go-to-market motion PLG plus sales hybrid model SaaS selling as problem solving not pitching founders fleeing from sales-led customers

Episode Summary

Jason Lemkin provides deeply tactical advice on building sales teams for SaaS companies, starting with the critical principle of being honest about how your first customers actually buy — if they need a sales motion, fleeing to PLG because sales feels icky will destroy your business. He shares the story of a company that went from $5M to under $1M after firing their sales team, explains why you should hire two salespeople not one, and reframes SaaS selling as problem-solving rather than pitching.

Leadership Principles

→ Be honest about how your first 10-20 customers buy — if they need a sales motion, don't flee to PLG because sales feels icky, or you'll fail
→ We're not really selling in B2B, we're solving problems — our job as SaaS sales reps is not to sell a used car but to help customers get into a great product today
→ Hire two salespeople, not one — with one you can't tell if failure is the person or the market, but with two you can see if it's a people problem or a positioning problem

Notable Quotes

"We're not really selling in B2B, we're solving problems. Our job as sales reps in SaaS is not to sell a used car. We are selling a Tesla Model 3 Performance. Let me just help you get into that Model 3 Performance today."
— On reframing what SaaS selling actually is

"Your first 10, 15, 50 unaffiliated customers — the ones that find you from the ether — they're the next 50, 100, 200, 1,000. You can either embrace them or run from them."
— On why your early customers reveal your true go-to-market motion

"I invested in a company 18 months ago doing 5 million in revenue growing over 100%. They fired the whole sales team because the founders didn't like sales. Now they're doing less than 1 million."
— On the catastrophic cost of founders fleeing from sales

Want to know how you compare?

Take the Assessment