Javier Ortega Estrada

Many CPOs are stepping into CEO roles, not just in SaaS companies, but across industries like finance, real estate, and even automotive. Why? Because product leaders are often the ones who truly understand the product, the customer, and how to align cross-functional teams to drive growth. In this week’s Product Thinking episode, I sat down with Mercedes Chatfield-Taylor, CEO of Artico Search, to discuss how CPOs can naturally transition into CEO positions—even in industries you wouldn’t expect. Throughout our discussion, Mercedes shared insights on: ✅ Why CPOs are strong candidates for CEO roles ✅ How working with sales smooths the transition ✅ What CPOs need to thrive in any industry ✅ How board involvement boosts leadership success ✅ Real-life examples of CPOs becoming CEOs As Mercedes explains, “If you're the Chief Product Officer of a company, who knows the product better than you? Who knows the competitive landscape better than you?” Listen now👇 🎙️ Apple: https://lnkd.in/em68Q5Si  🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ethV6N3y What do you think makes a great CPO-turned-CEO? Share your thoughts in the comments! #productthinking #productmanagement #leadership #CPOtoCEO #podcast #executiveleadership #ceotransition

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Great insights from Ash Lomberg, Chargebee's Vice President, GTM EMEA, on the benefits of Apple's recent move to discontinue the Apple Pay Later service! By using third-party BNPL providers and alternative payment methods, Apple can streamline payment processing and avoid the complexities of managing multiple gateways, allowing the tech giant to focus on what it does best. That’s the power of strategic partnerships – they enable you to allocate resources towards improving your product and services while leaving the complex financial operations to the experts! 🤝 Read the full article here: https://chrge.be/46ji4vM

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🚀 Big news: ServiceTitan, a SaaS leader in field service management, has officially filed its S-1 to go public! With $685M in LTM revenue and 24% YoY growth, it’s clear the company has carved out a significant niche in the market. However, their -$183M net loss and growth rate bring challenges. By SaaS standards, ServiceTitan falls short of the Rule of 40—a key metric combining revenue growth and profit margin to evaluate efficiency and scalability. Their score is -2.7, well below the ideal 40%. Excited to see how the market responds—your thoughts? Let's discuss! #IPO #SaaS #Growth #Startups #Tech

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KNOW YOUR REAL BUSINESS ECONOMICS • GAAP Revenue • Cash Flow • Cash • Contribution Margin • CAC • CAC Payback FUNDRAISING: PRESENT & SUBSTANTIATE FINANCIALS • Investor needs to know what your forecasts are • They need to believe them David Weiden, Khosla Ventures

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In case you missed it last week, one of my favorite SaaS benchmark reports was released. Thanks to High Alpha and OpenView for the work and having us as a partner! This thing is stuffed full of insights on everything from growth rates, net revenue retention, ARR per FTE, and more. You can't build a great SaaS business without it! https://lnkd.in/ghKT_tBY

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The Next Gen of GTM Tech is Here 🚀 The past few months I have been absolutely stunned by the brand awareness, hype and growth that early stage companies in the sales enablement space have been able to create (RB2B announced hitting $1M ARR in just 16 weeks). It almost seems as if they are paying all their customers and random people all over the internet to post raving reviews about them on LI, (which for the sake of this post I hope they aren’t!) Many of these companies are filling gaps left behind by the legacy lead database companies like ZoomInfo, Salesloft, or even Apollo.io. 🪨  In case you’ve been under a rock, some of these are: Clay - Data Enrichment RB2B - Identity level website visitor data Unify - Intent-based sequences for warm outbound Sendspark - Personalized dynamic videos at scale Warmly, - Identity level website visitor data Instantly.ai - Email sending and engagement Ocean.io - ICP lookalike data Honorable non-sales mention: Pylon - Unified customer support 🐶 Sales Enablement companies have a distinct advantage of being able to “eat their own dog food” using their own products to find customers, but these companies have been killing it with PLG and LinkedIn hype, despite not having raised much capital if at all, and most not having the massive followings of Adam Robinson. 🤔 Interestingly none of these companies are branding themselves as an “AI SDR/BDR” company, and instead focused on a subset of the sales contact/outreach workflow that will someday fall under the AI SDR umbrella, but they are foregoing that messaging to avoid skepticism from the mid market and above. Also strong trend of these founders “building in public” Who am I missing? Kareem Amin, Adam Robinson, Austin Hughes, Bethany Stachenfeld, maximus greenwald, Reio Suun, Michael Heiberg, Marty Kausas

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The secret—if it ever was one—is out on private equity fondness for vertical software. While PE-backed acquisitions were down 50%+ from a peak in 2021, vertical buyouts have continued to grow, and the fervor seems to be gaining steam. In today’s essay, we will pose an answer to one question: is PE a viable path to exit for a venture-backed startup?

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Kinda funny, kinda cool email from a new Deal Sheet customer... "Transparently, the reason I have asked the above is because the deals on Deal Sheet are actually magnificent and I am quite surprised/impressed by the opportunity to invest with the likes of Confidential VC 1 and Confidential VC 2 on deals and just trying to understand how this is happening." When you curate the best weekly deals across 60+ of the best syndicate leads, its leads to high quality access :) This past Monday was our 26th (weekly) issue. We only expect it to get better and better going forward. cc: Zachary Ginsburg

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Looking forward to seeing Jason M. Lemkin and the SaaStr community on June 5, where I’ll be discussing global expansion, from 1 market to 28 markets. Scaling a business across the globe is not for the faint-hearted. Each market comes with its own unique conditions, culture, curveballs, competitors, challenges, and rewards. From closing the first sale to making the first hire, opening the first office, and gaining momentum, we did it all simultaneously at Insider. Drawing from first-hand experience, I will share the unexpected lessons that no founder is prepared for when scaling their business globally, including: - Essential strategies for building and scaling a growth engine - The top three mistakes when entering new markets - Ways to gain momentum in new markets - How to time your expansion and set success milestones See you at #SaaStr2024!

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The Vanta EMEA team brought the 🔥 to QBRs this week in Dublin! We have an incredible team on the ground here in Europe. I’ve also had many insightful conversations this month with folks who have built some of the greatest SaaS businesses on the continent. A few of their bits of advice and wisdom include: - Every business, country, and segment comes with its own nuances. Don’t copy someone else’s strategy. Leverage benchmarks but know your business will be unique. - Many SaaS companies entering Europe repeat the same mistakes time and time again. Leverage your local friends, investors and contacts to see around corners. - Compliance and regulation are taken very seriously in Europe. This should mean our opportunity here is tremendous. - Don’t settle. Go big, think broad, be ambitious. If you don’t, someone else will. Thank you EMEA team for your hospitality! Can’t wait to be back soon.

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Establishing an objective point of view on you B2B SaaS firm’s performance is VALUABLE exercise for Founders. Here are 3 lessons I’ve learned the hardway: 1. Identify relevent benchmarks to inform base of all opinions 2. Establish base rates (e.g. monthly average across trailing 12mths) vs focusing on most recent data 3. Prioritize customer retention and net revenue retention. This framework has transformed how I assess SaaS firms. How do you cut through the bias in your assessments?

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Really useful data for all start ups

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📊 Curious about how your SaaS metrics stack up against industry leaders? Here is a sneak peak at High Alpha's 2024 SaaS Benchmarks Report: Market Stabilization: Public SaaS have stabilized with an NDR of 110% over the last three quarters, recovering from a peak of 119% in 2022. Growth has held steady at 17%-18% after peaking in the mid-30s in 2021. VC Activity: Funding is increasingly directed towards AI, with nearly 33% of all $ in 2024 going to AI companies. This reflects a broader recovery in deal activity, which has expanded for three consecutive quarters. Early-Stage Resilience: Companies with less than $1M ARR have seen their median growth rates rebound to 100% yoy, up from 90% last year. AI-Native Advantage: AI-native (median of 50% yoy) and vertical SaaS companies (45% yoy) are significantly outperforming traditional horizontal SaaS firms (28% yoy) in terms of growth. Cash Management Discipline: The median company with $50M+ ARR is now cash flow breakeven, reflecting a cautious cash burn approach. Not much has changed for companies <$50M ARR. SaaS Spend Recovery: SaaS spending is showing signs of recovery as buyers return to market (+9% on average), with SMBs <500 employees leading the way (+59%). Diversity: Women hold ~25% of leadership roles across all ARR bands, while representation of people of color is between 9-15%. No material changes compared to 2023. Office: Companies with default in-office teams tend to grow faster (50% yoy) compared to companies that are predominantly remote (39% yoy). Founder Wellness: Over half of founders prioritize mental fitness, with many exercising at least three times a week. Despite pressures, optimism remains high among founders. Concerns: GTM remains the top concern, while cash burn has decreased. Founders show little worry about their AI strategies. Late-stage founders prioritize hiring top talent more than early-stage founders do. You will find more figures and charts in the full report! 📒 Big shoutout also to Kyle Poyar (Tremont), Paddle and OpenView who contributed to the report!👏

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(NEW EPISODE) In the ever-evolving landscape of entrepreneurship, few have experienced the full spectrum of highs and lows like Zvi Schreiber. His journey from software engineer to successful serial founder offers invaluable insights into the trials and triumphs of building and scaling companies. In this exclusive interview, Zvi talks about his experiences selling a company to IBM, taking another company public, and fundraising. He has had a series of successful acquisitions and fire sales. #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #entrepreneur #business #success #venture #venturecapital #investment #invest #investors #tech #technology #innovation #leanstartup #leanstartups #inspiration #startup #startups https://lnkd.in/ein5Ny7M

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🚀 The SaaS growth playbook is evolving, and I have seen it firsthand. The debate between Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Sales-Led Growth (SLG) has dominated for years, but the reality is clear: it’s not about choosing one over the other—it’s about combining the strengths of both. 💡 Elena Verna’s insights on PLG and SLG offer powerful lessons for SaaS companies striving to unlock sustainable growth. Here are three key learnings to integrate these motions effectively: 1️⃣ Start with Product-Led Entry, Scale with Sales-Led Expansion PLG excels in reducing friction for user acquisition. Offer a seamless, value-first experience that drives self-service adoption at the top of the funnel. Then, leverage your sales team to upsell, cross-sell, and expand within enterprise accounts where high-touch engagement can maximize value. 2️⃣ Align Metrics Across Teams PLG and SLG need shared KPIs to succeed. Use activation, engagement, and retention metrics to identify product-qualified leads (PQLs) and prioritize accounts for sales outreach. A unified data strategy ensures both teams pull in the same direction. 3️⃣ Invest in Product Insights to Guide Sales Strategy Your product’s usage data is a treasure trove of insights. Empower sales teams with rich behavioral data to personalize outreach, tailor messaging, and engage prospects at the right time with the right offer. PLG isn’t just about self-serve—it’s about setting the stage for meaningful sales conversations. 📊 The Takeaway: PLG builds the foundation, and SLG amplifies the growth. Together, they create a growth engine that is scalable, adaptable, and deeply aligned with customer needs. 🔥 SaaS leaders, how are you blending PLG and SLG in your strategy? Share your experiences below—I’d love to hear how you’re navigating this powerful intersection. #SaaS #ProductLedGrowth #SalesLedGrowth #GrowthStrategy #ElenaVerna #PLG #SLG #B2B

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DeepCast shipped a number of really cool new features recently in advance of a broad outreach push to podcast listeners. One new feature is our new Daily DeepDigest tool that sends you a concise daily email including any new episodes from the trailing 24 hours from any podcasts you Subscribe to (on DeepCast). Think daily podcast cliff notes or podcast news ticker tape, with a hint of Morning Brew various brews or PitchBook News—it's increasing information throughput when you're pressed for time. And this feature is rapidly evolving to distill other key extractions from shows you're already interested in, but also exposing you to other shows you might be unfamiliar with that also have nuggets to share—and thus increasing your aperture yet still conscious of your time. Want to go deeper on any given episode? Click the episode detail and you're off to an episode on DeepCast, where you can subsequently read a longer form distillation of that episode or go straight to the source and listen to the episode. (And podcaster friends, these pages are definitely increasing indexing and thus Google entry points to your shows!) I'm loving this feature as a user, personally. Can't wait to see what others think! #BuildingInPublic #Podcasts #AllTheWorldsInformation #HowYouWantIt

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After July 4th, H2 reforecasts drop. Here are 5 things executives are looking for from Recruiting & Finance 1) The cost difference of the new plan 2) A recruiting plan to meet the new demand 3) A summary of the changes & their impact to OPEX & Revenue 4) An understanding of whether or not we can hit this plan (hires on time) 5) What are the (p0) top priorities for hiring

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This time last year, we hosted the first-ever Ecosystem-Led Growth (#ELG) event in Europe alongside our friends and ELG Alliance member, Stripe. As the inaugural event of its kind, we were uncertain about the demand, so we kept it fairly small. 😳 Little did we know, it sold out shortly after we announced it. 🤝 Fast forward to today, and we are thrilled to be hosting another ELG event in London, once again in partnership with Stripe. A lot has changed since last year: 🔺ELG has exploded in popularity 🚀 Everyone is talking about it, and we see this reflected in the numbers every day—from the growth of the ELG Index to the fact that the banner in the picture below now reads "20k customers" (43% ⬆️). 🔺 In response to this growth, we've adjusted the format accordingly. What started as a couple of hours' meetup has evolved into a full-day conference, following our successful event in Austin, TX last month 🇺🇸 Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to be part of the ELG movement. With only a few tickets left, now is the time to secure your spot and join other SaaS industry leaders and GTM operators for a day of insightful discussions, networking, and growth. Book your tickets today before they sell out 👉 https://bit.ly/3RKLGft

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