Dave Kellogg
Executive in Residence, Balderton Capital. On 3 shows, 7 appearances, plus 2 compilation re-airs not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executiveoperatorauthorinvestorhost@kellblog ↗LinkedIn ↗kellblog.com ↗
Dave Kellogg is an enterprise software executive who previously served as CEO of Host Analytics and MarkLogic, and CMO of Business Objects. He advises high-growth SaaS startups and publishes widely read analysis on go-to-market strategy and metrics on his site, Kellblog.
3shows
7appearances
161statements
7resolved
3supported
0contradicted
43%fully supported
24said about them ↓ Everything Dave Kellogg said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kellogg: The SaaS IPO Bar Has Risen to $500M ARR
“The IPO bar is just spectacularly high right now. I think it's around five hundred million in ARR by my math.”
Kellogg: PE Firms Want SaaS Companies Fixed Before Acquiring Them
“The biggest thing I've learned about working with PE is I thought they were fixer upper people... And I don't actually think many of them like to do that. They want it fixed first.”
Kellogg: Private Equity Can Turn Most Stagnant SaaS Companies to 20%+ EBITDA
“A lot of times founders think it's not possible and give that company to a PE person. And I guarantee you they're going to have 20% EBITDA, maybe 30% EBITDA in a couple of years. It can be done.”
Kellogg: VCs stop calling SaaS startups with CAC payback exceeding 24-36 months
“I do think somewhere around 24 to 36 months people stop calling you back, so you have a different problem. It doesn't matter how good your story is if you don't get the meaning.”
Kellogg: Startups blaming rising CAC on 'low-hanging fruit' underestimate market size
“I think most startups, when they make that argument to me, I think they're vastly underestimating the size of their market. That if you have a really, really big market, That, that you haven't picked all the low hanging fruit.”
Kellogg: SaaS NRR dropped to 105%, driven mainly by increased churn
“And by the way, if you asked, like, the most recent study, I think, said one oh five. The reason I said one oh eight is I just can't make my mouth say one oh five. But I think it may have come down from one 20 to one oh five, to be honest, and I think it's thr…”
Kellogg: Pitched against competitor hunters, SaaS customer success farmers always lose
“The single biggest sin in SAS is putting your farmer against someone else's hunter, right? Cause they will lose.”
Kellogg: Leaders should be unsympathetic to CS VPs missing churn forecasts
“So, so I just think CS for it, I am, if a VP of sales misses their forecast, I'm somewhat understanding. To me, it's I'm not very sympathetic to a VP of CS that misses their forecast, because how is it that you didn't know?”
Dave Kellogg: Keeping non-performing sales reps is harder than firing them
“The hardest case is not firing somebody who's not selling. That's easy. The hardest case is keeping somebody who's not selling.”
Kellogg: Outbound sales strategy fails on low ACV $5k productivity products
“If you're selling a 5000 dollar a year system to anybody, As a generic productivity tool, I have a lot more trouble getting excited about outdoor.”
Kellogg: Founder replacements will increase and favor GTM executives
“If and when you replace a founder, which was extremely unpopular for the last five years, but I think will get more popular going forward, you will tend to replace them with a GTM person.”
Kellogg: Andreessen Horowitz paused Silicon Valley founder replacements for over a decade
“Jason Horowitz, in my opinion, Put that trend on hold for a decade or more, right?”
Dave Kellogg: AI sales tools will reduce sales support headcount by 30%
“Well, you know, battery came up with a famous slide well now famous slide, but they basically said, I'm going to get the, I think to support 30 sellers, they argued that today it takes a 110 personal organization and that tomorrow it'll take 75. So they're say…”
Kellogg: Hiring Sales VPs Based on Pedigree Often Rewards Luck Over Skill
“Hiring a VP on pedigree value who turns out just to have been in the right place at the right time.”
Kellogg: Stuffing Startups Full of Cash Encourages Unhealthy Wasteful Spending
“I honestly don't believe that floggrowing startups, as they say, stuffing them full of cash is a healthy behavior. Some are actually good. I know a few that seem good at raising money and not spending it and saving it to grow later, right? But most people, whe…”
Kellogg: Executive infighting is a direct reflection of a weak CEO
“Another friend of mine has this expression from Machiavelli that warring princes means one thing, a weak king. And if you're CEO of the company, you cannot allow warring princes in your company. Everybody sees it. The whole company knows if two E staffers are …”
Benioff dismissed early Zendesk threats to Salesforce to avoid fear-based leadership
“I did a year at Salesforce in the middle of all that, and I was mentioning Zendesk. I was like, hey, there's these guys called Zendesk, and they might be a problem for, like, our customer service business and I got the kind of uh-oh moment where, like, oh, and…”
Kellogg: Companies must be vision-driven publicly, customer-driven culturally, competitor-driven strategically
“Avoid this fake either or framing, which is you need to speak like you're vision driven. So when you're talking to customers and analysts, the markets, talk about the desired end state. Talk about the vision. Don't talk about competition. When you're building …”
Kellogg: 80% quarterly rep quota attainment in enterprise SaaS is nearly impossible
“First, you did not have on a quarterly basis in an enterprise company, 80% of your reps every quarter. You might have had 80% every year. You might, right? 80% at a hundred percent of quota on an annual basis is very good. On a quarterly basis, it's almost imp…”
Kellogg: Startups Scaling Past $10M ARR Should Redeploy Early Leaders
“I've worked with many startups where the figure it out sales VP had to leave when we hit ten million. And I always feel bad about that, because I don't actually think they have to leave. I think they should be redeployed. Like, my answer is, what do you do wit…”
Kellogg: Enterprise SaaS startups should wait until $100M+ ARR for second product
“In terms of second product, I talked about Jason Lemkin's work before, but he's done a series of tweets and blogs, and from his research to me, for most companies, it's probably a hundred million plus in ARR, and maybe multiple, for the companies I work with, …”
Kellogg: SaaS Startups Should Charge Above Market for Services to Enable Partners
“Create your own agency or your own services org. Charge for it. Charge market rates. Maybe even a little more than market rates. Actually, not maybe. Charge more than market rates, and then build a partner network.”
Kellogg: Most marketers lack rigorous thinking and confuse executives with jargon
“You're confused by ill-defined terminology and process, most marketers are not that rigorous in their thinking and you're drawn into conflict between sales and marketing, right?”
Kellogg: CMOs should quarterback overall pipeline coverage across all sources
“Now to me, the best practice here is that marketing should be the quarterback of the pipeline, because if you think about those four funnels, the only person they all report to is the CEO. So either you're going to be the quarterback of the pipeline, or you're…”
The other half of the tape: Dave Kellogg's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 24 times in 11 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 8Scott Beechuk 4Jason Lemkin 4Nathan Latka 2Bill Binch 2Sophie Chesters 1Doug Song 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
the Official SaaStr Podcast 12
20VC 8
Top Founders 4
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 7 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
- Ben Fiechtner: 12-Week Step-by-Step Framework to Crush Every Sales Quarter | E1185 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Larry Shurtz: How to Hire, Train & Retain the Best Vertical Teams | E1151 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2022 13 mentions in 5 episodes 3 per episode
- Increasing Runway Without Sacrificing Growth with Norwest Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz
- 16 Ways to Level Up in 2022 with SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin | SaaStr Software Community
- Largest SaaS Founder Event in Europe Will do $3m+ This Year, Starts Oct 17th!
- SaaS Secret Sauce: How the CEO/CRO Dynamic Drives Growth | Marketo’s Former EVP Sales Bill Binch
- 10 Lessons Learned Along the Path to $100M ARR | UserZoom's CEO and CMO | SaaStr Software Community
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Dave's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAASTRLEDGER | Executive in Residence, Balderton Capital | 5 +2 | 111 | 50% 2/4 | full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Executive in Residence, Balderton Capital | 1 | 40 | 50% 1/2 | full record on 20VC → |
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Executive in Residence, Balderton Capital | 1 | 10 | 0% 0/1 | full record on Top Founders → |