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: Aspiring founders should choose product management over engineering
“If I was advising a young person where to go, if you wanted to found a company in two or three years, I'd say product, not engineering.”
Kellogg: Subscription SaaS Companies Were Hit Harder Recently But Still Grow Faster
“The great paradox right now is that people who are in subscription pricing generally have been hit harder than those who are not, but they're nevertheless still growing faster.”
Kellogg: VCs trust founders' CAC while PE firms recalculate it themselves
“Because the VCs tend to be trusting and say, what's your CAC and tell me how you calculate it. And isn't that interesting? Whereas the PE people just said to say, give me all your data. I'll tell you what your CAC is fundamentally. Especially in the context of…”
Kellogg: VCs bludgeon founders by expecting best-in-class metrics across every single category
“You know, a VC will look across their portfolio and think of the best CAC payback period, the best LTV to CAC, the best rule of 40, and ask you to do, you know, beat them on all four, right? It's inherently unfair. It's a form of bludgeoning, right?”
Kellogg: Upgrading SaaS metrics often requires replacing non-strategic RevOps and FP&A staff
“The change management is hard. It may require staff upgrades, particularly key analytics roles like RevOps, FP&A. Sometimes those people are not that strategic. They're not that fast, right? That they're good at making a budget and they're good at getting comp…”
Kellogg: Only startups that raised huge pre-crash rounds survived 2002
“In 2002, there were only two types of startups in existence. Those that had raised a large amount of money at a ridiculous valuation prior to April 2001, or dead. There was no other type of startup in 2002, when the internet bubble burst.”
Kellogg: Founders should take $50M even if planning to raise $25M
“You might go out thinking you're gonna raise twenty-five million, and in this world, find out that you can raise 50. Should you take the 50? In my opinion, yes.”
Kellogg: In a VC Arms Race, Founders Must Out-Raise or Pivot
“So, if you find yourself in this situation, it's probably a sign that you're in a really good category, but you either need to play to win, and go out raise the other guy, or you need to find pivot into some sub-segment where you're not directly competing with…”
Kellogg: Startup board members often assign executives a sell-by date for their roles
“And this notion of having a sell by date, it may not be polite, but often board members have it, and if they have it, I'd advise you to understand what they are. And to try and reframe the issue that it shouldn't be that John or Mary is with the company or not…”
Kellogg: Debating sales versus product drivenness is pure corporate politics
“The last three I just exclude is politics, period. Because what you're saying is you want your function to be more important than the other function. So I throw those out.”
Kellogg: Fully loaded cost of hiring an enterprise AE is $700,000
“Their OTE, their on-target earnings, is 300 K. They're gonna cost a 180 K for two-thirds, and you can adjust these numbers to your local market, but do the exercise, right? So I'm hiring a seller. I'm hiring two-thirds of an SC. I'm hiring two-thirds of an SDR…”
Kellogg: Scale-Up Phase Replaces Individual Heroics With Repeatable Systems
“Scaling is very different. It's about a small number of amazing process and infrastructure oriented leaders leveraging a large number of great, but not necessarily amazing people, right? They're not solving problems. They're building systems and processes. Qua…”
Kellogg: Startup CEOs should listen to board ideas but mostly reject them
“Anyone with an idea is trying to help, and your job is to listen, to understand the idea, and then by and large not do it, right? Because if you have a good plan and a good strategy, you need to go execute that.”
European founders mis-hire in the US by trusting inflated resumes
“Americans always inflate their resumes, and Europeans are pretty modest by comparison, and that's a terrible intersection, right, because you have someone who's kind of modest interviewing someone who they think is modest, and that person has created this resu…”
Kellogg: Placing Sales Reps in NFL Cities Is a Terrible Strategy
“A lot of people do NFL cities, which I think is a terrible strategy, but you could do that if you want. Just, if there's a football team, put salespeople there. Not, not my recommended one, but people do it.”
Kellogg: Startups should hire a sales director before a VP of sales
“Don't hire a VP of sales, hire a director. And let them try and earn the job.”
Kellogg: Small PE firms are better than VCs at solving technical debt
“I actually believe private equity people are better than VCs at solving it, right? Because that's what they do for a living. They buy old, not those super big ones like Tomo Bravo or Vista, but the smaller PE firms who buy, kind of, 20 to fifty million dollar …”
Kellogg: Services Revenue Exceeding 20% to 30% Labels Software Startups as Services
“If you go that route, then you got to be careful because if it gets too big, people are going to say, you're not a software anymore. You're not a software company, Nick. You're a services company pretending to be a software company, right? So you have to be ve…”
Kellogg: SaaS founders start product companies but end up running distribution companies
“So, in my opinion, the founder experience that happens a lot is you found a product company, and one day you wake up and you're running a distribution company, and you go, what happened?”
Kellogg: Enterprise buyers will read 12-page white papers and attend hour-long demos
“The fact of the matter is, if you're talking to your buyer, and it's a high consideration purchase, they will have time to read a twelve-page white paper. They will have time to go to a one-hour demo, right?”
Kellogg: CEOs should only hold teams accountable for pipeline coverage and sales
“I think the number one mistake I've seen founders make is they hold people's feet to the fire on all those cells, and I think that's wrong. I think it's demotivating. I think it doesn't reflect an understanding of the fact that the model deviates from reality.…”
Kellogg: No marketing executive is top-tier in both product and demand generation
“There's nobody who's a five-five. God doesn't make them, right? You either grew up in product marketing, or you grew up in demand generation, right? You also don't get 20 pointers. I think 15 is the maximum number of points you can get on this scale.”
Kellogg: Ability to raise money separates winners from losers in Silicon Valley
“The ability to raise money is what separates the winners
From the runners up and the losers.”
Kellogg: Calling SaaS Churn Uncontrollable Is Often an Organizational Cop-Out
“So to me, controllable versus uncontrollable churn, it is a concept people talk a lot about. But I get super uncomfortable because I think it could easily be a cop out, right? You know what? Like my last company, they got a new CFO and they didn't renew. We ca…”
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 → |