Jul 19, 2023 · 30m · saastr
How to Grow Revenue Faster in the Second Half of 2023 with Founders Fund
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Sam Blond delivers a strategic go-to-market masterclass detailing how B2B SaaS companies can accelerate revenue growth by diagnosing demand bottlenecks, right-sizing sales capacity, and deploying unconventional marketing and customer expansion playbooks.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Jason as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 Jason pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is Jason, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:25 Contrarian take on salesperson headcount
Sam forcefully challenges conventional SaaS wisdom by arguing that more salespeople does not equal more revenue, and laying off low performers can increase overall closed deals.
Hardest push from Jason ▶ 3:30 Pushing back on conversion rate excusesSam explains how he directly challenges founders who blame missed targets on conversion rates rather than admitting their demand generation bottleneck.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:47 Auditing sales rep calendarsSam educates listeners on how to properly inspect sales rep calendars to verify if they are spending at least three to four hours a day facing customers.
Jason holds their own ▶ 21:10 High-conversion champagne campaignSam demonstrates deep go-to-market expertise by detailing unit economics and conversion mechanics behind Brex's high-ROI outbound campaign.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Jason as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Jason pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macro Climate and Startup Sentiment Entering H2 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Monologue presentation by Sam Blond setting the macroeconomic backdrop and startup sentiment entering H2 2023. No host interaction or disagreement occurs. | |
| Establishing Baseline Go-to-Market Funnel Metrics | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam Blond explains how to diagnose sales bottlenecks, emphasizing that four out of five companies suffer from demand generation rather than conversion issues. Monologue presentation format. | |
| Mapping Headcount and Resources to the Acquisition Funnel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam presents his thesis on mapping GTM headcount to the funnel and why cutting underperforming AEs can increase revenue during demand-constrained periods. Monologue format. | |
| Leveraging Happy Customers for Advocacy and Referrals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam illustrates low-cost referral and advocacy loops using Rippling's post-onboarding NPS gift card tactic. Monologue format. | |
| Unlocking Expansion Revenue Within the Existing Customer Base | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam discusses identifying untapped expansion opportunities within existing accounts based on Brex's historical data visibility. Monologue format. | |
| Unconventional Outbound: The Brex Champagne Campaign | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam details Brex's unconventional outbound direct-mail campaign sending Veuve Clicquot champagne to newly funded startups. Monologue format. | |
| Reimagining Event Marketing and Booth Sponsorship at SaaStr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam shares guerilla marketing tactics at SaaStr, including keycard takeovers, breakfast burritos, and magicians. Monologue format. | |
| Offline Brand Campaigns: Billboards and Experiential Concepts | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam breaks down Brex's offline billboard strategy in San Francisco and the unexecuted free coffee stand concept. Monologue format. | |
| Account Executive Pipeline Ownership and Final Directives | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam concludes by emphasizing that AEs must source their own pipeline during downturns or teams must be right-sized. Monologue format. |
Statements from this episode (13)
Most SaaS businesses missed their H1 2023 revenue targets
“We missed the revenue targets that we projected in like Q four of last year, where we thought we would perform in 20, 23. I think that's probably more common than not for SAS businesses in the first half of this year.”
80% of SaaS companies misdiagnose demand bottlenecks as conversion issues
“The bottleneck in four out of five companies that I speak with is opportunity creation. It's demand gen. And this is oftentimes misdiagnosed as conversion rates.”
Sales reps should spend three to four hours daily facing customers
“What I like to see is something like two new demos every day on a sales reps calendar. And what that means is a sales rep is doing something like Four customer calls every day. So if we think about a sales reps day, there's something like eight hours in the da…”
Owner.com's growth bottleneck is customer onboarding, not demand generation
“Owner.com. Jason introduced me to the company. Jason's an investor. Their bottleneck is implementation. They have a lot of demand. They have a lot of customers that are signing up. And right now it's just taking too long to onboard those folks that are raising…”
Demand-constrained SaaS companies close more revenue by firing underperforming reps
“You will close more revenue with fewer salespeople when you are in an environment that is demand constrained.”
Rippling gifts $25 to high-NPS users who post on LinkedIn
“And what they do is they give an NPS survey At the end of that onboarding. So when I joined Founder's Fund, I onboarded to Rippling. And the NPS survey, I mark it, whatever I mark it, based off of my experience onboarding, I probably marked it a 10. And then I…”
Brex tracked customer spending on Amex by snooping linked bank accounts
“We could sort of cheat at Brex in that we could see the payments that were flowing to other cards. We linked to folks' bank accounts and we could see how much they were paying us and we could see how much they were paying American Express.”
Brex's first dedicated expansion rep outperformed new customer acquisition reps
“What we did was we took one sales rep, and this was when we were something like eight Folks on the sales team. And we moved him or her to being dedicated to expansion in the base. And he looked at, you know, these reports exactly as I just described, where is …”
Brex's first outbound campaign gifted 300 champagne bottles to funded founders
“The first outbound campaign that we did at Brex was we bought 300 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne. So those were like 40 bucks each. Good enough champagne that people are going to break, excuse me, good enough champagne that people are going to drink it. N…”
Brex achieved a 75% demo-to-close rate on its champagne outbound campaign
“And then like, 75% demo to close rate. Now like Brex is like free in a way. We made money on interchange, and so 75% conversion rate is extremely high. We weren't asking for a check.”
Brex sponsored event hotel room keys designed to look like credit cards
“We sponsored the hotel key cards so that anytime anybody checked into the hotel that was associated with Sastr, their room key was a Brex credit card.”
Brex's SF billboards significantly boosted outbound email reply rates
“That was really effective, and it was also really helpful with our outbound, because when we sent an outbound email to somebody whose headquarters was in downtown San Francisco, the probability of them replying was significantly greater, because they had seen …”
Account executives must source their own revenue to stay busy
“For most companies, AEs really should be sourcing their own revenue. There's almost never going to be this perfect equilibrium where you have exactly the number of demos and opportunities that you're working. That mean that as an AE, you're filling eight hours…”