Here is a recap of what we talked about on today’s SaasRise Enterprise CEO/Founder Mastermind call (for SaaS firms with ACVs > $25k). You can join the weekly call on Tuesdays at 10am PT on Zoom.

Topic 1: Enterprise Sales & Marketing Challenges

• Challenges: Third salesperson hire after methodology issues, lost marketing person, struggling with prospecting consistency, HubSpot deliverability problems with cold email
• Advice: Separate cold email tools (like Instantly) from warm CRM systems, focus on case studies and competitor references in outbound sequences, consider outsourcing lead generation

Topic 2: B2B SaaS Product Development & Growth

• Challenge: Slow feature development, finding reasonably priced engineering talent
• Advice: Leverage AI tools like GPT for clearer product requirements and specifications, consider offshore engineering teams for non-essential tasks
  

Topic 3: Business Acquisition Financing

• Challenge: Need for quick, flexible financing options for small business acquisition
• Advice: Explore revenue-based financing providers, consider personal lines of credit over traditional business loans, evaluate companies like Credibility Capital, Novel, or FounderPath for faster approval
  

Topic 4: Enterprise Software Scaling

• Challenges: $2-3M pipeline delays with ACVs at $100k, 90% outbound dependency, need for systematic growth beyond doubling revenue
• Advice: Implement lead tracking accountability systems, consider analyst relations with Gartner/Forrester, explore strategic channel partnerships, invest in inbound marketing initiatives
  

Topic 5: Technology & Development Tools

• Challenges: Accelerating software development and product management
• Advice: Using AI tools like Google AI Studio and V0 on Vercel for rapid MVP development, implementing "vibe coding" approaches for faster prototyping
  

Topic 6: Work-Life Balance Management

• Challenges: Managing startup growth while raising young children
• Advice: Limiting work hours (25 hours/week example) while building companies and managing family responsibilities
  

Topic 7: Offshore Engineering Management

• Challenges: Finding and managing offshore development teams
• Advice: Significant management overhead required, pricing around $150-180K domestically vs. lower offshore rates ($2k to $5k per dev in Eastern Europe)
  

Topic 8: Cold Email Deliverability Issues

• Challenges: Email deliverability problems with tools like Instantly, encountering new blocking services
• Advice: Monitoring for emerging email filtering technologies, sharing experiences with deliverability challenges
  

Topic 9: Market Recovery Trends

• Challenges: Enterprise sales slowdowns throughout 2024
• Advice: Recognition of market recovery signs in Q3/Q4, with multiple participants noting similar patterns of deals starting to close again after extended delays
  

Topic 10: Investment Banking Selection

• Challenges: Selecting investment banks for large fundraising processes
• Advice: 8-month total process timeline (2 months bank selection + 2 months preparation + 4 months execution)
  

Recommended Tools: Several tools were recommended by members during the mastermind call today:Cold Email & Outbound Marketing:

• Instantly - for cold email campaigns separate from CRM systems
• SmartLead - alternative cold email tool
• Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) - for nurture campaigns
• HubSpot - for warm email and CRM functions (keep separate from cold email)
• Salesforce - for enterprise sales pipeline management
• GPT/Google AI Studio - for creating product requirements and specifications
• V0 on Vercel - for rapid prototyping and development
• Claude - for hyper-personalization (though results were mixed)
• Clay - for lead research and personalization
• FounderPath - revenue-based financing provider
• Novell - revenue-based financing provider
• Credibility Capital - flexible term loans up to $400K
• Lighter Capital - alternative financing option
• Gartner - for analyst relations and enterprise credibility
• Forrester - alternative analyst platform
  

The key recommendation was separating cold email tools from warm CRM systems to maintain deliverability and avoid mixing cold outreach with transactional emails.

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Join The Community

We’ll be back in touch in a few days with another article on rapid SaaS scaling and exit prep. In the mean time, check out our SaaS CEO & Founder Mastermind community, SaasRise.

About the Author

Ryan Allis built iContact as CEO/Co-Founder from startup to $50M in ARR, 70,000 paying customers, #81 on the INC 500 list, and an exit for $169M to a publicly traded company. 

 At iContact, he raised over $45M in venture capital (including $15M in founder liquidity). Today, Ryan is the CEO of SaasRise, the #1 community for experienced SaaS CEOs and Founders with $1M to $100m in ARR.

Ryan focuses on helping tech and SaaS firms achieve 9 and 10 figure exits. He has coached the CEOs of Instantly, Clearstream, Seamless.ai, Tatango, Fuse, Pipeline, RNL, Retreaver, YouCanBookMe, Noteefy, RXNT, and many more growing SaaS firms from $5M to $160M in ARR. Ryan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
 

Apply to join our three mastermind communities.

• SaasRise - For SaaS CEOs & Founders with $1M+ to $100M in ARR
• GrowthRise - For B2B Marketing Leaders
• VentureRise - For CEOs with $5M+ in VC Raised

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SaasRise Hall of Fame

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Congrats to the SaasRise members who have successfully exited or achieved a liquidity event for their company. View the Hall of Fame here.

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