Tony Mao

How’s that old GTM tech saying go… “F^&* around and find out” Data providers and automation vendors operating on the fringes of legitimacy just got a MASSIVE wake up call. Pocus isn’t running afoul of any of LinkedIn’s rules (nor do we plan to). But this is a good time to reiterate some guiding principles you should follow to be good at Outbound without relying on sketchy / creepy / privacy-violating behaviors. #1 FIRST PARTY DATA Don’t sleep on your own data. A common misconception is 1st party data is only valuable for PLG companies or AM/expansion-focused teams. So many great signal-based plays to run for net new business using your own data like product tour viewers, webinar sign ups, event attendees etc. #2 ACCOUNT-BASED SIGNALS Another unproblematic source of buying signals is anything account related. Capture account level intel using AI to scrape publicly available data sources (10Ks, podcasts, news articles) for relevant information to help focus reps on the right accounts.   #3 BUILD RELATIONSHIPS Use your network to find warm intros and paths into your accounts. Go where your ICP hangs out and engage them. There are so many ways to build relationships with potential buyers before you spam them with a pitch. I am personally much more likely to be receptive to cold outbound if you reference a mutual connection or mention an event we both attended. #4 THINK SMALL Don’t spam the TAM. The fastest way to get dinged by LinkedIn is to indiscriminately reach out to as many people as possible with generic messaging. Curate the perfect list (max 50 people for a campaign) and spend the time to make the message valuable and relevant. You’ll send less but connect more. #5 ADD VALUE / BE RELEVANT Show me you want to build a relationship, not just transact. You can do this by 1) reaching out because you have something relevant to my priorities to offer 2) you want to add value with an expectation of something in return. BONUS TIP: ⚠️Automate with caution ⚠️ Knowing when to automate and how to play within the limits of the platform are important. If you’re doing strategic enterprise selling, I’d expect very minimal automation in your initial outreach efforts. Instead use AI to do all the heavy lifting of account selection, persona identification, AND drafting a message starting point. From there reps just have to adjust messaging as needed, click a button, and hit send. 

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🚀 Unit's biggest announcement to date: Ready-to-Launch Embedded Finance The data doesn't lie: 50%+ of vertical SaaS revenue now comes from embedded finance, not just software. Companies like Shopify and Gusto proved the formula works. But here's the problem: most companies feel stuck by the complexity and upfront investment. Today that changes. Introducing Ready-to-Launch solutions: Capital, Banking & Bill Pay that can be launched in just 3 weeks with ONE line of code. ✅ Zero engineering build ✅ No operations headaches ✅ Unit handles all financial risk ✅ Revenue share from day one We're already seeing impact across retail, home services, medical practices, and nonprofits - with 50,000 businesses now accessing better financial services. The shift is here. The question is: will you lead your market or watch competitors take the embedded finance advantage? Ready to learn more? 👇 https://lnkd.in/ej8BHCZG

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Custom software feels smart. Until it doesn’t. Early on, the calls are quick. Move fast. Keep it lean. Ship what users want. But at $10M ARR, those early choices start to show cracks. Here’s what breaks: 1️⃣ It wasn’t built to grow ↳ The tools don’t scale ↳ Updates feel risky 2️⃣ Too much lives in people’s heads ↳ Only a few know how it works ↳ If they leave, you’re stuck 3️⃣ The fast way becomes the hard way ↳ Quick fixes pile up ↳ And small issues turn into big ones 4️⃣ What works now? ↳ Tools you can reuse ↳ Clear notes anyone can follow ↳ Tech that’s solid, not shiny 5️⃣ Most problems aren’t bugs ↳ They’re things no one saw coming ↳ You don’t need more engineers ↳ You need fewer unknowns Getting to $1M is about speed. Getting to $50M is about structure. If your team is feeling the strain, you’re not alone. ♻️ Repost if you’ve watched fast code slow down a good team 👉 Follow me for more real stories on what actually scales

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There’s a lot of chatter about how measuring ARR is meaningfully different today than before. Folks are citing: AI and usage / success based pricing as a new game as the big one. Yesterday’s article on 11x has stirred up some chatter on opt outs. Are those ARR? I don’t think these are new problems to SaaS. As far as I’ve known, ARR has always been a subjective measure. It IS true that a greater % of companies are now subject to more subjectivity in how they define ARR. But this question around usage based / resolution based pricing metrics… we already have decent precedents here. We can look to companies like Twilio, Snowflake, Intercom etc who’ve had usage based models for a decade plus and have all reported on ARR. And I’m positive that opt outs are not a new thing for any business. My take on this is that everyone does have to report on ARR differently. It is subjective. It’s always been. As such, my guiding principle: ARR should always represent your best guess for what revenue is recurring. So if it’s a usage model, recurring should mean you have reliable evidence to state that they’re going to continue to pay at least that amount moving forward. And then you should always be really clear about what’s in and what’s out of ARR. Perhaps I'll share more specific examples of what's recurring and what's not in a follow up. Just a few quick thoughts.

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Most startups build software the hard way. Full-stack teams. Big burn. Slow to scale. Quavo did it differently - and it worked. They launched a purpose-built SaaS product in a complex space (fraud & dispute resolution for Financial Institutions), grew 60% YoY, and just landed $300M in growth capital. The playbook? Focus on your IP and core value. Leverage a platform. Deliver real outcomes to clients fast. Then scale. Read the full story from my recent interview with Joseph W. McLean Co-Founder & CEO of Quavo. https://lnkd.in/eT4x5_N4

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It’s 2025 B2B SaaS Benchmarks Report release day! We curate everything we see/hear into what’s most relevant for $2-20M SaaS. We at also included an Interactive Quarterly Board Scorecard Tool in there, which you can use to get everyone on the same page at your next board meeting. We’ve been using it for 5 years at EVERY Jurassic Capital portco board meeting. Thought it was time to share. Here are some key highlights from this year’s report: 1. Retention Under Pressure - Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) dropped to 88% median for $5-20M ARR companies (down from 90%), with logo retention falling to 86% - Net Revenue Retention (NRR) declined to 101% showing expansion is becoming increasingly challenging - AI is making switching easier, forcing vertical SaaS to rely on unique datasets and specialized labor for stickiness ⠀2. Growth vs. Efficiency Trade-offs - ARR Growth continues declining for 4th consecutive year - $5-20M companies at 27% - Burn Multiples are stable at 1.5x while gross margins improved to 77% as companies focus on capital efficiency ⠀3. Sales Getting Tougher - Expansion ARR now 37% of total new ARR as new logo acquisition becomes harder - Sales cycles finally dropped 9% YoY in early 2025 after years of increases, showing some market softening and hopefully leading to growth later in 2025 ⠀4. Lean Operations - Teams are doing more with less: Series A companies down to 15 people (from 20 in 2023) - Hiring at historic lows with dramatic reduction in 2024 software hiring, likely due to AI improving efficiency in OpEx - OpEx % of Revenue is dropping for companies utilizing AI (with some re-deploying into Growth via Sales & Mktg), while COGS are increasing due to compute costs - Founder salaries plateau around $140k median after $5M revenue ⠀5. Market Recovery driven by AI, but cautious road ahead for equity-backed companies, driven by barbell effect - Growth/PE dry powder and re-opening of IPO window drove best first half for software M&A ever in quantity with median multiples slowly rising to 4.2x - Concentrated LP fundraising into fewer firms leading to fewer rounds at higher valuations: Seed/Series A up 30%/2% in valuations but down 48%/60% in volume - Seed and Series A companies are still ~2 years to graduate to the next round; Bridge rounds increased to record highs as Seed/Series A at 46%/36% of all rounds - AI companies command 41% valuation premium over those that aren’t defined as AI Huge thanks as always to the researchers (like Carta, Peter Walker, SaaS Capital, Benchmarkit, PitchBook, Pilot.com, Software Equity Group, ChartMogul, Maxio, and so many more) who actually find this data via surveys, their own reporting/software, etc., and then we get to curate down. You all rock. See full report below and access our Benchmarking Tool here: https://lnkd.in/exT4bkva

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SaaS founders: Stop building features, start solving problems I see founders making the same mistake over and over. They build features nobody asked for. Then wonder why users don't stick around. Here's the thing - Your customers don't care about your fancy dashboard. - They care about getting home to their kids on time. - They care about not looking stupid in front of their boss. - They care about sleeping better at night. The wrong way - "Let's add a dark mode!" - "What about AI integration?" - "Users love more customization options!" The right way - "Why are people churning after week 2?" - "What's keeping them up at night?" - "What would make their job easier?" Real talk - Features are easy to copy. - Problems are what make you irreplaceable. Start here - Call 5 customers this week. - Don't ask what features they want. - Ask what's frustrating them right now. Then go solve that. Your roadmap will thank you.

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How did Ramp become the fastest growing company ever to come out of NYC? I had the pleasure of recently catching up with Max Freeman who started started off as an SDR when Ramp was a small seed stage company, to now leading 300+ salespeople as VP of Sales of a $13B juggernaut.  Some key takeaways include:  💡 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:  Max went from booking 3-4 meetings in his first month to 40-45 by month three after refining messaging and targeting. Success came from listening to customers and adjusting based on actual market feedback. 🔄 𝗧𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗚𝗧𝗠 + 𝗘𝗣𝗗 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘁: Max joined every sales call and took extensive notes on objections and feature requests in the early days. Weekly stand-ups with engineering, product, and design ensured sales and EPD remained tightly aligned. 🚀 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 Ramp prioritized "figure-it-out" talent over traditional sales backgrounds. They hired bankers and finance professionals with domain knowledge who could understand the product deeply. 👥 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 Leadership dedicated top engineers to sales automation, treating growth as a first-class citizen. Engineers built systems that generated personalized, automated outreach that drove significant meeting volume. ⚙️ 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆 Initially compensating solely on meetings booked was a mistake. The team quickly evolved to tie sales compensation to both SQLs and closed-won deals, ensuring focus on quality prospects. 🔑 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗷𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 Max's advice: "Tackle every problem you see without asking for promotions. Hire people better than yourself, and be transparent about what you don't know." 🤖 𝗔𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗗𝗥𝘀 The future belongs to sales professionals who leverage AI for repetitive tasks while focusing on building relationships and having meaningful conversations. Much more in our interview which you can read here :)  https://lnkd.in/e2UHmDJ8 #StartupGrowth #GTMStrategy #SalesLeadership #B2BSales

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We rebuilt 100+ CI/CD pipelines for top SaaS companies. Here’s what we clean up first (and why every pipeline gets instantly healthier when we do): 1. Bloated YAMLs full of conditionals nobody understands. Most CI files evolve like a junk drawer. People keep adding edge cases, temporary fixes, and legacy logic… and no one ever removes them. ✅ What we do: Break down massive YAMLs → move logic into clean, reusable scripts → use templating if needed, but keep it boring. The goal isn’t clever. It’s clarity. 2. Useless test jobs nobody tracks anymore. We’ve seen pipelines running 10+ tests that haven’t failed in years (and nobody can explain what they’re testing.) ✅ What we do: Audit every job → kill flaky or unowned tests → tag what remains with an owner + runtime budget. Rule: If it’s unowned, it’s out. 3. Frankenstein toolchains that slow everything down. The worst setups are part GitHub Actions, part Jenkins, part ArgoCD, and 100% chaos. ✅ What we do: Pick one core system. Reduce touchpoints. Replace brittle glue scripts with shared libraries. Monolith pipelines = faster iterations. 4. Deploys without rollback or visibility. You’d be shocked how many teams push to prod without alerts, health checks, or rollback logic. ✅ What we do: Add progressive rollout → real-time alert hooks → automatic revert on failure. Shipping to prod shouldn't feel like gambling. 5. Over-permissioned runners. Still seeing pipelines with long-lived IAM tokens and full cloud access? ✅ What we do: Move to short-lived tokens via GitHub OIDC or AWS STS. Scope access down to the least privilege required. Security should be baked into the pipeline. Not duct-taped later. CI/CD doesn’t break because the tools are bad. It breaks because nobody takes ownership of the pipeline like they would their app code. What’s your first move when fixing a messy pipeline? ♻️ 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐨 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧.

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The GTM playbook is being rewritten — and CROs are leading the charge. Last week, Scalestack co-hosted an unforgettable CRO Roundtable in San Francisco with our friends at The CRO Collective. 👥 20 revenue leaders 🌆  An iconic venue at the Transamerica Pyramid 🔥 Real, unfiltered conversation No panels. No pitches. No filler. Just honest conversation around what’s working, what’s not, and where we go next as GTM continues to shift beneath our feet. Some themes that stood out: 🚨  Misaligned incentives are killing revenue strategy 🎯  Marketing ≠ just lead gen — it’s about brand, education, and long-term growth 🧠  Millennial buyers demand a new approach 🤖  AI is non-negotiable — but hard to navigate 🏗️  CROs aren’t just sales leaders — they’re system architects Scalestack is building revenue engines that work with the GTM stack, not around it. That’s why these spaces matter: they cut through the noise and make room for clarity, curiosity, and collaboration. Big thanks to the leaders who showed up ready to challenge assumptions and push the conversation forward — and to our partner Warren Zenna, and the team at The CRO Collective for making it all happen. Looking forward to the next one! #Scalestack #CROCollective #AutonomousRevenueEngine #RevenueEngineMasters #CRORoundtable

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I recently interviewed Adam Robinson on the ProductLed Podcast about how he grew RB2B from $0 to $5M ARR in just 13 months with only 5 people.   His approach to validation and finding PMF before building is seriously worth studying.   Here's how their journey panned out:   1) Adam discovered a goldmine when his post about letting go of their VP of Sales and SDR team generated unprecedented engagement. He realized there was massive pain around sales efficiency. 2) He pivoted his entire content strategy toward B2B revenue leaders, consistently posting about their challenges. 3) He posted content about ABM and website identity, adding in his footer: "DM me if you want to close the loop on ABM and get website identity at the person level." This generated hundreds of inbound requests. 4) Between October 2023 and March 2024, Adam and their former COO Santosh Sharan conducted nearly 300 discovery calls. Instead of pitching their solution, they asked: "How are you using website identity right now? How is that information getting to your reps? What do they complain about?" 5) Almost universally, these sales leaders reported: "They all say they want to know who the person is." This validated they'd found a real pain point. 6) Their first test was incredibly simple: emailing a spreadsheet of visitor data. It flopped. No one was willing to pay $495/month for it. 7) The breakthrough came when they pushed visitor data into Slack with headshots and LinkedIn URLs. This created instant "wow" moments as people realized they could see who was on their website in real-time. "I started walking around to parties, and I'd pull out my phone and be like, 'these people are on my website right now.' And they were just like, 'What? You can't do that!'" 8) When they launched, they had a HUGE waitlist of users eager to try the product.   Now, they've FINALLY hit $5M ARR in just 13 months with only 5 team members.   And a big part of their success can be attributed to validating demand BEFORE building product.   Validation isn't a linear process. It's messy, iterative, and never truly finished.   You have to be willing to put in the reps and focus on the "not-so-sexy" work before you think about scale.   Check out the full episode if you want to dive deeper into this topic (link in the comments 👇)

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Beefree just cracked the code on one of product development's toughest challenges: Serving both scrappy startups and demanding enterprise clients with the same platform. Their challenge? Enterprise customers needed custom LLM integrations for their AI writing features, while smaller teams wanted plug-and-play solutions. Talk about conflicting requirements. Here’s what they did… They gave developers full control through callbacks and dialog interfaces, and when users feel in control, adoption skyrockets. They built TWO solutions: 1️⃣ Ready-to-use tools for teams, who needed speed 2️⃣ Fully customizable options for those who needed control They started small and iterated fast. Instead of building image generation, alt-text, AND translations all at once, they focused solely on AI text generation first. Ship the MVP, collect feedback, expand. They looped customers in early. Enterprise customers weren't just end users; they became co-developers. This saved months of building the wrong thing. They tested everything in a different sort of way… Someone who didn't build the feature had to implement it using only the documentation. Brutal, but brilliant. The result was wide adoption across both segments and a playbook they can apply to every future feature. The takeaway: You CAN serve different customer segments without fragmenting your product. It just requires intentional design and ruthless user empathy.

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I have a friend who buys around $20mm in software, every year. Obviously, he doesn’t have time to go to every EBR with every vendor. So, I asked him, how does he pick?  Here’s what he said:  “Almost every EBR I get invited to could be an email. How much did we use, what bugs did we fix, what features are coming out. I don’t need to be there. There are only 2 of our suppliers that I always go to their EBR. They are the only ones that actually come with ideas to help our business.”

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The best tech platforms don’t just build products—they build ecosystems. That’s what stood out in Klaviyo’s Q4 earnings call. Andrew Bialecki made it clear: Klaviyo is thinking API-first, partner-first, and moving toward default status in the e-commerce stack. As a tech partner, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Klaviyo’s $270M Q4 revenue (+34% YoY) and $937M for FY 2024 shows the business is scaling efficiently. But beyond the numbers, what excites me most is the strategic direction. 1️⃣ 𝗔𝗣𝗜-𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 – AB emphasized how Klaviyo’s platform is evolving to make it even easier for partners to integrate, automate, and build on top of their data infrastructure. More APIs, better access, and a frictionless way to deliver value. 2️⃣ 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿-𝗟𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 – The best platforms don’t try to do everything themselves. Klaviyo is doubling down on its partner ecosystem—tech partners, service agencies, and developers—to drive adoption and enhance customer value. 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗮𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘀 – AB talked about becoming the go-to marketing data layer for B2C brands—whether they start with Klaviyo or migrate later, the goal is to be the obvious choice. That kind of positioning unlocks long-term compounding advantages. Huge credit to AB, Ed Hallen, Amanda Whalen, and the entire Klaviyo team for delivering a strong quarter and laying the foundation for even bigger things ahead. If you’re building in e-commerce, now’s the time to pay attention. 🚀 Excited to see where this goes in 2025. What integrations or capabilities would you love to see next? #Partnerships #Klaviyo

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