SaaStr 102: Why You Should Not Pay Your Sales Team Commission, Why There Is Such Little Innovation In Go-To-Market Strategy & Why Adaptability Is Key Not Efficiency with Didier Elzinga, Founder & CEO @ Culture Amp

Didier Elzinga is the Founder & CEO @ CultureAmp, the world’s most powerful employee feedback and analytics platform. They have raised funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Index Ventures, our friends at Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. As for Didier, he previously co-founded technical academy award winning Rising Sun Research and is non-executive director at Tourism Australia, the Atlassian Foundation and Slingsby Theatre. I also have to say a huge thank you to Ilya @ Index and Niki @ Blackbird for the intro, without which the show would not have been possible.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How did Didier make his way into the world of SaaS? What was the a-ha moment for him with CultureAmp?
• What were Didier’s biggest takeaways from watching Scott and Mike build Atlassian? How did that affect and alter how he structured CultureAmp?
• How does Didier evaluate product market fit? What are the signs? What metrics determine whether you have it or you do not? Why did Didier decide to bootstrap until $1m ARR?
• Why does Didier believe there is so little innovation in the go to market strategies of today? What would he like to see change and where does he see opportunity?
• Why does Didier not believe in paying sales teams commission? How does this affect his ability to hire? How does this affect the internal compensation structure of the firm?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Didier’s Fave SaaS resource?
2. What does Didier know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
3. What has been the most challenging element of the CultureAmp journey?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:

Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

Didier Elzinga