SaaStr 166: Why SaaS Startups Do Not Have To Scale To Enterprise, Why Usage Is The Key Metric When Serving SMBs & How To Optimise The Partnership Model In SaaS with Clate Mask, Founder & CEO @ InfusionSoft

Clate Mask is the CEO of Infusionsoft, the leading cloud-based CRM platform for growth-minded small businesses with more than 145,000 users worldwide. Under Clate’s leadership, InfusionSoft has grown from a fledgling startup housed in a worn-down strip mall into a 550 person company, raising over $130m in VC funding in the process. If that was not enough, Clate is also an angel investor with the likes of CampusLogic, where he also sits on the board and is co-author of Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy.  

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How Clate made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found the leading CRM for small businesses?
• Enterprise vs SMB: Why does Clate fundamentally believe that not everyone has to move to enterprise with time? Why do so many founders believe they need to? Why is it such a preference for investors? How does the decision to remain in SMB change the future structure of the team and product roadmap? What was the hardest challenge for Clate about staying in SMB?
• The Metrics Stack: What is the core metric that founders must observe to analyse the state of their business? How does this core metric affect every other metric? How does Clate view the significance of payback period, what is good to him? How does sales rep productivity change when serving SMB vs enterprise? What is good sales rep productivity? Why does Clate fundamentally believe CAC/LTV is the mothership? What is it solely driven by?
• Partnerships 101: How can a founder know whether they have the right model and product for a partnerships model? How do partnership models change both the service and sales process of your company? What are the biggest risks to implementing a full-scale partnerships model? What have been the biggest challenges for Clate of scaling this partnerships model?

60 Second SaaStr

1. What does Clate know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
2. What is the most important element an investor can provide?
3. A moment in Clate’s life that has changed the way he thinks and sees the world?

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Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

Clate Mask