So That VP That Has Done it Before all the time price greater than the stretch VP. They ask for extra wage, and a greater group. As they need to.
But up to now few years, the hole has grown and grown. Recently I talked with a founder who had employed a seasoned VP of Marketing at $3m that had an 8 individual content material advertising and marketing group. Not an 8 individual group at $3m ARR, however simply 8 on content material alone!
Now after all a few of that is a perform of the increase occasions of late 2020 to early 2022, when fortunate began had been flooded with capital.
But there’s a bigger level — prime VPs are getting drained, they’ve executed it earlier than, they usually don’t need to do all of it once more themselves. This has all the time been true, however 15+ years into this SaaS 2.0 wave, the market is now flooded with these superb candidates. VPs of Marketing, Success, Product, Sales and extra that actually have executed it.
Those Prove VPs, even once they be part of an early-stage startup, all appear to wish a group of no less than 8-10 of us to begin, although. Even those not fairly that confirmed. They typically aren’t keen to run a marketing campaign, or carry a quota, and even speak to clients themselves. They’re executed with that. I see so many VPs of Sales and Customer Success who don’t actually need to speak to clients themselves anymore. Not actually. They’ve moved on to group constructing and course of.
Again, whereas not new, it’s unfold. Almost everybody who has been a VP someplace, even for simply a week at a tiny startup, now appears to wish a group of 10 on Day 1 simply to get something executed. They’ll insist on it, actually. They don’t need to begin off doing it themselves, or with simply 1 or 2 key hires. They need a full squad, on day 1, to deal with every thing of their perform. Often with out actually doing a lot of any of it themselves.
The backside line is, proper or incorrect, most of you possibly can’t afford that till you’re at no less than $20m ARR or so. Not anymore.
So you’ll need to go together with a Stretch VP for many roles no less than till $10m ARR in lots of circumstances. Someone at a Director (or related) function proper now. That has its personal dangers. They typically don’t know methods to construct a group in any respect. And they could not have owned as a lot as they declare they do. But nonetheless, it’s the danger you in all probability need to take.
Dear SaaStr: What Differentiates a “Real” VP?
Published on October 1, 2022
https://www.saastr.com/seasoned-vps-cost-10x-a-stretch-vp-now-is-it-worth-it/
