SaaStr 2022 marked my third attendance at the SaaS community event, and, honestly, it was the best to date.
I went out to San Mateo, CA, with seven QuotaPath team members spanning Sales, Marketing, and Product. Some of those seven attended last year with me and agreed that the depth and quality of conversations far surpassed those of 2021. (Read last year’s recap here.)
You can check out my full speaking session below with guest Liz Christo of Stage 2 Capital. She and I went through compensation best practices that scale with your teams.
After a full week and many back and forths between San Mateo and San Francisco, here are my key takeaways from SaaStr 2022.
- Deeper conversations
We held a lot of wonderful conversations last year with people about QuotaPath, but this year, they went much deeper.
I noticed a vulnerability amongst other founders and leaders we met with and a willingness to share their growth challenges. This I credit to our product being further along. For instance, now that we have a universal API, we can partner with any company and keep the conversation going.
- Executive burnout is for real
Those growth challenges mentioned above segue into my next point about executive burnout.
The “grow at all cost” model over the past 24 months set forth by venture firms has burned out top execs. I learned from my one-off conversations at SaaStr that a lot of leaders have taken a step back into consulting roles to take a breath and plan their next move.
The reason for their exits typically landed into one of three buckets.
The first — they joined a startup that wasn’t what it was hyped up to be.
The second, they left after their startup did really well, found wealth, and took a step back.
Or, third, they saw a fledgling company through its end and practiced “quiet quitting” until it wrapped.
While I don’t have a solution in mind at the moment, I do recognize that a mass “reset” of sorts is taking place amongst employees. The start of 2023 should be interesting.
- Increased international presence
I also noticed a lot more international folks in attendance this year than in 2021, which we can chalk up to COVID-19’s presence in 2021.
Still, it was super interesting to hear how our international industry leaders think about compensation — and especially interesting how they turn to American technologies and media for their source of truth.
I hadn’t expected that and was surprised to hear how many international companies leverage HubSpot as their CRM.
- There is no better time than now for Compensation Hub
Additionally, we already knew this, but SaaStr re-confirmed the value of QuotaPath’s Oct. 4 launch of Compensation Hub.
Everyone asked us about compensation plan design and how we think about specific scenarios. We also spoke with a lot of founders planning their first sales hires.
After giving a broad overview of our newest free resource that models sample compensation plans based on customizable business variables, I heard a universal, “Wow that will be amazing.”
They understood the big picture and where we can take Compensation Hub.
- Content improvements
We had a great time and held hundreds of meaningful conversations between the eight of us, but I still felt SaaStr 2022 content from the key speakers could improve.
Product-led growth (PLG) topics remained popular on the presentation front, and I found Mark Roberge’s particularly interesting.
But overall, the content was so-so, and I’m over panels.
I’d love to see more vetted content, especially for the key speakers from larger companies. For panels, I’d love to see a bigger effort to match people up appropriately and find really good speakers.
As for next year, we plan to return. Maybe in 2023, we can run a RevOps event centered on Compensation Hub.
Lastly, traveling between San Francisco and San Mateo is not fun.
I made that trip four times last week, and it was terrible. If any founder can find a way to make that commute less painful, I’m interested in learning more.
About QuotaPath
QuotaPath provides sales compensation and commission tracking sales enablement software for scaling GTM organizations. Pairing an easy-to-use user experience with a highly technical backend, QuotaPath is the only solution fit to get Sales, RevOps, and Finance on the same page.
To see how we fit into your tech stack, check out our integrations page. And, to learn more, book a time with a member of our team today.
About Compensation Hub – coming Oct. 4!
QuotaPath’s newest (free) resource invites Sales, RevOps, and Finance leaders to discover, compare, customize, and share compensation models. Strike the right balance between pay and performance to successfully align your compensation strategy to your business strategy.
