SaaStr 144: 7 Steps To Land $100K+ "Whale" Clients with Sequoia Backed, Andy Byrne, Founder & CEO @ Clari

Andy Byrne is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Clari, the startup that helps sales teams drive more revenue and increase forecast accuracy through improved deal execution and predictive analysis. They have raised over $30m in venture funding from some of the best in the business including Sequoia and Bain Capital Ventures. Prior to Clari, Andy was part of the founding executive team at Clearwell Systems—Gartner's highest ranking e-discovery company—which he helped grow from pre-product & pre-revenue in 2005 to $100 million run rate until its acquisition by Symantec (SYMC) in Q2 2011. Prior to joining Clearwell, Andy co-founded Timestock, Inc., acquired by Computer Associates (CA) via the acquisition of Wily Technology.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

• How Andy made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found Clari? What were the key takeaways from his two prior successful founding experiences?
• Why is it important for startups to look larger than life to potential "whale" customer? What is the methodology that startups can use to gain this appearance? What role does the website play in this?
• Why is it important for startups to understand the risk the buyer is undertaking at large corporates when becoming a customer? How does this mean that startups should convey the product roadmap? How can startups sell the product vision and the instant value add simultaneously?
• How can startups look to "create theatre" with their product? What does this really mean? How can startups do this when the product is in MVP stage?
• Why is it so important for the startup to make the switch from vendor to partner? How can startups use execution time as the key way to achieve this?

60 Second SaaStr

1. What hires does Andy wish he had made earlier with Clari?
2. Recruiting in the valley, how hard and top tips?
3. What is the most challenging element in the day to day running of Clari?

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Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

Andy Byrne