Dear SaaStr: What's the Biggest Difference Between a 10 Person Startup and a 100 Person Startup?

And is It Ridiculous to Call Yourself "CEO" When Your StartUp is Tiny?

Dear SaaStr: What is the difference between running a 10 person startup and a 100 person startup?

The biggest structural difference from 10 employees to 100 that is you have to hire all the VPs by employee 50–100. All of them. You won’t be able to scale this far without a full management team — VPs of Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, Customer Success at least.

But the toughest personal challenge for many CEOs is letting go. By employee 100, you have to let go of things. You have to let go of being the product manager. You have to let go of what you say being almost divinely correct. You have to let go of the many mistakes which will be made. You have to let go of the fact that some important things will be done “worse” than if you were doing them or managing them yourself.

You have to let go, and learn to backfill the team you build.

Dear SaaStr: Is it ridiculous to call yourself a CEO if your startup is tiny?

It's not ridiculous. It's smart.

I used to feel that way. I used to look at tiny little startups and wince when a founder went around talking about themselves as “CEO”.

But then I had to learn how to Sell to Big Customers, and Sell to Power. And what I learned is customers care. Customers and prospects want to talk to the CEO. They love to talk to the CEO. Even the CEO of a 5 person company.

• The more business process change is involved, the more they want to know who the CEO is. That’s she there for them. That’s she’s committed for the long run.Customers are taking a risk on you, often a big risk, but in any event, in SaaS, they are changing the way they run their business to use your product.

• Customers care just as much about talking to the CEO if you have 5 employees as 5,000. Maybe even more, because they expect more of a personal touch when you are small. Customers know they are taking a risk in picking a start-up to work with. They expect innovation and a personal touch back as quid-pro-quo for taking that risk.

• Now take it a step further, and show up in person. The customers love it. No matter how small you are. Go visit all your customers, all that you can, and don’t feel nervous or uncomfortable that you are a tiny customer. You are important to them. And few mid-level managers really get the chance to talk a CEO. They appreciate being treated as peers and as stakeholders.

So be the “CEO” even in the earliest days. Make that clear, and take advantage of it as a sales and customer success and retention tool. Even if internally, you’re just one of the team in the early days.

See Everyone at SaaStr Annual 2022, Sep 13-15 in SF Bay Area!

We’re so excited to bring together 10,000 SaaS founders, execs and VCs again!! JOIN US!! Grab 20% off the FINAL tickets here.