Chapter 2 Do the Time generally know very quickly if something is going to take off or not. There are faster possible successes there, but with more risk to succeed or exit, since there’s less of a template than in B2B. That’s not as true in a SaaS company. You have to be willing to do the time. It takes longer to get your team together, get your product right, nail a niche, and see your sales cycles take off. The feedback loops take longer. If you’re any other kind of company, this kind of time frame still seems to hold true: 5–9 years to “make it,” during which you’re making serious money that doesn’t feel like it could disappear at any moment. The press gets more views from rare stories like, “Johnny was 13 when he created an iPhone app, and made a billion dollars overnight.” That’s the exception, not the rule. When Slack raised $120 million at a billion-dollar valuation, the press trumpeted, “Zero to a Billion in Less Than a Year!” What no one wrote about was that Slack actually started six years earlier, in 2008, and struggled for five years before its big breakthrough. And even after that, the company continued to struggle — although in that case it was to keep up with and sustain its fast growth. You read these exciting press stories and feel a mixture of excitement first, and then depression: Everyone’s crushing it except for you. The media loves to build people up You read these and then tear them down, but they rarely print exciting press the whole, balanced story. It’s less dramatic stories and feel that way, which usually means fewer readers. a mixture of So, get excited about the potential and the excitement first, and learnings from all these overnight success then depression: stories, but take them with a grain of salt. More Everyone’s crushing than anything, be prepared to do the time for it except for you. as many years as it takes. You Need 2 Years to Get Off the Ground I meet with great VPs of sales and product who are ready. It’s time to go out on their own and start their own SaaS companies. Awesome, I get it. I’d like to recruit you to be a VP at one of my companies, but I get it. Working for “the Man” can be a great way to make money in the interim, support your family, and get paid to learn. But no one who’s truly ambitious wants to work in that environment forever. If you’re wondering whether or not you should start your own SaaS company, there are three questions to ask yourself: