SaaS Organization & Example SaaS Org Charts (NEW Scalable Model)

About this video

Dan Martell explains how to design a SaaS org or accountability chart as a company grows. He frames a business as six core functions in a growth engine: product (what to build), engineering (how to build it), marketing, sales, customer success, and ops and admin including finance and recruiting. At scale there are five levels: managing directors/founders, C-level chiefs, VPs, team leads and team members, but companies should add layers only as needed and keep direct reports to about five to seven. In the startup stage, up to about 12 employees and, in his framing, typically less than $120K in monthly recurring revenue, three founders each own a paired grouping - product with engineering, sales with marketing, and customer success with operations - with team members reporting directly to them, and with one clear owner per function. In ramp-up, roughly $120K to $500K MRR, director-level or player-coach team leads are added between founders and teams, after asking whether the person actually wants to lead. In scale-up, from $500K MRR upward, C-level roles are added - a Chief Revenue Officer over sales, marketing and customer success, a CTO over product and engineering, and a COO over people, finance and the company operating system - with VPs and team leads beneath them, a structure he says can reach at least 250 people.

Key takeaways

• Map every SaaS business to six core functions: product, engineering, marketing, sales, customer success, and ops and admin.
• Give each function one accountable owner; shared names on multiple functions in a People Planner create confusion.
• At startup stage, group functions in pairs under three founders with team members reporting directly to them.
• Add director-level player-coaches in ramp-up only after confirming they want to manage, not just contribute individually.
• At scale-up, add CRO, CTO and COO roles with VPs and team leads beneath them, keeping spans to five to seven direct reports.

Episode details: published November 23, 2020 · 13:07 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: Investing In SaaS Enabled Marketplaces with Christoph @ PointNine.com - Escape Velocity Show #41 · Next: How To Increase Your Average Revenue Per User (6 Tips) →

All Dan Martell videos · Dan Martell profile · Dan Martell (official site)