SaaStr · 2022-10-27 · 1315d

Delegation Over DIY: Why Founders Must Hire Management by $1M ARR

Jason Lemkin argues that SaaS founders waste critical time on low-ROI tasks and must transition to building a management team by $1M ARR. He shares personal examples of what he should have delegated earlier (office management, QA, DevOps) versus what he successfully offloaded (customer success, sales, marketing), and identifies common founder mistakes like retaining sales leadership too long.

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Metrics in this report

ARR at which delegation becomes critical

1000000$

minimum

SaaS companies should have transitioned to management team by this milestone

ARR for dedicated VP of Product need

3000000-4000000$

range

when product role should transition from founder to dedicated VP

CEO time allocation to recruiting

20%

minimum

percentage of CEO time that should go to recruiting at initial traction

Customer count before exiting routine sales

10-20customers

range

threshold for founder-led sales effectiveness

Days to exit routine sales after great VP hire

60days

observed

time from VP of Sales hire to 100% founder exit

MRR for VP of Marketing hire

30000$

observed example

when author hired VP of Marketing (Loretta Jones)