The Top 10 Mistakes First Time B2B SaaS Founders Make
Jason Lemkin catalogs ten common mistakes made by first-time B2B SaaS founders, including hiring inexperienced managers, underpaying talent, micromanaging, prioritizing company logos over capability, and failing to move markets aggressively. The article emphasizes that first-timers often execute faster than second-timers despite lacking experience, but tend to repeat predictable errors in hiring, pricing, and organizational scaling.
Metrics in this report
20million
maximum before
Too late to wait until this ARR to add geographic field sales teams
4-5million
maximum threshold
ARR at which founders must stop micromanaging or hit a human capital wall
50employees
up to
Threshold where founder is typically directly involved in hiring decisions
100-150k
range
Example progression when going upmarket
5quarters
or less
For best first-time founders going from $1m to $10m ARR