      SaaStr · 2021-01-29
      · 1951d
    

SaaS Hiring Strategy: Building a 100-Person Team at $10M ARR

Jason Lemkin outlines the typical departmental composition and headcount distribution needed for a sales-driven SaaS company at $10M ARR aiming for 100% growth. The article breaks down hiring requirements across sales (~40), customer success (~20), marketing (4-8), engineering (~20-25), and support functions, emphasizing that most scaling SaaS companies need significantly more non-engineering headcount than founders typically anticipate.

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Metrics in this report

CSM Quota

1-1.5$M ARR

range

Per customer success manager during scaling

Customer Success Headcount at $10M ARR

15-20people

range

Sales-driven SaaS growing 100% annually

Marketing Headcount at $10M ARR

4-8people

range

Sales-driven SaaS model

Product and Engineering Headcount at $10M ARR

40people

approximate

Including product management, engineering, DevOps, QA, and design

QA to Engineering Ratio

1:4ratio

benchmark

QA engineers per software engineers

SDR to AE Ratio

1:3ratio

recommended

For sales team modeling

SDRs per Director

8-10people

range

SDR management span of control

Sales Headcount at $10M ARR

~40people

approximate

Sales-driven SaaS growing 100% annually to $20M ARR

Sales Reps per Director

8people

standard

AE management span of control

Support Headcount at $10M ARR

5-6people

range

For 24x7 support including phone support

Total Headcount at $10M ARR

~100-110people

approximate

Sales-driven SaaS excluding G&A and finance