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What are the questions a sales rep MUST ask if he is interviewing a SaaS startup?

Meaning that he is trying to gage whether it is a good long-term plan. I heard about "FTE" a lot on a previous thread but no one ever said what that actually means.

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poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
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Insert one bitcoin in the search bar.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
Is DOGE still a thing?
jefe
Arsonist
4
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.
braintank
Politicker
4
Enterprise Account Executive
How many customers do they have that aren't in some way related to the founders
bonez
Politicker
1
Account Executive
This is a great one
jefe
Arsonist
0
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Underrated but awesome question.
DataCorrupter
Politicker
2
Account Executive
I think they meant full time employees. I could be wrong, but I believe the point they were getting at is look at the funding and look at how many employees they have. If it's a Series A with 5m in funding and they have 200 employees, that's kind of a lot to pay for with 5m, right?

This is the idea of a company's "runway" and how much a company has. Runway being how much money they have to keep operations going. If they've got too many people then they're sure to run out of money sooner rather than later.
2
Founding BDR
As @DataCorrupter mentioned, runaway is a big one. Coming off a stint with a company that was going month to month, it’s not a pleasant place to be. In addition, talk to a few members of the team if you can as you’ll most likely be working pretty close with them if it’s a smallerish team.
emerge.life
Valued Contributor
1
Field Sales Development Executive
What percentage or how many of their sales team hit the sales plan.
The reason being, unrealistic sales targets might be hiding deeper issues within the company
Pachacuti
Politicker
0
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
Sales GPT first, Google next.


FTE = Full time employee
kneehigh
Politicker
0
Senior Enterprise AE
(edit: sorry tried to format into bullet points but not working...)I think this depends on what stage the start-up is? Pre-seed, series A or series B all are going to be at different stages.
Here are my 2c on your question though
+Current ARR (if any..)
+Current cash burn rate given current hiring budget and probably ridiculous sales targets when will they have to raise money again (you ideally want at least 1.5-2 years) otherwise the company is at risk)
+Average deal size
+Average sales cycle length
+Pricing/licensing model
+Who has been doing the selling already? How have they got those prospects? (it can't be all the founders mates for example)
+How are they getting leads currently (if any...) what inbound is there?
+How good is Product Market Fit (PMF), best way to gauge this is to see if all clients are similar ICP of its its just random. Is the product solving a key problem that other solutions in the market can't currently and can you quantify it's benefits (makes it easier to sell)
+What other hires will there be to support you in your role? BDR/SDR, product marketing, product manager etc.
+What are their expectations for you when they hire you? When do they expect you to start closing deals and brining in ARR? How does this align with the above in terms of typical sales cycle and average deal size. Are their expectations achievable?
+What is the founders/key CXO experience in startu-ps? Have they exited and sold companies before? Can they go the distance and handle the mess an early stage start-up is.
0
Senior Director of Sales
How were you funded ? - VC Funded or Private Funding and how much $$. How many (F500-F1000) customers do you have, how did you get them & are they happy. Do you have any business partners?. How well does the SaaS software work and is it Bug Free?. Do you have a Marketing Plan & Budget to implement it. Does the software have a differentiator - is it a nice to have or need to have. Is the HQ in the USA. How many Sales Pro's and how are they doing. How is the Tech Team and is it US based...
FYI SaaS start Ups are usually Not a long Term plan even if Management tells you it is a career (Ha-LOL).
Selling.is.helping
Valued Contributor
0
Account Executive
Why is this role opening up (someone left or growing team)

How do you set quota expectations?

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