Episode 807 | The "Core Four" SaaS Skills and Knowing When You Should Find a Co-founder (A Rob Solo Adventure)

Is hiring a sales and marketing co-founder the secret sauce for technical SaaS founders?

In this solo episode, Rob Walling tackles a fresh batch of listener questions, starting with one of the most common dilemmas for technical founders: should you hire a sales and marketing co-founder or go it alone?

He introduces his “Core Four” mental model, the essential skills every SaaS team needs early on, and shares insights on dealing with enterprise clients who keep moving the goalposts, handling a flood of non-ICP users, and a heartfelt message from a listener who just exited their startup.

Want to get your question answered? Drop it here.

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Topics we cover: 

• (3:11) – Should you find a co-founder for sales and marketing?
• (5:29) – What are the Core Four SaaS Skills?
• (11:41) – Can you succeed without mastering all four, or should you outsource?
• (16:39) – Why sales-led growth might outperform self-serve SaaS
• (21:48) – Dealing with big companies who change your contract terms
• (27:06) – What to do with thousands of unqualified signups

Links from the Show: 

• Discretion Capital – M&A for B2B SaaS
• Exit Strategy by Sherry & Rob Walling 
• MicroConf - SaaS Community
• TinySeed - SaaS Institute

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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