SaaStr AI London is Dec 1-2!! See You There!!

Helping, founding, funding, and growing B2B start-ups.  Making it a positive-sum game for everyone involved.  VC checks $500k-$4m @ SaaStrFund.com.  2x founder with nine figures of founder exits.

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Specialties: helping people grow and become their best.  Doing not the impossible, but the unlikely.  Never giving up.

Join 10,000 of us IRL at SaastrAnnual.com May 12-14 in SF Bay!!

FREE Weekly Workshops and Live AMAs, Sign up here -> https://www.saastr.com/workshop-wednesday/

SaaStrFund.com investments include:

- Co-led Series A in Salesloft ($2.3B exit)
- Co-led Seed in Pipedrive ($1.5B exit)
- Led Seed in Algolia ($2.3B)
- First VC in Talkdesk ($10B)
- Led Seed in Gorgias ($800m)
- Led Seed in Owner.com ($1B)
- First Investor in RevenueCat ($500m)
- First VC in Logikcull ($280m exit)
- Proud smaller investor in Greenhouse ($800m exit), Sqreen ($400m exit), Automile ($1B SEK exit), Opus Pro, Higgsfield.ai, and many others!
- and much more

Jason M. Lemkin

Agentforce has delivered pretty darn impressive results for us -- for real. 

The >actual< data and live deep dive in post in comments.

AI agents do take work, but if you put in the time, the ROI can be massive.

SaaStr AI 2026 is May 12-14 in SF Bay!! See You There!!

SaaStr.ai is reaching new heights with #Agentforce. 📈

In just 30 days with our new Agentforce for Sales, the one and only Jason M. Lemkin:

• re-engaged approximately 3,000 ghosted leads
• achieved a remarkable 72% open rate
• closed deals from contacts that had been untouched for six months
• secured the highest response rate of any AI platform they tested

This goes beyond efficiency to driving revenue and reigniting old opportunities. The world of sales is changing, and #Agentforce is leading the charge.

Open article: SaaStr + Agentforce: It’s Early, But the Results Are Really, Really Strong by saastr.com

SaaStr + Agentforce: It’s Early, But the Results Are Really, Really Strong

So far I've watched 3 VC seed deals this year where the founders just decided to keep the money for themselves and not build the product.

All were on SAFEs, and they took the position they owed investors nothing and that in fact they were not even investors. Just SAFE holders.

One eventually returned cash after keeping a large chunk for themselves.

Another hired an attorney who said plainly nothing was owed to the investors and the founders could pay themselves whatever they wanted.

I did not personally invest in these deals but I might have, they had a lot going for them (or so it seemed).

This is going to happen in the Age of AI. It's the flip side of so many things also exploding so quickly and growing at insane rates.

It's just a risk to be more aware of perhaps than in the past.

SaaStr AI Annual ’26 is May 12-14 in SF Bay!! See You There!!

Engineering: sell what we have

Sales: build what I can sell

This, is The Enterprise

You can't scale if you can't recruit 

First, learn to love it

Then, learn to staff it

Pavilion

Pavilion (formerly The Revenue Collective) is a private, invitation-only community of sales and marketing executives at growth-focused companies.

Member

Shutterstock

Brought on board by the VP of Platform Solutions to assemble and spearhead a tiger team of Content API Sales Specialists / SMEs, we grew enterprise revenue and retention, mainly through pre- and post-sales enablement and support. My team and I established revenue-generating partnerships ($8M+) and improved win rates with the largest global brands, including Wix, Meta, and Microsoft. With the right training, our sellers repositioned Shutterstock as an end-to-end creative production partner.
 
Skilled in adapting to ever-changing environments, managing through transitions, learning new products and businesses, I was promoted by Shutterstock’s Chief Enterprise Officer to a brand new role, during which time I transformed a struggling legacy business, the enterprise creative content marketplace (image, footage, audio, 3D, and Gen AI). 

Leading Shutterstock’s innovation and enablement resources to improve relationships and utilization with 100s of customers and integrated partners, including Meta, Microsoft, Snap, as well as global agency holding companies, we delivered $20M+ in incremental annual revenue. 

My 2024 strategy set the foundation to grow creative stock content marketplace revenue by 8-figures and meet a 4x growth target by supporting new business ventures such as Generative AI as a Service (GaaS) and Shutterstock Studios Immersive & Gaming.

Introducing our new service line that offered frontline white glove consulting services to help customers maximize ROI and cultivate global sales relationships, we delivered $2M+ per year in new business referrals, $3M+ annually from integration-dependent new business and renewals, and $15M+ annually from overall rise in spend. 

We also grew our new user base from 100% (mid-market) to 1,000% (enterprise) while building brand equity, improving relationships, and driving faster closes.

Senior Director, Innovation & Enablement 

PhotoShelter

With a special talent for connecting the dots and spotting opportunities that others often overlook, I leveraged my start-up experience and expertise in image/video technology industry to establish the new Digital Asset Management (DAM) division, B2B PhotoShelter for Brands (formerly Libris), and evolved it into a leader in the G2-recognized DAM category in 4 short years.

Driving business expansion, revenue growth, customer demand, and an enterprise GTM strategy, our revenue increased from $0 to $7M ARR ($15M+ in cumulative bookings) and we saw 40%+ YOY growth in an average deal size, with a $10M+ trajectory in 2019.

Under my leadership, my 10-person sales and sales development representatives (SDR) team sold and onboarded 1,100+ notable small and mid-market customers (e.g., MLB, NFL, Chick-fil-A) with a 95% retention rate.

VP of Sales & Strategic Partnerships

Rawporter

Having always thrived in gray areas where innovation or startup mentalities are required to succeed, generating revenue through new product launches, product extensions, or joint offerings with partners has been my happy place. 

That’s part of the reason I established Rawporter, a cutting-edge startup service that protects, promotes, and sells photos/videos shared online to social media. Driving the company growth strategy, external communications, and sales and marketing initiatives, and cultivating advisor and investor relationships, new logo wins included all major TV news networks, production houses, and notable publishing brands like US Weekly, InTouch and People. 

By leveraging recurring User Generated Content (UGC) marketplace sales, ad-hoc assignments, and larger deals tied to major news events (“The Miracle on the Hudson” iPhone photo; “Boston Bombing” videos) I built an amateur photographer community of 10K+ and grew annual revenue to $250K+.

CEO and Co-Founder

Allianz Worldwide Partners

Recruited away from Bank of America by Allianz’s VP of Global Business Development, I led the business development division to launch new entertainment and event-related insurance products. 

Influencing and reducing process friction in order to move business forward, I oversaw new product design, development, and launches, including integrated technology platform solutions. After introducing new point-of-purchase technology capabilities to existing event-ticket insurance partners and expanding into new markets, we propelled our partnerships from $50M to $60M+ in 24 months. By rolling out Fuzion online checkout purchase optimization technology, our sales conversions rose 100%+ on average.

The key to securing revenue-sharing opportunities with enterprise B2B and B2B2C partners such as amusement parks, summer camps, and recreation leagues was deploying a new-markets strategy and building relationships.

Director of Business Development

Bank of America

Hired directly out of an MBA program and a management rotation (incl. credit card partnerships and marketing to eCommerce and ATM banking), I invigorated customer engagement, partner loyalty, and revenue growth while managing product/channel management strategy, marketing, advertising, market research, a $9M annual budget, and teams of 2-3+ employees. By attracting and cultivating talented teams and helping them achieve their goals, my people focus on getting the job done and enjoy helping the company do what’s needed without over-resourcing.

While optimizing relationships across a portfolio of B2B for brands—Mercedes-Benz, Alaska Airlines, Choice Hotels, and Major League Baseball (MLB)—I also served as key media/PR liaison and joined external partners to expedite key marketing initiatives (incl. mass advertising campaigns). I spent months on the road with my Mercedes-Benz partners, traveling across the country to major markets doing “road shows” and training staff and leadership on the benefits of our offering while directing a wide range of partnership marketing campaigns—from CRM to events. 

In addition, I fast-tracked new product rollouts (e.g., Loyalty Credit Card programs) and introduced innovative technology capabilities such as on-screen ATM and mobile advertising. Performing thorough qualitative and quantitative market research to bring new products or extensions to market was critical in meeting our customer needs and closing industry gaps.

During this time, I obtained my Six Sigma Green Belt and rolled out a Credit Card Enhancements strategy for a consumer portfolio of 14M+ accounts, saving Bank of America $3M+ per year.

VP,  eCommerce Banking & Partnership Marketing

For a business to thrive and compete, it means having sound business fundamentals, strong management, happy employees, and loyal customers. That also means having leaders with a good head for business and strong appreciation for putting customers and co-workers first to help better inform the decision-making process.

As a global business leader who is good at growing technology businesses, bringing new products to market, and building highly successful teams, my career has been about propelling revenues, customer engagement, and sales effectiveness of game-changing technology solutions (e.g., digital and cloud/SaaS services) for global enterprise customers across diverse industries.

Some notable career highlights include:

• At Shutterstock, I played an instrumental leadership role in changing the market perception of a 20-year old brand in a highly commoditized industry. By introducing enriched enterprise value-props, customers looked at us as an end-to-end creative partner instead of just another image vendor. While not every team I built always did the selling, they supported sales and introduced a wide range of technology capabilities, which made it easier for customers and prospects to access Shutterstock and spend more money.

• At PhotoShelter, I leveraged my startup and B2B expertise to help this established startup focus on its next stage of growth. Taking the first incubated B2B product and scaling it globally was a very rewarding adventure and seeing that the product is still consistently a Digital Asset Management category leader on G2 makes me proud to this day.

• Earlier in my career, I spent years bringing innovative technology enhancements to market and a variety of high-profile credit card partnerships, ranging from MLB teams to hotels and auto manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz. I loved that level of partner engagement where everyone wins professionally and financially.

On the people side, I’ve built sales teams and groomed sellers who are now leading other teams, turned technical background resources into front line sellers, and helped emerging technology experts understand and quantify their impact to the business rather than just show up to meetings and answer questions. Over the years, I’ve also converted dozens of support employees who aspired to do more and got them comfortable becoming confident and competent business people. 

I’m active on LinkedIn and would enjoy connecting with you. Please feel free to reach out to learn more about my impact on global business development and technology partnership engagements.

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jason M. Lemkin's LinkedIn Performance

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