Tom Tunguz

MARCH 11, 2020

Let’s break down the trends by series. By deal count, however, it was business as usual across the early fundraising rounds by count. Then the investing velocity fell by half to $2.9B, $2.7B, and $2.3B in the quarters following the crash. The earlier the stage the company, the less it was impacted.

Marketing 359

Marketing Startup Investment Trends 359

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

A few key learnings and top trends to consider: #1 There is unlimited potential; even with COVID ‘craziness’ As we continue to face and adapt to the challenges of COVID-19, many companies are turning to Cloud for Business Continuity and growth. This poses so many questions to business owners and investors.

Technical Review 350

Technical Review Cloud Software Review Technology 350

Tom Tunguz

JULY 8, 2020

Cloud Data Lakes are a trend we’ve been excited about for a long time at Redpoint. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon wrote about how Amazon uses cloud data lakes to operate their business. I’ll also be speaking, sharing some of the trends we see in this space. A vital part of a cloud data lake is the open format of data.

Data Analysis 257

Data Analysis Cloud Data Scaling 257

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

As digital business and collaboration models have been permanently accelerated by the events of 2020, our panel of SaaS experts discusses who’s buying in the Enterprise, and how to drive conversions across multiple business functions. How has Enterprise buyers’ decision-making process changed? .

Enterprise 264

Enterprise Technical Review Leadership Trends 264

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2020

Perhaps it’s part of the general trend in eLearning all across-the-board. 10: A Step by Step Guide to Revenue Growth with Mark Roberge, Harvard Business School (another SaaStr Classic). . #9: 10: A Step by Step Guide to Revenue Growth with Mark Roberge, Harvard Business School (another SaaStr Classic).

Benchmarks 286

Benchmarks Trends SaaS Revenue 286

SaaStr

APRIL 23, 2020

88% of businesses have shifted to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading us all into uncharted territory. There was a time where sales reps had to wrestle with the idea of forgoing the face-to-face meeting and instead conduct business via email or phone. But it became the new norm and business is better for it.

Software Review 295

Software Review Technical Review SaaS Market Research 295

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2020

You can basically see it here in our Google Trends: The strange thing to me isn’t that almost everyone has a Year of Hell. The strange thing to me is that when people come through it, if they do come through it — then many and even most times it seems, the business does more than just improve. It was a tough year. It Reignites.

Scale 352

Scale SaaS Cloud Scaling 352

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Seeing a real demand for business courses in their consumer marketplace, the team identified an opening in the market to disrupt corporate training and hypothesized that employers would be more than willing to pay. Today Udemy for Business boasts 80% of the Fortune 100 – the top 100 largest US companies by revenue – as customers.

Marketplace as a Service 243

Marketplace as a Service Scale Sales Recruiting Business 243

SaaStr

JANUARY 20, 2020

Q: Which are the worst business ideas you have worked on? The worst business idea we worked on was a DVD-trading website right before we built EchoSign (Adobe Sign). Betting on a flat or declining trend is a terrible idea unless you are a true short-timer. The post Which are the worst business ideas you have worked on?

Business 232

Business Trends Marketing 232

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 7, 2020

However, Q4 2019 saw meaningful dip from Q3, but it's too early to say whether it's an aberration, or the beginning of a longer-term trend. That answer never changes: build businesses prudently and finance them when you can at reasonable valuations so the company can grow into them over time. It's been go, go, go for nearly a decade.

Marketing 275

Marketing Finance Investment Trends 275

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2020

So we’re constantly looking at interesting new trends. So when are trying to partner invest in pin Duo Duo and tells us this interesting trend and we should watch out for it. I think we are literally part of one of the big trends that I’m seeing right now, which is virtual conferences. Alex Konrad: Awesome.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Travel Investment Marketplace as a Service 285

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 22, 2020

As it happens, 2020 has only reinforced this, by highlighting again and again the importance of strong customer relationships as the structural foundation on which solid businesses are built. We broke down the key customer support trends you need to know for 2021.

Scale 220

Scale Scaling Customer Support Interviewing 220

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 26, 2020

As support teams look to the year ahead, there’s no shortage of priorities to juggle – from team efficiency, to customer experience, to business impact. Customer expectations are on the rise and, at the same time, all parts of the business are facing increased pressure to operate more efficiently and at lower cost.

Trends 233

Trends Scale Headcount Technology 233

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2020

Hear from top innovators in Cloud and SaaS that will leave you inspired and armed with the knowledge to transform your business. 150 CXOs exploring emerging trends and cloud innovation. This is no dog-and-pony show, these are the trends that will affect your business in the months and years to come.

Enterprise 191

Enterprise B2B Venture Capital Cloud 191

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

But while the “e” may be silent for customers – who understandably want a consistent, personalized shopping experience regardless of whether they’re buying online or in-store – it still rings out loud and clear for the businesses who need to ensure they have the right tools to deliver that unified, excellent experience across multiple channels.

Payment Methods 239

Payment Methods Payment Solutions Payment Services Scale 239

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 25, 2020

The less predictable a business becomes, the more conservative its management must be. If a company is benefiting from remote work trends, and the growth rate has tripled overnight, how long will that growth rate continue? Perhaps the fastest growing businesses will see less of an impact. Layoffs arise from volatility.

Startup 227

Startup Trends Software Management 227

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 30, 2020

During this time, businesses are not just waiting for customers to check in – they’re leaning on automation to proactively communicate with their customers at scale. As the current crisis has unfolded, we’ve seen those trends emerge among our own customers as well. Businesses initiated the majority of COVID-19 conversations with users.

Communication 188

Communication Government Trends Forecasting 188

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

And I think sometimes, we’re so busy running forward that we don’t always bring that back. This is our biggest pipeline creator deal accelerators, C-SAT influencer, really any business outcome that we could hope to really impact sort of all converged around this event every year. It’s the entire executive team. .”

Scale 293

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 293

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

With customer expectations and conversation volumes on the rise, businesses need a way to effectively deliver on-demand, personal support while maintaining customer satisfaction. Some 35% of customer support leaders believe their business should increase its automation budget for customer support.

Customer Support 223

Customer Support Trends Scale Scaling 223

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2020

And these largest accounts have grown from a stunning $5m in 2012 to $25m+ today, trending to $30m. Palantir really did start off as a services business. But it knew it needed to grow into a software business to command the multiples it asked — it’s market cap is a very healthy 23x ARR today. Not for 17 years.

Government 237

Government Enterprise Retention Software 237

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2020

My background as a SaaS entrepreneur, and then share the big trends we’re seeing in the world of SaaS, both what we’re seeing over the next few years and then also zeroing in on what has changed in the last few weeks in the middle of this COVID crisis. This was a 30 year mega trend into the future.

Software Review 259

Software Review Scale Technical Review SaaS 259

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 16, 2020

Too often, when we think about growing our businesses, we focus on the mechanics of growth. “With Scale, we’re turning our attention to the heart of business growth – customer relationships” Scale is here to help you connect with your customers as people, not numbers. How can we drive down our CAC and drive up our LTV?

Scale 213

Scale Scaling Business Trends 213

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Wondering how your SaaS business got slapped with a multi-million dollar sales tax bill from one or multiple states? The most common mistake we hear from SaaS businesses is that they didn’t know they had to collect and remit sales taxes at all. It’s very much a “you don’t know what you don’t know” type of business mistake.

New CTO 232

New CTO SaaS Sales CTO 232

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2020

So what’s happening right now and trends, and then we’ll do a little speculation about the far future and where to those trends go over time. Nick Mehta: Power of the developer, or the API economy, both of you play very much in both those trends. Talk about what the near term trends are. Jay Snyder: Yeah.

Payment Methods 273

Payment Methods Merchant Services Scale Payments 273

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

In this tactical session, he highlights the trends he’s seen most commonly seen in startups that die and offers insights on the causes, symptoms, and solutions. #1 More business people than engineers. Remember, you’re the one who gives investors power over your business. #3 1 Fake product-market fit. No metrics dashboards.

Underperforming Technical Team 240

Underperforming Technical Team Startup Engineering Retention 240

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 14, 2020

This has been one of the most popular talks delivered by our co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor in recent years, a deep dive on the importance of retention for the long-term health of your business. Key takeaway: “Net dollar retention is the single defining characteristic of a successful business.

Retention 245

Retention Customer Lifetime Value Churn Acquisition 245

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

And as we’re all on the SaaS business, we understand the impact of minimizing that hole on the bottom of the bucket. And so these are all sort of the financial reasons why it makes sense to invest the time and energy to actually create champions from day one in your business. How is it trending? How is that trending?

Scale 241

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 241

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 26, 2020

KKR started the leveraged buyout trend in the 1970s. These operating divisions of venture firms provide talent, marketing, PR, and business development services to startups. I’d love to hear them. What can we learn from an adjacent space? The evolution of the venture industry parallels the private equity industry.

Venture Capital 230

Venture Capital Merchant Services Innovation Finance 230

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 29, 2020

This trend gets at a central truth: we like hearing stories. The idea is that by using empathy, strong opinions , an established tone, and real, relatable experiences and advice, your content will ignite something that goes beyond a business/customer relationship.

Content Marketing 271

Content Marketing Branding Engagement Marketing 271

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 16, 2020

How have you structured the business model or even the product to make that type of viral spread easier? Has there been any similar moments for you in terms of seeing sudden growth due to changes you’ve made in the products or maybe your business model? Now we see that this has become a huge trend across SaaS.

Consulting 249

Consulting Marketplace as a Service Scale Development 249