Tom Tunguz

MAY 29, 2023

plot revenue by year on a line chart with the caption tomtunguz.com and the the line color red with a size of 2 ggplot(revenue_long, aes(x = year, y = revenue/1e3, group = 1)) + geom_line(color = "red", size = 2) + labs(title = "Nvidia Revenue Grew 2.5x row$value),] row = row[!

ChatGPT 200

ChatGPT AI Search Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis 200

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2023

But at lunch, in perhaps 2004, we sat down and he explained the future again. He was still working at a struggling startup in downtown San Mateo, which I think ultimately sold for just $10m and maybe was down to 2 employees at that point. His prior start-up also made no money. This was well before Uber was even a glimmer.

Startup 286

Startup SaaS Investment 286

The Angel VC

JULY 17, 2015

Until 2004, that is, when a small, Chicago-based web design agency called 37signals launched its project management tool called Basecamp : Basecamp in 2004 (click for a larger version) Basecamp looked radically different from any other piece of B2B software. Today you can buy a SaaS landing page template for $18.

SaaS 188

SaaS Software Review B2B Trends 188

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

2004’s Lesson from WebEx. Here, he discusses a few of the key lessons he’s learned along the way. My point isn’t to say that’s nothing new. It’s that we’re standing on tall shoulders, and there’s a lot to learn from the past.

Sales Hiring 287

Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise Mobile 287

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 3, 2018

In 2004, six years later fewer than 1000 of these shareholders had traded their shares for cash. Many of those who received the shares were unaware of conversion deadlines. The company honored its commitments anyway. The company bore some additional regulatory burden. Not a ringing success. 15% fewer American households own stock.

Blockchain 203

Blockchain Travel Startup Technology 203

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

When the company first began web app development and selling software-as-a-service in 2004, their business model wasn’t even called SaaS. They learned the importance of sales tax compliance the hard way—when they had to pay millions in back taxes. It’s not hard to understand how Basecamp got this wrong.

New CTO 230

New CTO SaaS Sales CTO 230

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 28, 2017

One typical Friday morning in 2004, I walked into a government building and headed to work. I was a junior Java engineer and part of a hired team building an internal system for a government agency. We were a few days behind on schedule, and a technical issue arose.

Startup 189

Startup Government Innovation Engineering 189

IT World

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

In this story we summarize what you need to know about each update released to the public for the most recent versions of Windows 10 — versions 2004, 20H2, and 21H1. Microsoft releases updates for those three versions together.) For each build, we’ve included the date of its initial release and a link to Microsoft’s announcement about it.

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Tom Tunguz

APRIL 24, 2017

Founded in 2004, Fleetmatics employs about 1150 employees. The story behind Fleetmatics and Geotab illustrates the way two companies pursued the SMB logistics market in radically different ways, but built roughly similar sized businesses. Based in Massachussetts, the company generated $320M in revenue in 2016.

Sales Hiring 186

Sales Hiring Strategy Venture Capital Marketing 186

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 27, 2018

I studied artificial intelligence in college in 2004. We’ll share a lot more soon, but we think you’ll love it for the new use cases it will unlock, uniquely for you. Investing in machine learning to make automation personal at scale. It was overhyped then, and it’s overhyped now.

Artificial Intelligence 224

Artificial Intelligence Scale Machine Learning Technology 224

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2024

In 2004, Tableau emerged from the Stanford campus to deliver their application to the users. Centralize the data analysis to ensure accuracy or enable end-users to analyze their own data directly which is faster & more direct. Cloud databases ushered in an opportunity to centralize that data analysis again.

Data 147

Data Data Analysis Cloud AI 147

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Launched in 2004, the web hosting provider serves over 29 million users in 178 countries. Having the right tools to support customers is vital if your customer base is growing at a fast clip. Try 1 new customer every 5 seconds. That’s been the experience of web hosting provider Hostinger.

Customer Support 183

Customer Support Technical Review Systems Review Software Review 183

SaaStr

MAY 22, 2019

He has helmed Logikcull as CEO since its founding in 2004 as an e-discovery services company. This means that attendees had such a great experience in the session that they upvoted the content afterward. Andy Wilson is CEO and Founder of Logikcull. Prior to Logickull Andy was a software developer at EDS (an HP Company).

Scale 170

Scale Leadership Consulting Software Development 170

Tom Tunguz

MAY 13, 2015

But, the company has been operating at close to breakeven since 2004. Similar to net income, Ariba sustained cash flow breakeven for the first time in 2009, but flirted with the mark since about 2004. Ariba attained profitability in 2009 for the first time. Ariba acquired a company called Tradex technologies for $1.6B

Outsourced Development 113

Outsourced Development Software Review Technical Review compliance 113

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 16, 2020

In the first decade after its founding in 2004, Shopify amassed 120,000 customers and catapulted into the top 10 on Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list. Under his leadership, Shopify Plus have grown to support 7,000 brands – including Kylie Cosmetics, Fashion Nova, Steve Madden, Staples and more – who process 11,000 checkouts per minute.

Sales Hiring 226

Sales Hiring Scale Artificial Intelligence Enterprise 226

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

In 2004, for every 1 consumer investment, VCs invested in 10 enterprise companies. Since the bottom in 2003-2004, consumer deals have increased their share of venture dollars growing by 250% to about 25%. Through Q3 2012, that share has grown to 16.8%, indicating the consumer venture market is growing or stable.

Trends 100

Trends Investment Healthcare Enterprise 100

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 21, 2013

From about 2004 to 2011, the average publicly traded SaaS company held an EV/Rev multiple of 3 to 5x. In the 2004 to 2009 period, average revenue growth for SaaS companies hovered around 25%. Below is a chart of the ratio between enterprise value to revenue for two segments of SaaS companies. The High Fliers comprises the upper half.

SaaS 100

SaaS Trends Startup Revenue 100

IT World

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Basile became a C4 quadriplegic in 2004 when a wave picked him up and slammed him down on his neck during a beach outline. For most of us, placing an order in an online store is a two-minute proposition. For Josh Basile , it can be agony.

Business 101

Business 101

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2019

From 2004-2009 he was a partner at Greylock. He was the CFO of SQA and Orange Nassau. He went on to serve as CEO of Avatar Technologies and Pacific Data before joining Rational Software as President and COO until its acquisition by IBM. Tom was CEO of Adaptive Insights which was acquired by Workday in June of 2018 for $1.5B.

CTO Coach 30

CTO Coach New CTO CTO Web Development 30

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 18, 2015

Meanwhile, all of the companies requiring longer than 8 years were founded before 2004. Newer SaaS companies grow faster. 82% of the companies to achieve $50M in revenue in under 8 years have been founded in the last decade. SaaS companies and enterprise companies broadly are growing faster than ever before. And they are doing it every stage.

SaaS 113

SaaS Engineering Trends Enterprise 113

Trint

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

Since the creation of podcasts in 2004, their popularity has continued to explode. What is a podcast? Now with over 485 million consumers , the convenience to listeners of consuming content they are interested in at a time of their choosing while going about their daily lives means they have become a natural part of everyday behavior.

Social Media 130

Social Media Banking Engineering Software 130

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 13, 2012

From 2004 to 2007, the company grew at a fairly linear rate. For years, a product can grow linearly before suddenly seeing compounding growth. Facebook is a great example. And then, the magic happened! The network effects kicked in and exponential growth ensued. Linear growth always precedes exponential growth.

Advertising 100

Advertising Marketing 100

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Just as background, I’ve been on a Mac since I was seven and I last worked on a Windows machine in 2004. So I installed it and tried to use it for a few days. Here are my impressions. Pros of Windows. Speed: the operating system is much faster than Mac. Starting the computer takes less time. Even websites load much faster.

Travel 127

Travel Advertising Branding Data 127

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

The grey line smooths the chart to show long term changes and the blue dashed line marks the 2004 Median Series B pre-money. Cooley, a top tier startup law firm, reported this trend in their valuation quarterly report , which tracks these figures where they are counsel to either investors or founders.

Startup 113

Startup Trends Pricing Investment 113

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 8, 2015

The business was founded in 2004, but hit its stride 2009 and went public in 2012. ServiceNow’s software allows clients to develop custom applications for their own needs, often with the help of the company’s professional services team.

Benchmarks 113

Benchmarks Metrics SaaS Investment 113

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 18, 2016

Jeff Bezos used the Five Whys in 2004 to investigate why a conveyor belt had injured a worker. They will support and inform human-decision making, which reinforces the need for many of these systems to explain why. This technique helps us establish cause and effect.

Machine Learning 113

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Startup Advertising 113

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 25, 2013

When the neologism was popularized in 2004 by Tim O'Reilly, the words Web 2.0 captured a desire for the web to become interactive. It was a description of a movement towards social media and engaging users on the web. But more than an idea, it carried a design aesthetic which focused on the user, user experience and engagement.

Payment Solutions 100

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Airlines Payments 100

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 2, 2014

The chart above shows startup company formation rates, the number of new companies formed each year from 2004-2011 by Crunchbase sector. As the number of companies in a sector grows, do the odds of successfully raising capital decrease? Most of the categories are up and to the right.

Advertising 100

Advertising Startup Mobile Trends 100

Tom Tunguz

JULY 14, 2016

The last time I learned a new programming language was 2004. I had been writing in Java for about four years, and then I heard whispers of a new framework called Rails that allowed engineers to write web applications in one-tenth the time of a Java web application.

Engineering 100

Engineering Education Data 100

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

NetSuite spent $38M on payroll generated $17M in 2004. What percentage of revenue should be spent on payroll? In 2001, Salesforce spent $35.6M on payroll and generated $5.4M in revenue. as both of these companies scaled and approached IPO, the operating expense ratio (OER) or operating expense divided by revenue, asymptotes to 0.8.

Revenue 100

Revenue Startup SaaS Benchmarks 100

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 20, 2014

in 2004, the year of their IPO. But that feeling was more than just a product of the rocket ship growth of the ads business. Google had grown from $220k in revenue in 19aw99, to $19M in 2000, to $86M in 2001, to $347M in 2002, to $961M in 2003, and would record $3.2B Digging past the business revealed a wonderful culture.

Education 100

Education Trends Startup Technology 100

SaaStock

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

In 2004, he became the CEO of Cogency Software. Avanish Sahai started his career at Oracle, where he was a Senior Product Manager, and then went on to various high-level positions at companies such as McKinsey and Blazent.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Scale Entrepreneurship Sales Hiring 207

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Since 2004, Ultimate Software has generated positive cash flow. Over that time period, the business has grown 28% per year on average, steadily becoming one of the largest SaaS companies in the world. Among publicly traded Human Capital Management software vendors, Ultimate Software is second to Workday.

Software 100

Software Marketing Forecasting Enterprise 100

Tom Tunguz

JULY 28, 2016

The second largest, Jasper, is an internet of things software company founded in 2004, which Cisco acquired for $1.2B. The largest private software acquisition is Transfirst, a payment software business founded in 1995. It’s the 7th largest this year. Jasper ranks eleventh. Second, there are no unicorns among the names.

Payment Solutions 100

Payment Solutions Payments SaaS Acquisition 100

Tom Tunguz

JULY 6, 2014

Founded in 2004, GoPro is about 10 years old and during the past few years has witnessed spectacular growth. First, to understand GoPro’s business better. Second, to benchmark GoPro’s capital needs, capital efficiency and attractiveness to investors. Third, to draw conclusions for other hardware startups.

Startup 133

Startup Sales Hiring Benchmarks Advertising 133

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2025

The Power of Solving a Universal Pain Point When Ren Lacerte started thinking about the problem that would become Bill.com in 2004, he was focused on a simple yet profound frustration: why were businesses still paying bills the same way they had 60 years ago? “I was frustrated,” Ren explains.

SMB 130

SMB Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 130

Tom Tunguz

MAY 26, 2012

Since 2004, Facebook has been convincing users to share ever increasing amounts of data, to dramatic effect. After Facebook increased the granularity of permissions on these boxes last year, some developers observed a 20% decline in user installs. The company has erected the social infrastructure of the Internet.

Government 100

Government Education Mobile Data 100