SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

Building Braze from $2M to $20M ARR It was 2011 in NYC, and Spencer became the second employee at Braze. 2011 focused on the mobile ecosystem, as the iPhone had been released four years prior and the app store two years after that. The quicker you can be smart and make early investments that pay off, the better off you’ll be.

Scale 291

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 291

SaaStr

OCTOBER 21, 2022

Bill Magnuson, Co-founder and CEO of Braze, remembers his company’s founding in 2011 in an office with bare concrete floors—an austerity that he opines as “probably an ingredient for category creation.” This remarkable growth took four years to come true after Braze’s start in 2011. Stick to your convictions. Impressive, right?

Mobile 259

Mobile Technology Investment Innovation 259

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2024

It was founded in 2008 but took a while to get going, hitting $1m in revenue in 2011 selling to Utah schools — and then scaled from there. Instructure is one of the leading learning management systems for education with its Canvas product. Your kids may well use it. You may have in college, too. And then hit $600m ARR in 2024.

Scale 299

Scale SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments 299

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2020

And I’m also going to throw in a few small moments from running “SaaStr Inc” now to almost $20m in annual revenue, and investing in a handful of awesome unicorns. A Good Day: Dec 31, 2009; Dec 31, 2010; Dec 31, 2011; Dec 31, 2012. Maybe it will be cathartic for you. It is true. New Years was spent in the office.

Sales Hiring 357

Sales Hiring SaaS Revenue Churn 357

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2021

When it launched in 2011, Treasure Data’s positioning was a Hadoop-based big data warehouse in the cloud. The Treasure Data platform instantly analyzed large amounts of data, which meant that companies didn’t need to hire lots of computer scientists or put up a considerable upfront investment for data projects. . million and $1.2

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Data AWS Leadership 307

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2021

Our customers pay more and stay longer when they buy and use more than one product from us because they’re invested in us and know our value. Previously, he was the CEO and co-founder of EchoSign, which was acquired by Adobe in 2011. Hybrid work improves, not hinders, collaboration with customers.

Scale 293

Scale Cloud Interviewing Scaling 293

SaaStock

JANUARY 25, 2019

Founded : 2011. Founded : 2011. from Astella Investimentos, Spectra Investments and others. Founded : 2011. Founded : 2011. Its focus is on helping companies handle financial routine and streamlining processes related to accounting, banks, stock, and electronic invoicing, among others. Based in: Joinville, Brazil.

SaaS Payments 257

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Methods Payments 257

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

At its inception in 2011, the goal was to have a place for developers to gather and collaborate together. When you create a community of transparency through an open-source mindset, your customers feel more comfortable investing because they’re part of the team instead of just a paying vendor. .

Marketing 261

Marketing Innovation Investment Engagement 261

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2024

He’s invested in startups as a VC since 2013 and has 10x his fund. Today that would be a dream, but in 2011, people didn’t understand the metrics around recurring revenue businesses, so investors weren’t sure it was a good business. As soon as you see a cluster in England, Chile, and Brazil, invest in and support it.

Engineering 300

Engineering Business Model Pricing Scaling 300

SaaStr

JULY 2, 2024

You can see that dollars invested by these non-traditional investors grew at 31% CAGR from 2011 to 2021, which is kind of astounding. Traditional investors invested $62B into the asset class even at the peak vs. non-traditional investors at $286B. The tourists, a.k.a. They saw a 35% CAGR decrease from 2021 to 2023.

Venture Capital 300

Venture Capital Management Scale AI 300

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 25, 2021

Sensing an opportunity, they switched their focus and Intercom was born – the app was released in private beta in July and the company was founded in August, 2011. It’s hard to recall now, but before Intercom released the world’s first in-app messenger in 2011, the chat bubble was not a ubiquitous feature of apps or websites.

Scale 220

Scale Sales Hiring Branding Engagement 220

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 23, 2018

Total dollars invested have fallen by 37%. In 2011, the median startup raised a $0.5M In 2013, there was one Series A for every five seed investments. Startups can invest in deep technology by building machine learning software that might take a year or two to bring to the market. seed and a $3M Series A 9 months later.

Machine Learning 189

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Startup Investment 189

SaaStock

JANUARY 30, 2019

Another was 2011/2012 where not only were another 5 VC firms started but it’s also when international ones set their eyes on this vast market. Its partners boast diverse venture experience and have previously invested in more than 70 companies. SaaS Investments: Pipefy, HeyDoctor. Founded: 2017. Size of fund: $20M.

Venture Capital 155

Venture Capital SaaS Healthcare Finance 155

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Microsoft launched Azure in 2010, and Google launched GCP to the public in 2011 (they launched a preview of Google App Engine in 2008, but made it publicly available in 2011). This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 176

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS Azure 176

SaaStr

APRIL 22, 2022

This decision was not an easy one to make, as it would have been more simple to double down on investment in the first product that was already a booming success. In 2011, when Meraki started to experience very high growth, around 100 million devices were in use, thanks to smart devices like phones and tablets. .

Innovation 274

Innovation Wireless Scale Marketing 274

SaaStock

MARCH 8, 2019

Before getting into the investment world, she started and sold two successful companies in edutainment, and made a prominent name in the tech field around the world. At the beginning of 2019, she became an ambassador of Moxie Future, an initiative for women investors that facilitates investment in a responsible and sustainable future.

VP of Engineering 264

VP of Engineering CTO Coach Venture Capital SaaS 264

Hitenism

OCTOBER 17, 2016

. — Hiten Shah (@hnshah) August 5, 2011. But that was back in 2011. What hasn’t changed is that today’s investors still want to invest in great businesses and the teams behind them. What hasn’t changed is that today’s investors still want to invest in great businesses and the teams behind them.

Venture Capital 168

Venture Capital Software Review Forecasting Startup 168

SaaStock

MARCH 1, 2019

According to Mike Laven, CEO of Currencycloud, the one thing necessary for any company to succeed in China – or in any of the Asian countries – is to get local investment. It has more than 100 investments since its founding in 2001. SAIF is also one of the biggest funds, investing in Hong Kong, China and India.

SaaS Payments 190

SaaS Payments Venture Capital Payment Services Telecommunications 190

BetterCloud

JUNE 9, 2022

Today we’re thrilled to announce a significant strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners, a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. This investment marks another exciting milestone on our 10-year BetterCloud journey. We’ve come a long way.

Investment 104

Investment Leadership Technical Review Management 104

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 27, 2018

In 2011 we launched the Intercom Messenger in the same 12 months that iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Whatsapp, and others launched too. Investing in machine learning to make automation personal at scale. We’re about to start shipping your most frequently requested features faster than ever before.

Artificial Intelligence 224

Artificial Intelligence Scale Machine Learning Technology 224

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 16, 2024

My partner Marc saw the new world coming and wrote about it in 2011 in a piece called, “Software is Eating the World.” Andreessen Horowitz began in exactly this way with a $300M fund and 2 General Partners. Shortly after we started the firm, all that began to change. What he predicted then came true.

Venture Capital 144

Venture Capital Innovation AI Enterprise 144

The Angel VC

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

The first “big” investment was our own server, around $3000 as far as I remember. So it clearly was possible to launch a state-of-the-art web service back then with little to no investment. Being competitive by 2011 standards (often) means that you need an iPhone app. In 1998 there was no iPhone. Get the point?)

Startup 103

Startup Venture Capital Investment Software 103

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

“The shift from serving just consumers to serving consumers and companies is a massive one” For Udemy, investing in a B2B arm seemed too obvious, and too good, an opportunity to ignore. Just look at the world of marketing: there are now more than 7,000 tools , up from a mere 150 in 2011.

Marketplace as a Service 243

Marketplace as a Service Scale Sales Recruiting Business 243

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 20, 2018

In 2011 Marc Andreessen declared that software is eating the world. The last thing I’ll say is remember to invest in a positive feedback loop. Here’s how we did it with a few lessons we learned along the way. Trial and error: adding sales input to the product roadmap. Building a positive feedback loop.

Scale 199

Scale Sales Software Review Strategy 199

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Unlike these other companies, WorkDay has employed a huge professional services team in addition in investing massively in their R&D to create a broad suite of products. In 2011, the year of the IPO, services still accounted for 33% of revenues. In 2009 and 2010, the company recognized more revenue from services than subscription.

Benchmarks 113

Benchmarks Deferred Revenue Venture Capital Outsourced Development 113

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2016

In 2011-2013, about 1450 software companies were founded each year on average. This is counterintuitive considering the broader venture capital backdrop of near record venture investment in software. Third, the recent concentration of seed investments in fewer companies might contribute to a decreased rate of founding.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital SaaS Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 100

The Angel VC

DECEMBER 25, 2010

As 2010 is drawing to a close I’d like to take a moment to give you a quick update on my angel investment activities and more importantly, thank the incredibly talented and hard-working people who have made it such an amazing year. Mange tak to Mikkel , Morten , Alex , Michael and the whole crew.

Cloud 106

Cloud Investment B2B Subscription 106

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. Below is a chart of the most competitive categories in 2011, those with the greatest rates of company formation. Most of the categories are up and to the right. Then on down the list.

Advertising 100

Advertising Startup Mobile Trends 100

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

What's the payoff from this significant and on-going investment in sales and marketing? High growth : Workday's revenues grew at a compound annual growth rate in excess of 300 percent from 2007 through 2011. According to the S-1, "we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future." So what is Workday getting for its money?

Acquisition 140

Acquisition Enterprise Revenue SaaS 140

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Investing in Instacart was perhaps the hardest decision I had to make as a venture capitalist. Instacart was taking a unique approach to tackling this category, using a four-sided marketplace dynamic: By partnering with physical grocers, they were able to leverage those partners’ existing investments in construction and inventory.

Marketplace as a Service 140

Marketplace as a Service Underperforming Technical Team Scale Construction 140

The Angel VC

MARCH 21, 2012

TEV had two purposes: Building companies and investing in other Internet startups. In 2009 TEV raised a ~ €6M fund, which was managed by Pawel and invested in 24 companies. 16 out of these 24 companies were co-investments with myself, some led by Pawel, some by me, some by both of us together.

Mobile 108

Mobile Startup Investment SaaS 108

The Angel VC

JANUARY 10, 2011

The last (but definitely not least) update takes me back to Berlin, which is not only home to my portfolio company Momox , covered in the first update , but also to another great company that I've invested in together with XING-founder Lars Hinrichs : samedi. Thank you, Katrin and Alex, and on to a great 2011!

Healthcare 100

Healthcare Investment Cloud Management 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. Since 2011, that figure has been multiplied by 4 to 7 times. In 2010, SaaS companies as a whole began investing more to grow faster and in the past three years, average growth rates have risen to about 35%.

SaaS 100

SaaS Trends Startup Revenue 100

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 2, 2015

LTV/CAC is often used to justify marketing and sales investment to acquire customers. In the 2009-2011 period, churn mitigation improved the LTV/CAC. But there’s much more to it. LTV/CAC is a powerful diagnostic tool for the performance of almost every team within the company: product, engineering, sales and marketing.

Startup 113

Startup SaaS Churn Engineering 113

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 8, 2015

Since 2011, the average revenue of a ServiceNow customer has expanded to $250,000 on average. Impressively, the company is investing more and more into engineering - exceeding 20% of revenues last year - likely developing broader feature set to enable additional up and cross sells. This figure has grown by 27% per year.

Benchmarks 113

Benchmarks Metrics SaaS Investment 113

A Smart Bear

JANUARY 4, 2018

Of course a nice chunk is primary capital, i.e. for the company balance sheet, to invest in growth initiatives, security and quality, and advancing our existing strategic priorities through acceleration and de-risking. The majority of the funds pay back our early investors who believed in us enough to trust us with their money.

Engineering 70

Engineering Investment Revenue Technical Review 70

The Angel VC

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Now without further ado, here are the categories that we're nominated in: Best European Startup Accelerator (Team Europe) Best VC of the Year 2011 (Point Nine Capital) Best exit 2011 (Brands4Friends acquired by eBay) Best Angel or Seed Investor of the Year (Yours truly) Here's the link to the voting page.

Entrepreneurship 100

Entrepreneurship Startup Investment 100