Tom Tunguz

APRIL 28, 2024

Year Share Good Year 2012 18.4% - 2013 25.9% - 2014 65.5% In 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021, these big mergers drove the figures into the tens of billions. It’s no surprise that in those years, the biggest acquisitions accounted for more than 53% of dollars on average. X 2015 20.1% - 2016 43.0% X 2019 23.4% - 2020 61.1% X 2021 43.8%

Acquisition 257

Acquisition Startup Venture Capital Software 257

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 20, 2012

Thank you all for making 2012 a memorable year. Top 10 Blog Posts of 2012. Also, this blog wouldn’t be possible without the love, support and editing of my beautiful wife. Below is a list of the top ten posts I wrote this year measured by traffic and engagement on social media - a best of. I hope you enjoy it.

Social Media 100

Social Media Mobile Startup Trends 100

The Daily Egg

JULY 24, 2023

NitroPack is a site optimization plugin that users have been using since 2012 to improve performance for visitors and the overall user. The post NitroPack Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.

192

192

SaaStr

MARCH 17, 2022

#1 source of traffic to [link] : 2022: SEO 2021: SEO 2020: SEO 2019: SEO 2018: SEO 2017: SEO 2016: SEO 2015: SEO 2014: SEO 2013: SEO 2012: SEO. So, so much has changed since our first post on August 13, 2012. Every single year I look at SaaStr.com data, Organic Search is #1 : Interestingly, even in 2012. jasonlk) March 15, 2022.

Engagement 235

Engagement Data Sales Marketing 235

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2023

What it looks like: Founded 2012, service management software for HVAC and more $250,000,000 in ARR in 2021, growing almost 50%, per Reuters $460,000,000 in ARR at 12/31/23, per The Information Today? Assuming they grew 40% this year, that would put them at $600,000,000+ ARR.

SaaS 304

SaaS Software Marketing Management 304

SaaStr

JULY 17, 2024

with first customers launched in 2012, the metrics today are very strong: $480,000,000 in ARR Growing 34% (strong) 98% GRR (!) It’s SaaS for CFOs and financial operations, a large but somewhat under-discussed category. SAP and Oracle are very strong here. Founded back in 2010 (SaaS takes time!)

Enterprise 290

Enterprise Scaling Revenue SaaS 290

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Docebo was started and funded in 2005 and became a SaaS player in 2012. When considering product market fit and seeing value back when Docebo got traction in 2012, they gave away a ton of value with ridiculously low ARR. In 2012, they started with a freemium model where people could go online with a credit card and pay $100 a month.

Sales Hiring 210

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 210

SaaStr

JANUARY 20, 2022

One of the very earliest SaaStr posts, from way back in 2012, was on how to guess a competitor’s revenues from how many employees they have on LinkedIn. But one thing hasn’t changed since 2012 — how many sales reps you need to hit the plan. That's how much in bookings they plan to add this year.

SMB 253

SMB Scale Startup Enterprise 253

SaaStr

DECEMBER 31, 2022

So 2022 marked SaaStr’s 10th anniversary, from our first blog posts in August and September 2012. It also marked our first year with 1,000,000+ years of our blog, up 16% from last year: Now, SaaStr has changed a lot over the years. Our IRL and digital events attracted over 50,000 attendees in 2022.

Engagement 222

Engagement SaaS 222

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2021

Cloud has been on an incredible tear since 2012 or so, and then even more since about 2016, and then as you can see above, went into hyperdive in about 2018 … and then into true warp speed after Covid. This week even after a pullback, public SaaS and Cloud companies are up an eve 1000% (!) since 2013. But does it even matter?

Cloud 319

Cloud SaaS Trends Metrics 319

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

years ago in the first few months of SaaStr.com, in November 2012. A look back at sort of the same thing, same top fund, 10 years earlier, from 2012: I had a draft post I’d written weeks ago entitled something like “Color: Just an Enormously Large Seed Round Gone Horribly Wrong”, or something like that.

Venture Capital 219

Venture Capital AWS Enterprise Investment 219

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2023

So we’ve been writing about the power of a strong, funded, dedicated customer success organization since the beginning of SaaStr way back in 2012. While now mainstream, our early thinking on the power of Second Order Revenue in many ways informed a generation of SaaS entrepreneurs and the whole CS space.

Customer Success 258

Customer Success Pricing Revenue Sales 258

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

So we’ve been talking about customer success at SaaStr longer than almost anyone else, going back to our very first posts in 2012, including on Second Order Revenue. CLTV Isn’t The Whole Story. Don’t Shortchange Second-Order Revenue.

Customer Success 203

Customer Success Scaling Management Churn 203

The Daily Egg

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

The company initially launched back in 2012 but didn’t officially acquire its first customers until two years later, in 2014. Monday.com has become one of the most popular project management solutions available. Today, 115,000+ organizations worldwide rely on Monday.com.

Management 246

Management 246

Tom Tunguz

JULY 30, 2021

See that blip in 2012? Startups are basking in the IPO market. They’ve raised 3x as much year-to-date in IPOs as all of 2020, which was a healthy market. Where will the tally end the year? That was the Facebook IPO. The M&A market is not far behind; it’s on track to double 2020’s decade high of M&A value transacted.

Finance 335

Finance Startup Investment Marketing 335

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

In about 2012 or so, Private Equity entered SaaS in force. But starting around 2012 Private Equity came into SaaS much more aggressively and created a third party to liquidity: selling your SaaS company, either entirely or mostly, to a Private Equity firm. If there had been a third option back then, I would not have sold.

Venture Capital 338

Venture Capital SaaS Startup Pricing 338

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

Figma: “We’d Been Talking to Adobe Since 2012” Half of Public SaaS Companies Trade At Under 6x ARR Today. Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: The Simple Reason Startups That Just Raised $100s of Millions Are Doing Layoffs. SaaS Multiples Are Down 75% From a Year Ag.

Sales Recruiting 238

Sales Recruiting Compensation Cloud Retention 238

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2021

2002-2012 were slow. Just a few examples: UiPath took 10 years to get to its first $1m in ARR in 2015. Then, it accelerated like a rocket. Procore is a $16B+ leader in construction software, but took a full decade to take off. It took Squarespace 3 years just to get to $1M in ARR and 7+ years to get to the first $10M ARR.

Construction 276

Construction Cloud Scaling Product Marketing 276

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Bay Area startups claimed of 55% total dollars up from 45% in 2012. In dollar terms, San Francisco’s stake of the early US venture market eked 5% lower than 10 years ago. But, 2022 saw a swing upwards, reversing a three-year decline. The challenge with looking at relative share is we see only one leg of the elephant.

Startup 243

Startup Finance Investment Marketing 243

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Billion market cap after launching back in 2012. Duolingo has dominated online language learning, rocketing to $360m in ARR and a $3.25 And in today’s market, that’s strong performance. While the average Cloud stock has fallen almost 50% in 2022, Duolingo’s has stayed up, and is down just 10% in the past 6 months.

Scale 310

Scale B2C SMB B2B 310

The Angel VC

JANUARY 2, 2012

It's that time of the year – you're looking back to the old year and you're reviewing your plans for the new one. The last year was very busy for me, both privately and professionally. I became a dad for the third time, and I teamed up with Team Europe to create Point Nine Capital. Two startups, so to speak.

Investment 109

Investment Startup Sales Marketing 109

SaaStr

MARCH 10, 2023

Then, well, right after we sold EchoSign to Adobe way back in 2011, things picked up, with a slow with material and steady increase in public multiples from 2012 to 2015. Public multiples often were around 4x-5x in 2008, and then the global meltdown came, and public multiples fell to as less than 2x revenue for a while.

SaaS 241

SaaS Trends Enterprise Revenue 241

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2023

Wildly Profitable — And Profitable Since 2013. The Trade Desk was founded in 2009 and began to take off in 2012. Top-tier growth + top tier profits beats Insane Growth in today’s world. As perhaps it always should have. #2. By 2013, it was profitable and never looked back. Today, it’s insanely profitable.

Scale 272

Scale Advertising Scaling Revenue 272

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2020

Because they’ve grown 5x in size since 2012. And these largest accounts have grown from a stunning $5m in 2012 to $25m+ today, trending to $30m. And these largest accounts have grown from a stunning $5m in 2012 to $25m+ today, trending to $30m. That’s 5x-6x growth since 2012. But not until 2020, really.

Government 179

Government Enterprise Retention Software 179

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2022

So when we started SaaStr waaay back in 2012, I never would have thought of profiling Microsoft and its old fashioned desktop software. But fast forward to today, and Microsoft truly is a Cloud and SaaS company, with Azure and LinkedIn its fastest growing business units! Perhaps most importantly.

Azure 297

Azure Cloud B2B Scaling 297

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2021

2012: Facebook. If we plot the annual growth rates for the 75th percentile Series A, we observe the expansion in valuations occurs in fits and starts. 3 of the 11 years recorded 40%+ growth. 3 of the years saw declining prices. Perhaps these prices are tied to blockbuster IPO markets. 2014: Alibaba.

Software Review 363

Software Review Venture Capital Cloud Pricing 363

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2021

Over time, rates decline and then in the 2012-2014 era, they begin to surge upward culminating 6-8 years later at the top-left of the chart and $200b+ invested. The y-axis tracks enture capital investment by year and the year of the data point resides in the reddish circle. Do you remember this shape from high school math?

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Marketing Government Investment 356

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2021

Procore didn’t really begin to take off until 2012: Squarespace was founded way back in 2003 in the CEO’s dorm room, and for years revenue was nominal. But took a full decade for mobile to get mature enough to make construction software really work, because it had to work in the field.

Construction 268

Construction SMB Mobile Cloud 268

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2022

The first investors invested in 2012. There are a lot of myths around venture capital. One of the top ones is that VCs will push you to sell early, or something similar. VCs are paid to wait. They waited for Figma. The payoff? A $20B acquisition … 10 years later.

Venture Capital 253

Venture Capital Investment Acquisition Sales 253

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2021

Founded in 2012, Klaviyo initially operated as a database with an API that allowed businesses to run queries against their customers. In this podcast, SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin sits down with Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki to discuss the nitty-gritty details of the journey from the company’s origins to its incredible $9.5 billion valuation.

Scale 312

Scale Marketing Consulting Pricing 312

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2019

Revenue run rate grew from $4 billion in 2012 to an estimated $14 billion in 2020 (!). Adobe was essentially stagnant for the better part of the Decade before going all-in on Cloud around 2012. Switching to a SaaS model, and going deeper into SaaS, was a generational accelerant for Adobe: Stock price up 1300%. Way underestimated.

Finance 132

Finance Deferred Revenue Payment Features Subscription 132

IT World

OCTOBER 6, 2022

Remember that 2012 story about how Target could tell a teenager was pregnant before her parents knew , based on her online activities? That is the norm today. Google and Facebook are the most notorious commercial internet spies, and among the most pervasive, but they are hardly alone.

Government 145

Government Advertising Technology Business 145

BetterCloud

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

BetterCloud: A timeline of innovation As we reflect on our journey, we’re grateful for the milestones we’ve achieved together: 2012 : We secured our first round of funding, fueling the fire of innovation. We want to raise a glass to the incredible journey we’ve shared and the impact we’ve made together. See the moment.

compliance 52

compliance Innovation Acquisition Investment 52

Andreessen Horowitz

MARCH 2, 2022

The artificial intelligence field has evolved dramatically since the deep learning revolution kicked off in 2012, and Richard Socher has been around for all of it. He earned his PhD from Stanford working on NLP (natural language processing) before co-founding an AI startup called MetaMind in 2013. He then spent several years leading the AI.

Artificial Intelligence 145

Artificial Intelligence AI Startup 145

SaaStr

DECEMBER 24, 2021

And finally … SaaStr turns 10 this year, since our very first post in August 2012. And we’re hiring! Let us know if SaaStr might be your journey in content, success, sales or more! So much change. So look for some big Year 10 celebrations this year. – Jason, Amelia, Bryan + SaaStr Team.

Technical Review 241

Technical Review Scale Sales Hiring Cloud 241

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 11, 2020

The Series A market started growing in Q4 and then grew steadily through 2012. This might be for a few reasons: valuations fell, no need to reprice/recap companies, and typically recessions are great markets to start startups. The Series B market had a nice resurgence as well, followed by a retrenchment in late 2010 and then another surge.

Marketing 312

Marketing Startup Investment Trends 312

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

That was probably 2012. You have to keep going when you’re doing something that wasn’t done before. There was an inflection point for BILL around 10k customers. The network was growing, and they saw real virality. Then, in 2017, with around $50M in revenue, BILL added payment capabilities. BILL network has 7.1M

SMB 279

SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 279