SaaStr

MAY 27, 2025

So we’ve been proponents of customer success at SaaStr since the earliest days, since our first SaaStr posts in 2012. Companies like Motive condensed their time-to-value by breaking out onboarding from the broader CS function, and it helped them scale from $1M to $60M in ARR in just six months.

AI 176

AI Onboarding Customer Success Scale 176

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2024

Their core product, called Programmable Media, started in 2012, and they built it slowly. Once you make it to the right-hand side of the image above, you have product market fit, and your focus is on feeding the beast and scaling as quickly as possible. That was a hard lesson for the Cloudinary team: investing vs. scaling.

Scale 316

Scale Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Development 316

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Scale-ups are exciting. Scaling to satisfy customers’ demands depends on innovation and foresight combined with enterprise-ready technology and the right partners. On top of considerable dedication, creating a scale-up requires a functional edge—a unique and unreplicable capability compared to the players in the industry.

Scale 264

Scale Scaling Marketplace as a Service Entrepreneurship 264

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. is a number to back into, at scale. It’s a reminder CSM staffing overall is actually fairly thin at scale. CLTV Isn’t The Whole Story.

Customer Success 204

Customer Success Scaling Management Churn 204

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2024

Who is Eran Zinman | Co-CEO of SaaS Leader Monday.com Eran Zinman co-founded monday.com (formerly dapulse) in 2012 with Roy Mann. When Eran Zinman co-founded the company (then dapulse) in 2012, the team management space was already crowded. The monday.com story isn’t your typical SaaS narrative.

Scale 256

Scale SaaS Company Culture Leadership 256

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2021

There’s no question SaaS and Cloud companies scale faster than ever these days. 2002-2012 were slow. Databricks just announced it was growing a stunning 75% at $600m+ in ARR ! And Zoom just passed a $1B quarter. More on that here: The Top SaaS and Cloud companies are now growing 100% at $100m ARR. Now it’s a $6B leader.

Construction 349

Construction Cloud Scaling Product Marketing 349

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 (!) SaaS leaders at scale need to add +20% new customers a year in general to stay in growth mode. At scale, they eventually raised buy-out capital from KKR. SAP and Oracle are very strong here.

Enterprise 321

Enterprise Scaling Revenue SaaS 321

SaaStr

AUGUST 23, 2022

It was a fun post looking at the actual GAAP and ARR of many leaders way back in 2012, from HubSpot to Marketo and more. Over 150,000 have attended our digital events, SaaStr Build and SaaStr Scale in particular. To help the next generation share, scale and learn. Boy, they’ve grown up in 10 years! We Are SaaStr.

Cloud 69

Cloud Scaling Engineering SaaS 69

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 315

SMB Scale Startup Enterprise 315

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Cliff Bockard, Senior Vice President of Revenue at DigitalOcean, joined us at SaaStr Scale to discuss how businesses can serve SMBs and still bring in large numbers of revenue. . You need to identify a niche in the current market, make yourself known, understand your main differentiators, and offer your users a ton of value for their money.

Scale 245

Scale Scaling Revenue Enterprise 245

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 282

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 282

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Billion market cap after launching back in 2012. They have almost 40 million free users to get to their scale. #2. Duolingo has dominated online language learning, rocketing to $360m in ARR and a $3.25 And in today’s market, that’s strong performance. So it’s doing what Wall Street wants today.

Scale 321

Scale B2C SMB B2B 321

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2023

And growth has slowed as it has scaled past $1B in ARR. Wildly Profitable — And Profitable Since 2013. The Trade Desk was founded in 2009 and began to take off in 2012. We’ve seen many SaaS leaders grow at a jaw-dropping 100%+ at $100M ARR. The Trade Desk has executed to perfection, but never quite grown to that level.

Scale 321

Scale Advertising Scaling Revenue 321

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. So they were more about ‘How do I scale? billion valuation. These days, Klaviyo is known as an eCommerce, email marketing and customer messaging solution. But that wasn’t always the case.

Scale 317

Scale Marketing Consulting Pricing 317

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2021

Spending more on R&D at scale, not less. From $35m in revenue in 2012 to $800m in 2021, leveraging 120% NRR. This is pretty consistent with other Cloud leaders at scale. #5. This is how a lot of us end up looking at scale. Not the 80%+ in software, but high enough to be profitable and not be a drag on the business.

Enterprise 316

Enterprise Scaling Investment Revenue 316

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. Software is and should be very profitable at scale. #4. But fast forward to today, and Microsoft truly is a Cloud and SaaS company, with Azure and LinkedIn its fastest growing business units!

Azure 312

Azure Cloud B2B Scaling 312

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2020

Existing customers fuel the bulk of growth at scale — even at a $1B run rate. 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. That’s 5x-6x growth since 2012. Yes, selling to the government takes time.

Government 236

Government Enterprise Retention Software 236

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 325

Cloud SaaS Trends Metrics 325

SaaStr

DECEMBER 24, 2021

A few stats: In 2021, we had 5 major digital events (SaaStr University, SaaStr Build, SaaStr Money, Annual Digital Day, and SaaStr Scale) with over 100,000 attendees. Our free online courses at SaaStr University grew to almost 12,000 members sharing their learnings and reading and watching structured SaaStr content on how to scale.

Technical Review 289

Technical Review Scale Sales Hiring Cloud 289

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 297

SaaS Trends Enterprise Revenue 297

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 317

SaaS Software Marketing Management 317

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2022

What started as a simple WordPress blog in 2012 has now become the world’s largest community of SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs. SaaStr began in 2012 as a simple WordPress blog and a few answers on Quora sharing Jason Lemkin’s learnings of going from $0 to $100m ARR at EchoSign. SaaStr is turning 10!

Scale 312

Scale Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO 312

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2021

When we put the first post up in 2012 , we probably got 500 views that month. It (x) tells a prospect, (y) from someone that has actually done it at scale (although not yet a true subject matter expert), (z) how to solve an “unreasonably difficult” problem. You can scale it up later over time. Whatever it is.

Outsourcing Services 297

Outsourcing Services Scale Leadership Mobile 297

SaaStock

JANUARY 25, 2019

Founded : 2012. Founded : 2012. Founded : 2012. Founded : 2012. The integrated platform enables easy scaling and the complete set of tools for launching an online training center. from Start-Up Chile and Startupbootcamp Scale Digital Health Miami. Their common goal? CEO : Gabriel Gaspar. Tienda Nube.

SaaS Payments 257

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Methods Payments 257

SaaStr

MARCH 10, 2021

But they hit their stride in 2012 as mobile took off, enable construction project management software to finally really work in the field. While others do in SaaS spend this much at scale as well, it’s a reminder that it can also be expensive to penetrate the mid-market in a high-touch industry. Not just in the office.

Construction 297

Construction Scale Pricing Mobile 297

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2018

For acquirers of software companies, one thing seems to matter: growth at scale. Oracle/Eloqua. SAP/Callidus. Microsoft/LinkedIn. Oracle/Responsys. Oracle/Taleo. IBM/Kenexa. The gross margin is second highest to LinkedIn, and close to Eloqua and Demandware. On this list, the Mulesoft is second to LinkedIn.

Acquisition 189

Acquisition Marketing Enterprise Revenue 189

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2022

10 Lessons Learned Scaling to $1B Valuation with Drift’s Co-founders : Reaching unicorn status is nice validation, but the luster fades when founders can’t navigate the hidden challenges that come with uncharted territory. Scaling Revenue in 2022: What’s the Same and What’s Different? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Scale 290

Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service B2B 290

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

During the conference, more than 300 leading SaaS CEOs and other leaders will share their hard-earned learnings and actionable insights to help attendees scale up and grow companies faster. Our mission is to share the best learnings, insights and practices around building and scaling SaaS and Cloud businesses.

Scale 279

Scale Cloud Government Forecasting 279

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 11, 2018

Consequently, I expect substantially more acquisitions of the scale and at these multiples through 2018. That small decline is driven by Cisco’s acquisition of Broadsoft earlier in 2018, but does nothing to change the conclusion that acquirers prize growth. The major forces at play at the beginning of the year remain influential today.

Software 173

Software Marketing Scale Acquisition 173

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

2012’s Lesson from New Relic. We have managed to thread the needle between not only scale and love from customers, but also GTM investment. WebEx took note and managed to innovate their way into a competitive single-seat product that hit $20 million within eighteen months. It was a needed reminder we should never rest on our laurels.

Sales Hiring 289

Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise Mobile 289

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2022

Our second SaaS blog post ever, in 2012 (updated after) was “Want to Understand SaaS? And as your CS team scales, any individual rep may not be able to influence overall NRR all that much. We’ve talked for 10 years about the power of compounding, recurring revenue. Even back when it wasn’t really understood well.

Customer Success 264

Customer Success Metrics Scale Retention 264

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2019

Scaling the company’s employee base, sales teams, marketing, and operations—all while preserving its culture—has required a laser focus on first principles, smart processes, and effective hiring. In this talk, Claire will share these and other lessons for scaling high-growth organizations. Manual processes first. Names stick.

Scale 162

Scale Payment Services Payment Methods Scaling 162

SaaStock

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Founded : 2012. Founded : 2012. Founded : 2012. Mobingi integrates server deployment, scaling and application lifecycle automation through its cloud solution. It allows scaling and integration of radiology operations, increasing productivity and reducing costs for radiologists. Founded : 2012. TradeGecko.

SaaS Payments 225

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Merchant Services Payment Methods 225

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2023

The SMB markets can test out features that aren’t built to scale yet, and as they succeed, Greenhouse invests in them and rolls them out to Enterprise customers. Now, over the next decade, they need to think about other things their customers do in hiring that aren’t done well and could be scaled. That wasn’t obvious in 2012.

Sales Hiring 286

Sales Hiring AI SMB Scale 286

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Training by osmosis with a couple of street-smart reps doesn’t scale much past 2-3 reps,” says Lemkin. Ultimately, you have to pause, find a manager to scale them, listen to them, and train them. At SaaStr, Lemkin has written one post a day since 2012, and it used to be two pieces. You’re too busy. Let’s look at some examples.

Outsourcing Services 291

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 291

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2024

Splunk is a 20-year-old Enterprise software giant that has accomplished many things — a 2012 IPO, a $28B+ Cisco acquisition in 2023, and $3.7 Everything else is scale, which may be commercial, partnered motions, and inside sales driving and assisting those partners. billion of ARR last year, with a market cap of $25.7

Enterprise 311

Enterprise Scale Sales SaaS 311

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

billion in 2012. David’s first foray into SaaS was in 1999 when he joined a startup that would become PayPal, starting as the product leader and later as the COO. In 2008, he founded Yammer, an enterprise software company that David grew to 500 employees and $60 million in sales. Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2

CTO Hire 290

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 290