Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2022

Early businesses tend to create more instruments to hire, grow, and incentivize. tokens resemble equity in most ways, but possess one additional function: they can be used to pay for service. Trailing 2 Year Inflation Rate. Founded Year.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Hiring Government Outsourced Development 319

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 3, 2024

In 2013, the average reader dwelled on this site for 47 seconds. The average American attention span has fallen from 150 seconds in 2004 to 75 seconds in 2012 to 47 seconds in 2023 - a 5-6% annual rate of decline. Year Avg American Attention Span (sec) CAGR 2004 150 - 2012 75 -6% 2023 47 -5% How does this compare to these blog posts?

Metrics 334

Metrics Data 334

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2020

I wrote an early SaaStr post way back in 2013 on my “Year of Hell” as a SaaS CEO in 2008. In 2013, we were just 2 years removed from the real recovery from ’08-’09.

Scale 352

Scale SaaS Cloud Scaling 352

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2023

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

Scale 321

Scale Advertising Scaling Revenue 321

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2023

So I’ve been investing since 2013, and have done fairly well. Some of my top investments at seed stage include Pipedrive, Salesloft, Front, Talkdesk, Algolia, Gorgias, Greenhouse and more: But 2022 was a quiet time. My first year with no brand new investments, only follow-ons. So we’re behind.

SaaS 320

SaaS Investment Startup Branding 320

SaaStr

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Marketo IPO’s in 2013 at $700m market cap. 2013: first investment. And yes, no one could have predicted the run we’ve seen in Cloud in the past few years. But take a look at these examples: Marketo (and Hubspot): Founded 2006. Vista buys Marketo for $1.8B A little more than 2 years later, it was resold for $4.75B to Adobe.

SaaS 289

SaaS SMB Cloud Revenue 289

The Daily Egg

JUNE 15, 2022

The reliance on business messaging apps really took off when Slack joined the market in 2013 and introduced a highly efficient means. The post Microsoft Teams Vs. Slack appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Marketing 297

Marketing Business 297

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

In the latest SaaStr Workshop Wednesday (sign up for FREE here ), Jessica Bartos of Salesforce Ventures did a great deep dive on the state of SaaS and venture in 2013. The full session is below and it’s a great watch. One metric stood out to me I hadn’t seen presented before: just how many private SaaS companies (i.e.,

SaaS 340

SaaS Startup Metrics Investment 340

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 314

Acquisition Startup Venture Capital Software 314

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2020

At our first SaaStr event in 2013, some folks ask why we had a Mad Men-inspired theme. Well, you see this guy at the first SaaStr event, from 2013. And yet … I’d give it back and up in a heartbeat. You only get so many chances in life. In SaaS, revenue compounds. He’s thinking. He’s thinking on this question.

Payments 294

Payments Acquisition Retention Revenue 294

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2021

Shopify’s first quarter revenue: Q1 2021: $989 million Q1 2020: $470 million Q1 2019: $321 million Q1 2018: $214 million Q1 2017: $127 million Q1 2016: $73 million Q1 2015: $37 million Q1 2014: $19 million Q1 2013: $9 million. In fact, that’s what it was just back in 2013. — Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) April 28, 2021.

Merchant Services 314

Merchant Services Payment Methods SaaS Payments Payments 314

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 20, 2022

In 2013, the surge in June/July & December stand out. The answer is yes. The US software Series A market has become much less seasonal since that post in 2014. I’ve plotted the data above & smoothed it to clarify the patterns. Set that aside.

Startup 311

Startup Software Data Marketing 311

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 4, 2023

During the 2013-2014, median acquisition prices increased by 50% in less than a year, from $36m to $54m. This change in the exit market parallels a surge in acquihires in 2014 when corporate development departments began to acquire seed-stage companies for talent rather than waiting for Series A businesses.

Startup 327

Startup Marketing Acquisition Pricing 327

SaaStr

MAY 22, 2024

Steady 14% Growth Since 2013 Has Grown Business From $1.3m And its stock price is up +35% the last year, and +192% the past 5 years: 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. About $1m Quotas for 5,000 Sales Reps Gartner is split into two divisions, and interestingly, both have quotas of about $1m per rep. #2.

Revenue 298

Revenue Enterprise Cloud Pricing 298

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2024

So when I started writing venture checks in 2013, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I had a strong start: First was Pipedrive co-leading seed, then acquired for $1.5B cash Second was Algolia leading U.S. Billion cash Fifth was Logikcull, acquired for $300m cash So it was a good start.

Investment 328

Investment Scale Churn SaaS 328

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2020

In 2013, everyone that could come to the Bay Area to run a SaaS company, did. Atlassian, Adyen, Shopify and so many other leaders weren’t founded in the U.S., let alone the Bay Area. MongoDB, Datadog, and others have given New York a stronger and strong place in SaaS and Cloud. By 2018, it felt like about 50%.

SaaS 363

SaaS Cloud B2B Company Culture 363

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 9, 2022

In 2013 and 2015, the discipline’s merits dominated the conversation. A decade ago, Gainsight championed the creation of the customer success category. People curious and passionate about customer success convened at the Pulse conference to debate customer success.

Customer Success 336

Customer Success Outsourced Development Technical Support Startup 336

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2024

The IPO in 2013 wasn’t an exit – it was just another milestone in building an enduring company. He led the company through its successful IPO in 2013, which was one of the most successful public offerings for an enterprise software company at that time. This focus turned customers into evangelists.

SaaS 264

SaaS Leadership Cloud Enterprise 264

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

They started making that CRM bet way back in 2013 or so, maybe earlier. CRM is probably bigger than Marketing now (HubSpot doesn’t break it out anymore). If not, it will be soon. And HubSpot is still growing its new customer count > 20% at $2.5B

Startup 305

Startup SaaS Investment Enterprise 305

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Back when I started investing, in 2013, VCs worked on getting acquihires for their struggling startups. Dear SaaStr: How Do Investors Feel About “Acquihires”? A lot of energy was put in to find a “soft landing” for struggling investments running out of money, even if the returns might be nickels on the dollars.

Investment 278

Investment Startup Strategy 278

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. Even Year 1 pic.twitter.com/5FtzBG2v1O. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #???????????? jasonlk) March 15, 2022. So we’re coming up on Year 10 for SaaStr!

Engagement 278

Engagement Data Sales Marketing 278

SaaStr

JULY 4, 2021

One of the earliest posts I did on SaaStr was back in 2013 when I made my first venture investment, co-leading the seed round in Pipedrive. From 2013: I was asked on Quora why I recently invested in Pipedrive. But could be worth $10B by year 15 #itcompounds pic.twitter.com/qElNH78hl8. Most I quickly learned from.

Investment 279

Investment Scale Scaling Startup 279

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2021

Where it Went: IPO’d in 2013, hit $250m ARR by 2016, a cquired for $1.8b Where it Went: Acquired by Oracle in 2013 for $400m. in 2011 GAAP revenue. Where it Went: $233m+ in growth financing (at implicit valuation of $1B+) in 2021. #78 78 Marketo. in 2011 GAAP revenue. by Vista PE , and then Adobe for $4B+. #99 99 SugarSync.

SaaS 290

SaaS Technical Review Software Review Scaling 290

SaaStr

DECEMBER 31, 2023

Kyle’s foray into B2B tech sales started in 2013 when he joined Looker as the 6th employee. Not every conversation has to be a calendared meeting! #4. What’s your top “undiscovered gem” — an app you love but others may not have heard of? has been my best new tool.

ChatGPT 289

ChatGPT Scale AI B2B 289

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: The Three Valuation Lows in SaaS: 2013, 2016, and 2022 5 Interesting Learnings from Doximity at $450,000,000 in ARR Is Cold Calling Dead? Each week, we round up our most popular content so you can catch up on anything you may have missed.

Scale 276

Scale Enterprise Churn Startup 276

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 26, 2024

He personally emailed every customer who canceled their Zoom subscription to understand their issues. This dedication to user experience helped shape Zoom into a more user-friendly platform than its competitors.

VP of Engineering 264

VP of Engineering Software Engineering Company Culture Engineering 264

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2024

A brand that previously held a premium aesthetic raised a growth round in 2013 from Irving Capital (7 For All Mankind, Aeropostale, Stuart Weitzman), but ultimately wasn’t able to sustain its growth. At least don’t spend all the money. Rag & Bone is selling to Guess $GES for $56m on ~$250m of revenue.

Churn 307

Churn Startup SaaS Payments Venture Capital 307

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2023

Zenefits was the hottest/fastest growing startup from 2013-2016. Either way, I’d pass on Been There, Done That. 1/ Want the best startup VP Sales candidates in the world? Here’s how to get the list of them. First, some context. We were valued at 4.5B

Sales Hiring 337

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Startup 337

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2022

Launched in 2013, it has over 2000 employees and more than 60M active users. Canva started building collaborative design in 2013 and shipped it in 2020. Canva hit $1B in ARR at the end of last year. After a couple of years in building out Canva’s people functions, he is now investing in growing the company as a CMO.

Scaling 264

Scaling Social Media Innovation Branding 264

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2023

SaaStr 663: 9 Things I Wish I Would Have Told My 2013 Self: Lessons Learned from 9 Years with Heap’s Former CTO, Dan Robinson                                   Top Videos This Week: 1. Scaling a SaaS Startup to $1B+ ARR: Insights from UiPath’s CEO and Founder 2.

CTO Hire 246

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Startup 246

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2023

SaaStr 663: 9 Things I Wish I Would Have Told My 2013 Self: Lessons Learned from 9 Years with Heap’s Former CTO, Dan Robinson   3. SaaStr 662: Things You Think as a First-Time Founder That Just Ain’t So With Lattice Co-Founder & CEO Jack Altman and SaaStr Founder & CEO Jason Lemkin  2.

CTO 246

CTO Sales Recruiting Compensation Startup 246

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2020

note: a 2020 update of a class 2013 post. And it eventually grows even faster downmarket … which #2 becomes well positioned to take advantage of. Just some thoughts. Again, I have no idea who is #2 to Salesforce in ondemand CRM. Sometimes, #1 does eat everything. But not always.

Innovation 321

Innovation Market Segmentation Pricing Branding 321

SaaStr

DECEMBER 7, 2019

The first one defined the Unicorn age in 2013, and the second one updated it in 2015. A few years back, Aileen Lee and Cowboy Ventures put out 2 seminal posts on TechCrunch about Unicorns. Many remember them just for data on Unicorns as they began to emerge from rare to seemingly everyday (100+ this year so far).

SaaS 266

SaaS Enterprise Data 266

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2023

SentinelOne was incorporated in January 2013. Which is slightly out of fashion in today’s world. #7. Pretty Much a Rocketship — Sentinel One is Just 10 Years Old, And Only in Market for 8 Years!

Cybersecurity 298

Cybersecurity Scale Cloud Scaling 298

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2023

SaaStr 663: 9 Things I Wish I Would Have Told My 2013 Self: Lessons Learned from 9 Years with Heap’s Former CTO, Dan Robinson  4. SaaStr 664: What You Need to Change at $10M to Scale to $100M with Sameer Dholakia, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners   3.

CTO Coach 243

CTO Coach CTO Scale Scaling 243

The Angel VC

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Start with January 2013 and enter the number of new customers that you’ve acquired in that month. Then move to the right and enter how many of those January 2013 customers were still customers in February, March, April and so on. If your data goes further back than January 2013, extend the table accordingly.

Customer Lifetime Value 211

Customer Lifetime Value SaaS Churn Growth Hacking 211

The Angel VC

APRIL 10, 2013

[Update 12/20/2013: I have extended the dashboard to include multiple pricing tiers and annual subscription plans. Check it out here.] Update 01/17/2015: There's a new company called ChartMogul ( which we invested in ) which makes it easy to get a real-time dashboard similar to the template below. Check it out!

Startup 239

Startup SaaS Payment Features Subscription 239