Tom Tunguz

JUNE 10, 2024

Apple is competing using the challenger sale : Apple is telling the market, to use AI, you should want private AI, you should want to control your own data because it’s valuable 1. These models are their intellectual property & a key competitive advantage. It’s already happening.

AI Search 266

AI Search AI VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Sales 266

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

The traditional SaaS business model of annual prepaid contracts based on seats faces challenges when a human is no longer operating the software. There are a few alternatives for AI-driven products: Triple the per seat price : If the AI agent is 3x as productive as a human, the software company could charge 3x as much per seat.

SaaS Payments 277

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 277

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

We’re on the brink of one of the biggest technological advancements of our lifetime — AI. At this year’s SaaStr Annual, Mark Roberge, co-founder and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital, takes the stage to have a bake-off between startups and incumbents when it comes to who will win the AI Go-to-Market race. It’s a conundrum.

AI 307

AI Technical Review Startup Management 307

Tom Tunguz

JULY 11, 2024

In a world where AI agents are 2.5-3x Building on yesterday’s post , pricing in software companies may change significantly when AI agents become the norm. The SaaS business model of the last 20 years for SaaS is a beautiful one. Just as databases charge for compute, AI agents will charge for compute.

AI 234

AI Pricing Software Compensation 234

SaaStr

DECEMBER 6, 2023

SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin chats with Box CEO and Co-Founder Aaron Levie to talk about what’s new at Box, SaaS fatigue, hiring a new COO, operating margins and efficiency, the future of AI, and what to expect for 2024. They get to talk to brand-new businesses in completely different industries all the time.

AI 286

AI Sales Hiring Scale Artificial Intelligence 286

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 14, 2019

Since writing The AI Agency: A Novel GTM for Machine Learning Startups , I’ve been meeting many companies who operate this way. If you’re operating an AI Agency, I’d love to hear from you. In meeting many of these innovative businesses, I’ve observed they face three strategic questions.

AI 203

AI Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Machine Learning 203

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 14, 2024

If AI delivers on its promise, it may spell the end of the SaaS business model as we know it. Historically, cloud software businesses charged a recurring fee based on the number of users of their software - the SaaS model. But with AI, that will almost certainly change. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 343

Cloud Pricing AI Software 343

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

For example, Jason’s gotten hundreds of emails from founders creating an AI SDR app. That’s a reality, but it forces you to focus on business models where you always win. Because VCs not only meet hundreds of startups a year, but they also get probably thousands of random inbounds asking for investment.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 312

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2024

So 40% of our content at SaaStr Europa was on AI this year, and probably 33% of SaaStr Annual last year. But it’s time for a full-fledged SaaStr AI Summit this year inside of SaaStr Annual. You can join us just for AI Summit or all of Annual. Just a few of the sessions coming: #1. ” #2. ” #2. ” #4.

AI Search 300

AI Search Scale AI Generative AI 300

SaaStr

APRIL 20, 2024

We went pretty deep on: The real role of AI in marketing today Does everyone just want to be a strategist now? Will AI let ICs do more, with fewer managers? AI-powered tools can automate many tasks, flattening organizational structures and allowing individual contributors to accomplish more with the help of AI agents.

Sales Hiring 301

Sales Hiring Startup Marketing Technical Review 301

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2021

During those 30 years as an Open Source platform, multiple developers and professionals adopted and contributed to it to the point where, today, Linux is everywhere—supercomputers, AI, IoT, embedded devices, and so on. We’re now looking at a massive Open Source category, Commercial Open Source (COSS), that’s impossible to ignore.

Enterprise 246

Enterprise AI SaaS AWS 246

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

In it's truest form, ARR is used by pure SaaS business models to describe the aggregate annual value of the entire customer set. Many laude the SaaS business model because ARR is inherently predictable - you know what you’re revenue will be over the coming 12 months, and sometimes even further out than that.

AI 190

AI Cloud Revenue Technical Advisors 190

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

In enterprise healthcare, there are many “Jobs to be Done” (JTBD) for AI. To this end, we present the first part of the 6th episode of the Digital Health Go-to-Market Playbook series –Commercializing AI in Healthcare. The tasks are labor-intensive, with low historical adoption of traditional software products to facilitate them.

Healthcare 140

Healthcare AI Artificial Intelligence Payment Solutions 140

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

The company is an AI platform that empowers teachers to give instant, personalized feedback to students, based in San Francisco. We were really impressed with Class Companion’s founder Avery Pan’s clear vision and mission to help teachers leverage AI to improve education. Our current set of funds totals $3.4B. #3.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions Venture Capital 279

Clouded Judgement

JULY 16, 2024

We can expect the company to start trading on the public markets next Wednesday Subscribe now OneStream Overview From the S1 - “OneStream delivers a unified, AI-enabled and extensible software platform—the Digital Finance Cloud—that modernizes and increases the strategic impact of the Office of the CFO.

Benchmarks 295

Benchmarks Data Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 295

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

SVB collapsed, market multiples are down, yet the IPO window is re-opening, and we have a platform shift to AI that’s exciting everybody. As you think about leveraging AI and optimizing R&D efficiency, it’s worthwhile to know how the best companies are doing it. The final strategy is being AI native from the get-go.

Cloud 306

Cloud Payments Software Review Payment Solutions 306

Andreessen Horowitz

DECEMBER 14, 2023

While the marketplace business model is evergreen, every new platform changes how and where transactions happen. Now, we believe generative AI promises to revolutionize marketplaces again. Demand Side AI’s impact on buyers (the demand side) should be fairly consistent across marketplaces, and almost entirely positive.

Marketplace as a Service 139

Marketplace as a Service AI Search AI Outsourcing Services 139

Point Nine Land

MAY 11, 2023

Speed and Adaptability Will Define the B2B SaaS Winners in the Generative AI (R)evolution Smaller species tend to have shorter lifespans and faster reproductive cycles and can therefore adapt much faster to changes in the environment. To say there’s no shortage of opinions on ChatGPT and the future of AI would be an understatement.

Generative AI 128

Generative AI AI B2B Software 128

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2024

With so much change in SaaS, Cloud, and AI the past few years, it’s albeit become much harder to predict so many things — including how events will go. They explore the unique challenges and opportunities presented by different approaches, from subscription-based models to enterprise solutions. The 10th Annual!!

Benchmarks 293

Benchmarks Finance Business Model Customer Success 293

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Self-service could include features like a knowledge base, chatbots, AI, and more. The first steps depend on your unique business model. Start by thinking about your business goals and your most important KPIs. How Should Startups in Growth Approach Self-Service? Is it customer satisfaction?

Strategy 284

Strategy Government Operational efficiency. AI 284

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2023

Monday.com co-CEO Eran Zinman and Jason Lemkin do a deep dive on how Monday’s business model really works. Is it all about AI? Who Will Win the Go-to-Market AI Race — Startups or Incumbents? Our Secrets to Scaling and Growth in an Unpredictable Market with monday.com ‘s Co-founder and Co-CEO.

Scale 246

Scale AI Scaling Business Model 246

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Its business model of going global and going inbound from India is the differentiation. They released many more products, with Freddy AI in 2018 and, as of last month, launched the Freshworks Customer Service Suite, which is an omni-channel for B2C to engage with customers on Instagram and other places. Why is this important?

Sales Hiring 284

Sales Hiring Scale SMB SaaS 284

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2024

Some more recent commitments like Modal (high performance cloud), Cast AI (DevOps automation platform), Betterstack (see inside any tech stack and resolve incidents) or Abacum (financial planning & accounting platform) give a hint on what we’re intrigued by at the moment. 2024 is also a year of truth.

Payments 278

Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Scale 278

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2024

joined forces with the incredibly talented Eiso Kant to build the world’s most capable AI for software development. Especially in this macro environment, investors don’t just want to see top line revenue growth; they want to see that you can achieve that growth with sound business fundamentals. #4.

Management 273

Management CTO Hire New CTO CTO 273

IT World

JUNE 30, 2023

A proposed EU law that would create the West’s first regulatory scheme for AI is the target of criticism from the business and technology sectors, which published an open letter today arguing for fewer restrictions and a less “bureaucratic” approach. In total, 163 people signed the letter.

AI 115

AI Generative AI Business compliance 115

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2023

With nine figures in revenue, Ariel and SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin talk about all things Navan, rebranding when you have brand equity, building B2B software for people, pricing and business models, and much more. They also have a business model that only connects to one content source.

Payment Solutions 282

Payment Solutions Payments Travel Scale 282

Andreessen Horowitz

MARCH 21, 2024

Generative AI took the consumer landscape by storm in 2023, reaching over a billion dollars of consumer spend 1 in record time. Over the past couple months, we’ve spoken with dozens of Fortune 500 and top enterprise leaders , 2 and surveyed 70 more, to understand how they’re using, buying, and budgeting for generative AI.

Generative AI 145

Generative AI Enterprise AI Artificial Intelligence 145

Payrix

DECEMBER 18, 2024

Software companies are increasingly integrating payments as a core component of their business models rather than treating them as ancillary features. This evolution has shifted the conversation from basic implementation to strategic optimization. And so, we got to start to have some of those kind of conversations and more detail.

Payments 130

Payments Embedded Payments Merchant Services Payment Services 130

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2020

No AI solution will understand your brand tone better than your marketing team, and you’d be taking a huge leap of faith if you let bots write your code. Sage Intacct is a popular choice for automating bookkeeping because it includes features unique to the SaaS business model. 3 Payroll.

Business 329

Business Marketplace as a Service AI Search compliance 329

The Angel VC

JANUARY 10, 2017

The ability to gather large amounts of data from the entire user base, and use that data along with AI/ML to make your software smarter, is one of the big themes at the moment. For what it's worth, I know AI and Machine Learning are a hyped topic but I think the hype is justified. Enough words. Here's the 2017 SaaS Funding Napkin!

SaaS 262

SaaS Marketplace as a Service Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 262

User Pilot

OCTOBER 19, 2024

Personalize surveys by setting conditions based on user behaviors , translating and localizing your NPS surveys using AI, and customizing the appearance of your surveys to match your app’s design. Leverage AI-driven sentiment analysis to analyze and categorize open-ended responses quickly. Multi-language support.

Software Review 105

Software Review Technical Review Software B2C 105

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 7, 2025

You know, we’ve got AI, STRs and AI now like cold calling and things. I think I’m a big fan of AI. But the point is, sometimes people, they think AI is going to do the job for them. Scott Barker: Do you think AI is going to reduce our overall headcounts on revenue teams?

Outsourcing Services 117

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development AWS 117

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 7, 2024

So what does this mean for the huge wave of new consumer AI companies, whose products are still early in their product cycles, often early in their implementation stages, and are evolving in real time? Here are the 7 most effective ways for AI-native consumer companies to improve their retention. In a word: yes.

AI Search 104

AI Search AI Retention Artificial Intelligence 104

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 12, 2023

What do enterprise buyers in healthcare care about most when evaluating AI products? We’ve designed this to mirror the thought process of an entrepreneur building an AI product with an enterprise use case. In other words, buyers aren’t seeking AI for AI’s sake.

Healthcare 114

Healthcare Payments AI Enterprise 114

FastSpring

AUGUST 2, 2023

Now as a successful international business, TestDome has been with FastSpring through all of it, and even when other payment platforms launched intriguing new products, Mario never saw a good reason to leave FastSpring. “We Selling internationally is key to their business model.

Payment Solutions 148

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Merchant Services AI Search 148

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 12, 2024

Whether it’s industry debates over business models and the actual definition of open , or governments actively discussing how to regulate models, seemingly everyone has an opinion on what it means for AI models to be open. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But to be fair, there’s a reason for this.

Artificial Intelligence 91

Artificial Intelligence AI Generative AI Government 91

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2022

AI-powered communication is helping people improve the quality and impact of their communication. Put users at the center of product decisions, innovate with a hypothesis-driven approach, then align your business model with user interests. Climb the right mountain. Build an exceptional product with your users.

Enterprise 257

Enterprise Scale Sales Communication 257