Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 24, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now The Year of “Enterprise AI” One of the biggest challenges facing AI systems in enterprises today is the “last mile” problem: how do you make AI both reliable and accurate for specific enterprise use cases?

Enterprise 157

Enterprise AI Cloud Artificial Intelligence 157

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

The bar has gone up, and it’s not just in AI. Buyers are expecting much more from a product, and yes, AI is accelerating those expectations. So yes, while it’s true that challenges are real for those in the right-hand column above – overall cloud spend is still up 20%. 1: AI is Table Stakes. Does it matter?

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Sales Hiring Scale AI SaaS 312

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2024

One Thing is Clear: AI Is Leading to 1000+ New Competitors in SaaS Top Videos and Pods: #1. “How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel” #2. The Future of AI and Sales in SaaS with Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo and SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin #4. appeared first on SaaStr.

AI 285

AI Cloud Startup SaaS 285

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

So Battery Ventures has a new detailed report on The Open Cloud you can dig into here. There’s a lot of great data in the report, but one analysis helped answered a question I’ve been wondering the past 12-18 months: Are start-up actually more overvalued today than at the peak of Cloud mania in 2021? in 2021 to 23.4x

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Startup AI Cloud Mobile 286

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2024

Perhaps Databricks isn’t really SaaS, it’s Cloud + AI/Cloud infrastructure. The meta point is after a tough late 2023 and into 2024, SaaS, Cloud and more is back: In some cases, AI is the driver (Databricks, Palantir). This is pretty crazy, and the AI accelerant thrown on their model.

AI 278

AI Cloud Enterprise SaaS 278

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Yesterday, both Google and Microsoft announced their earnings for their cloud businesses. This growth is fueled by AI workloads. ” “Higher-than-expected AI consumption contributed to revenue growth in Azure.” Notably, Microsoft has also re-accelerated - like Mongo, although to a lesser extent.

AI Search 300

AI Search AI Cloud Azure 300

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2024

The Cloud came, and leaders like Talkdesk and Dialpad emerged to take large market share, and older folks like RingCentral and Five9 also rolled out Cloud contact centers. And now, AI is fueling more growth, as contact centers replace some of their humans with AI agents. Fast forward to today, and Genesys: $1.6

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AI Cloud SaaS Investment 308

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

IBM’s $7B Bet on Vertical AI and What It Means for SaaS Founders. What’s emerging is a new paradigm: Vertical AI, where foundation models are specialized for specific industries and use cases. The WatsonX Platform Deep Dive What’s Actually Different Here WatsonX isn’t just another AI platform.

AI 179

AI Scale SaaS Government 179

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now “Grouping + AI” for Triage One area I’m quite excited to see AI revolutionize is “grouping + triage” workflows. Many of them AI based. Not the best start to cloud software earnings season!

Systems Review 144

Systems Review Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence 144

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

Joselyn Goldfein , Managing Director at Zeta Venture Partners, which invests in AI and data infrastructure-focused startups from inception through seed stage And see everyone at 2025 SaaStr Annual, May 13-15 in SF Bay!! What VCs Are Funding in AI Today The AI funding landscape has evolved rapidly in 2023-2024.

Technical Review 184

Technical Review Artificial Intelligence AI Marketplace as a Service 184

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

So RingCental is both an incredibly impressive SaaS and Cloud company — but also a bit of a cautionary tale. Quality Management is Their Biggest AI Play at the Moment This makes sense. Using AI to understand the efficacy of contact center agents is a big use case. #4. Fast forward to today, it’s at: $2.43

Scale 278

Scale SMB Compensation Cloud 278

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

At SaaStr’s AI Summit during the SaaStr Annual , René chatted with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin about how BILL has reached half a million customers and $1.3B He had the idea that the Cloud, not called the Cloud back then, would enable two entities to see the same transaction from their perspective. in revenue.

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SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 300

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

So some Cloud and SaaS stocks are on fire, even now. Why is Palantir the highest valued public SaaS and Cloud stock? 22% free-cash margins, and now GAAP profitable Customer count up 41% year-over-year It’s the bright, AI-driven future folks are excited about. $2.7 And then … there is Palantir. The fire of the fire.

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Artificial Intelligence Government AI Cloud 231

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 28, 2025

What a last few days in AI land! DeepSeek is an AI company that focuses on distilling large, complex AI models into smaller, more efficient versions (while also adding in their own research breakthroughs). This shift is central to the paradigm change we’re seeing in AI today. What is DeepSeek?

Cloud 190

Cloud Scale AI Scaling 190

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2024

And what you can see is there is really almost no liquidity for startups and scale-ups in SaaS and Cloud at the moment. Now, to some extent, the issues here have been masked by several factors: The VC engine continues, more or less, and has been re-energized by AI. Epic times. See above from Thomasz. Deals are fast and furious.

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SaaS Acquisition Cloud AI 307

SaaStr

DECEMBER 9, 2024

A combination of AI and buyer retrenchment had killed it. It’s not 2021 again, but so much has changed as the year ends: Many top SaaS and Cloud stocks are up +40%-60% or more in the back half of the yea r. Many top SaaS and Cloud leaders have seen growth re-accelerate. What a difference 8 months makes. They are richer.

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SaaS AI Cloud B2B 293

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

So there are two massively different vibes in B2B and Cloud and SaaS today: Folks fighting to keep slowing growth going. but also In high-growth AI-fueled spaces, massive competition as well. How many AI-first tools are Freemium? But what about the “cost of AI” many start-ups ask? Get better at using AI.

AI 204

AI ChatGPT SMB Enterprise 204

SaaStr

AUGUST 11, 2024

750k-$4m checks for SaaS, Cloud and B2B startups at from $10k-$200k MRR. Algolia and Legacy Investment Talkdesk in BVP Cloud 100! Gorgias’ Next Generation AI Agent is Already Seeing 20% Automation Rate Gorgias is the leading content center for e-commerce, with over 16,000 customers. Some great news this week: #1.

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Cloud AI Generative AI CTO 293

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 14, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. 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.

Cloud 343

Cloud Pricing AI Software 343

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2024

Bessemer will be back doing State of the Cloud live , this time with a particular focus on AI, SaaS and Cloud. Bessemer will be back doing State of the Cloud live , this time with a particular focus on AI, SaaS and Cloud. That will be awesome!! And so, so much more!!

Cloud 283

Cloud AI Scale Customer Success 283

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

And while we were tinkering, we were building little sensor systems, cause we knew how to make hardware and we knew how to cloud connect it.” Originally entering the market with a telematics product, their expanding suite now includes AI-driven safety and driver coaching tools. And that’s how the second product came about.”

Scale 269

Scale CTO Coach New CTO Technical Review 269

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 30, 2024

Aside from the overall growth of these clouds increasing, the massive investment in CapEx data centers, power plants, and GPUs is stunning. Here are some highlights from Amazon’s earnings : “We see considerable momentum on the AI front where we’ve accumulated a multibillion-dollar revenue run rate already.”

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Cloud AWS Azure AI 300

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

In the latest installment of SaaStr’s What’s New series – where we sit down with the leaders in SaaS and Cloud for the inside scoop on what’s top of mind and what’s new, SaaStr CEO and Jason Lemkin chats with the CMO of Google Cloud, Alison Wagonfeld. They also compete with Microsoft in a big way.

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Cloud Scale AWS AI 303

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Raising Guidance and Growth Rate for Cloud Revenue To +24% a Year That’s pretty darn impressive growth at almost $5B in ARR, and just as importantly, they’re raising their prediction here. #2. A Big AI Push, But Being Very Conservative on Consumption Pricing For now, Atlassian is sticking mainly to per-seat pricing.

Enterprise 283

Enterprise Pricing Cloud AI 283

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2025

So Cloud and SaaS have had a bit of a rollercoaster the past 4 years, from the boom times of 2020-2021, to the tougher times overall of 2023, to the AI boom of 2024+. But one thing has done well through all of it: security. We always need it, and the threats keep coming. And Cloudflare has been one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Scaling 268

Scaling Cloud AI Engineering 268

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2024

So obvious AI is a generational change in software. That the Open AIs, Microsofts and Databricks “get it”, that Nvidia is the fuel, that all the hot start-ups are AI native and still raising at unicorn valuation … and that many SaaS leaders are sort of being left in the dust. But just bolting on Gen AI?

AI 315

AI Generative AI B2B Cloud 315

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

Discover Bessemer Venture Partners’s annual State of the Cloud report, going through trends, benchmarks, and metrics that underpin the Cloud economy. The past twelve months have been relatively turbulent for Cloud founders. What does this mean for Cloud companies? What does this mean for Cloud companies?

Cloud 299

Cloud Payments Software Review Payment Solutions 299

SaaStr

DECEMBER 2, 2024

And there is also a quiet wave of apathy in B2B outside of AI. And there is great B2B content on 20VC, on Lenny’d pod, and so many other great places. So I asked myself that question. If SaaStr disappeared, would it matter? Maybe that’s a different way of answering the question. I think SaaStr itself still matters.

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B2B Cloud AI Scaling 300

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2025

We’ll connect over poker, food, drinks and more: 200+ top Cloud, SaaS and AI CROs and VPs of Sales with 150+ top Cloud, SaaS and AI CEOs and founders Note: you must be at $1m ARR or above to apply, and you must be an exec or founder of a software company (no service providers or agencies or consulting firms, etc.

AI 255

AI Cloud Consulting Software 255

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2025

And our full AI Summit will be back and we’re adding a full AI Demo Stage you can apply to present at (more details soon!) There are many more speakers, workshops and braindates we’ll announce soon. It’s going to be one of our most epic line-ups ever!

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VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) CTO AI Innovation 269

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Unparalleled Networking Opportunities SaaStr Annual brings together thousands of SaaS, Cloud and AI executives, founders, VCs, and industry leaders under one roof across our 40+ acre campus, May 13-15 in SF Bay! Investor Connections and Funding Opportunities — And $5m AI VC Pitch Stage!! And the VCs that want to fund them!

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Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

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. Apple’s massive distribution will affect consumer & enterprise preferences. It’s already happening.

AI Search 263

AI Search AI VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Sales 263

Clouded Judgement

JULY 12, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now The Red Queen Effect I strongly believe in two competing truths with respect to AI and its impact - the size of the prize will be bigger than we imagine now, BUT we’ll overestimate it in the short term.

Cloud 288

Cloud AI Investment User Experience 288

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 1, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Anything AI related has always been “hot,” but it has really hit a fever pitch in the last few months. Anything AI related has always been “hot,” but it has really hit a fever pitch in the last few months.

Cloud 317

Cloud AI Investment Metrics 317

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 30, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. An example of a platform shift is the creation of the cloud. Many companies achieved a transformative leap by taking an on-prem solution and migrating it to the cloud, reaping all the associated benefits. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 274

Cloud Venture Capital AI Startup 274