SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

100+ scale-ups and start-ups showing you how they do it! With 1:1 Meet-a-VC matchmaking and curated sessions, youll have unparalleled access to the capital you need to scale. From seasoned founders to rising stars, every session is handpicked to deliver actionable insights and real-world strategies to help you scale faster.

VP of Engineering 204

VP of Engineering CTO Coach VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Scale 204

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

But that doesnt make your life scaling your start-up any easier. This is probably too conservative, and may sound awfully abstract to founders at earlier stages but if I was a founder at a hot start-up growing quickly today, I wouldnt raise at > a $300m valuation until I was 100% sure I was on the IPO track for real.

AWS 214

AWS Scaling SaaS Data 214

Hitenism

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

In 2006, after Amazon Web Services (AWS) helped pioneer what we now call the cloud, product development changed forever. Today, one-third of daily internet users visit websites built on top of AWS. AWS is now an $11.5B Rewrite the blog post until you have something you’d be happy publishing.

AWS 189

AWS New CTO Scale CTO 189

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

With so many incredible sessions to choose from, we thought we’d highlight a few for you here: Building & Scaling Global Product Teams. Why Customer Success and Product Should be Best Friends: Lessons Learned with AWS’ Head of Customer Success Harini Gokul. Why Customer Success and Product Should be Best Friends.

AWS 246

AWS Customer Success Scale Sales Hiring 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2021

Examples include AWS, Adobe, Microsoft, and Google Cloud. This early phase is where you’re still looking for that perfect product-market fit and scaling the product to market. And remember to scale. Says Caimi: “Phase two for a software company is once you’ve got that product-market fit, it’s all about scale.

Outsourcing Services 290

Outsourcing Services Scale Scaling Outsourced Development 290

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 30, 2020

Prior to HashiCorp Adam was the Head of Worldwide Developer Marketing at AWS and held senior positions at Pivotal, VMware, and SpringSource. She writes often on topics like these on our blog Memory Leak. With two decades of experience, Adam is well-versed in developer evangelism. My partner Astasia Myers will be leading the discussion.

Development 317

Development Scale AWS Scaling 317

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2023

Scaling Early-Stage to Hyper-Growth Companies With Ed Lenta, SVP and GM of Databricks Back in the early 2000s, people didn’t entirely accept that a virtual machine could be as good as a physical one. Ed Lenta, the SVP and GM of Databricks, had the rare opportunity of scaling three hypergrowth companies — VMware, AWS, and Databricks.

Scale 262

Scale Scaling AWS Sales Hiring 262

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

In 2014, storage had historically been Dropbox’s most significant cost driver, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on AWS. You must build a lean, impactful team to help your business scale. In its early days, the company made many decisions that boosted user growth, but there wasn’t deep thought about the cost implications.

Scale 239

Scale Finance Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting 239

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

This episode is an excerpt from a session at SaaStr Scale. And it’s one of the three large cloud vendors that we all know: Microsoft, AWS, and Google. AWS’s marketplace has seen 1.5 But also it’s allowed us to get much closer to our provider, I mean, we host and run 100% on AWS, but pull data from everywhere.

Scale 262

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 262

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: It’s Now Year 2 of the Venture Downturn Clawbacks and Tracking-to-Cash: Two Sales Management Tools to Be Thoughtful With 8 Things That Are Just Harder in SaaS Now Tier 1 VC is Great. SaaStr 643: What’s Holding Up Buyers?:

Scale 246

Scale AWS Scaling Enterprise 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2021

It really is almost everyone at SaaS that is at scale and has a winning brand. AWS accelerated to 37% YoY growth , up from 32% last quarter. Many of whom really are more proxies for the web overall (Zendesk, everyone needs support) and SMBs using the web to run and scale their businesses (HubSpot). Now is your time, folks.

SaaS 340

SaaS AWS Cloud Scaling 340

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2022

At the same time, the leaders in Cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) are growing a stunning 40%. Growing at a pace and scale like we’ve never seen before: That’s got to be the most visceral juxtaposition in my time in SaaS. This puts a lot of pressure on all the private unicorns out there: We did a deeper dive on decacorns here.

Cloud 338

Cloud Azure AWS Marketing 338

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Google Cloud Platform, on the other hand, is in a very different set that also competes with Microsoft, but AWS is considered their biggest competitor in the market. What they’re seeing with GenAI and Google Cloud is an opportunity to grab share from AWS. Right now, 70% of the GenAI startups are using Google Cloud.

Cloud 313

Cloud Scale AWS AI 313

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2022

So follow AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Let’s look a whole level up to the real canaries-in-the-coalmine: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. And AWS grew 37% at a $74B run-rate , down a bit from 39% the prior quarter but still adding an insane amount of new revenue. If they stumble, we’re in for a rough patch. They are the Cloud.

Cloud 299

Cloud Azure AWS Engineering 299

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

But as Shopify scaled, its revenue as a percent of commerce on its sites — “Merchant Solutions” — began to eclipse its recurring SaaS revenues. First, Snowflake rolls its large customers into fixed comittments (as does AWS and many others), and bills them in advance. And yes, it’s a software company.

Merchant Services 360

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 360

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

So we’ve had a lot of fun in our 5 Interesting Learnings profiling the top SaaS and Cloud companies at scale, from Slack to Zoom, from Shopify to Datadog, from Box to DropBox. But are AWS, Azure and Google Cloud just too big for us to learn from? AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud is one of the greatest case studies of all time.

Cloud 298

Cloud Azure AWS Scale 298

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: Why Now is a Great Time to Raise Seed Funding. Even If It’s Awful for Series A-E Rounds. SaaStr 626: 10 Lessons Learned Scaling to $1B Valuation with Drift Co-founders David Cancel and Elias Torres  5.

Sales Recruiting 244

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AWS 244

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Many have used Digital Ocean at the cheaper, simpler version of AWS-Azure-Digital Ocean to get going fast and quickly. But at scale, even the slightly less long version of the tail is where the money is. And if so, maybe that’s Digital Ocean. If you haven’t heard of Digital Ocean, ask your developer. Or at least.

Scale 297

Scale AWS Azure Cloud 297

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

So many of the Best of the Best are growing at crazy rates at scale, from Canva to Databricks and Wiz and more. : So at those growth rates, sky high valuations at the growth stage are arguably merited, at least in theory. Databricks is Growing 60%+ at $2.4 Billion in ARR. And Accelerating. IMHO, it’s justified for a Wiz or two, for sure.

Venture Capital 303

Venture Capital AWS Cloud Scaling 303

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2023

Whether you’re going from nothing to something or already scaling and thriving beyond $10-100M, healthy, sustainable growth in SaaS is on every founder’s mind. Cockroach Labs’ CEO Spencer Kimball shares hard-won lessons from scaling from $0 to $5B and his time as an angel investor for more than 80 different startups. Ideas Are Cheap.

Scale 243

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Cloud 243

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

They typically give them just enough to see if it will work, and the startup grows and scales to the next stage. Shopify , Datadog, Crowdstrike , Google Cloud-Azure-AWS, Snowflake , etc. VC finance is designed to fund 18-24 months of runway. That’s how it works. VCs don’t give startups 10 years of capital.

Startup 357

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS 357

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

CloudKeeper from TO THE NEW, is a cloud spend optimization solution that guarantees to cut down your AWS bills by 5-15%. With CloudKeeper, we have helped 200+ of our customers optimize their AWS spend with a guaranteed reduction in their AWS bills. Join these incredible companies to experience all the value of SaaStr!

Cloud spend optimization 263

Cloud spend optimization AWS Scale compliance 263

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

They were $1.7B+ ARR in October , so let’s call it close to $2B at the end of the year, growing 40%+ at that scale –and profitable! (or 300 Employees Working on AI Not a surprise, but interesting to see the scale of investment here. #5. But we at least know enough to put together 5 Interesting Learnings!

AWS 312

AWS B2C Scaling AI 312

SaaStr

JANUARY 20, 2023

Get ready for 50+ speakers for the very first SaaStr APAC event in Singapore, including: APAC Update: State of the Cloud with Bessemer Venture Partners , Anant Vidur Puri, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners Lessons Learned in Scaling to $1B ARR: From VMware, AWS and Databricks with Databrick’s SVP and GM Ed Lenta The Secrets to Building (..)

AWS 298

AWS Cloud Trends Startup 298

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2022

Enough to pay some salaries and AWS bills, but it’s not that much. A related post here: 6 Things in SaaS That Are Only Obvious At Scale. Yes, you now know how to make customers successful and happy now. But it is so slow. You have 2,000 customers now. But at $10/mo, that’s still just $20,000 a month.

SaaS 351

SaaS Headcount AWS Churn 351

SaaStr

JANUARY 26, 2023

While the data ends here, here’s what I can tell you I am seeing in growth rounds today: Very few growth rounds are happening at all When the do happen, they are for capital efficient startups growing > 50% at scale And … the peak valuation is about 15x. Even If It’s Awful for Series A-E Rounds. For the best ones.

Venture Capital 67

Venture Capital AWS SaaS Startup 67

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2025

This is a big deal for scaling companiesit means you can deliver more value at a lower cost, which is a competitive advantage. And how the CEOs of Monday, HubSpot, Rippling and more scale. One Thing is Clear: AI Makes a Lot of Business Software Look Awfully Expensive Today. Is Deflation Coming? #5. Don’t Let Costs Be an Excuse.

AI 147

AI Trends SaaS AWS 147

SaaStr

AUGUST 3, 2024

Overall Cloud spending has bounced back off lows for sure: AWS at a $105B run rate growing 19% Quarterly YoY growth trends below. Yes, AI has fueled Nvidia and Google Cloud and Microsoft and AWS to massive growth, and growth that has accelerated the past few quarters. OneStream had an epic SaaS IPO at $500m ARR, growing 34%.

AWS 238

AWS Scale Social Media SaaS 238

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

Typically support consumes about perhaps 5%-7% of your revenue at scale (excluding customer success) in most SaaS models. Another 5%-7% go to core infrastructure costs (AWS, Azure, Snowflake, etc). Dear SaaStr: What is The Average Ratio of Support Staff to Customer Count in SaaS?

Azure 278

Azure AWS SaaS Customer Success 278

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

AWS can’t support 20 partners equally. When partnering with big folks like Drata does with AWS, you have to bring business to them. Drata was one of three companies mentioned on stage by AWS’ Head of Partnerships because they did the most transactions on the marketplace than any other company. That’s a high value for AWS.

AWS 285

AWS Scale Sales Hiring Marketing 285

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

And also while many of the above names had seem growth slow at scale, bear in mind they are all awfully good SaaS companies. So I’d suspect the underlying SaaS companies were trading around 5x-6x or so on average. You might be worth less ? is interesting to see.

AWS 321

AWS SaaS Pricing Acquisition 321

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2022

But even there, to truly scale, they went more enterprise and built out a full enterprise sales and marketing function. Amazing blog content — that truly adds value in the industry. But third-party events like AWS, Dreamforce, SaaStr, Shoptalk? And it does happen, sometimes. At least for a while. So where do you start?

Scale 332

Scale Sales Hiring Marketing SaaS 332

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

Being Multi-Platform / Multi-Product Key at Scale A story we’ve seen many times. 64% of Large Customers Sourced From Partners They are AWS’s largest cybersecurity partner. The majority of their customers use 5 or more modules. #3. ” #7. What’s your channel / partner strategy? #9. Only Founded in 2011.

Cybersecurity 299

Cybersecurity AWS Benchmarks Cloud 299

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 25, 2021

On November 3rd, our co-founder Des Traynor will be on the stage sharing his keynote on “ How to grow up without growing old “ Later that evening we partner with AWS and Aircall for a “Startups Happy Hour” party, where you can decompress and have one (or a few!) drinks on us and celebrate a little taste of normality.

AWS 198

AWS Scale Innovation Startup 198

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2024

What should founders know about the modern AI stack that Enterprises can scale on? Historically, Cloud platforms like AWS and Azure help with the sporadic needs of renting a GPU for a few hours for training vs. long-term use, which would cost thousands of dollars. They’ll need GPUs. What do you do instead?

AI Search 293

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Scale 293

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

In that case, is PLG cheaper for expanding the base than their sales-driven process? “I think it’s both if you look at scale,” Henry says. “PLG is cheaper, right? For example, Google and AWS are already ZoomInfo customers, but only certain sub-segments within those businesses – not the entire org.

New CTO 316

New CTO Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 316

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2023

A few of us are seeing no macro impacts, but probably the biggest tell are Cloud platform giants — AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. All are still growing at very strong rates. But all are growing more slowly than a year ago, and even more so than 2 years ago. But they are still growing. The Cloud is still growing.

Azure 276

Azure AWS Cloud SaaS 276