AWS, Cloud and SaaS - SaaS Brief

Clouded Judgement - 3.28.25 - The New AI Risk Curve

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 28, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Data from Stripe (below) shows the speed at which AI native companies are growing compared to SaaS companies. Let’s rewind the clock back to the pre-cloud days. Fast forward to the launch of AWS and the public cloud.

Cloud

Cloud AI Scale Scaling

Shopify Says eCommerce is Back. But AWS Says Cloud Under More Scrutiny.

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2022

o this was an interesting week in terms of reading the tea leaves on what’s going on in SaaS, Cloud, the economy, and all that. The Cloud infra side grew nicely, but growth did slow. Second, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud all grew nicely, and are still growing like a weed — but the growth rate slowed.

AWS

AWS Cloud Azure Investment

Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit”

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Yet, the Cloud is on fire during Work-and-Do-Everything-Possible-from-Home. Zoom is growing at rates we’ve never seen before in SaaS and Cloud. And Morgan Stanley has predicted Cloud penetration will be pulled forward 5+ years or more. Amazon/AWS and Atlassian both had huge Q2’s.

AWS

AWS Azure Cloud SaaS

Webinars

Agent Tooling: Connecting AI to Your Tools, Systems & Data

Mastering Apache Airflow® 3.0: What’s New (and What’s Next) for Data Orchestration

MORE WEBINARS

Clouded Judgement 12.1.23 - Net New ARR Starts to Rebound + AWS ReInvent Recap

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Amazon ReInvent This week Amazon had their annual AWS ReInvent conference. ” AWS fully embracing the breadth over depth approach. We’re still in the early days of the cloud.”

AWS

AWS Cloud AI Search Cost optimization & reporting

Datadog, ZoomInfo, Atlassian, AWS: Epic Growth — But Some Real Headwinds For The First Time

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

So with the latest batch of earnings out, we can get a sense of where the leaders are in SaaS. Atlassian noted a decline in Free to Paid conversion, but importantly, no decline in demand for their products: Amazon: We’re Seeing Strong But Slowing Growth at AWS to 28%, Albeit at a Stunning $82B Run Rate. More on that here.

AWS

AWS Azure Cloud Scale

Cloud Stocks May Be Down. But the Cloud Remains on Fire. That Matters More.

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2022

But at end of the day, in Cloud, the question is if CIO and related spend will slow down. So follow AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. So there’s much angst and even panic with so many SaaS and Cloud public stocks down 50% or more from their peaks. They are the Cloud. For now, they are still on fire.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Engineering

Bessemer: $1 Trillion in Cloud Market Cap Lost Year-to-Date

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2022

There are many ways to slice-and-dice public market data, but the headline one Bessemer called out is the most visceral I’ve seen: Public SaaS and Cloud companies lost $1 Trillion in market cap so far in 2022. And the number of public SaaS and Cloud decacorns has fallen from 50 to 17. Strange Days, Indeed.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Marketing

Top 10 Reasons SaaStr Annual 2025 Will Be Better Than Ever!! May 13-15 in SF Bay!

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

SaaStr Annual has always been the go-to event for SaaS founders, executives, and investors, but 2025 is shaping up to be the best one yet. AI is transforming SaaS, and were dedicating two massive stages to the SaaStr.AI 300+ World-Class Speakers This years lineup includes 300+ speakers from the best SaaS and AI companies worldwide.

VP of Engineering

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

Clouded Judgement 10.11.24 - Budget Flush

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 11, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. The hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP) are always some of the first companies to report earnings during earnings season (coming up in 2 weeks), and there’s always a read through for consumption names (meaning people believe there’s a correlation).

Cloud

Cloud Cost optimization & reporting GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Review

How Generative AI Will Turn Traditional SaaS Models On Their Head with AWS VP of Generative Builders Adam Seligman

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Within the next 12 months, Adam Seligman, VP of Generative Builders at AWS, believes there will be an inversion of SaaS. That many of the standard assumptions and ways of doing SaaS will change a lot. Anyone should be able to build any Cloud solutions they want. What does that mean? AI starts spitting out information.

Generative AI

Generative AI AWS Artificial Intelligence AI

Clouded Judgement 2.7.25 - "Group + Triage" AI Systems

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Cloud Giants Report Q4 ‘24 We now have the quarterly reports from Amazon, Microsoft and Google. They each have some of the largest cloud businesses in the world in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud respectively.

Systems Review

Systems Review Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence

5 Interesting Learnings from Google Cloud at $13 Billion in ARR

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? Google Cloud sees it hitting $760B+ in 2025.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Scale

What’s New at Google Cloud with CMO Alison Wagonfeld

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.

Cloud

Cloud Scale AWS AI

A Look Back at Q1 '24 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 19, 2024

Q1 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., These charts clearly show the ZIRP pull forward, the ensuing cloud cost optimizations, and then the recovery.

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Azure

Who’s Accelerating in SaaS? DataDog. HubSpot. Zendesk. Everyone.

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2021

We all know times are good in SaaS and Cloud — but just how good? Is it all the big public cloud vendors and a handful of outliers? 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. It’s not quite everyone.

AWS

AWS SaaS Cloud Scaling

Thanks to Unit, Everstage, Aiven, Zip, and Mission Cloud for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2022!

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Aiven provides managed open source data technologies on all major clouds. Meanwhile, we do what we do best; manage cloud data infrastructure. We’ll see 10,000 of the best SaaS founders, execs and VCs Sep 13-15 at 2022 SaaStrAnnual.com ! With Aiven, developers can do what they do best: create applications.

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Payments SaaS Payments

SaaS Multiples Are At a 3+ Year Low. Where It Goes From Here.

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

Many SaaS and Cloud leaders are down more than 50% from their all-time highs. But Covid did create a lot of artificial demand for Cloud products, especially the lockdown phase. A Covid Hangover in SaaS stocks.’ Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and even Google Cloud are on fire, adding insane amounts of revenue this year.

SaaS

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2023

So there’s no doubt things are a bit harder for everyone in SaaS and Cloud right now. A few of us are seeing no macro impacts, but probably the biggest tell are Cloud platform giants — AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The Cloud is still growing. The Cloud is still growing.

Azure

Azure AWS Cloud SaaS

The Top 10 SaaStr Posts of 2020

SaaStr

DECEMBER 7, 2020

Ok the Best But Craziest Year Ever for SaaS isn’t quite over, but as it drives to a conclusion, we thought it would be worth looking back at top posts you may have missed in 2020. “The Era of the SaaS Decacorn is Here” That’s for sure. Many Cloud leaders grew 500% or more this year.

Venture Capital

Venture Capital Sales Hiring AWS Cloud

Snowflake, CrowdStike and SumoLogic: “How to Leverage the Cloud Giants to Scale to 100 Million ARR and Beyond”

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

Jessica Alexander, Senior Director Cloud Technology & OEM Partnerships, Crowdstrike. So for the audience, cloud giants are turbocharging startup sales, and the predominant reason for this is because they’re fundamentally changing IT budgets at the customers that we’re all selling to. Rico Mallozzi, Sr.

Scale

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments

The Week in Cloud: March 17, 2019

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2019

The Week in Cloud: A look at the stories in Cloud, SaaS, and business software that we found particularly useful and interesting. Number 2 is still awfully big in the largest market in all of Cloud: [link]. A huge donation, driven by the Cloud: [link]. A huge donation, driven by the Cloud: [link].

Cloud

Cloud AWS Systems Review Software Review

Pilot: 57% of Venture Startups Will Need to Raise More In 2024

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. SaaS and Cloud growth overall will remain strong. Shopify , Datadog, Crowdstrike , Google Cloud-Azure-AWS, Snowflake , etc. Carpe Diem.

Startup

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS

Some SaaS Stocks Are Actually Still Doing Pretty Darn Well. E.g, Sprout Social, ZoomInfo, Zscaler, etc.

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2022

The markets for SaaS and Cloud stocks are down 50%+ in just a few months, and it hasn’t spared even the leaders. But let’s step back a bit … the damage hasn’t been even, and capital-efficient SaaS stocks in many cases have held up pretty well. The post Some SaaS Stocks Are Actually Still Doing Pretty Darn Well.

AWS

AWS SaaS Cloud Scale

Sapphire Ventures: Public SaaS Companies Are Growing the Slowest Ever, But Unicorn Production Has Ramped Back Up

SaaStr

AUGUST 3, 2024

So a lot of good stuff has happened in SaaS recently. OneStream had an epic SaaS IPO at $500m ARR, growing 34%. Microsoft has epic growth across its Cloud products, and even LinkedIn saw growth accelerate to 10%+. For “traditional” SaaS like Clio’s $3B round, you need to be growing at outlier rates at $100m+ to be a unicorn.

AWS

AWS Scale Social Media SaaS

Founders Today Just Need to Assume the Next Round Never Comes

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

So we’ve talked about it often here at SaaStr, but things are just so … odd right now in SaaS. And while AWS’s growth is down a bit, it’s still at epic levels, Azure isn’t even really down, and Google Cloud is growing faster than ever. And yet … the stock markets have plummeted.

AWS

AWS Venture Capital Azure Cloud

BVP: The Top Unicorns Are Still Raising at 23x ARR

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

So there’s a curious thing anyone close in venture capital fundraising and rounds today: Valuations for Hot VC Deals remain far higher than pre-March 2020 … even though growth for the overall public SaaS and Cloud companies has slowed to … all time lows. But the Cloud 100 was always outliers. Databricks is Growing 60%+ at $2.4

Venture Capital

Venture Capital AWS Cloud Scaling

Is it Really ARR? In 2021+, Yes. As Long As NRR is > 100%

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

A lot of our SaaS older times don’t quite know what to make with a lot of B2B startups these days, let alone some public SaaS companies. But like “Cloud” and “SaaS”, its definitely has evolved. But like “Cloud” and “SaaS”, its definitely has evolved.

Merchant Services

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services

Clouded Judgement 2.2.24 - Cloud Giants Report Q4 '23

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q4 ‘23 Two quotes from the Amazon and Microsoft earnings call really stood out to me this week. Sometimes they’re classic cloud migrations. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS

58% of You Say Sales Cycles Are Even Longer in 2024

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

SaaS outside of classic “B2B’ is often holding up well. And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. But classic B2B SaaS is definitely in many cases seeing tougher times. So not everyone is seeing tougher times these days. Klaviyo, Toast, etc. just had very strong quarters.

Azure

Azure AWS Sales B2B

Cloud Prem Architecture - The New Way of Serving the Enterprise with a Hub and Spoke Data Model

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 28, 2020

When we announced our investment in and partnership with Mattermost about a year ago , I wrote about a new architecture for SaaS. The idea behind the new architecture is split a SaaS app into code and the data. The SaaS company writes, updates, and maintains the code. This cloud account has many names but no real moniker yet.

VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud)

VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Cloud Enterprise Data

The Full SaaStr APAC Agenda for Feb 22-23 in Singapore is Here!

SaaStr

JANUARY 20, 2023

It will be the #1 place to talk SaaS, learn SaaS, and share SaaS learnings in APAC in 2023! We’ll have dozens and dozens of workshops, braindates, and much more! The post The Full SaaStr APAC Agenda for Feb 22-23 in Singapore is Here! appeared first on SaaStr.

AWS

AWS Cloud Trends Startup

Clouded Judgement 10.27.23 - Cloud Giants Report Q3 '23

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. You can see some quotes from Azure / AWS in my Q2 recap , and pasted below. After the cloud giants reported this week, the timing of the presumed re-acceleration is very much in question. Follow along to stay up to date! which feels unlikely.

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS

5 Interesting Learnings from Digital Ocean at $700,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

So is it possible to be too efficient in SaaS and Cloud? Many have used Digital Ocean at the cheaper, simpler version of AWS-Azure-Digital Ocean to get going fast and quickly. Even small cloud customers worked to bring down their spend in 2023. #5. And if so, maybe that’s Digital Ocean. But you’d be wrong ?

Scale

Scale AWS Azure Cloud

Gartner: SaaS Spending Will Grow Another 40% in Next 2 Years Alone

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2021

Just how fast is SaaS and Cloud growing? Cloud software spending grew a stunning 23% in 2021, from $270 billion to $330 billion. Budgets and spend are increasing a stunning 20% a year in SaaS. Yes, we all now know top SaaS leaders have world-class NRR, from 110% to 160%. One thing we know — Fast.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS SaaS

Clouded Judgement 9.27.24 - The Foundation of Foundation Models

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Foundation Models Are to AI what S3 was to the Public Cloud Many people look at 2006 as the birth of the public cloud - the year Amazon launched AWS. Follow along to stay up to date! However, a couple things happened.

Cloud

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS Azure

Clouded Judgement 5.3.24 - Hyperscalers Report Q1 + Early Look at Software Reports

Clouded Judgement

MAY 3, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q1 + Early Look at Software Results Q1 earnings seasons has officially kicked off! We now have results from the three hypersclaers (AWS / Azure / GCP). Follow along to stay up to date!

Cost optimization & reporting

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Software AWS

5 Interesting Learnings from DigitalOcean at $500,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2022

So DigitalOcean is the quiet Cloud platform that keeps on growing. Focusing on smaller developers, in some ways it’s been a bit overshadowed by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. DigitialOcean doesn’t want to take AWS, Azure and Google on in the enterprise and doesn’t really try. That’s impressive.

Azure

Azure AWS SMB Cloud

The Top 10 Events in SaaS. According to ChatGPT.

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2023

SaaStr Annual: SaaStr Annual is one of the largest SaaS conferences, attracting thousands of attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts. It provides insights into the latest trends, best practices, and networking opportunities in the SaaS space.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT AWS SaaS CTO

Mastering Partner Marketing: What NOT to Do and How to Excel with Drata CMO Sydney Sloan

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Welcome to the latest installment of our “ What’s New ” series where SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin sits down with some of the top leaders and founders in SaaS and Cloud to discuss What’s New and what should be top of mind for fellow founders. AWS can’t support 20 partners equally. Otherwise, it falls apart.

AWS

AWS Scale Sales Hiring Marketing

Thanks to Multiplier, Pepper, Tin Men Capital, and To the New’s CloudKeeper for Sponsoring SaaStr APAC 2023!

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

We’ll see 1,000+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs February 22-23 at SaaStr APAC 2023 ! CloudKeeper from TO THE NEW, is a cloud spend optimization solution that guarantees to cut down your AWS bills by 5-15%. Grab tickets here. Join these incredible companies to experience all the value of SaaStr! No lock-ins.

Cloud spend optimization

Cloud spend optimization AWS Scale compliance

The Week In Cloud: April 7, 2019

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2019

Join our Quora group to get all of The Week in Cloud updates throughout the week. These options can be particularly appealing to SaaS companies with their recurring revenues: For now, hybrid cloud is what a lot of the biggest enterprises still want: Wow, Apple Music passes Spotify in the U.S: They accelerated its growth.

Cloud

Cloud AWS Enterprise SaaS

Clouded Judgement 8.2.24 - Uncertainty Everywhere

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 2, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Cloud Giants Report Q2 We also got the Q2 quarters from AWS / Azure / GCP this week! The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Follow along to stay up to date! Today it’s ~5x.

Cloud

Cloud Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS

Clouded Judgement 10.20.23 - Hyperscaler Q3 Preview

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Hyperscaler Preview Next week Amazon, Microsoft and Google report earnings and we’ll see Q3 data for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years.

Cloud

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review

Alteryx, ZoomInfo Have Blow Out Quarters. Datadog grows 74% at $2B in ARR. Ping Identify Acquired for $2.8 Billion. Don’t Call it a Downturn.

SaaStr

AUGUST 4, 2022

So are we in a downturn in SaaS? And inflation is awful. But where is SaaS are we really today? Alteryx, a leading public SaaS ETL company, announced it was growing 33% at $730m in ARR! It’s just, the forces that are propelling SaaS to grow like never before haven’t changed. Certainly, segments are.

Venture Capital

Venture Capital AWS Cloud Scale

Clouded Judgement - 3.28.25 - The New AI Risk Curve

Shopify Says eCommerce is Back. But AWS Says Cloud Under More Scrutiny.

Webinars

Trending Sources

Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit”

Webinars

Clouded Judgement 12.1.23 - Net New ARR Starts to Rebound + AWS ReInvent Recap

Datadog, ZoomInfo, Atlassian, AWS: Epic Growth — But Some Real Headwinds For The First Time

Cloud Stocks May Be Down. But the Cloud Remains on Fire. That Matters More.

Bessemer: $1 Trillion in Cloud Market Cap Lost Year-to-Date

Top 10 Reasons SaaStr Annual 2025 Will Be Better Than Ever!! May 13-15 in SF Bay!

Clouded Judgement 10.11.24 - Budget Flush

How Generative AI Will Turn Traditional SaaS Models On Their Head with AWS VP of Generative Builders Adam Seligman

Clouded Judgement 2.7.25 - "Group + Triage" AI Systems

5 Interesting Learnings from Google Cloud at $13 Billion in ARR

What’s New at Google Cloud with CMO Alison Wagonfeld

A Look Back at Q1 '24 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Who’s Accelerating in SaaS? DataDog. HubSpot. Zendesk. Everyone.

Thanks to Unit, Everstage, Aiven, Zip, and Mission Cloud for Sponsoring SaaStr Annual 2022!

SaaS Multiples Are At a 3+ Year Low. Where It Goes From Here.

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

The Top 10 SaaStr Posts of 2020

Snowflake, CrowdStike and SumoLogic: “How to Leverage the Cloud Giants to Scale to 100 Million ARR and Beyond”

The Week in Cloud: March 17, 2019

Pilot: 57% of Venture Startups Will Need to Raise More In 2024

Some SaaS Stocks Are Actually Still Doing Pretty Darn Well. E.g, Sprout Social, ZoomInfo, Zscaler, etc.

Sapphire Ventures: Public SaaS Companies Are Growing the Slowest Ever, But Unicorn Production Has Ramped Back Up

Founders Today Just Need to Assume the Next Round Never Comes

BVP: The Top Unicorns Are Still Raising at 23x ARR

Is it Really ARR? In 2021+, Yes. As Long As NRR is > 100%

Clouded Judgement 2.2.24 - Cloud Giants Report Q4 '23

58% of You Say Sales Cycles Are Even Longer in 2024

Cloud Prem Architecture - The New Way of Serving the Enterprise with a Hub and Spoke Data Model

The Full SaaStr APAC Agenda for Feb 22-23 in Singapore is Here!

Clouded Judgement 10.27.23 - Cloud Giants Report Q3 '23

5 Interesting Learnings from Digital Ocean at $700,000,000 in ARR

Gartner: SaaS Spending Will Grow Another 40% in Next 2 Years Alone

Clouded Judgement 9.27.24 - The Foundation of Foundation Models

Clouded Judgement 5.3.24 - Hyperscalers Report Q1 + Early Look at Software Reports

5 Interesting Learnings from DigitalOcean at $500,000,000 in ARR

The Top 10 Events in SaaS. According to ChatGPT.

Mastering Partner Marketing: What NOT to Do and How to Excel with Drata CMO Sydney Sloan

Thanks to Multiplier, Pepper, Tin Men Capital, and To the New’s CloudKeeper for Sponsoring SaaStr APAC 2023!

The Week In Cloud: April 7, 2019

Clouded Judgement 8.2.24 - Uncertainty Everywhere

Clouded Judgement 10.20.23 - Hyperscaler Q3 Preview

Alteryx, ZoomInfo Have Blow Out Quarters. Datadog grows 74% at $2B in ARR. Ping Identify Acquired for $2.8 Billion. Don’t Call it a Downturn.

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