SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2024

Culture Structure You want a culture of checking results and having metrics to evaluate those results from the LLM or a more traditional model. You want a culture that focuses on your metrics and evaluating what’s important to you. Whatever the metric is, you have to translate that into a concrete metric.

AI Search 293

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Scale 293

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

Growing Almost 50% as Approaches $2B in ARR The exact growth rate is based on an The Information report from a few weeks ago, and it seems about right looking at their published metrics. 300 Employees Working on AI Not a surprise, but interesting to see the scale of investment here. #5. That’s awfully impressive.

AWS 312

AWS B2C Scaling AI 312

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

Check out this 2018 Europa session with Guillaume Princen, Head of France and Southern Europe @ Stripe, where he talks about the metrics you need to be focused on in your startup. If you don’t have the time to watch the whole session, here are the main metrics you should be mindful of. MRR, obviously. We talked about churn.

SaaS Payments 246

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Scale 246

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2023

Ed Lenta, the SVP and GM of Databricks, had the rare opportunity of scaling three hypergrowth companies — VMware, AWS, and Databricks. To “soften the beach,” you need to expend as little energy and investment as possible while learning as much as possible. Invest in and put that into the market to start softening the beach.

Scale 262

Scale Scaling AWS Sales Hiring 262

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2021

The Treasure Data platform instantly analyzed large amounts of data, which meant that companies didn’t need to hire lots of computer scientists or put up a considerable upfront investment for data projects. . Commoditization From AWS & Google Cloud. million and $1.2 million deals led by the founders.

Sales Hiring 312

Sales Hiring Data AWS Leadership 312

Clouded Judgement

MAY 3, 2024

We now have results from the three hypersclaers (AWS / Azure / GCP). The most notable change in tone was Andy Jassy talking about AWS. Given most software companies are not profitable, or not generating meaningful FCF, it’s the only metric to compare the entire industry against. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cost optimization & reporting 190

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Software Azure 190

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

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. It was pretty easy to drive that from our side.

Scale 262

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 262

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Or of my investments, ones like Algolia and Salesloft, that yes, in theory, were playing in larger markets, but in practice, their entry points were quite narrow. Worth investing 7+ years of your life in. But others started off in what seemed like … material but smaller markets. Like Shopify and Okta, to pick two.

Scale 284

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital AWS 284

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Amazon on AWS : “…customers are continuing to shift their focus towards driving innovation and bringing new workloads to the cloud. Azure (excluding Azure AI) continued to decelerate, and while AWS did come in ahead of expectations, it wasn’t a blow out. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cost optimization & reporting 167

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS 167

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Now, let’s take this idea and apply it to the world of marketing metrics. Flex is a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest. They are a vanity metric. Our unanimous pick?

Metrics 124

Metrics Revenue Scale Marketing 124

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

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. Given most software companies are not profitable, or not generating meaningful FCF, it’s the only metric to compare the entire industry against.

Cloud 176

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS Azure 176

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q3 ‘23 Not a great signal for software this week from the Cloud Giants (AWS, Azure and Google Cloud)…After Q2 (3 months ago), the tone from the Cloud Giants around optimizations was largely: optimizations have started to ease, and net new workloads have picked up. That is not new.”

Cost optimization & reporting 157

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS 157

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Hyperscaler Preview Next week Amazon, Microsoft and Google report earnings and we’ll see Q3 data for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Given most software companies are not profitable, or not generating meaningful FCF, it’s the only metric to compare the entire industry against. Even a DCF is riddled with long term assumptions.

Cloud 167

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review 167

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 11, 2024

Through these interactions, I’ve built up mental benchmarks for metrics on which I place extra emphasis. My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., This metric is more self-explanatory, so I won’t go into detail.

Cloud 184

Cloud Software Azure AWS 184

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 2, 2024

Cloud Giants Report Q2 We also got the Q2 quarters from AWS / Azure / GCP this week! Our expectation, obviously again, is that we are going to significantly increase our investments in AI infrastructure next year, and we'll give further guidance as appropriate.” Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 157

Cloud Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS 157

Clouded Judgement

MAY 31, 2024

.” As growth starts to slow, it gets harder and harder to justify using revenue multiples as a primary valuation metric. And when this happens, growth companies transition to more of a value based valuation metric (FCF or PE). But these investments aren’t cheap. Coming in to Q1 there was broader optimism.

Cloud 184

Cloud Software GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AI 184

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

For some context, Base10 is a research-driven investment firm focusing on companies automating the largest sectors of the real economy. They just happened to launch AWS and ended up capturing way more value just in themselves than the entire on-prem storage market before them. Amazon wasn’t built as a Cloud business or storage company.

Generative AI 298

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 298

Clouded Judgement

MAY 10, 2024

All 3 (AWS, Azure, GCP) saw positive reacceleration Quarterly Reports Summary Top 10 EV / NTM Revenue Multiples Top 10 Weekly Share Price Movement Update on Multiples SaaS businesses are generally valued on a multiple of their revenue - in most cases the projected revenue for the next 12 months. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cloud 167

Cloud Software GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure 167

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Hyperscalers Report Quarterly Earnings This week we saw AWS (Amazon), GCP (Google) and Azure (Microsoft) report earnings. Overall, it wasn’t pretty… AWS grew 28% when expectations were 30-31%. Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting 130

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

” We saw some green shoots in AWS and a few other consumption names, and overall sentiment seemed more positive. I’ve put together a number of charts below to show how metrics from this quarter compared to prior quarters. I created this subset to show companies where FCF is a relevant valuation metric.

Cloud 176

Cloud Software Review AWS Trends 176

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 6, 2023

Cloud Downgrades This week UBS came out with a couple research reports citing concerns in AWS / Azure growth. This brings me back to AWS / Azure downgrades. This was the worst tone that we’ve heard in years from large AWS/Azure partners, a group that usually expresses different shades of optimism about AWS/Azure growth.”

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Underperforming Technical Team 130

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 28, 2023

AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft), and Google Cloud (Google) all reported this week. Then AWS appeared to add fuel to that hope before giving us a huge rug pull. After all, they had a lot of AI tailwinds, and benefited tremendously from consolidation (without a headwind of a larger base of smaller startups, like AWS).

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS AI Search 130

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 4, 2023

” These are two quotes about AWS on the Amazon earnings call. AWS grew 16% in Q1, but called out growth in April (first month of Q2) was 11%. Given most software companies are not profitable, or not generating meaningful FCF, it’s the only metric to compare the entire industry against.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting 130

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

” From AWS (paraphrased): They said they expect the reaccleration they saw in Q4 to continue into 2024 2024 Estimate Updates One important metric I’m tracking this quarter is the change in 2024 estimates pre / post earnings. I created this subset to show companies where FCF is a relevant valuation metric.

Cloud 167

Cloud AWS Metrics Payment Features 167

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP as companies look for cloud GPUs who aren’t building out their own data centers) Infra (Data layer, orchestration, monitoring, ops, etc) Durable Applications We’ve clearly well underway of the first 3 layers monetizing. I created this subset to show companies where FCF is a relevant valuation metric.

Cloud 190

Cloud Artificial Intelligence GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AI 190

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 21, 2023

Next week we get all 3 hyperscalers reporting (AWS from Amazon, Azure from Microsoft, and GCP from Google). On AWS, in their Q4 earnings call they said AWS was growing “mid teens” in January (down from 20% in Q4). Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

Subscribe now ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) vs ERR (Experimental Runrate Revenue) ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is one of the most popular SaaS (Non-GAAP) metrics. However, it’s also one of the most loosely used metrics, and is frequently misused. I created this subset to show companies where FCF is a relevant valuation metric.

AI 190

AI Cloud Revenue Technical Advisors 190

Clouded Judgement

JULY 26, 2024

I asked ChatGPT how many price changes AWS has made to S3 since it’s inception in 2006, and the answer it gave me was 65. Sundar said “ the risk of under investing is dramatically greater than the risk of over-investing. I created this subset to show companies where FCF is a relevant valuation metric.

Cloud 144

Cloud Technical Review Artificial Intelligence Software Review 144

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 12, 2021

And with a greater impact on your customer satisfaction – and ultimately your company’s bottom line – it’s increasingly important to invest in your human support team as a real strategic lever in your business. You’ve probably had at least one awful support experience where automation has been used to disastrous effect.

Underperforming Technical Team 222

Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Payment Methods Payments 222

User Pilot

APRIL 2, 2025

Key capabilities include segmentation, which allows you to group users based on behavior, demographics, or custom properties; custom analytics dashboards, which visualize the metrics that matter most to your team; and screen-level analytics, which show exactly how users interact with each part of your app.

Mobile 66

Mobile Underperforming Technical Team Onboarding AWS 66

CloudGeometry

MARCH 3, 2022

Feature value: a function of time investment of users and customers The set of problems that your SaaS solves won’t survive long in the digital age if all it does is cut prices. Think beyond the cloud about what other resources you need to invest in making customers successful with your platform. This is known as a unit metric.

Well Architected Framework 130

Well Architected Framework VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) SaaS Cloud 130

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

They did call out sequential growth in Confluent Cloud every quarter this year which was a big positive Still seeing elongated deal cycles and less expansion revenue The Bad AWS: Headwinds Getting Worse Their quarter ended in March, but on the earnings call they called out weakening growth in April.

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Ashley Smith, Venture Partner at OpenView provides insight on what investors are looking for in product metrics and growth indicators so you can capitalize on your product’s story for funding. Now I’m investing in that. I enjoyed that weird dynamic of trying to impress them and get them to invest in my company.

Investment 113

Investment Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 113

Clouded Judgement

JULY 28, 2023

AI = Data + Compute I’ll continue beating this drum, but we got two great quotes from Azure and AWS this week. ” Then at AWS Summit they called out “Your data is your differentiator when it comes to Generative AI.” AWS reports next week. ” Data is more important than ever! So what did we learn?

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

This is why we’re seeing more and more SaaS companies—Datadog, Twilio, AWS, Snowflake, and Stripe, to name a few—find success with product led growth paired with usage-based pricing. Though it was pioneered in the infrastructure layer (think: AWS and Azure), it’s becoming increasingly popular for API-based products and application software.

Scale 98

Scale Pricing Scaling AWS 98

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2019

What I’m going to do is talk a little bit about what we’ve seen over the course of the last year and then also talk about some metrics we track or we encourage our founders to track as they’re building their businesses, and then, lastly, try to go through a few predictions for the next couple of years.

Cloud 113

Cloud Scale AWS Artificial Intelligence 113

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

We’ve all seen AWS and what they’ve done with their platform. One of the early co-investments with my prior firm in Bessemer was in Shopify. If you look at companies like Cornerstone OnDemand, which we invested in a long time ago, it took them some time to get to 100 million of ARR. It is staggering.

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring Scale Payments Cloud 235