SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2025

Instrument Everything Before running campaigns, ensure you have rock-solid data collection: Define clear metrics tied to business outcomes Create instrumentation that accurately tracks performance Focus on data that’s “directionally correct” – perfect precision isn’t required 4.

Scale 236

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Marketing 236

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Six months ago, security was the number one prohibition preventing businesses and software companies from buying AI. This can destabilize your business and have a big impact on cash. So the survey asked how much as a business has AI impacted its sales funnel. So how much business has it closed? It isn’t predictable.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 328

SaaStr

JULY 9, 2024

So venture capital turns out to be a pretty tough business. Those rare investments that return enough money to the VC fund to pay off at least 1x the total fund size. And you can see VCs are often pretty careful to make sure structurally, any given investment can do it. Investing in the #3 or #4 in a space? A 1% stake?

Investment 296

Investment Venture Capital Social Media Startup 296

SaaStr

DECEMBER 25, 2023

G2 had us back for another great deep dive on just where SaaS investing is there days, and it was a great panel: Accel Partner Arun Mathew Inspired Capital Founder & Managing Partner Alexa von Tobel Salesforce Ventures Managing Partner Paul Drews and Jason Lemkin! Low investment multiples pose a key challenge.

B2B 276

B2B Investment Venture Capital SaaS 276

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

The document contains a plethora of information on the company including a general overview, up to date financials, risk factors to the business, cap table highlights and much more. The purpose of the detailed information is to help investors (both institutional and retail) make informed investment decisions.

Benchmarks 299

Benchmarks Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 299

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 21, 2024

Software companies don’t invest once in R&D & then sell copies of the software as we did in the 90s on CDs. 1 Despite the enthusiasm from Investopedia, I think it’s important to say that no financial metric is perfect & all of them are proxies for the ultimate performance of a business.

Software 284

Software Business Construction Government 284

USIO

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are at the heart of this transformation, enabling businesses to create customized payment workflows that meet the unique demands of their operations. API-driven payment systems reduce processing times by up to 40%, improving cash flow management for businesses of all sizes.

Payment Solutions 130

Payment Solutions Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2024

Having been through 4 acquisitions in different forms (founder, exec, etc), it’s a lot like a venture capital investment. A ton of time is invested negotiating price, and then way, way too much time on inconsequential legal terms, and then … it closes. Usually, there isn’t actually a ton of time to really get to know each other first.

Venture Capital 258

Venture Capital Acquisition Investment Pricing 258

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Does Bootstrapping Through an Agency/Services Business Work? Running two businesses at once well is really, really hard. I’ve invested in Logikcull and been an advisor to Showpad, both of which are successful and did just that. They slowly wind down the services business and stop investing (e.g.,

Business 294

Business Investment Software Scaling 294

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

A New GTM Mental Model for AI Products That feedback told GitHub that people who weren’t using the GitHub platform still wanted to use Copilot for Business. They ended up shipping Copilot for Business for non-GitHub Enterprise users, which was a commercial success. Another big investment during rapid growth is digital moments.

Scale 258

Scale AI Scaling Marketing 258

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Here’s what I see most often, the Top 6 Mistakes First Time SaaS Founders Make: Incomplete understanding of business model, and how it will scale. Basically I only invest in first-timers. But they also make mistakes we tend not to make with experience. First-timers do just as well, if not better, than second-timers.

Scale 300

Scale SaaS Social Media Business Model 300

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2024

Its a tough business, with sharp elbows, and half promises. I’ve later co-invested with VCs that treated me pretty poorly, at least IMHO. Move on and focus on your business. I know, but the thing is, someone else will still take their money. Also, no one really thinks VCs are saints. Everyone knows this. Three, let it go.

Investment 244

Investment Business 244

SaaStr

APRIL 5, 2025

SEO: How Rupa Health Dominated Search with Programmatic SEO and AI Rupa Health invested heavily in search, aiming to own the top spots for specific lab tests and biomarkers. Invest in scraping and cleaning tools, and make sure your emails are personalized to grab attention. Pro Tip: Outbound sales rely on data quality.

Scale 226

Scale AI Search Sales Hiring Acquisition 226

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2025

And how much that dramatically drives up the burn rate and cost of doing business. Their “sense” of what things cost is often just way too low once they start to invest the first round of VC capital they raise. Dramatically. This especially bites founders that get pretty far bootstrapping.

Startup 269

Startup Finance Engineering Investment 269

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2025

The Expert Panel Karen Paige, General Partner at B Capital Karen brings deep operational and investment expertise to B Capital, where she focuses on enterprise software and AI investments. While 50% of enterprises have dabbled in AI projects, most are still playing around the edges rather than transforming their core business.

Scale 193

Scale AI Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital 193

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

Consumers now also expect to talk to businesses through digital means. Onboarding, especially for vertical saas products and tools that oftentimes utilize hardware or require a vendor like a Mangomint to ingest 10+ years of existing data on the fly, is an order of magnitude harder since these businesses are open every day.

SaaS Payments 254

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 254

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

Ryan’s previous company, ImportGenius , was the largest provider of business intelligence to the import-export industry, which gave them access to an extremely valuable list of customers, trade data, and understanding of the international trade market. Measure customer NPS early and make it a key KPI for the business.

Sales Recruiting 317

Sales Recruiting Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring 317

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Organizations that invest heavily in customer success earlier see much higher customer retention and loyalty than the competition. Your company is going to change business goals every year, and your customer success strategy has to move towards and align with those priorities. Pick Your Battles That Drive ROI What does that mean?

Customer Success 278

Customer Success Scaling Social Media Enterprise readiness 278

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2025

. “I will say this to all of the founders out there too, that as much as you want to be the face of the business, you don’t want to be the totality of the business. The playbook shifts: heavy investment in domain experts to build the brand in a trusted way, and local market adaptation is key. In the U.S.,

Scale 278

Scale Construction SaaS AI 278

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2024

I try to look at two things in Vertical SaaS startups, at least when investing : Will everyone in the vertical / industry use it? Even a fairly small business can pay $10,000-$20,000 a year for one app, usually. and Is the app so core, or at least is on a path to become so core, that they can charge $20,000+ a year for it?

Payment Solutions 258

Payment Solutions Inbound Sales Team Marketing Scale 258

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

A Philadelphia native, Colin started his professional career as a Business Development Representative (BDR) 14 years ago and worked his way up to his current role as CRO. This approach required immense trust from the CEO to invest millions ahead of proven results.

Scale 179

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Headcount 179

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2024

So theres a theme Ive been working on with all the SMB-focused founders I work with and have invested in: # 1. You can still make them super happy, but a subset of small businesses will churn at that rate anyway. # The Goal for SMB SaaS is 100%+ NRR. Easy in enterprise, hard in true SMB. # Thats often 3% a month or so.

Churn 268

Churn SMB Payments Payment Solutions 268

SaaStr

MARCH 17, 2025

Im investing in fact at SaaStr Fund in a solo founder right now. It could be a VP of Product, Sales, or Engineeringsomeone who takes ownership of a big chunk of the business and cares almost as much as you do. If youre business-focused, hire a strong technical lead. Dear SaaStr: I Have No Co-Founder. What Should I Do?

Sales Hiring 244

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Engineering 244

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Many of the fundamental business models that were once engraved in the SaaS playbook are now changing thanks to a tougher macro environment and a maturing market. PST, Stephanie Opdam, Partner at Notion Capital, shares four business model changes that will allow SaaS companies to build resilience and staying power over time.

Business Model 293

Business Model SaaS Payments Payments Headcount 293

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

In 2006, BILL CEO and Founder René Lacerte set out to define a category around financial operations for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). ’ Bill is approaching half a million customers, so has a good pulse on small businesses. With SMBs, the smallest business is owner-operated. Needless to say, he succeeded. in revenue.

SMB 300

SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 300

Buffer Resources

OCTOBER 10, 2024

Turns out, I’m not alone: A study by HubSpot found 31 percent of participants saying that an About Us page is one of the most important elements of a business website. It’s not what will initially provide you with the most return on investment (ROI) , either. How do you operate in your day-to-day business?

Social Media 119

Social Media Merchant Services Business Branding 119

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2024

Engineering resources: With thousands of engineers, companies like HubSpot can make substantial AI investments when they choose to 3. The Future of AI in Customer Support While many vendors are achieving similar baseline results with AI customer support, Brian believes we’re still early in unlocking its full potential.

AI 278

AI Marketing SaaS Interviewing 278

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2025

Moving upmarket isn’t just a nice-to-have for most SaaS companies – it’s often the difference between building a sustainable $100M+ ARR business and getting stuck in the mid-market quicksand. But the rewards – higher retention, bigger deals, and ultimately a much larger TAM – make it worth the investment.

Enterprise 244

Enterprise Sales Hiring Scale Outsourced Development 244

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!! The bar has risen significantly from the “growth at all costs” mindset of 2021-2022.

Technical Review 184

Technical Review Artificial Intelligence AI Marketplace as a Service 184

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

They: Started with clear use cases Built a strong data foundation Focused on measurable customer value Invested consistently over time Maintained a human-centric approach For SaaS companies looking to leverage AI, the key is to start building your data advantage now, even if you’re using third-party tools.

AI 255

AI Scale Government compliance 255