SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

The ratio can vary widely … maybe from 5%-20%, and to some extent, can be influenced even by the definition of an opportunity. You sort of need to back into it based on your opportunity-to-closed deal ratio. The competitive landscape will also be a big influencer. But in general, 15%-20% is considered Pretty Darn Good.

Sales 246

Sales Business 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Annual contracts combined with prepaid cash are a huge benefit, when done right: You get all the cash up-front (this is how I went cash-flow positive in fact) — IF you can collect it a timely fashion; and Your churn almost by definition goes down, at least nominal churn.

Payment Features 264

Payment Features SaaS Churn Pricing 264

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2024

Dont Be a VC Snob There are definitely risks raising capital from non-standard investors. And probably 3-4+ quarters for late stage VCs to believe growth has re-accelerated. Dont waste folks time before then. The Three Months of Strong Growth Rule in Raising Venture Capital # 6.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital Investment AI Metrics 279

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

Creating a Moat ”I definitely believe it’s a moat, and it’s the thing that got me most excited about the business,” René shares. That was always the plan when BILL went public in 2019. BILL network has 7.1M network members who have used BILL to pay or get paid. Let’s look at what kind of moat it is.

SMB 312

SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 312

The Daily Egg

MAY 15, 2020

While the dictionary definitions might be similar, I don’t think this is a fair swap. The terms “brand” and “business” are often used interchangeably. Anyone can create a business. But building a brand goes far and beyond filing your LLC paperwork and opening a business checking account. A brand is more than just a company […].

Branding 363

Branding Business Marketing 363

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 18, 2022

The company moved to customer_revenue last quarter when we hired a new VP of Finance and they updated the definition. If the definition changes, so do the charts. What data are you using?! Revenue_new? Oh, Revenue_new is the old column. Airbnb faced this problem, too. So Airbnb built an internal product Minerva to solve these problems.

Revenue 324

Revenue Sales Hiring Finance Metrics 324

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

For stage definitions, see [1]. For stage definitions, see [2]. Definitions. [1] This team is off to a good start with 0.7x of the quarter’s number in Stage 5+ at the beginning of a quarter. Each business’s PQR funnel will differ depending on their sales cycle, ACVs, and overall motion. Demo/meeting: sales meeting.

Scale 330

Scale Sales Forecasting Outsourced Development 330

The Daily Egg

AUGUST 8, 2022

Affiliate marketing has a definite allure. It’s a lucrative business that continues to generate income even when you’re off the clock. The post How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Marketing 334

Marketing Business 334

Tom Tunguz

JULY 30, 2020

Modeling the data to ensure there is one centralized definition of every metric with an owner, a lineage, and a status. When metrics are modeled, they are defined once, accurately, and everyone uses that definition. There are six steps: Ingesting data from the systems that produce it and writing it into open formats in the cloud.

Trends 361

Trends Data Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning 361

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

You definitely don’t want to own less. Definitely, start asking when you have 12 months of runway left. When you want to increase their ownership, and/or do “Super Pro-Rata” (invest more than your % ownership share) in the next round. Green Light. You are happy. You want to own more. Yellow Light. You are worried.

Investment 67

Investment Engineering Leadership 67

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2022

But Adobe definitely counts in “Mixed”, and Paypal definitely counts as SMB. And less than 12% from pure-play SMB. Now one really important note: I excluded Adobe and Paypal from the list, because they are just so old. But I wanted to just take a look at the slightly newer generation.

SaaS Payments 347

SaaS Payments Scale SMB PayPal 347

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 20, 2020

And, the high definition video doesn’t quite capture a feeling of community, even in 720p. We are more susceptible to work overload (since we’re putting in 25% more hours). It’s hard to feel in control today, given the health and socio-economic backdrop. What are the signs of burnout? Exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy.

Healthcare 363

Healthcare Innovation Engagement Startup 363

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2024

Also, the definition of a Seed round has changed. The orange crush of seed investment has outpaced the growth in Series A & Series B rounds. Many new seed funds started & the rate of company formation surged during the early 2020s driven by an ebullient capital markets.

AI 332

AI Investment Startup Software 332

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2023

It definitely can vary based on what type of investor. Dear SaaStr: How Much Of My Startup Do I Need to Sell In Each Venture Round? But for venture-backed start-ups raising from more traditional funds (the ones you’ve heard of), here are some rough rules: Seed VCs would like to buy 10%, sometimes 15%, if they can.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup 347

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2021

But it’s definitely a Cloud company that benefitted from the dramatic growth in Cloud of the past 5+ years. Today, it’s definition has … loosened. While it went on to become one of the fastest-growing software companies of all times, it took its time to figure out its place and get there. Is it really SaaS?

Outsourcing Services 362

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Payment Features Cloud 362

The Daily Egg

JUNE 6, 2021

You should definitely consider InMotion Hosting for your VPS web hosting needs. Is your business growing out of shared hosting? Are you looking to upgrade to VPS hosting? InMotion is a reliable hosting service and one of the oldest veterans in the industry. Its hosting has outstanding customer service and an unparalleled money-back guarantee.

Business 298

Business 298

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

But classic B2B SaaS is definitely in many cases seeing tougher times. Klaviyo, Toast, etc. just had very strong quarters. More B2B2C there. And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. Security remains on fire overall as well. Not just for now, but going into a third year of tougher times. Is 2024 any easier?

Azure 306

Azure AWS Sales B2B 306

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 17, 2021

But let me explain: music streaming includes companies empowering musicians to hold live digital events supplanting the coliseum experience with high definition video and audio at home. Music streaming, test and measurement, and quality assurance initially baffled me.

Startup 362

Startup Software Engineering Finance Engineering 362

SaaStr

AUGUST 18, 2024

One definition of company culture is the rolling average of everyone’s behavior in the company over the last three or so months. Behaviors are the core of that definition. The answers that surfaced over and over were: Culture Flexibility People Culture How do you define company culture?

Retention 317

Retention Scale Company Culture Leadership 317

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 9, 2020

Here are some ideas: There are definitional differences between Seeds, As between the data sets. I also reviewed other data sets including the NVCA’s Venture Monitor, which suggested Series A deal pace is down about 30%, a third perspective. There is latency in startups reporting closed rounds.

Data 342

Data Marketing Startup Investment 342

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

Especially if you include “cold emailing” and “cold door knocking” into the definition of cold calling. I don’t know. However … cold calling, done by folks who have done it well before, always works a bit. And somehow, it seems to work especially well with very small businesses. If the pitch rocks.

B2B 310

B2B Startup Outbound Sales Team Branding 310

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2020

In today’s fast-paced B2B marketplace of instant communication and process automation , businesses cannot afford to rely on the classic definition of a deal. They tossed that old definition in the trash. We harp on dynamic deals so much because elite sellers are using this new definition to build well-oiled revenue engines.

Technical Review 318

Technical Review Marketplace as a Service Construction Software Review 318

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2020

Your definition of safety and clean, may be very different from others. Virtual can definitely be effective in driving leads, pipeline, and other outcomes. Some things to consider even further include plexiglass barriers, outdoor events, or on sight pre testing. 3 Hybrid is King. Make it easy for attendees. Global Community.

Entertainment 312

Entertainment Cloud Scale B2B 312

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

And 99% of the best VPs will always say something like, “I definitely need to bring Paul Donati with me.” In fact, almost all the best VPs already have this person in mind when they take a new role. Ask them who’d they’d bring with them. You always should. Or “Jameson would be my first hire”. Or something like that. So first, ask.

Sales Hiring 312

Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 312

SaaStr

JULY 2, 2020

While there is no legal definition for CTO ?? Q: What makes a bad CTO? or bright line between CTO and VPE, I’d suggest a start-up CTO really only has to do a few things — which are very hard: Assemble a small team (3–9) of very good engineers. That are super agile.

Part-Time VPE 361

Part-Time VPE CTO Engineering Scaling 361

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

But like “Cloud” and “SaaS”, its definitely has evolved. So many startups these days are claiming they have “ARR” from revenue that … doesn’t recur. Doesn’t ARR stand for Annual Recurring Revenue? Well of course it does. ARR now really means revenue with 100%+ Net Revenue Retention.

Merchant Services 360

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 360

SaaStr

AUGUST 27, 2021

Folks want to start startups because they have a chance to look like this: The true definition of a tech startup is probably one that if it truly achieves product-market fit, can scale almost infinitely. Q: If 90% of start-ups fail, then why does everyone want to make a start-up instead of a simple business?

Startup 299

Startup Scaling Investment Product Marketing 299

SaaStr

OCTOBER 14, 2022

There definitely is risk here, that what’s presented isn’t quite accurate. They also often recognize revenue too early. In later stage deals, biggest games, with more risk, is sometimes played. Round trip deals, pseudo-revenue, and more. It can happen. In fact, it probably happens far more often than is reported.

Revenue 314

Revenue Banking Startup 314

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

I don’t pretend to have all the answers on how to run the perfect board meeting, but I’ve definitely participated in some truly amazing–and truly painful–ones, so I hope some of what I’ve learned will be useful to founders. Here are 10 tips on the best ways to ensure a successful board meeting.

Sales Hiring 298

Sales Hiring Scale Leadership Startup 298

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 15, 2024

Model Size Win Probability Increase (%) Definition Small 32.0% < 10b parameters Medium 22.4% The biggest performance gains occurred at the center part of the distribution. Researchers have driven significantly more performance with innovations in algorithms. 10b - 100b parameters Large 29.6% 100 - 200b parameters Mega 25.9%

AI 280

AI Innovation Scaling Data 280

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2021

Or there’s always the definitional argument to be made: the Jacobs ladder in which Series A is the new Series B and seed is the new Series A. Perhaps these prices are tied to blockbuster IPO markets. 2012: Facebook. 2014: Alibaba. 2021: Snowflake (late 2020), UIPath, Airbnb, Doordash, Coinbase.

Software Review 364

Software Review Venture Capital Cloud Pricing 364