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More than two years ago I wrote about what we look for in early-stage SaaS startups. Since then we've looked at hundreds of SaaS startups and have gained additional insights through the work that we've been doing with the SaaS startups that we have invested in. Therefore I thought it would be time for a follow-on post with some additional thoughts. In the original post I focused primarily on early metrics as an indicator of product/market fit and of a favorable CAC/CLTV ratio in the future.
Raising capital from venture capitalists at any stage can seem like a very strange, ambiguous and amorphous process. I’ve written about the way Redpoint diligences/researches a startup and its market and what questions we tend to ask at each stage. In this post, I’ll focus on the process from entrepreneur’s point of view. When raising capital, entrepreneurs will see potential investors move through four phases of investment decision-making process: screening, socialization, dil
Companies get more from software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions than just lower cost. So says a recent study conducted by IBM. It reveals that companies find that the greatest benefits from SaaS solutions are more collaboration, a better customer experience, and faster time-to-market. For anyone that’s been marketing SaaS solutions for any amount of time, those finding aren’t terribly surprising.
When selling on the phone, oftentimes sales reps don't understand how to structure a call. If you don’t have the right plan going into a sales call, it’s going to be much harder to close the deal.
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
Every software app developer needs to know about the latest software app privacy issues, so I thought I would provide a brief summary of some of the best published privacy guidelines for app developers. You may have missed it, but the Federal Trade Commission (aka FTC), the Attorney General for the State of California, and the Future of Privacy Forum and Center for Democracy & Technology (aka FPF and CDT), have each created a great privacy guideline document for app developers.
Some time ago I wrote that we at Point Nine love to eat our own dog food. That is, we run Point Nine almost exclusively on Cloud apps. We're also heavy users of Zendesk , Mention , Geckoboard and other products from our own portfolio companies. Another great example is Contactually. At its core, Contactually is a relationship management platform for salespeople and service providers in relationship-based businesses.
Some time ago I wrote that we at Point Nine love to eat our own dog food. That is, we run Point Nine almost exclusively on Cloud apps. We're also heavy users of Zendesk , Mention , Geckoboard and other products from our own portfolio companies. Another great example is Contactually. At its core, Contactually is a relationship management platform for salespeople and service providers in relationship-based businesses.
What should the optimal revenue per customer be for a SaaS company? I could say million dollar contracts typical of enterprise sales provide more long-term stability and total revenue opportunity. On the other hand I might contend larger customer bases paying smaller license fees enable more predictable growth. Which is the correct argument? First, lets examine the relationship between average customer value and total revenues, to see if smaller customers create a glass ceiling for total revenue
I recently participated in Marco Montemagno's SuperSummit and gave a webinar about the topic "Measuring your SaaS success". Thanks, Marco, for inviting me! Below are the slides of my talk. Since some of the slides aren't self-explanatory I've added some notes, see the yellow bubbles. If you want to dive in deeper, check out this post , which the talk was based on.
The process of creating the right culture in a startup has always been mysterious to me. Each company’s culture evolves in its own way. I’ve wondered whether the culture is set by the personalities of the founders, or prominently displayed value statements and mission, or biases purposely imposed in the hiring processes like Google’s googliness filter.
A few days ago, Simply Business published an infographic and data on the acquisition patterns of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Yahoo. Looking at that data, I wondered which acquirers pay the most for startups. Ideally, this data provides some negotiating leverage to founders selling their businesses. I’ve prepared three charts and a table to tell the story.
Speaker: Pete Uselman, Director of Partner Experience at Wind River Payments
Most integrated payments providers share a percent of the payment revenue with their software partners. But, oftentimes, that revenue share is only a fraction of the true income potential software providers can realize. If you want to maximize income opportunities from your payments program, check out Wind River Payments’ webinar-on-demand.
From zero to $19B of business value in five years; WhatsApp’s sale to Facebook is an important moment in the history of the consumer web. The deal proves distribution, reach and large user bases aren’t the competitive moats they once were. Apple’s App Store and Google Play have leveled the playing field to such an extent that a startup can command 10% of the market cap from a $200B company.
When a startup is confronted with the prospect of hiring a head of marketing, founders heads often spin. What should be the day-to-day tasks for this person? What skill sets are important? Because of the seeming abstract nature of marketing, founders sometimes delay finding a head of marketing until they feel acute pain, at which point they can clearly identify the attributes of the right candidate.
Great entrepreneurs can come from anywhere. But do the locations of startups affect their ability to raise follow on capital? Do seed stage companies in the Bay Area face lower likelihoods of raising a Series A because of more competition? Or is it that New York based startups, because of a smaller ecosystem, face more difficulty? Using Crunchbase data , I charted the financing follow-on rates across the 12 US cities in which at least 10 seeds, 3 Series As and 3 Series Bs have occured in the Cru
When presented with figures and numbers and statistics, it’s easy to take the conclusions as fact. Numbers in a spreadsheet carry a finality, a exactitude that belies how inaccurate they can be. In 2005, Stanford professor Johannes Ioannidis turned the world of research and statistics on its head. He published “ Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.
Speaker: Ben Epstein, Stealth Founder & CTO | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO, Aggregage
When tasked with building a fundamentally new product line with deeper insights than previously achievable for a high-value client, Ben Epstein and his team faced a significant challenge: how to harness LLMs to produce consistent, high-accuracy outputs at scale. In this new session, Ben will share how he and his team engineered a system (based on proven software engineering approaches) that employs reproducible test variations (via temperature 0 and fixed seeds), and enables non-LLM evaluation m
Has it become harder to raise money? is a question I hear all the time. On one hand, the total dollars invested by VCs is relatively flat at just under $30B per year, according to the NVCA. On the other hand, the stories of difficulty raising series As and Bs have become a steady drumbeat. To get some sense of the patterns, I analyzed 917 companies from seed through Series B over the past 14 years, using Crunchbase data.
The average seed stage startup has a 20% chance of raising a Series A according to Crunchbase data for IT startups who raised seed and Series A rounds between 2006 and 2013. But this figure varies significantly sector by sector. Below is a chart of the different startups’ sectors and their rates of raising Series A capital net of the mean of 20%.
Naming your startup can be one of the hardest things to do when starting a company. Each founder must agree. The domain must be available to buy. Last and perhaps most importantly, investors need to like it because the first letter of startup’s name has meaningful impact on how easily the company will be able to raise money. Whatever you do, don’t pick a name that starts with the letter J.
How large of a seed round should founders raise to maximize their chances of raising a Series A? Smaller seed rounds are simpler and faster to raise because they typically require fewer investors. They may also require less dilution because of the smaller investment size. On the other hand, to raise a Series A, the startup needs enough runway to hire a team and prove certain milestones to Series A investors.
For SaaS businesses, improving retention is one of the easiest and most effective ways to drive revenue and profits. With a clear link between failed payments and customer churn, having a robust failed payment recovery solution isn’t optional—it’s essential. Achieving your retention goals starts with the right solution.
In What’s Up with the Series A , Nikhil Basu Trivedi documents the bifurcation in the Series A market. While there are a handful of startups that raise blockbuster Series As of greater than $10M, the average Series A investment size remains relatively constant over the past 6 years just around $5.3M for US technology companies according to Crunchbase data[1].
Every software app developer needs to know about the latest software app privacy issues, so I thought I would provide a brief summary of some of the best published privacy guidelines for app developers. You may have missed it, but the Federal Trade Commission (aka FTC), the Attorney General for the State of California, and the Future of Privacy Forum and Center for Democracy & Technology (aka FPF and CDT), have each created a great privacy guideline document for app developers.
Simplify omnichannel payments with a solution that unifies every channel through your platform. By integrating front-end systems like online, mobile, and in-store payments with robust back-end infrastructure, you can deliver a seamless payments experience without the need for heavy engineering. Omnitoken technology enhances security by tokenizing card transactions for reuse, enabling merchants to drive cross-selling opportunities.
When we launched Bulk Email a little over 2 months ago, we initially launched it on our highest tier (Business) plan. We wanted to first test the new feature with a smaller audience and to gather feedback and work out any kinks. The feedback has been clear: it's a game changer!
We're happy to announce we've just launched one of the many changes we're working on to allow you to better see your sales data in more meaningful ways.
One of the biggest challenges in B2B sales is reaching the right person, the person who can (a) understand the value your software can provide for their company and (b) make a buying decision.
Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng
Dare to charge more and then live up to the challenge. It’s not about becoming so affordable that everybody can get some value out of you. It’s about creating so much value that the right customers are happy to pay you a fair price in exchange.
How does Close save you time or increase your sales? The streamlined interface allows for clearer thinking and entering of key data and info while on a call. More time = more calls, and better data.
Every software app developer needs to know about the latest software app privacy issues, so I thought I would provide a brief summary of some of the best published privacy guidelines for app developers. You may have missed it, but the Federal Trade Commission (aka FTC), the Attorney General for the State of California, and the Future of Privacy Forum and Center for Democracy & Technology (aka FPF and CDT), have each created a great privacy guideline document for app developers.
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