October, 2024

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Why Lifetime Value is Relevant Again in Software

Tom Tunguz

Budget cuts followed interest rate hikes in 2022. By late 2023, more than a year of financial scrutiny had challenged many publicly traded software companies. However, 2024 has been a tough year again. Net dollar retention for publicly traded software companies fell from 113% on average to 108%, a five percentage point drop. 1 80% of publicly traded companies saw their NDR wilt again in 2024.

Software 251
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Approaching Half a Million Customers: How to Win in SMB with BILL CEO and Founder René Lacerte

SaaStr

In 2006, BILL CEO and Founder René Lacerte set out to define a category around financial operations for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Needless to say, he succeeded. At SaaStr’s AI Summit during the SaaStr Annual , René chatted with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin about how BILL has reached half a million customers and $1.3B in revenue.

SMB 262
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How To Do “Sales as a Service” with Debra Senra

Predictable Revenue

On this episode, we’re joined by Debra Senra, a two-time guest, to discuss the changing landscape of sales proposals in 2024. The post How To Do “Sales as a Service” with Debra Senra appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Sales 130
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Clouded Judgement 10.25.24 - Misaligned Incentives

Clouded Judgement

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Misaligned Incentives In the venture capital world, there are largely 3 constituents: The GPs (investors), the LPs (pension funds, endowments, universities, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, etc who give money to GPs), and founders (portfolio companies).

Cloud 358
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Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

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

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Stax Acquires BlockChyp, Adding Payment Gateway and Expanding End-to-End Capabilities

Stax

Acquisition of BlockChyp brings new technology and industry expertise to Stax, furthering its evolution as a leading payment processor ORLANDO – October 1, 2024 – Stax , a leading payment technology provider, today announced its acquisition of BlockChyp , further expanding the company’s end-to-end processing capabilities. The addition of BlockChyp marks a significant, strategic expansion of Stax’s growing technology stack to drive increased value for partners and merchants and accelerate growth.

Stax 197

More Trending

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Productivity One Year from Now

Tom Tunguz

If AI continues on its current trajectory or accelerates, what will change in your business? We’ve been asking leaders of companies & departments this question & the answers aren’t clear. In a few years, consensus agrees that rote work of BDRs & paralegals & software engineering will be somewhat to mostly automated. But determining the timing of that impact is much more difficult : it depends on the accuracy of the AI.

Headcount 264
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6 Of The Most Common Mistakes I See First Time SaaS Founders Make

SaaStr

What are the most common mistakes I see first time SaaS founders make? Second-time SaaS founders make other mistakes. They think they know more than they do. They spend too much. They often struggle to do things a new way. First-time founders have many positives. But they also make mistakes we tend not to make with experience. 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.

Scale 263
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Hunting Alpha in GTM Strategies with Brendan Short

Predictable Revenue

As Brendan Short explains, the future of GTM isn’t about lists of thousands but targeting the right 50 accounts this week. The post Hunting Alpha in GTM Strategies with Brendan Short appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Strategy 130
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Clouded Judgement 10.18.24 - From Systems of Record to Systems of Intelligence

Clouded Judgement

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Systems of Record » Systems of Intelligence There’s a long-held belief in enterprise software that building a lasting moat requires a system of record. Salesforce is the system of record for customer data, Workday for employee data, and ServiceNow for IT data, to name a few.

Cloud 293
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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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The Power of Combining Multiple Payment Solutions with One Vendor

USIO

Having a streamlined payment process is crucial for success. Organizations are increasingly seeking ways to simplify their payment operations while enhancing efficiency and customer experience. One effective strategy is to partner with a single vendor that offers a comprehensive suite of payment solutions. Usio is leading the charge with its innovative offerings, including Payfac-as-a-Service… Source The post The Power of Combining Multiple Payment Solutions with One Vendor

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Vertical software platforms are closing the financing gap for SMBs

Payrix

As small businesses across the U.S. experience mixed feelings of both optimism and concern in a challenging economy, there’s one thing the majority can agree on: accessing capital is difficult. According to a recent survey from Goldman Sachs , 77% of small businesses worry about their ability to obtain capital. Cash flow difficulties are common among small business owners.

Payments 130
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My AI Rube Goldberg Machine

Tom Tunguz

In yesterday’s post , I calculated the profitability of public software companies. To calculate these figures, I built a little Rube Goldberg machine. I didn’t download the data into Excel. Instead, I complexified things by sending the analysis to 4 AIs to see if they would agree. The inspiration : many companies have used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to crowdsource tasks, & pick a consensus answer across three workers to improve accuracy.

AI 221
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The State of SaaS Go-to-Market with Theory Ventures General Partner Tomasz Tunguz

SaaStr

When Marc Benioff started Salesforce, he codified the sales playbook. Then Mark Roberge , former Hubspot CRO, wrote The Sales Acceleration Formula with deep insights into quota structures. For the subsequent ten years in software, we’ve optimized every little bit of how we sell it. But today, it’s different because the kinds of software we sell aren’t the same.

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Buyer’s Guide: Finding The Best Payment Provider For Your Software

Choosing the right Embedded Payments partner can feel overwhelming. This comprehensive buyer’s guide simplifies the process by breaking down seven key criteria to consider, from platform technology to security and growth potential. Learn how to assess partners that align with your goals, offer personalized support, and drive long-term success. This guide equips software companies with the insights to make confident, informed decisions that enhance customer experience and fuel business growth.

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The Role of Nutrition and Exercise in Sustained Performance

Predictable Revenue

Dr. Dolan has focused her research on how we fuel exercise and how our energy intake significantly impacts performance. The post The Role of Nutrition and Exercise in Sustained Performance appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Revenue 130
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Clouded Judgement 10.11.24 - Budget Flush

Clouded Judgement

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Budget Flush Coming? Something that has been on my mind recently - will we see a larger than normal budget flush at the end of this year? First - what is a budget flush? A budget flush occurs when companies rush to spend remaining budgeted funds before the fiscal year ends, often due to a "use it or lose it" mentality.

Cloud 161
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Why Medical, SaaS, EHR, and CRM Solutions Need PayFac-as-a-Service

USIO

Medical practices, Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions are constantly seeking ways to streamline their processes and enhance their offerings. One area that’s gaining significant traction is the integration of Payment Facilitation as a Service (PayFac-as-a-Service) and integrated payment solutions.

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Easy Cross Border Transactions With FastSpring as Your MoR

FastSpring

Selling internationally can get complicated very quickly if you’re trying to manage cross border payments yourself. Foreign exchange rates, regulatory rules, payment systems, various bank accounts, establishing entities in different countries, and tax collection and remittance are just a few of the concerns you’ll need to stay on top of as your business expands into more countries and regions.

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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, and Terrence Sheflin

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

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The Premise of a New S-Curve in AI

Tom Tunguz

Since July , have you noticed how much better your AI model has become? Measuring them is hard to do. All we can do is quantify the vibe : is this one better than that one? Elo is a score that measures how often one model wins against another, as judged by a human. Which model answers the prompt : “Describe the differences in texture between a Pink Lady and a Macoun apple” better?

AI 210
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Dear SaaStr: How Do I Become a VC?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Become a VC? VC looks a lot more glamorous than it is.I f you are starting from the ground floor, first, bear in mind your compensation will be just OK, you won’t really get any “carry” (i.e., share of the profits on the investments) for a long time, if ever — and your job likely will be to hunt. To bring in the next Slack, the next Datadog, the next Shopify.

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How Can My Brand Appear in Answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Other AI/LLM Tools?

Sparktoro

It’s no surprise that marketers, founders, and business owners are starting to ask how their brands can be returned in the answers given by AI/LLM tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. But it’s downright shocking how difficult it is to find high-quality, accurate information about how to do this.

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A Look Back at Q2 '24 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Clouded Judgement

Q2 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. The 62 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between July 24th – September 9th. In this post, I’ll take a data-driven approach in evaluating the overall group’s performance, and highlight individual standouts along the way.

Cloud 161
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Launching LLM-Based Products: From Concept to Cash in 90 Days

Speaker: Christophe Louvion, Chief Product & Technology Officer of NRC Health and Tony Karrer, CTO at Aggregage

Christophe Louvion, Chief Product & Technology Officer of NRC Health, is here to take us through how he guided his company's recent experience of getting from concept to launch and sales of products within 90 days. In this exclusive webinar, Christophe will cover key aspects of his journey, including: LLM Development & Quick Wins 🤖 Understand how LLMs differ from traditional software, identifying opportunities for rapid development and deployment.

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Data Shows Instagram Reels are Best For Reach — But Not Engagement

Buffer Resources

When it comes to growing your Instagram following, it’s no secret that Instagram Reels can be a powerful tool. The Meta-owned platform has been doubling down on video content in recent years, with CEO Adam Mosseri candidly sharing that , “People are more interested in videos — they’re just more engaging.” Now, that may be true — but it depends on how you define, “engaging.

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FastSpring Brings World-Class Payment Solutions to gamescom asia: Your Gateway to Global Gaming Markets

FastSpring

FastSpring is thrilled to announce our participation in gamescom asia, a premier event that offers unparalleled business opportunities both within and beyond Southeast Asia. As a global leader in payment solutions for game developers, our presence at this dynamic gathering underscores our commitment to supporting the burgeoning gaming industry across the region and around the world.

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How M&A Fosters Innovation

Tom Tunguz

Recently, Thomas Laffont of Coatue highlighted a non-obvious impact of the M&A slowdown after this preamble : “Ironically and I think somewhat perversely one of the byproducts of constraining big companies from buying small companies is it hurts small companies. This point is clear & straightforward. Less demand for an asset decreases price. 2023 & 2024 are two of the three lowest in the last 12 years in both activity & value across the ten largest strategic software buyers

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6 Of The Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Pitching VCs

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: What Are Some of the Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Pitching VCs? I’ve invested almost $200m as part of SaaStr Fund / 2024. A few top mistakes founders make: #1. Not making cold email truly great. Don’t ask to pick someone’s brain, or coffee. Make the cold email so great, you’d want to invest based on just it alone. 2 Cold Emails I Funded For Millions #2.

CTO 247
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Payment Facilitation: A How-To Guide

Discover what B2B SaaS needs to know to become a Payment Facilitator. This guide includes: Earning Revenue from Payments Bank Sponsorship, Underwriting Risk Requirements In depth Descriptions of Staff Requirements Detailed Timeline Itemized Cost List Case Study And more!

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How Many Keywords Should You Target?

The Moz Blog

Stop wasting hours on ineffective keyword research. In this actionable guide, Tom Capper reveals three proven strategies to streamline your SEO workflow and focus on keywords that actually drive traffic. Tom reveals why treating keyword research as entry-level work could be costing your business significant opportunities.

Strategy 112
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Clouded Judgement 10.4.24 - Voice: The Next Computing Paradigm

Clouded Judgement

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Voice: The Next Computing Paradigm OpenAI released some pretty cool features over the last two weeks. The first was pushing advanced voice mode to everyone. The second was announcing their speech-to-speech Realtime API.

Cloud 141
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How to Find Unlimited Content Ideas for Social Media in 2024

Buffer Resources

Your social media success hinges on creating content that makes your audience tick. But.how do you even find content ideas that resonate? And how do you ensure you never run out of them? This article will share nine places to find content ideas — ensuring you never have to stare at an empty content calendar (wondering ‘what should I create?