Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

According to a business adage, you need to spend money to make money. According to a SaaS business adage, you need to spend a lot of money to make money. Workday recently made public its S-1 filing in advance of an initial public offering. The document reveals what it takes to succeed in a market dominated by Oracle and SAP. Specifically, it illustrates the need for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to spend money - lots of it - on customer acquisition.

Acquisition 140

Acquisition Enterprise Revenue SaaS 140

The Angel VC

SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

I've been thinking about a "DOs and DON'Ts" article geared towards early-stage SaaS founders and upcoming SaaS founders for a little while now. I thought it would be a good idea to summarize what I've learned about SaaS in the last few years and put it into a format like this. Problem is, it's a very large topic, and if I try to make it as broad, deep and well-written as I'd like it to be I'll never do it.

Software Review 121

Software Review SaaS Payment Features Benchmarks 121

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

Any number of challenges can arise during a startup’s initial years. Some of these changes could be major and may require rethinking strategy. Competitors enter your target market. New products are released into your market which undercut yours. Customer acquisition costs rise dramatically. If faced with these questions, it’s hard to know where to begin or how to structure an analysis to reach an answer.

Acquisition 100

Acquisition Startup Investment Strategy 100

Aber Law Firm

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Ok, let me explain what I mean. Enterprise customers too often want to make up their own terms (i.e rules) regarding how they use your software service. As a result, you really need to think about linking price with terms (in your SaaS agreement). How does this work, well let’s go through it. 1). De-Linking Price and Terms. Most enterprise customers try to de-link price and terms (negotiate price first and later hit you up for a bunch of custom terms), and I have even seen them have separa

Pricing 52

Pricing Education Enterprise SaaS 52

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Payment Solutions

Sixteen Ventures

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

Using Microsoft Chart Controls to Report on vCenter Statistics « vscsiStats into the third dimension: Surface charts!

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Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 25, 2012

Yesterday, I spoke at Columbia Business School. We had a conversation about the role of incubators and accelerators (or the moniker of your choice) within the startup ecosystem. Given the volume of first time entrepreneurs and the broad growth of interest in entrepreneurship, I think these programs are invaluable. To entrepreneurs, these programs offer up to seven value propositions, listed in order of importance, as I see it.

Entrepreneurship 100

Entrepreneurship Banking Education Finance 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Every investment requires a leap of faith, an emotional act that’s not pure reason, and that’s got to carry you through in the inevitable many months, sometimes years, of horrific bad stuff that comes with the company. And you’ve got to have that energy, that sustaining belief to carry you through, because if you don’t, then you regret having done it.

Startup 100

Startup Investment Business 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

We are in the heyday of SaaS. The conference spanned 20+ buildings, served 60,000+ attendees and was sponsored by more than 300 vendors. Free food everywhere. Skullcandy wireless headphone giveaways. DJs in every corner. Four square play areas on fake grass outside. It is one huge party. Benioff delivered a tremendous keynote. I wish I could speak in public with his confidence, control and passion.

Wireless 100

Wireless SaaS Cloud Acquisition 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

At a recent meeting, David Barrett, one of the founders of Expensify, drew this diagram when explaining his company’s structure. He has overlaid the core teams of a company with a conversion funnel. It’s brilliantly simple. As every SaaS startup transitions from development to growth, the company must supplement the engineering and product capability with sales, marketing and account management.

Outsourced Development 100

Outsourced Development Development Engineering Startup 100

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Payment Solutions

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

The throwaway line in pitches these days is “we’ll sell our data.” Most of the time, this notion is wrong. Data is the most valuable outcome of building a successful product. It’s the insight, the secret , the keys to the kingdom. Don’t sell the keys to the kingdom. Data provides economies of scale and insights used to develop huge barriers to entry and it should be kept within an organization.

Business Model 100

Business Model Data Business Scaling 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

SMB SaaS companies cannot afford to pay for distribution. At 2 to 4% conversion to paid rates and $5 to $10 monthly subscription fees, the breakeven CPC for these products on search is $0.40. The average Google click costs three times this and the iOS average cost-per-install is more than twice as expensive. The most successful SMB SaaS companies (Zendesk, Expensify, Square) build communities to drive distribution.

SMB 100

SMB SaaS Branding Payment Features 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Culturally, we tend to associate leadership with extroversion and attach less importance to judgment, vision and mettle. We prize leaders who are eager talkers over those who have something to say. Must great leaders be gregarious? Susan Cain wrote an OpEd this weekend in the Times containing the quote above. In Silicon Valley, the culture seems very much to embrace the idea of introverted leadership.

Startup 100

Startup Leadership 100

The Angel VC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

If you've read my last blog post I still owe you a small PS. I mentioned that while I was writing the post I've learned two surprising things, so here goes. (Caveat: I usually try to provide some useful advice in my blog. What I'm going to write now doesn't have any practical value so feel free to skip it.) Number 1: Do you know where the term "grandfathering" comes from?

Churn 100

Churn Pricing Software Review Revenue 100

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

Revenue

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Last year, I set a goal of adding 100 followers each week starting at 2000. I crossed the 3500 follower mark on Twitter this week. I’ve fallen a bit behind that goal but I have a wonderful group of people who actively engage with me on Twitter who are interested in the same things I am. As I’ve been cultivating this audience and community, I kept asking myself a question: who are most of these followers?

Social Media 100

Social Media Development Business Engagement 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

When serving B2B customers, your pricing will be dictated by your customers' margins. The more money they make, the more they can pay for new technology. Most businesses fund new initiatives including marketing and technology projects from profits. The more profits a company generates the greater their willingness to pay for services and ultimately the larger the market size for a startup.

Market Segmentation 100

Market Segmentation Marketing Technical Review Software Review 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

“Facebook has built the cities, they’ve built the town squares”. Dave Morin , founder of Path. Is building a social network is like building a city? I watched Urbanize , a documentary describing urban design and the affordances cities must make to cultivate vibrant communities. The words of urban designers echoed many of the challenges faced by networks as they grow.

Government 100

Government Management 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012

It’s a common refrain that venture backed IPOs have struggled in the past decade. For a long time, I believed and wrote supporting arguments underscoring the idea that the principal causes of this decline were Sarbanes-Oxley costs, decreasing equity coverage and decimalization of exchanges. But that’s wrong. A paper published earlier this year uses statistics to debunk these hypotheses.

Marketing 100

Marketing Scale Venture Capital Finance 100

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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?

Enterprise

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

There is a Branch called Do platforms need to give users a number to optimize? Most platforms do provide a number to optimize: Twitter followers, Facebook friends and so on. These metrics build liquidity in the platform as @satyap, @ev and @hunterwalk point out. But there isn’t just one type of social metric. There are three. It’s important to distinguish the types of metrics a community can provide for users to optimize, because the community will rally around the metrics the community provides

Metrics 100

Metrics Engagement Management 100

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 3, 2012

Over the weekend, I watched Page One, a documentary which chronicles the turmoil occurring within the New York Times in 2009 and 2010 when newspapers were going out of business all over the country. Many wondered if the Times would also file for bankruptcy. Three confluent factors spelled imminent demise for the newspaper: the Internet cannibalized subscription revenue, advertising dollars evaporated and news distribution was in upheaval on account of Wikileaks, Twitter, and blogs.

Advertising 100

Advertising Payment Features Subscription Innovation 100

Aber Law Firm

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Ok, let me explain what I mean. Enterprise customers too often want to make up their own terms (i.e rules) regarding how they use your software service. As a result, you really need to think about linking price with terms (in your SaaS agreement). How does this work, well let’s go through it. 1). De-Linking Price and Terms. Most enterprise customers try to de-link price and terms (negotiate price first and later hit you up for a bunch of custom terms), and I have even seen them have separa

Pricing 52

Pricing Education Enterprise SaaS 52

Sixteen Ventures

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012

Hidden VNXe performance statistics « Henriwithani. EnterpriseAdmins.org » Blog Archive » Install VMware Tools in openfiler. CrashPlan packages for Synology NAS « PC LOAD LETTER.

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Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali

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.

Trends

Aber Law Firm

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Ok, let me explain what I mean. Enterprise customers too often want to make up their own terms (i.e rules) regarding how they use your software service. As a result, you really need to think about linking price with terms (in your SaaS agreement). How does this work, well let’s go through it. 1). De-Linking Price and Terms. Most enterprise customers try to de-link price and terms (negotiate price first and later hit you up for a bunch of custom terms), and I have even seen them have separa

Pricing 40

Pricing Education Enterprise SaaS 40

Aber Law Firm

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Ok, let me explain what I mean. Enterprise customers too often want to make up their own terms (i.e rules) regarding how they use your software service. As a result, you really need to think about linking price with terms (in your SaaS agreement). How does this work, well let’s go through it. 1). De-Linking Price and Terms. Most enterprise customers try to de-link price and terms (negotiate price first and later hit you up for a bunch of custom terms), and I have even seen them have separa

Pricing 40

Pricing Education Enterprise SaaS 40

Aber Law Firm

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Ok, let me explain what I mean. Enterprise customers too often want to make up their own terms (i.e rules) regarding how they use your software service. As a result, you really need to think about linking price with terms (in your SaaS agreement). How does this work, well let’s go through it. 1). De-Linking Price and Terms. Most enterprise customers try to de-link price and terms (negotiate price first and later hit you up for a bunch of custom terms), and I have even seen them have separa

Pricing 40

Pricing Education Enterprise SaaS 40

Aber Law Firm

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Ok, let me explain what I mean. Enterprise customers too often want to make up their own terms (i.e rules) regarding how they use your software service. As a result, you really need to think about linking price with terms (in your SaaS agreement). How does this work, well let’s go through it. 1). De-Linking Price and Terms. Most enterprise customers try to de-link price and terms (negotiate price first and later hit you up for a bunch of custom terms), and I have even seen them have separa

Pricing 40

Pricing Education Enterprise SaaS 40

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.

Artificial Intelligence

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

The most effective financing processes, like the most effective auctions, create scarcity. Of late, many founders have been triggering pre-emptive financing processes for their raises. This is my interpretation of their playbook. Strategy. First, founders build credibility with investors. This can be done in many ways like cultivating a long term relationship with a handful of VCs or in less direct ways like brand building through social media and blogging.

Finance 101

Finance Social Media Engagement Investment 101