Sat.May 13, 2023 - Fri.May 19, 2023

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How Should You Staff Your Startup in 2023

Tom Tunguz

Yesterday, the Enterprise Tech 30 List was revealed. Congratulations to all the winners (especially MotherDuck, Hex, & Omni)! I analyzed the headcount patterns within these companies to shed light on three questions : How are these top companies changing their headcount through the downturn? What percent of headcount is in product & engineering?

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Dear SaaStr: When Searching for a Co-founder, How Do You Know You Found The Right One?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: When Searching for a Co-founder, How Do You Know You Found The Right One? I think it boils down to 2 key factors: Someone that is both very good at, and better than you, in several key functional areas. If you are good at coding, she is good at sales and customers. Or whatever. That together, the two of you have all the key functional areas covered decently, at least initially (Engineering, Product, Sales & Customers, Marketing).

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The CXO dream team: ?Why marketing, sales, and CS should unite to drive growth

Totango

Three learnings from TSIA on why your go-to-market leaders have an opportunity to work better together to drive growth. When it comes to understanding customer needs, marketing, sales, and CS teams are the experts, so it’s on us to work together to define today’s most valuable growth opportunities. Last week at the TSIA World: Interact conference in Orlando, I spent time talking with several sales and CS leaders about the opportunity we have to lean into our C-suite partnerships and take the rei

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Advice for Growing an Engaged Audience (ft. Top Creators)

Buffer Resources

When you’re ready to shift from the learning to the growth phase of your creator journey, certain things need definition – who exactly your audience is, what exactly you say to them, and how exactly you get that information across. The definition of “growth” definitely varies, referring to audience size or revenue, or sponsorship slots sold.

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SaaS Essentials: Failed Payment Solution Guide

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.

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Survey Introduction for SaaS: A Writing Guide with Examples

User Pilot

There’s no use doing surveys if you don’t get responses, so how can you write a survey introduction that motivates people to answer? Although you might weigh more importance to the survey’s questions and formatting, the introductions also play a role in your survey’s success at measuring user sentiment and quantitative data. So if you’re wondering what to include in a survey intro, keep reading this article as we cover the best practices and analyze some real-life examples you can learn from.

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Bottle the Love: Selling Customer Satisfaction vs. Vision

Kellblog

A funny thing can happen with startups. Sometimes, the reasons customers love the product end up not being the same reasons that the founder wants them to love the product. This may sound bad or scary, but it’s not. It’s actually an opportunity, provided you recognize it, understand it, and take advantage of it. I’ve blogged previously on the difference between selling solutions and selling product and on the difference between selling product and selling vision.

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Bat Out of Hell: Identifying Your Durable Advantage in Fintech

Andreessen Horowitz

Imagine you are the founder of a fintech company that’s identified a massive broken market. As I’ve previously written about , to build your product and identify potential market opportunities, you’ve likely begun buying growth through paid acquisition channels. That … The post Bat Out of Hell: Identifying Your Durable Advantage in Fintech appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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A Look Back: Talkdesk, Greenhouse, Algolia and Gainsight Coming Up On $10m ARR

SaaStr

As we gear up for SaaStr Europa 2023 in London on 6-7 June and SaaStr Annual 2023 in the SF Bay Area on 6-7 September , we wanted to take a look back at some of our most iconic speakers and sessions from over the year, that we can still learn from today. At the very first SaaStr Annual in 2015 , we picked 3 break-out leaders at $5m-$10m, and added Nick Mehta from Gainsight.

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Founders: Before You Hire a Sales Team, Consider These Options

Sales Hacker

Running a startup is easier said than done, especially when you have a tight budget and limited resources. It’s hard to know when you’re ready to hire a sales team — and the consequences can make or break your startup. Perhaps not surprisingly, about 40% of new companies go out of business because they run out of cash or fail to raise capital, reports CB Insights.

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An Omnichannel Payment Solution––Without the Complexity

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.

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Indy Review

The Daily Egg

If you’re a freelancer tired of messy workflows, late payments, and juggling multiple tools, Indy is a solution with your needs in. The post Indy Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.

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Which AI Model Should You Pick for Your Startup?

Tom Tunguz

A product manager today faces a key architectural question with AI : to use a small language model or a large language model? The pace of innovation in the field clouds the answer. Each day, researchers publish novel findings on performance, discover new techniques to implement, & surface new challenges to wrestle with. This is my current mental model of when to choose a large or small model : When to choose a large model : time to ship is critical : many of these models are available via AP

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My #1 Best Hack for VC Fundraising

SaaStr

So raising VC capital has gotten a lot harder than it was at the peak of 2021 — when it was still hard for all but the best and more privileged. But boy, it’s harder today. Everything has slowed down, the bar has gone up, and even VC funds themselves are struggling to do their own fundraising: Fundraising By VC Firms Themselves Is At a 10 Year Low.

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Clouded Judgement 5.19.23

Clouded Judgement

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Reflections on Software Performance in Q1 Software stocks have enjoyed quite the run this year. Medium and high growth software companies have seen a median stock price performance this year of 21% and 26% respectively. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is up >20%.

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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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Oyster Review

The Daily Egg

Hiring top talent is hard enough on its own. Doing it across borders can seem downright impossible. Navigating complex legal requirements, tax. The post Oyster Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.

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Write For Us: How to Guest Post on the Buffer Blog

Buffer Resources

✅ The Buffer team is currently accepting pitches for guest posts. If that should change in the future, we’ll update this portion of the page 🗒️ Due to the volume of pitches we get, we can only follow up on a select number of submissions. If you don't receive a response within two weeks, you’re welcome to send a new pitch for us to consider.

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Only 7% of You Have Really Gotten Outsourced SDRs to Work

SaaStr

So a recent SaaS survey confirmed what I’ve experienced over the year: outsourced SDRs are tough to make work. It would be so great if we could all outsource sales, sales development, sales operations, and more. It really would be great. It’s just hard in practice to outsource something you don’t already know well yourself. Personally, I’ve seen it sort of work a few times — and that’s why I added “sort” as an option, and 26% of you also said it

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Navigating the Shifting Landscape of Sales Development with Jake Bernstein

Predictable Revenue

Jake Bernstein joins Collin Stewart on the Predictable Revenue Podcast to discuss how to navigate the ever-changing landscape of sales development and how to harness artificial intelligence. The post Navigating the Shifting Landscape of Sales Development with Jake Bernstein appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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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 New Industrial Revolution: Bio x AI

Andreessen Horowitz

Editor’s note: This piece was originally published in October 2021. We continue to be bullish on the power of AI to transform bio + health—especially as AI continues to drive the very industrial bio complex Vijay discusses below. We’ve now … The post The New Industrial Revolution: Bio x AI appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Schedule Your Instagram Stories with Buffer!

Buffer Resources

🚀 We're thrilled to announce that Buffer now supports full scheduling for Instagram Stories. 🚀 We’re one of the first platforms to offer this game-changing feature, and as avid Instagram users as avid Instagram users ourselves, we know firsthand the growing impact of Instagram Stories. With over 500 million people creating and watching stories on their mobile devices every day, it's no wonder that one in three people say they become more interested in brands and

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10 Tips to Fundraising in The Tumultuous Times of 2023

SaaStr

So 2023 is a unique time in venture fundraising. We’re coming off a stretch in 2021 where VC capital hit crazy, record highs… and now is coming into multi-year lows. It’s a time when SaaS and Cloud spend are also at record highs , and many Cloud leaders are still growing at strong rates … yet many startups have stopped growing at all. And really worst of all is multiples.

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Senate hearings see a clear and present danger from AI — and opportunities

IT World

There are vital national interests in advancing artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline public services and automate mundane tasks performed by government employees. But the government lacks in both IT talent and systems to support those efforts. “The federal government as a whole continues to face barriers in hiring, managing, and retaining staff with advanced technical skills — the very skills needed to design, develop, deploy, and monitor AI systems,” said Taka Ariga, chief data scientist

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How Clinic Sense Reduced Churn and Unlocked More Revenue

ClinicSense is a SaaS platform that supports over 7,000 massage therapists who use it for appointment management, payments, scheduling, marketing activities and more. Despite having a relatively low payment failure rate, the company discovered that the failures disrupted the customer experience. This often led to churn as customers decided to cancel or abandon their account, preventing ClinicSense from realizing the full lifetime value (LTV) of its users.

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Your New KPIs to Gauge Content Quality

Sparktoro

Rand hates the phrase “high-quality content.” Quality is entirely subjective. And because it’s subjective, it’s impossible to measure, let alone find agreed-upon standards. Here’s an example: Remember that Ted Lasso Season 2 episode, Beard After Hours? Rand thought it was art while Casey thought it was drivel.

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A Guide to Social Media Collaboration

Buffer Resources

Picture this: two popular influencers from different niches join forces to create engaging and exciting content, reaching millions of followers across platforms. The result? A viral collaboration that benefits both parties and their audiences. Even if you replace “popular influencers” with “micro creators” and “millions of followers” with “thousands of followers,” there’s no denying that a collaboration done right can have a spectacu

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5 Interesting Learnings from RingCentral at $2.1 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

So RingCentral is a quiet SaaS leader that has been around for a long time, since the early days of SaaS. It’s built its way into an enterprise contact center leader and has now crossed $2 Billion in ARR, growing a mature but still steady 16%. And while it’s not GAAP profitable, on a non-GAAP basis, its margins are way up to 17%. So what’s that worth in 2023?

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How to Write Sales Emails That Stand Out with Will Allred

Sales Hacker

Writing good emails is vital in sales, and every salesperson has their own email tactic. But you only get one shot at getting your sales emails opened, so it’s critical to do it right. In this episode of the Sales Hacker podcast, our host Colin Campbell welcomes Will Allred , the co-founder and COO of Lavender. They talk about the potential application of ChatGPT in sales, why frameworks are better than templates, and how to personalize your email sequence.

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Evaluating Embedded Payment Providers For Your Software? Get The Evaluation Scorecard Today

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

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Apple's Neural Engine and the generative AI game

IT World

While Apple’s assistive technology announcements this week are important, the question that remains unaswered is just how much they rely on the company's powerful Neural Engine. The Neural Engine comprises a collection of specialized computational cores that exist on Apple Silicon chips. They're designed to execute machine/artificial intelligence functions quickly and with great efficiency because the action takes place on chip.

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How Are Leaders Experiencing Remote Work?

Buffer Resources

We’ve been writing and publishing Buffer’s State of Remote Work report for six years now, and we’ve learned a lot about the trends, benefits, and struggles of remote workers along the way. This year, after releasing the report, we had several people comment that they wondered what the results would be like for only people who are managers — and it’s a good question!

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Dear SaaStr: How Can a SaaS CEO Tell Which Customers are 10+ Year Customers?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: How Can a SaaS CEO Tell Which Customers are 10+ Year Customers? I think it’s fairly easy. Look for: Are they running an entire division or group (or more) on your product? Is the use case mission critical — even if niche? I.e., would the business be at risk if you went down or away? Is deploying your app a key initiative for your top stakeholder?

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