SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Just like filing your income tax returns or hanging that state-mandated safety poster up in your break room, sales tax is a back-office pain point, not a profit center. . That makes sales tax compliance easy to ignore… until it becomes a problem. . This post will walk you through what SaaS companies need to know about sales tax compliance, how to know when and from which customers you should collect sales tax, and best of all, how to automate sales tax so you can check “Do something about sales

Merchant Services 193

Merchant Services Scale Technical Review Sales Hiring 193

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 22, 2020

When I started in venture capital, one of the questions I learned to ask very early on was competition. Founders would often reply that competition validates the opportunity. At the time, I thought it was a canned response, a clever parry, to avoid answering the question directly. I’ve since realized I was wrong. Let’s say you’re creating a category.

Venture Capital 280

Venture Capital Innovation Education Technology 280

BetterCloud

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

Many of the existing ways of managing IT are no longer applicable to environments dominated by SaaS. Gartner analysts Manjunath Bhat and Roger Williams recently released a new report describing how Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) leaders must transform the roles and skills of IT teams as they shift to SaaS. We found that Gartner’s insights validate many of the components of BetterCloud’s SaaSOps framework.

Scale 64

Scale SaaS Government User Experience 64

Cobloom

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Most free trial users never become customers. In fact, the average SaaS company sees an end-to-end conversion rate (from visitor to paying, retained customer) of between 0.6 and 1.2%. Thankfully, it isn't all doom-and-gloom. We've already covered a dozen strategies for improving your customer onboarding process , and in the case of many free trial users, a simple, well-timed follow up email is enough to nudge them towards customer status.

Onboarding 88

Onboarding Strategy SaaS Sales 88

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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.

Payment Solutions

Sujan Patel

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

I’ll be straight with you. SEO for SaaS isn’t that different than SEO for other companies — it’s not as if Google changes the rules based on the type of business you run. That said, I see a lot of SaaS founders out there who are brilliant developers or innovators, but who don’t have the […]. The post How to Get Started With SEO for SaaS appeared first on Sujan Patel.

SaaS 95

SaaS Innovation Development Business 95

Chart Mogul

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Reilly Chase knew that raising prices would not sit well with all of his customers. But he also realized he had to focus on the best ones if his business was to continue developing. I’m the founder of HostiFi. We’re a managed cloud hosting provider for Ubiquiti UniFi and UNMS servers. The majority of our customers are IT/MSP service providers and WISP operators.

Outsourcing Services 131

Outsourcing Services Revenue Outsourced Development Scale 131

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

By Shane Murphy-Reuter, Intercom SVP of Marketing. Most marketers I know struggle over the same competing messaging challenges: to what degree should we focus our messaging on the function of what our product can do, versus the emotion of how it makes me feel when I use it? The benefits of both approaches are clear. We’re all human, so if brands can tap into a higher, more emotional meaning for us, we reward that with loyalty.

Marketing 274

Marketing Interviewing Communication Branding 274

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

As a sales manager, your job is to drive growth. The best way to do that is to develop the right behaviors in your sales reps. In other words, you can’t just be a sales manager. You have to be a sales LEADER. How do you do that? There are many things that can drive revenue growth within your company, but as a sales leader, it all starts with your team.

Underperforming Technical Team 102

Underperforming Technical Team Development Revenue Sales Hiring 102

Predictable Revenue

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

People leave managers, not jobs. So how do you avoid being that manager? Learn how good leaders keep top talent engaged and inspired. The post Leading from the front: How Zendesk’s Jamie Buss trains and transforms leaders appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Engagement 191

Engagement Revenue Management 191

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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.

Payment Solutions

Totango

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

We all want to believe that we have a strong relationship with our customers. However, the truth is that we’re only as important to them as the value we offer their businesses. The digitization of business has created a customer-centric economy, and people switch services until they find the solution that suits them. So when you get the customer’s attention, you have to maximize every conversation and engagement to prove you are the right partner to nurture their long-term growth.

Engagement 93

Engagement Strategy Customer Lifetime Value Customer Success 93

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

If you’re looking for a primer on many of the responsibilities of being a startup CEO, read The Great CEO Within. Matt Mochary wrote the book. He founded a company which he sold to MCI and now coaches startup CEOs, amongst other philanthropic efforts. The best part of this book is that it combines descriptions of the key jobs to be done and the frameworks to accomplish them.

Leadership 297

Leadership Startup Management 297

The Daily Egg

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

We share the 3-step process for the website usability testing we recommend to our customers, plus the tools to pull actionable insights out of the process. The post Comprehensive Guide to Website Usability Testing (With Tools and Software to Help) appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Software 332

Software User Experience Mobile 332

Predictable Revenue

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

In sales, the common misconception is that by saying the right thing you’ll win the deal. But what we started to realize after introducing Question-Based Selling (QBS) to our sales organization is that it’s impossible to know what to say without understanding the person and/or organization we were selling to. The post How Question-Selling Can Triple the Value of Your Service appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Revenue Sales 312

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

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

Q: How do you pull your SaaS competitor’s customers to your SaaS instead? You have to be where your competitors are. You have to show up. Many startups try to avoid the places their larger competitors are. They avoid the same tradeshows. They don’t sponsor the same newsletters and services. They try to stake out their own marketing white space. While that’s a good idea, you also want to be exactly where your competitors are.

SaaS 260

SaaS Enterprise Innovation Branding 260

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

This is the theoretically ideal organizational chart of a startup. There’s a CEO at the top in red, VPs in orange, senior contributors in dark gray, team leads in green, and junior individual contributors in light gray. This is the org chart of the typical startup. It’s a very different in reality. The departments are lopsided and scraggly.

Startup 259

Startup Scale Underperforming Technical Team Scaling 259

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Today we’re introducing Resolution Bot – the next generation of Answer Bot, our intelligent support chatbot that automatically answers customer questions. We believe automation will transform the way that businesses support their customers. Bots are already enabling customer support teams to scale personalized experiences without added headcount. But until now, support bots have stopped short of fully resolving customer issues.

Headcount 40

Headcount Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Customer Support 40

Neil Patel

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

There are a lot of tools out there and a ton of SEO reports. But when you use them, what happens? You get lost, right? Don’t worry, that’s normal (sadly). And maybe one day I will be able to fix that. But for now, the next best thing I can do is teach you how to grow your SEO traffic using Ubersuggest. This way, you know exactly what to do, even if you have never done any SEO.

Mobile 145

Mobile Underperforming Technical Team Engineering Data 145

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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

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

The other day I had a whiplash moment as a customer of a Unicorn SaaS company. I had a large problem with a piece of software with a lot of integrations in it, and it really wasn’t clear whose problem it was. But one of the vendors stepped up and said they’d solve the problem. They worked over the weekend and fixed it! Beyond above and beyond.

Scale 251

Scale Onboarding Pricing Customer Support 251

Unbounce

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

You’ve built the perfect landing page. Your headline is simultaneously descriptive and urgent. You’ve got a hero image of someone holding your product, weeping with joy. Your explainer video becomes a surprise hit at Cannes (though it’s controversially snubbed by the Academy). Your testimonials include Beyoncé and Tom Hanks, and you have to shrink the New York Times just to fit Disney into your “as seen in” logo spread.

AI Search 145

AI Search AI Branding Communication 145

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

One of the first challenges I faced when I joined Credit Karma’s product team four years ago was adapting my more generalized product management experience to the specificity of fintech and financial services. In that first year, I learned (sometimes … The post Three Questions for Fintech Product Managers appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

Management 135

Management 135

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

?. Anyone who’s tangled with customer support knows: getting an answer to your question is one thing, but actually landing on a useful resolution to your problem can be another. Two years ago, we introduced Answer Bot to address our customers’ most important questions. It did a terrific job, but we knew we could do even better. This week, we’re proud to unveil its successor: Resolution Bot , Intercom’s upgraded support chatbot that scales your team by answering 33% of common questions.

Machine Learning 23

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Scale Banking 23

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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.

Payments

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Creating champions requires detailed focus on the journey. Kathy Lord, SVP of Sage People explains how asking hard questions, embracing feedback and making personal connections with your customers can move the sales journey from prospect to champion. Want to see more content like this? Join us at SaaStr Annual 2020. Kathy Lord | SVP @ Sage People. FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW.

Scale 228

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 228

Unbounce

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

It’s the kind of mega-growth story anyone starting a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company dreams about. You and a couple of friends have an idea for a product that fits a clear gap in the market. You pitch at a local startup event, which lands you in a growth accelerator, which also leads to your first seed funding. You spend that money hiring and building out the software.

Scale 136

Scale SaaS Advertising Sales Hiring 136

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 22, 2020

Many in the crypto community and beyond have been closely watching the SEC’s case against Telegram as another regulatory test for the fast-growing space. In a complaint filed in October 2019 in federal court, the SEC alleged that the company’s … The post Reading Between the Lines: SEC, Telegram, and Rule 144 appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

Blockchain 117

Blockchain 117

ProfitWell

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Episode five of RevOps and Hops is all about measuring the effectiveness of your RevOps strategy with Founder of Adespresso and MailUp , Armando Biondi. You can listen to episodes of RevOps and Hops on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , or wherever you get your podcasts. There's also a full video version below so you can pick and choose your own journey.

Underperforming Technical Team 111

Underperforming Technical Team Travel Metrics Revenue 111

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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.

Payments

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Q: Does valuation play into how likely anyone would want to acquire the business from the founders? There is no question “too high” of a valuation can discourage an acquisition. Acquirers will generally assume they have to pay more than the last round price to buy you, and often 2x-3x more: Plaid at $5b was 2x the last round price. Credit Karma at $7b was ~2x the last round price.

Business 221

Business Pricing Acquisition 221

Kellblog

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

I just reached out to the CEOs I work with with on this topic and figured I should also do a quick post to speak to the CEOs who follow Kellblog as well. The primary purpose of this post is to remind busy startup CEOs that an important part of your job is to be out ahead of things. Usually that means customer needs, market trends, and competitors. I’d argue it also includes potential epidemics, such as the one threatened by COVID-19.

Startup 103

Startup Travel Software Review Trends 103

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Gaming has gone from a niche hobby to a massive global industry across all demographics and well beyond outdated, narrow stereotypes of “gamers”. In fact, games are not even just “games” any longer, but a form of entertainment — the … The post Investing in Roblox appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

Investment 114

Investment Entertainment Education 114