OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

It seems like everyone wants to “go viral.” From SaaS startups to Instagram celebrities, businesses and wannabes are searching for the magic moment that will propel them into the stratosphere. But, even the founders of so-called “unicorn” companies know that magic isn’t a viable growth strategy. There are, however, more predictable and controllable ways to harness viral and network effects.

SaaS Payments 40

SaaS Payments Payment Methods Payment Services SaaS 40

The Angel VC

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

At the SaaStr Europa conference in Paris a couple of weeks ago I sat down with Joaquim Lecha, the CEO of our portfolio company Typeform , to talk about “Freemium at Scale”. Founded and headquartered in Barcelona, the company launched a free version of its service seven years ago. During our conversation Joaquim revealed that this free service helps drive 180,000 monthly signups, and about 3% of those signups convert into paying users who are billed anywhere from €25 to €70 per month, depending o

Scale 172

Scale Engineering Enterprise SaaS 172

Predictable Revenue

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Scale 127

Scale Leadership Scaling Sales 127

Totango

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

If you want to make your business customer-centered , you’re going to need customer data. Without it, you can’t keep track of your customers’ needs, business goals, and challenges. When you gather and analyze customer data, you can uncover customer journey insights that will allow you to take action to deliver a more personalized customer experience.

Software Review 70

Software Review Onboarding Customer Success Data 70

Advertisement

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

Agile Payments

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

A Payment Facilitator can be thought of as a Master Merchant that facilitates and processes credit and debit card transactions for their platform users.

SaaS Payments 68

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Facilitation Payments 68

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

I think there are two different phases you’ll go through, and your exit strategy should evolve. Phase Early: You Can Be Killed. This is probably up until $8m-$10m ARR in SaaS, although it can vary. Here, you might not be able to raise another round. Or continue to build a competitive enough product. Or get disrupted by a partner or someone else. Or keep up with customer needs.

Startup 162

Startup Strategy Acquisition Branding 162

Net-Results

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Being the person in charge of generating leads for a B2B SaaS business ( Net-Results , a marketing automation platform along the lines of Pardot and Marketo ), let me try and answer this question. With varying success, here are some things that we’ve tried to generate leads: Paid ads. Even though it’s gotten pricey, Google Ads still has positive ROI for us (measure by a cost per lead and revenue per lead source).

B2B 40

B2B Business Social Media SaaS 40

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 7, 2019

Hiring a VP that doesn’t work out is tough. What’s even tougher? Keeping him on for more than a few months. Because the damage compounds. You fall further and further behind on the plan. You hire a bunch of folks that don’t perform. Morale suffers. Everyone gets a bit lost. So if you do make a mis-hire — and everyone does — at least course correct quickly.

Sales Hiring 145

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale SMB 145

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

The mission statement of Customer Success is simple: ensure customers realize value from your products or services. A defining characteristic that separates Customer Success from Customer Support is being proactive in delivering that value. And allocating additional resources toward your customer’s long-term success pays huge dividends – improving retention by just 1% affects a company’s bottom line by around 7%.

Customer Success 43

Customer Success Revenue AWS Retention 43

Advertisement

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

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Selling based on ROI (return-on-investment) sounds great. A salesperson lays out an iron-clad case for how the customer will make 5x or 6x or 10x their initial investment in a piece of software in three years or less. The champion will use ROI math to assuage upper management and procurement’s concerns. Or so the thinking goes. If we reflect on the most successful software companies, the very largest, very few sell based on ROI.

Sales 179

Sales Innovation Investment Pricing 179

The Daily Egg

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Note: We have spent the past 15 years building robust visual reporting tools for millions of websites. The big challenge has always been getting people to install the JavaScript necessary so their site could be accurately tracked. SO we asked ourselves: how can we give customers who are not ready to install, some value quickly? […]. The post Introducing the Free Google Analytics Powered Heatmap: A Crazy Egg Experiment in Data Visualization appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Data 259

Data 259

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

There’s a simple point I’ve been talking about a lot lately, but it’s a super important one: When the time comes when you have enough momentum, capital, etc. to hire a real VP or two … you don’t have to start with the VP of Sales. It’s the natural place many of us start. We get 1-2 reps to hit quota, and we realize we need help to scale past that.

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Revenue 189

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

?. Like the built world, the internet is constructed for the majority. Too often, our online architects fail to take into account differently abled users. Design can help, to be sure, but it can also hurt – and that’s likely to be the case when the teams we assemble are one-dimensional, exclusive or lack diversity. As a rule, design should first do no harm.

Systems Review 112

Systems Review Scale Consulting Travel 112

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

Neil Patel

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Google makes over 3,200 algorithm changes per year. That’s a lot of changes. Just think about that for a minute… and let that sink in. It’s roughly 9 changes per day. So how can you beat this gigantic company at their own game and rank high? Especially when you consider that they generate over $100 billion+ per year in ad revenue? You could follow their advice on how to rank well but that won’t do much for you.

Strategy 111

Strategy Underperforming Technical Team Engineering Technology 111

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Negotiating is one of the most important skills salespeople can develop, yet it’s often overlooked. Which is a real problem… Because after you’ve put effort and resources into researching and creating a solid pitch and proposal, it only makes sense to come to the table prepared to negotiate with the prospect. The key is to create a negotiation strategy in advance, which helps you talk about price and other important elements of the deal.

Construction 111

Construction Pricing Sales Strategy 111

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

You can back into it. Ultimately, in most SaaS models, in the U.S., sales reps will take home about 20% of the total deal value they close. In the early days, especially if the company is venture-backed, it might be more, as much as 30% or even a smidge higher with accelerators, etc. VC dollars are there to accelerate growth, and if paying a bit more to the sales reps helps there, that can often be worth it.

Scale 186

Scale SMB Sales SaaS 186

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

One of the holy grails in the newco world is to build out a digital platform that successfully serves the needs of a broad number of adjacent verticals, and become the definitive platform in its space.

Startup 108

Startup 108

Advertisement

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

Nimble - Sales

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Data is important for more types of organizations than ever before. No longer are giant corporations the firms that depend the most on big data for decision-making. Small businesses and even nonprofits rely on their data for support in nearly every aspect of their operations. Your small business almost certainly already uses its data about […].

Data 108

Data Business 108

Sixteen Ventures

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Companies struggling with growth are the ones that try to figure out how to spend as little as possible to acquire customers. The companies growing like crazy have figured out it’s not about how much you spend, but the efficiency of that spend. They know that if you can outspend your competition to get in front of prospective customers, you’ll win.

Venture Capital 87

Venture Capital Benchmarks Acquisition Investment 87

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Globalization opens up a world of opportunities for sales growth. We often focus on the positive sides of growth—but what about taking a look at the ugly sides? Even what we could consider “good problems” need preparation, and it starts by understanding your team and your goals, including knowing when and how to recruit members of your team, and building in a way that compliments your growth.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Interviewing 125

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Picture this. You’re checking your credit card statement and see a charge that you don’t recognize. What do you do? You file a complaint with your bank, of course. This is called a “chargeback”, and if you’re an e-commerce merchant, they can cost your business—big time. Heartland Payment systems estimate that around 0.01% of all transactions end in a chargeback. 0.01% doesn’t seem like much, right?

Payment Methods 68

Payment Methods Merchant Services Payment Services Payment Solutions 68

Advertisement

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.

Payment Solutions

Nimble - Sales

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

The speed of development and the profitability of a business depends on the number of clients. For these reasons, companies are spending more and more resources on attracting new customers and increasing the loyalty of existing customers, and on converting consumers from the “user” category to the “business partner” category. Some methods have already proven […].

Engagement 102

Engagement Strategy Development Business 102

InsightSquared

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Before we dive in, let’s cover the basics: what are campaign attribution models and why are they important ? . Attribution modeling is a way to analyze which marketing channels are accredited with lead conversion. Think of your attribution model as a map of sorts. You have a starting point (the campaign) and a finish (the deal), and it is your attribution model that will reveal how your buyer travelled from point A to point B.

B2C 78

B2C B2B Travel Advertising 78

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Congratulations you’ve built a product that’s proven itself in the marketplace! So how can you leverage that product’s success to obtain the valuation and funding you need to scale? Ashley Smith, Venture Partner at OpenView provides insight on what investors are looking for in product metrics and growth indicators so you can capitalize on your product’s story for funding.

Investment 100

Investment Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 100

Agile Payments

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Applications that have a subscription component can differ in many ways, but almost universally there is an advantage for the application to integrate to an ACH API for origination and management of recurring payments. requirement, maybe not. Advantage to integrate and offer, most certainly. One of the common problems that subscription based applications.

Payment Features 68

Payment Features Payments Subscription Management 68

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.

Trends

Nimble - Sales

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Effective team members are crucial to any company’s success. They can shape the vision of the brand, affect the degree of client contentment and, in the long run, the amount of profit the business turns over. What determines the ultimate success or failure of the company is team morale. What Causes Low Team Morale? The […]. The post How to Motivate Your Team to Achieve Their Highest Potential appeared first on Nimble Blog.

Branding 100

Branding Business 100

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Software and digital products are changing the way we live in drastic ways. Just about everyone interacts with digital products at some point in their day—obviously some more than others. However, this means the software market in the United States is a very lucrative and competitive landscape. In fact, the software market revenue in the United States is expected to exceed $200 billion dollars by 2021.

Business 66

Business Sales Government compliance 66

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

In 2006, LendingClub introduced a then-novel business model: the ability to offer online personal loans to millions of underserved customers. The peer-to-peer lender was a media and investor darling, hailed as a tech-enabled alternative to traditional banks.

Banking 79

Banking Business Model Business Mobile 79