2024

article thumbnail

Using Generative AI to Drive Corporate Impact

TechEmpower SaaS

Generative AI is revolutionizing how corporations operate by enhancing efficiency and innovation across various functions. Focusing on generative AI applications in a select few corporate functions can contribute to a significant portion of the technology's overall impact. Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

article thumbnail

83% Percent of You Haven’t Gotten AI SDRs to Work … Yet

SaaStr

So clearly AI is rapidly changing the way we do sales, but how will it all shake out? Over in the contact center and post-sales space, we can already see 20%+ of customer support execs been routinely replaced by AI. But what about the more personal sales side? AI SDRs have taken off more quickly than AI AEs (although personally, I suspect more value will be in AI SEs and AEs that can answer my deep product and pricing questions instantly, without games).

AI 321
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

This Message Will Self-Destruct in 33 Seconds

Tom Tunguz

The average American attention span has fallen from 150 seconds in 2004 to 75 seconds in 2012 to 47 seconds in 2023 - a 5-6% annual rate of decline. Year Avg American Attention Span (sec) CAGR 2004 150 - 2012 75 -6% 2023 47 -5% How does this compare to these blog posts? In 2013, the average reader dwelled on this site for 47 seconds. Today, it’s 33 seconds, a 3.6% decline - which is a bit better !

Metrics 334
article thumbnail

Clouded Judgement 6.14.24 - Is Seat Based Pricing Dead?

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 Is Seat Based Pricing Dead? If AI delivers on its promise, it may spell the end of the SaaS business model as we know it. Historically, cloud software businesses charged a recurring fee based on the number of users of their software - the SaaS model.

Cloud 343
article thumbnail

5 Ways to Improve Revenue from Integrated Payments

Speaker: Pete Uselman, Director of Partner Experience at Wind River Payments

Most integrated payments providers share a percent of the payment revenue with their software partners. But, oftentimes, that revenue share is only a fraction of the true income potential software providers can realize. If you want to maximize income opportunities from your payments program, check out Wind River Payments’ webinar-on-demand.

article thumbnail

Most SaaS Apps Are Just Getting Starting With AI. 2025 Will Be Radically Different.

SaaStr

So I caught up the other day with the CTO of a leading SaaS company with tens of thousands of customers, growing quickly. AI is all over their homepage and website and comms. I asked him about a particular use case for AI, and his answer shocked me a bit: Honestly, our AI is basically still in beta. Its rolled out to about a tenth of the customers we plan to, and the uses cases are pretty simple today.

AI 325

More Trending

article thumbnail

Three Ways SaaS Organizations Can Create Recurring Revenue Without Spending a Dime

USIO

In the competitive world of Software as a Service (SaaS), generating recurring revenue is essential for sustainable growth. While many strategies involve significant investments in marketing, sales, and technology, there are also effective methods to boost recurring revenue that require minimal financial outlay. Here are three ways SaaS organizations can create recurring revenue without spending a dime. 1.

Payments 306
article thumbnail

5 More Interesting Learnings From HubSpot at $2.4 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

So we’ve covered HubSpot more than any other SaaS leader on this 5 Interesting Learnings series, in part because so many of us use HubSpot ourselves, and in part because its metrics and use cases are so like many of the apps we build and sell ourselves. They recently did an Analyst day though that had some more great data that I thought was super interesting, and worth a deep dive. 5 More Interesting Learnings then: #1. 75% of Customers Are Onboarded By Partners Partners don’t just

SMB 306
article thumbnail

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 300
article thumbnail

A Look Back at Q1 '24 Public Cloud Software Earnings

Clouded Judgement

Q1 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 April 24th – June 10th. 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 318
article thumbnail

How to Achieve High-Accuracy Results When Using LLMs

Speaker: Ben Epstein, Stealth Founder & CTO | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO, Aggregage

When tasked with building a fundamentally new product line with deeper insights than previously achievable for a high-value client, Ben Epstein and his team faced a significant challenge: how to harness LLMs to produce consistent, high-accuracy outputs at scale. In this new session, Ben will share how he and his team engineered a system (based on proven software engineering approaches) that employs reproducible test variations (via temperature 0 and fixed seeds), and enables non-LLM evaluation m

article thumbnail

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 310
article thumbnail

The 30-Day Test: How to Know if Your VP of Sales Will Succeed

SaaStr

Here’s an uncomfortable truth about SaaS companies: the majority of first-time VPs of Sales don’t make it past 12 months. As someone who has both succeeded and failed at making this critical hire, I can tell you that when it works, it’s transformative. When it doesn’t, it’s potentially catastrophic. A failed VP of Sales hire doesn’t just cost you immediate revenue—it creates a devastating ripple effect: You lose the second-order revenue (up to 6x the initial l

article thumbnail

HubSpot Co-Founder and Chairman Brian Halligan on SaaS Markets, Board Meetings, and AI’s Impact

SaaStr

SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin recently sat down with HubSpot Chairman and co-founder Brian Halligan , who shared valuable insights on the current state of SaaS, evolving board meeting formats, and how AI is reshaping the industry. Here are the key takeaways from part 1 of this interview. Reflecting on Company Outcomes as a Founding CEO We started with Brian flipping the tables a bit and asking Jason a question to kick off the interview: “I know this is a podcast supposed to be interv

AI 278
article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Enterprise ABM Marketing Tools: A Marketers Guide

Savvy B2B marketers know that a great account-based marketing (ABM) strategy leads to higher ROI and sustainable growth. In this guide, we’ll cover: What makes for a successful ABM strategy? What are the key elements and capabilities of ABM that can make a real difference? How is AI changing workflows and driving functionality? This Martech Intelligence Report on Enterprise Account-Based Marketing examines the state of ABM in 2024 and what to consider when implementing ABM software.

article thumbnail

5 Interesting Learnings from Klaviyo at Almost $1 Billion in ARR

SaaStr

So the latest SaaS leader to cross $1B ARR is Klaviyo. Klaviyo dominates marketing in the Shopify ecosystem and in ecommerce, and just keeps on scaling. It was the only SaaS IPO on 2023. The only one! And at almost $1B ARR, it’s still growing a stunning 34% (!). In the words of founder CEO Andrew Bialecki: “There’s no downturn at Klaviyo.” 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. 110% NRR from 157,000 SMBs Yes, it can be done, 110% NRR from SMBs.

Scale 294
article thumbnail

The Bar Has Gone Up: The New Era of HyperFunctional SaaS with Jason Lemkin

SaaStr

The era of hyper-functional SaaS is here, and it’s reshaping the landscape of SaaS companies. At a recent SaaStr Workshop Wednesday , held every Wednesday at 10 a.m. PST, SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin lays out how SaaS companies are now faced with the challenge of delivering more comprehensive, automated, and efficient solutions than ever before.

article thumbnail

Carta: Pre-Seed to Series A Funding is Down -9% in 2024

SaaStr

So it’s interesting how folks craft headlines from data. Carta release its latest funding data the other data for 2024 Year-To-Date here : What you can see is that large, hot AI later stage deals overall are indeed driving venture capital deployments up ~ +17% the year. But that’s for late-stage capital. Most of it AI driven. For early stage VC, it’s actually down -9% in 2024 over 2023.

article thumbnail

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 300
article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

How to Avoid a Bad VC Investor with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin

SaaStr

We’re obviously written up a lot about Fundraising and Investing here on SaaStr.com, but time and time again, SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin has seen so many Founders sign a bad term sheet based on gut instinct, VC celebrity or vibes, and while that may be fine, it’s not enough. It’s not enough because if nothing else you’re stuck with your investors for decades — for better or worse.

article thumbnail

Salesforce: Actually We’re Going to Hire 2,000 Sales Execs Now To … Sell AI

SaaStr

Salesforce, Nov 2024: We're hiring 1,000 new sales execs to sell AI! … Salesforce, Dec 2024: Now we're hiring 2,000 new sales execs to sell AI — Jason SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15 Lemkin (@jasonlk) December 19, 2024 So it was just the other day Salesforce somewhat stunned the tech world by announcing it would hire 1,000 folks in sales and marketing to sell AgentForce and its AI products — while keeping other hiring, including engineering, flat.

article thumbnail

How to Leverage Pricing and Packaging to Drive Growth, Revenue, and Profit with Miro, Loom, OpenAI, and Splunk 

SaaStr

Pricing is more than just a number on a contract — when used thoughtfully, it can become a strategic tool for your SaaS product that can drive product adoption, customer satisfaction, and business growth. At this year’s SaaStr Annual AI Summit, Akshay Sharma, Head of Pricing and Monetization at Miro , chats with a panel of experts, including Janie Lee, Head of Product at Loom , Alison Harmon, Head of Growth at OpenAI , and Carsten Holm, VP of Pricing and Monetization at Splunk, about their nuanc

Payments 278
article thumbnail

5 Tips to Getting a Job in SaaS in a Tougher Market

SaaStr

I know for many, this seems a much harder time to find a new job What I can tell you is this. It’s not the crazy hiring market of 2021. But all the best start-ups and scale-ups are hiring, and even many of those doing Just OK are, too: I have at least 10 high quality portfolio companies looking hard for a great VP of Sales I have at least 8 high quality portfolio companies looking hard for a great VP of Marketing / Growth Every single portfolio company is looking to hire 2-30 great sales execs

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

The Quiet Liquidity Crisis in SaaS

SaaStr

So Thomasz Tunguz put together a great chart summarizing one of my top worries over the past 24+ months in SaaS. He summarized the M&A (acquisitions) of The Top 10 Software Acquirers. And what you can see is there is really almost no liquidity for startups and scale-ups in SaaS and Cloud at the moment. And there hasn’t been for a while: It was great times for SaaS liquidity in late 2020 through the end of 2021.

SaaS 307
article thumbnail

Dear SaaStr: How Much Should a SaaS Company Invest in Professional Services?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: How Much Should a SaaS Company Invest in Professional Services? A rough yardstick is that most enterprise-focused SaaS companies tend to get about 8%-10% of their revenues from professional services. A few data points: At $800m ARR, Qualtrics was still getting 25% of revenue from professional services. More here. At $500m ARR, OneStream gets about 8% of its revenue from professional services.

article thumbnail

The Future of AI in SaaS Sales with Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo and SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin

SaaStr

SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin joined ZoomInfo’s Season 2 of its ZI Labs Podcast as the opening guest alongside ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck. Along with co-host Ben Salzman, Jason and Henry discuss the transformative power of AI within SaaS and the evolving dynamics that are reshaping the landscape of software as a service. There’s recruiting and there’s people building.

article thumbnail

Gong: $100k Deals Take About 70 Days to Close

SaaStr

Gong has its 2025 State of Revenue out. You can grab it here. In general, the report ties to what were seeing everywhere in SaaS. Were ending the year in general with stronger growth that the prior year. Gong also looked across its entire customer base to measure deal velocity. The findings arent much different from what weve discussed before at SaaStr, but still very helpful to see, given how much data they are pulling from: On average, $100k deals take about 70 days to close.

Scale 278
article thumbnail

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

article thumbnail

5 Interesting Learnings from Doximity at $550,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

So one of the quiet SaaS leaders that has just crushed it in 2024 is Doximity: At $550m in ARR, it’s worth a cool $10.4 Billion (!) — or 20x ARR. And its stock it up a stunning +90% this year. What’s going on? A combination of: Growth re-accelerating. Doximity is growing 20% now, vs. 18% at $450m ARR. Insane profitability. 53% EBITDA.

article thumbnail

Dear SaaStr: What Was Your First Step When You Decided to Do a Startup?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: What Was Your First Step When You Decided to Do a Startup? For me, both times, it was to find my co-founder. In my first start-up, arguably I invented the idea of the company , but my co-founder invented the technology. It was really all her. Step 1 was seeing if we wanted to do this crazy idea together. The second time, my first co-founder and I started working together before the idea came together.

Startup 268
article thumbnail

Dear SaaStr: What’s It Like Being Beaten Up by Investors?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: What’s It Like Being Beaten Up by Investors? It’s a gift, if you view it in the right context. First, don’t take it personally. Everyone that is smart can be tough critic. Everyone with a High IQ that’s been in tech a while can come up with 10-20 reasons why you will fail. In fact, the criticism itself probably won’t even be remotely useful, because if you’ve done your homework … you’ve heard it all before.