SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2022

Dear SaaStr: How Can You Tell iI Someone is Going To Be a Phenomenal CEO? Having now worked with a few dozen SaaS CEOs who are much better CEOs that I ever was, I think I can boil it down to 2 characteristics: They can see the future , and. They have the ability to recruit and build the teams to get there. The best founders, at least by the time they have 50–100 customers, can see at least several years into the future.

Revenue 324

Revenue SaaS Marketing 324

The Daily Egg

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Are your competitors outranking you? If they are, it’ll have a negative impact on your business, blog, or whatever kind of website. The post 7 Easy Steps to Improve SEO Ranking appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Business 348

Business 348

Predictable Revenue

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Should marketing come before outbound sales? Here are 5 reasons why startups should nail down their marketing foundations before building a sales team. The post Why Start-Ups Should Nail Down Their Marketing Before Building a Sales Team appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Sales 317

Sales Marketing Startup Revenue 317

Trujay

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

In our world of heavy technology, customer feedback is present on many internet sites, but manual analysis is cumbersome and even impossible at times. Implementing an automated system to analyze this data is the difference between success and failure for many companies. How did our customers receive our product launch? Did they adapt to […]. The post 5 Ways to Use Customer Sentiment Analysis appeared first on Trujay: Migration & Integration Solutions.

Technology 92

Technology Data 92

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Payment Solutions

Unbounce

JANUARY 4, 2022

In marketing, colors are so much more than a HEX code. They can communicate as much as your copy—if you know what you’re doing. Imagine a banana-flavored candy wrapper without any yellow on it—the designer missed out on an important message, right? You might be able to read that the flavor’s banana, but you don’t know at first glance. 2021 brought us plenty of marketing trends to watch for in 2022, including color palettes to use in your marketing materials.

Trends 81

Trends Marketing Strategy Technical Review 81

Groove HQ

MARCH 3, 2022

We've pulled together a list of high quality customer support templates to help you level up your support game! The post 25 Customer Service Email Templates to Save the Day appeared first on Groove Blog.

Customer Support 103

Customer Support 103

Sujan Patel

MARCH 23, 2022

SaaS companies have grown at an incredible rate over the last few years. However, with the increased adoption of SaaS products, many have questioned if SaaS companies are sustainable. With no immediate business model and revenue models to support, the answers to this question vary, but all SaaS companies could learn from one another while […].

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SaaS Business Model Revenue Business 70

Chargify

APRIL 25, 2022

What Is Tiered Pricing? Tiered pricing is a subscription billing model which offers several plans at a fixed monthly price. These plans, or “tiers,” are. The post Tiered Pricing Examples for SaaS Businesses appeared first on Chargify.

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Pricing Business SaaS Payment Features 92

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 9, 2022

In 2020, revenue growth was the most important factor explaining a public software company’s forward multiple. The formula has changed since then. Net income has surged to the highest correlate of a public software company’s multiple surpassing revenue growth. Narratives published in newspapers trumpeting the importance of profitability correctly assess investor sentiment on stock exchanges.

Software 363

Software Revenue Metrics Sales 363

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

Many software companies are exploring PayFac-as-a-Service providers in an effort to drive more embedded payments revenue and gain greater control over the customer experience. But there are nuances in a PayFac relationship that often get downplayed – nuances that can impact the risk and resource responsibilities of software providers. In this webinar, integrated payments veteran, Pete Uselman discusses the following: What is a PayFac?

Payfac

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Were Some of the Toughest Lessons You Learned About How to Build a Successful SaaS Business? Some of the toughest lessons I’ve learned … and continue to re-learn: Even very talented co-founders may leave. You need to also make sure they are 110% committed. Very mediocre VPs are often very good at talking the talk. Mediocre execs often talk the talk even better than the best up-and-coming ones.

Business 362

Business SaaS Marketing 362

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2022

So in theory, SMB SaaS is better than enterprise, at least 9 times out of 10: Deals close much faster. Customers don’t expect as much in terms of security, compliance, etc. Customers often can deploy on their own. There is often just 1 stakeholder to sell to. Often can avoid procurement, RFPs, and so many other headaches. Customers don’t expect you to build a feature before they buy.

SMB 363

SMB Churn Payment Services SaaS 363

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2022

I originally wrote this post way, way back in the first year of SaaStr and have updated it every 2 years or so, because it’s an important thing to think about as a founder. Especially now in 2022, when venture capital again is scarcer, and more expensive, and far harder to close than it was during the go-go times for SaaS of 2021 and late 2020.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Acquisition AI Pricing 363

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

So we’re in the 5th or so “SaaS crash” since I’ve been doing SaaS. This one is the worst, not because SaaS companies aren’t’ doing well. No, they are doing better than ever. Not because valuations are terrible. No, they are still decent, in absolute terms. No, this SaaS Crash is so tough on VCs and public market investors because the market was just so, so high for Cloud stocks from mid-2020 to late 2021: You can see above in the BVP Nasdaq Cloud Index that while these are still Great Times

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Cloud Startup SaaS 364

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 1, 2022

We’ve been doing the 5 Interesting Learnings at SaaStr for quite a while, looking at many of the public SaaS leaders and pulling out the top learnings for founders and SaaS execs. I think it would be interesting and helpful to pull out the Top 20 PLG / Self-Serve learnings from the series. If you read the list of learnings, you may well find a few to learn from.

Scale 363

Scale SMB SaaS Scaling 363

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 4, 2022

With the summer of Defi behind us and a new year for web3, I wondered which categories of web3 startups generate the most revenue. L1s or blockchains, the public databases that record transactions, dominate the revenue share across the top projects producing 78% of revenue. Exchanges place second. Right behind, NFT exchanges rank third. Defi Protocols, which include lending, perps, farming, and swaps, slot in fourth.

Payments 363

Payments Revenue Payment Solutions Blockchain 363

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2022

A ways back, a Naval post on Twitter had my reflecting on the top advice I’d give to my younger CEO self: I missed one of the key Top 10 points — I ran out of 240 characters on Twitter), but thought it might be worth breaking them down in more detail on SaaStr below: 1. Go Long. This can be hard. The first start-up I ever joined as an employee was quickly acquired for $200m, which became $1 billion (!

Scale 362

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital Startup 362

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

So now that we’ve been doing our 5 Interesting Learning series on public SaaS companies for a while, we can pull out a number of trends. Maybe the most jaw-dropping is just how fast the top SaaS and Cloud leaders grow … at $1 Billion in ARR. The average SaaS leader grows almost 60% (!) at $1B in ARR: Of course, not everyone is going to get to $1B in ARR :).

SaaS 361

SaaS Cloud Trends Revenue 361

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Enterprise

SaaStr

OCTOBER 18, 2022

There are so many metrics out there these days on how public SaaS companies are doing. Versus last week, last month, etc. etc, So many metric sometimes it’s a little hard to get a handle on what they all mean. The latest Bessemer Parting the Cloud summarized it all I think with one helpful metric: SaaS multiples are down 75% from a year ago. .

SaaS 71

SaaS Cloud Metrics Pricing 71

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 18, 2022

The public software sector is weathering the second deepest multiple contraction in the last decade. Only the 2016 reduction of 57% surpasses it. Public market investors are rotating out of high growth technology companies as the Fed’s policies of quantitative easing, asset purchases, and low rates abate. The question on every software founder’s mind today must be, how will this affect the private financing markets?

Marketing 362

Marketing Startup Finance Technology 362

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Lies Founders Tell Themselves? #1 Lie. That it will get easier. It never gets easy, but it can get less difficult: You get better. You constantly learn, and in not that long of a time, become one of the experts in your space. At some point, you stop being at risk of going bankrupt. This does let you breathe. At some point, you have a brand, and that makes your growth more predictable.

Startup 357

Startup Branding Management Leadership 357

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: How Do You Split Up Founder Shares? It’s a question for the ages. First, let’s note that most successful SaaS startups do not have equal founder splits. Less than 15% do. That data here: At the Top SaaS Companies, Founder-CEOs Own ~15% at IPO. And Most Co-Founders Are Not Equal (And That’s OK). Second, note that some founders leave.

Startup 358

Startup SaaS Data 358

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

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2022

Gartner, spending on SaaS: 2020: $120B 2021: $152B 2022: $177B 2023: $208B. Worry less about a few tweets, more about the opportunity ahead, and here right now. Go sell something pic.twitter.com/TLzgbuQLnW. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #???????????? (@jasonlk) May 26, 2022. So Gartner slices and dices its data a number of ways, but I find it invaluable to track enterprise and CIO sentiment.

Cloud 358

Cloud B2C SaaS Enterprise 358

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2022

Enterprise software spending globally was $529B in 2020, per Gartner. In 2023, it will be $750B. That’s a tailwind almost all of us are drafting on. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #???????????? (@jasonlk) April 13, 2022. So these are rocky times in the public markets for SaaS. And yet … and yet … so many SaaS companies continue to grow faster than ever.

SaaS 71

SaaS Enterprise Software Data 71

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2022

Startups create products. After product-market fit, product teams hew the product roadmap from a panoply of options to the features best aligned with the company’s plans. In much the same way, CEOs architect the organization that builds, markets, sells, and supports the product. When a business is ready to scale, a startup ought to develop an organizational roadmap.

Startup 358

Startup Acquisition Product Marketing Scaling 358

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2022

A lot of folks are talking about how things were in ’08-’09 and even ’00-’01 these days. I don’t think today is anything like those times. The amount of folks buying SaaS software is a force like we’ve never seen before, and even with some stock market drama, many top SaaS companies still trade at $4B, $10B, $20B or more just a decade after being founded.

SMB 356

SMB SaaS Churn Enterprise 356

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

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2022

In many segments, competition-to-the-almost-death seems the norm in SaaS. Just look at Larry Ellison or Marc Benioff. While both seemed to have mellowed a bit recently, you can still see it in their eyes, their press releases, their ads in the Wall Street Journal. Ellison and Benioff clearly want to kill their competitors. And each other. Every day.

Strategy 70

Strategy Scale SaaS B2C 70

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

Bessemer Venture Partners had added a nice newsletter, Parting the Clouds , that’s very metrics dense. A few stuck out this week as helpful ways to summarize just what’s happening with SaaS public companies. Two big take-aways from this week: 53% of the BVP Cloud Index is trading under 6x ARR , representing 40 companies. The top tier of public Cloud companies is trading at 12x ARR, but they are growing 50%+ at $500m+ in ARR, with importantly, 15%+ Free Cash Flow margins.

SaaS 352

SaaS Cloud Metrics Software 352

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

“So we're seeing some slowdown in certain sectors and, frankly, acceleration in others, things like low-code, no-code environments, productivity, cybersecurity to protect the enterprise …. So am I seeing a broad slowdown across our platform? No. Are we seeing some pockets? Yes.”. — Jason Be Kind Lemkin ? (@jasonlk) November 8, 2022. So those of us who know Vista Equity Partners (and many of you may not) think of it as one of the largest Private Equity firms buying SaaS companies.

Cybersecurity 351

Cybersecurity SMB Interviewing Enterprise 351