SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

Don’t try to evolve into a compound startup later – Unlike conventional wisdom about starting focused and expanding, Conrad believes it’s “really hard” to transition from a point solution to a compound startup: “You kind of have to almost refound the company.” The advantages are substantial: 1.

Startup 163

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 163

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Most startups play defense when discussing pricing with customers. Startups operate in newer markets where pricing standards haven’t been set. But throughout this turmoil, startups must adopt a process to craft a good pricing strategy, and re-evaluate prices periodically, at least once per year.

SaaS Payments 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

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. Six months ago, security was the number one prohibition preventing businesses and software companies from buying AI. It isn’t predictable.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 334

TechEmpower SaaS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

million software developers worldwide. Although noteworthy, working with large corporations differs remarkably from working with startups. tew_cta text="Do you have an idea for a software project? Or do you need help evaluating software firms? In 2023, there were approximately 26.3 Are they publicly available?

Software Development 443

Software Development Development Software Review Software 443

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 10, 2022

I’m going to tell you a bit about two startups and I’d like you to guess the name of each company. Both startups provide database software to developers to build applications. Both of these businesses are publicly traded. Both have grown very fast.

Startup 338

Startup Pricing Revenue Development 338

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2024

AI in B2B SaaS: The Incumbent Advantage On the AI revolution in B2B software, it’s the age-old ‘startups are innovating and racing to get distribution, and the bigger companies have distribution and are racing to innovate.’ ’ The twist this time is the data is very hard for startups to acquire or accumulate.

AI 291

AI Marketing SaaS Interviewing 291

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2024

So Emergence Capital put together a great report here on B2B startups, “Beyond Benchmarks 2024” , with a ton of great data across 664 software startups. One piece I loved is how 2023 growth rates compared to 2022 for Top Quartile Software Startups. But the median is only growing 53%. A huge gap.

Startup 342

Startup Benchmarks B2B Pricing 342

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2022

. % of Revenue spent on Software. Implied Web3 Software TAM, $M. Implied Web3 Software TAM (excluding Ethereum), $M. The average software company operates at about 70% gross margin, so let’s assume a web3 company is similar. At a 10x revenue multiple, web3 software should support about $0.75b to $2.3b

Payment Solutions 351

Payment Solutions B2B Software Payment Services 351

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2025

"Software engineers working in AI earned 48% more than the average software engineer at the company, according to a payroll spreadsheet shared with BI." The AI Team at many SaaS startups makes 30%-40% more. It creates issues and drama.

Engineering 290

Engineering AI New CTO CTO 290

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2024

The post Maybe Only 10%-15% of VC Backed Startups Can Raise Another Round Right Now appeared first on SaaStr. And at the growth stage, top decile may not even be enough to raise another round. Ask your existing investors. They will know. More on that here: Are You Fundable in 2024? Just Ask Your Existing Investors. Just Ask Them.

Startup 353

Startup Metrics Data Software 353

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

Suppose you’re a startup in a competitive market with a large incumbent who owns the system of record - the software that runs the sales team or the support team or the marketing team. In the last decade, startups have chosen to identify a feature or workflow to improve & leverage that wedge into an advantage.

AI 312

AI Startup Software Metrics 312

SaaStr

DECEMBER 31, 2024

How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel at SaaStr Annual #2. Rippling CEO Parker Conrad’s Theory of the Compound Startup: Disrupting How We Think About Software #5. Rippling CEO Parker Conrad’s Theory of the Compound Startup: Disrupting How We Think About Software #5.

Cloud 265

Cloud AI Startup Trends 265

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. Something that’s both not surprising but also pretty impactful: 57% of venture-backed startups will have to go “back to market” in 2024 to raise more capital. Carpe Diem.

Startup 357

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS 357

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2023

Salesforce is ceding the startup CRM market to HubSpot. I never loved Salesforce the company, nor personally enjoyed using the software. But I would tell every startup I invested in or worked with to move onto Salesforce — at least once they hire a real VP of Sales. So startups and SMBs are just … hard for them to focus on.

Startup 71

Startup Sales Hiring Scale Investment 71

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2024

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. The Top 10 Software acquirors’ M&A activity is down -90% or more from 2021. A record low. See above from Thomasz.

SaaS 317

SaaS Acquisition Cloud AI 317

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Today, Adobe announced its intention to acquire Figma for $20b , valuing the business at 50x current ARR, the highest multiple paid for any software company of scale. Not too long before the public market correction, high-growth startups routinely commanded 100x ARR multiples. That’s not a bear market multiple.

Startup 355

Startup Acquisition Pricing Revenue 355

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 18, 2023

Most massive software companies structure themselves with an office of the CEO, which allocates capital to different business units. Constellation Software. Prospects buy software for a report: the better the insight, the more valuable the software. Today, new startups have to compete with a cloud-native incumbency.

Startup 314

Startup Strategy Scale Cloud 314

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2023

Sales development, content marketing, & software engineering strike me as the workstreams that will benefit immediately. AI startups building next-generation offerings should prioritize common workflows shared across a significant fraction of the employee population or workflows for highly paid employees.

AI 321

AI Startup Scale Headcount 321

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2024

In a recent Workshop Wednesday, SaaStr Founder and CEO, Jason Lemkin sat down to discuss 9 signs a startup isn’t going to make it. So, let’s look at the nine signs a startup will likely not be a real success. Sign #2: You’re Too Slow to Hire VPs If you want to gauge momentum in a startup, see how quickly they hire VPs.

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Startup Scale SMB 307

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 12, 2022

In the last few weeks, public software company multiples have halved. Beyond the most recent cycle, how often do the web2 and web3 software markets move in synchrony? Beyond the most recent cycle, how often do the web2 and web3 software markets move in synchrony? The cryptocoins appreciated much more than software.

Software 334

Software Marketing Trends Startup 334

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Can I Get The Attention of Software VCs? # I hear story after story of startups that were funded after meeting VCs at SaaStr Annual. The post Dear SaaStr: How Can I Get The Attention of Software VCs? 1: Get Out There: Get in TechCrunch. Get on Hackernews. Get on stage at any B tier or A tier event. YC, EF, etc.

Software 305

Software SMB Banking Startup 305

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Should We Introduce Freemium in Our B2B SaaS Startup to Boost Growth? Lucid Software: How 10 Million Freemium Users Built Our Enterprise Sales (Video + Transcript) | SaaStr View original question on quora The post Dear SaaStr: Should We Introduce Freemium in Our B2B SaaS Startup to Boost Growth? Probably not.

B2B 307

B2B Startup SaaS Onboarding 307

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2023

If there’s one rule almost everyone universally agrees with when building software, it’s that focus is critical. As a founder of two different compound startups, each valued at above a billion dollars, he’s probably the best person in the world to share this alternative perspective. the compound startup.

Startup 265

Startup Software Sales Hiring Pricing 265

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 15, 2023

“The Startup M&A Market Fell 94% Year over Year - But One Segment Thrives” , a post from last week, elicited the same question from many readers. I reviewed the roughly 560 US software acquisitions under $400m since January 1, 2020. Alphabet bought $400m of startups & Apple $375m. To answer the question.

Acquisition 290

Acquisition Software Review Software Startup 290

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2022

Gartner: businesses will spend $100,000,000,000 more on software in 2023 than 2022. Startups: THIS IS THE WORSE RECESSION SINCE THAT TULIP THING I READ ABOUT IN SCHOOL pic.twitter.com/qGKuXLchFQ. As of July 2022, Gartner predicts: Overall business software spend will still grow a stunning 11.8% Yes, $100B more in 2023.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Software Cloud Forecasting 347

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2022

Before a startup is founded, no stock exists. The startup can inflate share count by creating shares. Public software median inflation rate rests at 5% annually, including shares for new employees, retention grants for current employees and primary stock sales in the public market to raise cash.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Hiring Government Outsourced Development 319

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2024

My biggest take-away: there are barely more than 50 acquisitions of $50,000,000 or more, at least disclosed one, in software of U.S.-based based startups each year. The post There Are Only ~58 Acquisitions of $50m+ or More in Software a Year per Theory Ventures appeared first on SaaStr. By dollars, yes.

Acquisition 290

Acquisition Software Review Software Cloud 290

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 6, 2024

Hang around startups & venture capital long enough, & you’ll hear this aphorism. In any given year, there’s an 82% chance the value of startup liquidity will change by more than 77% - both up & down. Here’s the volatility visualized across web3, consumer, & software startups.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Software Marketing 292

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2024

ARR, Zendesk today gets 14% of new business from startups. On top of that, if you look at their top accounts globally, 33 of the top 50 customers by ARR are startups. This is where they started, but startups weren’t adopting the product as much with a discount, and there was a lot of conflict with the sales team. A free term.

Startup 268

Startup Scale Underperforming Technical Team AWS 268

User Pilot

OCTOBER 19, 2024

Think of Net Promoter Score (NPS) software as a tool to measure your customers’ feelings about your product, and categorize them based on their level of loyalty (promoters, neutrals, and detractors). Pricing : Qualaroo offers a free forever plan with all features included for startups and small businesses for up to 50 monthly responses.

Software Review 105

Software Review Technical Review Software B2C 105

SaaStr

OCTOBER 18, 2024

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. “If you look at the homepage of everyone doing customer support software, like Zendesk, Intercom, or Gorgias and you squint, you know what they all say?

Sales Recruiting 311

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 311

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

During Office Hours with Lee Kirkpatrick , Lee recalled managing a startup through a downturn. I wondered if a similar pattern existed in the public software markets. R&D as a percent of revenue across all public software companies increased from 24% to 28% in the last six years. I suspect it’s because of PLG motions.

Software 301

Software Trends Revenue Startup 301

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2024

I try to look at two things in Vertical SaaS startups, at least when investing : Will everyone in the vertical / industry use it? Many Vertical SaaS leaders do payroll, finance, accounting, and much more — not just the core software. Dear SaaStr: How Big Should The Addressable Market Be to Go into Vertical SaaS? So be honest.

Payment Solutions 265

Payment Solutions Inbound Sales Team Marketing Scale 265

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

And for many in SaaS, especially those that sell mainly to startups and tech, it’s often been a rough 2 years. But there are just enough of those, especially in the AI Boom of 2023-2024+, that a subset of venture-backed startups are still running the Grow, Grow, Grow playbook. With no more funding coming, and growth way down.

Startup 320

Startup Social Media AI Cloud 320

SaaStr

APRIL 18, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Things Startups Just Have to Get Right? Many startups don’t start off with particularly amazing software. You can do a single co-founder startup. But more broadly, Successful Startups can be built a lot of ways. Let’s break it down. Not required. Amazing Technology? First to Market?

Outsourcing Services 290

Outsourcing Services Startup Outsourced Development Technology 290

Tom Tunguz

JULY 11, 2024

3x as productive as humans, which would parallel mechanical robots, how does a software company price? Building on yesterday’s post , pricing in software companies may change significantly when AI agents become the norm. What does a software seat mean when a human is no longer operating the software?

AI 240

AI Pricing Software Compensation 240

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

From startup to $500M CARR, Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze, shares how Braze scaled a growth and customer success team. As an early startup team, you’re doing every job under the sun. We get lazy writing job descriptions, and taking shortcuts is a luxury most startups don’t have. But that was it.

Scale 297

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 297