SaaStr

MAY 21, 2024

So G2 put out a survey and report on customer success recently that was an eye-opener: 67% of CS execs report having a sales quota 53% of CS execs now view their job as primarily a sales role Now some of this may be semantics. Business software companies have had “account managers” responsible for upsell since the earliest days. As customer success came into its own, it was often seen as distinct from account management, focused on customer retention and happiness and NPS and CSAT.

Customer Success 249

Customer Success Sales Trends Retention 249

Stax

MAY 20, 2024

When can revenue NOT be counted as revenue? If this question is confusing, you’re not alone. The concept of unearned revenue can easily trip up SaaS companies that offer subscription services and products on a recurring basis. Unlike when selling ordinary products, you cannot recognize the revenue earned from a subscription all at once. Although your business has received payment, this cannot be credited to your bottom line until delivery of the product is completed.

Payment Features 167

Payment Features Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 167

USIO

MAY 16, 2024

Here are some of the most FAQs software companies ask Usio about integrated payments, along with comprehensive answers to help you navigate this critical aspect of your business. 1. What are integrated payments? Integrated payments refer to the seamless incorporation of payment processing capabilities directly within a software application. This means users can make and receive payments without leaving the platform, providing a smoother and more efficient user experience. 2.

Payment Services 256

Payment Services Payments Merchant Services Payment Solutions 256

Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2024

Ramp published its quarterly spending trends & revealed how businesses are spending on AI. There are many great data points that underscore the growth in AI but there are important nuances in the patterns. First, AI growth rates across the most popular vendors have fallen 78% annually. On average, these AI businesses are growing customer counts 105% ; the median is 38%. 1 However, this isn’t a uniform trend.

AI 245

AI Churn Trends Pricing 245

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Clouded Judgement

MAY 17, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now April Inflation (CPI) Update After rising to ~4.7% about 3 weeks ago, the 10Y is now back down to ~4.35% April CPI: April CPI YoY was +3.4% vs expectations of +3.4% (and +3.5% in March) April CPI MoM +0.3% vs expectations of +0.4% (and +0.4% in March) April Core CPI (ex Food/Energy) YoY +3.6% vs expectations of +3.6% (and +3.8% in March) April Core CPI (ex Food/E

Cloud 152

Cloud Subscription Payment Features Metrics 152

Predictable Revenue

MAY 17, 2024

Explore aspects of market validation, the importance of founder-led selling, and how strategic experimentation can drive growth. The post The Power of Market Validation and Strategic Experimentation appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Marketing 130

Marketing Revenue 130

Tom Tunguz

MAY 18, 2024

For the past few days, I’ve been using the Mac ChatGPT app OpenAI demonstrated last Monday. It’s unquestionably the future of human-computer interaction. Conversing with a computer is much more natural than typing. Imagine speaking t a colleague with the entire internet at their disposal. But also a verbose colleague without much sense of social cues.

ChatGPT 144

ChatGPT Software Review Software 144

User Pilot

MAY 22, 2024

A/B tests play a crucial role in driving product adoption, which makes it important to choose the right A/B testing software to run them. It can help you dig deeper into user behavior and understand what resonates with them. Also, you can make evidence-based decisions to improve user retention and engagement. In this blog, we’ll handpick a few A/B testing tools worth your attention.

Software 105

Software Scale AI Mobile 105

Kellblog

MAY 18, 2024

“When you read their profiles and interview them, you think one thing: these people are gods.” — European founder on early US hiring. Despite numerous warnings , I continue to see many European founders fall into the same trap when it comes to hiring in the first years of their US expansion. Sadly, it feels like one of those lessons you can only learn from experience.

Interviewing 120

Interviewing Finance Management Startup 120

Speaker: Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks & Tony Karrer, CTO at Aggregage

Executive leaders and board members are pushing their teams to adopt Generative AI to gain a competitive edge, save money, and otherwise take advantage of the promise of this new era of artificial intelligence. There's no question that it is challenging to figure out where to focus and how to advance when it’s a new field that is evolving everyday. 💡 This new webinar featuring Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, will explore a practical framework to transform Generative AI pr

Generative AI

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Were the Biggest Mistakes You Made Getting Your Startups Going? The biggest two mistakes I made, I made twice, maybe thrice. They were: One, starting with too incomplete a management team. In my first start-up, while the core 3 co-founders were great, we needed an operational COO to really get to market with our customers. I closed arguably the best COO in the U.S. for the job — or so I thought.

Startup 232

Startup Management Marketing Leadership 232

Predictable Revenue

MAY 16, 2024

Kellen Casebeer and Collin highlight the strategic matrix approach. This approach aligns marketing efforts with current market realities. The post What Founders Get Wrong About GTM Efforts appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Revenue 130

Revenue Marketing Development Sales 130

The Moz Blog

MAY 16, 2024

Looking to make the most out of your SEO conference experience? Discover how the right preparation can boost your team's strength, energy, and enthusiasm during and after events like MozCon. Whether you're a seasoned attendee or a first-timer, our guide will ensure you maximize the rewards and make the most of this fast-paced environment. Let's dive in and make your conference experience truly unforgettable.

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User Pilot

MAY 21, 2024

Following customer lifecycle management best practices can lead your company to retain more users and increase customer lifetime value. But what are these best practices and how can you implement them? Let’s explore customer lifecycle management (CLM), its phases, and the best practices you can apply in SaaS without coding! TL;DR Customer lifecycle management (CLM) is a strategic approach for tracking, analyzing, and optimizing customer interactions throughout their entire relationship with your

Management 105

Management Software Review Retention Onboarding 105

Speaker: Jason Tanner

While growth of software-enabled solutions generates momentum, growth alone is not enough to ensure sustainability. The probability of success dramatically improves with early planning for profitability. A sustainable business model contains a system of interrelated choices made not once but over time. Join this webinar for an iterative approach to ensuring solution, economic and relationship sustainability.

Development

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 21, 2024

We believe the most successful American Dynamism companies share a few common characteristics: They’re able to anticipate technological turning points and breakthroughs. They identify, recruit, and empower the world’s best engineers by giving them insanely hard, cross-disciplinary problems to own. They continuously push the limits of what’s possible with technology, and innovate quickly through both success and failure.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Engineering Venture Capital Software Review 91

SaaStr

MAY 18, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Have You Ever Made a Very Risky Investment That Paid Off Big Time? Yes. In my first start-up, the VCs pulled our term sheet between signing and closing. They had a legitimate reason — our COO had pulled out of the deal. Which was my fault, for recruiting a prestigious, but sketchy, COO. But it was a very stressful time, when the term sheet was pulled.

Investment 258

Investment Leadership 258

Subscription Flow

MAY 16, 2024

Did you know that the value of all card payments grew to more than $8 trillion in 2018? A major payment gateway that handled all this was CardConnect. A few important reasons why businesses flocked to CardPointe was because it simplified the payment process for their end consumer, it seamlessly integrated with other systems like accounting software, and offered solid security to the businesses to protect their end consumer’s payment details.

Payment Features 104

Payment Features Merchant Services Payment Solutions Payment Services 104

The Moz Blog

MAY 21, 2024

What good is winning the algorithm if you’ve lost the human? What would happen if you were OK with sacrificing a high ranking to get more people to thank you for how much you educated them? In this article, discover Wil’s two new approaches to SEO and content using social media.

Social Media 93

Social Media Education 93

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Generative AI is upending the way product developers & end-users alike are interacting with data. Despite the potential of AI, many are left with questions about the future of product development: How will AI impact my business and contribute to its success? What can product managers and developers expect in the future with the widespread adoption of AI?

Generative AI

User Pilot

MAY 21, 2024

Functionality is a must when it comes to attracting customers, but it’s user experience that helps you retain them. Wondering how to create an outstanding user experience ? Read this article to discover 17 UX design principles to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. Let’s dive right in! TL;DR UX design identifies user needs, wants, and pain points and creates engaging products that enable them to achieve their goals.

User Experience 102

User Experience AI Scale Customer Support 102

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 17, 2024

In this episode of the AI + a16z podcast, a16z partners Guido Appenzeller and Matt Bornstein discuss the state of the generative AI market, about 18 months after it really kicked into high gear with the release of ChatGPT — everything from the emergence of powerful open source LLMs to the excitement around AI-generated music. If there’s one major lesson to learn, it’s that although we’ve made some very impressive technological strides and companies are generating meaningful rev

Generative AI 99

Generative AI AI Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT 99

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

So not everyone is seeing tougher times these days. SaaS outside of classic “B2B’ is often holding up well. Klaviyo, Toast, etc. just had very strong quarters. More B2B2C there. And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. Security remains on fire overall as well. But classic B2B SaaS is definitely in many cases seeing tougher times.

Azure 261

Azure AWS Sales B2B 261

Totango

MAY 17, 2024

Some believe AI is overhyped. Others think we are already in the midst of transformation. The reality is that most of us sit in the middle. A recent poll taken during the Higher Logic Super Forum SPARK conference in April says 61% of CS professionals sometimes use AI platforms alongside other systems, while 11% always leverage AI in various instances and workflows.

Innovation 89

Innovation AI Underperforming Technical Team Scale 89

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With no barriers to entry you can get started with Snowflake for next to nothing, but as you may already know, costs can quickly spiral out of control. While usage costs can be better managed for your internal BI use case, Snowflake costs skyrocket for SaaS providers because the need to deliver real-time, interactive analytics in a multi-tenant environment is always on.

SaaS

The Moz Blog

MAY 20, 2024

Explore the aftermath of Google's March Core Update and Spam Updates and uncover four major trends shaping the search landscape.

Trends 102

Trends 102

User Pilot

MAY 20, 2024

The customer sentiment score can help you tell how well-perceived your brand is. But how can you measure and improve it? Let’s explore the customer sentiment score, how to measure it with user feedback , and what strategies you can execute to elevate the customer experience. TL;DR Customer sentiment refers to customers’ emotions and attitudes towards your brand, providing insights into their satisfaction levels.

Scale 105

Scale Social Media Benchmarks Software Review 105

Buffer Resources

MAY 16, 2024

Over the past decade, Instagram has grown exponentially, with more than a billion monthly active users. However, with that increase in users has come an equal rise in fake accounts. According to this report, as of 2019, there were approximately 95 million fake Instagram accounts, representing about 9.5% of the platform's total user base​ With about 1 billion active users, that means roughly 1 in 10 Instagram accounts are fake.

Social Media 97

Social Media Engagement Branding Metrics 97

SaaStr

MAY 22, 2024

OK Gartner is NOT a SaaS or Cloud company. But — it’s one that is very important to many of us that sell into the enterprise. Its research and reports in enterprise software are critical. And … 92% of its revenue is from subscriptions. So while not SaaS, it is “Research as a Service” Or something like that. Given how critical its research is in selling to the enterprise, I wanted to take a look at its business.

Revenue 192

Revenue Enterprise Cloud Pricing 192

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Discover how top SaaS companies are earning up to $700k + and zero upfront cost with Usio Integrated Payments.

Payments

FastSpring

MAY 16, 2024

Ready to join the ultimate gathering in Europe for around 3,000 WordPress enthusiasts? If so, join FastSpring at WordCamp EU 2024 at Booth 13! We’d love to talk with you in person! Join us at the Lingotto Conference and Exhibition Centre in Torino, Italy from June 13 to 15 for an extraordinary event dedicated to all things WordPress. Immerse yourself in a diverse array of programs, workshops, and presentations, where industry experts will share their wisdom and cutting-edge trends will be unveil

Merchant Services 78

Merchant Services Payment Methods Payment Solutions Payment Services 78

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 16, 2024

This content first appeared in the May 2024 Fintech newsletter. If you’d like more commentary and analysis about news and trends from the a16z Fintech team, you can subscribe here. It didn’t take much to convince Varun Krishna, the Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Companies and Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Mortgage, to join the retail mortgage giant last year.

Generative AI 83

Generative AI AI Leadership Scaling 83

User Pilot

MAY 20, 2024

Wondering how to improve customer retention? If so, we’ve got your back! The article shares 20 actionable customer retention strategies for your SaaS! You will also learn how to implement them with Userpilot! TL;DR Customer retention is your ability to keep users using the product. Without retention, a SaaS business doesn’t have a predictable revenue stream necessary for growth.

Retention 103

Retention Strategy Sales Recruiting Scale 103