SaaStr

DECEMBER 5, 2022

Startups often begin with a bootstrapping phase with little to no outside investment. Many, however, will eventually switch to the externally funded phase because bootstrapping isn’t for every business. Yet, funded startups can learn a lot from the bootstrapped ones to grow smoothly and generate revenue.

Payments 130

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Venture Capital 130

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Chestnut knew it was a good sign when he felt a connection with Alex, who also had started a small business and had been through the acquisition process as well. Because they shared a common vision, they knew they could combine front-office and back-office solutions to give small businesses a complete business suite.

SMB 181

SMB Entertainment Acquisition Branding 181

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2023

This is when SaaS metrics aren’t used as a tool of understanding to improve your business but to club people with numbers. Instead of avoiding the hard numbers, have a conversation about what is and isn’t working and set goals to work on them. Numbers don’t lie, but sometimes the stories we tell around them do. 2: Misleading.

Metrics 288

Metrics Sales Hiring Benchmarks SaaS 288

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2020

So what are the things you can control? #1 We can’t always have as much funding as we’d like when we bootstrap, but you can choose a strategic area to work such as a college town. They had to engineer the business and plans knowing there was no funding to fall back on. The truth is, sometimes things are just out of your control.

Scale 224

Scale Marketing Engineering Leadership 224

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2022

Often easier to get started here with less capital and/or if bootstrapped. SMBs go out of business, and quickly. SMBs don’t really budget for much, so if the business goes down, software purchases often go down very quickly too. Customers don’t expect as much in terms of security, compliance, etc.

SMB 350

SMB Churn Payment Services SaaS 350

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2021

About $1m in cash for a $5m ARR business. We get that, but what’s the “right” answer? at a board we’re on together, what I’m going to inelegantly call “The 0.5x at a board we’re on together, what I’m going to inelegantly call “The 0.5x We can’t afford it.

Scale 335

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Construction 335

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2022

Jeff has led the growth of a remote, bootstrapped company over the past 16+ years of building 1Password. Many companies are too focused on growing in size without first understanding if they have a viable business model. Being profitable puts you in a position of strength and lets you focus on what your customers value. .

Development Team Review 228

Development Team Review B2C Compensation Technical Review 228

Neil Patel

JANUARY 21, 2021

You’ve heard the phrase to pull yourself up by your bootstraps , right? But what do we mean when we talk about bootstrapped tools? Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps refers to succeed through your own efforts without relying on investments or help from anyone else. Basecamp is a bootstrapped company, for instance.

Payment Methods 110

Payment Methods Payment Solutions Outsourcing Services Payments 110

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

Building a new business in a crowded space with already established competitors can be quite nerve-wracking, to say the least. Flodesk, an email marketing platform, bootstrapped to $5M ARR in less than one year. What a customer thinks they need versus what they need might align, or not. So how did they do it?

Branding 254

Branding Development Churn Marketing 254

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2021

“5 Dos and Dont’s Lessons From My Bootstrapping Days” Wrike Founder and CEO Andrew Filev. “The “Dos & Don’ts” of Building Winning SaaS Companies with G2 Crowd” A deep dive from CEO Goddard Abel on what the numbers show about building a top SaaS company. #6. Wrike was just acquired by Citrix for $2B+.

Scale 254

Scale SMB Scaling Engineering 254

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2020

We’ll dribble out the sessions on our podcast, the blog and YouTube, but for now let’s also highlight the Top 5 most upvoted session. There are so many good ones, but these should keep you busy watching for the next few days! #1: SaaStrScale.com 2020 was a big hit! Thank you to the 20,000+ that attended and tuned in!

Scale 173

Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling SMB 173

Buffer Resources

OCTOBER 12, 2023

Financial transparency is especially close to our hearts, which is why we’re proud to share Open Books, a series of small business owners giving us a peek inside their books in the spirit of being open about finances as well. The process of building the business hasn’t always been so delightful, though.

Sales Hiring 107

Sales Hiring Business Scale Consulting 107

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2020

What are The Top 10 This week? #1: 7: “The Secrets to How Flodesk Bootstrapped to $5M ARR in Less than a Year” This was one of those “surprise” sessions from SaaStr Annual 2020 that I didn’t know much about … but ended up performing really, really well. . #7: Bootstrappers especially, watch! #8:

Engineering 245

Engineering CTO Leadership Churn 245

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2022

You can see before 2020, our views were fairly modest: So what are the very top most viewed, most popular videos of all time? A Step by Step Guide to Revenue Growth with Mark Roberge, Harvard Business School. What’s Changed in Product-led Growth with Calendly CMO Patrick Moran. #14. Let’s take a look! #1.

VP of Engineering 227

VP of Engineering Scale Outbound Sales Team SMB 227

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2021

It’s too long if you are bootstrapped (you don’t have a year) and too short if funded and NRR > 100%. What are the differences between these 2 seemingly similar SaaS startups selling to SMBs? Still it raises a question — what is a “correct” CAC these days? Both have a sales-driven process, selling to SMBs.

Scale 279

Scale Churn Metrics Startup 279

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2021

What are the signs that an entrepreneur will always be small time? What are the signs that an entrepreneur will always be small time? What makes a bad CTO? What should I do? What is the salary of a founder whose startup has been acquired by a big player like Google or Facebook? What makes a startup a huge success?

Software Review 280

Software Review CTO Coach Technical Review Sales Recruiting 280

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2023

We all know which companies are “the best,” but we don’t always take a real look into what keeps them at the top. Capchase Co-Founder & CEO Miquel Fernandez and 01 Advisors VP Kristen Clifford use data to show us what differentiates the best SaaS companies from the rest. This is important for two reasons.

SaaS Payments 197

SaaS Payments Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 197

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2022

Many founders find themselves confident in one area of their business, whether it be the product, customer success, or, in Schuck’s case, sales. Schuck bootstrapped the business and did not bring in outside capital until seven years down the line at a $25 million ARR run rate, and they were profitable.

Sales Hiring 220

Sales Hiring Acquisition Investment Leadership 220

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2022

And you may not be able to afford this if you are bootstrapped or running lean. But with very small businesses in the early days, it may be OK. What most matters is that churn is going down , rather than the core absolute value, IMHO. E.g., Sales +Marketing Expenses < First Year ACV = Success ? Well — Maybe.

Scale 241

Scale Customer Success Sales Hiring Scaling 241

SaaStr

JUNE 12, 2020

It’s just a derivative of what I think the “root cause” is. Because if you’ve ever bid on Adwords, you know exactly what drives the price of an Adword up. And Bootstrapping is Rare. What are you best at? Yet Box needed $250m? Both sell to the Enterprise. So it’s not that. That helps a ton. Both big wins. Competition.

Scale 330

Scale SaaS Business Model Strategy 330

Baremetrics

MAY 14, 2020

Canny is a bootstrapped, remote-working, profitable team of seven. I’d like to emphasize that being bootstrapped doesn’t mean that we’re building a “lifestyle business.” I’d like to emphasize that being bootstrapped doesn’t mean that we’re building a “lifestyle business.” It was pretty clear we made a good team.

Sales Recruiting 90

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Branding Business Model 90

Chart Mogul

APRIL 13, 2018

We're bringing our popular SaaS Roundup newsletter to the ChartMogul blog. As someone who was new to the SaaS industry at the time, I felt somewhat overwhelmed at the volume of content available — blog posts from startups, enterprise businesses, VCs, bootstrappers and everyone in between. Read the full post.

SaaS 49

SaaS Enterprise Onboarding Startup 49

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2021

Every week, I meet with several entrepreneurs, often bootstrapped or close to it, who fit the following sort of model: Gotten to Initial Traction (~$1m-$1.5m ARR), or getting close to it, or a bit beyond; and. With nice growth (>=100% YoY); and. Company isn’t really burning much cash because. I tell them I absolutely agree.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Scale Marketing Sales 264

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2021

Like Atlassian, Qualtrics bootstrapped all the way to the growth stage, and did it outside of the SF Bay Area. Not the 80%+ in software, but high enough to be profitable and not be a drag on the business. Qualtrics is one of our favorite SaaS stories at SaaStr. How many of us get a second chance at an IPO? Qualtrics did.

Enterprise 245

Enterprise Scaling Investment Revenue 245

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 24, 2017

There are two SaaS companies operating at greater than $100M in ARR in the space and they illustrate one of the mantras on this blog: there are many different ways to build a SaaS company. The average contract value (ACV) of the business at IPO was $6788. Founded in 2004, Fleetmatics employs about 1150 employees. Multiyear deals.

Sales Hiring 186

Sales Hiring Strategy Venture Capital Marketing 186

Neil Patel

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Luckily for you and the tens of thousands of online businesses out there, a digital website builder makes it easy to create professional sites that function beautifully in no time. But you have to learn what features to look for first. What is your site’s end goal? Do you want to build a website? The best part? The best part?

Payment Methods 145

Payment Methods Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions 145

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2021

In a small way, a few of those age 10-20 skills I did acquire from starting a tiny software company then were what carried through to whatever success I’ve had. In a small way, a few of those age 10-20 skills I did acquire from starting a tiny software company then were what carried through to whatever success I’ve had.

Sales Recruiting 312

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 312

Outseta

JANUARY 9, 2021

By Geoff Roberts · 10 min read Today is January 10, 2021—exactly four years since I published the first post on this blog, announcing to the world our intent to start building Outseta. For the most part, we’ve continued to work primarily for sweat equity in the business so we can reinvest our revenue into the company. Click to expand.

Scale 106

Scale Marketing SaaS Subscription 106

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2020

What high growth startups should look like post-WeWork with Dialpad. — Product Prioritization – How the Best Companies Choose What to Build and When with Menlo Ventures. — Build your SaaS on Customer Cash – a discussion on how to bootstrap, and if or when to use Revenue Financing.

Scale 191

Scale Leadership Churn Benchmarks 191

User Pilot

JULY 14, 2021

There are plenty of all these blogs “15 alternatives to {Brand Name} that are equally good” that are…plain wrong. Written by content writers who have never used any of those tools, and frankly – have no clue what they are talking about. You may be wondering: “Why is Userpilot writing about Userpilot Alternatives?!”

Underperforming Technical Team 105

Underperforming Technical Team Software Review Onboarding Enterprise 105

Chart Mogul

MARCH 24, 2020

Contrary to what both proponents of bootstrapping and raising capital want you to believe, choosing between the two sides of the debate is not just a matter of personal preference. There’s been quite a bit of debate on Twitter recently about bootstrapping vs VC funding. As if it’s a 50/50 call. They raise a $400 million fund.

Payment Methods 52

Payment Methods Venture Capital SaaS Payments Sales Hiring 52

Chart Mogul

MARCH 24, 2020

Contrary to what both proponents of bootstrapping and raising capital want you to believe, choosing between the two sides of the debate is not just a matter of personal preference. There’s been quite a bit of debate on Twitter recently about bootstrapping vs VC funding. As if it’s a 50/50 call. They raise a $400 million fund.

Payment Methods 52

Payment Methods Venture Capital SaaS Payments Sales Hiring 52

Baremetrics

OCTOBER 10, 2021

Both of these tasks can rely on content marketing , for example events, podcasts, blogs, and social media posts. Both of these tasks can rely on content marketing , for example events, podcasts, blogs, and social media posts. Inbound marketing is the process of getting potential clients to find your company. Table of Contents.

Payments 98

Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions Marketing 98

Neil Patel

APRIL 27, 2021

That could be why over a million businesses use Shopify to build their e-commerce stores. What Are Shopify Themes? That’s why the Shopify theme you choose is critical to your business’ success. Now that you know what a Shopify theme is, let’s briefly look at why your theme choice matters so much. That’s not true.

Branding 103

Branding Social Media Mobile User Experience 103

Upscope

AUGUST 16, 2021

Here’s 5 reasons why a podcast could help your business: 1. Here’s 5 reasons why a podcast could help your business: 1. You can learn their needs , how your product or service fits into their business model , and even if both of your companies would be a good fit strategically.

Interviewing 52

Interviewing Branding Business Model Engineering 52

Upscope

AUGUST 16, 2021

Here’s 5 reasons why a podcast could help your business: 1. Here’s 5 reasons why a podcast could help your business: 1. You can learn their needs , how your product or service fits into their business model , and even if both of your companies would be a good fit strategically.

Interviewing 52

Interviewing Branding Business Model Engineering 52

Neil Patel

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Sometimes it can take as long as seven years before you can sell your business and hop on the next idea. Plus, the price tag on those more established businesses often run into the billions. But before we dive into that, we need to look into what micro startup acquisitions are and why you need to sit up and take notice.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Payment Methods Acquisition Development Team Review 144