SaaStr
JANUARY 26, 2020
Aaron Levie and Karen Appelton, his ex-head of partnerships came to the 2018 SaaStrAnnual.com to talk partnerships and one point on “free” deeply resonated with me. Aaron said he wished his API could be 100% free for everyone , for everything. He said he lamented that the reality was that wasn’t practical for Box’s current business — but he wished it could be.
Kellblog
JANUARY 29, 2020
I’m working with more early-stage companies these days (e.g., pre-seed, seed, seed-plus [1]) and one of the things I’ve noticed is that many founders cannot clearly, succinctly, and confidently answer some basic questions about their businesses. I decided to write this post to help entrepreneurs ensure they have their bases are covered when speaking to angel investors, seed firms, or venture capitalists.
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Tom Tunguz
JANUARY 26, 2020
Nathan Heller published an article called Is Venture Capital Worth the Risk? in the New Yorker. It’s a well-researched critique of the venture industry. The key question he poses is: has the industry become so large that it needs to be disrupted? It’s a thought provoking question and a good opportunity to ask for feedback on how we can imrove.
SaaStr
JANUARY 26, 2020
Q: How arrogant are VCs in 2020? I’m going to suggest VCs are less arrogant in 2020. When I started my start-up career, VCs had all the leverage. Everything was so condescending, terms were Default Terrible, and raising money just took longer. Almost every pitch, every meeting, every dinner had a weird paternal-condescending element to it. You were the kid, and dad (yes, almost all men) knew best.
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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?
OpenView Labs
JANUARY 29, 2020
Editor’s Note: This article was first published on August 9, 2018. Special thanks to Ned O’Leary and Laura Rosca who helped compile this research. . Freemium in SaaS is old news. The much-discussed pricing strategy took over the SaaS world and helped fuel the phenomenal success of SaaS pioneers like Dropbox, Evernote, SurveyMonkey and Hootsuite.
SaaS Brief brings together the best content for SaaS professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
SaaSX
JANUARY 30, 2020
If you are in SaaS you already know the days of software vendors pitching monolithic enterprise solutions to corporate executives are quickly giving way to a growth model that centers on the end-user discovering software solutions on their own. This is product-led growth, a grassroots distribution model that scales from the bottom up, instead of from the top down.
Incredo
JANUARY 29, 2020
When users interact with the World Wide Web, they tend to be rather lenient with their activity online and consider the consequences of their actions a little less. Whether it’s because they’re not physically doing something or they feel they’re unlikely to be detected, it’s still a risky game to play. Considering just how enormous the internet is, it can actually be relatively easy to get caught from doing something unethical.
SaaStr
JANUARY 25, 2020
It’s still early — the 2020 SaaStrAnnual.com isn’t until March 10-11-12 in the SF Bay Area — but we can already start seeing some of the hottest VC sessions at Annual. There will be almost 1,000 (!) VCs at Annual and folks will be handing out term sheets! A bunch of sessions aren’t even up yet — for example, we just added David Wadwani, ex-CEO of Appdynamics, now the newest partner at Greylock — so take these trends with a grain of salt.
The Angel VC
JANUARY 29, 2020
Startup PR for Dummies Public Relations (PR) is not a high priority for most early-stage startups. If you keep in mind how many different hats founders have to wear in the early days to build a product, get customers, hire a team and raise money, you’ll understand why. However, I’ve seen plenty of founders miss out on PR opportunities like a funding announcement due to mistakes that would have been easy to avoid.
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Predictable Revenue
JANUARY 30, 2020
Getting together for coffee: it’s a request that comes to entrepreneurs and salespeople all the time. And it’s enticing – you never know what will come from a chat with a new connection. Fabien talks about turning those coffee meetings into pipeline. The post How do you turn coffee meetings into dollars? Sales expert Fabien Pataud shares his secrets appeared first on Predictable Revenue.
Intercom, Inc.
JANUARY 28, 2020
Gone are the days of sales deals being closed with a handshake in a face-to-face meeting. Nowadays, digital solutions like CRMs have made it easier for sales teams to manage their pipelines online but that doesn’t always result in the best experience for the end buyer. . This rapid shift to the world of online sales has created an engagement gap between sales reps and buyers for many companies, resulting in an estimated 60 percent of all contracts being lost to indecision or simply going una
SaaStr
JANUARY 28, 2020
Jason Lemkin moderates a panel of some greatest-of-all-time SaaStr speakers taking questions from the audience and over Twitter. The panel discussed navigating a future recession, building great office culture, app exhaustion and more. Want to see more content like this? Join us at SaaStr Annual 2020. Jason Lemkin | CEO and Founder @ SaaStr, Inc. Maria Pergolino | Former CMO @ Anaplan.
Neil Patel
JANUARY 28, 2020
Do you know how Google decides what website should be ranked number 1, 2, 3 and so on for any given keyword? Well, they have an algorithm for that. But as you know, algorithms aren’t perfect. That’s why Google continually tries to improve it. One way that they try to improve their algorithm is through Search Quality Raters. What’s a Search Quality Rater?
Speaker: Timothy Chan, PhD., Head of Data Science
Are you ready to move beyond the basics and take a deep dive into the cutting-edge techniques that are reshaping the landscape of experimentation? 🌐 From Sequential Testing to Multi-Armed Bandits, Switchback Experiments to Stratified Sampling, Timothy Chan, Data Science Lead, is here to unravel the mysteries of these powerful methodologies that are revolutionizing how we approach testing.
Unbounce
JANUARY 28, 2020
Step inside the marketer’s brain and you’re likely to find some healthy skepticism. Does this $50 Airbnb come with a three-digit cleaning charge? Will “free shipping” require my firstborn to clear customs? Why does this anonymous benefactor need a credit card number to give me my millions? (And how did he get my email?) Do “fully customized” landing pages secretly mean slower launches, a bulkier building process, or not-totally-customizable-but-hey-close-enough?
The SaaS CFO
JANUARY 26, 2020
You’ve decided that it’s time to take on investment or sell your SaaS company. Or maybe that cold email from a private equity associate finally has you thinking about the next steps for your business. What’s next? Preliminary SaaS due diligence. Depending on your role and what side of the table you’ve been on, the […]. The post How to Prepare for Preliminary SaaS Due Diligence appeared first on The SaaS CFO.
SaaStr
JANUARY 26, 2020
Q: What are some of the most common techniques used by salespeople? In SaaS, I think the most common one I see is simply lying to a buyer that doesn’t know software. I see this all the time: For example, a little while back, someone on our events team bought a piece of software that the sales rep promised him integrated with everything in our stack.
Chart Mogul
JANUARY 27, 2020
Product and marketing use ChartMogul to gather data, run better campaigns, improve the product, and learn faster. What is Flipsnack? Flipsnack is an online publishing tool that can be used by anyone to create flip page digital catalogs directly in their browser. Flipsnack allows you to quickly and easily create a digital magazine, brochure, or similar document.
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Explore how integrated payment strategies impact investor and buyer evaluations. Payments are more than a feature — they’re a key to long-term success and market differentiation. They help SaaS companies offer seamless user experiences and efficient operations. Investors and strategic buyers assess these integrated payment strategies as a measure of a company's growth potential and sustainability.
Andreessen Horowitz
JANUARY 30, 2020
As my partner, Marc Andreessen, often says, “there are no bad ideas in tech, only bad timing.” This can sound a tad crazy at face value, but let me elaborate. Marc and a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz started a company called … The post Investing in Neighbor appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.
Groove HQ
JANUARY 27, 2020
A marketing persona template and research process to help your business grow. Before coming to Groove, I worked as a full-time freelance writer and marketing consultant, mostly working in the B2B space. Many of the companies I worked with sent me their marketing personas (sometimes called “customer avatars”) as we started working together. Most (almost […].
Agile Payments
JANUARY 27, 2020
We're continually surprised at the differing perspectives and priorities that various organizations and companies have for integrating to a Payment Gateway. However, there is one constant; each and every integrating organization or their client using base sells a service or product. To put it simply, they are looking to make a profit from their sales via electronic transactions.
SaaS Metrics
JANUARY 28, 2020
Finding a quality hosting services provider can be a daunting task, especially when you are on a tight budget and not very well versed with terminologies related to the industry. It takes time and some effort to compare different hosts, the features they are offering and the best price. However, with each service provider claiming to be the best, it’s not always easy to find the best deal.
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Start-ups & SMBs launching products quickly must bundle dashboards, reports, & self-service analytics into apps. Customers expect rapid value from your product (time-to-value), data security, and access to advanced capabilities. Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) tools can provide valuable data analysis capabilities, but they have a barrier to entry that can stop small and midsize businesses from capitalizing on them.
Andreessen Horowitz
JANUARY 27, 2020
The idea of “ 1000 true fans ” — first proposed by Kevin Kelly in 2008 and later updated for Tools of Titans — argued that to be a successful creator, you don’t need millions of customers or clients, but … The post a16z Podcast: The Truth about a 1000 True Fans (and Our Attention)! appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.
Groove HQ
JANUARY 29, 2020
It wasn’t working, and I was frustrated. Four years ago, we put hundreds of hours into developing our company’s core values, and they now felt broken. The things we used to do because they were “scrappy” were beginning to strain our infrastructure. The things we used to do because they were “fun” led to stagnation […]. The post You’ll outgrow your company’s core values.
Agile Payments
JANUARY 27, 2020
For SaaS applications with payment needs, eg Rentlee, a landlord platform offering rent collection, Payment Facilitation as a Service allows the platform to act as a master merchant account. This allows landlords to be set up as sub-accounts and begin accepting rent payments instantly. In the past Rentlee would have had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and 6+ months to register with the card associations to act as a true Payment Facilitator.
Kellblog
JANUARY 26, 2020
In part I of this three-part series I introduced the idea of an inverted funnel whereby marketing can derive a required demand generation budget using the sales target and historical conversion rates. In order to focus on the funnel itself, I made the simplifying assumption that the company’s new ARR target was constant each quarter. . In part II, I made things more realistic both by quarterizing the model (with increasing quarterly targets) and accounting for the phase lag between opportunity
As companies strive to boost revenue, deliver customer value, and stay competitive, they are increasingly embracing the potential of usage-based pricing.
Andreessen Horowitz
JANUARY 27, 2020
Blockchains are computers that can make commitments. Traditional computers are ultimately controlled by people, either directly in the case of personal computers or indirectly through organizations. Blockchains invert this power relationship, putting the code in charge. A game theoretic mechanism … The post Computers That Can Make Commitments appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.
Intello
JANUARY 30, 2020
Podcasts have become the standard for staying up on your industry, news, how to solve cold case murders and more. But who’s got time to suss out which ones are worth listening to?
FastSpring
JANUARY 28, 2020
FastSpring’s Employee Spotlight is a Q&A series that features the hardworking, intelligent, and fun people that make FastSpring great. Get to know the fantastic team behind the ecommerce platform! What is your current role at FastSpring? I am the Support Team Lead at FastSpring. My job has to do with problem-solving for our sellers and their consumers.
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