SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? We recently led a [ $50M series B ] investment in Todyl, which is a modular cybersecurity platform for small and medium businesses. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? What’s different about your fund / how you invest and support founders?

Venture Capital 254

Venture Capital Cybersecurity Scale Artificial Intelligence 254

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 1, 2024

” I heard that a lot in 2021, and unfortunately not many call options hit… It’s hard to invest at 100x ARR and exit at 10x and make a return VCs aim for. Even a DCF is riddled with long term assumptions. Everything getting pre-empted. The volume of pre-empted rounds is skyrocketing. This is a more recent phenomenon.

Cloud 311

Cloud AI Investment Metrics 311

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 9, 2020

and then held multiple roles at AppDynamics, where she was recently promoted to General Manager. In our recent conversation, Linda reminded us about the importance of management, the pros and cons of different cultures, and how one can manage and thrive in each. Managing teams allows you to do something bigger than yourself.

Startup 256

Startup Management Systems Review Leadership 256

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? This was precisely my experience upon meeting Toni and Carlos, the founders of Embat, in an area we’ve extensively have been exploring: treasury management and payment automation. Embat is building the next-generation treasury management software. Why did you do the deal?

Payments 208

Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Scale 208

BetterCloud

MARCH 13, 2024

, we need an easy and effective way to manage it. SaaS management goes beyond contracts and licensing agreements. Enter SaaS spend management. How to manage your SaaS spend There’s a big difference between saying you want to save money and actually doing it. At the end of the day, money makes the world go round.

Management 52

Management SaaS Systems Review Technical Review 52

Neil Patel

DECEMBER 10, 2020

How do you successfully manage your online reputation, too? But if you’re already managing a lot, your best bet is outsourcing it to an ORM, or an online reputation manager. To help you put your best image out there, I’ve reviewed and done extensive research on online reputation managers, so you don’t have to.

Management 145

Management Outsourcing Services Social Media Sales Hiring 145

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 26, 2024

Azure doesn’t disclose exact Azure quarterly revenue (they disclose growth rate in absolute terms and in constant currency), but there are good estimations. The full quote is below: “We expect capital expenditures to increase materially on a sequential basis driven by cloud and AI infrastructure investments.

Azure 177

Azure Cloud Software AI 177

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2023

Year after year, VCs show up to SaaStr Annual locked and loaded, term sheets in hands , on the hunt for soon-to-be Unicorns to add to their portfolios. From the Founding Partners, Managing Directors and big name SaaS VCs who grace the stage. And remember, most VCs will only make a handful of investments each year.

Venture Capital 200

Venture Capital Banking Cloud Investment 200

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? We invest across all stages — seed, early venture, and growth, with a primary focus on early-stage. Some of our most notable investments include Figma, Datadog, Discord, Adyen and Roblox.

Technical Review 210

Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions Venture Capital 210

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2023

In an AMA at SaaStr APAC 2023, Black Mangroves Founder and Managing Director Arnaud Bonzom, and SaaStr Founder and CEO, Jason Lemkin answered some of the bigger questions about venture investing in 2023. To invest, investors have to believe achieving a $2B or higher exit is possible. 2021 was a wild time. In the U.S.,

Venture Capital 206

Venture Capital Management Business Model Trends 206

SaaStr

DECEMBER 5, 2022

Startups often begin with a bootstrapping phase with little to no outside investment. Paddle’s Senior Product Manager, Allissa Chan, and Chief Strategy Officer, Patrick Campbell, share their experience of scaling a bootstrapped startup. Longer-term plans drive higher lifetime value (LTV). Lever #2: Plan optimization.

Payments 130

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Venture Capital 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Limited Partners or “LPs” are the folks that give the VC partners (the “General Partners”) the actual money to invest. Folks with billions and billions to invest over the long term. If they lose confidence in the GPs and stop funding, they can lose 100% of their investment. LPs fund that capital.

Investment 202

Investment Management 202

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2023

So many mistakes you'll look back in VC But the #1 you'll probably regret was letting those founders leave the room, leave the pitch, leave the Zoom … that you >knew< were going to win There's a reason why even Sequoia gets those ones a term sheet the same day — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  ?? The merely good ones.

Investment 288

Investment Cloud SaaS Management 288

Subscription Flow

JANUARY 30, 2024

SaaS renewal management’s primary goal is to increase customer retention and in turn, recurring revenue growth. To encourage your customers to renew their subscriptions at the end of their term, a number of procedures and tactics are involved in devising your B2B SaaS renewal strategy.

SaaS Payments 59

SaaS Payments B2B Strategy Payment Services 59

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 1, 2024

At $784m in ARR, growing 47% with 130% net revenue retention across 6100 customers, the company should be one of top 10 fastest growing software companies alongside Klaviyo, ZScaler, & Crowdstrike - in ARR terms. Half of new customers are over $100,000 in size & contract values have grown 19% from $101k to $120k in a year.

Data 195

Data Subscription Payment Features Cloud 195

SaaStr

AUGUST 19, 2023

can all basically raise a new fund in about a week … on any terms … the majority of firms do struggle to raise additional funds. If you can’t raise another fund, you get paid at least something to manage your existing investments for 10+ years. Challenge #3: Not Doing “Pretty Good” Investments. Why will you win?

Venture Capital 239

Venture Capital Benchmarks Investment Startup 239

SaaStr

APRIL 20, 2024

Will AI let ICs do more, with fewer managers? Bad hires are always the fault of the founder or hiring manager, not the hire. Building a Brand Building a brand is essential for long-term success. Once a double-digit percentage of the core customer base has heard of the company, it’s time to invest in brand marketing.

Sales Hiring 260

Sales Hiring Startup Marketing Technical Review 260

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS, Venture Capital, Bootstrapping, and Valuations – understanding market trends and investment patterns is critical. We’ll explain Jason’s take on the recent market fluctuations, highlighting major deals that shaped investment patterns and their effects on valuation trends.

Venture Capital 218

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 218

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 29, 2024

Even a DCF is riddled with long term assumptions. Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter").

Cloud 278

Cloud Forecasting Subscription Payment Features 278

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

The articles: Defines the weighted scoring model Discusses its advantages and disadvantages Shows how product and project managers can create their own model Explains how to follow up on the results Let’s get right into it! When to use the weighted scoring method in product and project management? Book the demo to find out more!

Management 90

Management Interviewing Development Revenue 90

Clouded Judgement

MAY 3, 2024

Even a DCF is riddled with long term assumptions. Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter").

Cost optimization & reporting 183

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Software Azure 183

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2023

Securing funding has become more challenging for SaaS companies over the past few years as VC firms have grown more cautious about their investments. Strategic Funds: An Introduction Greer began his VC career at OpenView VentureCapital, where he invested in brands like Loopio, Calendly, and Applitools. Sign up for free.

Investment 213

Investment Startup Branding Acquisition 213

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

I’ve had the privilege to invest one way or another in about 35 SaaS companies, both as a VC and as angel. They understand why they got “No”s in the early, pre-traction days, and even, in the early-ish days when they had a handful of customers but wasn’t really taking off yet (my favorite time to invest).

Scale 339

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 339

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2024

They’ve reduced CAC and operated with a one or sub-one burn multiple, which is where everyone’s trying to get.But when Kyle joined the company, they had one manager and four reps. Lesson #2: Invest in Prospect Data Way Earlier So, now that you know what the customer looks like, you need to know how to target them.

Scale 252

Scale SMB Sales Hiring Sales 252

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Subscribe now Revisiting the “Is Software Expensive” Question The current median revenue multiple for the software universe is 6.4x, which is ~17% below the long term average multiple of 7.8x. During the period where the long term average multiple was 7.8x, the median projected growth rate was 27%.

Cloud 177

Cloud Subscription Payment Features Metrics 177

SaaStr

AUGUST 14, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Does The VC Fund Pay for Legal Fees After The Term Sheet is Signed? In part because while VCs do have a fair amount of “management fees” to pay for expenses, those fees also pay their salaries. If I lead a round with a million+ investment, I have the startup pay SaaStr Fund’s legal fees , I just put it in the term sheet.

Finance 207

Finance Banking Startup Investment 207

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2022

I wrote an original version of How Venture Term Sheets explode (and implode) quite some time back, and TechCrunch was gracious enough to publish it here. VCs stopped doing much diligence, deals closed in days, and term sheets rarely exploded, or imploded. Why do deals fall apart post-term sheet? Even if a term sheet is signed.

Finance 282

Finance Technical Review CTO Hire New CTO 282

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2023

Having backed more than 115 companies and facilitated over 420 add-on acquisitions, we bring extensive investment experience, deep expertise in software and technology, and a firm commitment to collaborating with management teams. Vertice is a tech-enabled SaaS purchasing platform. We think about it in 2 parts.

Outsourced Development 210

Outsourced Development Acquisition Pricing B2B 210

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2022

As Crunchbase noted just the other day , growth rounds are down at least 40% as well, and their data likely has more lag than AngelList (and is from a few weeks earlier): The bottom line is every category of venture investment has gotten harder since the go-go days of 2021. It is what it is. Just be aware of it.

Pricing 342

Pricing Investment Data Marketing 342

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Complexity and building out a tech stack to manage that complexity are happening. There’s also a management and leadership layer to enable and coach individual contributors. A really strong organization in place in terms of geographic presence and the size of your customers is key. By hiring great managers and leaders.

Scale 237

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 237

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2020

Christoph has invested in more than 20 SaaS startups and lives and breathes SaaS, everything from “A as in AI-enhanced B2B software” to “Z as in Zendesk”. Guru is the knowledge management solution that delivers the information you need when and where you need it. Up today, Christoph Janz, managing partner at Point Nine Capital.

Development Team Review 157

Development Team Review Software Review Management SaaS Payments 157