Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 21, 2023

The 63 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between October 25th – December 7th. Over my years as a VC, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are all building special companies.

Cloud 177

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 177

FastSpring

APRIL 23, 2024

It’s a capable solution, but by no means is Paddle a universal, one-size-fits-all option. FastSpring is an experienced merchant of record that provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, and digital goods businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support.

Payment Services 101

Payment Services Payment Methods Merchant Services Payment Solutions 101

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2023

ARR stands for Annualized Recurring Revenue, although its real-world definition has evolved over time. As you’ll learn further down in this article, ARR now means any type of software-related revenue with 100%+ Net Revenue Retention (NRR), even if it’s not truly recurring. The only thing that mattered was revenue.

Metrics 196

Metrics SaaS Sales Hiring Finance 196

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 25, 2023

Klaviyo Overview From the S1 - “Klaviyo enables businesses to drive revenue growth by making it easy to bring their first-party data together and use it to create and deliver highly personalized consumer experiences across digital channels. So we’re looking at roughly 5 weeks before any retail investor can buy the stock.

Benchmarks 246

Benchmarks Artificial Intelligence Data Software Review 246

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2023

A so-so CEO with good traction usually … ends up not scaling to something all that big. And good growth slows to … not so good growth. Investing when growth is strong but the burn rate is too high. If the founders aren’t 100% all-in, just pass. Investing in mediocre growth. Investing in pseudo-SaaS.

Investment 302

Investment Startup Scaling SaaS 302

SaaStr

DECEMBER 6, 2023

The consumer side is ten times more stressful because you don’t have recurring revenue, and a single change in the platform can alter the entire dynamics of your business model. But Box has lucked out with 95% recurring revenue. They get to talk to brand-new businesses in completely different industries all the time.

AI 212

AI Sales Hiring Scale Artificial Intelligence 212

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

The 62 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between July 27th – September 8th. Over my years as a VC, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are all building special companies.

Cloud 169

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 169

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2023

But i f your growth is still pretty good and you’re bootstrapped, you weren’t cool in 2021. It took Daniel Dines from UiPath 10 years to get to $1M in revenue, and then he went from $1 to $100M in 2-3 years. Lemkin says almost all CEOs fail to calculate the amount of human capital it will take to hit these numbers.

Sales Hiring 236

Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success SaaS 236

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

— Jason Be Kind Lemkin  (@jasonlk) February 20, 2023 So in the Boom Times of late 2020 though early 2022, all we talked about was Unicorns. But one thing no one talked about was how the power and magic in recurring revenue can make a $100,000,000 exit magical if you are capital efficient. What do I mean?

Acquisition 303

Acquisition Startup Business Model SaaS 303

Stax

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

So, of course when it came to revenue-driving activities, Ford knew that success in marketing—and business—wasn’t about how much your marketing spend is, but how efficiently you spend it. Enter the SaaS Magic Number, which measures the return on sales and marketing spend in generating new subscription revenue.

SaaS Payments 88

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Services Stax 88

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

You can see all the slides here. Cloud founders are feeling the pressure of the current climate, and it’s understandable why: They’re grappling with inflation, rising interest rates, and all of that against a backdrop of a compressing public market. . Activate your product-led growth levers.

Cloud 239

Cloud Trends Benchmarks Business Model 239

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2022

That Box would of course get to $1B in ARR given how much momentum it had at $200m in ARR — that’s the magic of recurring revenue. At the time, most folks didn’t really get SaaS, NRR and recurring revenue. We all do now. And now we’re here! Box is now crossing $1B in ARR.

Scale 254

Scale Scaling Enterprise Revenue 254

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 18, 2020

Most high-growth software investors value public companies on enterprise value to forward revenue multiple. But investors in private companies use a different metric, enterprise value to forward annual recurring revenue (ARR).The The public markets project revenue for the next 12 months.

Software Review 363

Software Review Finance Enterprise Acquisition 363

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Metrics are the key to evaluating success and setting goals, but not every SaaS business should orient itself around the same one-size-fits-all numbers. For many, it’s proven to be a year of growth and resiliency. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that SaaS metrics gained respect and popularity in the industry. ASP = $30K +.

Metrics 218

Metrics Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Technical Review 218

SaaStr

MAY 14, 2021

It’s hard to get that last bit of growth out of the engine. So it’s hard to dig even deeper inside yourself to get that last 10-15% of additional, much-harder-to-achieve revenue out of the ether. —————— Recurring revenue businesses have pros and cons. And SaaS is tiring.

Sales Hiring 276

Sales Hiring Scale Engineering Customer Success 276

SaaStr

APRIL 18, 2021

Salesforce Growth: 2021 $20.8B The reasons are many, but I think they can almost all be summed up in one key factor: SaaS compounds. It means it’s really, really hard to get revenues going. You close a customer for $120 in annualized revenue, you only get to recognize $10 of that a month. Guidance 2020 $17.1B

SaaS 317

SaaS Travel Churn Revenue 317

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 20, 2023

The 63 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between April 2th – June 8th. Over my years as a VC, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are all building special companies.

Cloud 161

Cloud Software Benchmarks Scale 161

User Pilot

MARCH 25, 2024

It uses revenue and operating costs to determine the company’s value. Revenue-based valuations are more suitable for SaaS startups because it doesn’t take into account upfront investment which affects SDE or EBITDA negatively. The multiple depends on numerous factors, like sustainability and transferability of revenue and growth.

SaaS 90

SaaS Customer Lifetime Value Acquisition Metrics 90

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2022

You’ll want them to pay yo back for all the hard work you put into them. The thing is, unless (i) you are in slow growth mode, (ii) don’t care about NPS/customer happiness, and (iii) are not focused on long-term renewals … it’s not worth it: Your NPS/CSAT will plummet to Less Than Zero if you do this a lot. You’ll be mad!

SaaS 264

SaaS Churn Revenue Pricing 264

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 4, 2024

billion by the end of calendar year 2027, based on market estimates in Gartner® research, representing an average 13% compounded annual growth rate. Our platform’s broad capability allows us to serve organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries and geographies. billion in Backup and Recovery Software and$1.9

Benchmarks 117

Benchmarks Data Cybersecurity Cloud 117

Stax

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

We can see this trend in action in the realm of payment processing with the advent of recurring payments, also known as automatic payments. So, let’s dive into the realm of recurring payments and how they can benefit your business. Learn More What are Recurring Billing and Payments? How Do Recurring Payments Work?

Payment Services 88

Payment Services Payment Features Merchant Services Payment Methods 88

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 12, 2023

The 63 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between January 25th – March 30th. Over my years as a VC, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are all building special companies.

Cloud 161

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 161

Stax

JANUARY 29, 2024

As industry leaders in billing software, our mission is to help our customers work more efficiently, recover more revenue, and effortlessly collect invoices. TL;DR A billing platform is a comprehensive system facilitating subscription management, recurring billing, revenue recognition, payment gateways, analytics, and dunning processes.

Stax 88

Stax Payments Payment Services Payment Features 88

SaaStr

JANUARY 20, 2021

It’s the benefit of a recurring revenue stream in a B2B model. It’s real time, not lagging, and it clearly predicts your future revenues and growth. And it’s more important strategically than your revenue growth this month or this quarter. Often, much higher growth.

Metrics 347

Metrics SaaS Revenue B2B 347

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2020

And in any event, recurring revenue recurs. In SaaS, we will all be fine. But we aren’t all, IMHO, planning for next year yet properly. You know your new growth rate, your new retention rate, your new churn rate. That can be your base plan to start, for both top line (revenue) and burn rate.

Airlines 357

Airlines Government Entertainment Travel 357

Totango

APRIL 9, 2024

Chris Dishman , SVP of Customer Success for Totango & Catalyst, hosted a roundtable discussion with industry leaders, including Rashmi Chari , Head of Global Customer Success for ThousandEyes, Kevin McIntyre , Chief Revenue Officer for Dealfront, and Madelyn DePrey , VP of Customer Success for Aircall.

Scale 106

Scale Sales Compensation Customer Success 106

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2021

Its growth is 20% Year-over-Year, an incredible growth rate at $24B ARR … and faster than anyone has ever grown in software at $20B+ ARR … but at the edge of what it takes to be a “fast-growing” SaaS company. Below 20% growth, and you’re a mature SaaS company. 5 Interesting Learnings: 1.

Deferred Revenue 299

Deferred Revenue Cloud Churn Scale 299

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Document Cloud revenue was $2.38 billion, representing 21 percent year-over-year growth or 24 percent adjusted year-over-year growth1.”. Adobe – Adobe Reports Record Q4 and Fiscal 2022 Revenue [link]. in revenue in 2021, about $8B dropped to operating income and well over that in free cash flow. Not too shabby.

Scale 266

Scale Cloud Subscription Payment Features 266

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

A Pivot From Growth At All Costs To Driving Profitability The Cloud model of recurring revenue, low marginal distribution costs, and strong net dollar retention dynamics is possibly one of the best and most resilient business models ever invented. There’s been a pivot from growth at all costs to driving profitability.

Cloud 250

Cloud Payments Software Review Payment Solutions 250

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

Join these incredible companies to experience all the value of SaaStr! Our suite of financial tools makes it easy to turn recurring revenue into flexible growth financing. Tilled was created to empower software vendors, marketplaces, and SAAS companies to start generating revenue from accepting credit cards.

SaaS Payments 222

SaaS Payments Payment Services PayFac as a Service Payfac 222

SaaStr

APRIL 9, 2020

That’s different of course from renewals, and upsells, and all that. Most importantly, a 31% decline in license revenue. Why is license revenue interesting? Because unlike its SaaS businesses, it’s non-recurring. And it fell 31%: Now SAP still announced a 29% growth in cloud revenue. Absolutely.

Cloud 252

Cloud Enterprise Retention Revenue 252

Stax

MARCH 6, 2024

For businesses offering subscriptions, memberships, retainers, and other recurring services, recurring billing is a powerful solution to streamline processes and ultimately enhance revenue generation. Users are used to recurring charges, and businesses are primed to take advantage. Learn More What is Recurring Billing?

Merchant Services 88

Merchant Services Payment Services Payment Methods Payment Features 88

Stax

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Here’s an interesting stat: 70% of businesses consider subscription and membership models indispensable for future commercial growth and expansion. This includes subscription management, revenue recognition, dunning management, integrations with other business systems, fraud prevention, and more. What is a SaaS Billing Platform?

Payments 88

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services Merchant Services 88

User Pilot

OCTOBER 4, 2023

If you’re trying to figure out how quickly your SaaS business is growing, MRR growth rate is the answer. A simple yet effective answer to all your growth-related questions. Net monthly recurring revenue (MRR) growth enables you to calculate the change in your company’s recurring revenue on a month-to-month basis.

Metrics 87

Metrics Customer Lifetime Value Churn Retention 87

Blulogix

APRIL 12, 2024

This final blog post underscores how leveraging the inherent intricacies of subscription billing can propel businesses towards increased revenue, enhanced profitability, and elevated customer satisfaction. Complexity, after all, is indicative of a highly customizable and flexible service offering that caters to diverse customer needs.

Payment Features 52

Payment Features Subscription Payments B2B 52

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

The CEO doesn’t mind owning it in the beginning because all founders are passionate about their customers. And during a growth phase, we become overwhelmingly growth-oriented to a fault. Any organization with triple-digit NRR needs to spend all its oxygen on making customers happy. It’s all this.

Customer Success 237

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale AI 237

SaaStr

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Zoom went from $1B to $4B, and they can’t climb all the way to $256B. All VPs gather in a room and go around the table, sharing apps and people to get rid of. The Heavily Impacted, Not Impacted, and Mildly Impacted Zoominfo is a hero company, bootstrapped to a billion-something in revenue and profitable every year.

Sales Hiring 241

Sales Hiring SaaS Headcount Compensation 241