SaaStr

APRIL 12, 2024

Dear SaaStr: When You Sold Your Startup, What Were the Downsides? The post Dear SaaStr: When You Sold Your Startup, What Were the Downsides? When you sell: it’s not yours anymore; and your upside is capped. Start with Challenge #1. Ask yourself 4 “Are You OK With” questions: The name being changed? I was the first time.

Startup 233

Startup Acquisition Business Strategy 233

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What are some common reasons for the failure of startups? My experience across leading 30+ seed investments, including 4 billion+ exits so far, on why startups fail: Not 200% committed to winning no matter what. That might be OK for a few months, but beyond that, startups fall into a decay curve they don’t recover from.

Startup 207

Startup Scale CTO Pricing 207

SaaStr

APRIL 22, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Craft a Winning Investor Deck for an Early-Stage Startup? The post Dear SaaStr: How Do I Craft a Winning Investor Deck for an Early-Stage Startup? Not using 6 point font. Then fill out each section, and functional area, and the model, and the team, and the competition, etc. appeared first on SaaStr.

Startup 219

Startup Investment Leadership 219

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Do You Do When Your Startup is Not Growing Anymore? The post Dear SaaStr: What Do You Do When Your Startup is Not Growing Anymore? First, be honest about why. You can blame it on macro issues if you want, but if growth has radically decelerated, it’s likely because you are less competitive than you were before.

Startup 244

Startup B2B Metrics Product Marketing 244

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 6, 2024

Hang around startups & venture capital long enough, & you’ll hear this aphorism. In any given year, there’s an 82% chance the value of startup liquidity will change by more than 77% - both up & down. Here’s the volatility visualized across web3, consumer, & software startups.

Startup 274

Startup Venture Capital Software Marketing 274

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2024

ARR, Zendesk today gets 14% of new business from startups. On top of that, if you look at their top accounts globally, 33 of the top 50 customers by ARR are startups. This is where they started, but startups weren’t adopting the product as much with a discount, and there was a lot of conflict with the sales team. A free term.

Startup 178

Startup Scale Underperforming Technical Team AWS 178

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 10, 2022

I’m going to tell you a bit about two startups and I’d like you to guess the name of each company. Both startups provide database software to developers to build applications. Both of these businesses are publicly traded. Both have grown very fast. In fact, their revenue trajectories through 2020 are nearly identical.

Startup 337

Startup Pricing Revenue Software 337

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2022

Startups create products. When a business is ready to scale, a startup ought to develop an organizational roadmap. The question for early-stage startups is how to start building this structure. Most startups begin either with a product marketer or a demand generation specialist. Who should be the first marketing hire ?

Startup 361

Startup Acquisition Product Marketing Scaling 361

The Daily Egg

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

As startups look to the latest, The post Why Startups Opt for SIP Servers They Never Touch appeared first on The Daily Egg. For many up-and-coming businesses, every decision, every resource, and every minute can count–especially with phone plans.

Startup 269

Startup Business 269

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Will Venture Capitalists Do if Our Startup is a Loss? Bill said] ‘most startups do fail, so the odds were that Fanbase would fail , not succeed. Especially, if you’ve only raise one VC round or so. appeared first on SaaStr.

Startup 222

Startup Investment Leadership 222

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What is The Biggest Difference Between Running a 10 Person Startup and a 100 Person Startup? VP of Nothing image from here ) A related post here: What Your First 100 Hires Will Look Like The post Dear SaaStr: What is The Biggest Difference Between Running a 10 Person Startup and a 100 Person Startup?

Sales Hiring 265

Sales Hiring Startup Scale Scaling 265

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. Something that’s both not surprising but also pretty impactful: 57% of venture-backed startups will have to go “back to market” in 2024 to raise more capital. Carpe Diem.

Startup 301

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS 301

Tom Tunguz

MAY 15, 2022

As the fiscal quarters of many startups draw to a close, board members and management teams are having one of four conversations: The World is Your Oyster, Time to Strategize, Chewing Gravel, or Go Big/Go Profitable. The x-axis is the Zero Cash Date: when the startup runs out of money. The north star should be efficiency.

Startup 351

Startup Outsourced Development Scale Banking 351

Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2023

Startups operate with a broader variance with commercial teams : Canva & Databricks should paint the ends of the spectrum. The correlation with scale is effectively zero, meaning that ratio holds throughout the life of a business, barring the pre-commercialization epoch in a startup’s lifespan.

Headcount 281

Headcount Startup Scale Engineering 281

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2024

Is Generative AI going to be transformative or incremental for your startup? The beauty of startups is you’re agile, and with LLMs, it’s language-driven. So, as a startup, you need to think deeply about the customer experience and what GenAI can do for you. Many startups build a thin layer on top of OpenAI or whatever stack.

Generative AI 202

Generative AI AI Cloud Startup 202

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 13, 2022

Thanks to the many readers who wrote in to Guess the Startup on Friday. I had three goals for the Guess the Startup Post. growth rate in a year would be the envy of most seed stage startups. There were a torrent of ideas: Mongo, Twilio, Snowflake, Databricks, Niantic, Klayvio, Microsoft, DataStax, Zoom, and Peloton.

Startup 299

Startup Scale Retention Enterprise 299

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 2, 2023

Burn multiple measures the capital efficiency of a startup. Startup burn multiples have changed markedly in 2023. In contrast, startups with higher operating expenses will reduce their burn multiple by 34-70%. In contrast, startups with higher operating expenses will reduce their burn multiple by 34-70%.

Startup 286

Startup Marketing Business 286

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

I don’t see it at the truly most successful startups. But investing in startups requires a tremendous amount of trust. The post Tech and Startups Have Changed. But what I see today is many founders putting themselves higher up on that list above. But I do see it at ones that are close to the top. Mock VCs if you want.

Startup 221

Startup Venture Capital Investment Scaling 221

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

However, what many businesses may overlook is the startup segment. Often, startups are lumped in with small businesses, yet this approach fails to recognize what motivates and attracts these early-stage companies. Why Seek Out Startups? How is it that you want to sell to startups differently than the rest of your customer base?”

Startup 196

Startup Scale SMB Venture Capital 196

SaaStr

JANUARY 26, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Was Your Biggest Early Days Mistake In Your Startups? But I’d have to say in both my startups, the biggest mistake was not taking the time in the beginning to get the founding team right. I survived this in both of my startups. Boy it’s tough to pick just one mistake. This is tough. You want to go, go, go.

Startup 209

Startup Leadership 209

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2023

Slower sales cycles create pipeline shocks & startups are feeling the impacts. The average startup saw a 24% increase in sales cycle from early 2022 to 2023. Startups selling to enterprises have increased 36%, twice those of Mid-Market & SMB focused companies. Sales cycles shifted dramatically in 2023.

Startup 336

Startup SMB Headcount Sales 336

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What happens to employees after your startup gets acquired? The post Dear SaaStr: What Happens to Employees After Your Startup Gets Acquired? It varies — a lot. But as a rule: Top engineers will all be given retention packages, extra money / RSUs / options designed to keep them for 2-4 years.

Startup 210

Startup Sales Hiring Finance Acquisition 210

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Can a startup without any prior experience raise money from venture capitalists (VCs)? A bit more here: Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days? The post Dear SaaStr: Can A Startup Without Any Prior Experience Raise Money From VCs? A founder that sold their last company for $200m?

Venture Capital 212

Venture Capital Startup Product Marketing Marketing 212

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Successful Startups Were Launched While The Founders Worked 9 to 5? link] The post Dear SaaStr: What Successful Startups Were Launched While The Founders Worked 9 to 5? I’m not aware of any huge successes in SaaS that were active side projects while the founders worked at different companies.

Startup 208

Startup Consulting SaaS Business 208

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2024

Dear SaaStr: I’m Being Recruited by a Startup That Just Raised $5m. More here: One Tough (But Rewarding) Job: Being the First Sales Rep at a SaaS Startup (first one image from here ) The post I’m Thinking of Joining an Early Stage Startup as the First Sales Exec. How Do I Vet Them? At least, usually. How Do I Pick Right?

Sales Recruiting 204

Sales Recruiting CTO Startup Sales 204

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 1, 2022

How much value does a successful software startup create per dollar of venture investment? Over the last 30 years, a venture dollar invested in a successful US software startup generated $10 of value. In addition to MOIC patterns, the data reveals three startup fundraising epochs. Startups in the 90s raised less than $10m.

Startup 308

Startup Software Pricing Investment 308

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What Do I Do When My CEO Is Destroying My Startup? It can be tempting to want to “do something” when a CEO is seemingly destroying a startup: You can take it to the board of directors. But in general, investors and boards of directors have seen a lot of startups struggle. You quietly, and respectfully, move on.

Startup 202

Startup 202

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2023

AI startups building next-generation offerings should prioritize common workflows shared across a significant fraction of the employee population or workflows for highly paid employees. Startups should focus on AI for Execs (perhaps why legal has been a heavily funded category) & AI for common workstreams (code autocompletion).

AI 321

AI Startup Scale Headcount 321

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Big of a Return Are VCs Looking For in a Startup? jasonlk) June 17, 2023 The post Dear SaaStr: How Big of a Return Are VCs Looking For in a Startup? For Angel, Pre-Seed: At least 50x, with a possible chance of mode. The loss rate in general is so high here, the winners have to do 50x. appeared first on SaaStr.

Venture Capital 227

Venture Capital Startup Investment Leadership 227

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 25, 2022

In a fundraising environment awash with capital and term sheets lapping up on the front doors of many startups, why might we see more self-repricings? Startups appeal to candidates span many dimensions: influence, category creation, smaller teams. How broad might startup self-repricing become?

Startup 307

Startup Software Review Forecasting Pricing 307