INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
I was curious the other day how many of the recent Cloud and SaaS IPOs had founders that were equal co-founders from an equity perspective. That was how I was brought up (the first start-up job I had, the founders were equal shareholders). MORE
Google Analytics is without a doubt the single most popular digital analytics tool of all time. Full stop. While it’s impossible for anyone to give the exact number, according to many different sources it’s used by over 50% of websites on the internet. MORE
Source: [link]. This is the third in my series on SaaS Metrics for Enterprise-Driven B2B Networks. I spend very little time on issues of compensation on this blog. But it turns out, this is a really important issue for Enterprise-Driven B2B Networks. MORE
So I’ve had a chance to observe some of the worst sales processes of all times in the past few weeks! What happened? Well, first I wrote a few small pieces on a challenge we had with a piece of software. MORE
A couple of posts ago , I started a series on SaaS metrics unique to enterprise-driven B2B Networks. In that first post, I covered the Buyer-Supplier revenue mix. This time, let’s consider modifying the concept of LTV/CAC to include an enterprise’s ecosystem. Modified LTV/CAC. MORE
Change Healthcare is going public (again). The IPO provides another opportunity to examine a massive B2B inter-enterprise network, Change Healthcare’s Intelligent Healthcare Network. I previously wrote about this network when it was called Emdeon ( see here ). MORE
Welcome to the last, and most important, in my series of posts on metrics unique to Enterprise-Driven B2B Networks. The last metric, buyers per supplier, is easy to calculate if your platform is architected as a network. (If MORE
Fleetcor (FLT) closed on its acquisition of privately-held nvoicepay on April 1, 2019. Fleetcor’s first quarterly earnings report since the acquisition provides insight into the economics of the B2B payments space. Nvoicepay. MORE
We now have over 157,000 subscribers to the SaaStr Cloud Daily on Quora , 8,600,000+ views, and are adding thousands of new followers per week. One benefit from Cloud Daily is our community speaks and upvotes their top stories of the week. MORE
There are many great articles about SaaS metrics on the web (e.g., see here , here and here.) There are also great resources for metrics specific to marketplaces (see here ). MORE
Fiverr, a marketplace for freelancers just joined the parade of software companies going public. The Fiverr filing sets up a comparison of Fiverr versus Upwork, the grand-daddy of freelancer marketplaces. Upwork went public last year.) (See See here and here ). MORE
Last week I wrote a post about Fleetcor’s acquisition of Nvoicepay. The acquisition represented an opportunity to learn more about the economics of B2B payments. The acquisition also prompted me to review Bottomline’s financial reports. MORE
My last post was partly about healthcare payments in the form of Change Healthcare’s Intelligent Healthcare Network. I did not set out to write another post about healthcare payments, but reading Phreesia’s S-1 compels me to. MORE
Last week, SaaS stocks fell by about 18% on average. The chart above shows the most recent enterprise value to forward multiple for a basket of next-generation software companies. The red line is the value and the blue line is the median over the same time frame. MORE
It is crucial to have a “clean” Salesforce instance, but it’s another daunting task to maintain it. Startups are built from the ground up and one of the major stepping stones is promoting an environment of accountability among your sales reps to properly input data and to follow sales best practices. MORE
Gartner recently published its 2019 Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites. Once again , I have superimposed valuation information onto the Magic Quadrant. (I I still don’t understand why Gartner has not varied the size of the “dots” to add more information to the charts. MORE
Two years ago, we raised our first impact fund, closing just under $7M in the fall of 2017. Since then, we have made over 73 investments and our fund is nearly fully invested. . MORE
The vast majority of tech press is about B2C software companies or software for IT department (e.g., databases, security, performance monitoring and other stuff) that does not excite me. But, there are a few good b2b blogs and newsletters those of you interested in enterprise cloud business applications should follow for inspiration. My nominations, in no particular order, are as follows: Price intelligently. MORE
There’s a simple point I’ve been talking about a lot lately, but it’s a super important one: When the time comes when you have enough momentum, capital, etc. to hire a real VP or two … you don’t have to start with the VP of Sales. MORE
As you begin to scale and add a sales team, you’ll encounter more and more drama with “bad” customers. These so called “bad” customers from a sales team perspective will include: Folks that share licenses that shouldn’t be. Sales will get mad they aren’t buying more seats. Folks that use SMB or other editions that should be on your more expensive enterprise plans. Sales will feel they are getting ripped off; and perhaps the worst. MORE
At the recent A+ Traction conference in Vancouver , Justin Kan and I had a lot of fun doing a presentation I hadn’t done or seen before — “S**t VCs Say” We went through some of the Top 10 things that VCs tell you, that is true but … biased. Every investor has a bias. MORE
Established in 1995, Angie’s List was the pioneer in the home services marketplace. Home Advisor (IAC) announced last week it is acquiring Angie’s List (ANGI) for more than $500 million. MORE
Early (and Fuzzy) Saas Metrics From B2B Networks. Until a B2B Network catches on, the metrics can be gloomy. (The The first few years of the Ariba Network were pretty dismal, for instance.) MORE
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of American Express (Amex) in an antitrust case 11 states had brought against Amex (see here ). MORE
I love the word “oligoply” It’s a fancy word for a market structure in which a few companies have the large majority of market share. The recent news reminds me just how many markets are becoming oligopolistic–especially those dominated by platform software. MORE
One of the main responsibilities of your marketing team is determining which campaigns are the best campaigns. This is no small feet. MORE
Before we dive in, let’s cover the basics: what are campaign attribution models and why are they important ? . Attribution modeling is a way to analyze which marketing channels are accredited with lead conversion. Think of your attribution model as a map of sorts. MORE
For those of us who follow pricing strategy in two-sided markets, last week was a milestone. MORE
So we are gearing up now for the 6th (!) ever SaaStrAnnual , March 10-12 in San Jose / SF Bay Area. So much has changed. We’ve added 200+ SaaS unicorns and 30+ IPOs. The Cloud has grown 700% since the first Annual, if we use AWS as a proxy. MORE
The two questions I’m most often asked are: 1. How do you keep your hair looking so lush and luxurious? How much can a B2B Marketplace or Multi-Sided Platform charge for its services? Some folks call this the platform’s “take rate” ). MORE
Sunday’s Business Insider had a great article on, Cargomatic, a company promising (as do many others) to be the “Uber for Truckers” By that, Cargomatic means it will match shippers with goods to ship with truckers with excess capacity. MORE
Three separate events last week reminded me that every spend category has its “dirty little secrets” Suppliers can exploit these “dirty little secrets” to squeeze a little more from buyers than buyers bargained for. MORE
Which sectors see more startup company formation than others? The answer has changed quite a bit over the last 8 years. Some sectors have hit their apogee and are declining. Others have grown by more than 3x. Yet others are growing geometrically. Let’s take a look. Hot Spaces. MORE
Marketing attribution is no buzzword. It’s a fundamental building block of achieving ROI. Sometimes seen as more art than science, it’s often given too little attention – or too much. When sales cycles are short, marketing attribution can be fairly straightforward. MORE
I remember the first time I lost a six figure customer. It was a surprise: They used the product every day, and constantly. They had done a case study for us. In fact, they were on our homepage. They renewed the contract and added additional seats. And then one day, we got a call. MORE
Many do and have. As we see more and more SaaS companies cross $1b+ in ARR (wow!), Twilio being the latest, we see more and more adding new core products to their existing core products. Twilio started with SMS. Now that’s just a piece of Twilio, and its 81%+ growth at $1b (double wow!) MORE
Software Platform Consulting
JUNE 25, 2019
Change Healthcare is going public (again). The IPO provides another opportunity to examine a massive B2B inter-enterprise network, Change Healthcare’s Intelligent Healthcare Network. I previously wrote about this network when it was called Emdeon ( see here ).
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 6, 2019
There are many great articles about SaaS metrics on the web (e.g., see here , here and here.) There are also great resources for metrics specific to marketplaces (see here ).
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 28, 2019
Source: [link]. This is the third in my series on SaaS Metrics for Enterprise-Driven B2B Networks. I spend very little time on issues of compensation on this blog. But it turns out, this is a really important issue for Enterprise-Driven B2B Networks.
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 8, 2019
Fleetcor (FLT) closed on its acquisition of privately-held nvoicepay on April 1, 2019. Fleetcor’s first quarterly earnings report since the acquisition provides insight into the economics of the B2B payments space. Nvoicepay.
Speaker: Teresa Torres, Product Discovery Coach, Product Talk, David Bland, Founder and CEO, Precoil, and Hope Gurion, Product Coach and Advisor, Fearless Product LLC
If you want to build what matters, you can't move forward blindly. But to make progress, you can't let things slow to a crawl while you focus resources on gathering data. This is where continuous discovery and experimentation come in. Join Teresa Torres (Product Discovery Coach, Product Talk), David Bland (Founder, Precoil), and Hope Gurion (Product Coach and Advisor, Fearless Product) in a panel discussion as they cover how - and why - to build a culture of discovery and experimentation in your organization.
Software Platform Consulting
AUGUST 5, 2019
Gartner recently published its 2019 Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites. Once again , I have superimposed valuation information onto the Magic Quadrant. (I I still don’t understand why Gartner has not varied the size of the “dots” to add more information to the charts.
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 22, 2019
A couple of posts ago , I started a series on SaaS metrics unique to enterprise-driven B2B Networks. In that first post, I covered the Buyer-Supplier revenue mix. This time, let’s consider modifying the concept of LTV/CAC to include an enterprise’s ecosystem. Modified LTV/CAC.
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Software Platform Consulting
JUNE 3, 2019
Welcome to the last, and most important, in my series of posts on metrics unique to Enterprise-Driven B2B Networks. The last metric, buyers per supplier, is easy to calculate if your platform is architected as a network. (If
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 20, 2019
Fiverr, a marketplace for freelancers just joined the parade of software companies going public. The Fiverr filing sets up a comparison of Fiverr versus Upwork, the grand-daddy of freelancer marketplaces. Upwork went public last year.) (See See here and here ).
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 14, 2019
Last week I wrote a post about Fleetcor’s acquisition of Nvoicepay. The acquisition represented an opportunity to learn more about the economics of B2B payments. The acquisition also prompted me to review Bottomline’s financial reports.
Software Platform Consulting
JUNE 26, 2018
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of American Express (Amex) in an antitrust case 11 states had brought against Amex (see here ).
Speaker: Terhi Hanninen, Senior Product Manager, Zalando, and Dr. Franziska Roth, Senior User Researcher, Zalando
It's important to know your users - what are their preferences, pain points, ultimate goals? With user research and usage data, you can get a great idea of how your users act. The tricky part is, very few users reliably act the same way every time they use your product. Join Terhi Hanninen, Senior Product Manager, and Dr. Franziska Roth, Senior User Researcher at Zalando, as they explain how they were able to reach a new level of user understanding - by taking their user research and segmenting their users by point-in-time intent. You'll leave with a strategy to change how your product team, and organization at large, understands your users.
Software Platform Consulting
MAY 9, 2017
Established in 1995, Angie’s List was the pioneer in the home services marketplace. Home Advisor (IAC) announced last week it is acquiring Angie’s List (ANGI) for more than $500 million.
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Software Platform Consulting
MAY 16, 2017
I love the word “oligoply” It’s a fancy word for a market structure in which a few companies have the large majority of market share. The recent news reminds me just how many markets are becoming oligopolistic–especially those dominated by platform software.
Software Platform Consulting
SEPTEMBER 27, 2016
Early (and Fuzzy) Saas Metrics From B2B Networks. Until a B2B Network catches on, the metrics can be gloomy. (The The first few years of the Ariba Network were pretty dismal, for instance.)
Software Platform Consulting
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
Sunday’s Business Insider had a great article on, Cargomatic, a company promising (as do many others) to be the “Uber for Truckers” By that, Cargomatic means it will match shippers with goods to ship with truckers with excess capacity.
Software Platform Consulting
MARCH 23, 2016
Three separate events last week reminded me that every spend category has its “dirty little secrets” Suppliers can exploit these “dirty little secrets” to squeeze a little more from buyers than buyers bargained for.
Speaker: Richard Cardran, Chief Creative Officer and VP Strategy, HIA Technologies
Innovation is both a process and an outcome. The best way to begin innovating your products is by innovating your internal process. We'll explore the challenges, solutions, and hands-on techniques for becoming a successful "agent of change" within a well-established product culture. We'll examine the importance of UX and user-centric feature analysis, the adaptation of Agile Methodologies to the creative process, as well as a way to drive successful culture change for setting expectations and winning approvals with cross-functional stakeholders. Innovation and Leadership go hand in hand. Join Richard Cardran, Chief Creative Officer and VP Strategy, HIA Technologies, as we assess some case studies to see how to lead with a clear strategy well-defined tactics, and an unbiased understanding of the fundamental question: "why are you innovating?"
Software Platform Consulting
MARCH 7, 2016
For those of us who follow pricing strategy in two-sided markets, last week was a milestone.
Software Platform Consulting
AUGUST 6, 2015
The two questions I’m most often asked are: 1. How do you keep your hair looking so lush and luxurious? How much can a B2B Marketplace or Multi-Sided Platform charge for its services? Some folks call this the platform’s “take rate” ).
Software Platform Consulting
NOVEMBER 25, 2014
The vast majority of tech press is about B2C software companies or software for IT department (e.g., databases, security, performance monitoring and other stuff) that does not excite me. But, there are a few good b2b blogs and newsletters those of you interested in enterprise cloud business applications should follow for inspiration. My nominations, in no particular order, are as follows: Price intelligently.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
I was curious the other day how many of the recent Cloud and SaaS IPOs had founders that were equal co-founders from an equity perspective. That was how I was brought up (the first start-up job I had, the founders were equal shareholders).
Speaker: Dean Yao, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Logi Analytics
Businesses are run with analytics - but companies continue to struggle with interpreting, analyzing, and distributing data. Operational reports help get information to the people who need it most, in formats they understand, and in a timeframe that matters. Join the webinar to learn how embedding operational reports can give your users a precisely formatted, ready-to-analyze view of their operational activities. World-class software teams are embedding operational reports to empower end users with interactive data visualizations, detailed information, and highly precise formats that can be shared via email, PDF, print, or online.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
At the recent A+ Traction conference in Vancouver , Justin Kan and I had a lot of fun doing a presentation I hadn’t done or seen before — “S**t VCs Say” We went through some of the Top 10 things that VCs tell you, that is true but … biased. Every investor has a bias.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
So I’ve had a chance to observe some of the worst sales processes of all times in the past few weeks! What happened? Well, first I wrote a few small pieces on a challenge we had with a piece of software.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 21, 2019
So we are gearing up now for the 6th (!) ever SaaStrAnnual , March 10-12 in San Jose / SF Bay Area. So much has changed. We’ve added 200+ SaaS unicorns and 30+ IPOs. The Cloud has grown 700% since the first Annual, if we use AWS as a proxy.
InsightSquared
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
One of the main responsibilities of your marketing team is determining which campaigns are the best campaigns. This is no small feet.
Speaker: Sam McAfee, Product Development Consultant, Startup Patterns
You know what they say: what's measured improves. As product managers we're in a golden age of being able to get all sorts of metrics and run all sorts of experiments. But what are your measurements and analytics focused on? Are they really truly objective? Do they contribute to the ultimate vision of your product? And is everybody clear on that vision? Join Sam McAfee, Product Development Consultant, as he takes you through a two-part measurement audit. First, you'll learn how to make sure your measurements actually align with your product strategy. And second, you'll learn how to evaluate your culture of using measurements, so future experiments will more consistently provide high-value results.
Tom Tunguz
AUGUST 8, 2019
Which sectors see more startup company formation than others? The answer has changed quite a bit over the last 8 years. Some sectors have hit their apogee and are declining. Others have grown by more than 3x. Yet others are growing geometrically. Let’s take a look. Hot Spaces.
InsightSquared
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019
Before we dive in, let’s cover the basics: what are campaign attribution models and why are they important ? . Attribution modeling is a way to analyze which marketing channels are accredited with lead conversion. Think of your attribution model as a map of sorts.
Tom Tunguz
SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
Last week, SaaS stocks fell by about 18% on average. The chart above shows the most recent enterprise value to forward multiple for a basket of next-generation software companies. The red line is the value and the blue line is the median over the same time frame.
SaaStr
AUGUST 28, 2019
I remember the first time I lost a six figure customer. It was a surprise: They used the product every day, and constantly. They had done a case study for us. In fact, they were on our homepage. They renewed the contract and added additional seats. And then one day, we got a call.
Speaker: Sari Harrison, Product Management Instructor, Product School
As a product manager, it's your job to realize your product’s vision by executing your chosen strategy. It’s also your job to deliver value to the business. Ultimately, these two outcomes are aligned so the temptation is to focus primarily on business metrics. Doing this can cause you to lose focus on the real value you are trying to achieve, in favor of moving the vanity metrics such as launches and time spent. Join Sari Harrison, Product Management Instructor at Product School, as she explains how to use immeasurable success criteria along with your more standard KPIs to deliver products that don't just get used a lot, but deliver real value.
InsightSquared
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
Marketing attribution is no buzzword. It’s a fundamental building block of achieving ROI. Sometimes seen as more art than science, it’s often given too little attention – or too much. When sales cycles are short, marketing attribution can be fairly straightforward.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019
There’s a simple point I’ve been talking about a lot lately, but it’s a super important one: When the time comes when you have enough momentum, capital, etc. to hire a real VP or two … you don’t have to start with the VP of Sales.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 15, 2019
As you begin to scale and add a sales team, you’ll encounter more and more drama with “bad” customers. These so called “bad” customers from a sales team perspective will include: Folks that share licenses that shouldn’t be. Sales will get mad they aren’t buying more seats. Folks that use SMB or other editions that should be on your more expensive enterprise plans. Sales will feel they are getting ripped off; and perhaps the worst.
The Daily Egg
SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
Google Analytics is without a doubt the single most popular digital analytics tool of all time. Full stop. While it’s impossible for anyone to give the exact number, according to many different sources it’s used by over 50% of websites on the internet.
Speaker: John Little, Head of Product Marketing, Centercode
When it comes to delivering a solid product/market fit, customer validation is key. After all, you want to provide customers with a product that not only fills the need, but is delightful -- right? To get there, you need to commit to a vital blend of market research, strategy, and user testing. Join John Little, Head of Product Marketing at Centercode, as he explains a two-part approach to customer validation. First, how do you strategically identify your top product areas that need attention prior to release. And second, how do you turn user data into strategic priorities that help the right teams make the right decisions.
InsightSquared
AUGUST 28, 2019
It is crucial to have a “clean” Salesforce instance, but it’s another daunting task to maintain it. Startups are built from the ground up and one of the major stepping stones is promoting an environment of accountability among your sales reps to properly input data and to follow sales best practices.
SaaStr
AUGUST 24, 2019
Many do and have. As we see more and more SaaS companies cross $1b+ in ARR (wow!), Twilio being the latest, we see more and more adding new core products to their existing core products. Twilio started with SMS. Now that’s just a piece of Twilio, and its 81%+ growth at $1b (double wow!)
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
We now have over 157,000 subscribers to the SaaStr Cloud Daily on Quora , 8,600,000+ views, and are adding thousands of new followers per week. One benefit from Cloud Daily is our community speaks and upvotes their top stories of the week.
TechStars
SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
Two years ago, we raised our first impact fund, closing just under $7M in the fall of 2017. Since then, we have made over 73 investments and our fund is nearly fully invested. .
Speaker: Rene Kolga, Senior Director of Product and Marketing, Nyotron
You can learn a lot by studying your product data, but the real magic happens when product managers blend different types of data from different sources. If you want to blend data and intuition to make bold decisions that move your product forward, you'll need to open yourself up to new data sources - but where do you get this new information? Rene Kolga, Senior Director of Product and Marketing at Nyotron, knows the answer: from other teams in your organization! Join us as Rene goes through the different teams you'll find in a B2B organization, how to build a strong relationship with those teams, and what kinds of insights you can get that will benefit your product.
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