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 ). But much of my work is with a special kind of network, where one side of the platform is an enterprise buyer (or supplier) and on the other side is their supply base (or customers). Typically one side’s enterprises tend to be much larger than the other side’s. That’s why I call them enterprise-driven.

Metrics 53

Metrics Compensation Enterprise B2B 53

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 ). It’s a story of how a small EDI player became an impressive company through acquisition and organic growth. Every network entrepreneur should know this great story.

Healthcare 50

Healthcare Government Scaling Consulting 50

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. As discussed in the prior post , many networks of this type, subsidize one side of the network, to make money from the other side.

Enterprise 50

Enterprise Compensation B2B Metrics 50

Software Platform Consulting

OCTOBER 9, 2019

As taxpayers, we should want to know how well our dollars are spent. At the Federal level, most of these dollars are spent on social security, healthcare, and defense (see below). Articles about spending in these areas are easy to find, but the price of F-35s or my dad’s medicare is too complex for this blog. Instead, let’s focus on the prices paid for common commercial catalog items that we can all relate to. Government Catalog Spend.

Government 46

Government Healthcare AI Education 46

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Engagement

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. Nvoicepay is interesting, in part, because it is a pure-play payments provider. The company takes a payment file from a buyer. It then disburses the funds to the buyer’s suppliers in a manner nvoicepay has determined in negotiation with the supplier.

B2B 50

B2B Acquisition Banking Consulting 50

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. For instance, each vendor’s dot could be sized in proportion to their NPS scores, revenue, or valuation. See Spend Matters’ Solution Maps.).

Machine Learning 40

Machine Learning AI Revenue Consulting 40

Software Platform Consulting

JULY 1, 2019

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. Phreesia has three “businesses” in one: SaaS applications, payments, and life sciences advertising. Phreesia Threat #1: SaaS Applications. If you have been to a doctor you have some idea of what Phreesia’s SaaS applications do!

Advertising 40

Advertising Consulting Subscription SaaS 40

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 If you did not architect your platform so suppliers have one account for all buyers, shame on you.). Suppliers Per Buyer. Every enterprise-driven B2B network proudly tells you they are great at enabling your enterprise’s suppliers.

Enterprise 40

Enterprise B2B Metrics Consulting 40

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 ). Upwork Versus Fiverr: A Different Approach to Services. The most basic difference between Upwork versus Fiverr is fascinating. On the Upwork platform, buyers issue RFQs for projects and invite freelancers to bid on those projects.

SMB 40

SMB Business Model Consulting Pricing 40

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Pricing

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. Bottomline owns Paymode-X, the largest B2B payment network in the US. Paymode-X boasts payments of more than $200 billion annually and over 400,000 payees. Nvoicepay, by contrast, processed payments of approximately $20 billion annually.).

Technology 40

Technology B2B Acquisition Banking 40

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 ). If you are interested in two-sided markets, platforms, and pricing you will want to read the Supreme Court’s decision written by Justice Thomas and the dissent written by Justice Breyer (see here ). Full disclosure: There’s a fair bit of legalese, so I skimmed it. But, it sounds cool to say I read a Supreme Court opinion.)

Business Model 43

Business Model Consulting Branding Business 43

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. This price represents a 44% premium over Angie’s List’s depleted closing stock price (see below)). I am sad to see Angie’s List go. Triumph of the One-Sided Pricing Plan. Angie’s business model was a prominent differentiator from its competition in the home services market.

Business Model 48

Business Model Advertising Consulting Business 48

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. Before We Get to Software… Warren Buffett recently announced that he was buying airline stocks. This is a man whose greatest quotes include many disparaging remarks about the airline industry (see here ).

Wireless 40

Wireless Software Healthcare Airlines 40

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Development

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.) The result is that for the first few years of a B2B network’s life you tend to see silly press releases from these networks touting their growth in all manner of odd metrics: percentage growth versus growth in absolute numbers (always huge when you start from zero). new partnerships. awards.

Metrics 40

Metrics Consulting Enterprise Finance 40

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. On paper it is a great idea in a huge market: less than truckload (LTL) shipping.

B2B 40

B2B Consulting Marketing Technology 40

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. Not all of these secrets are nefarious, but all reflect the inherently deeper category knowledge suppliers have and the limited resources buyers have to “sweat the details” in every category.

Airlines 40

Airlines Transportation Travel Machine Learning 40

Software Platform Consulting

MARCH 7, 2016

For those of us who follow pricing strategy in two-sided markets, last week was a milestone. Angie’s List, which invented the home services marketplace (in 1995) announced it would drop its “paywall” The paywall charged buyers to search its directory and reviews before communicating with contractors. Angie’s List will now offer a freemium model for homeowners (buyers) and will continue to offer a freemium model to contractors/service providers.

Pricing 40

Pricing Business Model Advertising Consulting 40

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Machine Learning

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” ). The answer to the former question will need to remain a mystery, but the answer to the latter follows. B2B Marketplace Services.

B2B 40

B2B Consulting Communication Finance 40

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.

B2B 40

B2B B2C Software Consulting 40

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2021

Yes for sure. I also think, as a case study, @jenntejada is a great example of CEO that adds value to the product itself like @levie. Being out there & inspiring people about your mission, I think makes customers on balance choose you. and keep you top of mind much more often.

Enterprise 269

Enterprise SMB Leadership Scaling 269

The Daily Egg

JUNE 10, 2021

A/B testing can be as simple as reciting the alphabet.

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225

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Trends

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2021

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to catch up with several Unicorn++ founders who, relatively speaking, had not raised that much vs their peers. We talked about a lot of things from scaling, to IPOs, to the journey, and more.

Finance 185

Finance Venture Capital Pricing Cloud 185

SaaStr

MAY 7, 2021

Hubspot didn't just grow an incredible 41% in Q1'21 to $1.1B in ARR. It accelerated. Revenue growth accelerated from 32% to 41% * And new customer growth accelerated to a crazy 45% YoY * All while keeping ACVs constant at ~10k. They did it the hard way, with SMBs.

SMB 276

SMB Scaling Revenue SaaS 276

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2021

Worried about a bunch of VCs replacing you? You should be a little worried, probably. A ways back, a CEO that I know fairly well was fired by a VC. Strange thing was, the VC didn’t talk to the rest of the board. Who didn’t agree. So he got un-fired. Awkward.

Finance 269

Finance Leadership Investment Marketing 269

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2021

So Monday.com has filed to IPO with some pretty incredible numbers, especially considering just how competitive the space is. At $240m in ARR, they are growing a stunning 85% year-over-year!

SMB 249

SMB Government Scaling Enterprise 249

Speaker: Daniel "spoons" Spoonhower, CTO and Co-Founder at Lightstep

Many engineering organizations have now adopted microservices or other loosely coupled architectures, often alongside DevOps practices. Together these have enabled individual service teams to become more independent and, as a result, have boosted developer velocity. However, this increased velocity often comes at the cost of overall application performance or reliability. Worse, teams often don’t understand what’s affecting performance or reliability – or even who to ask to learn more. Distributed tracing was developed at organizations like Google and Twitter to address these problems and has also come a long way in the decade since then. By the end of this presentation, you’ll understand why distributed tracing is necessary and how it can bring performance and reliability back under control.

Engineering

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2021

Everyone in SaaS talks about CLTV (or LTV, same thing). The lifetime value of your customer. You can see a great detailed analysis of how to calculate it here. And then, everyone goes on to calculate some a metric telling you how much to spend on Sales and Marketing.

Revenue 274

Revenue Customer Success Metrics Enterprise 274

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2021

Your API. If you are a B2D company, it’s your product itself, your API. But for most B2B companies, your API, your partner programs, and the like are extensions. Not your core product, but an important layer for improving customer experience.

SaaS 282

SaaS Cloud B2B Enterprise 282

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

A lot of our SaaS older times don’t quite know what to make with a lot of B2B startups these days, let alone some public SaaS companies. So many startups these days are claiming they have “ARR” from revenue that … doesn’t recur.

Pricing 269

Pricing Revenue Scaling Subscription 269

SaaStr

MAY 7, 2021

Everyone of us that are hyper-driven wants to grow our careers faster. We’re impatient. We want to learn, grow, manage more, earlier. Let me share my best hack. My uber-learning: Find the best boss you can; and. Take on every initiative, project, task and endeavor you possibly can for them.

Management 254

Management Startup Sales Development 254

Speaker: Esther Kieft, Delivery Manager (Group Technology) at Domino's Pizza Enterprises

It is well known that empathy is a key ingredient in creating lovable products, yet not all products offer the best customer experience. From meeting stringent deadlines to insufficient resources being available to carry out customer research, there is a range of reasons why customer empathy could be missing in product development. Join Esther Kieft, as she breaks down using empathy at a distance to evaluate the problems that customers are experiencing during this global health crisis.

Development

SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2021

For someone just starting out in SaaS sales (entry-level Salesforce in November), what are your tips to accelerate growth/ability in early stages? A few thoughts to excel as someone new to SaaS sales: Really learn the product cold. As fundamentally as you can.

Sales 275

Sales SaaS Startup Branding 275

SaaStr

MAY 13, 2021

While age ultimately doesn’t matter — results do — in SaaS, starting off as younger-than-average can create stress in a sales- and customer-driven environment. But Aaron Levie started Box at 19, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates dropped out at 19-ish, you know all this.

SaaS 247

SaaS Enterprise Customer Support Leadership 247

The Daily Egg

APRIL 1, 2021

There are many businesses that implement CRM solutions with the belief that they will magically solve all of their problems. But adoption does not necessarily guarantee success. It’s not even just about investing in the right software; your CRM efforts could still fail for a number of reasons.

Strategy 285

Strategy Investment Software Business 285

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2021

“I don’t want to meet [That VC]. I don’t need money now and it’s distracting.” ” — most founders, post Seed round. …… There’s a superpower some founders have.

Leadership 285

Leadership Sales Funnel Investment Metrics 285

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Forecasting