Tom Tunguz

JUNE 28, 2017

One typical Friday morning in 2004, I walked into a government building and headed to work. So, when is embarking on a large refactoring worth it for software companies? I was a junior Java engineer and part of a hired team building an internal system for a government agency. In the worst cases, it can kill the company.

Startup 189

Startup Government Innovation Engineering 189

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

When the company first began web app development and selling software-as-a-service in 2004, their business model wasn’t even called SaaS. And, like every software startup, their small team had a million other things to worry about. It’s not hard to understand how Basecamp got this wrong. Download our free guide here. .

New CTO 195

New CTO SaaS Sales CTO 195

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 27, 2018

Historically, we’ve spent proportionately way more on research and development than other software companies we track, and that won’t stop any time soon. This funding will go straight into building great new software at a pace you’ve yet to see from us. I studied artificial intelligence in college in 2004.

Artificial Intelligence 224

Artificial Intelligence Scale Machine Learning Technology 224

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 16, 2020

As tech continues its path toward democratization, with better offerings available to more people, an odd contradiction has revealed itself: on the enterprise side of things, most software simply isn’t very good. I’m not trying to become an enterprise software company.

Sales Hiring 227

Sales Hiring Scale Artificial Intelligence Enterprise 227

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 7, 2015

The Ultimate Software Company is a $5.5B market cap provider of SaaS Human Capital Management software. Founded in 1996, the company initially sold licensed software and migrated to multi-tenant SaaS in 2002 with a product called UltiPro. Since 2004, Ultimate Software has generated positive cash flow.

Software 100

Software Marketing Forecasting Enterprise 100

SaaStr

MAY 22, 2019

Hubspot is an inbound marketing and sales software company based in Massachusetts. Jay Simons rose up the ranks from Area Sales Manager with Plumtree software to VP of Product Marketing and Strategy. Prior to Logickull Andy was a software developer at EDS (an HP Company). Brian Halligan is co-founder and CEO of Hubpost.

Scale 167

Scale Leadership Consulting Software Development 167

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Launched in 2004, the web hosting provider serves over 29 million users in 178 countries. We identified that the problem was tied to limiting software rather than the team itself and that was the breaking point. Having the right tools to support customers is vital if your customer base is growing at a fast clip.

Customer Support 184

Customer Support Technical Review Systems Review Software Review 184

Tom Tunguz

MAY 13, 2015

Before its acquisition, which was consummated at the highest historical multiple of any software company , Ariba was the largest independent procurement software business. It sold software to help businesses buy the things they need in order to operate, everything from pens to planes.

Outsourced Development 113

Outsourced Development Software Review Technical Review compliance 113

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2019

Namely is an HR software company that offers HR, payroll, benefits and talent management tools to businesses. She later joined Jive Software as President and CEO before going on to Namely. From 2004-2009 he was a partner at Greylock. Eric Yuan Zoom Founder/CEO. Dug Song Duo Security Co-Founder/CEO, Cisco GM.

CTO Coach 29

CTO Coach New CTO CTO Web Developers 29

FastSpring

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

In case you missed it, our recent 2023 SaaS and Software Holiday Spend Report highlights how, whether your business focuses on B2C, B2B, or both , SaaS and software Q4 sales bumps are significant around the globe. Writers: World Anvil is a writing software, novel planner & worldbuilding app! But how do you learn to code?

Payment Solutions 89

Payment Solutions Software Review Payment Methods SaaS Payments 89

Trint

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

Since the creation of podcasts in 2004, their popularity has continued to explode. With software, there are numerous applications that will help you start a podcast. Then you can look into foot pedals, mixing boards, advanced software like Logic Pro and transcription services. What is a podcast?

Social Media 130

Social Media Banking Engineering Software 130

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 18, 2015

Meanwhile, all of the companies requiring longer than 8 years were founded before 2004. Newer SaaS companies grow faster. 82% of the companies to achieve $50M in revenue in under 8 years have been founded in the last decade. SaaS companies and enterprise companies broadly are growing faster than ever before. And they are doing it every stage.

SaaS 113

SaaS Engineering Trends Enterprise 113

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 21, 2013

From about 2004 to 2011, the average publicly traded SaaS company held an EV/Rev multiple of 3 to 5x. In the 2004 to 2009 period, average revenue growth for SaaS companies hovered around 25%. Below is a chart of the ratio between enterprise value to revenue for two segments of SaaS companies. The High Fliers comprises the upper half.

SaaS 100

SaaS Trends Startup Revenue 100

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 8, 2015

ServiceNow’s software allows clients to develop custom applications for their own needs, often with the help of the company’s professional services team. The business was founded in 2004, but hit its stride 2009 and went public in 2012.

Benchmarks 113

Benchmarks Metrics SaaS Investment 113

SaaStock

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Tienpay offers digital banking software that handles wallet, digital exchange, and digital assets. Founded : 2004. Used by companies of all sizes, the software handles applications across servers, eliminating downtime. Chelpis offers a crypto product with a cold wallet, a blockchain solution, and software service.

SaaS Payments 225

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Merchant Services Payment Methods 225

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Just as background, I’ve been on a Mac since I was seven and I last worked on a Windows machine in 2004. Dictation: Dragon dictation software performs miles better on Windows. So I installed it and tried to use it for a few days. Here are my impressions. Pros of Windows. Speed: the operating system is much faster than Mac.

Travel 127

Travel Advertising Branding Data 127

SaaStock

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

In 2017, he co-founded B2B Stack, a software review marketplace that boosts the buying process of B2B tech in Brazil. RD offers inbound marketing automation software to companies that want to ace their digital marketing efforts. In 2004, he became the CEO of Cogency Software. and Brazil with process optimization.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Scale Entrepreneurship Sales Hiring 207

Tom Tunguz

JULY 28, 2016

First, 15 of the 22 US software acquisitions worth more than $0.5B The largest private software acquisition is Transfirst, a payment software business founded in 1995. The second largest, Jasper, is an internet of things software company founded in 2004, which Cisco acquired for $1.2B. have been public companies.

Payment Solutions 100

Payment Solutions Payments SaaS Acquisition 100

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2025

The Power of Solving a Universal Pain Point When Ren Lacerte started thinking about the problem that would become Bill.com in 2004, he was focused on a simple yet profound frustration: why were businesses still paying bills the same way they had 60 years ago? “I was frustrated,” Ren explains.

SMB 130

SMB Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 130

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 25, 2013

When the neologism was popularized in 2004 by Tim O'Reilly, the words Web 2.0 When backend software meets the real world through a mobile phone, that’s an IRL experience. captured a desire for the web to become interactive. It was a description of a movement towards social media and engaging users on the web.

Payment Solutions 100

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Airlines Payments 100

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 2, 2014

The chart above shows startup company formation rates, the number of new companies formed each year from 2004-2011 by Crunchbase sector. The first four tags: web, mobile, enterprise, and software are catchall. As the number of companies in a sector grows, do the odds of successfully raising capital decrease? Then on down the list.

Advertising 100

Advertising Startup Mobile Trends 100

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

NetSuite spent $38M on payroll generated $17M in 2004. In the cases of services-dependent software, companies may have to ramp payroll before being able to recognize income, thus pushing the OER higher. What percentage of revenue should be spent on payroll? In 2001, Salesforce spent $35.6M on payroll and generated $5.4M in revenue.

Revenue 100

Revenue Startup SaaS Benchmarks 100

Totango

MAY 27, 2022

Product-led growth (PLG) has emerged as one of the best strategies for selling SaaS software. The PLG model had been introduced to the video conferencing space years earlier in 2004 by future Zoom competitor GoToMeeting, which used a freemium offer to introduce users to its product. A recent example is the video conferencing app, Zoom.

Acquisition 126

Acquisition Retention Technology Strategy 126

Stax

JULY 16, 2024

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of regulations or standards formalized by the PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council) or PCI Security Standards Council in 2004. Before 2004, credit card companies had their own set of rules for cybersecurity. They buy, install, and set up software, APIs, etc.

Payment Services 88

Payment Services Merchant Services Payment Methods compliance 88

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

MARCH 26, 2010

Though "the Rouge" continued to operate as an assembly plant until 2004 when one last convertible Mustang GT rolled off the line in May of that year, Ford had decades earlier moved to a more decentralized manufacturing process. The evolution of application software development Application software development is on a similar path.

Cloud 100

Cloud Marketing Software Review Application Development 100

BetterCloud

OCTOBER 22, 2024

Your first task is to audit the software being used by this 500-person, globally distributed company. And we’ll admit that in 2004, a spreadsheet might be a good tool for software management. Every PC you got from Costco in the 1990s was loaded up with some type of basic office software. Congrats on the new role!

Management 52

Management SaaS Construction Software 52

Tom Tunguz

JULY 6, 2014

Founded in 2004, GoPro is about 10 years old and during the past few years has witnessed spectacular growth. First, to understand GoPro’s business better. Second, to benchmark GoPro’s capital needs, capital efficiency and attractiveness to investors. Third, to draw conclusions for other hardware startups.

Startup 133

Startup Sales Hiring Benchmarks Advertising 133

ChurnZero

AUGUST 17, 2021

This search data dates back to 2004, which is before many of us had probably even heard of the term ourselves, nevertheless working in the field. As Customer Success is a growing department within SaaS organizations, this state list makes sense as those are also states in which there’s a density of software companies founded.

Trends 98

Trends Customer Success Software Review Churn 98

SaaStock

MARCH 1, 2019

Founded: 2004. SaaS Investments: Consilium Software, HRBoss, and others. Its focus is on mobile and software, with an accent on collaborating with entrepreneurs with game-changing ideas. Its focus is on IT, media and consumer goods. Size of fund: $282.2M. Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed. DST Global.

SaaS Payments 190

SaaS Payments Venture Capital Payment Services Telecommunications 190

The SaaS CFO

AUGUST 21, 2024

The Software as a Service (SaaS) business model revolutionized the on-premise software industry. I started out in software in 2004. One-time software sales and annual maintenance at 18% of the perpetual license. We weren’t talking CAC Payback and Gross Revenue Retention.

SaaS 59

SaaS Business Model Retention Software 59

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 26, 2014

FLTX, a maker of fleet tracking software, has identical ARPC. FLTX 2004 10 128. Only WIX, CTCT and RNG had smaller figures of $86, $265 and $352. I’ve plotted a subset of them in the chart above. Company Founded Years to IPO Rev in $M at IPO. RNG 1999 14 162. QLYS 1999 13 91. DATA 2003 10 232. CTCT 2007 9 31. HUBS 2006 8 113*.

Benchmarks 113

Benchmarks SMB Metrics SaaS 113

Kellblog

JANUARY 3, 2022

That Europeans don’t want software in your category? Maybe, to pick a trivial example, Europeans don’t want to buy your compliance software because it’s weak on supporting European regulations [4]. During those same 7 years our archrival (a company called Relational Software) grew from $30M to $1B.

Sales Hiring 142

Sales Hiring Scale Consulting Leadership 142

User Pilot

MAY 30, 2024

After studying at Yale University, Eric began his career as a Senior Software Engineer at There.com. His most significant career milestone came when he co-founded IMVU, an online social networking and virtual world startup, in 2004. How did Eric Ries begin his career?

Innovation 105

Innovation Startup Government Software Engineering 105

Kellblog

JULY 25, 2020

3] Per the footer, since Salesforce’s June, 2004 IPO. [4] For example, software multiples have structurally increased over the past 20 years because the underlying business model changed from one-shot to recurring, ergo increasing the value of the revenue. [6] 1] Comps = comparables. [2] 4] As are most stock indexes.

Technical Review 97

Technical Review Software Review Pricing Metrics 97

Neil Patel

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

The huge drag-and-drop website builder was started in 2004 by a University of Maryland college student and has since flourished into an amazingly streamlined website builder that has been used to create millions of websites. I don’t know about you, but the less software I have to deal with to get the job done, the happier I am.

Payment Methods 121

Payment Methods Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions 121

How To Buy Saas

JANUARY 24, 2021

In 2020, we saw businesses choosing remote working as the new normal and depending on Software as a service tool like monitoring tools to manage their human resources. Meeting business privacy while using these Software as a service was a matter of concern. Let us take some Software as a service examples. What Is SAAS?

Software Review 52

Software Review Software Technical Review SaaS 52

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

I realized after three or four weeks that retirement was boring and then set up a gaming software company called Inspire Gaming Group” And I always wanted to work in technology. I always loved software and developing software. Like you said, SaaS, we have a SaaS software platform called Clarity. Norman: Yeah.

Transportation 184

Transportation Business Travel Underperforming Technical Team 184