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The Metric that Matters for Startups in 2016

Tom Tunguz

To sustain these growth rates, startups like these require lots of cash because of the customer acquisition payback period, and the more tenuous ones need capital to prove the business model actually works at scale. Imagine regional taxi services, 4 in the US, each with a different app, different labor pools, different terms.

Startup 100
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Mental Models to Help You Grow

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

David Cancel of Drift often talks about letting your ideas “ cross-pollinate ” and mental models can be a catalyst for that. I leveraged many of the 52 mental models while working at various software as a service (SaaS) companies, but in truth, they can be applied anywhere, regardless of industry. Network effects (marketplace).

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5 Key Steps to Evolving Your Offering Into a Platform with Eventbrite and Stripe (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

If you think about it that way, then I think it simplifies a bit the equation, and you can think of how does that apply to your business? Like, how can we provide economic infrastructure for developers to build applications and services and in a weird way, future proof? Let’s start with our five key steps.

Payments 119
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Beyond the hype: Practical advice on building a platform

Intercom, Inc.

The litmus test is if you’ve created a marketplace: are people actually building on your product because there’s value that you’ve created, or is it just a nifty integration? The upside of having this big two-sided marketplace and extending your product into tons of different products with an API is quite large. But are they platforms?

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How Innovative SaaS Companies Leverage Pricing And Packaging To Beat The Competition

Chargify

While the convenience of combo meals abounds in all fast food restaurants today, in 1958 the opportunity to purchase a main dish, side, and drink for a set price (and less than if all the items were purchased individually) was a novel idea, and one that helped them stand out in a very competitive marketplace. TV is a great example.

Pricing 47
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How Founders Can Take Control of Their Destiny with Tradeshift (video + transcript)

SaaStr

We looked at the world in 2008, 2009, and we said, “How come it’s almost impossible to connect two companies to do business, especially if they have complex business processes, but we can all connect as consumers on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, every single day we want to do business? We have Tradeshift Pay.

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Sales and GTM in Uncertain Times with Adnan Chaudhry and Matt Garratt (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

And he also has the, I don’t know, benefit or dubious distinction, but lived through this before in 2008 and 2009. Adnan Chaudhry: One of the guiding principles that helped me personally, I was here as Matt mentioned, I was here at Salesforce in 2008, 2009. It’s a business crisis. Adnan Chaudhry: Thanks, Matt.