SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

The Bear Case: Multiples are still elevated compared to the pre-2018 period. So they can fall another 20%-30% just to revert back to that mean: SaaS was already on a tear starting in 2018. The argument here is that SaaS even in 2018 was overvalued. You can see a lot of VCs and others talking about this on Twitter.

SaaS 319

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS 319

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 23, 2024

Before 2018, only one company IPOed with more than $200m in revenue. If we divide the data set into two eras : before 2018 & 2018 onwards, we see a clear shift in the average revenue at IPO & the difference is statistically significant with a p value of 0.0063. In fact, the median revenue at IPO at $90m.

Revenue 247

Revenue Finance Trends Startup 247

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

In 2018, most Datadog customers used 1 product. 28% of Datadog’s customers use 4+ products, but they make up the vast majority of revenue: And 75% use 2 or more products, up from just 15% in 2018: #4. More product, more products, more products. 10 new products this year. Customers don’t buy all the products at first.

Scale 304

Scale Cloud Enterprise Scaling 304

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2020

And again, Dec 31, 2018 and Dec 31, 2019. And again in 2018. A Bad Day: When I Had No Salary And Didn’t Get My Requested $10k Bonus Even Though I Brought In an Extra $300k All-Cash Upfront Deal. A Good Day: Dec 31, 2009; Dec 31, 2010; Dec 31, 2011; Dec 31, 2012. When we killed it every year on the last day of the year.

Sales Hiring 353

Sales Hiring SaaS Revenue Churn 353

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 12, 2021

This chart shows the median and the 75th percentile of enterprise value/forward revenue multiple for the basket of public stocks which were public at that moment in time. Correction Year. These corrections reduced valuations by between 30% and 60%. These undulations are short-lived.

SaaS 350

SaaS Cloud Enterprise Software 350

Tom Tunguz

JULY 18, 2022

In 2018 at Saastr, Jason Lemkin & I talked about private equity becoming an increasingly aggressive buyer of venture-backed software companies. Last year, private equity firms inhaled $29 billion dollars’ worth of startups - a twenty-year record and 50% more than the previous peak.

Startup 338

Startup Retention Pricing Software 338

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2021

Cloud has been on an incredible tear since 2012 or so, and then even more since about 2016, and then as you can see above, went into hyperdive in about 2018 … and then into true warp speed after Covid. But does it even matter? SaaS and Cloud are up +1000% since 2013. That’s better than almost any venture fund.

Cloud 305

Cloud SaaS Trends Metrics 305

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 9, 2020

We see pre-seeds have fallen from mid-2018 highs of $10m to about $5m. Second, round sizes are down about 20-30% from highs in the pre-seed and seed market. Series As’s ascent continues unperturbed. Last, the Angellist team provided data on pre-money valuations, which is rare data! Seeds persist at $10m pre-money.

Data 342

Data Marketing Startup Investment 342

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2024

Raising a Series A is as hard as it’s been since 2018 is the answer. Not at all: Per there data, there is some modest pick-up at Series B and C , but that’s less relevant to most founders. What’s most important is after a seed round … how hard is it to raise another round? This just makes sense.

AI 295

AI Pricing Investment Data 295

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2022

Early businesses tend to create more instruments to hire, grow, and incentivize. tokens resemble equity in most ways, but possess one additional function: they can be used to pay for service. Trailing 2 Year Inflation Rate. Founded Year.

Startup 284

Startup Sales Hiring Government Outsourced Development 284

SaaStr

MARCH 11, 2022

And so, Cloud multiples have rationally fallen back to where they were in 2018 and 2019. The argument here is multiples have fallen too far, since the best SaaS and Cloud companies are growing so, so much faster than in 2018 and 2019. Multiples exploded when we all lived in the Cloud, quarantined in whole or in part in the Cloud.

Scale 253

Scale SaaS Cloud Pricing 253

Tom Tunguz

JULY 14, 2021

Next, she took the helm at NIO, a manufacturer of automonous vehicles that went public in 2018. Formerly the CTO at Motorola, she left to co-lead Cisco’s engineering organization worldwide. She serves on the boards of Microsoft and Spotify.

CTO 287

CTO Startup Engineering 287

SaaStr

JUNE 24, 2021

While Sprout Social has “only” added 13% new customers each year since 2018, those customers even with 110% NRR compound, leading to 32% ARR Growth. In 2018, even at $75m in ARR, Sprout Social only had 868 $10k+ customers. A reminder of the incredible power of NRR of 110% over say 100%.

Social Media 264

Social Media SMB Cloud Scale 264

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

In my talk at SaaStr 2018, I will lay. Understanding where you are in that evolution, and how to act at each stage is critical for success, as what is appropriate at one stage is not appropriate at another stage.

Revenue 255

Revenue Interviewing Startup Leadership 255

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2022

jasonlk) January 18, 2018. #3: jasonlk) September 21, 2018. #4: jasonlk) February 25, 2018. #5: jasonlk) February 25, 2018. #6: jasonlk) September 6, 2018. #7: jasonlk) January 14, 2018. #9: jasonlk) October 3, 2018. . — Jason BeKind Lemkin #???????????? Remind me the other rules again.

Startup 210

Startup Scaling 210

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2023

In 2024, I expect most of these figures to revert to the mean - not the peaks of 2020-2021, but more akin to 2018. In almost every category, the time between rounds is also at decade highs. The public valuation environment & pace of venture capital investments mirror those years better than others.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital Startup Investment Software 279

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 12, 2022

BTC and ETC moved more or less in synchrony from 2016 to 2018. Economics students would argue the discounted cash flow model predicts this behavior. Companies with profits in future years should be less valuable during times of higher interest rates. Three years ago, they went their separate ways.

Software 323

Software Marketing Trends Startup 323

The Daily Egg

JULY 23, 2022

Since Paychex acquired Oasis Outsourcing in 2018, Oasis PEO is now a part of the Paychex brand. Currently, the Oasis professional employer. The post Oasis PEO Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Branding 249

Branding 249

The Daily Egg

APRIL 24, 2019

As of 2018, the average eCommerce website — both globally and in the US — converted less than four percent of its visitors. eCommerce vendors who aren’t actively improving their landing pages to convert more visitors are almost certainly leaving money on the table.

51

51

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2021

Shopify’s first quarter revenue: Q1 2021: $989 million Q1 2020: $470 million Q1 2019: $321 million Q1 2018: $214 million Q1 2017: $127 million Q1 2016: $73 million Q1 2015: $37 million Q1 2014: $19 million Q1 2013: $9 million. NRR of 110%+ since 2018 — sort of. — Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) April 28, 2021.

Merchant Services 240

Merchant Services Payment Methods SaaS Payments Payments 240

SaaStock

MARCH 8, 2019

In 2018, she moved to Hong Kong to head product at Lalamove and now is the Product Manager at Gravity Supply Chain. In 2018, Jessica made a move to the entrepreneurial side by becoming one of the founders of Planto.io – a personal financial management app. Maxine Ryan. Maxine Ryan is often called a ‘bitcoin queen.’

VP of Engineering 264

VP of Engineering CTO Coach Venture Capital SaaS 264

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2021

This is a very 2018 issue, but these days, so many sales professionals skip too many steps. But larger sales organizations put sales operations processes in place that keep you more organized. This may be the #1 reason AEs fail joining very early start-ups. Don’t skip too many steps of development.

Sales Hiring 343

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Branding Pricing 343

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 10, 2022

2018 was the watershed year. During the middle of the decade, data companies traded at a small discount, which is likely statistically significant given the sample size (n=1300-1700 depending on the year). Data startups commanded a 47% premium. Two years later, the figure spiked to 60% and last year, the market placed a 75% premium.

Startup 278

Startup Data Marketing Investment 278

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

Top tier SaaS companies are valued at 34x ARR today, up from a pretty consistent 10x or so through 2018. Valuations are at an all-time high — but you have to bring the growth. That’s incredible multiple expansion. But only the best SaaS and Cloud get these multiples. M&A isn’t keeping up, at least not yet.

Cloud 304

Cloud Scale SaaS Acquisition 304

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2022

It’s not slowing down Salesforce, Snowflake, or almost any other SaaS or Cloud leader. Salesforce Growth: 2023 $31.8B (guidance) 2022 $26.5B 2021 $21.25B 2020 $17.1B 2014 $4.1B. Thank you Ohana! pic.twitter.com/CMhrBXgHSF. — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) May 31, 2022. We may be headed for a big downturn, we’ll see.

Sales Hiring 300

Sales Hiring Acquisition Cloud Enterprise 300

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2024

Top quartile companies in 2024 grow at the same rates as bottom quartile companies in 2018. Each of these percentiles is now meaningfully lower than the average over the past decade. Future revenue ramps have been the dominant driver of software valuations for the vast majority of the last decade. When they fall, valuations compress.

Software 272

Software Marketing Revenue Business 272

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

From $1B Valuation in 2018 to $20B+ Today. But remember it hit a $1B valuation just in 2018. 300 Employees Working on AI Not a surprise, but interesting to see the scale of investment here. #5. Even With Today’s Multiples. In a world where unicorns are struggling, Canva isn’t one of them.

AWS 241

AWS B2C Scaling AI 241

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

We used to do a Fun Run before Annual through 2018, but it got too big and complicated. There are so many great partner and Friends of SaaStr events around SaaStr Annual, especially on SaaStr Nights, on Tuesday, Sep 14. I wanted to highlight a fun one just added — “Run-as-A-Service at SaaStr Annual”! appeared first on SaaStr.

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237

SaaStr

APRIL 18, 2021

Salesforce Growth: 2021 $20.8B Guidance 2020 $17.1B 2014 $4.1B. Thank you Ohana! — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) August 25, 2020. If you haven’t done a SaaS start-up before, it’s different. The reasons are many, but I think they can almost all be summed up in one key factor: SaaS compounds.

SaaS 313

SaaS Travel Churn Revenue 313

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2024

So Carta put out some recent data I found very useful on how many startups raise another round, and how many sort of quietly wind down, in the first 5 years or so after being founded (from 2018 to early 2024): Almost none IPO’d in the first 5 years, but that just makes sense.

Pricing 253

Pricing Acquisition Startup Education 253

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2022

You can see that fast and steep drop-off from the Q4’21 peak here: It looks particularly dramatic when you zoom into just late 2021 and 2022: But second, really, in many ways it seems like we’re just back to 2018-early 2020 in venture. Let’s look at 2018-202 0. Back to before the Covid Crazies in venture.

Startup 227

Startup Cloud Growth Marketing Enterprise 227

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 29, 2019

Slack generated $105m in revenue in 2017, $221m in 2018 and $401m in 2019. Slack grew 110% and 82% in 2018 and 2019, compared to Zoom’s 149% and 118%. Let’s examine this remarkable company and compare it to Zoom , another recent IPO in enterprise collaboration. Note these years are fiscal years, not calendar years.

Benchmarks 261

Benchmarks Metrics Scale Revenue 261

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

20% of their 2020 revenue, up from just 8% in 2018: Want more? We can this clearly with Shopify, which waiting all the way until 2020 to really monetize its partner base heavily. And the payoff was big. We did a great deep dive with Loren Padelford SVP of Shopify Plus / Shopify here: The post 5 Interesting Learnings From Shopify.

Payments 322

Payments Merchant Services Payment Solutions Scale 322

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

But overall, valuations and prices post-Series A still remain way ahead of where they were up until 2018. Fenwick’s blended numbers see overall Series B and later round pricing down about 30%. #3. Even though things are down, SaaS overall and valuations are still much, much stronger than anytime before 2019.

Pricing 294

Pricing Social Media B2C Startup 294

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2023

7% of Revenue from Professional Services — down from 12% in 2018. But importantly, it’s raised its ACV 4x since 2016. Without that, the company would likely be a fraction of its current ARR. #3. Docebo doesn’t do proserv for all customers, but it also doesn’t shy away from it for larger customers.

Scale 321

Scale Pricing Scaling Enterprise 321

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2022

This led to our first meet-ups in 2013 and 2014, the first SaaStr Annual in 2015 , the industry’s leading podcast in 2016, the first SaaS founder coworking space in 2017, and SaaStr Pro , the first learning management system for SaaS founders in 2018. 2018 The Fourth SaaStr Annual: Learn and Scale Together.

Scale 268

Scale Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO 268

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

I presented on two topics at WebSummit 2018 in Lisbon on November 6th. The slides and videos of those two presentations can be found below. The videos are provided courtesy of WebSummit: 9 Secrets for Startup Success, A roadmap for B2B Founders Lean Startup taught the world how to find product/market fit, but in the.

Startup 225

Startup B2B Product Marketing Marketing 225