SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

With $110M in adjusted free cash flow this quarter alone, they’ve positioned themselves with significant capital to reinvest in growth opportunities, potentially including strategic acquisitions to expand their platform capabilities. And a Few More Interesting Learnings: 6.

Scale 182

Scale SMB Acquisition Enterprise 182

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2019

Acquisition multiples in SaaS/Cloud doubled last year. The post The Week in Cloud: March 17, 2019 appeared first on SaaStr. It’s not always easy, but recurring revenue … recurs. That’s a lot. Private Equity is forcing public companies to pay up: [link]. yet … but wow, they are heating up: [link].

Cloud 198

Cloud AWS Systems Review Software Review 198

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2019

We now produce so much content on SaaStr, we thought we’d share the Top 20 Posts of 2019, so far. Getting field marketing right is hard, but it’s also the #1 channel for customer acquisition and pipeline influence in SaaS. The Age of the $1 Billion+ SaaS Acquisition Has Just Begun. More learnings here. #19.

Sales Hiring 187

Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital Acquisition 187

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

CEO Tim Zheng came to SaaStr Annual to share the deep dive on the journey from SLG to PLG here: Initial Challenges and Market Position In 2019, Apollo.io found itself at a critical juncture.

Scale 152

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 152

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 18, 2020

Starting in 2019 and continuing in 2020, the public markets value these companies with better multiples. And if it continues, we should expect the IPO, the direct listing, and special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs) to present compelling financing options to later stage founders. This is a critical shift.

Software Review 363

Software Review Finance Enterprise Acquisition 363

Tom Tunguz

JULY 25, 2021

Early stage debt origination and round counts peaked in 2019, while later stage debt has increased quite nearly every year. In the later stages, debt is often used to finance acquisitions, and perhaps this is occurring more for venture backed companies. Meanwhile, venture debt dollars have migrated to later stages.

Finance 338

Finance Startup Acquisition SaaS 338

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 15, 2019

These are the top posts of 2019 with some commentary and behind the scenes notes on each. Setting the Salesforce/Tableau Acquisition in Context - A wave of consolidation swept the BI industry. Setting the Salesforce/Tableau Acquisition in Context - A wave of consolidation swept the BI industry. Salesforce bought Tableau.

Scale 145

Scale Acquisition Innovation Startup 145

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2024

When Jasper launched in 2019, it started with one model. In 2019, Jasper introduced people to LLMs. With Jasper’s acquisition of ClipDrop, they can build a catalog of trails across the U.S. Both require precision and accuracy, so 90% of the way there isn’t enough. How did they achieve a moat of defensibility?

Cloud 164

Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence Healthcare 164

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2020

For a Really Big Tech Company, any acquisition of less than about $1b is somewhere between an experiment and a bet. Better to put that energy into products that would move the needle in Cloud in 2019–2025 and beyond. And maybe even almost an experiment. Buying Wunderlist for $150m sure sounds like a lot to me and you.

Azure 315

Azure Cloud Acquisition Strategy 315

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2022

And Salesforce noted it’s slowing down hiring, and taking a break from bigger acquisitions, for now. Snowflake also noted certain industries were buying / using less, even if overall growth at the end of the quarter was very strong. That’s still a cautious note in Salesforce’s optimism and blow-out numbers. 2021 $21.25B 2020 $17.1B

Sales Hiring 346

Sales Hiring Acquisition Cloud Enterprise 346

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2019

Billion Acquisition. Another Grows in France: The post The Week In Cloud: March 24, 2019 appeared first on SaaStr. That’s Really Big Money. And It Drove This $6.9 The Open Source Wars Continue To Heat Up. Fun Story of How Shopify’s Lawyer Grew Into Its COO: Unicorns in SaaS Are Hardly Limited to the SF Bay Area.

Cloud 148

Cloud AWS AI Acquisition 148

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2021

The number of deals is also way up, from 126 in all of 2019 to 105 just in 1H’21. But PE has some interesting advantages for founders over an IPO or a tech acquisition: ad. Who’s writing these big checks in SaaS and enterprise? Thoma Bravo, Vista, KKR, and more. Now Private Equity isn’t some magic white night.

Investment 281

Investment SaaS Acquisition Enterprise 281

SaaStr

JUNE 6, 2022

This interview with CNBC’s Ari Levy took place in February 2019, shortly after Plaid raised a Series C round at a $2.7B In 2019, they also acquired Quovo, a company that focused on investment accounts, to make it easier for consumers to manage their investments. Up today: Plaid co-founder and CEO, Zach Perret. billion valuation.

Banking 281

Banking Scale Acquisition Interviewing 281

Neil Patel

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Micro startup acquisitions. But before we dive into that, we need to look into what micro startup acquisitions are and why you need to sit up and take notice. Micro Startup Acquisitions: What Are They, and Why Should I Care? Micro Startup Acquisition Trends. That’s an expensive mistake if you make the wrong investment.

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Payment Methods Acquisition Development Team Review 145

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 1, 2019

With more capital, startups can take more risk, explore more customer acquisition channels (some which may not work), develop more products and potentially grow faster. The median revenue at IPO has increased from $55m in 2006 to $200m in 2018-2019. And that’s borne out in the data. SaaS companies go public later.

Startup 279

Startup Software Review SaaS Acquisition 279

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 14, 2019

That’s why we have put together our first ever Intercom reading guide for 2019. We hope this collection of reads that moved us has the same effect on you and that in 2019 you find some nugget of wisdom here that meaningfully influences your thinking, your work or simply how you spend your time.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Marketing Advertising Entertainment 150

SaaStr

DECEMBER 8, 2021

2019 – $2.9B It does include the Auth0 acquisition, but even without, growth is up slightly. growth of 2020. DocuSign — Back to Pre-Covid Normal? It looks like it here as well. Total global @Shopify merchant Black Friday Cyber Monday GMV over the years: 2018 – $1.8B 2020 – $5.1B 2021 – $6.3B.

Trends 304

Trends Merchant Services SaaS Cloud 304

SaaStr

DECEMBER 6, 2021

Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, discusses the process leading up to IPO in 2019, her main focus for the company in the years since, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. Before PagerDuty went public in 2019, we had our clear “why” for doing so. Enter your email below for the latest SaaStr updates.

DevOps as a Service 271

DevOps as a Service Scale Cloud Interviewing 271

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2024

Hitting a Plateau in 2018 The company ran into a bit of a plateau around 2018-2019. There were big opportunities in the QR space, so Bitly made an acquisition that was a big accelerator and set the stage for becoming a multi-product platform. Optimize your acquisition funnel. This worked well for years until it didn’t.

Scale 297

Scale Scaling Underperforming Technical Team User Experience 297

SaaStr

AUGUST 14, 2019

Now, the numbers are flattered a bit, really quite a bit, by Twilio’s acquisition of Sendgrid for $3 billion. But as you can see from the previous post on The $1 Billion ARR Club, even without the acquisition, Twilio’s core growth hasn’t slowed. And that’s a wrap on @twilio Q1 2019 earnings!

Telecommunications 43

Telecommunications SMB Acquisition Retention 43

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2022

Weave has a base to build on, and has done a good job steadily increasing NRR, up from 97% in 2019. #2. While these aren’t great metrics if Weave was enterprise, they are still solid for SMBs. Many SMB SaaS companies struggle to hit 100% NRR and 80% GRR. 56% Gross Margins overall, Negative on Hardware and Services.

SaaS Payments 281

SaaS Payments Scale Payment Methods SMB 281

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 23, 2022

An acquisition well done. International Revenue up to 34%, from 29% in 2019. While 140% at IPO , it’s still top decile today, even adding in the lower NRR from SendGrid. #2. 240m ARR now from Segment. Segment appears to be thriving under Twilio. #3.

Scale 276

Scale Cloud Scaling Acquisition 276

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2022

At 2019 SaaStr Annual , Anil Dash (CEO of Glitch before their recent acquisition by Fastly), and Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, got together to discuss the importance of taking a stand on specific issues as a company and how clear moral positions can positively impact customers and employees.

Social Media 276

Social Media Software Review Leadership Acquisition 276

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2022

2019 saw SaaStr Annual’s biggest event yet – 12,000 global community members came together to take over the Bay Area and it became the event Where the Cloud Meets. We sold out Europa 2019 and were immediately planning for 15,000+ Founders and CEOs to attend Annual 2020. 2019 The Fifth SaaStr Annual: Where the Cloud Meets .

Scale 304

Scale Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO 304

Sales Hacker

MAY 30, 2019

The 2019 version of the SalesTech landscape includes several changes from my last SalesTech landscape , reflecting a vibrant industry. Acquisitions grew 250% to $9.5B, driven by Private Equity funds. SalesTech in 2019: What You Need to Know. Microsoft has remained quiet since its LinkedIn acquisition in June 2016.

Scale 110

Scale Sales Hiring Forecasting Acquisition 110

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2024

Native integrations are key to customer acquisition and retention in the SaaS space, but not what makes your product special so we believe these integrations should and will be built utilizing tools, not writing custom code. What’s your pulse check on the venture markets right now, today? 2024 is also a year of truth.

Scale 264

Scale B2B Investment Acquisition 264

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2021

Efficiently Serve Customers: By diversifying their sales channels, they optimized CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) to address many users and use cases. Their customer reach nearly tripled: in Q1 2019, there were 6,600+ customers, and in Q1 2021, there are over 18,400. In the past four years, EA + Atlas made over $500 million.

Scale 271

Scale Sales Cloud Enterprise 271

SaaStr

AUGUST 6, 2022

— Jason 2022 SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 Lemkin (@jasonlk) April 26, 2019. And some of its most successful product expansion has come from acquisitions. One thing I took for granted was being CEO of an app that was beloved. If you have that, never ever give it up.

Scale 297

Scale SMB Mobile Acquisition 297

ProfitWell

MAY 21, 2019

What is customer acquisition? Customer acquisition is the process of gaining new customers. Customer acquisition is one of the most popular growth levers for SaaS businesses because it is the most literal way to grow your customer base. Acquisition for a SaaS company means signing up new, paying customers.

Acquisition 70

Acquisition Retention Churn Advertising 70

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2020

It was Salesforce’s second acquisition ever, and a huge opportunity for me to become the Salesforce CMO as we blasted through $1B in revenue and 10,000 employees.”. Bootstrapping allowed us to preserve optionality, and we ended up selling the company to Campaign Monitor and subsequently to SurveyMonkey in 2019.”.

compliance 235

compliance B2B Acquisition Cloud 235

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2021

Where it Went: $1B acquisition by Vista in 2019. in 2011 GAAP revenue. Where it Went: Now valued at $1.5B and a called Nextroll. Really more Adtech than SaaS. #8 in 2011 GAAP revenue. A great outcome, but perhaps not as huge as you might expect given its torrid growth. #72 72 Rocketlawyer. in 2011 GAAP revenue. 78 Marketo

SaaS 281

SaaS Technical Review Software Review Scaling 281

InsightSquared

JULY 1, 2019

In this new and expanded 2019 benchmark study , we revisit today’s marketing automation platforms and dig deeper into the quality of reporting, nature of the insights, and the impacts these platforms continue to have across the B2B community. Key Findings of 2019. Methodology. Key Findings from 2018. Remains true.

Benchmarks 21

Benchmarks Scale Marketing B2B 21

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2022

One of the most rewarding and challenging avenues of growth is acquisition and integration. Back in 2019, Poorvi was integrating Israeli and U.S. Lesson #4: Value empathy when it comes to leading cross-geo teams. teams to form a product team and an emerging business line.

Scale 246

Scale Scaling Company Culture Leadership 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2019

In this session, Anna and Sameer will highlight SendGrid’s journey from growth stage through acquisition and why focusing on people and culture is mission critical to success as a company goes through the scaling process. I’m Sameer Dholakia, CEO of now Twilio SendGrid as of Friday after our completed acquisition.

Scale 146

Scale Acquisition Scaling Sales Hiring 146

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

Say, your customer acquisition efforts are starting to pay off, and you need to keep an eye on your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). I have named the months from January 2018 to September 2019 to give you a fast start. . Let’s begin with Customer Acquisition Cost , or CAC. Say, PnL_Jan_2019. If not, what needs to change?

Deferred Revenue 111

Deferred Revenue SaaS Payments Sales Hiring Payment Services 111

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Dropbox’s efficient customer acquisition is exceptional. Red Hat’s Acquisition - A Triumph of Open Source - We saw many massive acquisitions this year. The RedHat acquisition demarcates a new high water mark for open source. Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash.

Acquisition 157

Acquisition Interviewing Cloud Pricing 157

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2019

Meet SaaStr’s Most Respected Leaders of 2019. Our most popular CEO, COO’s and Presidents that spoke at SaaStr Annual 2019. Dug Song founded Duo Security in 2019 and grew the company as CEO until it’s acquisition in October of 2018. Curious how we came up with this list? He was the CFO of SQA and Orange Nassau.

CTO Coach 29

CTO Coach New CTO CTO Web Development 29