SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

Up From Almost None in 2020 to 295 Today. Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is a Year Old But Fueling $159m in Q2 Bookings Alone To some Cloud and SaaS leaders, AI is a table-stakes addition. But for Palantir, it’s a true accelerant. #3. Commercial Customers Fueling Growth. Fast forward to today, they are closing 300 of them.

Artificial Intelligence 236

Artificial Intelligence Government AI Cloud 236

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2025

So Cloud and SaaS have had a bit of a rollercoaster the past 4 years, from the boom times of 2020-2021, to the tougher times overall of 2023, to the AI boom of 2024+. But one thing has done well through all of it: security. We always need it, and the threats keep coming. And Cloudflare has been one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Scaling 273

Scaling Cloud AI Engineering 273

Tom Tunguz

JULY 13, 2025

MIT published an analysis in 2020 that suggested the average robot replaced 3.3 I lose track of which agent is doing what & half the work gets thrown away because they misinterpret instructions. This isn’t a skill problem. It’s a tooling problem. Physical robots offer clues about robots manager productivity. human jobs.

Management 294

Management AI Search Software Engineering Software Review 294

SaaStr

JULY 6, 2025

The 2020 cohort achieved a 46% compound annual growth rate from initial purchase through March 2025—meaning customers don’t just stick around, they consistently expand their usage year after year. The Cohort Expansion Phenomenon: Multi-Year Growth Rates Customer cohorts show remarkable durability and growth over time.

Software Review 266

Software Review Scale Systems Review Enterprise 266

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2024

And there hasn’t been for a while: It was great times for SaaS liquidity in late 2020 through the end of 2021. And what you can see is there is really almost no liquidity for startups and scale-ups in SaaS and Cloud at the moment. Epic times.

SaaS 312

SaaS Acquisition Cloud AI 312

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2025

You can see here how events and trade shows are what helped put Datadog on the map: And yet, I see so many marketers putting less energy there than pre-2020 especially. And we all got out of practice here in 2020-2022. Not because events don’t work, but because they are a lot of work. But they are … work.

Scale 288

Scale Marketing B2B Scaling 288

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

Learning #1: The Growth Reality Check – We’re Back to Pre-March 2020 Levels of Growth For Most (And That’s Actually OK) The brutal truth : Overall median growth dropped from 30% in 2023 to 25% in 2024. of companies reporting flat or negative growth is still well below the 13% peak we saw in 2020.

B2B 219

B2B Data Scale Startup 219

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2025

That a lot of unicorns that hit $1B+ valuations in 2020-2021 … probably aren’t really unicorns anymore. So there’s an uncomfortable truth that VCs don’t discuss outloud that often, but everyone has sort of accepted. Everyone resisted in 2022 and into 2023, but by 2024 they began to capitulate.

Scaling 307

Scaling Strategy 307

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Others will have to accept much lower returns, at least for folks that invested in 2020-early 2022. It’s just time. OneStream was arguably one of these, and PE made a big gain on the IPO. Genesys may be the first of a flood of these PE-backed SaaS IPOs in 2025. It just filed to IPO.

AI 313

AI Cloud SaaS Investment 313

SaaStr

DECEMBER 2, 2024

And there is also a quiet wave of apathy in B2B outside of AI. If SaaStr disappeared, would it matter? Maybe that’s a different way of answering the question.

B2B 307

B2B Cloud AI Scaling 307

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2024

While CFOs have regained some control post-2020, one thing remains clear: if you don’t have buy-in from the technical developers and engineers actually using your product, you won’t get the deal done.

Engineering 284

Engineering Development CTO Leadership 284

SaaStr

JULY 9, 2025

The AI Bet (2016-2020): Riding the Massive Wave Market Cap Journey: $50B → $323B Here’s where timing met preparation. Key Lesson: The best platforms don’t just serve one vertical—they create horizontal infrastructure that enables entirely new categories of applications.

SaaS Payments 210

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payments Payment Services 210

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2025

” The Timing : Founded in early 2019, Series A in May 2020 (two months after pandemic lockdowns), $100M ARR by March 2022. “By the end of 2020, we hired almost 30 AEs globally.” The Execution : While competitors were building for the office-first world, Deel built for global-first, remote-first from day one.

Payment Services 189

Payment Services Sales Hiring Payment Solutions SaaS Payments 189

SaaStr

JULY 19, 2025

Avoid Early Abuse : During the boom times of 2020-2021, secondary sales got out of hand. They get more ownership, and you get some liquidity without diluting the company further. But if you’re pushing for secondary liquidity too aggressively, it can create tension with investors.

Scale 175

Scale Scaling Sales 175

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2025

rounds/day 2020: 10.6 Even comparing to stable 2018-2020 levels, we’re seeing 25-30% fewer rounds. While headlines focus on billion-dollar AI rounds and record fund sizes, the data tells a different story for most founders: there are simply fewer funding rounds happening. rounds/day 2019: 9.8 rounds/day 2021: 15.7

AI 219

AI Data Strategy Marketing 219

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2025

The last IPO of the 2020-2021 era was HashiCorp in December 2021. And it’s one of the first to be acquired! IBM just closed on its $6.4 Billion acquisition of HashiCorp. And CEO David McJannet came to SaaStr Annual a little ways back to share his top scaling learnings.

Scale 185

Scale Systems Review Scaling Leadership 185

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2025

When rates were 0% in 2020-2021, this model generated minimal revenue. The “Interest Rate Sensitivity” Lesson: Building on Quicksand Circle’s revenue formula is simple: Interest Rates × USDC in Circulation = Revenue. At 5% rates in 2024, it generates $1.7B.

compliance 251

compliance Marketplace as a Service B2B Healthcare 251

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2025

of GDP in 2020 to 4.0% Morgan Stanley said recently AI spend is about 50% new, 50% repurposed from the rest of the IT budget. That 50% new is enough to fuel the growth we see above. AI driving software from 2.0% in 2030 would be huge. It would be the New Golden Age of Software. That may be just what we’re seeing.

AI 202

AI Software Cloud B2B 202

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Enables natural expansion : MongoDB and Ethereum, two database companies with nearly identical revenue trajectories through 2020, both employ usage-based models that have supported their explosive growth. Lubricates the conversion funnel : Prospects can sign up and grow their accounts seamlessly.

SaaS Payments 279

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 279

SaaStr

MARCH 17, 2025

From 2020-2022, the top 20 deals were just 6%-8% of all VC capital. But just how much of venture capital overall is going to … the top names? Far more than ever, per Redpoint’s latest data. In 2024, 31% of all VC capital went into just 20 deals.

Venture Capital 315

Venture Capital AI Scaling Investment 315

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2025

When I talk to founders who launched in 2020 or 2021, I hear the same anxiety: “Are we already legacy?” VCs especially are obsessed with AI-native startups. New pitch decks without an AI strategy aren’t even making it past associates. The market has fundamentally shifted. They weren’t even founded last year.

AI Search 185

AI Search AI ChatGPT Innovation 185

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 8, 2025

An analysis of their investment patterns since 2020 doesn’t just reveal the accelerator’s strategy—it provides a map to the entire startup ecosystem’s next chapter. Cybersecurity and industrial/manufacturing are the two fastest growing categories.

Investment 194

Investment Venture Capital Cybersecurity AI 194

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2025

When we moved SaaStr Annual post-2020 to September for 3 years (SaaStr Annual 2025 is May 13-15), it ended up conflicting with Dreamforce and we had to move it. So the competitors we looked at when I was in a Big Tech Co were actually a materially different group than when I was running my own SaaS start-up. A tiny example is SaaStr itself.

SaaS 269

SaaS 269

Buffer Resources

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

I knew nothing about TikTok when I started my account in March 2020. A fellow business owner recommended I get on the platform to expand awareness for my disability advocacy company Diversability , and I gave it a chance but initially struggled to find traction.

Branding 111

Branding Payments Payment Methods Payment Services 111

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2025

Million Paying Users ARPU increased substantially from 2020 to 2023, and is up modestly again in 2024. #3. Even Box really is an enterprise player, and much of Microsoft’s and Google’s usage is presumably package in and not paid for discretely. #2. ARPU Continues to Slowly Increase Across 18.2 43% of Revenue Outside Of U.S.

AI Search 176

AI Search Scale AI B2B 176

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

When COVID-19 decimated business travel in 2020, Navan could have become another casualty. The Navan Story: From Pandemic Pivot to IPO Ready Founded in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig, Navan has evolved from a corporate travel booking platform into a comprehensive spend management powerhouse.

B2B 189

B2B Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 189

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 27, 2025

I saw too many companies implode in 2020–2021 after raising too much too soon and getting out over their skis. I used to believe pretty strongly in not overcapitalizing your business too early. Wait to hit milestones. Raise in steps. Spend in steps. De-risk things one at a time and move sequentially.

Cloud 157

Cloud Sales Hiring Scale Investment 157

Unbounce

JANUARY 6, 2025

53 minute read Design The 7 principles of conversion-centered design October 16, 2020. 53 minute read Design The 7 principles of conversion-centered design October 16, 2020. 28 minute read Landing page optimization (Guide) how to choose & customize a landing page template July 29, 2020. March 14, 2024. March 14, 2024.

Sales Funnel 111

Sales Funnel Payment Methods SaaS Payments Payment Services 111

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 17, 2024

Like many SaaS companies, their growth rate fluctuated throughout 2020 to 2023, and it was challenging for them to understand what they should do about it. The result: big picture clarity and taking real-time action The team at Intruder love the perspective they gain with ChartMogul.

Payment Solutions 52

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Payment Features Payments 52

Scytale

MARCH 12, 2025

Before founding Cado Security in 2020, Christopher held key roles at AlienVault, Vectra AI, and PwC, specializing in incident response, threat detection, and security analytics. Since its launch in 2020, the startup has gained recognition for its breakthrough technology, securing major funding, including a 2.09

Startup 59

Startup Scale Cybersecurity AI Search 59