Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 7, 2020

That answer never changes: build businesses prudently and finance them when you can at reasonable valuations so the company can grow into them over time. Gross margin was the defining characteristic of successful IPOs, and direct listings certainly made a splash last year. The real and more important question is what to do in this market.

Marketing 276

Marketing Finance Investment Trends 276

Tom Tunguz

JULY 30, 2021

They’ve raised 3x as much year-to-date in IPOs as all of 2020, which was a healthy market. The M&A market is not far behind; it’s on track to double 2020’s decade high of M&A value transacted. There are 3-5 financings and M&A every working day. Startups are basking in the IPO market.

Finance 336

Finance Startup Investment Marketing 336

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2020

Inside rounds, new financing rounds led by existing investors, have historically been primarily the territory of companies who cannot raise from outside investors at attractive terms. In 2020, they are 40% larger, a $33M swing in round size. In 2020, Series A investors have changed their behavior at the Series B.

Finance 363

Finance Investment Startup Data 363

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

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2019

Well, not QUITE yet but if you’re already planning your trip to SaaStr Annual 2020, here is our initial speaker lineup. Prior to this, she was a Director at Apple where she led Worldwide Payments and Financing Programs for Online Stores. An all-access pass to SaaStr Annual 2020: March 10-12th @ the San Jose Convention Center.

Payment Methods 159

Payment Methods Point of Sale Payments Engineering 159

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2020

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) October 27, 2020. One thing I see most SaaS companies do a pretty poor job of until they have a great finance team is a go-forward model. Even once start-ups have a strong finance team, the models they do make are often still … too rosy. It just takes minutes.”. Build One Now.

Finance 352

Finance Scaling SaaS Data 352

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2019

Q: What were the effects on Adobe’s finances when they switched from a licence purchase to a subscription model? Revenue run rate grew from $4 billion in 2012 to an estimated $14 billion in 2020 (!). The post What were the effects on Adobe’s finances when they switched from a licence purchase to a subscription model?

Finance 162

Finance Deferred Revenue Payment Features Subscription 162

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

When COVID-19 decimated business travel in 2020, Navan could have become another casualty. Technology sector IPOs have dominated recent headlines, and finance sector offerings have also found receptive audiences. The company’s journey reflects the broader transformation of enterprise software during the pandemic era.

B2B 184

B2B Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 184

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

2020-2021: VCs jealous of Decacorn founders that own so much more. Debt and revenue-based financing is already almost automated — and that change happened fast. 2002-2019: Founders jealous of VCs, with their easy life, diversified. 2022-2023: Why do we need VCs at all? — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) November 11, 2021.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Banking Cloud Startup 334

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2020

Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 4, 2020. There were 2 natural finance reactions to Covid-19: Cut. Another natural reaction in finance is to stop paying people. It’s time to stick to a plan for 2020 now. — Jason ?InItTogether? InItTogether? Do Better Than April. You can do better now. Cut everything you can.

Payment Methods 277

Payment Methods Finance Strategy Enterprise 277

Andreessen Horowitz

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Meanwhile DeFi, or decentralized finance, applications on Ethereum have attracted users eager to trade, loan, or borrow … The post Five Charts That Tell the Story of 2020 in Crypto appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz. Asset prices gained much of the mainstream attention, with Bitcoin hitting its all-time high this month.

Finance 137

Finance Pricing Blockchain 137

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2021

Wrike going upmarket, biggest customers doubling 2020. Citrix lost investment-grade credit financing deal. One example of revenue per employee at a break-even pace. #4. This is similar to what we saw with Asana here. Wrike’s fastest growth after $100m ARR is in its enterprise customers, growing 100% vs. just 30% overall. #5.

Acquisition 294

Acquisition Finance Investment Enterprise 294

SaaStr

JULY 2, 2024

The lowest point where profitability was valued most highly compared to growth happened in June 2020, meaning a percentage in growth increase was worth 2.2x Some have held off on raising subsequent financing and hope to grow through their valuations. Now, they’re approaching two years between financings.

Venture Capital 293

Venture Capital Management Scale AI 293

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

” Weavi Founded in 2020, they anticipated the growing importance of unstructured data and embeddings. For founders, the key is balancing long-term vision with short-term proof points that can secure ongoing financing and market traction.

Technical Review 184

Technical Review Artificial Intelligence AI Marketplace as a Service 184

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2022

They are the ones that often will bring you the leads for the next financing round. Perhaps one lesson we can take away from this story is that if you raise money at $45B valuation, you should try to make it your last round of financing. — Paul Graham (@paulg) April 14, 2020. You want them to be SuperFans. Just slower.

Finance 300

Finance Startup Cloud Communication 300

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 11, 2024

We all know 2020 and 2021 was the year of excessive software buying fueled by ZIRP. So at the end of the year, no one wants to implicitly tell their higher ups / finance org that they “need less because they spent less.” So why was it stronger than normal last year?

Cloud 167

Cloud Cost optimization & reporting GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Review 167

Unbounce

JULY 23, 2020

As part of our new Conversion Benchmark Report , Unbounce ran a survey of marketers, working in dozens of industries, in early 2020. Of course, 2020 didn’t exactly turn out how anybody expected. When asked about budgets, the 400 people we surveyed were evenly split in how much they plan to spend on marketing activities in 2020.

Artificial Intelligence 145

Artificial Intelligence Marketing Benchmarks Machine Learning 145

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

With only four months left to go until SaaStr Annual 2020 , we’re already looking at an awesome speaker line-up this year. We’ll be back at the San Jose Convention Center, March 10-12th, 2020. Prior to this, she held HR, inclusion, diversity, finance and customer success roles within Cisco Systems. The Unicorns ??.

Sales Hiring 122

Sales Hiring Identity management Cloud Innovation 122

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) November 16, 2020. Something important is off in finance, in metrics, in reporting, and/or collections. — Lucanus Polagnoli (@polagnoli) November 16, 2020. I hear you. Still, let me share 6 flags that when I see and hear them … I worry. ARR always = 12x MRR Always.

Metrics 309

Metrics Banking Scale Churn 309

SaaStr

DECEMBER 22, 2022

So in the Boom Years of late 2020 to early 2021, a lot of best practices working with VCs fell apart. I’m going to come up with a list of things most venture-backed startups did … through about 2020. Don’t wait for the perfect numbers back from some outsourced finance firm. Founders stopped caring. Just Do It.

Forecasting 57

Forecasting Finance Startup Metrics 57

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

And the lower multiples are, the harder anything involving external financing matters. With revenue multiples higher than pre-March 2020 but lower than the peak: I don’t see too many folks arguing the Bull Case, but they should be. Revenue multiples don’t affect customers, or even revenue itself.

SaaS 347

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS 347

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 2, 2020

It’s the question that will help companies stand out as we put 2020 behind us. Some key insights: According to Venture Scanner, in the past 16 months, Sales Engagement vendors have raised more than $250 million in venture investment, with $62 million of that in 2020 alone. Read More: The Forrester Wave : Sales Engagement, Q3 2020.

Scale 138

Scale Engagement Sales Sales Enablement 138

Neil Patel

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

The 8 Best Content Marketing Companies of 2020. finance, banking, or mortgages), this data is what you need to stay ahead of your competitors. Industries like healthcare, engineering, or finance require large amounts of specialized experience. What kind of content do your customers want from you?

Content Marketing 140

Content Marketing Technical Review Marketing Sales Hiring 140

Kellblog

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

They promise, among other things, to “make finance beautiful” and the whole thing strikes me as a product-led growth strategy for a new tool to build financial models outside of traditional spreadsheets. The company has raised an undisclosed amount of angel financing and has over 30 employees. They tell their story well.

Finance 92

Finance Forecasting Software Review Systems Review 92

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2021

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 4, 2020. Most start-ups don’t have a good enough finance person or firm to be good at collections. Bigger customers usually leave simply because your product doesn’t do enough. An annual contract gives you 365 days or so to fix that. Annual contracts require P.O.,

SaaS Payments 306

SaaS Payments Payment Services Scale Payments 306

Neil Patel

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

The company works with brands both large and small across a number of B2B industries, such as SaaS, Finance, Healthcare and Legal. The post The 8 Best Social Media Marketing Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel. If their case studies are anything to go by, Sculpt is able to achieve remarkable results for their clients.

Social Media 144

Social Media Marketing B2C B2B 144

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

In 2020, 2021 and 2022, the trend in SaaS was to expand hires in sales, marketing, and other resources ahead of actually having the demand to feed them. For smaller companies, go after the founders because they likely won’t have finance people yet. For Mid-Market companies, you might connect with people in finance or accounting.

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 294

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 28, 2021

Silicon Valley falls to below 20% in all venture financing. 2020 becomes the decade of data. Scoring last year’s predictions: Working remotely for a year changes how we work forever. Absolutely this happened. Friends have relocated to different cities. Remote-first and remote-only companies have gone public.

Scale 275

Scale Blockchain Banking Artificial Intelligence 275

OPEXEngine

JULY 31, 2020

Overall, companies were up for first half results 2020, but second quarter was tough. We recently fielded a quick survey of SaaS companies to help the SaaS Finance community better understand peer company YTD revenue performance. More than half of mid-sized private SaaS companies ($10M-$100M) expect growth in 2H 2020.

Benchmarks 87

Benchmarks SaaS Finance Consulting 87

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2023

The BTC ETF drives a resurgence in interest in web3 financing. US VC investment falls from $275b in 2022 to $200b in 2023 & sustains at about $200-220b in 2024 as LP interest in venture attenuates after the euphoria in 2020 & 2021. We see the first broadly successful tokens with dividends (likely outside the US).

AI Search 240

AI Search Headcount Scale AI 240

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2024

Until the second half of 2020, most companies had enough apps and weren’t looking on their own to spend more. Therefore, sales and marketing practices made no sense in 2020. At some point, $30M a year in financing is enough for most B2B companies, and you don’t need venture funding. 2021 made no sense in terms of budgeting.

Metrics 267

Metrics Scale Sales Hiring SaaS 267

Chart Mogul

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

Bring together a small group of 5-10 senior representatives from different areas of your business, including human resources, finance, marketing, sales, and legal. A Guide to SaaS Customer Onboarding [Updated for 2020]. Namely: Companies within the investment industry, SaaS businesses. Create a Commission Team.

Sales Hiring 130

Sales Hiring Sales Business SaaS Payments 130

SaaSOptics

JANUARY 9, 2020

What if I told you that we have 1 full-time finance team member managing revenue operations with over 80 employees and 650+ customers? Here are our Top 5 FinTech solutions to have in 2020: 1. Also, finance doesn’t have to keep tedious records in spreadsheets – saving valuable time and ability for on demand requests.

Payment Features 77

Payment Features Deferred Revenue Scale Finance 77

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2024

Remote launched in 2020, just as the pandemic hit, and it continues to be the fastest-growing portfolio company in Index Venture’s history. In 2020, they still didn’t have a finished product until May, when they onboarded their first customer. Remote started in 2019 with nothing: no money and not a very good idea.

Scale 257

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 257

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

In the past (2015 - 2020), companies would typically beat a quarter by 3-4% and raise guidance for the next quarter by about 2%. It’s still really difficult to sell software. Markets are more crowded than ever, and there’s ongoing pressure to “platformize” and reduce spending on individual point solutions.

Cloud 252

Cloud Forecasting Metrics Subscription 252

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 4, 2020

SaaS analytic tools do a similar thing, but for your business rather than your personal finances. The post 7 Best SaaS Billing Systems (2020) appeared first on Baremetrics. Baremetrics is an example of a SaaS analytics tool. be honest How well do you know your business?

Payment Solutions 105

Payment Solutions Merchant Services Systems Review SaaS Payments 105

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Millennials and Gen Z have been hard-hit by the one-two punch of the 2008 and 2020 financial crises. That experience has radically shaped their approach to finances and their mindset around credit and debt.

Finance 137

Finance Education Mobile 137