SaaStr

JULY 20, 2021

That’s a wrap on SaaStr Money 2021 ! 4 Secrets to Using Data Security and Compliance as a Competitive Advantage with Very Good Security’s CEO. Fundraising for a Startup vs Fundraising for Banks with Treasury Prime’s CEO and Piermont Bank. .- Next up — SaaStr Annual 2021 in SF Bay Area, Sep 27-29!

Payments 250

Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments Banking 250

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

2021 SaaStrAnnual.com Sep 27-29 in San Mateo / SF Bay Area!! Michael Seibel, YC Partner and CEO of YC’s Startup Accelerator @ Y Combinator. Kazuki Ota, CEO @ Treasure Data. The post Final Speaker List for 2021 SaaStr Annual! We’re almost there!! Sign up for that here. Mark Roberge, Founder @ Stage 2 Capital.

VP of Engineering 265

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder CTO Coach CTO Hire 265

Trint

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

Meanwhile, if you run a startup it’s your job to figure out how to get on with life and with business. No one has a playbook for navigating the challenges we will face in 2021, but there are already some clear lessons for early stage businesses. But there are a few things we know will be important to creating success in 2021.

Startup 130

Startup Company Culture Communication Technology 130

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2024

So long time friend of SaaStr Tomasz Tunguz, now heading his own VC fund Theory Ventures, has again summarized a lot of data into a few great charts. based startups each year. And that’s fairly constant for the past decade, outside of the 2021 bubble. This time, on Mergers & Acquisitions.

Acquisition 210

Acquisition Software Review Software Cloud 210

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 25, 2022

Yesterday, at the Monte Carlo Impact Summit I shared my 9 Predictions for Data in 2023. Cloud data warehouses (CDW) will process 75% of workloads by 2024. Data workloads will segment by use case into three groups. Metrics layers will unify the data stack. Today, there are two different forks in data.

Data 161

Data Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering 161

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 20, 2023

The red is a linear model based on data from 2010 to 2018 that predicts activity rates for each financing series of US & Canadian software companies. [1] 1] 2021 & 2022 surged above prediction, while 2023 has operated meaningfully below - sometimes 50% below. The blue line shows actual Seed, A, & B activity by quarter.

Investment 196

Investment Venture Capital Startup Finance 196

Kellblog

JANUARY 30, 2021

That said, I’m back on the proverbial horse, so let’s dig in with a review of our 2021 predictions. Hopefully it becomes real in 2021. The strategic chief data officer (CDO). The strategic chief data officer (CDO). A new, data-layer approach to data loss prevention. Kellblog’s Ten Prediction for 2021.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Payment Services Payments AI Search 143

SaaStr

APRIL 23, 2024

They’re fulfilling their vision of a unified data platform. Like many SaaS startups, Databricks had a big vision from the beginning, when people believed that no one cared about a unified data platform. In 2021, when Nadim joined, Databricks made two very big bets. They saw the way the industry would and should go.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Government Innovation Engineering 215

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2022

A funny thing happened along the way to Sand Hill Road in the last decade : startups stopped talking about how much runway a Series A would buy them. In 2010, the median software Series A startup raised $3.2m & employed 15 people at about $150k average cost. In 2021, employment costs per capital increased to roughly $200k.

Headcount 302

Headcount Venture Capital Finance Startup 302

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2023

The typical software startup raised their Series A 15 months after raising their seed at 2x their seed valuation. Here’s another way of visualizing the data. In 2024, I expect most of these figures to revert to the mean - not the peaks of 2020-2021, but more akin to 2018. the valuation.

Venture Capital 281

Venture Capital Startup Investment Software 281

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 12, 2024

Setting the stage for our convo was the increase in startups either shutting down or being acquired / acquihired recently. The big cash piles raised in 2021 are starting to get smaller, and we dug in on how investors and founders should be thinking about the world. This all shifted in 2021. Well, we all know this happened.

Cloud 284

Cloud Venture Capital Acquisition Metrics 284

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2021

Another busy week for speaking confirms for 2021 SaaStrAnnual.com!! Michael Seibel, YC Partner and CEO of YC’s Startup Accelerator @ Y Combinator. Kazuki Ota, CEO @ Treasure Data. The post CEOs and CXOs of FullStory, Sendbird, mmhmm, Miro, ChurnZero, Canva, HackerOne Join SaaStr Annual 2021!! More here soon!!

VP of Engineering 260

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder CTO Coach CTO Hire 260

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2023

So according to Pitchbook, which collects a massive amount of VC data, VC funds themselves hit a 10+ year low in paper returns this past quarter. As rough as 2023 is for LPs, 2021 was insane the other way. In fact, returns plummeted to -20% (!) Yes, that’s as bad as it sounds. Top LPs had 95%+ returns!! And the U.S.

Cloud 219

Cloud Startup Investment Revenue 219

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2023

While layoffs are all across the news today, looking back, July 2021 was the nadir for layoffs. Everyone was hiring everyone, anyone, back in mid-2021. This data from Carta helps illustrate it: So we cut corners. On the hiring side, it often seemed like you just couldn’t hire anyone. We stopped doing reference checks.

Sales Hiring 241

Sales Hiring Investment Leadership Startup 241

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

The backup of 2020 was great, 2021 comes in and somehow we have 600 unicorns and everyone can burn 500 million a year or have huge sales teams. And then at the end of 2021, all of a sudden the music stopped. In some ways, NRR Zombies are outputs of the actions of 2023, especially for venture-backed startups.

Sales Recruiting 272

Sales Recruiting Trends Sales Hiring Software Review 272

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 17, 2022

Let’s compare data from 2010 and 2021 to understand the longitudinal trends in cash and equity compensation. A VP of Engineering in a Bay Area startup that has raised less than twenty-five million dollars earned 33% more in 2021 than 2010. 2021 Equity. Cash Change. A nice bump. 2010 Equity. Equity Change.

Compensation 263

Compensation Startup Engineering Trends 263

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 16, 2023

according to PitchBook data, which would imply about $55b for the full year. In 2022, startups raised about $75b from VCs. Should the Fed decide to cut rates ( the bond market suggests so) [1], perhaps some smaller quantum of the euphoria of 2021 may return to venture investing. This is likely a conservative figure.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Government Marketing Banking 282

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Let’s all be clear, 2021 was insane: * SPACs worth billions with no revenue * Multiples magically tripled * Fintechs with 10% GMs worth same as 80% GMs * #5 in market got same premium as #1 * Growth stage seen as free money * Seed VCs bought in $3B-10B rounds vs sell. — Jason Be Kind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 28, 2022.

Startup 230

Startup Cloud Growth Marketing SaaS 230

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

Fenwick, one of the bigger Silicon Valley / tech law firms put out its quarterly report on the venture market , sourced from 194 deals that actually closed in Q2’22, and I found the way the data was presented super helpful given all the drama in the venture markets, on twitter, etc. The data here confirms that: #5.

Pricing 291

Pricing Social Media B2C Startup 291

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 22, 2023

In the last three years, B2C startups’ ratio of layoffs have dwarfed B2B layoffs. in 2021, & 6.9x B2B companies have reduced headcount to a greater extent than at any time since 2020. In 2020, B2C companies cut 8.8x the number of B2B employees. Year-to-date in 2023, the figure is 1.6x, just 60% more.

B2C 274

B2C B2B Headcount Innovation 274

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

The 100x ARR multiple might be the fundraising meme of 2021. Let’s look at the data. Third, there’s a power law shape to both data sets. I don’t know if the market has decided to afford highly sought after ARR multiples by looking at this data. Where did this figure originate?

Benchmarks 358

Benchmarks Startup Metrics Revenue 358

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Alex Kayyal and Julie Kainz, Partners at Lightspeed, shared at SaaStr Annual a framework they developed around how to think about this new era of Artificial Intelligence in SaaS, what opportunities are out there for startups, and how to think about incumbents. There’s an evolution from being data-driven to a more sensing approach.

AI 202

AI Artificial Intelligence Healthcare New CTO 202

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Co-pilots — Co-pilots are where startups and founders can do new things that big companies won’t go after. But there are a lot of companies where there’s still deferred pain — the ones who raised huge rounds in 2021 especially and have been burning too much. So even startups good at getting renewals were getting seat contractions.

SaaS Payments 203

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions AI SaaS 203

ChurnZero

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Last week we had the much anticipated opportunity to sponsor, attend, and speak at the in-person 2021 SaaStr Annual conference. David Carnes (@davidpcarnes3) September 27, 2021. Patrick Baynes (@PatrickBaynes) September 27, 2021. Oluwatoyin Akintayo (@toyinakint) September 27, 2021. saastrannual.

Customer Success 95

Customer Success Scale Customer Lifetime Value Compensation 95

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2022

Gartner, spending on SaaS: 2020: $120B 2021: $152B 2022: $177B 2023: $208B. So Gartner slices and dices its data a number of ways, but I find it invaluable to track enterprise and CIO sentiment. Some of your customers in B2C and that are startups may be under pressure and cutting back. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #????????????

Cloud 333

Cloud B2C SaaS Enterprise 333

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

TJ Nahigian, co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners, and Luci Fonseca, Partner, deep dive into the current GenAI landscape, incumbents vs. startups, and the six questions founders should ask themselves to drive value from GenAI. Startup platforms are OpenAI, Hugging Face, and Cohere. How are they doing this?

Generative AI 226

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 226

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2023

AI & data continue to dominate the funding landscape as founders & investors seek novel applications of the technology. 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.

AI Search 221

AI Search AI Scale Headcount 221

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Other big themes were around data, the continued adoption of product led growth, and building communities. In 2021 we will start to see the convergence of product led growth, remote sellers, remote buyers and sales enablement technology that tracks EVERYTHING. We’ll see fintech startups turning into true platforms.

SaaS Payments 96

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions 96

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 15, 2023

“The Startup M&A Market Fell 94% Year over Year - But One Segment Thrives” , a post from last week, elicited the same question from many readers. Examining the data by dollars reveals Motorola spent $800m, more than double the average across this group. Alphabet bought $400m of startups & Apple $375m.

Acquisition 237

Acquisition Software Review Software Startup 237

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

2020-2021: VCs jealous of Decacorn founders that own so much more. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) November 11, 2021. For some: Top accelerators will create 1000+ high quality startups a year. Engines like YC and EF and others have automated the creation of a “high quality” pre-seed startup.

Venture Capital 260

Venture Capital Banking Cloud Startup 260

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2021

In 2021, the post-money valuation has spiked 60% from $48.1m While not as hyperbolic an inflation rate as copper or lumber, the price trajectory of early stage cloud startups does result from a similar supply demand/imbalance. But it hasn’t soared like it’s older brother in 2021, preferring a more consistent path.

Software Review 364

Software Review Venture Capital Cloud Pricing 364

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2023

So ChartMogul pulled together some nice data and statistics across its 2,100 SaaS customers and users for its 2023 Benchmarks report here. The crazy growth of the 2020-2021 period peaked in Q1’21, and then just started falling right after that. Some data suggests yes. And that’s the question of the day.

SaaS 195

SaaS Benchmarks Startup Pricing 195

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

Back in 2015, when didn’t have the data or NRR or GRR of 115 public SaaS companies. If there were one or two metrics or data points that Nick learned at Gainsight by sitting in on board meetings, what were they? It probably won’t go back to 2021 levels, but it will be some kind of growth. There’s a lot of nuance.

Sales Hiring 232

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 232

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2023

I didn’t so much learn from it as confirm — confirm things I’ve seen, known, and put into practice, and seen it confirmed across many SaaS startups. Corners were cut in the boom times of 2021, but we are back to sane sales models. Note again this skews toward late-stage startups and scale-ups. SDRs $85k-$95k.

Scale 253

Scale Compensation Sales SMB 253

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 18, 2021

Data privacy has become a skill startups must master as they scale. As they grow, startups often collect increasing volumes of data. Regulatory regimes demand greater data security and integrity, and add complexity. How should companies manage data privacy, especially regulations like GDPR and CCPA?

compliance 252

compliance Technical Review Startup Technology 252

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2022

Last month, more employees were laid off from startups on @cartainc platform than left their jobs by choice. So Carta has some great hiring (and firing) data above to give us a sense of what’s really happening. For every article you read about layoffs, far more startups are just freezing or way slowing down hiring.

Startup 193

Startup Cloud Data Metrics 193

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 17, 2022

The go-go days of 2021 & the pandemonium of 2022 ebb, leaving a year of sobriety at low tide: longer diligence processes, fewer rounds, lower entry & exit valuations. Data companies continue to achieve astronomical growth. The ML stack folds into the classic data stack. 3 of 5 isn’t terrible.

Software Review 256

Software Review Technical Review Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 256