Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 16, 2020

Here are my predictions for 2021. The merry retail investors using Robinhood bolster the passive investment wave, and their market-shaping forces sustain stratospheric multiples in the public markets. 2021 could be even better, particularly since fundraising momentum is now a global phenomenon.

Sales Recruiting 279

Sales Recruiting Blockchain Banking Machine Learning 279

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

If I gave you $10,000 to invest in one company today among the following four software businesses, which would you pick? Which investment will generate the greatest return? Company 2 compounds revenue at 83% the rate of company 1, but at half the price. The revenue trajectory mirrors company 3 at one-half the price.

Investment 250

Investment Pricing Business Model Enterprise 250

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2022

Investments I've made that didn't work out: – Momentum investment – CEO a bit of bulls**t artist – CEO good at sales but weak product team / CTO. Investments I've made that had so-so outcomes: – CEO not better than me – CEO couldn't control burn rate – Not really SaaS.

Investment 249

Investment Sales Recruiting CTO Startup 249

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2023

2 — New Workloads Are Only A Small Percentage Of Today’s Revenue, But Are The Majority Of Tomorrows. This chart shows the awesome power of high NRR and how you have to invest in customers that scale with you over time. #3 They milk the base, and the new customer account doesn’t remotely approach the new revenue growth rate.

Revenue 184

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Cloud 184

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 12, 2024

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. If we rewind the clock back to 2021, the venture funding market went crazy. This all shifted in 2021. Many companies raised rounds in 2021 who thought they had product market fit.

Cloud 284

Cloud Venture Capital Acquisition Metrics 284

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2021

Battery Ventures recently put out its Software 2021 report with a ton of interesting learnings across the leaders in SaaS and Cloud. Battery Ventures’ data says while VC investment $$$ are on fire — they aren’t going into more startups. The top SaaS companies are all at $400k+ in revenue per employee.

Investment 225

Investment SMB Acquisition Cloud 225

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

As the premier SaaS conference , SaaStr Annual’s ability to attract top-tier investment firms and the best SaaS Founders creates unparalleled Founder <> Investor networking and learning opportunities. . The overwhelming participation by both Founders and Investors at the upcoming SaaStr Annual 2021 exemplifies this.

Scale 216

Scale Venture Capital Innovation Banking 216

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

So it’s been a long IPO drought since HashiCorp was the last IPO of the Boom Times in December 2021. But they are ar $780,000,000+ in ARR, with an 86 NPS and strong revenue growth at 29% overall and 49% in subscriptions (yes, it’s confusing). Still, it’s losing far less than in the Go Go Times of 2021.

Scale 213

Scale Pricing Scaling Cloud 213

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Best Sales Statistics to Know in 2021. 40% of businesses did not meet revenue targets in 2020. Still curious which sales trends will be on the rise in 2021? Keep reading for the most important sales trends your revenue organization should keep a close eye on. 40% of businesses did not meet revenue targets in 2020.

Sales Recruiting 125

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Revenue 125

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2024

As a SaaS veteran who built and sold a software company for nine figures, invested in startups since 2013, 10x-ing his fund, and continues to build a powerhouse community of SaaStr fans, he offers some hot takes on the communities’ burning questions. Sales is much harder than in 2021. 2021 made no sense in terms of budgeting.

Metrics 196

Metrics Scale Sales Hiring SaaS 196

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

69% of Gen Z watch anime and half of Netflix’s 222M subscribers watched anime in 2021, with total anime watch time growing 20% annually. Mihoyo’s Genshin Impact has grossed over $3B in revenue since taking the world by storm in 2020, and in the process also redefined the standard for cross-platform, live-operated role-playing games (RPGs).

Investment 134

Investment Generative AI AI Mobile 134

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

Jameson Yung, SVP of Sales at Gong, and Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and previous CRO at Brex, share five tactical ways to get back to growing and hitting revenue targets. The days of working a little for big returns are behind us in the Boom of ‘21, so what can you do to start hitting revenue targets? #1: Revenue matters, too.

Sales Hiring 188

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Sales 188

Kellblog

JANUARY 30, 2021

I certainly didn’t have “global pandemic” on my 2020 bingo card and, even if I somehow did, I would never have coupled that with “booming stock market” and median SaaS price/revenue multiples in the 15x range. That said, I’m back on the proverbial horse, so let’s dig in with a review of our 2021 predictions. 2020 Predictions Review.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Payment Services Payments AI Search 143

SaaStr

JULY 4, 2021

This was my first venture investment. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 2, 2021. One of the earliest posts I did on SaaStr was back in 2013 when I made my first venture investment, co-leading the seed round in Pipedrive. I also made a lot of mistakes on this investment I’ll share in another post.

Investment 246

Investment Scale Scaling SaaS 246

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

Canva: – Almost $2B ARR – Growing 40%+ – Profitable And … 4,000 employees That's about $500k in revenue per employee That's where software really makes money — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  ?? 4,000 Employees, So About $500,000 in Revenue Per Employee That’s very efficient.

AWS 238

AWS B2C Scaling AI 238

Tom Tunguz

MAY 22, 2024

“Compute revenue grew more than 5x and networking revenue more than 3x from last year.” ” Data center revenue totaled $26b, with about 45% from the major clouds ($13b). ” NVIDIA has started to highlight the return-on-investment (ROI) for cloud providers. 26% 2021 4.3 26% 2021 4.3

Artificial Intelligence 208

Artificial Intelligence AI Cloud Government 208

Buffer Resources

APRIL 19, 2023

When I decided to launch my disability public speaking and DEI consulting business in 2021, I didn’t have any background in the industry. Within nine months of launching my company I was able to quit my full-time job and go all in, and now, just two years later, I’ve achieved multi-six-figures in revenue.

Outsourcing Services 105

Outsourcing Services Investment Social Media Revenue 105

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2024

Ok the title here is a bit dramatic, but certainly seed investing is in an odd place in 2024. Public valuations are still at a fraction of their 2021 peaks, but seed rounds are more expensive than ever. The best investments grow from $1 million to $10 million in 5 quarters or less. Venture capitalists are investing more money.

CTO Hire 175

CTO Hire Development Team Review Software Review Technical Review 175

SaaStr

JANUARY 9, 2021

With over 500,000+ people tuning into our live events in 2020, we’re getting going on the full calendar of 2021 SaaStr events. All-in, we have room for about 350+ speakers and 1,000 mentors spread across our 2021 events. The post Speaker Submissions for 2021 SaaStr Events are Now Open! Getting Funding.

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Scale Outbound Sales Team Interviewing 168

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 29, 2023

If we rewind the clock back a few years and look at the year end top 10 for 2020, 2021, 2022 and now 2023, there are 4 companies that find themselves on every year end list: Snowflake, Cloudflare, Datadog, and Zscaler. and 99.2%, respectively) And below you can see who ended up in the top 10 at the end of 2022 and 2021.

Cloud 189

Cloud Software Review Subscription Payment Features 189

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2021

Ready to turbocharge and increase your SaaS sales in 2021? We asked Brooke Treseder, SVP, Revenue Operations at Checkout.com , Ellen Kindley, Chief Transformation Officer at Keyfactor , and Gordana Vuckovic at Contentstack to share their best tips to increase sales. Last, invest in technology when you need to.

Scale 157

Scale Technical Review Sales Onboarding 157

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2023

That means they are giving less money to VCs to invest further. As rough as 2023 is for LPs, 2021 was insane the other way. The Top LPs Made 95% Or Higher Returns on Venture and Private Equity in 2021 The best startups are still growing revenue at strong rates, if not the crazy pace of 2021. And the U.S.

Cloud 218

Cloud Startup Investment Revenue 218

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2024

Very few founders use net new customer count as their #1 KPI because they’re solely focused revenue growth. Fastly , an Enterprise CDN at $500M in revenue is only growing its customers 1%. That’s great, but your future is uncertain if your net new customers don’t grow at least half of that top-line revenue growth.

Metrics 234

Metrics SaaS Scale Social Media 234

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Billion ARR, growing a stunning 48% (!) – 111% NRR, although down from 131% in 2021 – 15 Month CAC – Gotten very efficient, +$194m net profit – Transactions growing faster than software, like Shopify – From $120m ARR in… pic.twitter.com/hYImIBKyNQ — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  ?? Much less than revenue grew.

Payment Services 273

Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 273

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

They are seeing no slowdown at all in revenue growth from $100k+ customers. Revenue There Growing a Stunning 64% (!). But the big ones are growing fast faster by revenue at scale. 3,063 Employees — So About $400,000 in Revenue Per Employee This is the age of New Efficiency. 48% of Revenue From Outside the U.S.

Cloud 219

Cloud Scaling Investment Revenue 219

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2024

Revenue per employee has doubled since 2021, leading to budget cuts and the necessity for leaders to achieve more with fewer resources. Understanding the Importance of Revenue Goals Jason expresses concerns about the high costs associated with producing a podcast and questions the return on investment if not done thoughtfully.

Sales Hiring 231

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Technical Review Scale 231

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Flex is a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest. If revenue is the North Star metric, everything you do should drive towards that. in order to keep a seat at the revenue table.”

Metrics 92

Metrics Revenue Scale Marketing 92

Neil Patel

JANUARY 27, 2021

How’s it doing in 2021? Video and voice search are leading the charge in 2021. So, what’s happening in content marketing, version 2021? Content Marketing: 2021 Current Trends. 2021 Video and Live Streaming. Let’s talk about content marketing. Where might it be headed this year and next? Is it still the king?

Content Marketing 143

Content Marketing Marketing Social Media Artificial Intelligence 143

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Software Revenue Multiples On the chart below, the darker blue line shows the median revenue multiple for 100 software companies. For those unfamiliar with revenue multiples, it’s a valuation methodology for comparing relative valuations of businesses. Software is a riskier investment. You see a lot less volatility.

SaaS 234

SaaS Software Metrics Revenue 234

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. That lasted about seven weeks, and then all of a sudden the world exploded. HashiCorp went public but it all stopped after that.”

Sales Recruiting 271

Sales Recruiting Trends Sales Hiring Software Review 271

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

Eventually, you can build a model to show you can create sustainable value in a company that’s not just based on a revenue multiple. Prediction #1: GRR and NRR Make a Mild Comeback GRR (Gross Revenue Retention) and NRR (Net Revenue Retention) have been hard for many companies over the last year or so. Never stop,” he said.

Sales Hiring 232

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 232

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The disconnect in rates and multiples is even more stark when we look at growth adjusted multiples (taking revenue multiples and dividing them by forward growth rates). Let’s rewind the clock to summer of 2021 when money was free and times were good! Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework.

Cloud 183

Cloud Government Banking Software Review 183

SaaStr

MARCH 4, 2024

2021: “Just raise the extra capital! jasonlk) February 15, 2024 So, so much has changed since the peak crazy days of 2021. For example, if you’re basically break-even and have millions or more in ARR, some debt can help you invest a smidge more. That’s a great use of revenue financing and venture debt.

Finance 209

Finance Payment Solutions Payments Pricing 209

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2024

Klaviyo is not only a rocketship, but it’s been the only SaaS IPO since Dec 2021. annual revenue growth, 16% free cash margins, and 117%. Revenue Growth Remains Top, Top Tier at 39% on Way to $1B ARR. The only one. That’s. One SaaS IPO in 2.25+ years. Which Klaviyo is. At $800m it has the full package: 39% (!)

SMB 200

SMB Scaling Revenue Engineering 200

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 17, 2021

You’re here for the insights from our 2021 sales stack report. . (In It’s difficult to know which software categories are worth investing in, let alone which tools will give you what you’re looking for. . We focused on three questions: How would you rate the return on investment for your tools? 1,000+ revenue innovators.

Sales 103

Sales Innovation Investment Revenue 103

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 25, 2024

If it wasn’t clear before, AI is the single biggest revenue driver in cloud. million paid subscribers with growth accelerating to over 35% quarter-over-quarter…more than 90% of the Fortune 100 are now GitHub customers, and revenue accelerated over 45% year-over-year. of revenue in a year. “We now have 1.8

Azure 190

Azure AI Search Marketing ChatGPT 190

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2024

He’s invested in startups as a VC since 2013 and has 10x his fund. EchoSign, which Adobe bought, had $12M in ARR, growing 100%, with 120% revenue retention and cash flow positive. The Adobes, Microsofts, and Intuits made $1M of revenue per employee. Now, every public SaaS company is at $300k to $400k of revenue per employee.

Engineering 229

Engineering Business Model Pricing Scaling 229