SaaStr

MAY 23, 2025

And more importantly, revenue and user growth that is accelerating at scale. Developer-First DNA: The founders “understood the difficulties in scaling a subscription app firsthand”this wasn’t consultants building for developers, this was developers building for developers.

Payments 274

Payments Payment Solutions Underperforming Technical Team Payment Methods 274

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+. Cloudflare is what 20x ARR looks like at scale, post-IPO. But one thing has done well through all of it: security. We always need it, and the threats keep coming.

Scaling 268

Scaling Cloud AI Engineering 268

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

of revenue in 2021 to 15.7% A reminder to not stay too reliant on direct sales as you scale. SBC has become a much bigger issue in SaaS and Cloud the past 2+ years as the markets have focused on true efficiency and profitability. RingCentral has followed, driving SBC down from 23.6% Billion in ARR appeared first on SaaStr.

Scale 278

Scale SMB Compensation Cloud 278

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2025

Back in 2021 though, Ramp was just 2 years in — but already experiencing hypergrowth. ” This framework can be applied across every aspect of building and scaling a company: 1. “These individuals scale with the company and can grow into 10x performers.”

CTO Hire 199

CTO Hire CTO Coach Scale CTO 199

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Meet Wyatt Jenkins: From Construction Sites to Chief Product Officer If you want to understand how vertical SaaS companies scale to $1B+ in revenue while staying true to their customers, there’s no better person to learn from than Wyatt Jenkins, Chief Product Officer at Procore Technologies.

Construction 248

Construction Scale SaaS Travel 248

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2021

These sessions from SaaStr Annual 2021 provide a window into what approaches best-in-class marketers in SaaS are taking today: . Intriguing Session Slides: Marketing SaaStr Session #2: “Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Building Marketing Channels Slowly to Achieve Massive Scale with Datadog’s CMO”. Scaling Sessions at SaaStr 2021.

Scale 358

Scale Marketing SMB Leadership 358

SaaStr

OCTOBER 8, 2021

Unsurprisingly, Product Led Growth was one of the most popular discussion topics at SaaStr Annual 2021. The post 6 Product Led Growth Sessions From SaaStr Annual 2021 appeared first on SaaStr. Video With Slides: HERE. In the comments below, let us know what Product Led Growth experts you want to speak at SaaStr? .

Scale 363

Scale Engineering Revenue Scaling 363

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2025

In 2021, all of SaaS was sort of hot, as long as the growth was strong. Ultimately, the key is to show that you’ve hit “Initial Traction” and have a clear path to scale. These numbers have been trending higher as competition among investors increases. Hot AI deals and super strong teams will bend the rules here. Just be aware of it.

Benchmarks 252

Benchmarks Scale Generative AI Churn 252

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2024

So it’s been a sloooow time in SaaS IPOs since the boom times ended in December 2021. There have been just 3 SaaS IPOs since December 2021: Klaviyo OneStream Rubrik And all were strong ones, at $500m+ ARR or so, growing ~50% or so. its last round was led by Salesforce Ventures in 2021 at a stunning 2021 valuation of $21 Billion.

AI 307

AI Cloud SaaS Investment 307

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2025

After going public in September 2020 with 47% annual growth, the company hit peak quarterly growth of 49% in early 2021. The market was questioning whether Palantir’s complex, bespoke approach could scale in a world increasingly dominated by self-serve SaaS. Then came the long slide down. What Changed?

AI 254

AI Artificial Intelligence Software Review Technical Review 254

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2025

The B2B / SaaS Learning : Partnership deals that seem great in early days can become value traps at scale. Structure partnerships with revenue caps or tiered economics that protect your margins as you scale. The “Scale Economics Paradox”: Revenue Up 16%, Profit Down 42% Circle shows the dark side of growth at scale.

compliance 240

compliance Marketplace as a Service B2B Healthcare 240

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2021

To help you understand the most current thinking on SaaS product excellence, we’ve curated a set of product-focused sessions from SaaStr Annual 2021. . If you want to study even more content from SaaStr Annual 2021, here are additional category-focused round-ups: Product Led Growth Sessions at SaaStr 2021.

Compensation 341

Compensation Scale Enterprise Software 341

SaaStr

JANUARY 1, 2025

Not everywhere, not at every start-up or scale-up. 78% of you see 2025 being better than 2024: In most of B2B, it may never be as easy as 2H’20 and 2021. So it’s in the air. But in general, overall, a sense that SaaS is back. It’s not just AI, although that’s part of it. 2025 should be (even) better.

Scale 276

Scale AI B2B Scaling 276

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

The survey reveals we’re returning to “pre-pandemic levels”, we’re normalizing after the artificial highs of 2021-2022. The takeaway: Stop chasing the unsustainable growth rates of 2021-2022. The companies that keep chasing 2021-style metrics? Those days are over, and frankly, that’s healthy.

B2B 207

B2B Data Scale Startup 207

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2021

With four digital events plus SaaStr Annual, we have 100+ videos just from 2021 for you! Our top videos alone cover a wide range of topics important to SaaS Founders and CEOs: building a unicorn, scaling, fundraising, customer success, mental health, and more. Hyperscaling At Scale with PagerDuty’s CEO, Jennifer Tejada.

Cloud 316

Cloud Scaling Customer Success Enterprise 316

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2024

Battery Ventures: Startups Are Actually Far More Overvalued Now Than in 2021 #3. How to Successfully Bring AI Products to Market at Scale with GitHub’s CRO” # 2. The Arguments For Not Raising at a Unicorn Valuation #4. 5 Interesting Learnings from ServiceTitan at $700,000,000 in ARR #5. Carta: 43.6%

Scale 274

Scale AI Startup Scaling 274

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

It’s an incredible look back on scaling and more: Colin Jones, first Chief Revenue Officer at Wiz. Colin joined Wiz in February 2021 when the company was near zero revenue. 5x Revenue on 5x Headcount Wiz achieved the rare feat of maintaining per-employee productivity while scaling exponentially.

Scale 176

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 176

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

But as Shopify scaled, its revenue as a percent of commerce on its sites — “Merchant Solutions” — began to eclipse its recurring SaaS revenues. In 2021+, Yes. Shopify has exploded to $3B+ in ARR and a $135B Market cap, growing an incredible 96% during Covid. And yes, it’s a software company. Call it ARR.

Merchant Services 360

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 360

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

So at BILL’s scale, you have to put programs into place across the company to connect employees to customers, to help you focus on all the different stakeholders vs just the contract signer. SMB Unit Economics: Why Is 6 Quarters the Right Target for SMBs at Scale? Real TAM vs. VC Tam: How Do You Think About it at Scale?

SMB 300

SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 300

SaaStr

JANUARY 26, 2023

Per Pitchbook and IVP, top-tier growth rounds had a 114x ARR ask at the very peak in 2021! Average asks and multiple for the very, very SaaS companies went up 700% in the Boom from late 2020-late 2021. We’re never “going back” to how things were in late 2020 and 2021. It Was 114x in 2021.

Venture Capital 66

Venture Capital AWS SaaS Startup 66

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2022

returns from VC + PE in 2021 pic.twitter.com/ZSjfFQMXYh. So 2021 was a crazy year for venture capital, topping 1,000 unicorns and an IPO-a-day. And 2021 was a year like they’d never seen: 1. It wasn’t just venture, of course, the stock market did incredibly well in 2021. And they had an incredible year.

Venture Capital 339

Venture Capital Benchmarks Investment Startup 339

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

From startup to $500M CARR, Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze, shares how Braze scaled a growth and customer success team. In this AI moment we’re in, there are still many moments in scaling a company where intuition still matters. You don’t have to leave as the organization scales. This isn’t new.

Scale 284

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 284

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

” Fortunately, the always excellent KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM) 2021 SaaS Survey – which covers over 350 private SaaS companies across various stages and categories – provides a very rich data set to work from. The post SaaS Rule of 40 Drivers Using KeyBanc’s 2021 SaaS Survey appeared first on SaaStr.

SaaS 311

SaaS Technical Review Benchmarks Azure 311

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2025

The 2021 fintech hype is mostly overpublic markets now reward fundamentals. For B2B companies, this highlights the importance of diversifying revenue streams before reaching public market scale. For B2B/SaaS founders, this underscores that automation isn’t just about convenienceit’s about unit economics survival at scale.

Outsourcing Services 197

Outsourcing Services Scale Banking Customer Lifetime Value 197

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2025

But a very different one from the 2021 wave: Deal volume is surging : 2025 has been a “green light” year for IPOs, with 52 new U.S. 21 billion 2021 valuation, $1.6B+ revenue Navan (formerly TripActions) – Corporate travel and expense management, confidentially filed June 2025. IPOs priced so far—up 62.5%

Payments 176

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services AI 176

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2024

There’s only a small chance that it’ll be an IPO exit, and Stacey Bishop with Scale Ventures shares what it takes to get to that next level of funding. To get VC to put money into your company, Scale Ventures looked at and calculated the minimum level of growth based on what typical venture investors require.

Scale 293

Scale Scaling Churn Investment 293

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2021

” Which is, once you are post-Initial Scale, past $3m-$4m in ARR or so, even if you have 80%+ gross margins and a very efficient sales and marketing engine … once your cash dips below 50% of your ARR … you’ll have stress, and importantly — underinvest. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) January 24, 2021.

Scale 342

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Construction 342

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2024

In 2021, they were often worth 40x revenue. Dear SaaStr: Why Are Buyers Not Ready to Spend Big on Acquisitions as Readily Today as in the Past? In tech at least, there are two big issues: #1. Revenues Multiples Are Down Even the best public SaaS companies are worth ~10x revenue today.

Acquisition 271

Acquisition Technical Review Revenue Startup 271

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Thats what all the last 5 SaaS IPOs, all the SaaS IPOs since 2021 in fact, were doing at IPO: Rubrik, Klaviyo, ServiceTitan, OneStream and Sailpoint. Take a look here at the lastest data from Carta on the Unicorn Class of 2021: You can see 61% werent able to raise another round. Thats $500m ARR growing 50%.

AWS 198

AWS Scaling SaaS Data 198

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2024

Scaling a company from 0 to 100 employees is no small feat. While these top ten tips may seem obvious, many founders overlook the importance of some of them as they scale their businesses. In the chart above, you can see that pre-seed starts at -2 on the scale. If we’re being honest, scaling a company is hard.

Scale 258

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Company Culture 258

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

Niche B2B Tools Struggle for Scale Smaller, specialized B2B software companies like Webicon and Silvaco have underperformed, suggesting investors prefer platforms with broader market appeal and clearer paths to significant scale. Somewhat smaller IPOs are possible and the market is good with them. returns and 54.7% for the last 20.

Technical Review 188

Technical Review Software Review Cybersecurity Advertising 188

SaaStr

JUNE 30, 2025

But the real story is simpler and more profound: OpenAI cracked the code on parallel scaling of funding and revenue in a way no other company in history has achieved. revenue, ~$1B total funding 2021: $34M revenue, ~$3B total funding 2022: $200M revenue, ~$3B total funding 2023: $2.2B revenue, ~$13B total funding 2024: $3.7B

AI 169

AI ChatGPT B2B Generative AI 169

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2025

Since its original inception in 2021, Copilot has evolved and grown to 77,000 organizations and almost 2 million users. “We want to be able to make it so that everybody can build applications the way Cloudflare builds them, where we don’t have to worry about scale,” Dane shared.

AI Search 305

AI Search AI Strategy Scale 305

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2025

That’s 10x growth in less than 18 months—making Replit one of the fastest B2B scale stories in recent history. For seven years, growth was painfully slow: 2016-2021 : Minimal revenue, limited funding first years 2022 : $1M ARR (after 6 years!) 2023 : $2.4M ARR Despite raising significant funding ($97.4M

Software Review 208

Software Review AI Technical Review Venture Capital 208

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

With too many examples from SaaStr Annual 2021 to call out specifically, here are 2 “Cloud talks plus decks” that I can imagine the Self-Taught Founder relying upon: David Sacks On SaaS Org Charts. Example Referenceable Slide + Full Deck : Mark Roberge On The Science of Scaling. Full Session YouTube. Full YouTube Session.

Scale 354

Scale Forecasting Cloud Pricing 354

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2025

She starts with the nightmare of those early scaling days. ” she recalls from the dark days of scaling without infrastructure. Scaled Sales Without Revenue Operations (And Paid Dearly) The Explosion : From 2 AEs to 50 AEs in one year. “I dream about Intercom tickets. What is going on?'” ” 9.

Payment Services 179

Payment Services Sales Hiring Payment Solutions SaaS Payments 179