SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2023

It can replace humans for those companies that can’t find someone to send emails, update the website, or do sales. Q: As you scale, how metrics-oriented should the company be? ARR asks Jason how he sees the best companies steering into metrics and KPIs to drive performance at a leadership level. The market wants it.

Scale 230

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success AI 230

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2022

We wanted to give a special shout-out to some of our newest sponsors for SaaStr Annual 2022. Our breadth and depth of expertise and A-SCEND, our proprietary compliance management platform, enable you to assess against the leading cybersecurity compliance frameworks important to your business – with one partner.

Cybersecurity 199

Cybersecurity Scale compliance Subscription 199

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 28, 2022

We’ve made it to the end of 2022 – 12 months in which everything changed for the tech industry. In this post, the Intercom Content Team picks our highlights from a busy 2022 – we published over 150 pieces of content, including guides about customer support and customer retention. 2022 has provided us with some truly great series.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Scale ChatGPT Innovation 118

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. Sam just finished 18 months at Founders Fund after joining in mid-to-late 2022. In 2021 and 2022, the money was a net negative, and what GTM organizations did was twofold.

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 255

SaaSOptics

MARCH 16, 2022

2022 B2B SaaS Trends [Webinar Recap]. That’s why we sat down with SaaSOptics and Chargify executives Caitlin O’Neil, CFO , and Matt Downs, CRO , to weigh in on the biggest trends of 2022. However, 64% of these participants considered expansion into new pricing models in 2022. Sales-negotiated.

Trends 98

Trends B2B Scale Payment Features 98

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

While the average Cloud stock has fallen almost 50% in 2022, Duolingo’s has stayed up, and is down just 10% in the past 6 months. The core product is very B2C, but the upgrade to paid has very SMB B2B metrics, and 80% of the revenue is subscription based. They have almost 40 million free users to get to their scale. #2.

Scale 299

Scale B2C SMB B2B 299

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2022

We’re so close now to the official start of SaaStr Europa 2022 on 7-8 June in Sunny Barcelona! Kick off to SaaStr Europa 2022 with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin. 5 Scale-Up Mistakes for Startups with Dave Kellogg. How to Run Sales and Marketing Ops Across Multiple Continents with LumApps CRO and VP of Growth Marketing.

Mobile 221

Mobile Scale SMB Travel 221

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2023

Quiet but Mighty SaaS security leads Zscaler just keeps on growing at epic rates at $1.5 Billion in ARR — growing a stunning 46% even at that scale. With closing to 100% of its customers renewing, Zscaler is an engine at scale. We can’t all do this, but the closer we get, the more magic there is as you scale. #2.

Scale 196

Scale Scaling Engineering Cloud 196

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Powered by a modern business messenger , it scales your ability to answer more questions from more customers without increasing headcount, budget, or hours logged. Here’s an example of key goals and metrics to consider. So before you begin searching for specific tools, define your goals upfront. CRM: Salesforce.

Technical Review 249

Technical Review Customer Support Payment Methods Payment Solutions 249

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2023

Self-serve products can and should be quite profitable at scale. Churn was modest from their price increase, leading to material growth. Subscribers only grew 3% in 2022. A tough metric. Having said that, many SMB players were hit hard in 2022. And subscriber growth of only 3%. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1.

Scale 227

Scale SMB Churn Pricing 227

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

We just wrote up how some of the biggest changes of SaaS are now coming, specifically in Customer Success and Sales. If there were one or two metrics or data points that Nick learned at Gainsight by sitting in on board meetings, what were they? As you scale, you hire less people and spend less money. Sales grew a little less.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 246

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2023

2022 Saw a Slowdown in Usage Growth, But 2023 Saw a Potential Bounce Back. I like this chart a lot showing both the awesome power of high NRR, and also how you have to invest in customers that scale with you over time. That leads to an awesome force of nature years down the road: #3. Efficiency is a complicated metric.

Scale 182

Scale cloud efficiency Cloud Business Model 182

SaaStr

DECEMBER 8, 2022

At SaaStr Scale this year, Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot joined us, and I thought it was really an A+ discussion. While not a surprise, it was very helpful to hear Yamini share just how much their sales motion has changed since the Q1’22 — as it has for most of us. NRR is Metric #1. More Than Sales.

Scale 236

Scale SMB Scaling Customer Success 236

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

Discover Bessemer Venture Partners’s annual State of the Cloud report, going through trends, benchmarks, and metrics that underpin the Cloud economy. The Macro Impact On Public Cloud Software Over The Past Year Cloud stocks dropped in 2022 in a severe market pullback event that Bessemer Venture Partners call The SaaSacre.

Cloud 245

Cloud Payments Software Review Payment Solutions 245

Chart Mogul

JUNE 1, 2023

faster than their peers in 2022. So if you are keeping a close eye on your retention metrics this year, you’re not alone. Retention is one of the most important metrics when building a successful SaaS business. faster than their peers in 2022. Are you ready to implement strategies to scale rapidly?

Retention 90

Retention Metrics Benchmarks SaaS 90

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Sales Efficiency. -. in revenue in fiscal year 2020, to $432m in the first three quarters of fiscal 2022. The company’s metrics all recorded positive gains including gross margin moving from 60% to 70%, which is impressive for a business providing hardware. Revenue, $M. Revenue Growth. -. Gross Margin. Net Income Margin.

CTO Hire 353

CTO Hire CTO Coach Benchmarks Scale 353

SaaStr

DECEMBER 5, 2022

Spotify has rolled out its latest metrics on the top podcasts and we’re pleased to note The Official SaaStr Podcast is in the Top 1% of most. SaaStr 611: How to Scale a Platform and Ecosystem to $10B with Atlassian CRO Cameron Deatsch. ?. Our podcast is our quiet but great asset. Hosted by Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond. ?.

Scale 232

Scale Scaling Metrics SaaS 232

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2022

Or she brings in more leads for the same budget. It’s hard enough just to maintain KPIs and metrics as you scale. Sales growth slowly declines as she struggles to bring in enough reps. Leads stall out as the channels start to get fatigued. jasonlk) July 9, 2022. — Dave Kellogg (@Kellblog) July 9, 2022.

Sales Recruiting 188

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Churn 188

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2022

jasonlk) April 29, 2022. I’m going to summarize a bunch of my learnings into 2 rough metrics , and then let’s do a deep dive across a bunch of SaaS leaders to see what we can learn. Roughly: By $100m ARR, you probably have to be multi-product to scale at top-tier rates. . — Jason BeKind Lemkin #????????????

Scale 252

Scale SaaS SMB Scaling 252

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

If you want to hit the plan for Q1'22, You need to be hiring all the sales reps you'll need then … Now. The Good News: It’s not Too Late for 2022 — but it’s close. Second, you have to try to hire as many of the sales reps you’ll need for the end of Q1 … by early Q4 at the latest.

Sales Hiring 269

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Acquisition 269

ChurnZero

DECEMBER 21, 2022

2022 was a tireless year. WIth that, here are ChurnZero’s top five most-attended and most-watched webinars from 2022. 1/ Crash course in Customer Success and SaaS metrics. Many people think of SaaS and CS metrics as black and white. But the truth is, there are many ways to calculate and interpret—and game—metrics.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Scale Underperforming Technical Team Benchmarks 98

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

Anchor your startup strategy in a specific sales and service team. Nurture : Provide startup-specific resources to help them scale. We really anchor on these metrics where we can drive conversion rates higher, where we can drive average deal size higher. Serve : Avoid startup customers getting lumped into the overall base.

Startup 205

Startup Scale SMB Venture Capital 205

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

At the end of Day 3 of SaaStr Annual 2022, Jason opened up the mic for an AMA. You’ll never scale revenue if you can’t get two people to hit quota. And when I first wrote this on LinkedIn, I got a hundred comments with everyone telling me who their magical sales rep is too. Why real customer support is critical.

Sales Hiring 222

Sales Hiring VP of Engineering Payment Methods Scale 222

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

— Jason Be Kind Lemkin (@jasonlk) November 10, 2022. Especially when some other crappy company just got funded last week with worse metrics. They see it as a key differentiator to win as you scale. Still, some VCs want to see at least one solid VP on the team, or at least, one solid manager you can scale under.

Scale 339

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 339

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Download your full copy of the 2022 Customer Success Leadership Study here. The top metrics in CS are all revenue metrics. NRR, which tracks the percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers, is now the top metric for CS teams in almost every revenue band. report to the CEO, 17.1%

Leadership 98

Leadership Trends Customer Success Investment 98

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2023

The toughest metric is new customers. But new business is a lot tougher than 12 months ago, let alone 24: Founder CEO Matthew Prince was refreshingly honest about what was happening in sales. Leading public companies don’t always share this level of detail, but it’s super helpful to see. Billion in ARR !

Sales Hiring 262

Sales Hiring Scale Cloud Sales 262

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 13, 2022

This year we look back at 2021 and forward to 2022, measuring how our past predictions have stood up to another tumultuous year and laying out what you can expect in 2022. Product-lead growth continues to be one of the best ways to rapidly scale a software company, and best practices are increasingly shared and understood.

Pricing 82

Pricing Payment Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 82

SaaSOptics

FEBRUARY 13, 2022

Getting SaaS Accounting and Financial Operations Right in 2022. One challenge is how software providers manage their order to cash process and capture, share, and use financial metrics internally. According to Gartner, the SaaS industry is projected to grow to a staggering $121B in 2021, a 15% increase from 2020. The worst part?

Payment Features 105

Payment Features Outsourced Development SaaS Software Review 105

Sales Hacker

JUNE 16, 2022

It’s been a tough couple of years, Sales Hackers. What do the changing market conditions mean for RevOps and sales? What do the changing market conditions mean for RevOps and sales? VP of Global Inside Sales at Tray.io. Your prospects may share that they’re pausing on projects or vendor meetings. Ralph Barsi.

Scale 94

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 94

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2022

I think at a minimum you should have a real experienced finance lead at $2m ARR, a real VP Finance once you raise $20m, and a CFO once you are at $20m+ ARR. jasonlk) April 12, 2022. At $20m in VC money raised, the excuses sort of end for the metrics being wrong. Dear SaaStr: When Should I Hire a CFO?

Scale 205

Scale Finance Churn Startup 205

SaaStr

JANUARY 20, 2022

How to check on a competitor's growth plan: 1/ Search on LinkedIn how many sales reps they have 2/ Multiply by $500,000 ($250,000 if SMB). — Jason BeKind Lemkin 2⃣0⃣2⃣2⃣ (@jasonlk) January 12, 2022. But one thing hasn’t changed since 2012 — how many sales reps you need to hit the plan.

SMB 243

SMB Scale Startup Enterprise 243

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 20, 2022

 We’re not going to lie, 2022 was a challenging, nerve-racking, gripping beast of a year, but here we are at the end of it – and there’s plenty to be thankful for. This is our last episode of 2022. Des Traynor: One of the things we sat down to do at the very end of last year was plan out 2022.

VP of Engineering 118

VP of Engineering Technical Review Software Review Scale 118

Kellblog

DECEMBER 27, 2021

Net dollar retention becomes the top SaaS metric. Kellblog Predictions for 2022. Well, here we go with our predictions for 2022. Look at the scale. I think 2022 will be the year we stop thinking in pre-Covid and post-Covid terms, and accept that Covid-19 will become endemic. It’s exciting to watch.

Blockchain 142

Blockchain Technical Review Venture Capital Sales Hiring 142

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2022

But this will be one of the last chances we get to see its financials and metrics as a public company. Once it goes private again later in 2022, Zendesk won’t publish many metrics anymore. While Zendesk still has thousands of SMBs, the tiny customers no longer even show up in the metrics. 50% outside of it.

SMB 265

SMB Scale B2B Metrics 265

OPEXEngine

DECEMBER 13, 2022

SaaSco’s sales have slowed in the second half of 2022 selling to mid-sized enterprises. SaaSco’s sales cycle is six to nine months. . If the Saasco executive team acts on that suggested benchmark, they will need to devote a significant part of their sales team’s capacity towards current customers.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks Scale Headcount Software Review 52

SaaSOptics

MARCH 10, 2022

Spreadsheets quickly become unwieldy for a scaling SaaS company; SaaSOptics is the financial reporting tool you’ll never outgrow. As the world’s #1 CRM platform, Salesforce can do everything from providing more insight into customers or sales to improving inter-company communication for better customer service.

Payment Services 87

Payment Services SaaS Payments Payments Payment Solutions 87

ChurnZero

OCTOBER 15, 2021

Where is Customer Success Headed in 2022? Businesses were forced to wise up to this fact during the pandemic when new sales shriveled. In this article, we share three Customer Success trends to look out for in 2022: NRR becomes red hot (watch out). Within the last 36 months, NRR claims the top spot as a qualifying metric.

Customer Success 97

Customer Success Benchmarks Scale Underperforming Technical Team 97