Expert insights. Personalized for you.
I guess in some ways SaaStr is a digest of mistakes we all make in recurring revenue businesses, how to avoid them, or at least, make fewer. There’s one important mistake folks tend to make consistently in the early days. MORE
Bessemer Venture Partners Byron Deeter, Mary D’Onofrio, and Elliott Robinson share a state of the cloud economy, tactical lessons and case studies for early-stage founders, private market analysis, alongside key predictions and trends driving innovation in SaaS around the globe. Want more? MORE
After our highest-rated SaaStr Annual 2021 ever, we’re back for 2022 in the SF Bay Area again at San Mateo event center. We’ll again use our festival-style format from 2021, just bigger, better and more refined: Outdoors + Open Air Again! 40+ Acres! 10,000 Founders, VCs + Execs. MORE
Nick Mehta, CEO of Customer Success leader Gainsight, recently did a short post above on his Top 7 takeaways talking with customer success leader for the first time in-person in a long time. These points are so interesting I thought I’d add a few thoughts on to them. 7 takeaways: 1. MORE
Dig deeper on a lot of titles during recruiting. A "VP of Product Marketing" rarely knows anything about demand gen, ABM, etc. A "VP of Revenue" often knows nothing about inside sales or building a sales team. A "CRO" often doesn't want to do sales anymore. MORE
Recently Bessemer Venture Partners did another great deep give on Cloud metrics at the Cloud 100. They’ll update their classic “State of the Cloud” on Sep 27-29 at SaaStr Annual 2021 in the SF Bay Area so come join us there for the latest! MORE
Expensify: Founded in 2008 … 13 years ago. A long, tenacious path to $100m ARR, and then … Boom!! * 60% growth in Year 13 at $140m+ ARR!! * 119% NRR from SMBs!! Super Profitable (35% EBITDA!!) golong pic.twitter.com/4RJMDVQPMC. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) October 18, 2021. MORE
Freshworks has filed to go public, one of a next wave of U.S.-Indian Indian SaaS hybrid super success stories. Headquartered in the U.S., but with 3,800 of 4,300 employees in India, and customers spread across the globe — Freshworks is a great example of the future of SaaS. MORE
Q: What are the best marketing techniques for an early stage SaaS startup? My list of things that almost always work: Try everything — and Double Down on anything that works. If your price point is very low, this sometimes doesn’t work. MORE
Q: Dear SaaStr: What Do The Top 1% of Sales Reps Do … That The Other 99% Don’t? I have a pretty good sense what the Top 10% do, though I’m not not 100% sure about the top 1%. On the surface, they seem to be doing the same things the rest of the Top 10% do. MORE
Q: What do mediocre employees do that the best employees don’t do? My list of what mediocre employees do: Unable to hit deadlines. This is different than missing a few, with a proper heads-up. Get angry when they fall behind. Instead of quietly stepping up and just getting it done. MORE
We all know times are good in SaaS and Cloud — but just how good? Is it all the big public cloud vendors and a handful of outliers? Really impressive, accelerating, Datadog quarter. MORE
The topic of scaling is central to the mission of SaaStr: “Our goal is to help everyone get from $0 to $100m ARR with less stress and more success.” ” SaaS is not the right industry to aim for incremental, low single-digit revenue growth. MORE
Ok so what was Big on SaaStr.com this week? Top Blog Posts This Week: Dear SaaStr: What Do The Top 1% of Sales Reps Do … That The Other 99% Don’t? At the Top SaaS Companies, Founder-CEOs Own ~15% at IPO. And Most Co-Founders Are Not Equal (And That’s OK). MORE
Dear SaaStr: How do you reduce employee turnover in your sales teams? The key is a great VP of Sales combined with a very fair comp plan — and a promotion path for those that want it. First, you need a comp plan where the top reps make a lot of money. Not necessarily everyone. MORE
………………… Hiring a VP of Sales in a startup is an incredibly hard thing. It requires good instincts, luck, timing, and plenty of other things to work. Even if you hire the right person there is no guarantee your startup is going to make it. MORE
Everyone today wants to start a SaaS startup. They have an idea they are passionate about. They’ve worked under a great CEO and they’re ready — they think — to do it on their own this time. And maybe they are. What does it take? MORE
Casey Renner, partner at Openview, grabbed 3 of our great speakers from 2021 SaaStr Annual to do 3 fun, short walks-and-talks. All 3 are worth a watch! CEO of Algolia, Bernadette Nixon. First up was a walk-and-talk with one of my favorite CEOs, Bernadette Nixon of Aloglia. MORE
Yamini Rangan is HubSpot’s new CEO, as Brian Hallgian becomes Executive Chairman. Both are two of the highest rated SaaStr speakers of all time! A huge congratulations to Yamini. A quick look back at her two sessions. MORE
Getting customer success right is one of the most powerful levers in SaaS: Upsell + expansion with existing customers costs 62% less than acquiring new customers ($0.63 upsell + expansion CAC vs $1.67 new customer CAC, per KeyBanc 2021 Private SaaS Company Survey ). MORE
As OpenView and many others have documented, Product Led Growth (“PLG”) is one of the dominant themes of the SaaS marketplace today. Unsurprisingly, Product Led Growth was one of the most popular discussion topics at SaaStr Annual 2021. MORE
Q: As an entrepreneur, what are some tips and strategies to avoid burning out? It’s a huge risk. A lot of “pretty successful” startups all sell at about the same point in time … about 5 years in. Because the founders get just too burnt out around Year 4 … and as Year 5 rolls in, they’ll sell. MORE
Q: What billing or pricing tactic have you found in the end just wasn’t worth it? “[You] have to get some sort of dollar commitment for pilots in Mid Market and Enterprise deals. 9/10 times they don’t work otherwise.” MORE
Does “age” even matter any more for SaaS founders, if it ever did? On the one hand, the Stripe founders became billionaires in their teens. On the other hand, many SaaS founders are on to their 3d or 4th success. SaaS has just been around for a while. MORE
There is a lot to do in marketing. But a new VP of Marketing will really only do 3 things. Ask them what those top 3 are before you hire them. You may need something different. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 4, 2021. MORE
Overall, the 2021 SaaStr Annual might have been the most successful ever. The outdoor experience, the speakers, the energy, the enthusiasm was off the charts. And it was our best organized Annual ever. But there was one software vendor we used that just failed us. MORE
As it turns out, all of these are within your control [link]. — Robby Allen (@_RobbyAllen) February 23, 2021. MORE
So how long does it take to really Go Big? We did our own SaaStr analysis a little while back and saw it took on average 10 years to get to a $1B+ acquisition in SaaS. And an IPO? Sapphire Ventures crunched the numbers. And the answer is 12 years to IPO. MORE
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to get from $1m to $10m, $2m to $5m, $10m to $30m, etc. One area we haven’t talked as much about is getting from say $100k in ARR to Initial Traction, or $1-$2m in ARR. A bit, but not as much. MORE
Q: Dear SaaStr: What Percent of My Revenue Should Come from Referrals and Word of Mouth? Ultimately, almost all software companies end up getting 20-50% or so of their new customers from their existing customers once they hit scale. Sometimes even more. From referrals. From brand. From word-of-mouth. MORE
Byron Deeter, general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and I caught up on SaaS and Cloud in general and the upcoming Cloud100 awards and learnings. The full session is below and sign up for the Cloud 100 for FREE here. A few of the takeaways: #1. MORE
If you want to hit the plan for Q1'22, You need to be hiring all the sales reps you'll need then … Now. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 15, 2021. Recurring revenue certainly has pros and cons. MORE
So that’s a wrap on SaaStr Annual 2021, #007. THANK YOU to everyone that made it out!! While there are always bumps, I’d give it a 10/10, for first time since #001 in 2015. A few learnings: pic.twitter.com/FMQLYN4Ivk. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 30, 2021. MORE
SaaStr
OCTOBER 23, 2021
………………… Hiring a VP of Sales in a startup is an incredibly hard thing. It requires good instincts, luck, timing, and plenty of other things to work. Even if you hire the right person there is no guarantee your startup is going to make it.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 22, 2021
The topic of scaling is central to the mission of SaaStr: “Our goal is to help everyone get from $0 to $100m ARR with less stress and more success.” ” SaaS is not the right industry to aim for incremental, low single-digit revenue growth.
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SaaStr
OCTOBER 21, 2021
Everyone today wants to start a SaaS startup. They have an idea they are passionate about. They’ve worked under a great CEO and they’re ready — they think — to do it on their own this time. And maybe they are. What does it take?
SaaStr
OCTOBER 12, 2021
Getting customer success right is one of the most powerful levers in SaaS: Upsell + expansion with existing customers costs 62% less than acquiring new customers ($0.63 upsell + expansion CAC vs $1.67 new customer CAC, per KeyBanc 2021 Private SaaS Company Survey ).
Speaker: Robin Zaragoza, Product Coach and CEO of The Product Refinery
Join Robin Zaragoza, product coach and CEO of The Product Refinery, as she shares tips on how to create a powerful Value Proposition that keeps your customer at the heart of your product development process.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 8, 2021
As OpenView and many others have documented, Product Led Growth (“PLG”) is one of the dominant themes of the SaaS marketplace today. Unsurprisingly, Product Led Growth was one of the most popular discussion topics at SaaStr Annual 2021.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 22, 2021
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to get from $1m to $10m, $2m to $5m, $10m to $30m, etc. One area we haven’t talked as much about is getting from say $100k in ARR to Initial Traction, or $1-$2m in ARR. A bit, but not as much.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 19, 2021
I guess in some ways SaaStr is a digest of mistakes we all make in recurring revenue businesses, how to avoid them, or at least, make fewer. There’s one important mistake folks tend to make consistently in the early days.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 20, 2021
Q: Dear SaaStr: What Do The Top 1% of Sales Reps Do … That The Other 99% Don’t? I have a pretty good sense what the Top 10% do, though I’m not not 100% sure about the top 1%. On the surface, they seem to be doing the same things the rest of the Top 10% do.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 19, 2021
After our highest-rated SaaStr Annual 2021 ever, we’re back for 2022 in the SF Bay Area again at San Mateo event center. We’ll again use our festival-style format from 2021, just bigger, better and more refined: Outdoors + Open Air Again! 40+ Acres! 10,000 Founders, VCs + Execs.
Speaker: Nickey Skarstad, Director of Product at Duolingo
Join Nickey Skarstad, Director of Product at Duolingo, as she discusses why it’s important to actively gather customer feedback, how to build customer feedback loops into your product planning, the best ways to decipher different types of feedback, and different frameworks for how/when to apply feedback processes.
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SaaStr
OCTOBER 21, 2021
Casey Renner, partner at Openview, grabbed 3 of our great speakers from 2021 SaaStr Annual to do 3 fun, short walks-and-talks. All 3 are worth a watch! CEO of Algolia, Bernadette Nixon. First up was a walk-and-talk with one of my favorite CEOs, Bernadette Nixon of Aloglia.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 16, 2021
So how long does it take to really Go Big? We did our own SaaStr analysis a little while back and saw it took on average 10 years to get to a $1B+ acquisition in SaaS. And an IPO? Sapphire Ventures crunched the numbers. And the answer is 12 years to IPO.
SaaStr
AUGUST 30, 2021
Freshworks has filed to go public, one of a next wave of U.S.-Indian Indian SaaS hybrid super success stories. Headquartered in the U.S., but with 3,800 of 4,300 employees in India, and customers spread across the globe — Freshworks is a great example of the future of SaaS.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 5, 2021
So that’s a wrap on SaaStr Annual 2021, #007. THANK YOU to everyone that made it out!! While there are always bumps, I’d give it a 10/10, for first time since #001 in 2015. A few learnings: pic.twitter.com/FMQLYN4Ivk. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 30, 2021.
Advertiser: Data Robot
In March 2020, the world was hit with an unprecedented crisis when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. This whitepaper reviews lessons learned from applying AI to the pandemic’s response efforts, and insights to mitigating the next pandemic.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 23, 2021
Dear SaaStr: How do you reduce employee turnover in your sales teams? The key is a great VP of Sales combined with a very fair comp plan — and a promotion path for those that want it. First, you need a comp plan where the top reps make a lot of money. Not necessarily everyone.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 24, 2021
Ok so what was Big on SaaStr.com this week? Top Blog Posts This Week: Dear SaaStr: What Do The Top 1% of Sales Reps Do … That The Other 99% Don’t? At the Top SaaS Companies, Founder-CEOs Own ~15% at IPO. And Most Co-Founders Are Not Equal (And That’s OK).
SaaStr
OCTOBER 22, 2021
Expensify: Founded in 2008 … 13 years ago. A long, tenacious path to $100m ARR, and then … Boom!! * 60% growth in Year 13 at $140m+ ARR!! * 119% NRR from SMBs!! Super Profitable (35% EBITDA!!) golong pic.twitter.com/4RJMDVQPMC. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) October 18, 2021.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 16, 2021
Bessemer Venture Partners Byron Deeter, Mary D’Onofrio, and Elliott Robinson share a state of the cloud economy, tactical lessons and case studies for early-stage founders, private market analysis, alongside key predictions and trends driving innovation in SaaS around the globe. Want more?
Advertiser: Data Robot
Manufacturers want to deliver the best products on the market as quickly and ethically as possible. Learn how to solve your most urgent manufacturing and business needs with an enterprise AI platform.
SaaStr
AUGUST 18, 2021
Dear SaaStr: Have All the Good SaaS Ideas Been Built? Sort of, but it’s OK. What software can do in each category keep evolving, and getting more sophisticated, and more specialized.
SaaStr
OCTOBER 25, 2021
Q: What billing or pricing tactic have you found in the end just wasn’t worth it? “[You] have to get some sort of dollar commitment for pilots in Mid Market and Enterprise deals. 9/10 times they don’t work otherwise.”
SaaStr
OCTOBER 15, 2021
Overall, the 2021 SaaStr Annual might have been the most successful ever. The outdoor experience, the speakers, the energy, the enthusiasm was off the charts. And it was our best organized Annual ever. But there was one software vendor we used that just failed us.
SaaStr
AUGUST 24, 2021
Q: What are the best marketing techniques for an early stage SaaS startup? My list of things that almost always work: Try everything — and Double Down on anything that works. If your price point is very low, this sometimes doesn’t work.
Speaker: Bruce McCarthy, Co-Author of Product Roadmaps Relaunched and Founder of Product Culture
Join Bruce McCarthy, co-author of Product Roadmaps Relaunched, as he discusses the best ways to innovate your product roadmap. So that it reflects your customers’ needs while simultaneously and accurately communicating your products strategy and vision.
SaaStr
AUGUST 4, 2021
There is a lot to do in marketing. But a new VP of Marketing will really only do 3 things. Ask them what those top 3 are before you hire them. You may need something different. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 4, 2021.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
Dig deeper on a lot of titles during recruiting. A "VP of Product Marketing" rarely knows anything about demand gen, ABM, etc. A "VP of Revenue" often knows nothing about inside sales or building a sales team. A "CRO" often doesn't want to do sales anymore.
SaaStr
JULY 28, 2021
Byron Deeter, general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and I caught up on SaaS and Cloud in general and the upcoming Cloud100 awards and learnings. The full session is below and sign up for the Cloud 100 for FREE here. A few of the takeaways: #1.
SaaStr
AUGUST 22, 2021
Recently Bessemer Venture Partners did another great deep give on Cloud metrics at the Cloud 100. They’ll update their classic “State of the Cloud” on Sep 27-29 at SaaStr Annual 2021 in the SF Bay Area so come join us there for the latest!
Speaker: Ramli John, Managing Director at ProductLed and Author
Let’s face it. Today’s users are impulsive and easily distracted. They don’t have the time (or patience) to try and figure things out by themselves. They expect the product to be intuitive. Easy. And fast. Add to that a few, unfairly poor reviews and you’ll be more than just stuck. Ramli will share a simple but powerful framework to get more users to experience a product’s "Eureka!" moment and turn them into lifelong customers.
SaaStr
JULY 21, 2021
Nick Mehta, CEO of Customer Success leader Gainsight, recently did a short post above on his Top 7 takeaways talking with customer success leader for the first time in-person in a long time. These points are so interesting I thought I’d add a few thoughts on to them. 7 takeaways: 1.
SaaStr
JULY 22, 2021
Q: Dear SaaStr: What Percent of My Revenue Should Come from Referrals and Word of Mouth? Ultimately, almost all software companies end up getting 20-50% or so of their new customers from their existing customers once they hit scale. Sometimes even more. From referrals. From brand. From word-of-mouth.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
Q: What do mediocre employees do that the best employees don’t do? My list of what mediocre employees do: Unable to hit deadlines. This is different than missing a few, with a proper heads-up. Get angry when they fall behind. Instead of quietly stepping up and just getting it done.
SaaStr
AUGUST 5, 2021
Yamini Rangan is HubSpot’s new CEO, as Brian Hallgian becomes Executive Chairman. Both are two of the highest rated SaaStr speakers of all time! A huge congratulations to Yamini. A quick look back at her two sessions.
Advertiser: Data Robot
Machine learning operations (MLOps) helps companies deliver machine learning applications in production at scale. Discover the importance of secure MLOps in the four critical areas of model deployment, monitoring, lifecycle management, and governance.
SaaStr
AUGUST 5, 2021
We all know times are good in SaaS and Cloud — but just how good? Is it all the big public cloud vendors and a handful of outliers? Really impressive, accelerating, Datadog quarter.
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. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 15, 2021. Recurring revenue certainly has pros and cons.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 19, 2021
Q: As an entrepreneur, what are some tips and strategies to avoid burning out? It’s a huge risk. A lot of “pretty successful” startups all sell at about the same point in time … about 5 years in. Because the founders get just too burnt out around Year 4 … and as Year 5 rolls in, they’ll sell.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
Does “age” even matter any more for SaaS founders, if it ever did? On the one hand, the Stripe founders became billionaires in their teens. On the other hand, many SaaS founders are on to their 3d or 4th success. SaaS has just been around for a while.
Speaker: Liz Love, Chief Commercial Officer at ProdPad
Join Liz Love, Chief Commercial Officer at ProdPad as she details how product feedback can improve your product development process while mitigating stakeholder conflict, constant feature requests, failed launches, unexpected outcomes, unhappy users, and complexity.
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