Expert insights. Personalized for you.
Ok you’ve finally crossed $1m, $2m, $4m ARR. Now — you just want to get there faster. And that’s where you’ll make a lot of mistakes. The most important thing is not to chase the shiny penny, assuming you are growing at least 60% Year-over-Year. You’ve done the Impossible. MORE
25% of revenue from professional services may sound high, but it’s a fairly standard ratio in true enterprise software. Importantly, Qualtrics’ margins remain high so it’s not losing money on its services. Gross margins on services are about 35%. MORE
One of the most tiring things for founders can be always being compared to Unicorns and now Decacorns. Certainly sometimes it’s inspirational. MORE
It took us 2 years just to figure out our ultimate business model. What you think you do on day 1 may look very different by day 365. link]. — Aaron Levie (@levie) September 11, 2020. It seems like everyone wants to be a SaaS founder these days. MORE
$30B+ Datadog became the great darling of developers and devops years ago, and never stopped pushing on the accelerator. It’s expanded its product portfolio to build an incredible observabillity engine approaching $1B ARR. MORE
We checked in on Twilio at $1B in ARR , but it’s interesting to check in again at $2B+ in ARR as the engine just hasn’t stopped worth. MORE
In theory, many things can kill a SaaS startup after $4m-$5m ARR. In practice, quitting is the only thing. In theory, many things can stop a SaaS startup after $4m-$5m ARR from getting to $100m. In practice, high churn is the only thing. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) January 17, 2021. MORE
I know you are probably like me. You go to a web service. What do you do? Free trial. Sign Up Now. The very, very last thing I am going to click is “Contact Me.” MORE
One question I struggled with a lot in the early days was what price points supported inside sales reps. It was clear to me that our freemium offering, priced at from $0 to $19/month, couldn’t really support a traditional inside sales team. MORE
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to make that critical hire: the VP Sales. I’ve done it right, and I’ve done it wrong. When it’s good … it’s just so good. It all clicks. But when you make a mis-hire, it’s about the worst mis-hire you can make. MORE
We’re gearing up for our first SaaStr event of 2021 … SaaStr University: Spring Semester. A highly hands-on, tactical event, come learn how: To Raise Your Next VC Round, With Point9’s Christoph Janz. How to Build Your First CS Team , with VPs from AgentSync and Peak Support. MORE
IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m ARR VPCS: $2m ARR VPP: $3m-$4m ARR VPE: $5m-$6m ARR CFO: $10m ARR COO: $20m ARR. More here: [link]. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 21, 2019. The other day I was meeting with a great CEO who had raised a modest seed round. MORE
Don't pick a cofounder that. – has something better to do – wants to see how it goes – has a clear backup plan – sees it as risky – argues over who should be CEO – doesn't 100% believe. You'll see. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2020. MORE
Early in my career, I was a bit skeptical of big analyst firms like Gartner. Was it all sort of some sort of game in enterprise software? But like many things, time goes on and I learned. Yes, sometimes a vendor recommendation from Gartner can seem a bit circular. MORE
Q: Your sales manager is under great pressure to increase sales. At a recent meeting of the entire sales staff, this person said, “We have to hit our numbers no matter what it takes!” Does this emotional appeal change your way of dealing with customers? MORE
As we begin strategic planning season for next year, there one topic a lot that comes up a lot: Should We Just Let Our Smallest Customers Go? MORE
It seems every day there’s not just a new SaaS unicorn, but 2 or 3! How can this be? How can there now be 100s of SaaS Unicorns (startups worth $1B or more) … vs just a handful 5-6 years ago? MORE
There’s a lot of Internet advice that makes a lot of sense, but not necessarily in SaaS. Somewhat bad advice that entrepreneurs share again and again, without having really tested the ideas behind that advice. MORE
“My CEO Told Me To Stop Selling So Much” Recently, I met with a sales leader I’ve known for years, and he told me The Most Curious Story. His SaaS CEO asked him to stop selling so much. Slow down. You are doing too good of a job, the CEO said. We can’t afford it. MORE
Box has been an important part of SaaStr almost since the beginning. Aaron Levie was kind enough to come to our first SaaStr Annual in 2015, just a week after their IPO. MORE
We’ve done so much great content with Atlassian over the years, with CEO Michael-Cannon Brooks to Trello Founder and CEO Michael Pryor to ex-President Jay Simons, and the learnings are always amazing. MORE
Every week, I meet with several entrepreneurs, often bootstrapped or close to it, who fit the following sort of model: Gotten to Initial Traction (~$1m-$1.5m ARR), or getting close to it, or a bit beyond; and. With nice growth (>=100% YoY); and. MORE
“Churn” is a term we all use in SaaS as a core metric, but its roots, as near as I remember and can tell, come from our B2C colleagues. Folks churn out of their Verizon plan, their Netflix subscription, etc. In a low-end subscription model for a tool, not a solution (e.g., MORE
New Relic is one of my favorite Cloud stories. CEO Lew Cirne, after regretting selling his first startup in the space to CA for $375m, tries again with New Relic. Today New Relic is worth more than 10x that, at $4.3B. And more than previous rivals such as AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.2B. MORE
As you try to hire up for your SaaS company, you’re going to be faced with a lot of choices and trade-offs. No hire is the perfect package. Do you take a risk on someone a little more junior than you’d like? Someone from a company a little larger than you’d like? MORE
I hear again and again from SaaS founders growing to $5m, $10m ARR or even more that they don’t need a certain VP — with the exception of a VP of Sales. That they can get away without no one in the role, or a just a junior person in marketing, in product, in success, in biz dev, etc. MORE
Cloudflare is one of those iconic Cloud companies most of us use, and know about as a product and vendor … but perhaps we don’t think as much about as a public company. And quite an epic one it is, at ~$500m in ARR and a $25B+ market cap!! MORE
2021 will be the year SaaS sales evolves the most since the Appexchange ecosystem started to take off ~15 years ago, which spawned the entire notion of a true sales app stack. What’s the change? The permanent move to distributed sales teams. MORE
At @Mailchimp , US customers’ email marketing activity is up 15% since the beginning of the pandemic compared to the same time last year. Email will continue to be an effective way for entrepreneurs to connect with their audience and meet them where they are in 2021 and beyond. link]. MORE
Q: Why are so many VCs moving to Miami and Austin? . It’s taxes first — although this isn’t new … and. Quality-of-life second. QOL has declined dramatically during Covid in San Francisco. And third — investing over Zoom is now routine. This is the real new part. MORE
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Burnout is a real risk in SaaS. Not usually in the early days. But as time marches on — It’s a huge risk. . One piece of “evidence” — a lot of fairly successful SaaS startups all sell at about the same point in time … about 5 years in. MORE
A little while back, I gave a great SaaS Founder CEO a Gift. A real gift. This founder CEO was at about $1m in ARR, doing well, but with only a smidge of angel funding and limited resources. And I gave him an insanely great VP of Sales candidate. MORE
One of the most important operating metrics in your SaaS start-up, if you aren’t predictably cash-flow positive, is your Zero Cash Date (“ZCD”). You hear a lot about SaaS metrics, but this one doesn’t often come up. MORE
SaaStr
JANUARY 24, 2021
“My CEO Told Me To Stop Selling So Much” Recently, I met with a sales leader I’ve known for years, and he told me The Most Curious Story. His SaaS CEO asked him to stop selling so much. Slow down. You are doing too good of a job, the CEO said. We can’t afford it.
SaaStr
JANUARY 20, 2021
One thing that is great in SaaS, from a 20,000 foot perspective at least, is You Can See The Future. It’s the benefit of a recurring revenue stream in a B2B model.
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SaaStr
JANUARY 17, 2021
In theory, many things can kill a SaaS startup after $4m-$5m ARR. In practice, quitting is the only thing. In theory, many things can stop a SaaS startup after $4m-$5m ARR from getting to $100m. In practice, high churn is the only thing. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) January 17, 2021.
SaaStr
JANUARY 17, 2021
Don't pick a cofounder that. – has something better to do – wants to see how it goes – has a clear backup plan – sees it as risky – argues over who should be CEO – doesn't 100% believe. You'll see. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2020.
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SaaStr
JANUARY 25, 2021
Early in my career, I was a bit skeptical of big analyst firms like Gartner. Was it all sort of some sort of game in enterprise software? But like many things, time goes on and I learned. Yes, sometimes a vendor recommendation from Gartner can seem a bit circular.
SaaStr
JANUARY 15, 2021
25% of revenue from professional services may sound high, but it’s a fairly standard ratio in true enterprise software. Importantly, Qualtrics’ margins remain high so it’s not losing money on its services. Gross margins on services are about 35%.
SaaStr
JANUARY 12, 2021
One of the most tiring things for founders can be always being compared to Unicorns and now Decacorns. Certainly sometimes it’s inspirational.
SaaStr
JANUARY 23, 2021
Cloudflare is one of those iconic Cloud companies most of us use, and know about as a product and vendor … but perhaps we don’t think as much about as a public company. And quite an epic one it is, at ~$500m in ARR and a $25B+ market cap!!
SaaStr
JANUARY 20, 2021
$30B+ Datadog became the great darling of developers and devops years ago, and never stopped pushing on the accelerator. It’s expanded its product portfolio to build an incredible observabillity engine approaching $1B ARR.
Speaker: Shannon Lietz, Director of DevSecOps Team, Intuit
You've finally done it: You've won over C-Suite and your DevSecOps team is up and running. But how do you monitor your new program? Join Shannon Lietz, Leader and Director of DevsecOps at Intuit, and learn to lead your DevSecOps team to the top.
SaaStr
JANUARY 19, 2021
One of the most important operating metrics in your SaaS start-up, if you aren’t predictably cash-flow positive, is your Zero Cash Date (“ZCD”). You hear a lot about SaaS metrics, but this one doesn’t often come up.
SaaStr
JANUARY 24, 2021
2021 will be the year SaaS sales evolves the most since the Appexchange ecosystem started to take off ~15 years ago, which spawned the entire notion of a true sales app stack. What’s the change? The permanent move to distributed sales teams.
SaaStr
DECEMBER 26, 2020
As we begin strategic planning season for next year, there one topic a lot that comes up a lot: Should We Just Let Our Smallest Customers Go?
SaaStr
JANUARY 13, 2021
We’ve done so much great content with Atlassian over the years, with CEO Michael-Cannon Brooks to Trello Founder and CEO Michael Pryor to ex-President Jay Simons, and the learnings are always amazing.
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SaaStr
DECEMBER 15, 2020
It took us 2 years just to figure out our ultimate business model. What you think you do on day 1 may look very different by day 365. link]. — Aaron Levie (@levie) September 11, 2020. It seems like everyone wants to be a SaaS founder these days.
SaaStr
JANUARY 3, 2021
One question I struggled with a lot in the early days was what price points supported inside sales reps. It was clear to me that our freemium offering, priced at from $0 to $19/month, couldn’t really support a traditional inside sales team.
SaaStr
DECEMBER 16, 2020
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to make that critical hire: the VP Sales. I’ve done it right, and I’ve done it wrong. When it’s good … it’s just so good. It all clicks. But when you make a mis-hire, it’s about the worst mis-hire you can make.
SaaStr
JANUARY 14, 2021
It seems every day there’s not just a new SaaS unicorn, but 2 or 3! How can this be? How can there now be 100s of SaaS Unicorns (startups worth $1B or more) … vs just a handful 5-6 years ago?
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SaaStr
DECEMBER 10, 2020
I hear again and again from SaaS founders growing to $5m, $10m ARR or even more that they don’t need a certain VP — with the exception of a VP of Sales. That they can get away without no one in the role, or a just a junior person in marketing, in product, in success, in biz dev, etc.
SaaStr
JANUARY 22, 2021
Q: Your sales manager is under great pressure to increase sales. At a recent meeting of the entire sales staff, this person said, “We have to hit our numbers no matter what it takes!” Does this emotional appeal change your way of dealing with customers?
SaaStr
DECEMBER 25, 2020
There’s a lot of Internet advice that makes a lot of sense, but not necessarily in SaaS. Somewhat bad advice that entrepreneurs share again and again, without having really tested the ideas behind that advice.
SaaStr
JANUARY 21, 2021
We checked in on Twilio at $1B in ARR , but it’s interesting to check in again at $2B+ in ARR as the engine just hasn’t stopped worth.
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As a group who provides the software tools necessary to manage the contracts to cash process, Aysling onboards users and projects daily, and has learned some important tips if you want to be successful when onboarding new clients and/or projects.
SaaStr
DECEMBER 7, 2020
I know you are probably like me. You go to a web service. What do you do? Free trial. Sign Up Now. The very, very last thing I am going to click is “Contact Me.”
SaaStr
JANUARY 23, 2021
A little while back, I gave a great SaaS Founder CEO a Gift. A real gift. This founder CEO was at about $1m in ARR, doing well, but with only a smidge of angel funding and limited resources. And I gave him an insanely great VP of Sales candidate.
SaaStr
JANUARY 12, 2021
Every week, I meet with several entrepreneurs, often bootstrapped or close to it, who fit the following sort of model: Gotten to Initial Traction (~$1m-$1.5m ARR), or getting close to it, or a bit beyond; and. With nice growth (>=100% YoY); and.
SaaStr
DECEMBER 14, 2020
“Churn” is a term we all use in SaaS as a core metric, but its roots, as near as I remember and can tell, come from our B2C colleagues. Folks churn out of their Verizon plan, their Netflix subscription, etc. In a low-end subscription model for a tool, not a solution (e.g.,
Advertiser: Amplitude
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SaaStr
DECEMBER 27, 2020
New Relic is one of my favorite Cloud stories. CEO Lew Cirne, after regretting selling his first startup in the space to CA for $375m, tries again with New Relic. Today New Relic is worth more than 10x that, at $4.3B. And more than previous rivals such as AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.2B.
SaaStr
JANUARY 6, 2021
Box has been an important part of SaaStr almost since the beginning. Aaron Levie was kind enough to come to our first SaaStr Annual in 2015, just a week after their IPO.
SaaStr
JANUARY 4, 2021
Q: Why are so many VCs moving to Miami and Austin? . It’s taxes first — although this isn’t new … and. Quality-of-life second. QOL has declined dramatically during Covid in San Francisco. And third — investing over Zoom is now routine. This is the real new part.
SaaStr
DECEMBER 9, 2020
At @Mailchimp , US customers’ email marketing activity is up 15% since the beginning of the pandemic compared to the same time last year. Email will continue to be an effective way for entrepreneurs to connect with their audience and meet them where they are in 2021 and beyond. link].
Advertiser: Data Robot
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SaaStr
JANUARY 2, 2021
Ok you’ve finally crossed $1m, $2m, $4m ARR. Now — you just want to get there faster. And that’s where you’ll make a lot of mistakes. The most important thing is not to chase the shiny penny, assuming you are growing at least 60% Year-over-Year. You’ve done the Impossible.
SaaStr
JANUARY 22, 2021
As you try to hire up for your SaaS company, you’re going to be faced with a lot of choices and trade-offs. No hire is the perfect package. Do you take a risk on someone a little more junior than you’d like? Someone from a company a little larger than you’d like?
SaaStr
JANUARY 25, 2021
We’re gearing up for our first SaaStr event of 2021 … SaaStr University: Spring Semester. A highly hands-on, tactical event, come learn how: To Raise Your Next VC Round, With Point9’s Christoph Janz. How to Build Your First CS Team , with VPs from AgentSync and Peak Support.
SaaStr
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m ARR VPCS: $2m ARR VPP: $3m-$4m ARR VPE: $5m-$6m ARR CFO: $10m ARR COO: $20m ARR. More here: [link]. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 21, 2019. The other day I was meeting with a great CEO who had raised a modest seed round.
Advertiser: UserTesting
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