Clouded Judgement

JULY 16, 2024

There’s a lot of info to digest, so in the sections below I’ll try and pull out the relevant financial information and benchmark it against current cloud businesses. Our cloud-based platform enables a modern and expanded approach to finance and EPM, which is sometimes also referred to as corporate performance management, or CPM.

Benchmarks 295

Benchmarks Data Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 295

Baremetrics

AUGUST 18, 2021

Invoicing is a sales process where a seller issues a commercial document to a buyer requesting payment. This document shows all products and services rendered, the payment owed, and the contact details of both the buyer and the seller. An invoice also represents credit because the seller will only receive cash at a future date.

Payment Features 83

Payment Features SaaS Payments Payment Methods Payments 83

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. To fund significant customer acquisition costs to capture market share. The first assumption is that at the end of the rapid customer acquisition spend you will end up as the monopoly or duopoly leader (with, importantly, pricing power).

Cloud 167

Cloud Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring 167

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2020

New Relic is one of my favorite Cloud stories. Times have changed, the Cloud has gotten a lot bigger, and there are many more vendors, including the red-hot DataDog, to grab mindshare. If New Relic had even 120% NRR, it’s growth rate with the exact same rate of new customer acquisition would be 137% instead.

Scale 340

Scale Outsourced Development SMB Cloud 340

Stax

JUNE 3, 2025

TL;DR SaaS platforms are cloud-based software solutions that offer ready-to-use tools over the internet, enabling businesses to scale operations, improve efficiency, and integrate with other applications without managing infrastructure. SaaS operates on a subscription model, making it easier to manage cash flow and reduce upfront expenses.

Payment Services 88

Payment Services DevOps as a Service SaaS Payments Payments 88

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 14, 2024

What if you could boost revenue without having to invest a small fortune in new customer acquisition? For example, Zoom offers add-ons like audio conferencing, cloud storage, large meetings, or premium support. For instance, creating invoices is vital for a small business proprietor but not so much for an accountant.

Strategy 105

Strategy Payment Solutions Payments Customer Lifetime Value 105

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 27, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Azure (Microsoft) Quarter The week the first of the cloud giants reported - Azure. Most public companies don’t report net new ARR, so I’m taking an implied ARR metric (quarterly subscription revenue x 4).

Cloud 144

Cloud Azure Subscription Payment Features 144

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Q3 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. Commentary from the cloud providers seems to be that the major macro headwinds around optimizations and new deal scrutiny have started to abate. At $200M+ ARR, businesses have built up a substantial base of recurring revenue streams that have already paid back their initial CAC.

Cloud 184

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 184

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 11, 2024

Q4 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. We then dipped below the trendline as we hit the period of “cloud optimizations,” and things have started to rebound. At $200M+ ARR, businesses have built up a substantial base of recurring revenue streams that have already paid back their initial CAC.

Cloud 184

Cloud Software Azure AWS 184

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2020

With the Salesforce IPO in 2004, we saw the first sign that institutional investors were comfortable with a standard set of SaaS metrics: Churn, sales efficiency , ARPU, LTV, customer acquisition cost , and so on. . It’s hard to imagine a world where analysis didn’t understand recurring, subscription based revenue for technology products.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Technical Review SaaS Scale 288

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 3, 2024

Q2 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q2. At $200M+ ARR, businesses have built up a substantial base of recurring revenue streams that have already paid back their initial CAC.

Cloud 167

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 167

How To Buy Saas

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Most SaaS businesses prefer to manage their accounting processes through cloud-based software solutions, but even for that you need to know the nitty-gritties of SaaS accounting. The revenue earned over the subscription period does not relate to the amount earned at a given point of sale like in traditional businesses.

Payment Services 52

Payment Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Features 52

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 12, 2023

Q4 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q4. This quarter more than half of cloud software businesses missed next quarters consensus. They do this to set themselves up to consistently beat estimates, demonstrating momentum.

Cloud 167

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 167

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2021

This is pretty consistent with other Cloud leaders at scale. #5. While I’m super excited Qualtrics is spinning out into its own public company, the company grew subscriptions an impressive 46% last year under SAP. Most folks slow down then, e.g. as LinkedIn did for a year or so after the Microsoft acquisition. #9.

Enterprise 309

Enterprise Scaling Investment Acquisition 309

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

Q2 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q2 Source: company filings and Pitchbook consensus estimates Historically, the median beat of consensus estimates is closer to ~4%.

Cloud 176

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 176

Tom Tunguz

MAY 11, 2023

In the last five major cycles (internet, social, mobile, cloud, web3), startups seized the new technologies of the era to create a distribution advantage. Salesforce catalyzed cloud-delivery & annual subscription model in the enterprise, upending decades of selling software with perpetual licenses. AI enables ABM-at-scale.

AI Search 217

AI Search AI Scale Cloud 217

Clouded Judgement

MAY 5, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Growth typically comes from two vectors - new customer acquisition and expansion of existing customers. Most public companies don’t report net new ARR, so I’m taking an implied ARR metric (quarterly subscription revenue x 4).

Cloud 130

Cloud Construction Trends Revenue 130

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) vs ERR (Experimental Runrate Revenue) ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is one of the most popular SaaS (Non-GAAP) metrics. Subscribe now Share Clouded Judgement Leave a comment

AI 190

AI Revenue Cloud Technical Advisors 190

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2022

So this year has been rough on SaaS and Cloud stocks, with multiples down 75% from a year ago and the markets overall down 50% or more. But payments can be low gross margin, and they are for Wix. Business Solutions” including payments has gross margins of only 21%. But user acquisition marketing isn’t being touched.

Payments 279

Payments Payment Solutions Payment Methods SaaS Payments 279

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2016

Channel distribution represents one of the biggest and most important changes in customers acquisition for SMB SaaS startups in quite a while. As many of these channel partners move to newer distribution models, the brokerage channel model in particular, they represent an efficient and leveraged customer acquisition channel.

Outsourcing Services 113

Outsourcing Services SMB Acquisition Scale 113

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 20, 2023

Q1 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q1. At $200M+ ARR, businesses have built up a substantial base of recurring revenue streams that have already paid back their initial CAC.

Cloud 167

Cloud Software Benchmarks Scale 167

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Namely, two large customers caused a huge issue (New Relic account growing very slowly post their acquisition, and a gaming company going back on prem - which I’m guessing means going to self managed Kafka?). Follow along to stay up to date!

Software Review 167

Software Review Cloud Software Azure 167

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

JUNE 1, 2012

Another week, another software-as-a-service (SaaS) acquisition. To be more accurate, it's really "another week, another four SaaS acquisitions." Among the more prominent purchases, Oracle bought Vitrue, following its acquisitions of Taleo and RightNow. Better yet, it's a consistent revenue stream, driven by subscriptions.

Acquisition 100

Acquisition SaaS Finance Customer Support 100

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Very healthy new business (new customer) acquisition. They were also more constructive on cloud optimizations bottoming. Companies that do not disclose subscription rev have been left out of the analysis and are listed as NA.

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 5, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. ” Acquisitions become tougher because the preference stack is higher. Most public companies don’t report net new ARR, so I’m taking an implied ARR metric (quarterly subscription revenue x 4). Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 167

Cloud Scale Pricing Revenue 167

User Pilot

MAY 27, 2025

How to use it: Break the complete user journey into stages: Acquisition, Onboarding, Activation, and Retention. Assign trackable events to each stage, such as “Account Created,” during the acquisition stage. However, the same wouldn’t make sense for subscription-based apps like SaaS or media platforms.

Mobile 96

Mobile Retention Payment Features Onboarding 96

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 20, 2022

Q3 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q3. This quarter more than half of cloud software businesses missed next quarters consensus. They do this to set themselves up to consistently beat estimates, demonstrating momentum.

Cloud 130

Cloud Software Review Software Benchmarks 130

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2024

They also have a media segment, a separate business supporting creators who want to do subscription-based video monetization. Customer acquisition. Vimeo has spent a fair amount historically on advertising, primarily to fuel the more prosumer individual online subscription business. This is how Adam ended up at Vimeo.

AI Search 271

AI Search SaaS Advertising Sales Hiring 271

FastSpring

MAY 30, 2019

We’ve all heard how effective subscriptions can be for growing companies. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of implementing a subscription model is that it allows software companies to avoid the unpredictability of one-time sales by guaranteeing a steady stream of revenue. What is Annual Recurring Revenue? 3600/3 = $1200 ARR.

Finance 86

Finance Subscription Payment Features Payments 86

SaaStr

JULY 2, 2025

Having invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, Microsoft provides cloud infrastructure to the startup and has incorporated its models into Windows, Teams and other products. Microsoft’s revenue from Azure and other cloud services increased 33% in the fiscal first quarter, with 12 percentage points stemming from AI services.

Technical Review 195

Technical Review AI VP of Engineering Azure 195

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2019

Cloud is on fire! #4. What’s A Typical Price Increase I Can Expect When Renewing A SaaS Subscription? Getting field marketing right is hard, but it’s also the #1 channel for customer acquisition and pipeline influence in SaaS. The Age of the $1 Billion+ SaaS Acquisition Has Just Begun. The greener grass. #3.

Sales Hiring 191

Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital Acquisition 191

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 8, 2018

By annualizing the most recent quarter of subscription revenue (i.e., Multiples influence acquisition prices and valuations in the private markets. When acquirers consider an acquisition, they evaluate a comparable company data set, also called a comp sheet. The bull case: enterprises are moving to the cloud and shifting $1.5T

Software 170

Software Marketing Acquisition compliance 170

Stax

MARCH 18, 2025

However, a SaaS company providing global HR and payroll solutions may have a few hundred customers paying a monthly or annual feein other words, making recurring payments over a longer period of time. Churn is the percentage of customers that end their subscriptions within a certain amount of time. Customer acquisition cost.

Scale 117

Scale Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments 117

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2019

Tableau was at >$900m in recurring revenue … growing 41% (!). And subscriptions were growing 115%. And Salesforce doesn’t seem to screw up its bigger acquisitions. Mulesoft, ExactTarget, Commerce Cloud/Demandbase, etc. Tableau Reports First Quarter 2019 Financial Results. are all doing well. So it ain’t cheap.

AWS 139

AWS Acquisition Cloud Subscription 139

Chart Mogul

APRIL 15, 2021

Keeping your pace of growth while going through an acquisition is difficult. He noticed almost right away that it would be easy to re-package what they created for internal use as a product and sell it as subscription-based software. Acquisition by Sage. A similar shift has also occurred in their strategy after the acquisition.

Acquisition 83

Acquisition Data Scale Banking 83

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2025

” This frustration led to a realization that the cloud (though it wasn’t called that yet) could enable something revolutionary: two entities seeing the same transaction from their own perspective simultaneously. . “I was looking at the filing cabinet, signing checks, and having paper misplaced. From Zero to $1.4

SMB 130

SMB Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 130

FastSpring

MAY 30, 2019

We’ve all heard how effective subscriptions can be for growing companies. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of implementing a subscription model is that it allows software companies to avoid the unpredictability of one-time sales by guaranteeing a steady stream of revenue. What is Annual Recurring Revenue? 3600/3 = $1200 ARR.

Payments 73

Payments Finance Subscription Payment Features 73