User Pilot

JANUARY 8, 2024

With the right customer acquisition strategies, you can convert potential customers to paying users and set the stage for turning them into long-term loyal users. Best practices for effective customer acquisition and product-led growth. Focus on the right customer acquisition channels. What is a customer acquisition strategy?

Acquisition 105

Acquisition Strategy Social Media Underperforming Technical Team 105

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

The other day Coupa did its first $1B+ acquisition, of 18+ year old Llamsoft. There should be a lot more billion+ acquisitions in Cloud and SaaS, if only because there are more decacorns to buy them. Note: the above list isn’t perfect, and I took out public SaaS companies that were acquired.

Acquisition 255

Acquisition SaaS Cloud Startup 255

The SaaS CFO

APRIL 16, 2024

I’ve calculated a lot of SaaS metrics for a lot of SaaS companies. To make SaaS metrics repeatable and accurate, we must follow a sequential process. CAC, or customer acquisition cost, is by itself not a stand-alone metric. This is especially relevant for sales and marketing efficiency metrics.

Acquisition 52

Acquisition Metrics SaaS Sales 52

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2019

When I started off as a SaaS founder, the #1 SaaS company’s market cap was … $2.6 And their largest acquisition to date at the time was (drumroll, please) $15m. That’s 7 folks at $100b-$900b in market cap that actively want to buy SaaS and Cloud leaders. $1b Good times to be a break-out winner in SaaS.

Acquisition 217

Acquisition SaaS Cloud Software 217

Baremetrics

AUGUST 1, 2021

Acquiring customers for SaaS is a completely different ball game altogether than, say, for the traditional business models (think: eCommerce, for instance). In the SaaS industry, acquiring new leads through short-term marketing promotions will not cut it--which works as a killer strategy for the eCommerce business model.

Acquisition 98

Acquisition Strategy SaaS Underperforming Technical Team 98

SaaS Metrics

AUGUST 9, 2023

Talent acquisition is a pivotal business process. Enter SaaS talent acquisition platform. Read more The post Transforming The Hiring Process: Advantages of SaaS Talent Acquisition Platforms first appeared on SaaS Metrics. Companies today need to attract and retain top-notch talent to remain competitive.

Acquisition 52

Acquisition SaaS Technical Review Metrics 52

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 20, 2024

Will AI sofware companies operate with better or worse profitability than a classic SaaS company? AI SaaS may be much more profitable than the -10% average net income margins of the current crop of public businesses. Initially, I thought worse since the expense of serving AI as a product is signficantly higher. Deflationary.

AI Search 201

AI Search AI Scale SaaS 201

SaaS Metrics

JULY 5, 2023

Free trials and freemiums are both customer acquisition models and choosing between the two can be a difficult decision and depends on many factors. Although most startups prefer free trials, freemiums have their own place in the SaaS world. This post explains why startups and established SaaS companies should not ditch the.

Acquisition 52

Acquisition Strategy SaaS Startup 52

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Toast is the latest SaaS leader to get much more efficient in the past 12-18 months, along with monday.com, HubSpot, MongoDB, and many others. It’s not only rare(r) to see such explosive growth by a SaaS company, but to also watch Jonathan’s exciting career growth at the more senior levels within a hyper-growth company.

Payment Methods 186

Payment Methods Acquisition Scale Payments 186

User Pilot

AUGUST 10, 2023

Are you trying to find your business’s average customer acquisition cost? And the customer acquisition cost (CAC) shows you how effective you’re with your sales and marketing efforts to acquire new customers. TL;DR Customer acquisition cost (CAC) measures the total sales and marketing expenses for acquiring new customers.

Acquisition 84

Acquisition Benchmarks Customer Lifetime Value B2B 84

User Pilot

JULY 30, 2023

Customer retention vs acquisition cost: Which metric matters more? Thus, striking the right balance between acquisition and retention costs significantly improves profitability and sustainability. TL;DR Customer acquisition is the process of attracting and converting prospective users into paying customers.

Acquisition 93

Acquisition Retention Customer Lifetime Value User Experience 93

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2022

Dear SaaStr: How Long Does It Take the Average SaaS Startup to “Exit”? I took a look a little while back at how long it took the average SaaS company that was sold for $1B+ to get that acquisition. years (maybe the better metric): The fastest of the bunch was Divvy’s $2b+ acquisition by Bill 5 years after funding.

Startup 265

Startup SaaS Acquisition B2B 265

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

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. The math on 10 years to $1B acquisition here: The post The Average SaaS IPO Takes 12 Years appeared first on SaaStr. So how long does it take to really Go Big? And an IPO? Go longer.

SaaS 315

SaaS Acquisition 315

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2020

Q: What was the biggest acquisition failure or missed opportunity by a company? Still, my partial list in Cloud/SaaS: Google letting Microsoft buy / outbid for Github for $7.5b. Instead, they for the most part bought aging SaaS products that did not move the needle. HP is a non-player in SaaS after $12b.

Acquisition 209

Acquisition Technical Review Scale Cloud 209

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

The “Rule of 40” is one of the most commonly cited valuation benchmarks in SaaS for both public and private companies. The SaaS “Rule of 40” has gained popularity due to its simplicity, requiring only two common financial metrics to be added together. What Is The SaaS “Rule of 40”?

SaaS 255

SaaS Technical Review Benchmarks Azure 255

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

So one thing that has exploded in SaaS in the past decade is the role of Private Equity buying both public SaaS companies (to take them private, “fix” some metrics, and IPO or sell them again), and generally later-stage private SaaS companies. They are generally looking for good but not great deals.

AWS 239

AWS SaaS Pricing Acquisition 239

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top 10 Things to Know Before Starting a SaaS Company? It takes 7–10 Years in SaaS to Get Anywhere. And 99% of SaaS companies will need 7–10 years to get to $100m ARR and beyond. You have to hire so many functions in SaaS – VPS, VPM, VPP, VPCS, VPE, etc. The SaaS Year of Hell.

Part-Time VPE 211

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 211

User Pilot

APRIL 8, 2024

If it’s the latter, then you’ve already experienced what bottom-up SaaS is! Our guide explains what exactly bottom-up SaaS is and covers the main growth strategies and tactics used by bottom-up companies. TL;DR In the bottom-up model, a SaaS company promotes the product to individual end-users and teams.

Strategy 84

Strategy Business SaaS Customer Lifetime Value 84

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2024

First, bear in mind acquisitions are relatively rare. The vast majority of startups will never get one acquisition offer, let alone a good one. But in SaaS, as you cross $10m, $15m, $20m ARR … Private Equity firms will start to reach out. They have money to buy good SaaS companies not burning too much cash.

Strategy 261

Strategy Acquisition Startup Engineering 261

User Pilot

MARCH 25, 2024

Whether you’re planning your exit, seeking VC funding, or setting up ESOPs, a SaaS valuation is a must. Our article: Explains different SaaS valuation methods. Shows how to leverage PLG strategies to boost the value of your SaaS business. Want to learn how Userpilot can help you improve your SaaS valuation?

SaaS 101

SaaS Customer Lifetime Value Acquisition Metrics 101

SaaSOptics

MAY 19, 2022

What Is Customer Acquisition? Customer Acquisition is the process of acquiring new customers in a business. Not only is it one of the main drivers of revenue growth for early-stage companies, but it’s a primary goal for SaaS businesses across market stages. What is a Customer Acquisition Strategy? Plain and simple.

Acquisition 59

Acquisition Scale Strategy Software Review 59

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

An acquisition can make or break your startup. Take IBM’s recent purchase of RedHat to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption, or Salesforce’s acquisition of Mulesoft to coordinate, unlock, and integrate customer data better than any competitor. Good acquisitions aren’t easy to pull off. I could go on.

Acquisition 161

Acquisition Technical Review Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning 161

Chaotic Flow

JULY 21, 2015

SaaS businesses can be overwhelmingly complex. Getting noticed on the Internet gets harder every year and almost every SaaS product category has a crowded field of competitors. The first post in a series introduced a simple framework for understanding SaaS customer alignment and its many benefits. Not Everyone Needs Your Stuff.

Acquisition 133

Acquisition Scale SaaS Pricing 133

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2021

What are strategies to justify a higher valuation for my company in an acquisition? The easiest “strategies” to get a higher price in an acquisition — which admittedly are very hard to deploy quickly : Raise a venture round at a high price. This works especially well in SaaS. If they still want you then, they will pay more.

Acquisition 167

Acquisition Pricing Strategy SaaS 167

OPEXEngine

APRIL 26, 2022

Well, capturing as much total available market (TAM) makes growing your business through customer acquisition necessary. Fast growth SaaS companies under $50M in revenues have a median 87% increase in new customers a year. Fast growth SaaS vendors over $100M average 25-30% increase in new customers annually.

Acquisition 59

Acquisition B2B Benchmarks SaaS 59

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

The “Magic Number” is one of those metrics in SaaS that has always sort of vexxed me. Including free acquisition and viral acquisition obscures underlying (in)efficiencies. Critical to adjust Magic Number for SaaS businesses with lower gross margins. is often seen as perhaps too capital efficient.

Scale 252

Scale SaaS Acquisition Benchmarks 252

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

The startup acquisition market is off by roughly 35% year-over-year. If it does happen, and when acquirers do decide to pursue acquisitions, I suspect we will enter a very acquisitive environment for three reasons. Second, the market capitalizations of the public SaaS companies have increased by 28X over the same time period.

Acquisition 136

Acquisition Marketing SaaS Finance 136

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Let’s take a look at 3 recent transactions and valuations in SaaS around $1.5 The “growth premium” in SaaS has never been higher. A strategic acquisition like Llamasoft is worth 15x. And as we’ll see below, those prices might actually be pretty high, because acquisitions often come at a premium.

SaaS 321

SaaS Cloud Acquisition Revenue 321

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

A few metrics really stood out to me this year: Their “Cloud 100” top private Cloud and SaaS companies are now worth on average a stunning $5.2B. SaaS is scaling faster than ever. The SF Bay Area is still the HQ for the majority of public SaaS companies today. But only the best SaaS and Cloud get these multiples.

Cloud 308

Cloud Scale SaaS Acquisition 308

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Can You Grow a SaaS Startup Without Spending a Ton on Sales and Marketing? A few examples: Mailchimp was bootstrapped to $1,000,000,000 in ARR Qualtrics was bootstrapped to a $6B acquisition Atlassian was bootstrapped all the way to … today $30B+ Veeva is very enterprise but only spent ~$3m in true venture capital.

Scale 212

Scale Venture Capital Startup Marketing 212

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2020

So as you’ve seen, acquisitions have picked up in SaaS. So many acquisitions, so many IPOs, so many public and private valuations of great SaaS companies are actually at / worth less than 10x ARR. Yes, if the acquisition is strategic, multiples are at all-time highs. valuation — on a $300m+ run rate.

SaaS 335

SaaS Acquisition Cloud Finance 335

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2024

But if an IPO is almost impossible in just 5 years, what about an acquisition? What’s less clear is how many were acqui-hires or acquisitions for a very small amount. 5 is fast in SaaS and B2B. A related post here: It Takes at Least 7-10 Years in SaaS to Go Big: Can You Do The Time? That sounds about right to me.

Pricing 256

Pricing Acquisition Startup Education 256

Chart Mogul

AUGUST 20, 2020

4x entrepreneur Andrew Gazdecki shares how you can better prepare yourself for your startup's acquisition, and make the journey a rewarding one. The better prepared you are for an acquisition, the smoother it’ll go, leaving you financially, operationally, and psychologically stronger during negotiations. Know your numbers.

Acquisition 105

Acquisition Startup Technical Review Scale 105

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Many of the fundamental business models that were once engraved in the SaaS playbook are now changing thanks to a tougher macro environment and a maturing market. PST, Stephanie Opdam, Partner at Notion Capital, shares four business model changes that will allow SaaS companies to build resilience and staying power over time.

Business Model 238

Business Model SaaS Payments Payments Headcount 238

Neil Patel

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Micro startup acquisitions. But before we dive into that, we need to look into what micro startup acquisitions are and why you need to sit up and take notice. Micro Startup Acquisitions: What Are They, and Why Should I Care? Micro Startup Acquisition Trends. That’s an expensive mistake if you make the wrong investment.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Payment Methods Acquisition Development Team Review 144

User Pilot

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Digital product metrics can be grouped into five broad categories: acquisition , activation , engagement , satisfaction , and revenue metrics. They are a measure of the performance and health of your SaaS product. Are you aiming for user engagement, acquisition, or revenue growth?

Metrics 97

Metrics Customer Lifetime Value Scale SaaS 97

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2023

They’re at almost $500m in ARR, with 1,850 customers, now growing a modest but steady 19% and they have gotten pretty efficient, like most other public SaaS and Cloud leaders. But new products from acquisition have fueled the overall customer count growth to 1,858. #2. But if you’re in the space, it’s a big player.

Scale 295

Scale Banking Acquisition Cloud 295