Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Third, contracts mitigate churn rates because the customer is only making a renewal decision once per year, instead of 12x per year. Similarly, Salesforce began with a usage-based approach before shifting to annual seat contracts when churn rates became significant and revenue predictability faltered.

SaaS Payments 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2025

Just disguised upsells, with no one on the call to actually help us: Customer Success Has Gone from The Customers Ally To Its Nemesis But AI is changing everything. Especially as AI takes over more and more of the sales process. No matter what else AI takes over, humans can always be the gap fillers here.

Onboarding 182

Onboarding Customer Success AI Scale 182

SaaStr

DECEMBER 22, 2024

Inherent Churn vs. Fixable Churn: You Have to Attack Both #2. But Not Always a Great Win for Their Late Stage Investors Inherent Churn vs. Fixable Churn: You Have to Attack Both Top Videos and Podcasts: #1. 5 Things That Are Working and 5 Things That Arent in B2B SaaS AI with Ironclad’s CEO and a16z #2.

Churn 269

Churn B2B AI Engineering 269

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2025

June 30, 2025: The date where if your team hasn’t rolled out a truly great AI into production yet … and seen a boost from it … It’s time to reboot the team. June 30, 2025 marks the time we need to wrap up the era of stalling, of waiting to see in AI. — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ ✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) June 21, 2025 It’s time.

AI Search 170

AI Search AI Technical Review CTO Hire 170

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2025

The AI Adoption Explosion Across the Board But ChatGPT isn’t alone. The entire AI ecosystem is experiencing this vertical growth pattern: Cursor’s Developer Revolution : The ultimate growth story. million monthly active users, with the majority of revenue coming from selling AI models as a service to other companies.

ChatGPT 222

ChatGPT AI Search AI Growth Hacking 222

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2025

So we’ll have ~20 of the latest AI start-ups from YCombinator at a special YC Demo Pod area at 2025 SaaStr Annual! Come meet them (and also watch 100+ present live at our first AI Demo Stage ) at 2025 SaaStr Annual, May 13-15 in SF Bay!! 3) Generate high-quality training data that continuously improves AI performance.

AI Search 170

AI Search AI Startup Scale 170

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2025

Basic questions like “What’s our churn rate?” Market Timing: Sometimes the best companies are built during inflection points (mobile subscriptions, AI boom, app store policy changes). They were two developers who had lived through the nightmare of subscription infrastructure while working at Elevate.

Payments 274

Payments Payment Solutions Underperforming Technical Team Payment Methods 274

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

It’s dropped “Video” from its name as it has gone communications and AI-first: $4.7B Average Monthly Self-Serve (“Online”) Churn Hit New Low of 2.7% Average Monthly Self-Serve (“Online”) Churn Hit New Low of 2.7% It’s seen churn fall to 2.7% And it still trades at 5x ARR. #1.

SMB 269

SMB Churn Enterprise Acquisition 269

SaaStr

JULY 4, 2025

The Numbers Tell the Story: Monday.com Q1 2025 : 30% growth, $282M revenue Asana 2024 : Single-digit growth, struggling with churn Mostly Same Product Category, Mostly Different Customers Both companies build “work management” software. A plumbing company isn’t hiring a Chief AI Officer. Look at Monday.com vs Asana.

Merchant Services 169

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments 169

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2025

So our own SaaStr AI has now logged over 30,000 conversations (!) — and it’s pretty awesome. Out AI Can Review Your VC Pitch Deck. Our AI is really, really good at this. Our AI Can Review Your Board Materials and Deck, And Find Blind Spots For You Getting ready for a big board meeting? Really Well.

Sales Hiring 157

Sales Hiring AI Interviewing B2B 157

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2025

AI tools can help flag bottlenecks or anomalies here. AI can reduce forecasting errors by 20-50%, so if youre still relying on guesswork, its time to upgrade your approach. AI can help refine your ICP and prioritize high-propensity leads. AI can help predict churn and identify expansion opportunities. If so, why?

Technical Review 179

Technical Review Sales Forecasting AI 179

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2024

AI is remaking so many categories, but it’s often murky exactly … how. Venture Capital is out in force for the hottest AI companies — but in many cases, it’s checked out in other categories. Worst case, they still use it and are happy, and churn less. Over the years, so much has changed in SaaS.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring SaaS Venture Capital Healthcare 274

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2024

At this year’s SaaStr Annual AI Summit, Akshay Sharma, Head of Pricing and Monetization at Miro , chats with a panel of experts, including Janie Lee, Head of Product at Loom , Alison Harmon, Head of Growth at OpenAI , and Carsten Holm, VP of Pricing and Monetization at Splunk, about their nuanced approach to pricing and monetization.

Payments 278

Payments Pricing Scale Revenue 278

Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2024

Ramp published its quarterly spending trends & revealed how businesses are spending on AI. There are many great data points that underscore the growth in AI but there are important nuances in the patterns. First, AI growth rates across the most popular vendors have fallen 78% annually.

AI 300

AI Churn Trends Pricing 300

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2025

Customer Succes s: If youre seeing churn or struggling with renewals, or have larger customers that are high touch, consider hiring a VP of Customer Success around 2 M 3M ARR. AI can’t do it all. 2 M 3M ARR : Bring on a VP of Customer Success especially if you have larger customers and/or churn is an issue. $5M

Sales Hiring 243

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Scale 243

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Lower Churn : When software is deeply embedded in industry workflows, switching costs become naturally high. AI Integration : Vertical-specific AI solutions are becoming a key differentiator, requiring deep industry knowledge to implement effectively.

Construction 248

Construction Scale SaaS Travel 248

Stax

MARCH 16, 2025

The average churn rate for the software industry as a whole is 14%. Thats actually one of the lowest churn rates across all industries. That said, industry experts agree that your SaaS companys goal churn should be below 2%. TL;DR The average software industry churn rate is 14%, but SaaS companies should aim for under 2%.

Payment Solutions 88

Payment Solutions Software Review Churn SaaS Payments 88

SaaStr

MAY 11, 2025

Even with AI. AI tools can help you research and craft better messaging, but the human touch is what seals the deal. Its a high-churn, entry-level role, but the best SDRs dont give up. Heres how you can level up: Stop Spraying and Praying : The era of blasting 10,000 generic emails is mostly over.

Scale 235

Scale AI Churn Investment 235

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

So lately I’ve listened to a few calls from churned customers from portfolio companies. economy remains strong, the stock market is at all-time highs, AI is fueling Cloud growth, and yet … many folks are cutting their tech budgets, and especially, those that sell to startups are struggling. Not shrinking.

Churn 270

Churn Market Segmentation Cloud AI 270

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2025

CEO Amit was kind enough to join us at SaaStr Europa in June 2024 and talk about their approach to AI and more. Notably, Ask Anything, one of the most popular AI features, saw 400%+ year-over-year growth. Disrupt yourself with AI in SaaS and B2B. Well discuss all this and much more related to AI and SaaS at 2025 SaaStr Annual!

Engagement 213

Engagement Sales AI B2B 213

Buffer Resources

JANUARY 7, 2025

The right AI marketing tools will help you automate repetitive tasks, make data-driven decisions, and unblock your creativity. The shift to AI-powered marketing has been dramatic. According to Hubspot, 74% of marketers now use AI in their roles, compared to just 21% in 2023. The cool thing is you get a lot of control.

AI Search 120

AI Search AI Social Media Marketing 120

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Yes, there’s higher churn at the bottom of the market, but the survivors are growing faster than ever. Look at: Logistics & Transportation Supply Chain Cybersecurity (outperforming AI since Q1 2022!) Even AI companies aren’t growing as fast as cybersecurity right now. It’s not where you might think.

B2B 239

B2B Cybersecurity Scale Data 239

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Unparalleled Networking Opportunities SaaStr Annual brings together thousands of SaaS, Cloud and AI executives, founders, VCs, and industry leaders under one roof across our 40+ acre campus, May 13-15 in SF Bay! Investor Connections and Funding Opportunities — And $5m AI VC Pitch Stage!! And the VCs that want to fund them!

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2023

In a year like this, SMB is doing worse, with a lot more churn and startups going out of business. Sometimes, it might look like SMB churn when they’re really just moving into mid-market. AI in the Real World AI has burst on the scene, and everyone’s rushing to add a ChatGPT-like thing to their product.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring AI SMB Scale 274

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2025

Some fun facts: 10+ years of SaaStr conference attendance Partner at Point Nine Capital, a leading early-stage VC firm Geographic reach: Actively investing across Europe, US, and Australia Notable portfolio: Zendesk, Algolia, Contentful, Loom (and many more) Known for his “five ways to build a $100M business” framework The 5 Key Things (..)

Data 147

Data Acquisition AI Finance 147

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2025

Retention Math : 132% retention at 78% Fortune 2000 penetration means: Churn rate: Sub-5% annually at enterprise level Expansion rate: 37%+ annually from existing customers Competitive displacement: Minimal once embedded The Insight : When penetration + retention both exceed 75%, you’ve built a moat.

B2B 170

B2B Benchmarks Retention Enterprise 170

Clouded Judgement

JULY 2, 2025

1 Together, these teams share and explore ideas, align on a vision, visualize concepts, and translate them into coded products — all on a single, connected, AI-powered platform that collaborators around the world can access with a URL.” Gross Margin Adjusted CAC Payback (Previous Q S&M) / (Net New ARR x Gross Margin) x 12.

Benchmarks 196

Benchmarks Data Software Review AI 196

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 6, 2025

Customers sign multi-year contracts, churn and expansion are stable, and revenue can be confidently modeled. This “misuse of ARR” trend has accelerated in the age of AI, as business models have evolved (into more usage/success-based vs. seat-based), and everyone is tinkering with new AI products. Budget Source.

Cloud 144

Cloud Technical Review Software Review Technical Advisors 144

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2025

This breadth of functionality ensures customers are deeply embedded in the platform, making churn almost impossible. Rolling Our AI Products, But Still Early ServiceTitans AI capabilities, like Dispatch Pro and Marketing Pro, are designed to automate tasks, drive insights, and increase customer ROI. But it’s early.

Payments 141

Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 141

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2025

Resolve 68% of Support Issues with Automation and AI Chime achieved 68% of support interactions resolved without human intervention, directly impacting their path to profitability. For B2B companies, this highlights the importance of diversifying revenue streams before reaching public market scale. In a business serving 8.6

Outsourcing Services 201

Outsourcing Services Scale Banking Customer Lifetime Value 201

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2023

G2 CEO Godard Abel deep dives into his original vision for G2, going multi-product, selling with multiple sales teams, demand gen spend, and why AI is the most important thing right now. G2 is taking these search capabilities a step further with generative AI. AI is just a better interface than forms-based searching.

AI Search 245

AI Search AI Software Review Scale 245

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

At contract expiration these customers either renew (sign another contract with same annual value), expand (sign another contract with higher annual value), contract (sign another contract with lower annual value), or churn (stop being a customer and spend goes to zero). This brings me to AI (everything leads to AI these days…).

AI 190

AI Revenue Cloud Technical Advisors 190

SaaStr

DECEMBER 13, 2021

During those 30 years as an Open Source platform, multiple developers and professionals adopted and contributed to it to the point where, today, Linux is everywhere—supercomputers, AI, IoT, embedded devices, and so on. We’re now looking at a massive Open Source category, Commercial Open Source (COSS), that’s impossible to ignore.

Enterprise 246

Enterprise AI SaaS AWS 246

How To Buy Saas

MAY 29, 2025

In an era when executives are bombarded with tech buzzwords, it’s vital to focus on real-world AI uses that deliver business impact. This vivid idea captures AIs potential to act as assistants and insights machines, boosting efficiency and innovation. Executives also leverage generative AI for idea generation and reporting.

Artificial Intelligence 59

Artificial Intelligence Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments 59

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2024

How to Use AI to Drive Sales There are five key areas where AI can be helpful, and they are: Lead generation Lead scoring Sales forecasting Personalized engagement Churn prediction Lead Generation Predictive analytics can help identify who the right leaders are and what they’re searching for. Leverage AI to assist sales.

Scale 293

Scale AI Search Azure Sales 293

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 15, 2024

Predictions for the future of go-to-market, including the rise of micro-businesses and AI. Attention’s AI-powered call recording platform ensures that your deals are executed flawlessly. Navigating the challenges of rapid growth, including hiring and managing cash flow. 22:58) Hiring challenges during rapid growth. (27:34)

Acquisition 110

Acquisition Sales Hiring ChatGPT AI 110

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Today we’re focusing on actionable insights you can use to drive down churn with customer success in today’s new era of SaaS efficiency. This is great news because onboarding is one of the best ways to bring down churn for SMBs. If someone never starts or uses the product, they’ll churn.

Customer Success 292

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Headcount 292