SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: Why Now is a Great Time to Raise Seed Funding. Even If It’s Awful for Series A-E Rounds. SaaStr 628: Revenue Alignment: How to Pull Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success Together with Divvy CRO Sterling Snow  2.

Sales Recruiting 181

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AWS 181

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

Canva: – Almost $2B ARR – Growing 40%+ – Profitable And … 4,000 employees That's about $500k in revenue per employee That's where software really makes money — Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  ?? 4,000 Employees, So About $500,000 in Revenue Per Employee That’s very efficient.

AWS 241

AWS B2C Scaling AI 241

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2024

Enterprise SaaS has a much higher average revenue per paying account, while consumer is around a $0.35 Churn is much higher on consumer subscriptions, but you have higher expansion revenue. If you’re in consumer, how can you go upmarket and get a small cohort of users paying more, churning less, and expanding revenue?

Subscription 250

Subscription Payment Features B2B Mobile 250

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2022

So follow AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Let’s look a whole level up to the real canaries-in-the-coalmine: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. And AWS grew 37% at a $74B run-rate , down a bit from 39% the prior quarter but still adding an insane amount of new revenue. If they stumble, we’re in for a rough patch.

Cloud 236

Cloud Azure AWS Engineering 236

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2022

But a few thoughts on “the hardest part” for the first few stages: From $1-$100k in ARR, the hardest part is often how little revenue you get from each customer. So much work, so little revenue. Enough to pay some salaries and AWS bills, but it’s not that much. It’s just so much revenue to add in absolute terms.

SaaS 346

SaaS Headcount AWS Churn 346

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

In a fascinating workshop session, Miao shares his thoughts on how finance teams can contribute to company strategy and grow revenue. Strategic Finance optimizes a company’s underlying business model to create long-term value by increasing revenue and decreasing costs. SaaStr Workshop Wednesdays are LIVE every Wednesday.

Scale 167

Scale Finance Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting 167

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

64% of Large Customers Sourced From Partners They are AWS’s largest cybersecurity partner. This chart of their revenue growth will make your jaw drop: Not much to not like here. ? Most Enterprises Buy More Than 60 Endpoint Security Products So there is room for many winners here. #8. Only Founded in 2011.

Cybersecurity 246

Cybersecurity AWS Benchmarks Cloud 246

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

So many startups these days are claiming they have “ARR” from revenue that … doesn’t recur. Doesn’t ARR stand for Annual Recurring Revenue? ARR now really means revenue with 100%+ Net Revenue Retention. 50% revenue from software (recurring), 50% from payments (not-recurring). .

Merchant Services 357

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 357

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2023

53% of Revenue is Outside U.S. With 1,500 employees, SEMRush is at about $190,000 in revenue per employee (1,500 employees). Spending a Hefty 50% of Revenue on Sales and Marketing. They spend a pretty high 50% of all revenue on sales and marketing — and that’s up from last year. And a few other interesting learnings: #6.

Scale 187

Scale AWS Scaling Revenue 187

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2022

Focusing on smaller developers, in some ways it’s been a bit overshadowed by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. DigitialOcean doesn’t want to take AWS, Azure and Google on in the enterprise and doesn’t really try. They are only 15% of the customers, but 83% of the revenue. Only 38% of revenue in North America.

Azure 202

Azure AWS SMB Cloud 202

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

80% of the revenue is in the Enterprise. If you go back 10-15 years, when people ask about build vs. buy for the long-term, people would consider building their own data center if they were spending $100k/month on AWS. Today, companies spend over $10M/month on AWS — companies like Lyft, Pinterest, and Stripe. It’s not an option.

Enterprise readiness 213

Enterprise readiness Payment Solutions Enterprise Payments 213

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

It’s one of the few still commanding a premium multiple in today’s world, and still growing at tremendous rates: Snowflake is also a barometer of everything in SaaS and Cloud, because a significant amount of its revenue is consumption-based, at least in part. AWS is seeing this, and so is Snowflake. Not none, just less.

Headcount 193

Headcount Scale Sales Hiring AWS 193

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

But are AWS, Azure and Google Cloud just too big for us to learn from? Google Cloud sees Cloud revenues tripling in the next 5 years. You can see that here vividly, with Google Cloud having a $30B backlog of signed revenue on top of its $13B in ARR. The power of recurring revenue and multi-year, long-term customers.

Cloud 202

Cloud Azure AWS Scale 202

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

Which means better customer relationships, more data, and new sources of revenue. Secureframe allows companies to get compliant within weeks, rather than months and monitors 100+ services, including AWS, GCP, and Azure. StratusGreen is a leading provider of cloud computing solutions and services for emerging and mid-sized businesses.

Payments 214

Payments Payment Services GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Payment Solutions 214

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

Ultimately — revenue multiples. Revenue multiples are how much VCs, investors, and ultimately, an IPO and public markets will value each dollar of revenue. Revenue multiples don’t affect customers, or even revenue itself. That revenue multiples should rise from where they were in 2019.

SaaS 325

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS 325

SaaStr

JULY 19, 2022

Using the Drift Conversation Cloud, businesses can personalize experiences that lead to more quality pipeline, revenue and lifelong customers. More than 5,000 customers use Drift to deliver a more enjoyable and more human buying experience that builds trust and accelerates revenue. Usually, it takes a paradigm shift to grow.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 209

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Artificial Intelligence Enterprise readiness Azure 209

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2022

Amazing blog content — that truly adds value in the industry. Hiring some agency to write a bunch of low-value blog posts, or making a really junior hire than doesn’t know the product do some … rarely works. Go visit every customer in your Top 10%-15% of revenue, at least. Watch that compound. More here. #3.

Scale 252

Scale Sales Hiring Marketing SaaS 252

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2023

But as you get bigger and more well-funded, participate in traditional field marketing strategies because they account for 40% of revenue at scale. You can run your own conference, but third-party events like AWS, Dreamforce, SaaStr, and others allow you to get 40% of your pipe from their ability to draw in the best in the industry.

Outsourcing Services 190

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development Marketing 190

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2022

We help B2B SaaS marketers turn organic search into a source of repeatable revenue through software and coaching. The platform automates the provisioning of your application to the cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), integrating cloud ops, DevOps, and security/compliance with 24×7 monitoring and support.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 191

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS compliance 191

SaaStr

AUGUST 4, 2022

And inflation is awful. Exceeding expectations again, and importantly, also raising guidance in revenues for the full year. #3. . — Jason 2022 SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 3, 2022. So are we in a downturn in SaaS? Certainly, segments are. eCommerce, video, and more are having post-crazy growth hangovers.

Venture Capital 272

Venture Capital AWS Cloud Scale 272

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2022

You need an efficient way to keep your customers successful, reduce churn, drive adoption, and increase net revenue retention. Secureframe allows companies to get compliant within weeks, rather than months and monitors 100+ services, including AWS, GCP, and Azure.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 183

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS Enterprise readiness 183

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2023

At SaaStr Annual , if you are in SaaS and especially if you see to founders or revenue leaders. At AWS Reinvent, if your customers are there. At Dreamforce, if you are in the SFDC ecosystem. At Shoptalk, if you are in eCommerce. If a major event can draw in 10, 100, or even a 1,000 of your customers, you should be there.

AWS 196

AWS Enterprise Pricing Marketing 196

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2020

Recently I was catching up with a good friend who used to be CEO of an enterprise-y SaaS social networking company — and the usage and engagement numbers of his business were just awful. It’s not like Zynga, where you see the latest XXXVille usage trail off in a few months after launch, and the revenue comes to a grinding halt.

AWS 258

AWS Churn Enterprise Engagement 258

CloudGeometry

MARCH 22, 2022

In this blog series, we explore how these three dimensions figure into key technical recommendations which enable scale in pursuit of SaaS business growth. The recurring revenue user model of SaaS demands deep and broad attention at every step, as it empowers you to provide continued feedback on what you are selling them.

DevOps as a Service 130

DevOps as a Service Software Delivery Well Architected Framework AWS 130

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

I also want to mention – I use this blog as somewhat of a personal journal. In the short term, enjoy the ride as the chase continues 😊 Kind of related to all of this - we now have seen the Q4’s from AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Top 5 Median: 14.5x

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Generative AI 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Which I guess it was — $41,000,000 to build an iOS app with no revenue that no one ever used. Now, to a small fund, or a new VC, I’d think a $14m loss would just be awful. But it wasn’t that interesting, that post/story, so I let it rest. It didn’t all come together for me until the other day. Going Big.

Venture Capital 199

Venture Capital AWS Enterprise Investment 199

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

It was just a little while ago that Salesforce was doing $1 billion in ARR revenue. And true enough … freemium only ended up being 20% of our revenue, at least strictly defined. And it’s better than that, these days. Because SaaS markets are just continuing to grow. Now they’re a good chunk of the way to $10 billion.

Scale 195

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital AWS 195

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2022

I’m sure this team was under pressure this quarter to find revenue. The way this public company did it was — awful. #3. What did we do? Where was the notice? The 30-day grace period? Even a basic heads-up?

Customer Success 237

Customer Success Systems Review AWS Software Review 237

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2023

Ed Lenta, the SVP and GM of Databricks, had the rare opportunity of scaling three hypergrowth companies — VMware, AWS, and Databricks. Sell To Customers How They Want To Be Sold To When Lenta first started building AWS in Australia, they were crude in how they thought about customers. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

Scale 189

Scale Scaling AWS Sales Hiring 189

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

And it’s one of the three large cloud vendors that we all know: Microsoft, AWS, and Google. AWS’s marketplace has seen 1.5 But also it’s allowed us to get much closer to our provider, I mean, we host and run 100% on AWS, but pull data from everywhere. It was pretty easy to drive that from our side.

Scale 191

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 191

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2021

million revenue quarter…In reality, though, we were still the founder-led sales company.”. Commoditization From AWS & Google Cloud. He recommends solving specific problems to win more customers and then evaluating new ways to expand revenue with your underlying tech. The Graveyard: $10 Million ARR.

Sales Hiring 253

Sales Hiring Data AWS Leadership 253

Blulogix

OCTOBER 11, 2023

The ability to bill clients based on their actual consumption of services not only maximizes revenue but also simplifies operations. Cloud Service Providers: Integrate data from popular cloud providers like AWS , Azure, or Google Cloud to track resource consumption and costs.

Payment Features 52

Payment Features Management Azure AWS 52

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2019

AWS: -> “Slack disclosed that it signed a new five-year deal with AWS with an annual commitment to spend a minimum of $50 million on cloud services. “While the Bay Area didn’t win Amazon’s official “HQ2,” it already has the second largest concentration of technical employees outside the company’s Seattle headquarters.”.

Cloud 144

Cloud AWS Pricing Revenue 144

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

However, even the savviest entrepreneurs might be unaware of some of the blind spots that could be costing revenue. . Says Roberge, “We’re using a sales comp plan that was invented in the 1980s, and it’s causing our customers to utilize their licenses at a lower rate, and it’s causing revenue contraction.”. When should you scale?

Sales Hiring 182

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 182

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2019

GAAP revenue in Q1 ’19) because it’s in a space filled with strong competitors. We all know this from AWS and Twilio on down, but Fastly is a visceral reminder. It’s an almost 100% enterprise play — they have 227 customers spending over $100k a year, comprising 84% of their revenues. The lesson?

Outsourced Development 201

Outsourced Development AWS Retention Enterprise 201

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2021

In my 148 public SaaS companies (including most of the categories of this list but not AWS, Azure, GCP) the aggregate revenue is $185B. No matter what, the wave of enterprise spending that fueled 100 SaaS and Cloud unicorns is just getting bigger and strong. This is your time, folks. Go make it happen.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 155

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS SaaS 155

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

This last quarter announced revenue was up over 100% in the quarter, and now they’re a top five company in the world by market cap. They just happened to launch AWS and ended up capturing way more value just in themselves than the entire on-prem storage market before them. A perfect example is NVIDIA.

Generative AI 229

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 229