Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Hyperscaler Preview Next week Amazon, Microsoft and Google report earnings and we’ll see Q3 data for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cloud 161

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review 161

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

This is why we’re seeing more and more SaaS companies—Datadog, Twilio, AWS, Snowflake, and Stripe, to name a few—find success with product led growth paired with usage-based pricing. Usage-based pricing will be the key to successful monetization in the future.”. Usage-based pricing is in all layers of the tech stack.

Scale 98

Scale Pricing Scaling AWS 98

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Hyperscalers Report Quarterly Earnings This week we saw AWS (Amazon), GCP (Google) and Azure (Microsoft) report earnings. Overall, it wasn’t pretty… AWS grew 28% when expectations were 30-31%. Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting 130

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 4, 2023

” These are two quotes about AWS on the Amazon earnings call. AWS grew 16% in Q1, but called out growth in April (first month of Q2) was 11%. We’ve all been waiting for cloud optimizations to ease up, and this is our clearest signal that we’re getting there. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure Cost optimization & reporting AWS 130

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

” We saw some green shoots in AWS and a few other consumption names, and overall sentiment seemed more positive. Partly due to larger layoffs, as well as stronger bookings And finally - net retention. Not surprising, net retention continued to fall.

Cloud 169

Cloud Software Review AWS Trends 169

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 6, 2023

Cloud Downgrades This week UBS came out with a couple research reports citing concerns in AWS / Azure growth. This brings me back to AWS / Azure downgrades. This was the worst tone that we’ve heard in years from large AWS/Azure partners, a group that usually expresses different shades of optimism about AWS/Azure growth.”

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Underperforming Technical Team 130

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 28, 2023

AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft), and Google Cloud (Google) all reported this week. Then AWS appeared to add fuel to that hope before giving us a huge rug pull. After all, they had a lot of AI tailwinds, and benefited tremendously from consolidation (without a headwind of a larger base of smaller startups, like AWS).

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS AI Search 130

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

” From AWS (paraphrased): They said they expect the reaccleration they saw in Q4 to continue into 2024 2024 Estimate Updates One important metric I’m tracking this quarter is the change in 2024 estimates pre / post earnings. This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation.

Cloud 161

Cloud AWS Metrics Subscription 161

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Then, we moved to a more customer-friendly model with SaaS and subscription-based pricing. What’s evolved over the years and is driven by hyper-scalers like Google Azure, AWS, Twilio, and Stripe is the consumption-based model. In this approach, you’re paying a lot to reps for retention. The lines will blur.

Compensation 173

Compensation Sales Azure AWS 173

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 21, 2023

Next week we get all 3 hyperscalers reporting (AWS from Amazon, Azure from Microsoft, and GCP from Google). On AWS, in their Q4 earnings call they said AWS was growing “mid teens” in January (down from 20% in Q4). Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

Expansion revenue is still declining (we see this in falling net retention rates), but gross retention remains strong. This suggests that we’re at least getting closer to the bottom (but to be clear we’re still well below pre-headwind consumption levels). New customer growth seems to be picking up.

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

Clouded Judgement

JULY 28, 2023

AI = Data + Compute I’ll continue beating this drum, but we got two great quotes from Azure and AWS this week. ” Then at AWS Summit they called out “Your data is your differentiator when it comes to Generative AI.” AWS reports next week. ” Data is more important than ever! So what did we learn?

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

AWS growth seems to be re-accelerating, and qualitative feedback from a number of companies in Q2 (especially those with July quarter ends) suggested new customer bookings conversations were picking up. For the bottom 10 companies on the right hand side of the chart, the median change in stock price after earnings was (18%).

Software Review 130

Software Review Cloud Software AWS 130

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP as companies look for cloud GPUs who aren’t building out their own data centers) Infra (Data layer, orchestration, monitoring, ops, etc) Durable Applications We’ve clearly well underway of the first 3 layers monetizing. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 183

Cloud Artificial Intelligence AI GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 183

OpenView Labs

MARCH 4, 2021

For their first five years in business, HubSpot offered three subscription packages ranging in price from $3,000 to $18,000 per year. Net revenue retention was near 70%, a far cry from the 100%+ that most SaaS companies aim to achieve. So in 2011, they introduced usage-based pricing. Download The Usage-Based Pricing Playbook.

Pricing 55

Pricing Outsourced Development Marketplace as a Service AWS 55

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 31, 2023

The majority of COGS (revenue less COGS = gross profit) fall in hosting costs (ie AWS), and some customer support. The only way for software companies to avoid this gross margin compression when incorporating AI features is to raise prices. Double the price! Consumption Pricing.

Cloud 130

Cloud Sales Hiring AI Headcount 130

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

There’s a real chance the fed funds rate isn’t going >5%, and a soft landing or delayed recession is certainly possible (maybe even being priced in). If the market thinks the setup for H2 is great, it won’t wait until H2 to “price it in.” But what’s happened since? Lots of deceleration in growth.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Generative AI 130

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 11, 2023

The good news is gross retention (ie churn) stayed constant. The hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP) are seeing some uptick, but this is largely from selling compute (ie cloud GPUs). Not quite… The earnings call gave us more detail, and painted a more positive picture than just the numbers may suggest.

Cloud 130

Cloud Trends Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

OpenView Labs

MARCH 16, 2021

The usage-based pricing model almost feels like a cheat code —it enables SaaS companies to more efficiently acquire new customers, grow with those customers as they’re successful, and keep those customers on the platform. But the shift from pure subscription to usage-based pricing is nearly as complex as going from on-premise to SaaS.

Pricing 52

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 52

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

I’m talking about product-led growth as an investment strategy, but really my background is 10 years of operating experience in the product-led growth world. Now I’m investing in that. I say investment strategy, but really it’s like how do you build a company that’s focused on product-led growth?

Investment 100

Investment Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 100

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2019

It was around that time about 12 years ago that Jeff Bezos launched AWS, and some of you may remember that, when he did this, Wall Street analysts were looking at him and saying, “Why would you take what’s already a very unprofitable business and drive it further into the red by investing in this AWS initiative?”

Cloud 100

Cloud Scale AWS Machine Learning 100

Frontegg

MAY 27, 2021

Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a consumer-centric scaling, conversion, and retention philosophy that uses the product itself as the primary growth driver. Making the bottom-up shift: You are shifting from the top-down to a bottom-up mindset, which means more money and time to invest in R&D efforts. Best For: Product Adoption.

Payment Solutions 98

Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments Scale 98

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

Here’s why: PLG is an end user-focused growth model that relies on the product itself as the primary driver of customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. More SaaS companies will move to usage-based pricing. In fact, seven of the nine recent software IPOs with the best net dollar retention have a usage-based pricing model.

Product Marketing 58

Product Marketing Trends Scale Marketing 58

ProfitWell

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Running your own server to handle your customer's valuable data requires a huge investment to match the same level of security and reliability that comes baked into services like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud. Pricing Changes. There is currently a surge in usage-based pricing and other creative pricing strategies.

SaaS Payments 66

SaaS Payments Trends Merchant Services Payments 66

OPEXEngine

JUNE 11, 2020

The product is hosted by the vendor or a 3 rd party (like AWS). However, many SaaS companies charge for a “premium” version, which in effect, is charging extra for additional services but those services are part of the product pricing.

SaaS Payments 52

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Subscription Payment Features 52

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

And account management, which is basically around for retention and also upsell of different products. We look at annual churn, given the nature of those businesses that have annual or multi annual contracts with much bigger price items and tickets. This is where we’re putting that price, et cetera. Is actually very good.

SaaS Payments 234

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Scale 234

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2021

One of the challenges with that, one of the requisites, in order to start charging money, is you have to come up with a price. At the time we had to make the pricing decision, we didn’t have the six MBAs yet. ” “Yep, we need a price.” Number one, can we sell this thing at any price? We did that.

Part-Time VPE 228

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 228

User Pilot

APRIL 30, 2024

This article will look at the most successful SaaS companies, so you can decide if you want to invest in them for your business. Appcues enhances user onboarding, adoption , and retention with targeted walkthroughs, in-app messaging, and feature adoption tools. What are the benefits of the SaaS model? ActiveCampaign email dashboard.

SaaS Payments 104

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods Payment Solutions 104

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Usage-based pricing (UBP) , also known as consumption-based pricing, allows customers to pay for products according to how much they use. AWS and other infrastructure providers have been using UBP for nearly a decade. Understanding customer and revenue retention is an extremely attractive growth signal for a SaaS company.

Headcount 73

Headcount SaaS Compensation Acquisition 73

ChurnZero

OCTOBER 16, 2020

When applied to Customer Success, Mike says removing a price increase and getting a 5-star G2 review strike the right balance of a give and a get. Their ongoing customer investment uniquely positions them to make withdrawal requests while still driving meaningful and profitable performance. Enter the Sales Manager.

Scale 98

Scale Customer Success SaaS Payments Sales 98

ProfitWell

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

Yes, they might kick the can down the road a little longer, but they only delay the inevitable while giving customers an awful experience in the meantime. Manual renewal processes quickly add up to a significant time investment for subscription companies. And while these tactics might technically be legal, they sure aren’t ethical.

Payment Features 49

Payment Features Subscription Payment Methods Merchant Services 49

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2020

Patrick Campbell’s got thousands of SaaS companies and pricing and issues. Because sales folks want to close the biggest deal and they may not like downgrades or logo retention, how are you thinking about this issue? We can save companies $100,000 on their AWS bill. He’s going to tell you what they see.

Merchant Services 184

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 184

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 18, 2019

This is already at play — services like AWS, Stripe, and others have brought down the cost of starting and running a business to a fraction of what they used to be just a decade ago. Sometimes they have to offer discounts that have a certain $/% effect on the overall price/ACV that customers pay.). doubling the number of leads).

Scale 71

Scale SaaS Automotive AWS 71

Mucker Capital

APRIL 6, 2023

If you have a very complicated product–for example you sell AWS or you sell Snowflake–those are infrastructure products. You need to invest at least a year or even two years. The pricing for SaaS is much more complicated. You're really getting enough early users to help you validate to achieve a certain level of retention rate.

Startup 52

Startup Scale CTO Hire Outsourced Development 52

OpenView Labs

JUNE 25, 2019

A “best-in-class” CAC payback period is highly dependent on your go-to-market motion and customer type and must also be put in the context of two other metrics: logo retention and net dollar retention. For example, perhaps your CAC payback is worse than peer benchmarks but your retention is best-in-class.

Scale 40

Scale Development Team Review Software Review Benchmarks 40

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 18, 2019

This is already at play — services like AWS, Stripe, and others have brought down the cost of starting and running a business to a fraction of what they used to be just a decade ago. Sometimes they have to offer discounts that have a certain $/% effect on the overall price/ACV that customers pay.). doubling the number of leads).

Scale 52

Scale SaaS Automotive AWS 52

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Invest in your development internally and externally. Find a company that will allow you to be your best professional self and also invest in your personal life – it doesn’t have to be one at the expense of the other! Invest in your cross-functional partners. What is your best piece of career advice for women in sales?

Scale 130

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 130