Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Subscribe now Cloud Giants Report Q3 ‘23 Not a great signal for software this week from the Cloud Giants (AWS, Azure and Google Cloud)…After Q2 (3 months ago), the tone from the Cloud Giants around optimizations was largely: optimizations have started to ease, and net new workloads have picked up. That is not new.”

Cost optimization & reporting 152

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS 152

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2023

So there was a quiet SaaS IPO you may have missed in the craziness of 2021 — SEMRush, a tool your marketing department quite likely uses to keep track of the performance of your SEO and marketing site. It’s tough out there in the public markets, folks. It’s tough out there in the public markets, folks.

Scale 195

Scale AWS Scaling Revenue 195

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. Azure : Coming into the quarter, a growth rate that would have satisfied the market would have been ~29%. All eyes shifted to the AWS report on Thursday.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS AI Search 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%. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Multiples shown below are calculated by taking the Enterprise Value (market cap + debt - cash) / NTM revenue.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure Cost optimization & reporting AWS 130

SaaStr

DECEMBER 7, 2020

3. “Atlassian and AWS Say: Maybe Worry a Little Bit. Atlassian and AWS, two of the greats, may hold a clue: Atlassian and AWS Say: “Maybe Worry a Little Bit” 4. “A Framework For Your First SaaS Sales Comp Plan” A SaaStr Classic, still going strong in 2020. Even If It Isn’t Revenue.”

Venture Capital 322

Venture Capital Sales Hiring AWS Cloud 322

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%. Multiples shown below are calculated by taking the Enterprise Value (market cap + debt - cash) / NTM revenue.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting 130

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. Office 365 Copilot, for example, doesn’t go live until November and we most likely won’t see meaningful revenue from it until next year. Overall Stats: Overall Median: 5.7x

Cloud 161

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review 161

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

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.” Meaning labor markets continue to be strong! AWS reports next week.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

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

Tom Tunguz

JULY 26, 2022

I’m watching public company earnings to identify early weaknesses in the software market. That suggests the cloud market is quite strong. Google’s growth rate fell to 35%, a 29% decline from the trailing 4 quarter average of 49% annual revenue growth. Microsoft Azure. GCP’s data point is less rosy.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 193

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Cloud Azure AWS 193

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. As you can see, just two months ago, the market predicted that that Fed Funds rate would be 3.6%

Cloud 161

Cloud AWS Metrics Subscription 161

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). The big question I have - everyone knows the market is tough right now. Top 5 Median: 12.9x

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

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. That can be 5x-50x the price. If you don’t have someone in marketing good at events, maybe wait until later to spend too much there. At Shoptalk, if you are in eCommerce.

AWS 205

AWS Enterprise Pricing Marketing 205

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Does it cost so, so much to host a few million lines of code on AWS? And your marketing costs should be manageable as your mini-brand kicks in. Ultimately, almost everyone in B2B SaaS, down the road, ends up getting 80%+ of their leads through their brand, through word-of-mouth, through second-order revenue, etc.

Scale 280

Scale SaaS Banking AWS 280

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.”. Copy your entire product.

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 189

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

” We saw some green shoots in AWS and a few other consumption names, and overall sentiment seemed more positive. Q2 benefited from an “easy comp” (since Q1 was so light), so we’ll see how this trend continues (or doesn’t) in Q3 Moving on to Q2 YoY revenue growth. Overall Stats: Overall Median: 6.2x

Cloud 169

Cloud Software Review AWS Trends 169

Buffer Resources

AUGUST 16, 2023

We’re also happy to share a more sustainable way of providing this information — our new transparent pricing dashboard. and our commitment to keep up with market rates when it comes to how we pay our team. Another important detail to note is how Average Sales Price (ASP) and Expenses have changed over time.

Merchant Services 75

Merchant Services Payment Services Payment Features Payments 75

Blulogix

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Transforming the Technology Industry: The Power of Usage-Based Pricing By BluLogix Team The technology industry is in the midst of a profound transformation. Traditional pricing models, such as fixed subscriptions and one-time purchases, no longer align with the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of this sector.

Technology 52

Technology Pricing Payment Features Subscription 52

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. OK, just renew at last year’s price. Well, if we do, let’s get a big price cut if usage isn’t high. Should we renew?

AWS 265

AWS Churn Enterprise Engagement 265

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. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Top 5 Median: 14.5x

Cloud 183

Cloud Artificial Intelligence AI GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 183

Sales Hacker

MARCH 29, 2021

PartnerOps (or ChannelOps) is newer than sales and marketing ops , but it is important to driving growth in the age of the ecosystem. Building the right partner tech stack can dramatically increase the revenue flowing from your partners, even if your partnership team is small. The growing role of partnerships in driving revenue.

Payments 100

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 100

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

I’ll be right sometimes, I’ll be wrong sometimes, but it’s fun to try and make sense of what’s going on in the markets together. Then we had the Fed meeting this week creating a huge move in the software market. Clearly the market tone is getting more dovish. The market was offsides.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Generative AI 130

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

Expansion revenue is still declining (we see this in falling net retention rates), but gross retention remains strong. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Multiples shown below are calculated by taking the Enterprise Value (market cap + debt - cash) / NTM revenue. Overall Stats: Overall Median: 5.7x

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

What Is A “Consumption” Business In the old days of software, you had a company like Oracle that popularized the perpetual license where customers own the software and vendors own the market. Then, we moved to a more customer-friendly model with SaaS and subscription-based pricing. The first might be market acquisition.

Compensation 164

Compensation Sales Azure AWS 164

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

Stax

APRIL 18, 2024

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Software-as-a-Service Providers (SaaS) operate within the same market, thus creating a push-and-pull revenue dynamic. How companies price and distribute their solutions affects everything from revenue streams and customer interaction to product development and delivery methods.

Outsourcing Services 88

Outsourcing Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods 88

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

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 29, 2020

The much-discussed pricing strategy took over the SaaS world and helped fuel the phenomenal success of SaaS pioneers like Dropbox, Evernote, SurveyMonkey and Hootsuite. HubSpot now offers freemium versions of their CRM, Marketing and Sales products. Here’s a list of the top freemium pricing strategy resources: Table of Contents.

Pricing 82

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 82

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 11, 2022

Consumption-based pricing is best used when you can accurately and easily break down your service offering into small, digestible units. Many companies in the technology industry are moving toward “pay for what you use” consumption-based pricing models. Four pricing models. Challenges and shifts. New coverage models.

Pricing 52

Pricing Payment Solutions Outsourced Development Compensation 52

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2019

Here are a few: All the way until $600m+ ARR, the majority of Xero’s new bookings and revenue still came from Australia and New Zealand! ” So even in SMB sales in smaller markets, if you take dominant market share — you can get to $500m+ in ARR! .” Sales & marketing costs are going up.

SMB 217

SMB Customer Lifetime Value AWS Churn 217

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 Rico Mallozzi: So marketplaces are fundamentally changing, go to market motions for a lot of enterprise technology companies. Azure’s marketplace has over 4 million monthly visitors.

Scale 199

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 199

OpenView Labs

MARCH 4, 2021

Today we know of HubSpot —the maker of marketing, sales, and service software products—as a preeminent public company with a market cap above $17B. For their first five years in business, HubSpot offered three subscription packages ranging in price from $3,000 to $18,000 per year. So in 2011, they introduced usage-based pricing.

Pricing 55

Pricing Outsourced Development Marketplace as a Service AWS 55

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2019

“The sham began in February, when an unknown user with a Chinese IP address and fake phone number side-stepped Zillow’s security measures and toyed with the sale prices displayed on the mansion’s listing.”. Who always wins? “Instead of saying the same thing everyone else was already saying ad nauseum—”It’s easy to use!

Cloud 149

Cloud AWS Pricing Revenue 149

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 210

Outsourced Development AWS Retention Enterprise 210

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 11, 2023

” It’s really important that new business is still healthy, and a sign of overall market health. While the overall median revenue multiple of the software universe is ~6x (which is ~25% below the long term average of ~8x), high growth software is currently trading at a premium to it’s long term average (9.4x

Cloud 130

Cloud Trends Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

It seems crazy at the moment, but simply put, the WeWork IPO was an aggressive bet that in Year 10+ of a bull run that the public markets would pay a high but perhaps justifiable price for the crazy high revenue growth of WeWork, while overlooking the losses for now. 5–10+ year leases are awful. billion last quarter.

AWS 138

AWS Pricing Revenue Metrics 138