Clouded Judgement

APRIL 11, 2024

The first few months of this year felt like a lot of churning in the market. It looks at the YoY dollar change in quarterly revenue from the hyperscalers (just looking at Azure / AWS because the data goes back further) going back a few years. Beating consensus revenue estimates is the first aspect of a successful quarter.

Cloud 177

Cloud Software Azure AWS 177

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

Typically support consumes about perhaps 5%-7% of your revenue at scale (excluding customer success) in most SaaS models. Another 5%-7% go to core infrastructure costs (AWS, Azure, Snowflake, etc). It’s your top marketing and customer retention investment. It could be more or less, but that’s a rough way to think about it.

Azure 211

Azure AWS SaaS Customer Success 211

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Amazon on AWS : “…customers are continuing to shift their focus towards driving innovation and bringing new workloads to the cloud. They also are seeing AI revenue (largely compute) show up sooner than anyone else. I’d say both of the “non AI” Azure / AWS figures weren’t actually that strong?

Cost optimization & reporting 161

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS 161

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

At the time, they were less than a billion or two in revenue, and now, they just crossed over a $30B revenue run rate. With the marketing team, there are a lot of the classic functions — brand marketing, product marketing, and partner marketing. Right now, 70% of the GenAI startups are using Google Cloud.

Cloud 229

Cloud Scale AWS AI 229

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2022

But even there, to truly scale, they went more enterprise and built out a full enterprise sales and marketing function. The next 5 also always work, but you need someone in marketing that’s done them well before to own them: #1. Go visit every customer in your Top 10%-15% of revenue, at least. Partner Marketing.

Scale 255

Scale Sales Hiring Marketing SaaS 255

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

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 245

AWS B2C AI Scaling 245

Hitenism

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

In 2006, after Amazon Web Services (AWS) helped pioneer what we now call the cloud, product development changed forever. Today, one-third of daily internet users visit websites built on top of AWS. AWS is now an $11.5B run rate business and has made up for an incredible 67% of Amazon’s operating revenue last quarter.

AWS 189

AWS New CTO Scale CTO 189

Chargify

AUGUST 17, 2020

However, with the introduction of Events-Based Billing by Chargify, this event-based billing model is now available to small and medium-sized businesses, giving them the ability to offer the same pricing models and bill customers just as precisely as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or the popular voice and messaging platform Twilio.

AWS 98

AWS Payment Services SaaS Payments Payments 98

Sales Hacker

APRIL 23, 2024

Before Common Room, Linda led product marketing for serverless computing at Amazon Web Services, where she saw firsthand the impact connected data and person-level insights had on accelerating product adoption, earning new customers, and expanding account revenue. 11:07 – Differences between intent data and signal-based selling.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Scale AWS Management 81

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

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2023

Now, he has five more marketing strategies that are sure to generate more leads if done right. If you aren’t spending money on marketing, it’s time to step it up. Most SaaS companies don’t spend enough on marketing, and that’s a mistake best avoided. Yes, it’s expensive — a booth, flying SDRs out, buying swag. It’s too much.

Outsourcing Services 190

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development Marketing 190

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

It’s market cap is almost $50 Billion. Ok times are tough for many out there But not Crowdstrike: – Almost $3B in ARR – Growing 37% (!) – 26% Free Cash Flow – 125% NRR – $48B Market Cap — Up 94.58% this year (!) Security remains hot. And in fact, the stock is up 94.7% this year!

Cybersecurity 249

Cybersecurity AWS Benchmarks Cloud 249

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

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. 53% of Revenue is Outside U.S. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1.

Scale 187

Scale AWS Scaling Revenue 187

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 27, 2022

I’m watching public company earnings to identify early weaknesses in the software market. Infrastructure revenue growth averaged 33% this quarter, which is astounding considering we’re talking about businesses that sum to more than $50b of revenue per quarter. Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud Platform.

Cloud 228

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS 228

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. 220m in ARR, $13B market cap. Half of its revenues comes from its software.

Merchant Services 357

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 357

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

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

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

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

MARCH 9, 2022

Focusing on smaller developers, in some ways it’s been a bit overshadowed by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. But it’s a great case study on how nailing a niche, and staying focused on a core ICP in a huge market, can pay off. They are only 15% of the customers, but 83% of the revenue. That’s impressive.

Azure 203

Azure AWS SMB Cloud 203

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 318

Venture Capital Sales Hiring AWS Cloud 318

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

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

WorkOS is evolving, so how can they build a Go-To-Market function that satisfies all these people? 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.

Enterprise readiness 215

Enterprise readiness Payment Solutions Enterprise Payments 215

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) 202

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Cloud Azure AWS 202

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

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. The Cloud Market as Google Cloud defines it has grown at a jaw-dropping rate, from $85B in ’15 to $290B in ’20. The power of recurring revenue and multi-year, long-term customers.

Cloud 207

Cloud Azure AWS Scale 207

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

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

“Q3 product revenue grew 34% year-over-year to reach $698 million. " As with many other companies reporting strength in the market, AI & unstructured data workloads are fueling growth. ” For startups operating within data, which tops buyers’ lists , this news further signals a stronger market in 2024.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 150

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure Data Startup 150

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

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2023

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. Each week, we round up our most popular content so you can catch up on anything you may have missed. A 6 Part Test to Help You Get It Right.

Sales Recruiting 179

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AWS 179

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

So the public markets are in tumult. This is just starting to roll through the private markets and is going to make a bumpy rest of the year. Ultimately — revenue multiples. Revenue multiples are how much VCs, investors, and ultimately, an IPO and public markets will value each dollar of revenue.

SaaS 326

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS 326

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 191

Headcount Scale Sales Hiring AWS 191

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. If you don’t have someone in marketing good at events, maybe wait until later to spend too much there. But they are also where field and enterprise marketers spend 40% of their budget.

AWS 196

AWS Enterprise Pricing Marketing 196

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

I have a strong, semi-proven thesis that in SaaS, market size doesn’t matter that much … at least in the traditional top-down sense. Yes, many of the big winners in SaaS entered already large markets, from CRM (Salesforce) to ERP (Workday) to Collaboration (Workday, Asana). Like Shopify and Okta, to pick two.

Scale 198

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital AWS 198

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