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

ChurnZero

JUNE 24, 2022

In our webinar, 2022 SaaS retention benchmarks , SaaS Capital Manager Director Rob Belcher shares the results from their 11th annual B2B SaaS benchmarking survey. You can download the full report for net retention and gross retention benchmarks as well as retention metrics in relation to ACV, growth, size, and more.

Benchmarks 98

Benchmarks Retention Software Review Technical Review 98

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

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

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 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

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

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

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 193

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 193

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). Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

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 268

AWS Churn Enterprise Engagement 268

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. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Overall Stats: Overall Median: 6.4x

Cloud 161

Cloud AWS Metrics Subscription 161

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. Top 5 Median: 15.6x

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. However, revenue growth didn’t bottom until Q3 ‘09.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

ChurnZero

JUNE 24, 2022

In our webinar, 2022 SaaS retention benchmarks , SaaS Capital Manager Director Rob Belcher shares the results from their 11th annual B2B SaaS benchmarking survey. You can download the full report for net retention and gross retention benchmarks as well as retention metrics in relation to ACV, growth, size, and more.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks Retention Software Review Technical Review 52

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 164

Compensation Sales Azure AWS 164

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 213

Outsourced Development AWS Retention Enterprise 213

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

Cloud 183

Cloud Artificial Intelligence AI GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 183

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

OPEXEngine

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Dive Brief: Usage-based pricing has grown 32% this year and now 45% of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies use it all or in part, up from 34%, an OpenView survey shows. Pricing model growth. Usage-based pricing has been growing since at least 2018, when about a quarter of companies were using it, according to OpenView’s data.

Subscription 52

Subscription Payment Features Pricing SaaS 52

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. The company struggled with poor churn and anemic expansion revenue. Net revenue retention was near 70%, a far cry from the 100%+ that most SaaS companies aim to achieve.

Pricing 55

Pricing Outsourced Development Marketplace as a Service AWS 55

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.” Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Generative AI 130

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 11, 2023

The good news is gross retention (ie churn) stayed constant. 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 Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework.

Cloud 130

Cloud Trends Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

And allocating additional resources toward your customer’s long-term success pays huge dividends – improving retention by just 1% affects a company’s bottom line by around 7%. The prototypical company with a Customer Success team is a high-priced subscription business with 12–24 month contracts. Impact on Customer Success teams.

Customer Success 43

Customer Success Revenue AWS Retention 43

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

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. Instead you should focus on Natural Rate of Growth (NRG) to determine the percentage of recurring organic revenue. This metric is a strong future revenue indicator. 3 Frontegg.

Payment Solutions 98

Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments Scale 98

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

ProfitWell

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

SaaS revenue is expected to reach $143.7 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. Double down on retention. Optimize your pricing.

SaaS Payments 66

SaaS Payments Trends Merchant Services Payments 66

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

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 13, 2019

Over 500 software companies participated, from pre-revenue to $150M+ ARR publicly traded SaaS companies. That’s certainly true in developer tooling (AWS), sales and support (Salesforce), MarTech (Adobe), commerce (Square), HR tech (Workday) and even vertical markets (Veeva). Somehow, NPS has become synonymous with retention.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Benchmarks AWS Scale 52

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. These terms affect revenue recognition. Cost of Revenues, are different.

SaaS Payments 52

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Subscription Payment Features 52

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

Average Revenue per Customer. And basically SaaS revenue models is just magical for investors and for businesses. And you can basically predict revenue ahead of time and therefore raise money early on to grow even faster. First one and the most important one is obviously the MRR, monthly recurring revenue. MRR, obviously.

SaaS Payments 237

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Scale 237

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

They told us they would do tons of all this pricing stuff and help us with hiring and introduce us to customers, and all of these things. Its product drives the acquisition, retention and expansion. Enterprise value per revenue is 10X. So super quickly, OpenView does $5 to $25 million checks, A, Bs and Cs. So, define it.

Investment 100

Investment Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 100

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

When you go public, your company’s performance suddenly has a real-time scoreboard: your stock price. It’s easy to think that high growth can make up for a low stock price, especially for founders at fast-growing late-stage startups that are still burning cash. They’re a disaster.” That’s operating leverage.

Travel 112

Travel Forecasting Pricing Scale 112

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2021

This is the revenue growth for HubSpot leading up to the IPO. 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.”

Part-Time VPE 224

Part-Time VPE Technical Cofounder CTO Hire New CTO 224

How To Buy Saas

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Amazon also offers you the option to access the API using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or the AWS Software Development Kit (SDK). Starting Price Starting Price For 1000 emails $0.10 Check Out Amazon SES Prices What are the Best Amazon SES Alternatives?

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Software Review Payment Methods Systems Review 52