SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Many have used Digital Ocean at the cheaper, simpler version of AWS-Azure-Digital Ocean to get going fast and quickly. But it’s raining cash, and earnings per share is growing 22% — faster than revenue. Almost All Customers Still from Self-Service This makes sense at these price points. Or at least. Or at least.

Scale 215

Scale AWS Azure Cloud 215

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

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

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 356

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 356

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2022

So follow AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Stock prices go up and down, inflation will come down, and interest rates won’t rise forever. Let’s look a whole level up to the real canaries-in-the-coalmine: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. So much going on in economy right now, from inflation to interest rates. Not bad for #3!

Cloud 236

Cloud Azure AWS Engineering 236

Clouded Judgement

MAY 10, 2024

And no one raised full year guide >2% The median “beat” (Q1 revenue over Q1 consensus estimates) was 1.5%, which is the lowest it’s been in the last 4 years Overall, it’s been a TOUGH quarter for software companies. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Overall Stats: Overall Median: 5.7x

Cloud 161

Cloud Software GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure 161

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

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

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 316

Venture Capital Sales Hiring AWS Cloud 316

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

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2023

The classic “high-end of self-service” price point. 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. It’s tough out there in the public markets, folks. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1.

Scale 185

Scale AWS Scaling Revenue 185

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

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

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

Tom Tunguz

JULY 26, 2022

Google’s growth rate fell to 35%, a 29% decline from the trailing 4 quarter average of 49% annual revenue growth. Microsoft Azure may have more customers under fixed contracts compared to Google, which may have more customers on a usage-based pricing model. That suggests the cloud market is quite strong.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 192

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Cloud Azure AWS 192

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

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

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

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

Buffer Resources

AUGUST 16, 2023

We’re also happy to share a more sustainable way of providing this information — our new transparent pricing dashboard. Another important detail to note is how Average Sales Price (ASP) and Expenses have changed over time. Our Average Sale Price (ASP) in 2014 was $13, while our total Operating Costs were $3,575,897.

Merchant Services 80

Merchant Services Payment Services Payment Features Payments 80

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 258

AWS Churn Enterprise Engagement 258

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Does it cost so, so much to host a few million lines of code on AWS? 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. Raise prices tomorrow. If your competition is fierce, raise prices even more.

Scale 278

Scale SaaS Banking AWS 278

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2022

A second multi-billion dollar vendor gave us 8 days to pay a massive price increase without notice. I’m sure this team was under pressure this quarter to find revenue. The way this public company did it was — awful. #3. That’s the entire annual price we were paying the prior vendor. What did we do?

Customer Success 240

Customer Success Systems Review AWS Software Review 240

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. At Dreamforce, if you are in the SFDC ecosystem. At Shoptalk, if you are in eCommerce. At least do a dinner or a party and get as many to come as you can.

AWS 194

AWS Enterprise Pricing Marketing 194

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 180

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 180

OpenView Labs

JUNE 16, 2021

As this product-led wave gets bigger, the concept of usage-based pricing is becoming more and more appealing to software companies. Moving to usage-based pricing. An introduction to usage-based pricing. The Usage-Based Pricing Playbook. Usage-Based Pricing 2.0. 7 Reasons Usage-Based Pricing is the Future of SaaS.

Pricing 64

Pricing Scale Forecasting AWS 64

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. New customer growth seems to be picking up.

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

Sales Hacker

MARCH 29, 2021

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. To drive the most revenue, both the CRM and PRM play integral parts in the partner tech stack. Partner acquisition.

Payments 101

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 101

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

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

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

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

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. Not satisfied with reaching $1 billion in annual revenue, Atlassian furthered its commitment to product led growth by jumping on the freemium bandwagon.

Pricing 82

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 82

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

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. HubSpot isn’t an outlier.

Pricing 55

Pricing Outsourced Development Marketplace as a Service AWS 55