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. Don’t let low churn give you comfort, unless it’s attached to high NPS and net retention. Churn is a lagging indicator.

AWS 337

AWS Churn Enterprise Engagement 337

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 19, 2024

My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., net retention and CAC payback). It’s worth pointing out that Azure is a bit above the long term trendline, while AWS is still below (but accelerating up).

Cloud 318

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Azure 318

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2023

SaaStr Annual: SaaStr Annual is one of the largest SaaS conferences, attracting thousands of attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts. It provides insights into the latest trends, best practices, and networking opportunities in the SaaS space.

ChatGPT 189

ChatGPT AWS SaaS CTO 189

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

The SaaS sales model seems so well-established, as hundreds of founders build their businesses and raise funding. Mark Roberge, Founder of Stage 2 Capital and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, shares insights from his years of experience into common SaaS sales missteps and how you can avoid them.

Sales Hiring 253

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 253

SaaStr

AUGUST 4, 2022

So are we in a downturn in SaaS? And inflation is awful. But where is SaaS are we really today? Alteryx, a leading public SaaS ETL company, announced it was growing 33% at $730m in ARR! It’s just, the forces that are propelling SaaS to grow like never before haven’t changed. Certainly, segments are.

Venture Capital 321

Venture Capital AWS Cloud Scale 321

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

They each have some of the largest cloud businesses in the world in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud respectively. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. It shows the number of months it takes for a SaaS business to payback their fully burdened CAC on a gross profit basis.

Systems Review 144

Systems Review Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence 144

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2022

We’ll see 2,500+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs June 6-7 at 2022 SaaStr Europa ! ChurnZero is the Customer Success platform and partner for growing SaaS and subscription businesses. You need an efficient way to keep your customers successful, reduce churn, drive adoption, and increase net revenue retention.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 254

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS Enterprise readiness 254

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 11, 2024

The hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP) are always some of the first companies to report earnings during earnings season (coming up in 2 weeks), and there’s always a read through for consumption names (meaning people believe there’s a correlation). Cloudflare is up 17%. Datadog is up 14%. Mongo is up 16%. Snowflake is up 14%.

Cloud 167

Cloud Cost optimization & reporting GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Review 167

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2024

So Okta is one of our favorite SaaS and Cloud leaders. But like many SaaS and Cloud leaders today, the bigger ones are still growing faster. AWS alone generated $175m of contract value for Okta, growing 130%. GRR / Logo Retention in Mid 90% Range. The story is super inspiring. And a few other interesting learnings: #6.

Fractional VPE 276

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Scale SMB 276

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2024

A lot of you reading SaaStr are probably more B2B SaaS oriented and may not be paying attention to the consumer market, but it’s already massive and is continuing to grow quickly. So, let’s look at the state of subscription apps and how B2B SaaS can learn from it. You can tune into Workshop Wednesday every single Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Payment Features 294

Payment Features Subscription B2B Mobile 294

The Angel VC

MAY 12, 2018

In last week's post I shared some thoughts about Dropbox and why, although Dropbox is unquestionably one of the most amazing SaaS companies ever built, I am a tad less confident in the company's long-term future than I am in other SaaS leaders such as Salesforce.com, Zendesk, or Shopify. 8 – Weaning off AWS Look at this.

AWS 187

AWS Scale Payment Features Subscription 187

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

In the latest installment of SaaStr’s What’s New series – where we sit down with the leaders in SaaS and Cloud for the inside scoop on what’s top of mind and what’s new, SaaStr CEO and Jason Lemkin chats with the CEO of ZoomInfo , Henry Schuck. So, what’s new at ZoomInfo?

New CTO 305

New CTO Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire 305

ChurnZero

JUNE 24, 2022

What does this mean for B2B SaaS businesses? In our webinar, 2022 SaaS retention benchmarks , SaaS Capital Manager Director Rob Belcher shares the results from their 11th annual B2B SaaS benchmarking survey. It’s the largest survey of private SaaS companies in the world with over 1,500 responses.

Benchmarks 98

Benchmarks Retention Software Review Technical Review 98

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 11, 2024

My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., net retention and CAC payback). If we break this down and look at Azure and AWS independently (graphs below), you’ll see how the AWS “swings” were a lot more volatile.

Cloud 184

Cloud Software Azure AWS 184

Clouded Judgement

MAY 3, 2024

We now have results from the three hypersclaers (AWS / Azure / GCP). The most notable change in tone was Andy Jassy talking about AWS. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. ” Full quote below: “We're seeing a few trends right now.

Cost optimization & reporting 190

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Software Azure 190

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. Azure (excluding Azure AI) continued to decelerate, and while AWS did come in ahead of expectations, it wasn’t a blow out. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cost optimization & reporting 167

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS 167

User Pilot

JULY 23, 2020

You’re leaving cash on the table for your competitors to sweep up if you don’t have a strategy for retention marketing. So, in this blog we’ll show you how to keep your customers happy with a targeted retention strategy. You’re signing up new users for your SaaS product every day. What is Retention Marketing?

Retention 95

Retention SaaS Payments Strategy Payment Solutions 95

User Pilot

MAY 27, 2025

Which in-app behaviors correlate with long-term user retention? How to use it: Break the complete user journey into stages: Acquisition, Onboarding, Activation, and Retention. So you can measure retention, feature adoption, or conversion rates across time and compare how different user segments respond to in-app changes.

Mobile 96

Mobile Retention Payment Features Onboarding 96

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 157

Cost optimization & reporting Cloud Azure AWS 157

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Subscribe now Foundation Models Are to AI what S3 was to the Public Cloud Many people look at 2006 as the birth of the public cloud - the year Amazon launched AWS. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 176

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS Azure 176

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. Even a DCF is riddled with long term assumptions.

Cloud 176

Cloud Software Review AWS Trends 176

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

Subscribe now ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) vs ERR (Experimental Runrate Revenue) ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is one of the most popular SaaS (Non-GAAP) metrics. In it's truest form, ARR is used by pure SaaS business models to describe the aggregate annual value of the entire customer set. Namely, retention!!

AI 190

AI Revenue Cloud Technical Advisors 190

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

So the first question is what made SaaS so successful. If you kind of that question, thinking about the stakeholders and the decisions and companies of using SaaS products, there’s kind of three types. Customers love SaaS products and tools because it simply works. Why do developers love SaaS products? Why is that?

SaaS Payments 246

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Scale 246

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. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Said another way, the 10Y today is double what it averaged from 2010 to 2020.

Cloud 167

Cloud Azure AWS Software Review 167

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

ChurnZero

AUGUST 11, 2020

Did you know that 60% of SaaS companies reported a negative impact on customer retention and upsell deals due to the pandemic? Customer retention, along with new customer acquisition, has been challenging for most companies when the pandemic hit. And, as you know, a better customer experience leads to better customer retention.

Retention 97

Retention Strategy Underperforming Technical Team Software Review 97

ChurnZero

MAY 29, 2025

Some SaaS trends simmer; others ignite. This year, SaaS Capital’s industry-leading B2B Benchmarking Survey covered AI adoption and outcomes for the first time and the results are unequivocal: AI is no longer optional in SaaS. “I hesitate to trust AI with my data; back then, companies didnt trust AWS.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks AI B2B SaaS 52

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

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

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%. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. Tailwind of new workloads starting to overtake headwinds of optimizations.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting 130

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 2, 2024

Cloud Giants Report Q2 We also got the Q2 quarters from AWS / Azure / GCP this week! Quarterly Reports Summary Top 10 EV / NTM Revenue Multiples Top 10 Weekly Share Price Movement Update on Multiples SaaS businesses are generally valued on a multiple of their revenue - in most cases the projected revenue for the next 12 months.

Cloud 157

Cloud Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AWS 157

How To Buy Saas

MAY 29, 2025

This article goes beyond the buzz to show how AI is already driving results in SaaS, finance, retail, and operations, with lessons and case examples that any executive can learn from. AWS explains that intelligent automation (IA) is the process of using artificial intelligence (AI) to make self-improving software automation.

Artificial Intelligence 59

Artificial Intelligence Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments 59

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 promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years.

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

To find out which of these features are most common, OpenView surveyed over 500 SaaS companies ranging from pre-revenue to $100 million in ARR. Despite disparities in reporting, self-reported data on CAC payback does reveal a clear trend: The fastest growing SaaS companies report a median CAC payback period of only 8 months.

Headcount 98

Headcount SaaS Compensation Acquisition 98

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 9, 2023

Expansion revenue is still declining (we see this in falling net retention rates), but gross retention remains strong. The promise of SaaS is that growth in the early years leads to profits in the mature years. New customer growth seems to be picking up. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework.

Trends 130

Trends Cloud Azure AWS 130

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 253

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 253

Clouded Judgement

MAY 31, 2024

This can lead to an airpocket of valuation as companies transition to a different primary valuation metric Outside of the hypserscalers (Azure, AWS, GCP) who have uniquely benefited from AI revenue (mainly selling compute), everyone else has largely struggled. Coming in to Q1 there was broader optimism. Q4’s were generally good!

Cloud 184

Cloud Software GCP(Google Cloud Platform) AI 184