SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Catch up on part one here , where he deep dives into what he really thinks about AI, Sales and lead Gen for SaaS in 2024. Jason re-takes the stage in Part 2 of the series to answer questions about the right time is to invest in a new product line, building vertical vs. horizontal, multiples in 2024, and much more. How do they succeed?

Sales Hiring 260

Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital Generative AI 260

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2024

So the #1 OG vertical SaaS leader is Veeva. A core CRM, data and Cloud platform for the life sciences industry, it started off as a “Salesforce for Pharma” and expanded from there. It raised less than $10m before it IPO’d, and fast forward to day, it’s at $2.5

Scale 177

Scale AI Cloud Scaling 177

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

Dominates a vertical market with over $500M ARR. Why is Jason Worried for The First Time About SaaS: We are trading at 6x revenues in the public markets. Klaviyo, Arm and Instacart were all muted IPOs. 2024 will be the third year of a multiple downturn. Many will pull the chord and say, we have to do it. And A Few Worries.

SMB 318

SMB SaaS AI Software Review 318

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Toast is the latest SaaS leader to get much more efficient in the past 12-18 months, along with monday.com, HubSpot, MongoDB, and many others. It’s not only rare(r) to see such explosive growth by a SaaS company, but to also watch Jonathan’s exciting career growth at the more senior levels within a hyper-growth company.

Payment Methods 214

Payment Methods Acquisition Scale Payments 214

Payrix

APRIL 3, 2024

If you’re still on the fence about how Embedded Payments can advance your organization, delight customers, and make your software offering more competitive, check out this blog post that explains what Embedded Payments are and how they benefit software companies. What payment models are available to SaaS companies?

Payment Services 100

Payment Services Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Facilitation 100

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2023

We’ll see 2,500+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs June 6-7 at 2022 SaaStr Europa ! Vertice is a tech-enabled SaaS purchasing platform. The platform also has an extensive database that covers over 16,000 different SaaS tools and supports the services side of the business. Grab tickets here.

Outsourced Development 229

Outsourced Development Acquisition Pricing B2B 229

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Picking Your Core Verticals and Selling Outside of “Tech” 70% of Monday’s customers are non-tech — real estate, banking, construction, and even churches. Those overly exposed to tech companies took a big hit in the last 18 months, and the fact that monday is so flexible possibly allowed them to enter into verticals they had no experience in.

Scale 169

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 169

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

So Samara is that vertical fleet-and-more-management-and-more SaaS company that has just roared out of the gate since its quiet IPO. 49% of Revenue From New Customers, 51% From Existing It’s great to see a public SaaS leader break this out so clearly. And efficient growth at that. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. . #2.

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Engineering 263

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

So AppFolio is a big vertical SaaS+ success story I frankly don’t know as much about as I should. So AppFolio is a quiet member of the 10x ARR club – SaaS for property management – $660m run-rate, $7.2B Gotta Radically More Efficient in 2023 This is really the theme of the year in SaaS and Cloud.

Payment Services 260

Payment Services Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments 260

Stax

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Software as a Service (SaaS) has made business software more accessible by offering cloud-based, on-demand access to a range of solutions, from project management and collaboration to sales and marketing. But not all SaaS products are alike. Other types of SaaS are relevant only to companies in specific industries.

SaaS Payments 88

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments Payment Solutions 88

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. Enterprise software–at all stages and check sizes–with a focus on SaaS, Security, Infrastructure and, of course, with an integrated AI strategy. Check that out here.

Scale 256

Scale Software Review Payment Features AI 256

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Does a SaaS Startup Break Out in a Crowded Market? Most SaaS markets are crowded today. But the thing is: As Bigger SaaS companies cross $100m in ARR, and then $1B in ARR, they stop focusing on smaller niches. Many Bigger Cos aren’t vertical-specific. Find one segment of the market to win in.

Startup 254

Startup Healthcare Marketing SaaS 254

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2021

So three of my personal favorite SaaS companies finally went public, Squarespace, Procore and UiPath. Procore is a personal favorite because it did vertical SaaS the hard way, with many mid-market deals, and made it a tenacious success. Procore is vertical SaaS and mid-market (and above). More on that here.

Construction 282

Construction SMB Mobile Cloud 282

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2021

SaaS isn’t a commodity, not really. A vendor tailored just for your vertical. Vertical SaaS is booming. We don’t all have time to deploy Salesforce. Pipedrive could be deployed in minutes. That led to a $1.5B Cheaper (sometimes). It’s hard to build something big just because it’s cheaper. Every vendor is different.

Healthcare 278

Healthcare Enterprise Branding Startup 278

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Can great SaaS salespeople seamlessly switch between industries? Only the very best reps that have sold sales or marketing tools, which are very similar to the tools they use every day already, can sell vertical saas or developer tools. You’d think a great SaaS rep could sell any other SaaS product.

Sales Hiring 177

Sales Hiring Sales SaaS SMB 177

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

So we’re finally, almost back from the IPO Drout in SaaS. The last SaaS leader to IPO was HashiCorp back in Dec 2021. After that, the public markets began a precipitous decline — leading to an almost 2 year pause in SaaS IPO. But the metrics, especially for an SMB-focused SaaS business, are breathtaking.

Scale 250

Scale SMB Sales Hiring Interviewing 250

SaaStr

MARCH 11, 2024

Be way if you’re in vertical SaaS or complex fintech or developer-focused tools hiring folks that have only sold, basically, to folks like themselves. By contrast, they can fly if you put them in an environment where the product is simpler and easier to sell. They can wing that.

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Sales Interviewing compliance 255

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

It’s a true vertical SaaS leader — “Cloud for Construction” — growing an impressive 33% at $1 Billion (!) That’s 10x ARR, even in today’s tougher environment and a world of 6x multiples even for many of the best in SaaS. Still, its growth has held up far better than many SaaS leaders.

Scale 232

Scale Payment Services Payment Features Construction 232

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

SaaS passed media as their #2 customer category. We all know SaaS got big, but I didn’t realize it had become their #2 category, passing media. The ROI in SaaS is “simply” a 10x faster, instant-deploy search. Just starting to segment sales by vertical. From a niche to huge.

Scale 312

Scale Enterprise Development Revenue 312

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2023

So a vertical SaaS player many have heard of but rarely talk about as a business is LegalZoom. You’ve seen the commercials for years. LegalZoom was founded way back in 1999. But you probably didn’t know they IPO’d not all that long ago. Today, the self-service legal services giant is worth an impressive $3.4

Subscription 194

Subscription Payment Features Churn Retention 194

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2021

Q: How can a SaaS startup survive in a crowded market? Most SaaS markets are crowded today. But the thing is: As Bigger SaaS companies cross $100m in ARR, and then $1B in ARR, they stop focusing on smaller niches. Many Bigger Cos aren’t vertical-specific. Find a segment of the market to win in. It’s just immaterial.

Healthcare 293

Healthcare Market Segmentation Mobile Churn 293

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2023

1 – It limits you to problems contained within one vertical or type of business. Fifteen years ago, you could start a SaaS company in any vertical and succeed. Parker shares a few problems with this conventional wisdom. #1 Narrowing down what you do doesn’t lend itself to solving these kinds of problems. #2

Startup 237

Startup Software Sales Hiring Pricing 237

SaaStr

MARCH 29, 2023

and transitioned into SaaS later and through acquisitions, and then into a broad platform for fundraising and educational management. $100 Blackbaud is in some ways a case study of the perils of vertical SaaS. Like Blackbaud. It’s a real oldie in educational and nonprofit software. It was founded in 1981 (!) Billion.

Education 201

Education Scaling Acquisition Pricing 201

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2023

So a recent SaaS survey confirmed what I’ve experienced over the year: outsourced SDRs are tough to make work. stage/vertical/solution dependent etc” — Ben Virdee-Chapman, VPM, Gig Wage “Hard for B2B saas, where the solution is geared towards solving sophisticated customer workflows.

Outsourcing Services 264

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Development Team Review Sales Hiring 264

SaaStr

DECEMBER 31, 2022

“Learnings from Innovating in Underserved Markets with Samsara CPO Kiren Sekar” Another great CPO session, diving into interesting learnings on vertical SaaS and less served markets. #9. Here’s what folks most watched in 2022 : Here were the Top 10: #1.

Scale 221

Scale SMB Innovation B2B 221

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2022

Reaching the first billion is a milestone for every SaaS company, so what’s the best way to get there? For example, you could either verticalize the GTM or consider a broader horizontal play. Find another SaaS company whose brand or product works together well with yours that sells to the same persona.

Revenue 254

Revenue Sales Hiring Leadership Scale 254

Stax

MARCH 19, 2024

Business owners are increasingly showing an overwhelming preference for SaaS platforms with embedded payment capabilities as part of their offerings. Only SaaS companies that take the step to offer seamless integrated payment processing on their platforms will retain the loyalty of their customers and gain an advantage over their competitors.

Payments 88

Payments Payment Services Payment Methods SaaS Payments 88

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2022

SaaS is a fast-paced industry. Only go-getters survive in the SaaS marketplace. Sales enablement must be frequent to give salespeople vital answers on the product and set up a vertical. Help them understand the dynamics of different verticals. Mistake 3: Hiring non-competitive sales representatives .

Scale 245

Scale Sales Hiring Revenue Marketplace as a Service 245

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2022

So more of our 5 Interesting Learnings series has been on the iconic SaaS companies we all know. But there are a bunch of quieter SaaS and B2B public companies under the radar. Model N’s margins are dragged down by some of the highest ratio of professional services in SaaS. SaaS can be hard here. #4.

Cloud 284

Cloud B2B Enterprise Revenue 284

SaaStr

DECEMBER 5, 2021

SaaS product has a huge TAM. Grow into a new vertical? The best founders constantly grow their SaaS companies at top-tier rates. Some other ideas around this here, too: Your (Belated) SaaS New Year’s Resolution: Add a Layer. Do 30 interviews a week. Strategic Job #2: expand your product footprint.

Interviewing 282

Interviewing Enterprise SaaS Marketing 282

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2023

We’ll see 2,500+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs NEXT WEEK June 6-7 at 2022 SaaStr Europa ! Make enables individuals, teams, and enterprises across all verticals to create powerful custom solutions that scale their businesses faster than ever. Grab tickets here. Make powers over 500,000+ organizations around the globe.

Scale 216

Scale Payments Payment Solutions Artificial Intelligence 216

SaaStr

AUGUST 13, 2022

The Cadence: How to Turn Your SaaS Startup into an Army with Craft Ventures General Partner David Sacks. #23. The SaaS Org Chart by Series with David Sacks, Co-founder and General Partner at Craft Ventures. #22. Growing & Scaling SaaS Businesses from $1M to $500M in ARR with Intercom CEO Karen Peacock. #20.

Scale 223

Scale AI Scaling Innovation 223

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

A while back I was having a discussion, not quite a debate, but a discourse with an extremely smart VC — far smarter than me — who was relatively new to SaaS, having spent more time in B2C. Like a lot of folks tip-toeing from B2C to SaaS, his first stop was in freemium. Most SMB SaaS apps are really ERP 2.0

Business 276

Business B2C SMB Customer Success 276

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Mark Roberge , SaaStr fan-favorite and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital brought together some of the top CROs in SaaS during the SaaStr Annual to share some of their greatest learnings and pivotal moments leading some of the Cloud 100 SaaS companies. Soon the composition of the funnel began to change.

Scale 249

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 249

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

Sequoia Capital’s India arm put together a terrific summary of all their learnings about SaaS and Cloud from SaaStr Annual this year. They also did an A+ session at Annual with several top India SaaS founders, which you can catch below! Here’s 22 of the most relevant takeaways for India’s SaaS ecosystem.

Scale 238

Scale Sales Hiring Cybersecurity Underperforming Technical Team 238

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

But very few SaaS companies pay sales reps on renewals as they scale. Longer reason: most SaaS companies don’t pay AEs on renewals — because you want to specialize. We’ve all learned this over the past years in SaaS: You want qualifiers qualifying — BDRs. And later maybe even into industries and verticals.

Scale 254

Scale Sales Finance Customer Success 254

SaaStr

DECEMBER 9, 2021

This is pretty impressive, many SaaS companies with hardware struggle to hit 60% gross margins. Transportation was the first target market and remain its #1 vertical, but only 23% of total revenue — athough many of the other “verticals” are still fleets of vehicles. 90% of Revenue Still from U.S.,

Transportation 273

Transportation Scale SMB Revenue 273