SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

While Dreamforce is larger overall, SaaStr Annual is more specifically focused on the SaaS business model and community, rather than being tied to a specific vendor’s ecosystem.

Software 227

Software Scale Venture Capital SaaS 227

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2025

The numbers validated this quickly: 2018: 100 apps, $1M tracked revenue 2020: Series A at $15M 2021: 6,000+ apps, $1B+ tracked revenue, Series B at $300M valuation SaaStr Fund’s bet wasn’t just on the founders or the technologyit was on the inevitable shift toward subscription-first mobile business models.

Payments 262

Payments Payment Solutions Underperforming Technical Team Payment Methods 262

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

25x’d Revenue and Crossed $100M ARR Apollo.io, an all-in-one go-to-market platform, underwent a significant transformation in its business model that led to remarkable growth. From Sales-Led to Product-Led: How Apollo.io

Scale 149

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 149

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

Their ability to maintain growth while improving profitability shows they’re not just growing at all costs but building a sustainable business model. This successful transition suggests strong leadership, disciplined operational execution, and a fundamentally sound business model with significant pricing power.

Scale 176

Scale SMB Acquisition Enterprise 176

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2025

Companies need to: Ensure secure data handling Maintain clean data for model training Integrate effectively across multiple systems Enable real-time data access where needed Evolution of Business Models The integration of AI is driving changes in how vertical software companies approach pricing and business models: Pricing Strategies Traditional subscription-based (..)

AI 189

AI Technical Review Artificial Intelligence Systems Review 189

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2025

When rates were 0% in 2020-2021, this model generated minimal revenue. This creates extreme business model volatility that no SaaS founder would accept. The Great IPO Awakening: What 2025’s Surprisingly Hot Market Means for B2B Companies The B2B / SaaS Takeaway : Variable revenue models can be dangerous.

compliance 218

compliance Marketplace as a Service B2B Healthcare 218

TechEmpower SaaS

JULY 31, 2023

Proving your Business Model Works - Build, Define, and Review But how do you prove your numbers? Then use what you’ve learned in this blog post to decide if the numbers validate your business model, or if you need to rethink your approach. Conclusion Startup metrics are an invaluable tool for founders and innovators.

Metrics 390

Metrics Startup Scale New CTO 390

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2024

From day one, they considered having a viable business model, so they didn’t wait to build it. When René’s dad had a payroll company, the rule of thumb was always one year’s worth of revenue, four quarters, because a customer lasted a year. Bill does six quarters because customers stay on the platform for more than a year.

SMB 304

SMB Payment Services Payments Payment Methods 304

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

AI-adjacent businesses like CoreWeave have benefited from sustained investor enthusiasm, while sector-specific leaders like Hinge Health prove that domain expertise and strong unit economics can overcome broader market headwinds. The company also faces fundamental business model questions.

154

154

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

Growth rates are normalizing, companies are focusing more on profitability, and the market is rewarding sustainable business models over growth-at-all-costs. The Bottom Line: SaaS is Maturing, and You Have to Adapt The 2025 data tells a clear story: The SaaS industry is maturing.

173

173

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

That’s a reality, but it forces you to focus on business models where you always win. And that means that 99 percent of startups can’t even raise venture capital. Bootstrapping takes longer on average. 11 If you are offered a second check, how picky should you be?

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 308

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2025

The market is getting smarter about AI washing vs. real AI business models. Every major SaaS company needs domain expertise in regulated industries. AI Revenue Separation Companies will be forced to break out AI revenue separately. The Great SaaS Shakeout 50% of public SaaS companies will either get acquired or go private.

B2B 233

B2B Government Healthcare AI 233

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2022

The Sword: a product-led growth business. Every successful business you admire—Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, et al.—was was built on a solid, profitable business model. Its economic model needed to capture the entire market, which leads to the second piece of the Conan Economics puzzle. Nothing else matters.

Scale 303

Scale Marketplace as a Service Advertising Business Model 303

The Daily Egg

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Ecommerce is one of the most attractive business models nowadays. The post 8 Examples of Ecommerce Business Ideas appeared first on The Daily Egg. It is easy to get started, and the possibilities for profit are.

Business 311

Business Business Model 311

The Daily Egg

APRIL 28, 2020

Any funnel, any business model, any marketing channel. If you want to double or triple your conversion rates over the next 9 months, A/B testing is the foolproof way to do it. You could easily double your customer counts within the next year. All without having to increase your marketing spend or get more traffic. […].

Business Model 317

Business Model Marketing Business 317

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

JUNE 9, 2025

The Brief To help sales leaders navigate the complex world of frameworks and selling styles, I created an AI-powered Sales Methodology Selector - a sleek, interactive tool that recommends the best approach based on business model, industry, deal size, and sales cycle.

ChatGPT 130

ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence Sales Strategy 130

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2025

He’s known for his systems-thinking approach to company building and has helped scale multiple businesses from zero to public company status. This specific threshold serves as a critical signal that your business model has legs.

Scale 170

Scale Systems Review Scaling Leadership 170

The Daily Egg

AUGUST 4, 2022

By now, chances are you’ve heard of dropshipping, the ecommerce business model that allows entrepreneurs to run their businesses without ever carrying. The post The Complete Guide to AliExpress Dropshipping appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Business Model 59

Business Model Business 59

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

What do they think the key drivers of the business will be? Does the model even make sense? Do they really understand their business model? Of course any early-stage (or even late-stage) model is “wrong”. How are they thinking about hiring? How are they thinking about unit economics?

Investment 297

Investment Sales Hiring Business Model Sales 297

USIO

JUNE 12, 2025

It’s just one example of how we help bring ambitious business models to life. From real-time card authorization to fund verification, it’s a behind-the-scenes engine that lets MoviePass offer a nationwide service without building individual integrations with every venue.

Payments 130

Payments Embedded Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions 130

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 6, 2025

This “misuse of ARR” trend has accelerated in the age of AI, as business models have evolved (into more usage/success-based vs. seat-based), and everyone is tinkering with new AI products. However, many companies misuse ARR and count forms of non-recurring revenue as ARR, confusing the metric. ” Pilots.

Cloud 144

Cloud Technical Review Software Review Technical Advisors 144

Stax

JUNE 18, 2025

For example, small businesses in healthcare, food service, financial services, or construction often struggle to keep up with changing regulations, distinctive business models, and complex sales processes. Q: Why is Vertical SaaS considered a profitable business model?

Merchant Services 167

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments 167

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

But while the brand and market penetration is strong, the business model is challenging. So Toast is one of the most iconic B2B leaders out there. We’ve all used Toast 10s or 100s of times by now. It still loses money on the hardware, and the payments side is fairly low margin (28% or less).

Scale 302

Scale Payment Solutions Payments Sales 302

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2021

Because the (maybe semi-sad) thing for VCs is, only Unicorns make the business model work : Say you have a $200m VC fund (not that large, but basically our current fund, as an example). For VCs that manage a fund any bigger than $150m or so though (which is relatively small for a VC) — there really is only one way.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Acquisition Business Model Investment 363

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

It’s a business model, an organizational framework, and ultimately, a path to building a more efficient, customer-centric company. It’s better to do a few things extraordinarily well than to do everything mediocrely.

Enterprise readiness 136

Enterprise readiness Enterprise compliance Acquisition 136

Predictable Revenue

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Deep dive into the mistake that turned into a business model that gets George McGehrin's clients to pay him to market to them, and building a model that is recession-proof. The post How George McGehrin gets his clients to pay HIM to market to them appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Marketing 277

Marketing Business Model Revenue Business 277

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 22, 2023

Longer-term contracts & steadier enterprise buyers help smooth shocks for B2B companies. The main challenges facing B2B startups today are decreases in seat counts as their customers downsize & slower sales cycles which creates volatility in bookings , which has caused more layoffs than an anytime in the last four years.

B2C 321

B2C B2B Headcount Innovation 321

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

Which is the bar to IPO today and for VCs to make enough money for their business model to work. But if you run that math out — that’s what it takes to compound to IPO in 10-12 years, to get to $200m ARR growing 50% or more. VCs need true unicorn exits — just to survive.

Social Media 304

Social Media Business Model B2B SaaS 304

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2024

Plus, three of the closing sessions will be open to the broader audience of Annual this year: Customer Success in Different Business Models with Slack, Mulesoft, and OpenAI : In this session , these three CS leaders will discuss how customer success strategies differ across various business models.

Benchmarks 290

Benchmarks Finance Business Model Forecasting 290

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2022

This is a good business model! Revenue per employee is the ultimate summary of how efficient a business model is. I’m guessing a bit here on actual ARR at the moment, but in any event, $350,000 in revenue per employee is pretty efficient. Most public SaaS companies aim to get above $250,000. 2,000 plug-ins.

Cloud 59

Cloud Business Model Engineering Acquisition 59