The Angel VC

MAY 17, 2017

In our weekly investment team call earlier this week we decided to pass on two early-stage SaaS startups that were both on track to grow from zero to $100k in MRR in their first 12 months of going live. And chances are that it would have been a good investment. I’ll keep you posted.) Large VCs need multiple unicorns just to survive.

Business Model 180

Business Model Venture Capital SaaS Underperforming Technical Team 180

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2024

He’s invested in startups as a VC since 2013 and has 10x his fund. You Need A Business Model with Economies of Scale As you’re trying to reverse engineer whether your business model makes sense, you have to look at your business model. Certain business models have economies of scale, and some don’t.

Engineering 229

Engineering Business Model Pricing Scaling 229

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 19, 2023

This is Field Notes , a new video podcast series by a16z that explores the business models and behaviors that are changing consumer technology. In this episode, … The post Field Notes: Investing in Global Tech with Chris Schroeder appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

Investment 88

Investment Business Model Technology Business 88

Casey Accidental

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

Kevin Kwok and I have often discussed that growth at some scale equals an adjacent business model: Ecommerce businesses trend towards marketplaces over time e.g. Amazon. Why Changing Business Models and Customers is Always Hard. . #1 Saturated Growth in SAAS. Old habits die hard.

Marketplace as a Service 106

Marketplace as a Service Business Model Business Underperforming Technical Team 106

Totango

JUNE 15, 2022

All companies are going through the exercise of evaluating their investments, deciding what to cut and what to keep, what strategies to use, and simply, how to weather the storm. We’ve been here before, however, and we know that during uncertain times, protecting your customer base is the most important thing you can do for your business.

Customer Success 101

Customer Success Investment Acquisition Communication 101

Casey Accidental

OCTOBER 20, 2020

This is part two of a three part series on sequencing business models. Casey’s first sequencing business models essay talked about the transition from a SaaS business model to marketplace business model, and why it’s so difficult. This essay is a collaboration with Gilad Horev. We’re not sure.

Marketplace as a Service 52

Marketplace as a Service Business Model SaaS Payments Payments 52

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2024

It’s one thing to invest in an area where only 5% of your business is today. Bad operational model / misunderstanding the burn rate. Often, you can sort of intuit the business model up to $1m or $2m or so in ARR. Leave the pipedreams for $100m in ARR. Or at least, maybe $10m-$20m ARR. And stymie all of them.

Scaling 264

Scaling Revenue Underperforming Technical Team Market Segmentation 264

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

Freemium , a combination of “free” and “premium” is a business model used widely by software companies to promote product led growth. If that seems dubious to you, think again; countless companies, including DropBox, Hulu, LinkedIn and MailChimp, have seen major success with this model.

Business Model 62

Business Model Business Consulting Education 62

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? For over two decades, Creandum has specialized in early-stage investing, Seed and Series A. Some of our most notable investments include Spotify, Klarna, Bolt, Neo4j, Pleo or Factorial.

Payments 196

Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Scale 196

Casey Accidental

OCTOBER 27, 2020

This is part three of a three part series on sequencing business models. In part two of our Sequencing Business Models series , we talked about the different types of marketplaces and what needs to be built to be effective in each of them. For extension platforms, this can become a significant part of the business model.

Payments 56

Payments Business Model Payment Solutions SaaS Payments 56

Sixteen Ventures

AUGUST 14, 2022

On the other hand, what’s been proven time and again – around the world and across different company types, funding stages, business models, etc. Why they’re investing in you. The post The Real Reason Your Company Invests in Customer Success appeared first on Customer-centric Growth by Lincoln Murphy.

Customer Success 97

Customer Success Investment Sales Hiring Retention 97

SaaStr

APRIL 20, 2024

The current business model for software companies involves spending a significant portion of revenue on sales, regardless of available tools and automation. Once a double-digit percentage of the core customer base has heard of the company, it’s time to invest in brand marketing.

Sales Hiring 247

Sales Hiring Startup Marketing Technical Review 247

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? We invest across all stages — seed, early venture, and growth, with a primary focus on early-stage. Some of our most notable investments include Figma, Datadog, Discord, Adyen and Roblox.

Technical Review 199

Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions Venture Capital 199

User Pilot

AUGUST 6, 2023

Using customer relationship management (CRM) software to centralize your customer data is a worthwhile investment since it will prevent the formation of data silos and streamline the process of ensuring everyone has access to the information they need. Miscommunications (both internal and external). Data security or compliance risks.

Investment 89

Investment Banking Social Media Customer Lifetime Value 89

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). You get to make about 30 or so investments from that fund. So those 30 investments have to return $800m.

Venture Capital 358

Venture Capital Business Model Acquisition Investment 358

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2023

I like this chart a lot showing both the awesome power of high NRR, and also how you have to invest in customers that scale with you over time. And here you can see the magic in Mongo’s business model. Go long, invest long. Despite having a partial PLG motion and very high NRR, Mongo has invested in growth.

Scale 174

Scale cloud efficiency Cloud Business Model 174

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Underrated: How great of a business model SaaS is. If your NRR is over 100%, that’s a kind of magic if you invest in it. You can literally do almost nothing but make your customers happy and usually you will still grow. Underestimated: Just how expensive the incremental customer gets beyond your core, highest velocity ICP.

Acquisition 289

Acquisition Startup Business Model SaaS 289

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2022

No one built a business solely on metrics like TAT, LTV, etc., Investors will invest in your business if: You have a strong brand. 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.

Scale 239

Scale Marketplace as a Service Business Model Advertising 239

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

In it's truest form, ARR is used by pure SaaS business models to describe the aggregate annual value of the entire customer set. Many laude the SaaS business model because ARR is inherently predictable - you know what you’re revenue will be over the coming 12 months, and sometimes even further out than that.

AI 183

AI Revenue Cloud Technical Advisors 183

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

They credit this growth to their global team, a switch to an enterprise business model switch, and flexible work operations. Moving from self-service to enterprise As your product improves, your user demands change, requiring a revamp of the business model to satisfy high-paying customers. Self-service.

Scale 186

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 186

SaaStr

JUNE 8, 2023

but You don’t have the capital to invest here … the rep has to be accretive. And The business model does have to work. So in the end, one way or another, most of us split the difference with some sort of step-function in quota. I like having “new initiatives” (like this first rep) just cover their costs at first.

Compensation 195

Compensation Scale Sales Business Model 195

Stax

APRIL 18, 2024

While they operate under different business models, ISVs and SaaS share similarities in software development, cross-platform accessibility, and industry reach. ISVs and SaaS providers differ in software distribution, licensing models, hosting responsibilities, support options, upgrade and maintenance procedures, and scalability.

Outsourcing Services 88

Outsourcing Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods 88

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 26, 2020

Today, the company is a massively successful SaaS business and another example of the flywheel business model that creates demand at the individual user and leverages that interest to sell department and company-wide contracts. Asana invests 10% more of its revenue in S&M, which is consistent with its higher growth rate.

Payment Solutions 363

Payment Solutions Payments Outsourced Development Payment Services 363

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Three Arrows borrowed against their crypto holdings to invest in Luna & defaulted on their loans when Luna crashed in value. In short, technology advances have an installation phase when frenzy for an innovation drives speculative investment, with periods punctuated by rapture & collapse. of assets from projects year-to-date.

Technical Review 246

Technical Review Innovation Technology Business Model 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Companies are moving up-market, investing more in marketing, and orienting all processes around efficiency. Companies are still growing but are looking to do more with less and move the business model to more of an IPO business model. Efficiency comes into play more at this stage than prior stages.

Scale 224

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 224

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2022

This is the secret sauce to Atlassian’s business model. Atlassian turns around and invests some of that savings in engineering and product. And come join Atlassian’s CRO LIVE at 2022 SaaStr Annual on Sep 13-15 sharing how they scale their unique business model! This is about as low as it gets in SaaS.

Scale 216

Scale Headcount Cloud Business Model 216

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS, Venture Capital, Bootstrapping, and Valuations – understanding market trends and investment patterns is critical. We’ll explain Jason’s take on the recent market fluctuations, highlighting major deals that shaped investment patterns and their effects on valuation trends.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 205

SaaStr

MARCH 29, 2023

Seek ways to help others grow Damien uses what he refers to as the karma business model and suggests everything starts with sharing and giving. As a result, the karma business model is a virtuous cycle. Show a clear path to profitability Executives looking to invest in VCs are thirsty for information. Delivering.

Sales Hiring 171

Sales Hiring Scale Strategy Metrics 171

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

This flexible mindset creates just the right conditions for embracing evolving business models and new metrics. A general understanding of the SaaS business model grew as the SaaS sector matured. as a common language to analyze a cloud business.

Metrics 205

Metrics Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Technical Review 205

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2022

As Allin explains, “In telling your story, [communicate] your thesis on why you think your company needs to exist, and why you think there is a huge market opportunity…[be] very clear about what your product currently accomplishes, the product roadmap that’s ahead, and the business model that you’re going to use to monetize that.”.

Venture Capital 187

Venture Capital Management Business Model Investment 187

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2022

If you’re only investing in sales and marketing, you’re missing a huge revenue opportunity. Determine how much business each CSM can handle. However, your business model will dictate how large the book of business is for each CSM.

Customer Success 215

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Leadership 215

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

They demonstrate spectacular growth and expansion while revolutionizing and disrupting industries with new business models. How Atlassian does business . The Atlassian business model is unique. Both partners need to consider cultural fit as a priority and ensure they are both invested in one another’s success.

Scale 214

Scale Scaling Marketplace as a Service Entrepreneurship 214

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 26, 2022

Their business models differ meaningfully. We need standardized reporting for tokens and equivalent shareholder rights to compare equities to tokens: an essential step to enticing more investment in web3. Coinbase and Uniswap generate billions in revenue. Coinbase’s trailing revenue in Q1 2022 approached $7.5b

Benchmarks 291

Benchmarks Headcount Government Business Model 291

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

but You don’t have the capital to invest here … the rep has to be accretive. And The business model does have to work. So in the end, one way or another, most of us split the difference with some sort of step-function in quota. I like having “new initiatives” (like this first rep) just cover their costs at first.

Sales Recruiting 167

Sales Recruiting Scale Compensation Business Model 167

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

Or for companies that are investing huge amounts in sales & marketing after raising $30m, $50m, $100m+ But they probably won’t work for you until you are Bigger. Or for companies that are investing huge amounts in sales & marketing after raising $30m, $50m, $100m+ But they probably won’t work for you until you are Bigger.

Sales Hiring 309

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Business Model 309

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2023

So if you’re trying to fit your business model into what SaaS looks like in the U.S. Mistake #4: Orienting The Business By Series Instead Of Milestones If you have a burning need to resolve and want to change the world, then do a full pick-up plan. This business models assume the end user knows how to use it.

Development Team Review 211

Development Team Review Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team SMB 211

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Investing in Instacart was perhaps the hardest decision I had to make as a venture capitalist. We pulled from my prior marketplaces experience and dove into their business quickly to develop a point-of-view on the opportunity. Focusing on the former was key to our investment decision. Instacart is a case study of this.

Marketplace as a Service 139

Marketplace as a Service Scale Underperforming Technical Team Construction 139