SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

There simply aren’t enough businesses in the entire country + Europe to get most products to a $100m freemium business in almost any business/SaaS/work segment. Let’s do the math: Assume you can get $10/mo per paid user (a good basic price for Freemium for SMBs). To build a $100m business (i.e.,

Business Model 290

Business Model Scale Business PayPal 290

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Q: What billing or pricing tactic have you found in the end just wasn’t worth it? ” and “Something we found really effective at CoursKey, and other vSaaS businesses will likely find as well: Instead of running pilots, sign a multi-year contract but give them an opt-out after 3-6 months. . Jason, ed. : Jason, ed. :

Pricing 319

Pricing Scale Enterprise Onboarding 319

Tom Tunguz

JULY 11, 2024

3x as productive as humans, which would parallel mechanical robots, how does a software company price? Building on yesterday’s post , pricing in software companies may change significantly when AI agents become the norm. The SaaS business model of the last 20 years for SaaS is a beautiful one.

AI 240

AI Pricing Software Compensation 240

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

Digital health company Hinge Health’s May 2025 debut particularly stands out—the company priced at $32 per share (top of its range) and opened at $39.25, closing up 17% on its first day. Chime’s strong debut particularly signals renewed appetite for profitable fintech companies with sustainable business models.

B2B 174

B2B Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 174

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 274

Payments Payment Solutions Underperforming Technical Team Payment Methods 274

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 suggests they’ve found product-market fit across multiple customer segments, from SMBs to enterprises, and can effectively sell at multiple price points.

Scale 184

Scale SMB Acquisition Enterprise 184

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

The Numbers Don’t Lie: We’re in a Different Market Let’s start with the headline grabber: Circle’s 247% gain from IPO price to current trading levels. The company that filed at $24-26 per share and priced at $31 is now trading at levels that would make even the most seasoned growth investor do a double-take.

B2B 180

B2B Marketing Scale Benchmarks 180

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. They shifted to a fully self-service model, moving away from the traditional sales-driven approach. From Sales-Led to Product-Led: How Apollo.io

Scale 153

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 153

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 141

Marketplace as a Service Business Model SaaS Payments Payments 141

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

That’s a reality, but it forces you to focus on business models where you always win. So if you hit it at the same price as before, tranches are a terrible deal. And that means that 99 percent of startups can’t even raise venture capital. Bootstrapping takes longer on average. You have to take their money.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 309

USIO

JUNE 19, 2025

Built-in monetization : You don’t have to raise prices to increase your revenue. Final Thoughts Adding embedded payments to your SaaS platform isn’t just about convenience—it’s about creating a new business model. Payments create a parallel revenue stream without causing sticker shock.

Payments 130

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 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. With clearer value props, tailored pricing, and purpose-built features, your sales and marketing spend goes further.

Merchant Services 167

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments 167

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

But what about pricing? When FastSpring’s Chief Product Officer Kurt Smith worked with growth-stage to Fortune 100 companies at Accel-KKR, he consistently saw pricing as one of the most essential growth levers they employed to meet their next revenue goal. Why You Shouldn’t Trust How Your Competitor’s Price.

Pricing 146

Pricing Payment Solutions Payment Services Scale 146

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

It wasn’t the case 20 or even 10 years ago, where the business models of the internet were more focused on eCommerce, marketplaces, or even advertising. For high touch sales businesses, it’s a little different. Changing a price … you have to change the website, change a few things in the background.

SaaS Payments 246

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Scale 246

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

The Hard Truth About Implementation Here’s what nobody tells you about PLG: It’s not something you can just bolt onto your existing business. It’s a business model, an organizational framework, and ultimately, a path to building a more efficient, customer-centric company.

Enterprise readiness 140

Enterprise readiness Enterprise compliance Acquisition 140

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2024

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. That’s how you approach pricing until you’re really big.

Engineering 297

Engineering Business Model Pricing Scaling 297

FastSpring

MAY 25, 2023

FastSpring previously presented on SaaS fees pricing and packaging to combat stagflation in 2022, but this article is based on an updated presentation delivered in March 2023 by David Vogelpohl. This article offers tips for optimizing pricing and packaging of your SaaS products in a less-than-stellar economy: What is stagflation?

SaaS Payments 148

SaaS Payments Pricing Payments Merchant Services 148

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2025

The Second IPO Strategy Is Real Sometimes you need to go private to reinvent your business model. private equity buyout (Permira + CPPIB) Company needed to transform for the cloud era Classic “take private to modernize” playbook 2021: Second IPO on NYSE at $27.55/share Classic buy-fix-sell.

Acquisition 140

Acquisition Government AI Enterprise readiness 140

Inturact

OCTOBER 30, 2024

When HERE Technologies decided to make their location services APIs free for developers, they weren't just changing their pricing strategy - they were fundamentally transforming their entire business model.

Technology 104

Technology Development Business Model Pricing 104

OpenView Labs

JULY 2, 2020

Pricing is a SaaS company’s most efficient profit lever, but it’s also one of the easiest things to screw up. Nailing your SaaS pricing strategy requires more than just picking the optimal price and forgetting about it. It includes the latest and greatest SaaS pricing resources, as well as some timeless staples.

Pricing 138

Pricing SaaS Payments Payments SaaS 138

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

From a business model perspective, Shopify has in essence been a fintech and merchant product first and a SaaS product second for quite some time. Pricing Increases Really Boosted MRR. Pricing Increases Really Boosted MRR. But a Smaller and Smaller Percentage of Revenue. MRR is up to $139M, so ARR is up to $1.7B

Payments 289

Payments Merchant Services Revenue Payment Solutions 289

Incredo

JUNE 25, 2019

You analyze your needs and the pricing plans and pay for the most comfortable one. Freemium business model is when you give your product to the users for $0, provide them with the basic value of your product for unlimited time but at the same time encourage them to become a paying customer in order to have access to more advanced features.

SaaS 236

SaaS Pricing Software Review Acquisition 236

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Company 2 compounds revenue at 83% the rate of company 1, but at half the price. The revenue trajectory mirrors company 3 at one-half the price. So who are these businesses? Nine digits of hot money rushed into venture in the last two years, doubling prices. Others might choose Company 2.

Investment 257

Investment Pricing Business Model Enterprise 257

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Sage Intacct is a popular choice for automating bookkeeping because it includes features unique to the SaaS business model. Your office manager doesn’t have time to seek out the best prices on office supplies—let alone make new purchases every week. 5 Purchasing.

Business 327

Business Marketplace as a Service AI Search compliance 327

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2024

Pricing AI Service-as-Software with Ununsual VC Sandhya Hegde, General Partner @ Unusual VC “Enterprise adoption of generative AI has hit an inflection point in 2024 with many successful tools productizing parts of professional services. ” #4.

AI Search 296

AI Search Scale AI Generative AI 296

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Existing distribution channels: While startups are racing to build distribution, incumbents already have it However, the business model disruption around AI pricing remains a challenge for larger players to navigate. #3. And being able to analyze large amounts of unstructured data, from invoices to PDFs and more.

AI 191

AI Construction SaaS B2B 191

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

The PLG principles that are foundational to Lucid were defined, but what these customers needed was: An easy, fast path to user value Simple pricing and seamless expansion Widespread discoverability Lucid employs a freemium model, converting users to paid plans early on. Customers still needed simple pricing and seamless expansion.

Scale 304

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring compliance 304

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2023

For example, there are certain technology platforms that are not compatible with others so that can be a nonstarter. It’s worth investigating whether the company has deeply penetrated an aspirational market and whether or not it has a business model compatible with your own. Visit the SAP.iO

Technical Review 259

Technical Review Startup Scale Sales Hiring 259

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2022

Sales teams play a critical role in growing a business. But your sales needs when selling to small and medium-sized businesses differ from an enterprise-level market. You need volume, not top expertise or the high salary price tag that comes with enterprise AEs. . Secret 4: Be Transparent About Pricing and Keep It Simple. .

SMB 244

SMB Sales Hiring Scale B2C 244

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

They use AI for price discoverability and optimization, with a setup that drives annual retention. Laiva Becoming the platform of choice for life science companies and research institutions by creating a two-sided marketplace with significant SaaS components. Final Thoughts The AI space is well-funded but still maturing.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Artificial Intelligence AI Marketplace as a Service 174

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2022

Sometimes, it takes innovative thinking to pull more revenue out of a current customer base or business model. Think of this as squeezing more juice from the same lemon. Dive Deeper or Go Broader. Once you’ve hit the $100 million mark, begin to consider the finetuning you can do to best attack your market.

Revenue 260

Revenue Sales Hiring Leadership Scale 260

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2025

AI Will Deflate Pricing in Some Areas AI is making some categories of software look expensive. If youre not thinking about how to integrate AI into your product and business model and make it truly 10x better, youre already behind. AI is Driving a Freemium Renaissance. Run Toward It. #4. And how they think.

AI 140

AI Trends SaaS AWS 140

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2023

With nine figures in revenue, Ariel and SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin talk about all things Navan, rebranding when you have brand equity, building B2B software for people, pricing and business models, and much more. They also have a business model that only connects to one content source.

Payment Solutions 279

Payment Solutions Payments Travel Scale 279

SaaStr

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Leaders like ZoomInfo and Paycom that combine strong growth with strong profits have seen their stock prices stay relatively high, often at 15x ARR still. Embedded fintech often has a price. #3. Despite being freemium, Wix’s business model isn’t hyper efficient. But the impact hasn’t been even. Wix is one.

Payments 279

Payments Payment Solutions Payment Methods SaaS Payments 279

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2021

An open core business model empowers customers and fosters brand loyalty. At GitLab, we run on an open core business model. We have a dollar-based gross retention rate of 97% and it’s in part because of our open core model. Clearly and publicly state your business practices.

Innovation 246

Innovation Business Model Banking Scale 246