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Mastering Growth in the AI Era: How to Stand Out, Acquire Customers, and Raise VC Dollars with B Capital, Zetta, and Glasswing

SaaStr

Software engineering teams have been early adopters of AI coding assistants precisely because they provide an immediate, measurable lift. Project Selection: Where Enterprises Go Wrong Many companies stumble by deploying AI in high-risk, customer-facing applications first (like chatbots). This is exactly backward.

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The Limitations of Data and Benchmarks

Tom Tunguz

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit because in both the recent Software Engineering Daily podcast I did with Jeff, and the presentation I gave at Launch Conference, the question of the limits of metrics surfaced. On Software Engineering Daily, Jeff asked whether metrics can lead us into a local maximum or minimum.

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Instacart

Andreessen Horowitz

Prior to founding Instacart, Apoorva was a fulfillment optimization software engineer from Amazon. a16z has long had an investment theory that we should invest behind strengths of a business model and opportunity, not lack of weakness. Instacart is a case study of this.

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How to Make User Acquisition Practically Free with Lambda School (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

Lambda School trains people online to be software engineers. I want to talk about how we got to the business model that we have at Lambda School because it’s one of the things that separates us from other schools. Hear from Austen Allred how and why you should be stepping on the gas when your CAC is low.

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A Look Back: “SaaS Metrics Masterclass: Key Business Metrics, Pricing Strategies and Billing Models with Stripe’s Head of France and Southern Europe, Guillaume Princen” (Video + Transcript)

SaaStr

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. In the world where tech talent is so hard to find and to recruit, what are your software engineers spending their time on? This wasn’t the case.

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The Holy Grail of the Repeatable Sales Process: Is Repeatability Enough?

Kellblog

While many folks instinctively drift to “80% of salesreps at 100% (or more) of their quota” they forget a few things: The percentage should vary as function of business model: with a velocity model, monthly quotas, and a $25K ARR average sales price (ASP), it’s a lot more applicable than with an enterprise model, annual quotas, and a $300K ASP.

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‘Risks Aren’t Risky’: Yvonne Wassenaar’s Unconventional Path to CEO

OpenView Labs

So says Yvonne Wassenaar , a veritable rock star whose own path has traversed many roles: strategy consultant, software engineer, operating executive, CIO, and CCO. But open source isn’t a business model. But the path to that life isn’t always easy to identify—and it’s rarely a straight line.

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