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. The other part is that even as recently as 6-24 months ago, we’d consider a SaaS startup with this growth pattern exceptional.

Business Model 180

Business Model Venture Capital SaaS Underperforming Technical Team 180

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. Product Marketing and Early-Stage Priorities Product marketing is not a priority for most startups. Consistency is key in marketing.

Sales Hiring 301

Sales Hiring Startup Technical Review Marketing 301

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2023

For startups, a successful business partnership could mean access to new products, the opportunity to reach new markets, or increase customer loyalty. Can your startup fit into an existing programmatic commercial construct, or is there something the company has to work with you to build? Visit the SAP.iO Visit the SAP.iO

Technical Review 261

Technical Review Startup Scale Sales Hiring 261

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

MARCH 1, 2025

This specific threshold serves as a critical signal that your business model has legs. The best leaders have experience with both startups and scale to navigate the in-between. The ideal leadership hire is someone who has seen both startups and scale.

Scale 179

Scale Systems Review Scaling Leadership 179

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

Joselyn Goldfein , Managing Director at Zeta Venture Partners, which invests in AI and data infrastructure-focused startups from inception through seed stage And see everyone at 2025 SaaStr Annual, May 13-15 in SF Bay!! What VCs Are Funding in AI Today The AI funding landscape has evolved rapidly in 2023-2024. The actual tech stack matters.

Technical Review 179

Technical Review Artificial Intelligence AI Marketplace as a Service 179

USIO

JUNE 12, 2025

Whether it’s a fintech startup, a government agency, or a national subscription platform, Louis emphasized one key idea: the future of payments is flexible, seamless, and built to adapt. We enable companies, whether fintech startups or municipalities, to make payments part of the product, not just an add-on.

Payments 130

Payments Embedded Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions 130

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Underrated: How great of a business model SaaS is. To sustain those $1B+ valuations, startups often sold $100m+ of shares, as well as very large stakes in their startups. A $20m ARR startup growing 40% getting acquired for $100m ARR isn’t an amazing outcome for VCs. Ignored a bit was the cap table.

Acquisition 341

Acquisition Startup Business Model SaaS 341

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 22, 2023

In the last three years, B2C startups’ ratio of layoffs have dwarfed B2B layoffs. 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

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Because too many startups fall into what Gross calls the “Enterprise Mirage” – landing a few big logos through heroic efforts but failing to build repeatable systems. It’s a business model, an organizational framework, and ultimately, a path to building a more efficient, customer-centric company.

Enterprise readiness 141

Enterprise readiness Enterprise compliance Acquisition 141

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2022

SaaStr 599: Growth vs. Efficiency: How to Weatherproof Your SaaS Startup for Tougher Times with Point Nine Founder and Partner Christoph Janz. ? ?. SaaStr 595: 5 Critical and Company-Altering Learnings from B2B Startups with Y Combinator MD of YC Continuity Anu Hariharan. ? ? ? ? ? ? ?. Top Videos This Week: 1.

Venture Capital 307

Venture Capital Business Model B2B Startup 307

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What do startup founders typically get wrong when starting a business? More here: Planning to Do a SaaS Startup? SaaStr Trying to pursue a “Grass is Greener” business model. Perhaps most importantly these days, “PLG” does not magically make a business model work, or a product magically sell itself.

SMB 274

SMB SaaS B2C Interviewing 274

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

During this recession, startups will fall into one of four categories which I wrote about in June. This is the time in the startup cycle when big balance sheets become strategic advantages. The richer the balance sheet & the more solid the business model, the greater the growth rate & ability to win market share.

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Startup Business Model Strategy 278

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Brian Halligan, Chair and Co-Founder of $40B HubSpot: “Both The Big Guys and The Startups Will Win.” Per Brian, on the AI revolution in B2B software, its the age-old startups are innovating and racing to get distribution, and the bigger companies have distribution and are racing to innovate. The top use cases today?

AI 196

AI Construction SaaS B2B 196

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2024

How do you reverse-engineer your first million as a SaaS startup founder? He’s invested in startups as a VC since 2013 and has 10x his fund. His first million came from a startup making implantable batteries from nanomaterials that sold for $50M after 12.5 Certain business models have economies of scale, and some don’t.

Engineering 300

Engineering Business Model Pricing Scaling 300

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

TJ Nahigian, co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners, and Luci Fonseca, Partner, deep dive into the current GenAI landscape, incumbents vs. startups, and the six questions founders should ask themselves to drive value from GenAI. Platforms are the model layer, the Googles, Metas, and incumbents. How are they doing this?

Generative AI 293

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 293

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2024

However pricing these products is extremely challenging – even more so for incumbents who need to disrupt their current business models. Joining Vanessa on stage are three cutting-edge Gen AI startup founders, Orby.ai Learn how the emerging leaders in AI are approaching pricing and packaging their products for hypergrowth.”

AI Search 300

AI Search Scale AI Generative AI 300

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2022

by Adobe — the largest private acquisition in SaaS ever, and maybe startups ever — it doesn’t really have to disclose any information itself, and Adobe only has to disclose limited information for now (it will share more later). This is a good business model! So we can only learn so much about Figma.

Cloud 60

Cloud Business Model Engineering Acquisition 60

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

The founders named their startup JFrog because a frog is agile and always leaping forward. However, since the adoption was so strong from users, the founders quickly realized that there was a big-time business opportunity with JFrog. Yet the strategy was not to have a conventional startup. JFrog offered 11.6

New CTO 275

New CTO CTO Benchmarks Consulting 275

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Not a bad thing per se, but it also put a lot of pressure on business models. Startups that just accepted compressed ROI on sales commissions ended up pretty stressed in 2022. In the end, lower gross margin startups can’t pay as much per deal as higher-margin ones. General competition for AEs drove OTEs up about 20%.

Scale 345

Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring Sales 345

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2024

For startups like EvenUp and Abridge, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all model that meets industry needs. They use a combination of existing models as well as proprietary models to ensure accuracy in their sensitive fields of healthcare and legal tech.

Cloud 167

Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence Healthcare 167

SaaStr

JUNE 13, 2021

It’s been great to have the CEOs of Qualtrics join us multiple times over the years, as it scaled from a late-stage startup to IPO to $8B+ acquisition. 2 Category-defining products require new business models. Businesses often build something powerful but don’t create the proper value package, and it fails in the market.

Scale 249

Scale Scaling Business Model Company Culture 249

Kellblog

JUNE 27, 2020

I’ve worked with several startups that fell into the following pattern: Selling a SaaS application at a healthy price (e.g., Resulting in an unprofitable professional services business (and wrecking the market for partner services). 100K to $200K ARR). With low, fixed-cost implementation packages (e.g., $25K).

Consulting 144

Consulting Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup 144

SaaS Metrics

JULY 17, 2024

SaaS business models vary widely; discover which one is perfect for your startup and why it can make or break your success. The post Saas Business Models: Which One Is Right for Your Startup? first appeared on SaaS Metrics.

Business Model 52

Business Model Startup Business SaaS 52

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

They demonstrate spectacular growth and expansion while revolutionizing and disrupting industries with new business models. Atlassian’s Chief Revenue Officer, Cameron Deatsch, walks us through how Atlassian grew over the course of 20 years and became one of the most successful startups today. How Atlassian does business .

Scale 261

Scale Scaling Marketplace as a Service Entrepreneurship 261

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2025

This suggests a profound competitive advantage for new entrants who design their entire business model around AI augmentation from day one. He expresses a hint of envy toward founders who are starting companies today because they can build agent-first organizations from the ground up rather than transforming existing ones.

AI 236

AI Enterprise Scale Airlines 236

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Alex Kayyal and Julie Kainz, Partners at Lightspeed, shared at SaaStr Annual a framework they developed around how to think about this new era of Artificial Intelligence in SaaS, what opportunities are out there for startups, and how to think about incumbents. This changes the playing arena for startups.

AI 289

AI Artificial Intelligence New CTO Healthcare 289

Chargify

MARCH 8, 2022

Imagine owning a business with high-profit margins, monthly reoccurring revenue, and the ability to expand rapidly—sounds like a dream, right? The post Mastering the Enterprise SaaS Business Model appeared first on Chargify. Some of the greatest companies.

Business Model 82

Business Model Enterprise Business SaaS 82

SaaStr

DECEMBER 15, 2020

It took us 2 years just to figure out our ultimate business model. If you need to maintain optionality — you aren’t ready to do your own SaaS startup. What you think you do on day 1 may look very different by day 365. — Aaron Levie (@levie) September 11, 2020. It’s time. To go out on their own.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting SaaS Interviewing Consulting 363

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

Efficiency Among Startups Amid Challenging Times It’s no secret that startups are facing tough times right now. With market downturns and reduced venture capital funding, some businesses struggle to stay afloat. However, others seem to remain unimpacted by these changes.

Venture Capital 272

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 272

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Not having a scalable business model. Many of the world’s most successful startups once struggled to raise capital. David Karandish , CEO and Founder of Capacity, remembers what it was like to raise funds for his startup and describes how he secured $62 million without giving away chunks of the business.

Finance 259

Finance Business Model Investment Leadership 259

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Fundamentally, the recurring revenue nature of the model, our ability to efficiently go and build software and have it delivered to customers, and create value is still an extraordinary business model.”. In fact, we live in a cloud-first world, which will transform the entire global economy in years to come.

Cloud 304

Cloud Benchmarks Trends Business Model 304

Tom Tunguz

JULY 11, 2024

The SaaS business model of the last 20 years for SaaS is a beautiful one. But for the first time since Slack started offering billing on active seats , new pricing models provide a strategic option to startups looking to compete with incumbents. The now-classic seat based model disrupted the perpetual license model.

AI 240

AI Pricing Software Compensation 240

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Most startup founders are either pirates or romantics , and Mathrubootham was foolish enough to believe they could start in that small suburb while building a global software company. At the end of that $45k spend, they had 70 customers, which was great for a startup. as a startup, you get a stroke of luck. Cast your net wide.

Sales Hiring 284

Sales Hiring Scale SMB AI 284

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Index Ventures led the round with participation from the OpenAI Startup Fund, and notable angels including renowned operator and advisor Gokul Rajaram, Managing Director of Otherwise Fund Terrence Rohan, and AI luminary Andrej Karpathy, founding Research Scientist at OpenAI and former Senior Director of AI at Tesla.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions Venture Capital 279

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2023

Monday.com co-CEO Eran Zinman and Jason Lemkin do a deep dive on how Monday’s business model really works. From $5M to $100M: Founder Secrets to Scaling a Multi-Product Startup with Lattice’s CEO Jack Altman, co-founder and CEO of Lattice shares the secrets to scaling doing multi-product.

Scale 246

Scale AI Scaling Cloud 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

This function can be outsourced in the early days of a startup, but it is usually brought in-house after Series B. FP&A Team Responsibilities: Annual/Long-Term Financial Planning Budgeting Budget Variance Analysis (BVA) The FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) team owns the company model. Encourage bias towards action.

Scale 239

Scale Finance Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting 239