SaaStr

MARCH 21, 2023

My list: You have to go twice as far on each dollar of venture capital as in 2021. Discretionary categories are hard hit. Some categories in SaaS are holding up well, e.g. Cloudflare, Adobe, etc. Dear SaaStr: What’s Changed in SaaS Today? What’s Harder Now?

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital SaaS Startup Marketing 288

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2024

What’s your pulse check on the venture markets right now, today? We are former founders who have operated through hyper growth and at venture scale. Seed remains frothy, however, the bar for what a “good company” looks like as you graduate to Series A and beyond are being reset to look more like 2018-2019.

Scale 192

Scale B2B Investment Acquisition 192

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2022

So 2021 was a crazy year for venture capital, topping 1,000 unicorns and an IPO-a-day. returns in 2022 from Private Equity (including Venture): 2. It wasn’t just venture, of course, the stock market did incredibly well in 2021. But it grew 95% from venture and private equity (!!). Wesleyan itself did 95.3%

Venture Capital 302

Venture Capital Benchmarks Investment Startup 302

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2022

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Develop Inbound Leads in a New Category? Accel, Iconiq & Salesforce Ventures: “Where Venture Is Right Now: Gritty & Much Harder” at G2 Reach. The 3 Financial Plans You Need for The Year: C-90, C-60 and C-10 (Updated). A Framework For Your First SaaS Sales Comp Plan (The 2022+ Edition).

Scale 255

Scale Development Scaling Sales 255

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2022

Q: Do venture capitalists choose companies that have no competition or ones that are trying to disrupt a competitive market? We did an analysis of SaaS startups that had IPO’d and about 70% were new versions of something new, and 30% were truly new categories: So VCs like to do both. I think most VCs do both.

Startup 234

Startup B2B Investment SaaS 234

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

I put together this slide: No doubt, some categories are still recovering from a Covid Hangover. Venture remains a bit spooked. And one of my themes was that while the markets are down, I mean way down — the best in SaaS are still growing at jaw-dropping rates. They are often accelerating at scale. Multiples are down.

SMB 350

SMB SaaS Cloud Scaling 350

Tom Tunguz

MAY 3, 2023

Once other projects parallel this revenue success in other categories, venture dollars will surge again. Investment in web3 companies will fall by at least 60% year-over-year in 2023. For that trend to reverse, compelling businesses need to be built. Ethereum proves the point.

Software 240

Software Trends Revenue Investment 240

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2023

In this edition of SaaStr Workshop Wednesdays, Brandon Greer, Head of HubSpot Ventures, shares tips on fundraising and working with strategic VCs. Greer explains, “The classic example of a venture fund, you’ve got this base of LPs. Targeted expertise from category leaders and their executives. Sign up for free.

Investment 202

Investment Startup Branding Acquisition 202

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2022

As Crunchbase noted just the other day , growth rounds are down at least 40% as well, and their data likely has more lag than AngelList (and is from a few weeks earlier): The bottom line is every category of venture investment has gotten harder since the go-go days of 2021. It is what it is. Just be aware of it.

Pricing 337

Pricing Investment Data Marketing 337

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

SaaStr 605: Increasing Runway Without Sacrificing Growth with Norwest Venture Partners’ Sean Jacobsohn & Scott Beechuk and Andreessen Horowitz GP Kristina Shen. ? ?. SaaStr 601: What It Takes to Forge Your Own Category with Braze Co-Founder and CEO Bill Magnuson. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?. Top Videos This Week: 1.

Sales Recruiting 226

Sales Recruiting Compensation Cloud Retention 226

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2023

But — the best are growing as fast as they always have: Of the 900 surveyed, the median was tougher growth — 39% at $10m ARR, which is still fast enough for sure to get to a strong nine-figure exit, but not fast enough to attract venture capital. If you are truly disrupting a large category, you’ll grow quickly.

Venture Capital 187

Venture Capital Startup SaaS Data 187

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Where Venture Capital Really is Right Now, With Accel, Iconiq Growth, and Salesforce Ventures at G2 Reach. 8 Ideas On How to Motivate The Sales Team After a Rough Patch. SaaStr 614: CRO Confidential Presents: Gong SVP of Sales Jameson Yung on Creating a Category. With growing slowing dramatically from just 6 months ago.

Scale 177

Scale Venture Capital Sales Forecasting 177

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

So, what exactly is happening in the venture capital world, and what do startup founders need to know? Historically, SaaS investors tended to look for the undisputed top dog competitor in every category, and would pour huge amounts of money into those companies. The post What’s Going on in Venture Capital in 2023?

Venture Capital 185

Venture Capital Sales Hiring Social Media Healthcare 185

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

Recently Bessemer Venture Partners did another great deep give on Cloud metrics at the Cloud 100. Fintech is the biggest driver, pulling away from all other categories. They’ll update their classic “State of the Cloud” on Sep 27-29 at SaaStr Annual 2021 in the SF Bay Area so come join us there for the latest!

Cloud 313

Cloud Scale SaaS Acquisition 313

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2021

Battery Ventures recently put out its Software 2021 report with a ton of interesting learnings across the leaders in SaaS and Cloud. Battery Ventures’ data says while VC investment $$$ are on fire — they aren’t going into more startups. The growth in venture in 2020 was really all in Series D+ rounds.

Investment 237

Investment SMB Acquisition Cloud 237

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 22, 2020

When I started in venture capital, one of the questions I learned to ask very early on was competition. Let’s say you’re creating a category. Let’s say you’re creating a category. How do you do this when creating a new category? In effect, they pool their capital to create the category.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Innovation Education Technology 287

Tom Tunguz

MAY 4, 2022

AngelList published their quarterly state of venture report. I wrote down five data points that struck me: Q1 2022 was the most active quarter ever in Angellist history, and likely venture history. While the segmentation may skew the data somewhat, the data point does underscore investor interest in the category broadly.

Data 234

Data Healthcare Marketing Construction 234

Tom Tunguz

MAY 2, 2022

Will businesses focus on shorter term milestones again in more capital efficient categories? Given how much investors prefer faster growth rates and the massive surge in venture fund size, I don’t expect the ramen and ping-pong days of 2008 to return anytime soon. Invest -> Grow -> IPO/M&A -> Re-invest.

Product Marketing 338

Product Marketing Sales Hiring Marketing Software Development 338

SaaStr

DECEMBER 5, 2023

As Managing Director of Salesforce Ventures, Nowi Kallen , shared at last week’s Workshop Wednesday, there are five main challenges of moving upmarket and tips to follow if you want to succeed at Enterprise sales in today’s macro environment. By going upmarket, you can land bigger deals with more opportunities to upsell and lower churn.

Scale 186

Scale Enterprise readiness compliance Enterprise 186

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2023

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: About 70% of SaaS Public Companies Are New Versions of Existing Categories of Software (Updated) Growth Slowed Down About 33% On Average For Everyone in Q1 The Top 20 SaaStr Tips to Getting a SaaS Start-Up Going When Should You Add a Second Product?

CTO Hire 195

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Scaling 195

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

The Most Surprising Thing About VC This Year Shen has been in venture capital for 12 years now, and it’s been a crazy ride to watch the whole bull market back in ‘10 and ‘11 when 10x revenue was insanely expensive for a SaaS company. SynthAI won’t be as effective for other categories that involve negotiating a complex merger and term sheet.

AI 252

AI Generative AI Venture Capital SaaS 252

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

8 “Lessons Redefining a Really Big Category with Coupa’s CEO Rob Bernshteyn” We just did a 5 Interesting Learnings series on Coupa at $700m ARR and here’s a look back at how they came to dominate their category of enterprise spend management. #9

Scale 275

Scale Cloud Enterprise Startup 275

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2022

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: CB Insights: Yes, Venture is Down. SaaStr 601: What It Takes to Forge Your Own Category with Braze Co-Founder and CEO Bill Magnuson. ? ? ?. Each week, we round up our most popular content so you can catch up on anything you may have missed.

CTO 181

CTO Scale Business Model Retention 181

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 22, 2022

There’s an entire marketing ecosystem for startups to build - and it will explode as all the venture dollars web3 startups have raised rushes to find new users. Some will build this in-house, but over time, it will emerge as a separate category. This is my mental model for it today. Click to enlarge the image.

Marketing 348

Marketing Blockchain Advertising Government 348

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 27, 2021

Will the quantum of capital and the headline valuation anoint the company the winner in its category? As passive venture investing continues to grow and venture dollars swell and swirl, each startup will need to define their own strategy of whether to entertain mark-to-market rounds and at which terms.

Startup 252

Startup Strategy Marketing Entertainment 252

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

You’ll walk away with: Pat’s real-time perspectives on the SaaS and venture capital markets today. Actionable learnings from his work with category-leading portfolio companies and executives. His advice that Founders do not hear enough of. Plus answers to live Founder questions through moderated Q&A.

Venture Capital 218

Venture Capital Interviewing Investment SaaS 218

SaaStr

DECEMBER 7, 2020

“How Would a Person Start a Venture Capital Fund?” More details on why and how here: How would a person start a venture capital fund? “About 70% of SaaS Unicorns Are New Versions of Existing Categories of Software” A personal favorite. Zoom and Shopify zoomed past $100b in valuation.

Venture Capital 323

Venture Capital Sales Hiring AWS Cloud 323

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2022

SaaStr 615: Where Venture Capital Really is Right Now, With Accel, Iconiq Growth, and Salesforce Ventures at G2 Reach.   . SaaStr 614: CRO Confidential Presents: Gong SVP of Sales Jameson Yung on Creating a Category. Hosted by Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond.  .

Scale 141

Scale Venture Capital SMB Forecasting 141

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Big category winners will still raise big rounds, if they can, to win. A Figma every few years, combined with a Datadog or two every year, will keep innovation (and venture capital) flowing. . * High Burn rate SaaS startups will still exist, but they will be much rarer. Discipline was lost in burn rates in 2021 and early 2022.

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Innovation Acquisition Cloud 255

SaaStr

AUGUST 28, 2023

All of a sudden, massive changes had to be made when it was clear another round of venture capital was never coming. Even if demand only reflates slightly in the next 12 months in your category. And so what happened is everyone else sort of got a pass in 2023 by VCs and others. The good news is we’re lapping a low year in many cases.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital AI Startup Mobile 205

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 11, 2020

In 2008, I had just joined the venture industry, and then Lehman fell. I suspect this is because there was a valuation reset and the market needed to adjust more than in earlier categories. In 2008, the venture market saw depressed valuations for 18-24 months, but a similar deal velocity. Let’s look at the data.

Marketing 331

Marketing Startup Investment Trends 331

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2023

The SaaS Awards : The SaaS Awards is an annual awards program recognizing excellence and innovation in SaaS products and services across various categories. Investors and Venture Capitalists : The conference offers an opportunity for investors to discover promising SaaS startups and connect with founders seeking funding.

ChatGPT 214

ChatGPT AWS SaaS CTO 214

Kellblog

AUGUST 27, 2022

In extreme distillation, Play Bigger argues: Category kings (companies who typically define and then own categories in the minds of buyers) are worth a whole lot more than runner-ups. Therefore you should be a category king. Because it’s ultimately about value creation which is, after all, exactly what VCs do.

Strategy 134

Strategy Marketing Startup Customer Success 134

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2022

SaaStr 550: How to Reinvent a Category that’s Already Been Won with Mark Ghermezian, Co-Founder @ Braze, and Founder and General Partner @ m]x[v capital. Doug Pepper, GP at Iconiq + Jason Lemkin of SaaStr: “Where Venture Is Right Now” 2. Top Videos This Week: 1.

Scale 227

Scale Engineering Payment Features Sales 227

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 7, 2020

We are 12 years into the longest bull market in US history and this bullishness has powered the venture market. A decrease in the number but an increase in check sizes means large around sizes for fewer companies, presumably, the clear winners in a category. Investors deployed $117 billion in 2019 up from $106 billion in 2018.

Marketing 232

Marketing Finance Investment Trends 232

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

As a founder, that high bar means you have to meet with more investors because of those flavors, even more so if you’re not in a hot category. For folks in SaaS, what got confusing in 2021 is that growth blew up so much in SaaS that the venture bar got lower. Today, it’s not that different whether you have a lot of venture cash or not.

Sales Hiring 253

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 253

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

But I can tell you more than 12 years into my career as a venture capitalist, it’s hard. The company’s goal is to change the world, quite literally, by building a product, evolving user behavior, and sometimes creating a category. It’s always hard. Even for the ones that make it look easy from the outside.

Acquisition 279

Acquisition Finance Startup Engagement 279