SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

Dear SaaStr: Do SaaS Companies Typically Pay Their Sales Reps a Bonus on Renewals? Simple answer: almost no SaaS companies pay sales reps on standard renewals. A deep dive on this and more with MongoDBs SVP of Sales Ops here: The post Dear SaaStr: Do SaaS Companies Typically Pay Their Sales Reps a Bonus on Renewals?

Scale 264

Scale Sales SaaS Cloud 264

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2024

The Cloud Bubble Lasted About 18 Months. We Have Too Many Leads, And The Sales Team Doesn’t Want to Follow Up” And Top Videos and Pods: #1. “We We Have Too Many Leads, And The Sales Team Doesn’t Want to Follow Up” And Top Videos and Pods: #1. State of the Cloud 2024: The Cloud AI Era with Bessemer Venture Partners #3.

Cloud 268

Cloud AI SMB SaaS 268

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 13, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. SRE teams get alerts in Slack and kick off remediation IT teams respond to tickets Sales reps run deal threads Leadership teams share updates, decisions, context Slack is a goldmine of institutional memory and real-time workflows. And this matters.

Cloud 144

Cloud Data AI Investment 144

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2024

The Future of AI and Sales in SaaS with Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo and SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin #4. State of the Cloud 2024: The Cloud AI Era with Bessemer Venture Partners #5. . “What’s New at WordPress with Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and Co-Founder of WordPress” #3.

AI 285

AI Cloud Startup SaaS 285

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 11, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. For software companies, this phenomenon can be a tailwind, as it drives accelerated deal closures and increased sales velocity, sometimes with less price sensitivity from buyers looking to quickly deplete their budgets.

Cloud 167

Cloud Cost optimization & reporting GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Review 167

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 24, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. It might also boost sales forecasting accuracy by using your enterprise’s historical transaction data to predict future trends more reliably. Subscribe now Share Clouded Judgement Leave a comment Follow along to stay up to date!

Enterprise 157

Enterprise AI Cloud Artificial Intelligence 157

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

So RingCental is both an incredibly impressive SaaS and Cloud company — but also a bit of a cautionary tale. SBC has become a much bigger issue in SaaS and Cloud the past 2+ years as the markets have focused on true efficiency and profitability. A reminder to not stay too reliant on direct sales as you scale.

Scale 278

Scale Compensation SMB Cloud 278

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2025

The question isn’t whether AI will impact sales. It’s how quickly sales will follow support’s playbook. Their Service Cloud helps businesses “deflect 30% of cases” out of the box. Deflection While support deflection is mature, sales deflection is just beginning. The Goal Again?

152

152

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Google: [We] are pushing Google Cloud to Profitability. One surprising nuance from the Google call: Revenue growth in GCP was again greater than Google Cloud, reflecting strength in both infrastructure and platform services. Amazon: Net sales increased $21.4 With an operating loss of $480m on 7.3b

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 314

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Cloud AWS Sales Hiring 314

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 22, 2022

Last week, David Heinemeier Hansson explained why his company, Basecamp, is leaving the cloud. For a hypothetical startup, a 60% reduction in infrastructure costs boosts sales efficiency by 11% & net income margin by at least 12%. Basecamp’s 60% reduction in cloud COGS isn’t anomalous.

Sales Hiring 266

Sales Hiring Cloud AWS Sales 266

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Signal can come from many places (sales team notes, customer support tickets, etc) IT Incident Management: Similar to the security alert example. Cloud Giants Report Q4 ‘24 We now have the quarterly reports from Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

Systems Review 144

Systems Review Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence 144

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2023

In the latest installment of SaaStr’s What’s New series – where we sit down with the leaders in SaaS and Cloud for the inside scoop on what’s top of mind and what’s new, SaaStr CEO and Jason Lemkin chats with the CMO of Google Cloud, Alison Wagonfeld. They also compete with Microsoft in a big way.

Cloud 303

Cloud Scale AWS AI 303

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2023

And yet, overall Cloud spend continues to grow to record levels. Their Cloud business is on fire. SAP expects to close the year out with their Cloud and SaaS businesses at a $15 Billion run-rate. And even at that scale, Cloud sales are growing a stunning 16% (!). Their $15 Billion Cloud Business is Accelerating.

Cloud 278

Cloud Sales Hiring Scale Business 278

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

Recently Bessemer Venture Partners did another great deep give on Cloud metrics at the Cloud 100. 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! But Sales & Marketing / CX is #2. But the next generation?

Cloud 332

Cloud Scale SaaS Acquisition 332

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

Discover Bessemer Venture Partners’s annual State of the Cloud report, going through trends, benchmarks, and metrics that underpin the Cloud economy. The past twelve months have been relatively turbulent for Cloud founders. What does this mean for Cloud companies? What does this mean for Cloud companies?

Cloud 299

Cloud Payments Software Review Payment Solutions 299

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 29, 2024

And most bigger SaaS and Cloud companies are still hiring, but not at the same pace. Then, ask yourself if you are truly still willing to work. However, it is true that it’s different today. Start-ups, scale-ups and public companies in 2021 would hire a lot of folks they just wouldn’t hire today. In 2021, it was the opposite.

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Scale Marketing SaaS 278

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 30, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. In a world without venture capital (or other sources of external financing for startups), each company would have to grow solely based on the merits of their product and sales. An example of a platform shift is the creation of the cloud.

Cloud 274

Cloud Venture Capital AI Startup 274

SaaStr

JANUARY 14, 2025

So a little ways back Lightspeed Venture Partners put out a new report on 154+ venture-backed cloud start-ups. But its a reminder to get patient with sales cycles on longer deals. A related post here: Dear SaaStr: How You Deal With Long Sales Cycles, E.g. 7-8+ Months? Full report here. You can bring them in for sure.

Startup 268

Startup Cloud Sales Data 268

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2025

250+ speakers. 12,000+ SaaS leaders. 100B+ in market cap. 250+ speakers. 12,000+ SaaS leaders. 100B+ in market cap.

AI Search 159

AI Search AI New CTO Scale 159

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2024

The post New SaaStr Annual Speakers Alert: CROs of Rippling, Checkr and DeepL; CBO of Stripe; Bessemer’s State of the Cloud: AI Edition appeared first on SaaStr. And so, so much more!! See everyone in SF Bay, Sep 10-12 at SaaStr Annual 2024 !

Cloud 283

Cloud AI Scale Customer Success 283

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2025

We’ll connect over poker, food, drinks and more: 200+ top Cloud, SaaS and AI CROs and VPs of Sales with 150+ top Cloud, SaaS and AI CEOs and founders Note: you must be at $1m ARR or above to apply, and you must be an exec or founder of a software company (no service providers or agencies or consulting firms, etc.

AI 255

AI Cloud Consulting Software 255

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2025

The B2B Reality : You’re no longer selling to innovation teams with small budgets—you’re competing for the same enterprise IT dollars as traditional software, which means enterprise sales cycles, security requirements, and procurement rigor are now table stakes.

Enterprise 211

Enterprise AI Benchmarks Innovation 211

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 19, 2024

Q1 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. These charts clearly show the ZIRP pull forward, the ensuing cloud cost optimizations, and then the recovery. GCP data is a bit more noisy as they don’t disclose GCP itself, but rather Google Cloud which includes GSuite.

Cloud 318

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Azure 318

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

The surge in pipeline is notable given the uncertainty in the market but the close rates are low & sales cycles slow : another confirmatory data point for startups to plan cautiously in 2023. Channel sales have become stronger. I’m adding Cloudflare to the list of tracked companies for this series.

Cloud 243

Cloud Azure Headcount Software Review 243

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

There’s a lot of info to digest, so in the sections below I’ll try and pull out the relevant financial information and benchmark it against current cloud businesses. The purpose of the detailed information is to help investors (both institutional and retail) make informed investment decisions.

Benchmarks 299

Benchmarks Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 299

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

So no question many folks, especially selling sales and marketing tools, are having a pretty tough time of it. Overall, the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index is up 22.97% this year. But still a reminder, quietly, this isn’t too bad a year or a time for many SaaS and Cloud leaders. But not everyone. Not by far. Not all.

Cloud 286

Cloud Scale SaaS Pricing 286

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2025

The Problem: Rubrik’s platform handles data across data centers, cloud VMs, databases, object storage, and SaaS applications. Go-to-Market : Use dedicated incubation teams before scaling to core sales 4. When security incidents occur, IT personas often lack the knowledge to respond effectively.

Cybersecurity 195

Cybersecurity AI Scale CTO Hire 195

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Unparalleled Networking Opportunities SaaStr Annual brings together thousands of SaaS, Cloud and AI executives, founders, VCs, and industry leaders under one roof across our 40+ acre campus, May 13-15 in SF Bay! VIP Networking app for B2B founders and execs attending (no service providers, sorry!) And the VCs that want to fund them!

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

With 200+ top AI demos and sessions from leaders like Perplexity, Google Cloud, GitHub, Rubrik and more, youll get the most comprehensive look at how AI is reshaping B2B. 150+ Sponsors Driving Innovation From the biggest names in cloud to the most exciting startups, our 150+ sponsors are showcasing the latest innovations in SaaS and AI.

VP of Engineering 204

VP of Engineering CTO Coach VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Scale 204

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Nvidia, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. Only 21% of Salesforce’s Revenue is from … Sales This has been true for many years, but it often comes as a surprise to those that don’t know the company as well as they know its CRM. #2. But how about 2026+? We’ll see. Salesforce Growth: FY26 $40.9B (guidance) FY25 $37.9B

Scale 195

Scale Sales Hiring Azure Cloud 195

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 24, 2024

So 2023 was a strange year, with many of the biggest, public Cloud and SaaS leaders on a tear, from Microsoft to Cloudflare to Palantir, but so many startups and especially those in traditional B2B struggling to grow. For some, sales is easier these days, at least a bit. Some are benefitting from AI, Cloud growth, and more.

Sales 285

Sales Cloud AI B2B 285

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Only about half of you are actually adding to your sales team next year: Times certainly are strange these days. And yet … so many leaders in SaaS and Cloud are still growing at epic rates. And perhaps that ties to the data above: 16% of folks are shrinking their sales team. 33% of folks are keeping their sales team flat.

Sales 287

Sales Cloud Startup SaaS 287

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

Beyond Traditional Boundaries: Rippling’s Three Clouds What makes Rippling fascinating as a compound startup is how it has expanded far beyond its initial HR focus. The company now has three distinct “clouds”: HR Cloud : Traditional HR and payroll functions. This pendulum swing requires constant rebalancing.

Startup 152

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 152

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

And AI is obviously on fire, pulling up AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc. In fact, 58% of you say sales cycles are even longer this year. The post 58% of You Say Sales Cycles Are Even Longer in 2024 appeared first on SaaStr. SaaS outside of classic “B2B’ is often holding up well. Klaviyo, Toast, etc. More B2B2C there.

Azure 294

Azure AWS Sales B2B 294

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2023

QuotaPath is the most adaptable compensation solution to bring Sales, RevOps, and Finance all on the same page. Toplyne is the behavioral lead scoring platform used by companies like Vercel and Canva to generate sales pipeline from their self-serve funnel. Companies waste up to 30% of their SaaS spend. appeared first on SaaStr.

Cloud 257

Cloud Scale Startup Sales Hiring 257

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2025

In-Person Sales Generate 3x Higher Conversions Per The CROs of Toast, Splunk, Brex and Slice Top Pods: #1. The Secrets Inside Google Clouds Growth with Sarah Kennedy, Vice President Google Cloud Marketing #3. But Wont Be Profitable Until $125 Billion in Revenue, Per Bloomberg #5.

Scale 184

Scale Software Review Marketing Cloud 184

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2024

It’s tougher times for many, job hunting is tougher, and in general meeting the best of the best in SaaS and Cloud IRL is more valuable than ever. To network, meet hundreds of great VPs of Sales, CROs, founders, and more. These are sales execs after all! The post 4 out of 800 Sales Execs Raised Their Hand. A gift, IMHO.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring Travel Sales SaaS 274