SaaStr

MAY 5, 2022

What are some of the foundational ways sales leaders can think about building their sales teams as their company continues to expand and grow? There’s no shortage of ways to tackle this challenge, but one thing is clear: build sales teams thoughtfully and intentionally. Principle #1: Ownership is Key.

Scale 223

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales 223

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

60% of Asana’s customers come from self-service, 40% from sales. This is trending to 50/50 now that Asana has crossed $400m in ARR, but still a reminder a self-serve motion combined with sales jumping on the bigger deals can scale very, very far. A reminder that you don’t need to settle for sub-100% NRR from SMBs.

Scale 349

Scale SMB SaaS Scaling 349

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2021

We can see that NRR for tiny customers is probably about 100%, as it is for other SMB leaders. Again, the latest crop of Cloud IPOs shows SMBs seem to have no limit in terms of TAM, with SMB growth at Shopify and Zendesk keeping up with enterprise, and even at Asana, SMB growth is still impressive at $250m ARR.

SMB 346

SMB Enterprise Cloud Churn 346

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

Jessica Alexander, Senior Director Cloud Technology & OEM Partnerships, Crowdstrike. So for the audience, cloud giants are turbocharging startup sales, and the predominant reason for this is because they’re fundamentally changing IT budgets at the customers that we’re all selling to. Rico Mallozzi, Sr.

Scale 205

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 205

SaaStr

AUGUST 27, 2022

Salesforce: “We’re finally seeing slowdown now in our commerce, media, telecom, and SMB segments”. But, it’s gotten a bit harder, in some segments at least: “Sales cycles can get stretched, deals are inspected by higher levels of management and all of this we began to start to see in July,” Benioff said. Breathtaking.

SMB 242

SMB Scale Cloud Trends 242

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 13, 2022

The Argument High Cloud Multiples Are Behind Us. SaaStr 527: Acquiring SMB 10,000 Customers Solely from Data with Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre. SaaStr 523: How to Succeed as a First-Time VP of Sales or First-Time SaaS VP with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin. Even if Epic Growth is Still To Come. Top Podcasts This Week: 1.

Scale 198

Scale SMB Sales Cloud 198

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

Q2 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q2 Source: company filings and Pitchbook consensus estimates Historically, the median beat of consensus estimates is closer to ~4%.

Cloud 169

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 169

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2016

Channel distribution represents one of the biggest and most important changes in customers acquisition for SMB SaaS startups in quite a while. One of the most interesting examples is Microsoft’s Office 365 SMB business. It’s the most successful SMB SaaS acquisition channel ever built. by Thomas Hansen.

Outsourcing Services 111

Outsourcing Services SMB Acquisition Scale 111

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2021

Cloudflare is one of those iconic Cloud companies most of us use, and know about as a product and vendor … but perhaps we don’t think as much about as a public company. What can founders learn from them as a public SaaS / Cloud company? We’ve seen this metric vary wildly at public SaaS and Cloud companies.

Scale 286

Scale SMB Cloud Enterprise 286

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 12, 2023

Q4 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q4. This quarter more than half of cloud software businesses missed next quarters consensus. I consider >120% best in class for companies selling to SMBs (like Bill.com).

Cloud 161

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 161

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2021

Cloudflare is one of those iconic Cloud companies most of us use, and know about as a product and vendor … but perhaps we don’t think as much about as a public company. What can founders learn from them as a public SaaS / Cloud company? We’ve seen this metric vary wildly at public SaaS and Cloud companies.

SMB 262

SMB Cloud Enterprise Scale 262

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 20, 2023

Q1 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. The real headwinds to software (tougher expansion, longer sales cycles / procurement, slower new business, budget crunches / RIFs, etc) started last August. But what we’re really looking for is budgets expanding, shortening sales cycles, less pressure on expansion, etc.

Cloud 161

Cloud Software Benchmarks Scale 161

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2022

One thing that is clear is that public SaaS and Cloud stock prices are way down. Sales tools seem under more pressure right now than infrastructure, for example. Sales tools seem under more pressure right now than infrastructure, for example. But is spending? I’m not so sure. No doubt, something is clearly happening.

Forecasting 248

Forecasting Artificial Intelligence Software Business 248

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2021

Why The Greatest Sales Teams Just Kill It On Dec 31. The Last 4 “SaaS Crashes” Barely Made a Dent in the Cloud Boomtimes. The State of Software Buying From SMB to Enterprise with G2’s CMO, Amanda Malko. The State of Software Buying From SMB to Enterprise with G2’s CMO, Amanda Malko. It Depends.

SMB 242

SMB Cloud Trends Enterprise 242

SaaStr

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Almost everyone in sales is going to have to work harder next year. So look, very few, if any, SaaS or Cloud companies are out there saying times are easier now than 12 months ago. But the thing is, the underlying trends that power SaaS and Cloud are still here and as strong as ever. No SMB deceleration here!

Cybersecurity 276

Cybersecurity SaaS Cloud SMB 276

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 20, 2022

Q3 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. As you can see from the data below most cloud businesses beat the consensus estimates for Q3. This quarter more than half of cloud software businesses missed next quarters consensus. I consider >120% best in class for companies selling to SMBs (like Bill.com).

Cloud 130

Cloud Software Review Software Benchmarks 130

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2019

subscribers to the SaaStr Cloud Daily on Quora , 8,700,000+ views, and are adding thousands of new followers per week. One benefit from Cloud Daily is our community speaks and upvotes their top stories of the week. Why SMB and Enterprise Sales Have Nothing In Common | SaaStr. We now have over 200,000 (!)

Cloud 142

Cloud Banking SMB Startup 142

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

While the average Cloud stock has fallen almost 50% in 2022, Duolingo’s has stayed up, and is down just 10% in the past 6 months. The core product is very B2C, but the upgrade to paid has very SMB B2B metrics, and 80% of the revenue is subscription based. And in today’s market, that’s strong performance.

Scale 301

Scale B2C SMB B2B 301

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

What we learned from ’08-’09 in SaaS: First, SMB churn went through the roof — as SMBs went under much more quickly and often. As soon as the economy went south, SMBs started to simply go bankrupt and/or shut down. Anyone processing a lot of SMB and credit-card deals saw churn probably double.

SaaS Payments 278

SaaS Payments Sales Hiring Scale SMB 278

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Almost everything is going well in SaaS and Cloud these days — except multiples. Channel model and organic approach to SMB and mid-market yields a fairly efficient Sales & Marketing motion. JFrog does have a significant dedicated sales team, but mainly focused on $100k+ deals. Billion as I type this.

Scale 238

Scale SMB Software Development Cloud 238

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2024

Shrav added that if you want to close bigger deals, not just Enterprise, but mid-market and SMB as well, that the moment you’re ready to Go-To-Market, you need to become compliant. “A lot of the messaging on the SMB side is around, ‘Hey, let’s get you SOC-2 compliant.’

AI 148

AI SMB compliance Sales Hiring 148

SaaStr

OCTOBER 19, 2022

In fact, it hasn’t really seen the big impact from the Crash of ’22 that so many other Cloud leaders have: Who's completely shrugging off any so-called "downturn"? Part of the key is really they don’t spend all that much on R&D (engineering) or even really sales for that matter. Sales closed more. #7.

Scale 271

Scale SMB Engineering Cloud 271

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 148

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 148

How To Buy Saas

MARCH 14, 2024

Enhancing sales and marketing opportunities A message with WhatsApp is really hard to ignore compared to other outreach platforms. When you launch a campaign for a new product, sales-related information, or product updates, chatbots help front and center, boosting overall sales and business growth.

SMB 52

SMB Artificial Intelligence Enterprise Business 52

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2022

Half of Gorgias’ almost 10,000 SMB customers come from partners. Top 5 Ways to Scale a Sales Team with Zoom CRO Ryan Azus and SaaStr VP of Sales Bryan Elsesser. . #6.Top Top 5 Ways to Scale a Sales Team with Zoom CRO Ryan Azus and SaaStr VP of Sales Bryan Elsesser. Here’s how they do it. #5.

VP of Engineering 241

VP of Engineering Scale Outbound Sales Team SMB 241

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

In June, CNBC reported that recently listed cloud software companies were getting crushed for poor sales execution. Enterprise sales is hard, which is why most businesses start as an SMB org and grow into an enterprise org. 2 rules for transitioning from SMB to enterprise. What does that mean for your sales team?

SMB 73

SMB Enterprise Strategy Compensation 73

SaaStr

AUGUST 6, 2022

Today, it’s the default cloud choice for content management at $1 Billion in ARR. Today, it’s the default system of record for sales, support, and much more. HubSpot has stayed mostly SMB focused, but has over time evolved from a simple tool to the marketing and sales hub for many of its customers marketing efforts.

Scale 282

Scale SMB Mobile Acquisition 282

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2020

New Relic is one of my favorite Cloud stories. Times have changed, the Cloud has gotten a lot bigger, and there are many more vendors, including the red-hot DataDog, to grab mindshare. This is fairly common as companies go more enterprise, and the sales team especially wants to limit the use of free accounts and pilots.

Scale 306

Scale Outsourced Development SMB Cloud 306

SaaStr

APRIL 27, 2021

Just how fast is SaaS and Cloud growing? Cloud software spending grew a stunning 23% in 2021, from $270 billion to $330 billion. Ok, it’s quite possible Gartner is way underestimating SMB spend here, the total spend on SaaS is likely $200B or more. One thing we know — Fast. But that’s just the start.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 162

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure AWS SaaS 162

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Mark Roberge , SaaStr fan-favorite and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital brought together some of the top CROs in SaaS during the SaaStr Annual to share some of their greatest learnings and pivotal moments leading some of the Cloud 100 SaaS companies. From a GTM execution standpoint, they weren’t focused.

Scale 233

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 233

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2019

It’s 4 core products also 4 core product for Salesforce: Sales, Marketing, Support, and Service. These are also 3 out of 4 of Salesforce’s big “Clouds”: But … Salesforce has become very enterprise. Yes, it has SMB customers. And Hubspot is very SMB. It’s average revenue per customer is ~$10,000.

SMB 137

SMB Cloud Enterprise Revenue 137

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2019

Bessemer Venture Partners’ Alex Ferrara takes a look at trends and predictions for the cloud industry in 2019. One of the most popular sessions from SaaStr Annual, this presentation will provides an in-depth look at the cloud computing industry across Europe and globally. Want to see more content like this? A few more.

Cloud 100

Cloud Scale AWS Machine Learning 100

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2021

Roundtable: 5 Tips to Reduce the Enterprise Sales Cycle with TripActions. How Customer Service Became Strategic Overnight with Salesforce’s CEO of Service Cloud. Enterprise, SMB and Everything In Between: How to Build a Business that Scales With Your Customers with Zendesk. Navigating the CRO and CMO Relationship with G2.

Scale 157

Scale Enterprise SMB SaaS 157

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2021

From completely pivoting the product early on, to becoming an essential software tool for inside sales reps — here’s a look into how SalesLoft landed some of the Cloud giants like Shopify, Google, and Slack as its customers, and what it takes to build a Unicorn company in today’s changing market. million in revenue.

Scale 274

Scale Social Media SMB AI 274

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2019

This is pretty darn impressive, and probably more importantly, shows the continued jaw-dropping growth of Cloud. The space Ring Central plays in is huge, but has been surprisingly slow to move to the Cloud. Their churn is lower in the channel, as are total sales and marketing costs. At least to some extent.

Systems Review 206

Systems Review SMB Cloud Enterprise 206

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2019

Ep 255: Vikas Bhambri is SVP Sales and Customer Experience @ Kustomer, the startup providing Real-time, actionable views of customers with continuous omnichannel conversations and intelligence that automates repetitive, manual tasks. What is the right way for startup founders to address sales rep onboarding? Vikas Bhambri: Yeah.

SaaS Payments 132

SaaS Payments Cloud Technical Review Scale 132

OPEXEngine

MAY 18, 2021

According to Bessemer ’s State of the Cloud 2021 as of this January, there were a total of 527 private unicorns (a unicorn is a private company with a valuation over $1B), with a total cumulative value of more than $1.9 More and more Cloud companies are translating usage fees to ARR which can be tricky if usage is hugely variable.

SaaS Payments 98

SaaS Payments Metrics Payments Payment Services 98