SaaStr

JUNE 13, 2025

Capital Efficiency Creates Competitive Advantage The most successful companies in our dataset are raising less money, not more. This dispersion creates enormous opportunity for founders who can execute at the highest level.

Enterprise 161

Enterprise AI Startup Benchmarks 161

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2025

Nick Mehta (Gainsight) has shared that in customer success, a similar issue arises. All pulling your reps away from what they should be doing: having conversations that create value for prospects and customers. Hes a big advocate for using automation and AI to ensure every account gets touched. All time-consuming.

Scale 231

Scale AI Underperforming Technical Team Sales 231

FastSpring

AUGUST 6, 2024

Most of our customers are small businesses and don’t have in-house tax experts. Complex or serious tax questions must then be outsourced to 3rd parties, and usually come with a hefty price tag. When you choose FastSpring as your MoR, you gain access to a world-class tax strategy developed by experts.

Merchant Services 167

Merchant Services Payment Services Outsourcing Services SaaS Payments 167

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

This inefficiency stemmed from the high costs associated with maintaining sales development representatives (SDRs), customer success managers (CSMs), and account executives. Apollo’s sales-led approach was proving unsustainable, spending one dollar to acquire just eighty cents of revenue.

Scale 151

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 151

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2022

The limited number of potential customers challenges web3 vendors. With fewer than 100 accounts willing to spend $20-50k on a software contract, every interaction is precious, especially those larger accounts which dominate revenue. Most software companies also include customer success in COGS. This is a rough estimate.

Payment Solutions 351

Payment Solutions B2B Software Payment Services 351

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2024

1: Don’t Outsource Recruiting Founders and sales leaders often ask Sam, “Which external recruiting firm do you recommend for sourcing and hiring sales leaders, AEs, or whatever the hire-of-the-day is?” So much effort goes into developing a product for a new product launch. They were everywhere on social that day.

Sales Recruiting 283

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Outsourced Development 283

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2023

RapidAPI is the world’s largest API Hub where millions of developers find and connect to tens of thousands of public APIs. We’re a team of developers, building for developers, based in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Tallinn, Berlin, and remote locations around the world. Vertice is a tech-enabled SaaS purchasing platform.

Outsourced Development 266

Outsourced Development Acquisition B2B Technology 266

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 26, 2024

This is a guest article by Swati Garg , founder and CEO, Melo Associates , and Lindsay Lynch , senior recruitment consultant, Melo Associates , a recruitment firm focused on customer success hiring for SaaS and tech companies nationwide. For example, “Enterprise Customer Success Manager”.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Sales Recruiting Customer Success Sales Hiring 52

ChurnZero

JULY 3, 2025

You know customer success is essential. Enter fractional customer success leadership: hiring a seasoned CS professional to take on a role on a part-time or contract basis. What is fractional customer success leadership? It might be the best decision you make for your customers—and your team.

Scale 52

Scale Leadership Customer Success Scaling 52

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

with Olivier Adam, Chief Growth Officer at ReferralCandy Successful Scaling Across Markets, Lessons in Marketing & Building GTM with IvyCap’s MP with Ashish Wadhwani, Co-founder and Managing Partner.

VP of Engineering 286

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder Outsourcing Services CTO Coach 286

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 30, 2020

. “These apps reach over 30,000 Intercom customers who installed apps more than 100,000 times last year alone.” Our new programs are designed to help all of us partner even more closely, so that together we can help businesses build better and more personal relationships with customers.

Outsourcing Services 223

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Consulting Retention 223

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

But to develop a GTM strategy, you must have Product Market Fit. Amazing product-oriented founders who truly understand the market and what products to build for the right ideal customers can then build a differentiated product and execute on a GTM strategy. They need to hear the customer and use that feedback to refine products.

Scale 269

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 269

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 13, 2021

Few people have more experience with this move than Linda Lin , Director of Customer Success at the revenue intelligence platform Gong. Moving upmarket means larger customers and higher revenue, but it’s not without its challenges. For Linda, it all comes down to your approach to customer success.

Customer Success 177

Customer Success Scale Sales Hiring Strategy 177

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2022

And each of those webinars will probably produce at least one customer if you do it every single week in scale. But I almost never see mediocre outsource SEO really work for B2B. Fergal Kerins (@FergalKerins): What if the customers you are trying to reach are all giants? So, thanks man. It never works.

Scale 286

Scale Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 286

ChurnZero

JANUARY 6, 2025

Whats the one thing that wont change in customer success this year? So how should you position yourself for 2025s incoming customer success trendsand should you be nervous, optimistic, or a cautious blend of both? ” So what 2025 customer success trends can we anticipate? The pace of change itself.

Trends 52

Trends Customer Success Scale SaaS 52

FastSpring

OCTOBER 23, 2024

Because of these developments, mobile game companies are investigating more options for monetizing their games than just the App Store or Play Store. To learn more about how FastSpring supports game developers, visit fastspring.gg/. Very simply, a merchant of record (MoR) is a legal entity that sells services or goods to a customer.

Merchant Services 148

Merchant Services Payments Payment Methods Payment Services 148

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2021

But developing solid partnerships takes vision, grit, time and patience. Aneesa Sayall (VP of Strategic Operations Customer & Partner Org at ServiceNow) interviews Lara Caimi, the ServiceNow Chief Customer & Partner Officer, about the journey to $15 billion and how building partnerships help propel the business.

Outsourcing Services 278

Outsourcing Services Scale Scaling Outsourced Development 278

Totango

JULY 23, 2021

When it comes to the structure of a Customer Success (CS) team, there are many factors that need to be considered, from the makeup of the team to the technology that will be used. Let’s break down these factors and take a look at what components are needed to structure an efficient and successful CS team. .

Customer Success 127

Customer Success Outsourced Development Technology Leadership 127

Sixteen Ventures

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

It’s critical to understand why your customers churn, but if you’re relying solely on the reason the customer gives you for that churn, you’re definitely missing the actual reason. It’s easy to just ask a customer why they’re cancelling or not renewing and to leave it at that. choose not to renew their contract.

Churn 132

Churn Customer Success Systems Review Outsourced Development 132

Totango

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

The contract renewal stage of the customer lifecycle is a critical component of driving retention for SaaS products. Knowing how to use technology to optimize your contract renewal process can increase your retention rates and your revenue. First, we’ll review what contract renewal is and what it means to automate the process.

Outsourced Development 100

Outsourced Development Payment Services Payment Solutions Retention 100

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

Your Customer Success Team. Customer success teams are critical for SaaS companies as they own the customer relationship from start to finish, managing up to 75% of revenue through renewals and upsells. Hire your first customer success manager as early as you can afford to once you have some larger customers.

Sales Hiring 277

Sales Hiring Technical Advisors Compensation Outsourced Development 277

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 19, 2020

Customer success and account management teams should focus on understanding customer health. If a meaningful fraction of customers no longer pay the balance of their annual contract on the renewal date, then your startup’s cash flows will worsen. Many of them will suffer from it. Sixth, leadership.

Startup 247

Startup SaaS Payments Payment Services Payment Methods 247

Valuize Consulting

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

In today’s competitive SaaS landscape, Customer Success has emerged as a vital strategic asset, driving revenue growth and long-term profitability. However, to fully unlock its potential, companies must go beyond qualitative insights and bring data into the decision-making process within Customer Success ranks and investments.

Payment Services 52

Payment Services SaaS Payments Customer Success Payments 52

Trint

AUGUST 24, 2021

I joined Trint in the fall of 2019 as a BDR (Business Development Representative), and I’m now settling into my CS (Customer Success) role, which I started in March. In my role I work alongside my subset of Enterprise accounts and make sure that they are set up for success with Trint. I haven’t looked back since!

Outsourced Development 246

Outsourced Development Interviewing Leadership Enterprise 246

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Between 2016 and 2023, you see the ACV (average contract value) going up and up. As a result, the contracts got bigger because they were working with bigger companies. A Lesson Learned: Stay Close to the Customer Organizations should focus more on customer success no later than 100 paying customers.

Sales Hiring 269

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 269

Totango

AUGUST 13, 2024

But making it work demands a balancing act of two core things: supporting customer outcomes and empowering the internal CS team with business-critical insights. But making it work demands a balancing act of two core things: supporting customer outcomes and empowering the internal CS team with business-critical insights.

Customer Success 112

Customer Success Data Strategy Outsourced Development 112

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 30, 2018

But they return 90 days later and sign a contract for $90,000. Neither of these customer journeys is exactly the “prospect to qualified lead to contract” journey that has been canonicalized in Predictable Revenue. Marketing might engage a customer initially, passing the lead to sales development.

Outsourced Development 189

Outsourced Development Customer Lifetime Value SaaS Startup 189

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2022

As your business grows in complexity, these drags on your infrastructure can impact your product development. You can now outsource most of your business needs, from e-commerce (like Shopify) to website building (like Wix). Be specific about who your customers are. What are some of the major drivers of this growth?

Payment Features 255

Payment Features Payment Services Outsourcing Services Payment Solutions 255

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

Every automation — whether it’s cold calling, note-taking, or follow-ups — outsources tasks that build critical skills. These “skill byproducts” are essential to long-term success. When that activity is automated, the associated skill atrophies or is never developed in the first place.

Scale 111

Scale Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting Technical Review 111

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Gainsig ht works to help businesses build deep and lasting relationships with their customers through their very own Customer Success platform. This platform allows customer-centric businesses to deliver exceptional ex periences everyday. Their process improves deal workflows, insights and speed for their customers. .

Scale 286

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development compliance 286

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

Mistake: Not scaling based upon leading indicators We’ve had 3 periods in history where we scaled up way too fast: Early on, when we thought the enterprise opportunity for Gainsight’s Customer Success product was huge after closing *1* enterprise deal! Eventually, you end up with 2000 contract types for 1000 customers.

Sales Hiring 325

Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success Scaling 325

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

AI is likely the next platform, dev tools are strategic given the scarcity of developers, cybersecurity is front and center for enterprises, and the data stack is still going strong. The former CRO of a successful prosumer SaaS company shared how they gave away free annual licenses for all new users over and above the ones contracted.

Scale 285

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cybersecurity 285

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2021

For smaller customers, offer a 20% discount for prepaying annual. For larger customers, make annual contracts the default, once you’ve gotten a few under your belt. Companies like Smartsheet sell to SMBs but have many annual contracts a standard practice because deploying invovles some business process change.

Payment Features 232

Payment Features Outsourced Development Payment Services Scale 232

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2022

It can also help your prospects and customers link value to your price so they feel like the price is fair. link your value metric to customer success. The notion of value must always be defined in terms of your customer success—the outcomes your customers want to generate from using your product.

Pricing 269

Pricing Strategy SaaS Forecasting 269

The Angel VC

MARCH 23, 2016

For Basic and Pro customers, the model allows you to project ARPA development using a given ARPA at the beginning of the planning period along with assumptions on monthly ARPA increases. For Enterprise customers, the model assumes pricing increases at the time of renewal but not during the term of the subscription.

SaaS Payments 217

SaaS Payments Headcount SaaS Payment Methods 217

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2023

Of course, not all will buy, but at least 10% of the happy customer clones who receive highly targeted outbound will connect with you. If you outsource a firm or agency and dump cloned content on them and destroy your list, outbound won’t work for you. You’ll likely get an email back and a double-digit connect rate.

Outsourcing Services 256

Outsourcing Services Scale Outsourced Development Marketing 256

Totango

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Tracking key KPIs regarding customer health and your team’s activities is also valuable, as these metrics give you an even more comprehensive picture of how your customers and team members are progressing towards goals. So what kind of insights can you get from Customer 360? Surface Customer Insights. Number of Accounts.

Customer Success 112

Customer Success Technical Review Outsourced Development Churn 112