SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. What does Pilot’s latest data say? VCs don’t give startups 10 years of capital. That’s what this Pilot data also reflects. That’s how it works.

Startup 316

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS 316

Andreessen Horowitz

MARCH 23, 2022

Over a decade after the idea of “big data” was first born, data continues to be one of the most important and furiously growing innovation drivers across both large enterprises and new startups. The post Data50: The World’s Top Data Startups appeared first on Future.

Data 145

Data Startup Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning 145

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

" As with many other companies reporting strength in the market, AI & unstructured data workloads are fueling growth. ” Unstructured data is the growth engine : 17x growth y/y suggests a small number last year, but phenomenal interest. “Over 30% of customers use Snowflake to process unstructured data in October.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 135

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Azure Data Startup 135

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2023

Slower sales cycles create pipeline shocks & startups are feeling the impacts. The average startup saw a 24% increase in sales cycle from early 2022 to 2023. Startups selling to enterprises have increased 36%, twice those of Mid-Market & SMB focused companies. Sales cycles shifted dramatically in 2023.

Startup 320

Startup SMB Headcount Sales 320

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 1, 2022

How much value does a successful software startup create per dollar of venture investment? Over the last 30 years, a venture dollar invested in a successful US software startup generated $10 of value. In addition to MOIC patterns, the data reveals three startup fundraising epochs. Notes on the data.

Startup 285

Startup Software Pricing Investment 285

Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2023

Looking at the data in more granular detail, most companies have grown headcount at similar rates, with a few outliers doubling or more & some shrinking headcount. Startups operate with a broader variance with commercial teams : Canva & Databricks should paint the ends of the spectrum.

Headcount 252

Headcount Startup Scale Engineering 252

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2023

Dear SaaStr: My Startup Doesn’t Have a Free Trial or Freemium Option. Or does it need a ton of data in it to work well and show value? Or does it need a ton of data in it to work well and show value? If it needs a ton of data, can a “demo org” adequately convey that value? We require payment right away.

Startup 256

Startup Payment Solutions Business Model Enterprise 256

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

At this year’s SaaStr Annual, Mark Roberge, co-founder and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital, takes the stage to have a bake-off between startups and incumbents when it comes to who will win the AI Go-to-Market race. So, consider what the innovator’s dilemma is today as you rethink your startup in an AI-first world in a hyper cycle.

AI 257

AI Technical Review Startup Management 257

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2023

SVB failing was a stunning moment in the history of startups. The bank startups had used for decades. A week ago this morning, our bank balances still read as follows: pic.twitter.com/h4kTDaDFeb — Jason Be Kind Lemkin  (@jasonlk) March 19, 2023 So … where did startups that took out their cash put it?

Startup 263

Startup Banking Finance Consulting 263

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2023

If a startup raised a top quartile Seed round, Series A, B, & C, they typically would have grown headcount by about 6% in the last twelve months. But plotting the Series C size by headcount, the dispersed data underscores the point that great fundraises do not correlate to team size growth in this environment. About double at 12%.

Headcount 222

Headcount Startup AI Scaling 222

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2023

This data confirms that. More at the full report here : The post SaaS Capital: Across 1,500 SaaS Startups, Yearly Contracts Don’t Actually Increase NRR appeared first on SaaStr. We tend to intuitively think annual contracts help combat churn, but they really don’t — they just defer it.

Startup 322

Startup SaaS Retention Churn 322

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 17, 2021

From time to time, I chart the fastest growing categories of startup investment in the US for seed through Series C. I analyzed Crunchbase data and looked for the startup categories that grew fastest in terms of funding rounds year-over-year, provided there were at least 10 rounds in that category.

Startup 359

Startup Software Engineering Finance Engineering 359

SaaStr

APRIL 18, 2022

FT summarized the latest data from 2 platforms trading private shares. These are the changes everyone that has IPO’d has seen this year … but that most startups don’t directly feel, see or experience. This data is biased toward the biggest names, and on exchanges that are not tiny but fairly niche.

Startup 281

Startup Pricing Investment Data 281

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

As the Fed raises rates in the next few quarters, will startups borrow less? We’ve established that interest rates are uncorrelated to startup financing over the last twenty years. The more expensive debt, the less of it startups seek. “After the U.S. Apparently, old fallacies never die.”. Is this true in venture capital?

Startup 262

Startup Venture Capital Finance Pricing 262

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

When investing in a crypto startup that will issue a token, an investor considers two prices - the price of the equity and the price of the token. Where could we find analogous data? The best data I found is the economies of countries. The correlation between the growth rate of the economy (using 2019 data and the ETR) is 0.8.

Data 290

Data Pricing Revenue Startup 290

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2023

So Carta recently put together some dat a on a topic I’ve wondered about: just how many startups allow option exercises beyond the traditional 90 day window? The answer: the general trend is just over 10% of startups have extended windows beyond the traditional 90 days for departing employees to exercise stock options.

Startup 235

Startup Trends Data Compensation 235

Buffer Resources

APRIL 11, 2024

Think nonprofits and Silicon Valley startups have nothing in common?   As a tech writer and editor, I’ve also steeped in the “rocket fuel” of the startup world.   As a tech writer and editor, I’ve also steeped in the “rocket fuel” of the startup world. Think again.

Technical Review 119

Technical Review Startup Social Media Marketing 119

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

A few years ago, Harry Glaser sold his company, Periscope Data, for $130M. The Journey of Selling Your Startup Harry was the co-founder and CEO of Periscope Data, which raised a seed round before finding customers, yet didn’t run out of money before becoming an overnight success 3-4 years later. How do these exits happen?

Underperforming Technical Team 159

Underperforming Technical Team Data Development Team Review Technical Review 159

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 5, 2020

Which startup sectors are most affected by coronavirus? Roger Lee is maintaining Layoffs.fyi , which is a table of all the startups who have unfortunately cut staff. On the brighter side, it is a resource for startups looking to hire as they grow. Over the weekend, I analyzed Roger’s data to answer this question.

Sales Recruiting 325

Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount Sales Hiring 325

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2023

Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days? Churn too high Burn too high Competitors growing faster Already raised “too much” capital The post Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days? A lot harder. appeared first on SaaStr.

Venture Capital 243

Venture Capital Startup CTO Churn 243

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 9, 2020

After I wrote a post on the health of the seed market during COVID , the Angellist team emailed me saying they observed different patterns in their early-stage data and offered to collaborate. This data set is unique because it records transacted deals on the Angellist platform. Angellist data shows different patterns.

Data 336

Data Marketing Startup Investment 336

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

But there are multiple ways to build a leader, and startup don’t always start off with high NRR even if they end up there. But the data is real. ” The post SaaS Capital Survey of 1,500 SaaS Companies: High NRR Startups Grow Twice as Fast appeared first on SaaStr. And what they learned is: Yes.

Startup 253

Startup SaaS SMB Banking 253

SaaStr

OCTOBER 21, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What is the average percentage of annual vs. monthly plan sold for a BtoB SaaS startup targeting the SMB market? A few data points: 50% of Zoom’s customers paid monthly until recently. Data from Zoom, Freshworks, Expensify, Squarespace, and More appeared first on SaaStr. 20%+- will pay annually to save money.

Data 219

Data SMB Payment Features Churn 219

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 13, 2022

Also, web3 user data doesn’t mirror web2 data. Public blockchain data enables look-alike modeling not possible on the web without full credit card or banking data. Those fundamental changes create opportunity for marketing startups to serve web3 marketers better. We need to invent new marketing math.

Startup 220

Startup Blockchain Banking Advertising 220

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Both of these data points imply public multiples have room to grow. That data point means at 8.4x Coupa’s sale continues a trend of private equity buying venture backed startups , a result of record PE fundraising & depressed multiples. This morning, Coupa announced its sale to Thoma Bravo for $6.2b. NTM revenues.

Acquisition 233

Acquisition Startup Software Pricing 233

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Why Are We Seeing Such a Big Drop in Startup Fundraising? Cooley is one of the top law firms representing startups , and so they have data that no one else quite has. Other data sources are great, but law firms have a unique access to the exact, real data. More brutal than I thought, in fact.

Startup 222

Startup Education Pricing Investment 222

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2021

5 tips for developing a sales process for your startup. Automate data collection as much as you can and try to minimize clicks. You don’t want to be in the habit of changing lead source data retroactively to fit your reporting. Sponsored blog post brought to you by Zendesk for Startups. Welcome to the sales team!

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Startup Sales Forecasting 294

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Do You Know If Your Startup Idea Already Exists? And more data here on how 70% of SaaS public companies are just new versions of old ideas: (note: an updated Classic answer) The post Dear SaaStr: How Do You Know If Your Startup Idea Already Exists? Well, of course it already exists. Of course they have.

Startup 227

Startup Scaling SaaS Data 227

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 6, 2023

In the past, the core engineering team & the data science/machine learning teams worked separately. For most companies, the data science team analyzed data & wrote machine learning models to support the business functions : sales, marketing, customer support. These teams operated downstream of the data warehouse.

Artificial Intelligence 210

Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT Engineering Machine Learning 210

Tom Tunguz

MAY 4, 2022

I wrote down five data points that struck me: Q1 2022 was the most active quarter ever in Angellist history, and likely venture history. Startup valuations. The 75th percentile of Seed startups raises at 30m valuation and Series A at $100m. This data point confirms founders have maintained leverage in fundraising conversations.

Data 227

Data Healthcare Marketing Construction 227

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

It can be hard to tell from the media and Twitter just what’s happening in SaaS and Cloud startups these days. We see hot earlier-stage startups out of top incubators getting funded at record valuations. So net net, a ton more capital went into later-stage deals, but often into startups that did even better during Covid.

Startup 340

Startup Cloud SaaS Data 340

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 6, 2023

There are 4 questions a startup should ask themselves about building a startup that uses generative AI. There are 4 questions startups should ask themselves about building with generative AI. Startups have negative time to launch in many markets with Adobe, Microsoft, & Salesforce launching Gen AI enabled software in weeks.

Generative AI 201

Generative AI AI GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Startup 201

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 16, 2023

Economic data is turning more positive, eg housing starts exceeded forecasts. This is the moment startups with big balance sheets’ advantage will shine. Many startups will look to raise starting in September. The Fed no longer predicts a recession. Efficiency has been the watchword for the last 3-4 quarters.

Startup 179

Startup Scale Strategy Forecasting 179

SaaStr

DECEMBER 18, 2023

At SaaStr Annual , IBM’s VP of Software and Technology Raj Datta and Director of Startups Kylie Rutherford shared how AI is changing the game for companies of all sizes. AI is a very competitive landscape, so startups have to ask themselves how they’re going to gain a competitive advantage with it.

AI 239

AI Technology Scale Startup 239

SaaStr

MAY 14, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What do Most Startup Founders Get Wrong About Financial Projections? The #1 thing I see with financial projections is they just don’t speak with data. Not what the last 4+ months of data predict. The post Dear SaaStr: What do Most Startup Founders Get Wrong About Financial Projections? Build One Now.”

Startup 226

Startup Data Metrics 226

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2023

So Capchase surveyed 900 SaaS businesses between $1m and $15m ARR, and their data showed what I’ve seen as well: it’s tougher out there,and media growth is down. In any event, good data above to be honest about where you stack up. If you are truly disrupting a large category, you’ll grow quickly. Good years and bad.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup SaaS Data 202

SaaStr

JANUARY 16, 2023

To convert an idea into a successful venture, startups need to be equipped to scale. Hiring a reliable team is an all-encompassing issue where startups dive in head-first but fail to optimize it for success. . Hiring a reliable team is an all-encompassing issue where startups dive in head-first but fail to optimize it for success. .

Scale 206

Scale CTO Hire Cloud Scaling 206