Fri.Sep 29, 2023

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Making Less, But Working Less. Is It Part of the New World of SaaS?

SaaStr

So a lot of folks on social media talk about more work-life balance in SaaS, and I totally get it. Every month, every quarter, the number needs to go up in sales. Layoffs in some cases have been brutal. The pressure can be intense, and even if it’s not intense, it’s just … there. Especially in venture-backed startups with high growth expectations. “Unicorn” sounded like a rite of passage in 2021.

Scale 314
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Clouded Judgement 9.29.23 - Rates Keep Going Up

Clouded Judgement

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Rates Keep Going Up Rates continue to push higher, as the aftershock of the Fed’s “Higher for Longer!!” messaging reverberates through the markets. Yesterday the 10Y hit 4.7% which was up from it’s high of ~4.5% last week.

Cloud 190
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Dear SaaStr: Is It Ridiculous To Call Yourself the CEO When Your Startup is Tiny?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: Is It Ridiculous To Call Yourself the CEO When Your Startup is Tiny? I used to feel that way, at least a bit. I used to look at tiny little startups and wince when a founder went around talking about himself as “CEO”. But then I had to learn how to Sell to Big Customers, and Sell to Power. And what I learned is customers care. Customers and prospects want to talk to the CEO.

Startup 290
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Where to Allocate Marketing Budgets in 2023/2024

Sales Hacker

Over the past year, we’ve had tons of founders ask where they should be prioritizing their marketing dollars and resources considering the wild economic year that 2023 has unfolded as. Based on an annual Gartner report on CMO spend for 2023, 71% said that they lack the budget to fully execute their strategies in 2023, predicting that it will remain as restrictive in 2024.

Scale 127
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Struggling to Scale Test Coverage Under Pressure?

When test coverage falls behind release velocity, quality suffers, and your team feels the consequences. This guide outlines when it makes sense to outsource quality assurance (QA), the risks to watch for, and how to scale testing without increasing headcount or slowing down engineering. You will learn how leading teams are leveraging external QA partners to expand coverage, enhance defect detection, and remain aligned with CI/CD timelines.

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From $5M to $100M: How to Scale a Multi-Product Startup with Lattice CEO Jack Altman (Video + Podcast)

SaaStr

One of the open secrets behind a lot of great SaaS companies is going multi-product. Jack Altman, CEO and co-founder of Lattice, firmly believes that many more companies should be multi-product, and many should go multi-product earlier than they think. Lattice has launched four product suites in the last eight years, and the ideas that drove their growth apply to most companies today.

Scale 289

More Trending

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What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2023?

Point Nine Land

Unveiling the 2023 SaaS Funding Napkin At the annual SaaStr conference in San Mateo three weeks ago, I delved into fundraising trends in 2023, discussing the implications of investors’ new-found love for efficiency vs. growth at all costs for founders, and why you should expect AI to come up in (almost) every pitch meeting. Here’s a recording of the talk for those interested.

SaaS 119
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Product Development Process: The Seven Stages Explained

User Pilot

The product development process is part art, part science, and all important to the success of your SaaS. In this article, we've got a comprehensive review of the entire product development process. We'll take you through idea generation, market research, defining a minimum viable product, building new features, managing the launch, and beyond.

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AI Revolution: Top Lessons from OpenAI, Anthropic, CharacterAI, & More

Andreessen Horowitz

The AI Revolution is here. In this episode, you’ll learn what the most important themes that some of the world’s most prominent AI builders – from OpenAI, Anthropic, CharacterAI, Roblox, and more – are paying attention to. You’ll hear about the economics of AI, broad vs specialized models, the importance of UX, and whether we can expect scaling laws to continue.

AI 88
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How to Use Funnel Analysis to Extract Actionable Insights?

User Pilot

What is funnel analysis? What benefits does it bring to product teams? How do you conduct it to optimize the customer journey, and which analytics tools can you use? These are the key questions that we tackle in the article, so if you’re after the answers, fasten the seatbelts, and let’s get right into it! TL;DR Funnel analysis helps teams understand how many users complete a sequence of events leading to a conversion and how long it takes.

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Mastering Apache Airflow® 3.0: What’s New (and What’s Next) for Data Orchestration

Speaker: Tamara Fingerlin, Developer Advocate

Apache Airflow® 3.0, the most anticipated Airflow release yet, officially launched this April. As the de facto standard for data orchestration, Airflow is trusted by over 77,000 organizations to power everything from advanced analytics to production AI and MLOps. With the 3.0 release, the top-requested features from the community were delivered, including a revamped UI for easier navigation, stronger security, and greater flexibility to run tasks anywhere at any time.

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AI Revolution: Disruption, Alignment, and Opportunity

Andreessen Horowitz

The AI Revolution is here. In this episode, you’ll learn what the most important themes that some of the world’s most prominent AI builders – from OpenAI, Anthropic, CharacterAI, Roblox, and more – are paying attention to. You’ll hear discussion around the real-world impact of this revolution, on industries ranging from gaming to design, and the considerations around alignment along the way.

AI 83
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5 Effective CRM Strategies to Grow Your Sales

Nimble - Sales

Your CRM system is an indispensable tool for efficiently managing your leads and prospects while providing top-notch customer service to your clients. However, the advantages of a CRM extend beyond these aspects. With Nimble CRM, you can optimize your sales workflow to effectively acquire and convert prospects into valuable leads, ultimately fostering customer loyalty.

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Salary Transparency: Clarity or Chaos?

Andreessen Horowitz

With recent landmark legislation being passed around salary transparency, many companies are playing catch up as they interpret and implement changes. In this episode, members of the a16z People Practices Team, Shannon Schiltz and Brandon Cherry explore how companies can best prepare themselves to not just survive, but thrive in this new environment.

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The power of positive reinforcement: 13 customer wins worth celebrating

ChurnZero

Celebrating positive customer behavior is one of the most effective methods for increasing product adoption and deepening customer relationships. Yet many customer success managers overlook this simple practice. This is in part because the urgency to save at-risk customers can be all-consuming. In my experience, I often see CS teams fixate on an account’s challenges and forget to recognize the wins.

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Agent Tooling: Connecting AI to Your Tools, Systems & Data

Speaker: Alex Salazar, CEO & Co-Founder @ Arcade | Nate Barbettini, Founding Engineer @ Arcade | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO @ Aggregage

There’s a lot of noise surrounding the ability of AI agents to connect to your tools, systems and data. But building an AI application into a reliable, secure workflow agent isn’t as simple as plugging in an API. As an engineering leader, it can be challenging to make sense of this evolving landscape, but agent tooling provides such high value that it’s critical we figure out how to move forward.

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The Evolution of the Satellite Economy

Andreessen Horowitz

The cost of launching payloads to orbit has dramatically dropped, igniting a space renaissance. In 2022, a record 186 rocket launches (41 more than the previous year!) underscores this shift. In Part 1 of our satellite economy mini-series, we sit down with John Gedmark, co-founder of Astranis, to reflect on today’s innovations, who’s on the other side of the satellite market, the capabilities they’re looking for, competition, and their mission to provide internet access to 4 billion unders

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How the Best Call Center Software Helps Scale Up Business Growth

SaaS Metrics

For companies looking to expand, providing exceptional customer service through a high-performing call center is essential. However, sustaining quality as you scale can be challenging without the right call center software. The best solutions provide the insights to increase productivity, improve operations, and enable outstanding customer experiences.

Scaling 52
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AD Summit 2024 Registration

Andreessen Horowitz

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

63
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What Is a Growth Team And Does Your SaaS Need One?

User Pilot

Thinking about building a growth team? This article provides the guide you need. As you read on, you’ll learn: The key responsibilities of SaaS growth teams. The main steps involved in the growth process. Different roles on the growth team and their functions — as well as which roles to prioritize if you’re not ready to go all in. Examples of in-app experiments to drive growth.

Scale 105
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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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CharacterAI Alternatives: 6 Best And Free Picks for 2023

How To Buy Saas

It is 2023, and AI-powered chatbots are out to revolutionize the world of communication. Since the development of cutting-edge chatbots with the ability to impersonate human tones and conversations, there has been a visible impact in many industries. Are you looking for some CharacterAI alternatives in 2023? In this blog, we will discuss the features of CharacterAI in detail and some CharacterAI alternatives that will make your job much easier. 1 What is Character AI?