TechEmpower SaaS
SEPTEMBER 25, 2023
When speaking with founders and CEOs, we often hear concerns like this: My project manager is losing confidence in the development team. The PMs are seeing late deliveries and bugs that suggest the devs just aren’t capable enough. I think that poor communication and differing team cultures might be part of the problem, but how can I know for sure? It’s a good question.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 26, 2023
Dear SaaStr: What is The Biggest Difference Between Running a 10 Person Startup and a 100 Person Startup? The biggest structural difference is you have to hire all the VPs by employee 50–100. You won’t be able to scale this far without a full management team — VPs of Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, Customer Success at least. But the toughest personal challenge for many CEOs is letting go.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Tom Tunguz
SEPTEMBER 16, 2023
Last week, Databricks announced their Series I financing at $43b. At the same time, they released quarterly figures similar to a public company’s reporting. Those numbers provide the first public view into one of the most valuable private companies in the world. It’s also an opportunity to compare Databricks to Snowflake. Two mammoths competing for customers’ workloads offer different architectures.
Predictable Revenue
SEPTEMBER 27, 2023
Collin Stewart of the Predictable Revenue Podcast sought answers to pressing questions in an engaging conversation with L’areal Lipkins. The post Selling Smarter, Not Harder: Rethinking the Sales Cycle with L’areal Lipkins appeared first on Predictable Revenue.
Speaker: Pete Uselman, Director of Partner Experience at Wind River Payments
Most integrated payments providers share a percent of the payment revenue with their software partners. But, oftentimes, that revenue share is only a fraction of the true income potential software providers can realize. If you want to maximize income opportunities from your payments program, check out Wind River Payments’ webinar-on-demand.
The Daily Egg
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
The times, they are a-changing, and so are work schedules. As a result, a lot of business owners are having trouble keeping. The post ClickTime Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.
SaaS Brief brings together the best content for SaaS professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
FastSpring
SEPTEMBER 25, 2023
Release notes is our monthly highlight of our great features coming out on the FastSpring platform so you’ll be able to pick up and go with the latest features for your store. If you want to know more about FastSpring, reach out to our sales team for a demo , or try it yourself. Improved User Experience in Free Trial UI We’re always looking for ways to improve user experience in our application.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 21, 2023
So tougher times aren’t over for everyone that has had them. But we’re lapping tougher times for many, and for many others, it’s just plain time to hire again. So many Cloud and SaaS leaders kept hiring flat for the past 12-18 months, and yet still grew. That works for a while, but you end up with not enough headcount if you do freeze hiring but still want to grow.
Tom Tunguz
SEPTEMBER 6, 2023
Historically, software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been built on databases with structured data, as you might find in an Excel spreadsheet. But the ability of large language models to extract insights from unstructured information changes this architecture : data repositories like data lakes are becoming essential parts of modern SaaS stacks. For example, next generation marketing software might ingest structured data from Google Analytics and lead capture software as before.
Andreessen Horowitz
SEPTEMBER 13, 2023
It’s been 9 months since ChatGPT was released and 7 months since it became the fastest consumer application to reach 100 million monthly active users , ushering in a new era of generative AI. But other than ChatGPT, how are consumers interacting with generative AI (GenAI) products? In which categories do incumbents dominate—and where are new companies breaking out?
Speaker: Ben Epstein, Stealth Founder & CTO | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO, Aggregage
When tasked with building a fundamentally new product line with deeper insights than previously achievable for a high-value client, Ben Epstein and his team faced a significant challenge: how to harness LLMs to produce consistent, high-accuracy outputs at scale. In this new session, Ben will share how he and his team engineered a system (based on proven software engineering approaches) that employs reproducible test variations (via temperature 0 and fixed seeds), and enables non-LLM evaluation m
The Daily Egg
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
If you use WooCommerce to run your online store, you need quality tools to take your business to the next level. That’s. The post StoreApps Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.
Clouded Judgement
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023
Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Are Software Companies Over or Undervalued? Today I wanted to dig in to this question and its implications: “Are software companies fairly valued today?” Every week I post a number of charts and tables, but the most popular chart shows the software universe’s median revenue multiple, the long term average, and the 10Y (below).
FastSpring
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, a tentative settlement was reached in a class action lawsuit brought by 37 U.S. states against Alphabet’s Google. Here are some key details about the case and what it could mean for businesses that sell a digital product via Google’s U.S. Play Store. What is the Google antitrust lawsuit about? In Utah v. Google , 37 attorneys general maintain that Google uses illegal, anticompetitive, and/or unfair business practices that restrict competition, drive up prices, and limit choi
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 30, 2023
Dear SaaStr: We Don’t Need It. Should We Go After Venture Capital, and When? There are only two reasons to raise Venture Capital: You need it. If the only way you can get to the next level is to raise capital, then do it. I needed to for both my start-ups, up to a point, for different reasons. Whatever the dilution, cost, headaches — if you need VC to thrive, and you can raise it, then raise it.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Savvy B2B marketers know that a great account-based marketing (ABM) strategy leads to higher ROI and sustainable growth. In this guide, we’ll cover: What makes for a successful ABM strategy? What are the key elements and capabilities of ABM that can make a real difference? How is AI changing workflows and driving functionality? This Martech Intelligence Report on Enterprise Account-Based Marketing examines the state of ABM in 2024 and what to consider when implementing ABM software.
Tom Tunguz
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
Last week at Saastr 2023, I had the privilege of hosting a panel with Maggie Hott , GTM leader at OpenAI, Sharon Zhou , cofounder & CEO of Lamini, & Jordan Tigani , founder & CEO of MotherDuck talking about the implications of AI for the software industry broadly. Four themes resonated throughout the session. First, large language models like GPT-3 are making AI accessible to the masses.
Buffer Resources
SEPTEMBER 11, 2023
Having a strong LinkedIn game is no longer an option. What we’re witnessing in today’s tough economy is the inevitable rise of social selling. This trend leverages social media platforms to build connections and establish meaningful relationships with potential business prospects — and when it comes to social selling, LinkedIn is the MVP.
The Daily Egg
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
If you are struggling to achieve your marketing goals because of difficulties keeping everyone involved in content creation on the same page, The post How To Use Pepper Content appeared first on The Daily Egg.
Clouded Judgement
SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
Q2 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. The 62 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between July 27th – September 8th. In this post, I’ll take a data-driven approach in evaluating the overall group’s performance, and highlight individual standouts along the way.
Advertisement
For SaaS businesses, improving retention is one of the easiest and most effective ways to drive revenue and profits. With a clear link between failed payments and customer churn, having a robust failed payment recovery solution isn’t optional—it’s essential. Achieving your retention goals starts with the right solution.
Andreessen Horowitz
SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
In enterprise healthcare, there are many “Jobs to be Done” (JTBD) for AI. To this end, we present the first part of the 6th episode of the Digital Health Go-to-Market Playbook series –Commercializing AI in Healthcare. This piece, Part A, uses Clay Christensen’s Jobs to be Done lens, along with an assessment of viable product wedges and business models, to share what we see as the most promising applications of AI in enterprise healthcare.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 17, 2023
So this post is, in some ways, a repeat. I’ve made this point before. But never in its own post. And I’m making it again because it’s something between all these Calendly invites, and side hustles, and more that everyone has gotten worse at. We’ve all gotten worse at getting back to prospects and customers — fast. Contact Me has its place, perhaps.
Tom Tunguz
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023
Yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt, Harrison Chase , founder of LangChain , Ashe Magalhaes founder of Hearth , & Henry Scott-Green , founder of Context.ai , & I discussed the future of building LLM-enabled applications. We assembled the panel as a three layer cake : Hearth, the application ; Langchain, the infrastructure ; Context.ai, the product analytics.
Buffer Resources
SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, or X as it’s now called, a number of new social media apps have either come into the limelight or been developed to capture the users that have been leaving. Although the flood of users leaving has slowed to a trickle with several new initiatives from the platform, several Twitter alternatives have been developed.
Advertisement
Simplify omnichannel payments with a solution that unifies every channel through your platform. By integrating front-end systems like online, mobile, and in-store payments with robust back-end infrastructure, you can deliver a seamless payments experience without the need for heavy engineering. Omnitoken technology enhances security by tokenizing card transactions for reuse, enabling merchants to drive cross-selling opportunities.
The Daily Egg
SEPTEMBER 23, 2023
For this software, you’re going to need two things: one, be an online coach, trainer, or course creator, and two, know how. The post AccessAlly Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.
Clouded Judgement
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date! Subscribe now Q2 Earnings Recap Preview We’re now through Q2 earnings season! I’ll post a much longer recap soon, but today I wanted to post the highlights. Overall, I’d describe Q2 as “Buying environment didn’t get worse, but we’re not out of the woods yet.” We saw some green shoots in AWS and a few other consumption names, and overal
Andreessen Horowitz
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
Investing in Instacart was perhaps the hardest decision I had to make as a venture capitalist. It was April 2014, and the company was raising its Series B. And by the time we saw the pitch, they already had multiple term sheets. We pulled from my prior marketplaces experience and dove into their business quickly to develop a point-of-view on the opportunity.
SaaStr
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
So I’ve been doing SaaS for a while, and the costs of doing business have just gone up. Inflation is everywhere. Salaries have gone up. Marketing expenses have gone up. And expectations for OTE have gone way up. The net effect I see this happening today is a squeeze in U.S.-based SMB sales positions. SaaS sales execs with even a little bit of experience at other SaaS companies are looking for higher and higher OTEs, often with lower effective attainment and high support costs.
Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O'Neill Stoll
Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng
Tom Tunguz
SEPTEMBER 9, 2023
I recently stumbled across a book that profoundly impacted me over 20 years ago. Called the Art of Possibility by Rosemary Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, there it was in the sharing library of a local cafe, nestled underneath a few spy novels. There it was the bright yellow cover, a banner of optimism contained within the pages.
Predictable Revenue
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
Keli Frazier-Cox, joins the Predictable Revenue Podcast on why navigating sales feels like a maze, especially with the economy. The post The Resilience Blueprint for Sales with Keli Frazier-Cox appeared first on Predictable Revenue.
The Daily Egg
SEPTEMBER 25, 2023
If you’re worried that massive tech conglomerates are spying on your data and using your information for world domination, then this software. The post Internxt Review appeared first on The Daily Egg.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
390 
Let's personalize your content