Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 12, 2017

“Would you compare a bootstrapped SaaS company to a seeded company? At what point does the bootstrapped company have to raise if it’s profitable, if ever?” One founder asked me this question recently. I hesitate to compare and contrast bootstrapped and venture backed businesses, because I’m a venture capitalist and it’s very easy to dismiss any analysis as biased in favor of venture investment.

Sales Hiring 222

Sales Hiring Venture Capital Startup Finance 222

Totango

AUGUST 17, 2017

After new customers are fully onboarded, they move along the customer journey into the growth stage (nurture or adoption stage). For most recurring revenue companies, this stage is the longest. Looking at the representation below, customers typically spend 30 days in the new or onboarding stage, 30 days in the renewal stage, and the remaining time or 305 days of the year, in the growth stage.

Onboarding 80

Onboarding Engagement Customer Success Retention 80

Chargify

AUGUST 17, 2017

You’ll likely recognize this description of the beginning of a well-known retail giant: “There was nothing to stop the company from selling everything. You could order from the comfort of your own home. You could pay a fair price. They would ship the goods right to you. Sales exploded, and if you’d picked up a big enough chunk of stock when the company went public, you’d never have to work again.”.

Scale 53

Scale Sales Hiring Artificial Intelligence SaaS 53

CloseSaaS

AUGUST 16, 2017

For some founders, aligning sales and marketing is an uphill battle

Marketing 52

Marketing Sales Startup 52

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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.

Scale

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2017

The cash conversion cycle is a key metric for startups, but one that often isn’t talked about until a business hires a CFO. Once a business established product market fit, the cash conversion cycle is a key metric of a company’s cash efficiency - how quickly a company can convert a dollar of investment into a dollar of cash flow. To calculate the cash conversion cycle for a software company, the formula is.

Startup 189

Startup Sales Hiring Payment Solutions Outsourced Development 189

Mattermark

AUGUST 15, 2017

From the Operators. Andrew Wilkinson of Tiny explains how he loves work by never doing the things he hates in “ The Power of Anti-Goals ” Brian Armstrong of Coinbase shares “ The Coinbase Seed Round Pitch Deck ” and reminds founders about how long it takes to become an “overnight success” Ben Thompson of Stratechery dissects the decision-making process behind Benchmark’s lawsuit against Travis Kalanick in “ The Uber Dilemma “ Editor’s N

Sales Hiring 40

Sales Hiring Venture Capital Sales Benchmarks 40

CloseSaaS

AUGUST 14, 2017

Most founders and engineers don’t consider themselves natural salespeople. It’s not part of their DNA. They’re uncomfortable negotiators. They hesitate to close deals. They lack the confidence to succeed.

Engineering 52

Engineering Sales 52

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 17, 2017

Harry Stebbins published a podcast with David Beisel this week in which they discussed the importance of voice. David says, “Voice is the most natural user interface possible.” I think the biggest challenge for voice is the skepticism and cynicism engendered by a decade or two of poor experiences. It’s no longer the technology. One of my partners recently switched from an iPhone to an Essential phone and was stunned by the accuracy of the voice interface Google offers.

Engineering 185

Engineering Technology Software Data 185

Mattermark

AUGUST 16, 2017

Learning how to effectively communicate and leverage investor updates is an important founder rite of passage, and Mike Preuss of Visible Ventures provides some fascinating proprietary data to uncover what the cool kids are currently doing in “ Most Popular Times to Send Your Investor Update ” From the Operators. Gokul Rajaram of Square explains how to keep goals in check across different business models in “ The Second Most Important Metric for Every Company ” Anthony Zh

Software Engineering 40

Software Engineering Benchmarks Software Development Engineering 40

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.

Data

Mattermark

AUGUST 17, 2017

From the Operators. Ben Hernández of Dialexa argues that the next generation of designers will have to be anthropologists; multi-faceted across three core disciplines in “ It’s About More than Pixels: Redefining ‘Designer’ ” Michael Sacca of Dribbble and Mike Belsito of Product Collective are joined by Everette Taylor of Skurt , Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital, Cristina Cordova of Stripe , and others to discuss “ Diversity in Tech ” [podcast].

Investment 40

Investment Development Data Sales 40