Sat.Feb 20, 2021 - Fri.Feb 26, 2021

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The Rise of Private Equity in SaaS: A Gift to Founders

SaaStr

Let’s take a look at a few recent $1B+ “exits”, i.e. sales in SaaS: Pipedrive acquired by Vista for $1.5B. Thoma Bravo acquires Sophos for $3.8B. Insight Partners buys Veam for $5B. Gainsight sells a majority interest to Vista at $1.1B valuation. What do these deals, and so many more have in common? The acquirer wasn’t a Big TechCo.

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Why SaaS Companies Are Giving Away Their Products–And Why That’s Here To Stay

OpenView Labs

End users—whether it be a developer , individual marketer, sales rep, or someone at the edge of an organization—are now the most important constituents in software buying. Though this shift has been happening over time, we saw it accelerate last year as COVID-19 brought about rapid digital transformation. SaaS companies quickly adapted by making their tools available for free or at a discount.

Scale 56
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How to Build a Community to Grow Your SaaS Company

Chart Mogul

Building and running a private community for your market is time-consuming — but can lead to huge rewards. How can you drive growth with a community? Lots of SaaS companies talk about their communities. Welcome to the [company] community, they say on Twitter, when a new customer comes on board. Thanks to our community of early adopters, they write in a blog post.

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Scrum Project Management – The Beginner’s Guide

The Daily Egg

Scrum is Agile, but Agile isn’t Scrum. The Scrum Master and Product Owner aren’t the same individuals. Sprint planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint retrospective are all a part of Scrum. You may think you need a degree from Harvard to understand what Scrum means, especially with all its nuances. But that really isn’t […]. The post Scrum Project Management – The Beginner’s Guide appeared first on The Daily Egg.

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How Investors & Strategic Buyers Evaluate Integrated Payment Strategies

Explore how integrated payment strategies impact investor and buyer evaluations. Payments are more than a feature — they’re a key to long-term success and market differentiation. They help SaaS companies offer seamless user experiences and efficient operations. Investors and strategic buyers assess these integrated payment strategies as a measure of a company's growth potential and sustainability.

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The 48 Types of VP Sales. Make Deadly Sure You Hire the Right One.

SaaStr

Ah the VP of Sales. The toughest hire. Such a high failure rate. I want to help. So this is the third in our series. The first post is What a Great VP of Sales Actually Does. So you expect the right things, and hire your rockstar at the right time to do the right things. The second post is a script for you to use (and modify as you see fit) – 10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales Candidate.

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CX expert Annette Franz on putting the ‘customer’ in ‘customer experience’

Intercom, Inc.

Most businesses design customer experiences from the inside out, based on what is best for the company, when they should be doing the exact opposite. At least, that’s Annette Franz ‘ s two cents on the matter. Few people are as passionate about customer experience as Annette, the founder and CEO of consulting firm CX Journey Inc. With three decades of experience under her belt, she has learned a thing or two about helping companies build customer-centric businesses.

Scale 211
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Waterfall Project Management – The Beginner’s Guide

The Daily Egg

In the project management world, waterfall is as straightforward as it can get. It’s a linear project management approach where you gather stakeholder and customer requirements at the beginning of a project and then follow a sequential project plan to accommodate those requirements. That’s it! Think of it as the OG of software development methodologies. […].

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Google Says Cloud Will Triple Again in Next 5 Years

SaaStr

We did a deep dive on Google Cloud’s incredible numbers the other day here but there was one point in particular it’s worth doing a deep dive on. Google Cloud itself is predicting the Cloud will triple by 2026 or so , and reach $760B in spend in 2025, up from $290B in 2020 (note, I’m extrapolating a year or so from this chart and prediction, which itself is from IDC data): While Google is focused in particular on Cloud infrastructure, it really doesn’t matter.

Cloud 343
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The Importance of Account Planning

Predictable Revenue

We always hear people talk about how to land big accounts, but today Collin Stewart & Greg Callahan will be diving deep into how to expand on the accounts you’ve already got. The post The Importance of Account Planning appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Revenue 179
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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

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The Four Types of Startup COOs

Tom Tunguz

If you asked 5 people in Startupland to define the role of a COO, you would receive 10 different explanations. I have three myself. What does a modern COO do? The role of a COO has evolved over the past decade or so because of broader changes within the ecosystem which has created some confusion what what precisely should a COO do. Recently, Redpoint Office Hours welcomed Allison Pickens to clarify the COO role and when startups should consider recruiting one.

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Project Management Process – The Beginner’s Guide

The Daily Egg

The biggest problem many project managers—especially inexperienced ones—face is lack of clear goals and a lack of clear communication about who is responsible for what. Poor communication also causes ineffective results and unclear ideas about the project’s deliverables. This guide will clarify the steps in project management (PM) and make sure PM best practices are […].

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You Really Don’t Know if Your Market is Too Small For Quite a While

SaaStr

One of the things that causes a lot of anxiety in SaaS is market size. If you’re creating the latest Pinning app, or Social Network, the odds are surely against you. But in consumer internet, often you know if you hit it, however low the odds are, at least the market is huge (or at least, the user base is huge). SaaS is more confusing. Yes, if you are WorkDay and taking PeopleSoft on back in the day, straight-and-center, you know you’re taking on a $1 billion+ market on Day 1.

Marketing 326
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Prospect Smarter Using LinkedIn

Predictable Revenue

With over 40 million decision-makers using LinkedIn, the professional networking platform has become one of the best places to prospect. The question is; are you approaching those potential customers correctly? The post Prospect Smarter Using LinkedIn appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Revenue 179
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People, Passion & Perfection: The Key Ingredients for an Awesome Product

Need help launching innovative software quickly? Dive into "People, Passion, and Perfection" and unlock the secrets to building excellent products in the digital age. Fast-track your journey with Tech Accelerator: Agile and Cloud-Native for flexibility & scalability AI-powered innovation for faster results Quality at every step for a flawless user experience See real impact across industries: Healthcare: Empower patients and medical professionals with intuitive solutions Education: Transform cla

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Create a killer video strategy: your ultimate video content creation guide

Trint

Video is booming and it’s everywhere. In fact, it’s become so successful as a marketing tool, that it can do more for your brand than any other content type. But don’t take our word for it, the numbers speak for themselves: 94% of organizations report that video converts the same or better than any other content form. 79% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app. 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.

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Requirements Management – The Beginner’s Guide

The Daily Egg

Managing requirements proactively in anticipation of change is a necessity as they aren’t cast in stone. As stakeholders gather more insights and knowledge, requirements change. Now, requirements management might look easy and effortless—on the surface. It’s when you get started you realize how much work goes into managing a project. It’s a whole process where […].

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Your #1 Sales Rep Should Be Driving an M8 Convertible By Month 12. (And Not Buying a Panerai Watch.)

SaaStr

I want to spend a few posts and some time on sales comp plans for early-ish stage SaaS companies (up to say $20m in ARR). Because almost all the sales comp plans you are going to read about, and learn about are great — for SaaS companies that are well post-Scale. That work great for Salesforce, or Box. Or for companies that are investing huge amounts in sales & marketing after raising $30m, $50m, $100m+ But they probably won’t work for you until you are Bigger.

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How to Run a Cohort Analysis in Google Analytics to Better Segment Your Traffic

Neil Patel

Google Analytics is a staple in every experienced digital marketer’s set of tools. This is primarily because it provides a wealth of data, covering virtually everything you might want to know about how visitors interact with your site. Cohort Analysis is a particularly useful feature for marketers and small businesses. It can tell you how well your website is performing overall.

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Driving Growth, Customer Satisfaction, and Retention through Usage-Based Pricing

As companies strive to boost revenue, deliver customer value, and stay competitive, they are increasingly embracing the potential of usage-based pricing.

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Podcast marketing: Growing your audience

Trint

Whether you’re tuning into Dolly Parton’s America or Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend , podcasting is the not-so-new, hot thing. We might not be commuting anymore, but that doesn’t mean we’re not listening to podcasts. In fact, podcast subscriber and listener numbers have shot up since the pandemic. Tapping into that new, bigger audience means one thing: acing your podcast marketing.

Marketing 130
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Project Management Principles to Know

The Daily Egg

You come up with an excellent idea you believe will boost conversions and reduce operational costs. But you can’t execute your idea without a plan in place. Without a plan, you’re likely to fail at your mission, which may even cost you your job. You need an effective strategy for the proposed project, including its […]. The post Project Management Principles to Know appeared first on The Daily Egg.

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10 Rules to Being a VP of Sales in a Startup

SaaStr

Brendon Cassidy, my VP of Sales wrote a version of this piece a while back. It had 2,398 likes and clearly hit a chord with people. I though an updated version of this would be good for founders thinking about hiring a VP of Sales … VPs of Sales themselves … and VPs-to-be to read — Jason, ed. … 10 Rules to Being a VP of Sales in a Startup.

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Best Domain Brokers

Neil Patel

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission. You’re starting a new site, you Google the domain name to see if it’s free, and you realize it’s already been taken by someone else. Bummer. This happens more often than not. Domain name registrations increase by more than 14 million year over year.

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6 Reasons Why Your Integrated Payments Strategy Could Fail

If you're in the software industry grappling with integrating payments into your business model, understanding where others have stumbled can be a game-changer for your revenue goals. Discover 6 key reasons behind the struggles many face. The challenge goes beyond the technicalities of integrating a payment system; it delves into the strategic oversight of revenue shares, negotiations with payment providers, and the full exploitation of potential revenue streams.

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Localization: translating content for a global audience

Trint

Global offices and distributed teams were becoming a lot more common in the modern workplace even before the pandemic hit. Teams need the tools to work together in real-time, no matter where they are. At the same time, brands need to be able to capitalize on the exposure that comes from virtual life. Zoom team calls, webinars, virtual town halls and even workout sessions offer limitless audiences.

Travel 130
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Earned Value Management – The Beginner’s Guide

The Daily Egg

The International Space Station originally had a $36.75 billion budget. But when it ended—six years later than planned—the cost had skyrocketed to $105 billion. That’s a 186% hike from its planned value and is essentially a disaster. No project manager wants to find themselves at the helm of disastrous projects that stray off the approved […].

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5 Interesting Learnings from Upwork at $400,000,000 in ARR

SaaStr

Upwork is one of those products and marketplaces many of us use all the time — including Team SaaStr — but we don’t often see discussing that much as a public SaaS / Cloud company. But it should be. Upwork’s now worth $6B and $400m+ in ARR growing a healthy 24% Year-over-Year, and has gotten a solid Covid boost, if perhaps not quite the boost of some other Cloud leaders.

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10 Successful Google Advertising Ideas

Neil Patel

Coming up with Google advertising ideas is challenging. However, it’s well worth it to have a solid strategy. With around 3.5 billion searches per day , Google gives you an incredible opportunity to get in front of the right audience. Of course, you first need to know what you’re doing. If you’ve been looking for ways to get the most out of your Google ad campaigns, this article is just for you.

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Monetizing Analytics Features

Think your customers will pay more for data visualizations in your application? Five years ago, they may have. But today, dashboards and visualizations have become table stakes. Turning analytics into a source of revenue means integrating advanced features in unique, hard-to-steal ways. Download this white paper to discover which features will differentiate your application and maximize the ROI of your analytics.

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Create a killer video strategy: your ultimate video content creation guide.

Trint

Video is booming and it’s everywhere. In fact, it’s become so successful as a marketing tool, that it can do more for your brand than any other content type. But don’t take our word for it, the numbers speak for themselves: 94% of organizations report that video converts the same or better than any other content form. 79% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app. 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.

Strategy 130
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CRM for Teachers: Organizing In-house, Private Tutors, and Homeschooling Opportunities

Nimble - Sales

Teaching is a calling, but it’s also a business. These concepts are not mutually exclusive and quite frankly, teachers with some entrepreneurship skills have so much more to offer to children they educate. This is why CRM for teachers is so pivotal. In order to successfully juggle 101 tasks a day (getting a constant stream […]. The post CRM for Teachers: Organizing In-house, Private Tutors, and Homeschooling Opportunities appeared first on Nimble Blog.

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Lead Rich vs. Lead Poor Environments

SaaStr

On lead poor vs lead rich sales environments … And how to get more revenue per lead pic.twitter.com/DpWU1RjdMV. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 2, 2018. So last month, two companies I’ve invested in: both crossed $5m in ARR. both also grew at the exact same rate last month MoM. both also basically have the same ACV (~$50k). both have about the same number of folks on the sales and marketing teams, respectively. both have a somewhat complex sale. one difference: one had 30