2016

article thumbnail

SaaS Financial Plan 2.0

The Angel VC

Almost exactly four years ago I published a financial plan template for SaaS startups based on a model that I had created for Zendesk a few years earlier. I received a lot of great feedback on the template and the original post remains one of the most viewed posts on this blog up to this day. In the last few weeks I've finally found some time to create a "v2" of the template. just in time for a little Easter gift to the SaaS community. ;-) I'd recommend that you read this post first since it inc

article thumbnail

There are Only 3 Pricing Strategies for Your Startup

Tom Tunguz

Pricing. Is there any word that confers some whisper of dark arts than pricing? Or any question that instills less confidence than, “How did you derive your pricing strategy?” Many times, startups replicate and tune competitors’ pricing strategies. If everyone else prices per seat, then so should we… Is this the right thought process?

Pricing 199
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How Amazon Web Services (AWS) Achieved an $11.5B Run Rate by Working Backwards

Hitenism

In 2006, after Amazon Web Services (AWS) helped pioneer what we now call the cloud, product development changed forever. What once took millions of dollars and a team of engineers to create, a lone developer could suddenly hack together in half an hour. Today, one-third of daily internet users visit websites built on top of AWS. AWS is now an $11.5B run rate business and has made up for an incredible 67% of Amazon’s operating revenue last quarter.

AWS 189
article thumbnail

Looking for customers in all the wrong places

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton explained “because that’s where the money is.” Not that marketers are bank robbers, but the same idea applies to finding prospective customers. If you want to get their attention, you need to go where they are. If you’re at they'll never look, it’s unlikely prospects will see you. This idea certainly sounds logical.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

How to use the V2MOM framework to align and inspire your B2B SaaS marketing team

Aaron Beashel

Just a few months into my stint at Campaign Monitor, a new CEO joined to lead the company. That CEO was a guy named Alex Bard. Alex co-founded the well-known SaaS company Desk.com before selling it to Salesforce and becoming the VP of Service Cloud (their second largest business unit, behind Sales Cloud). During his time at Salesforce, Alex was fortunate enough to work directly with Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff, and together they utilised a framework Benioff himself devised called

Scale 100

More Trending

article thumbnail

From 1k to 10k customers: 4 steps to scale your B2B startup in new markets

CloseSaaS

So you’ve hit the 1,000 customer mark: Congratulations! You’ve made it further than many startups ever dream of going. But you and I both know you’re not done yet, so what’s next?

Scale 72
article thumbnail

Tracking Customer Acquisition in SaaS

Pierre Lechelle

Are you a CMO? When was the last time you invested money into Customer Acquisition? Today? When was the last time you felt confident spending one dollar because you’d get back 10 dollars? And I’m not speaking about extrapolating LTV. I’m speaking about real LTV on a specific customer. Tracking Customer Acquisition can solve all […].

article thumbnail

Zero to IPO: Lessons From The Unlikely Story of HubSpot

OnStartups

HubSpot has had a pretty good run. Went from zero to IPO. What's not known is how unlikely the story of our success is. II gave a talk at the 2016 SaaStr Conference hosted by Jason Lemkin. The slides and full video from the talk are included below, with some quick notes on a few of the topics covered. Here's me presenting what turned out to be the most popular slide (more on this idea at the end of the article).

Startup 76
article thumbnail

Growth Engineer Job Description Cheatsheet

Sylvia Ng

Putting together a job description for a Growth Engineer? Wondering what others are doing? Save time with this cheat sheet! The below tidbits are taken from 30+ job descriptions for Growth Engineers, all from tech companies such as Asana, Airbnb, AdRoll, Cybercoders, Mircosoft, UXPin, and Zenefits, to name a few. Copy and paste what’s relevant to you to build your job description, or just scroll through to get some inspiration.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

VSA. Why this is Great for SaaS Companies!

Aber Law Firm

The VSA is a super new group called the Vendor Security Alliance. As soon as I read this article about it Link , I realized it was a great idea for all Software as a Service (SaaS companies) and will help get cloud service contracts signed. And hey, as attorneys that help SaaS companies get SaaS contracts signed, we were very excited. So here is our thinking: What is the VSA?

article thumbnail

What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2016?

The Angel VC

When we invest in a SaaS startup, which almost always happens at the seed stage, the next big milestone on the company’s roadmap is usually a Series A. If you carry this thought further and assume that the biggest goal after the Series A is to get to the Series B (and so on, you get the idea) it sounds like turtles all the way down. But financing rounds are obviously not a goal in itself.

SaaS 193
article thumbnail

How to Create Competitive Advantage for Your Startup with Proxy Metrics

Tom Tunguz

Imagine you’ve just been named the head of a bustling New York City restaurant challenged by one issue - customers complain about the customer service. A data-driven person, you search for a metric to evaluate the current customer service to validate the complaint and then track as you experiment with the restaurant’s operations. What metrics would you employ?

Metrics 176
article thumbnail

The Five Most Critical Mistakes Founders Make When Raising Money

Hitenism

Two tweets about raising money was all it took to get 81 email responses and 53 customer development calls with founders. I haven’t had this big of a reaction to an idea and I’ve done this type of research on product ideas for the last 13 years! That’s when I realized that fundraising may be startup founders’ biggest pain point.

article thumbnail

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

article thumbnail

Why Drive-by Marketing Doesn’t Work

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

So you’ve just shipped your new software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, and for sure you’re eager to tell the world: get out a press announcement, roll-out a search engine marketing campaign, sign-up for industry events, and whatever else you can think of. Here’s some advice: Slow down. As tough as it is to resist the urge to do something , hold off a bit before going full blast with all this marketing activity.

Marketing 113
article thumbnail

5 Commerce Tips for Making the Most of This Holiday Season

Stack Commerce

The holiday season is approaching quickly, and having a strong digital commerce strategy is essential. At StackCommerce, we’ve helped hundreds of publisher-owned online shops flourish during the holiday season through our native commerce platform. From preparing unique and exciting inventory to organizing specialized gift shops, we’ve had our hands in it all.

article thumbnail

5 Recommendations for Setting Yearly Growth Goals

Brian Balfour

(You can download my Yearly Growth Goals Template that I used on our team at HubSpot at the bottom of this post.) We are nearing the year end and that probably means many teams are finalizing their growth goals for next year. Just the thought of the planning process is probably jacking up your stress levels. After all, setting yearly growth goals in fast-changing environments feels like shooting darts blindfolded.

article thumbnail

Sales CRM case study: Instagram + Candid + Close = Millions in sales for this luxury furniture company

CloseSaaS

Unlimited Furniture, a luxury furniture and interior design company, had built a large audience on Instagram but was looking for ways to engage their followers in sales conversations.

Sales 59
article thumbnail

Software Composition Analysis: The New Armor for Your Cybersecurity

Speaker: Blackberry, OSS Consultants, & Revenera

Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?

article thumbnail

The End of the Customer Journey

ReSci

It’s time to call it: the “customer journey,” as you know it, is officially dead. It’s a concept that sprang into the industry’s collective consciousness when retail met the Internet, forever changing the way people interact and shop with brands. With…. The post The End of the Customer Journey appeared first on ReSci.

article thumbnail

Don’t make these mistakes when promoting your startup

Hacking Revenue

Far too many founders fall into the trap of thinking their products are too good to not be noticed. Here’s a fair warning for you: Your product will not be noticed. This optimistic misconception is likely a large contributing factor to the 14% startup failure rate, due to poor marketing. That myth isn’t alone. There are plenty of other misconceptions founders make and end up regretting.

Startup 43
article thumbnail

Setting Up Analytics for Your Tech Startup to Scale

Sylvia Ng

I’m a huge fan of Brian Balfour (ex-VP of Growth at Hubspot), who maintains that growth is about process first and tactics second. Tactics change and tactics fail. But if you have a process, a “machine” that lets you test and evaluate tactics to reach specific goals, then you’re paving the way to success, and ensuring that the team learns. What many neglect to realize is that this approach of focusing on process applies entirely to building out analytics as well (and by extension, company growth

Scale 67
article thumbnail

VSA. Why this is Great for SaaS Companies!

Aber Law Firm

The VSA is a super new group called the Vendor Security Alliance. As soon as I read this article about it Link , I realized it was a great idea for all Software as a Service (SaaS companies) and will help get cloud service contracts signed. And hey, as attorneys that help SaaS companies get SaaS contracts signed, we were very excited. So here is our thinking: What is the VSA?

article thumbnail

From Whims to Wins: How a Customer-Centric Portfolio Transforms Product Strategy

Speaker: John Mansour - President, Product Management University

You know that sinking feeling. You’ve come up with a winning product strategy, everyone’s on board and energized, and you’re halfway down the path to execution only to have it submarined by something someone convinced your leadership was more strategic! It’s a scenario that’s all too familiar, and it exemplifies one of the biggest struggles with individual product strategies.

article thumbnail

That’s a nice little $1-2M SaaS company you have here. Call me to discuss if it will scale!

The Angel VC

About two years ago, Josh Hannah of Matrix Partners wrote an excellent article titled “That's a nice little $40M eCommerce company you have there. Call me when it scales.” In it he argues that an eCommerce business with $10 to $20 million in revenues is not that hard to build and also not very valuable. I would recommend that you read the full article, but one of the key points of the article was that if you fill a niche and have distinctive product/market fit with a set of customers, you can ac

Scale 192
article thumbnail

Information Cascades - How Many Rational People Can Make Logical Decisions and Yet Still Create a Bubble

Tom Tunguz

When I say bubble, you likely conjure images of people speculating on real estate or stocks or tulips in your imagination. Like me, you might dismiss the folly of these bubbles as the collective action of a multitude of people who lose all rationality when bidding on these assets. But, as I learned from a recent interview with Brian Christian , bubbles can be created even when everyone acts rationally.

article thumbnail

SQL is still superior for big-data analytics

Rakam

I wanted write about using only SQL for analytical queries (possibly for big-data) because when I talk about SQL, people usually tend to say that it’s not a good fit for analytics and they have to write complex code in Java or use a NO-SQL solution that has custom query language because in big-data world, all the paradigms should be changed and become complex.

Data 40
article thumbnail

Competing in a crowded market

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

First a confession. Every once in awhile I get a call from a SaaS company looking for help with their customer acquisition plan, and my first thought is "Are you kidding? The company tells me that they've developed a wonderful solution with a boatload of impressive features. But they're selling into a market that's already crowded with other vendors.

Marketing 113
article thumbnail

Brick & Mortar Retail Relevance: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

Speaker: Jay Black, Senior Account Executive

Let's set the record straight: in-store retail isn't dead - it's evolving! Faced with the digital age and the demands of omnichannel shopping, some retailers are thriving while others are struggling to adapt. Join Jay Black in this exclusive session as he explores the strategies that set successful stores apart, including: Crafting unique and unforgettable in-store experiences 🛍️ Mastering the art of retail demands 🛒 Navigating inventory challenges in today's climate 📦 an

article thumbnail

SaaSOptics Seals Deals with New CEO and Funding

SaaSOptics

SaaSOptics, a cloud-based subscription platform, steps into the limelight as they announce a newly closed $1.8 million funding round, prepare to present at Venture Atlanta, and add new executive leadership. Tim McCormick, a B2B software industry veteran, will now serve as the company’s new CEO. Read more.

article thumbnail

How To Setup A Growth Team For Maximum Impact

Brian Balfour

Part of every team’s identity is how they measure success, and each team measures their success in different ways. Product teams might be measured by NPS, feature output, or possibly by metrics. An engineering team’s success may be measured by uptime and reliability among other things, and a design team’s success could be measured on usability. But measuring the success of the growth team is a tougher question.

article thumbnail

Why “the economy” isn’t an excuse to fail

CloseSaaS

2015 proved that even unicorns aren’t invincible. Snapchat’s value took a 25% hit. Evernote went through a second round of layoffs. Optimizely had to let go of 10% of their workforce. (Let’s not even talk of Zenefits.) Good Technology sold for less than half of its top valuation.