For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

DECEMBER 6, 2017

I’ve seen hundreds of startup pitch decks in my time at Matrix, and have found total addressable market (TAM) slides to be among the most frequently mis-executed. I get the sense they are often included as a formality in an attempt to get VCs to check a mental box and continue on hearing about other. Getting Funded Startup Help Business Model Funding SaaS TAM TAM slide Total Addressable Market Venture capital

Venture Capital 219

Venture Capital Business Model Marketing Startup 219

The Angel VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2017

Founder salaries are not a topic I’ve had to spend a lot of time with so far. I usually just “OK” them, since the founders we are working with are all super reasonable people who carefully weigh how much they need against the interests of the company – their company. But sometimes founders ask me for a suggestion or some guidance because they are uncertain as to what is fair, and so I thought it might be useful to create a simple model. Here it is.

Compensation 219

Compensation Benchmarks Company Culture Leadership 219

Hitenism

JANUARY 6, 2017

It was 2008, and I was having a classic founder moment. I had no idea what I was doing. But at least I was doing! I was founding a SaaS business, KISSmetrics. Like any startup, we were flailing, failing, and on fire, all at the same time. It was a wild, insane, and ridiculously exhausting experience. I was in charge of product development, operations, finance, funding, and probably 44 other things. At that point in 2009, I was also responsible for marketing.

Startup 155

Startup Marketing Engagement Growth Hacking 155

InsightSquared

DECEMBER 29, 2017

There are different uses of cement such as to make cement mortar, cement concrete which are used in various types of masonry and concrete structures. Building Materials Building Technology Guide Buildings Cement

Technology 89

Technology 89

Advertiser: Infinicept

For many SaaS companies, becoming a Payfac is an opportunity to benefit from a new revenue stream and gain more control over the customer experience, so no hiding what’s behind the curtain here. We’ve outlined the journey from SaaS to full-blown Payfac.

Payfac

A Smart Bear

AUGUST 22, 2017

Product teams have been repeating the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) mantra for a decade now, without re-evaluating whether it’s the right way to maximize learning while pleasing the customer. Well, it’s not the best system. It’s selfish and it hurts customers. We don’t build MVPs at WP Engine. The motivation behind the MVP is still valid: Build something small, because small things are predictable and inexpensive to test.

Transportation 87

Transportation Investment Engineering Startup 87

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

NOVEMBER 4, 2017

No matter how long the list of amazing features you offer, if you’re marketing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, that’s not all you’ve got to sell. You should be talking about the “non-feature” pieces as well. If not, you’re underselling your solution. That’s because prospects are usually thinking about more than just features when they’re evaluating a solution. They’ve got other questions that you need to address: Can the solution be implemented successfully?

SaaS 123

SaaS Finance Acquisition Data 123

Tomasz Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

How much should a SaaS startup invest in sales and marketing at different stages of the business? This is a very nuanced question, but benchmarks do provide some guidance for what is reasonable. Sales and marketing investment depends on many different factors including establishing product market fit, the business’s sales model (inside, field, freemium), and not least, cash balance and fundraising capacity.

Investment 85

Investment Benchmarks Startup Revenue 85

Totango

OCTOBER 14, 2017

Customer Health Score takes multiple dimensions of customer data metrics and classifies them into a single representation of green, yellow or red. It is a consolidation of all the information the company has about the customer, from all probes, people and systems, past and current. Companies use customer health to speed up and scale communication, prioritization, decision making and forecasting of their customer success operations.

Forecasting 82

Forecasting Engagement Customer Success Metrics 82

The SaaS CFO

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Net negative churn occurs when your expansion revenue from existing customers totals more than your lost revenue from existing customers. This SaaS metric does not factor in any revenue from new customers, just existing customers. As Nathan Latka puts it in his “The Top” podcast, this is the holy grail of SaaS. Your recurring revenue […]. The post What is Net Negative Churn in SaaS appeared first on The SaaS CFO. Churn Nathan Latka Net Negative Churn

Churn 72

Churn Revenue Metrics SaaS 72

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Think Strategies

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

Corporate executives know that if they don’t transform their companies into digital enterprises they are going to be at a significant competitive disadvantage going forward. Yet, many corporate leaders have been unable to make significant progress transforming their organizations. These executives have found that changing their corporate cultures is a lot harder than adopting the new generation of cloud-based applications and services that make the digital enterprise possible.

Strategy 100

Strategy Development Cloud Enterprise 100

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Intro Many potentially great companies fail each year because, while they have an incredible product, they don’t figure out how to get it to market fast enough. Figuring out how to reach customers and break through to Product-Market-Fit remains one of the hardest parts of building a successful startup. This post introduces a four stage. Startup Help PMF product market fit SaaS sales Sales and Marketing

Product Marketing 208

Product Marketing Marketing Startup Sales 208

The Angel VC

JANUARY 10, 2017

Today is January 10, 2017. That means that in ten days, this jerk will become the leader of the free world. It still feels surreal to me. In less earth shattering news, the fact that it's 2017 also means that my "SaaS Funding in 2016" napkin needs an update. As a reminder, in the original post I tried to give a "back of a napkin" answer to this question: What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2016? Today I'd like to take a stab at the (early) 2017 answer to that question.

Marketplace as a Service 208

Marketplace as a Service Venture Capital SaaS AI 208

Hitenism

APRIL 24, 2017

Back in 2010, on a Monday at 5 PM, I found myself at a bar called Memphis in Southern California in a heated discussion with two close friends. Patrick Vlaskovits was cheerfully drinking a mint julep while Sean Ellis and I were each enjoying a cold beer. At the time, Patrick was working on a startup and a book. Sean was advising a handful of high-growth tech startups including Dropbox, Eventbrite and my own company, KISSmetrics.

Growth Hacking 151

Growth Hacking Startup Machine Learning Mobile 151

Advertiser: Infinicept

Software companies are looking, feeling, and acting more like merchant service providers. This can be sobering for financial institutions, but don't be fooled. FIs still have crucial roles to play. Learn how FIs are investing their resources to stay game.

Investment

InsightSquared

DECEMBER 11, 2017

As a sales leader, you’re only as good as your team, and it starts by managing a team effectively. It’s important to create a process to systematize the way your reps generate, manage and close opportunities. To encourage the right behaviors, you must provide evidence that shows your process is effective, and straightforward.

Forecasting 79

Forecasting Metrics Data Market Segmentation 79

A Smart Bear

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Forget work/life integration for a minute. How much time do you have, regardless of partitioning? From your 24-hour daily allotment, the 1950s-style break-down is 8 hours for work, 8 for home and commute, and 8 for sleep and ablutions. So, “work” and “home” are the two things in which you can spend 40+ hours per week. This is the amount of time it takes to tackle something huge. A career. A parent. A startup.

Startup 81

Startup Investment 81

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Without doubt, one of the most exciting parts of being a marketer today is the perpetual challenge of finding new channels and tactics to leverage. There’s a whole host of marketing arbitrage opportunities out there - if you know where to look and spend your time. Identifying opportunities that we think will create business value is not only a lot of fun, it's key to driving future growth. For that reason, organisations need to invest in the discovery and cultivation of such opportunities.

Sales Enablement 120

Sales Enablement Marketing SaaS Sales 120

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

OCTOBER 7, 2017

If you think your customers subscribe to your software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution only because they love the features or the price, think again. Of course, customers look at the solution’s features, the fact that it’s easy to use, or the attractive price… but that’s not all they look at. They’re also figuring out if they can trust you.

Advertising 121

Advertising Pricing Subscription Acquisition 121

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Data

Tomasz Tunguz

NOVEMBER 10, 2017

Disagree and commit. I first read about this idea in the 2016 Amazon Shareholders letter. But the idea can be traced back to Andy Grove at Intel. Grove wrote about this topic in High Output Management. Disagree and commit is a management technique for handling conflict. There are two parts to it. First, expecting and demanding teammates to voice their disgreement. Second, no matter their point of view, once a decision has been made, everyone commits to its success.

Management 68

Management Leadership Engineering Communication 68

Totango

OCTOBER 2, 2017

Every company, especially a large enterprise, builds an organizational structure around their customer operations. Whether by region, product, vertical, or any other business parameter they define, Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are broken into teams to give them focus, tailored processes, and specific metrics that make sense for their line of business.

Customer Success 74

Customer Success Enterprise Leadership Technology 74

CloseSaaS

AUGUST 7, 2017

Every year, hundreds of startup founders move to Silicon Valley. But even if you’ve had success elsewhere, it’s a risky move. Startup Sales

Startup 65

Startup Sales 65

Think Strategies

OCTOBER 23, 2017

For the past decade, many IT departments have been on the defensive trying to keep pace with escalating end-user demands and competitive pressures. The emergence of ‘shadow IT’ as a major force within many enterprises raised questions about the role of IT in a cloud-first world.

Machine Learning 100

Machine Learning Strategy AI Cloud 100

Speaker: Diana Mehochko

Our guest, Diana Mehochko, COO of NCR Payments, joins us to talk about payment trends – including connected commerce, embedded payments, and embedded finance – and how they fit together.

Trends

For Entrepreneurs with David Skok

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

I gave a talk this year at the 2017 SaaS North conference in Ottawa, where I discuss the fundamentals of building a repeatable, scalable, & profitable growth process for a startup. Building a Repeatable, Scalable & Profitable Growth Process [View on Slideshare]. Startup Help Business Model Growth SaaS SaaS business Sales & Marketing Machine

Business Model 159

Business Model Business Startup SaaS 159

The Angel VC

JULY 5, 2017

In the first part of this post , I looked at what some of the most knowledgeable people in the industry said about Product/Market Fit (PMF) and how they try to define and measure it. While everybody seems to agree on the broad concept of PMF there is (unsurprisingly) no consensus on how exactly it can be defined and measured, and some people set the bar much higher than others.

Venture Capital 201

Venture Capital Product Marketing Startup Investment 201

Hitenism

JANUARY 9, 2017

Building a company is a lot like trying to predict the future. You’re looking through a crystal ball to see where the market is moving, and how you can adapt your product accordingly. You have limited cash, which means that you only have a finite amount of time and resources to scale your business. The longer you take to make decisions about your company, the more time and money you burn. Optimizing your startup for speed is the only way to keep your head above the water.

Startup 144

Startup Advertising Acquisition Payment Solutions 144

InsightSquared

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Guest blog by Joe Rodden, Sales Systems Manager at Catalant Technologies. I get asked, “What should I look for when hiring someone for Sales Operations?” or “What skills should I have to break into Sales Operations?” a lot. Thinking about the best and worst Sales Operations professionals I’ve worked with over the years, I’ve come up with four skills that the best have and the worst lack.

Sales 78

Sales Interviewing Technology Management 78

Advertiser: Infinicept

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Software

Pierre Lechelle

JANUARY 23, 2017

CEOs moving past Product / Market Fit often have issues to grow. They struggle to find more channels to acquire new leads. When I met Ryan, his problems were radically different… They were growing quickly. His team was doing a fine job. They implemented Growth Processes, but after a few months, they realized that they […]. Cet article Why Companies are Failing to Implement Growth Processes est apparu en premier sur Pierre Lechelle. Growth Teams

Product Marketing 65

Product Marketing Marketing 65

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes - strategic communication is an integral part of successful sales enablement. Communication matters in business. And the success (or failure) of a sales enablement function is intertwined with its ability to influence a sales organisation and change behaviour. While it may not be immediately apparent, communicating well with and managing stakeholders is a prerequisite for successful sales enablement.

Sales Enablement 108

Sales Enablement SaaS Communication Business 108

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

DECEMBER 2, 2017

I know this may be heresy to almost every marketer and sales person on the planet, but I’ll just say it: it’s possible to have too many leads. Lots of the effort to generate new leads – those programs, events, campaigns and incentives we’ve got in place to build more visibility, drive more traffic, and gather more names - might just be a waste of time and money. How can that be? Suspects, not prospects One explanation: some of our lead generation efforts are attracting suspects , not prospects.

AI 115

AI Education Retention Enterprise 115