Baremetrics

APRIL 21, 2021

In this article, we shall get back to basics: What is SaaS finance, and what financial phases can you expect your business to go through? When it comes to understanding finance for SaaS companies, there are key differences between more traditional financial models and SaaS-specific financial modeling and forecasting. Table of Contents.

Finance 98

Finance Scale SaaS Forecasting 98

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

Creating a Data Moat A “data moat” refers to a unique and defensible data set providing competitive advantage. For founders, the key is balancing long-term vision with short-term proof points that can secure ongoing financing and market traction. Tolerance for errors varies dramatically by industry and application.

Technical Review 184

Technical Review Artificial Intelligence AI Marketplace as a Service 184

SaaStr

APRIL 25, 2024

If you have options, if more than one VC wants to invest in you — do reference checks. After all, 90% of SaaS public companies go public … with the founder CEO as CEO : More here: 5 Things To Be Wary of In VC Financings 5 Things To Be Wary of In VC Financings The post Dear SaaStr: When Do VCs Try To Replace Founders as CEOs?

Finance 286

Finance Investment SaaS Marketing 286

Baremetrics

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

Equity financing is a method of capital raising via the selling of stock. While the phrase "equity financing" is often used to refer to the funding of publicly traded businesses, the term is also applied to private company financing. What is Equity Financing in SaaS? Equity Financing 2. Table of Contents.

Finance 98

Finance Venture Capital SaaS Payments Payments 98

Baremetrics

MAY 7, 2019

There are more funding and financing options for startups today than there ever have been before. There’s also been an explosion in debate and transparency about navigating startup funding and financing. Let’s explore the funding and financing options for your startup. Funding Your Startup. How To Evaluate Funding Options.

Finance 111

Finance Startup SaaS Payments Payment Methods 111

Payrix

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

A master merchant, often referred to as a payment facilitator or merchant aggregator, is a third-party agent that acts as the link between acquirers and online merchants. The master merchantis the primary account holder for a payment processing system, overseeing and managing multiple subordinate accounts, often referred to as sub-merchants.

Merchant Services 130

Merchant Services Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments 130

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 6, 2018

You’ve just raised a round of financing. First, you already have a strong reference on their behalf, so there’s less screening required. Your next step is to build your management team. There are several criteria for finding the right executive. All of those should be obvious. There is one that is often overlooked.

Scale 246

Scale Interviewing Finance Leadership 246

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 15, 2021

You have an idea, a vast blue ocean in front of you, and a pile of greenbacks stashed in a bank account from your last financing. The more customers you convert to your company’s color, the stronger the brand, the greater the awareness, the more reference customers, the more capital to raise, the easier to hire and grow.

Strategy 257

Strategy Banking Finance Education 257

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 5, 2021

Well-framed outcomes will refer to customer needs, and not to your product specifically. Consumers talk about what they want (faster transport) with reference to the current product, but by focusing on the need a new product (automobiles) comes into view. 2: Why they want that outcome.

Transportation 279

Transportation Travel Underperforming Technical Team Finance 279

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Users could sign up for free and get 2GB of storage, which could be expanded by referring friends. This phase is often referred to as “crossing the chasm,” a concept popularized by Geoffrey Moore, which highlights the challenge of bridging the gap between the enthusiastic early market and the more pragmatic mainstream market.

Pricing 107

Pricing Scale SaaS Technical Review 107

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2019

What founders would not give you a strong reference, and why not? Yes, do off sheet reference checks. And a few related points here: How a Venture Financing Can Implode Post-Term Sheet | SaaStr. If you are going long, you’ll still be running it in 10 years. Will they still be the one managing the investment? Find out why.

Investment 245

Investment Finance Branding Management 245

Payrix

JUNE 25, 2024

Embedded Finance is more than just a buzzword; it represents a fundamental shift in how financial services are delivered and consumed today. What is Embedded Finance? What is Embedded Finance? Customer data : Embedded Finance uses existing customer data to personalize experiences and offers, enhancing relevance and timing.

Payments 100

Payments Payment Solutions Finance Payment Services 100

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2020

Another major difference is that you can expect that investors are going to want to do many more references than they might have in the past, both customer references and professional references. Can the capital be managed until the next financing? “What are the typical questions you ask customer references?”

Scale 306

Scale Investment Venture Capital Technical Review 306

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2020

That’s our last bridge reference. Finance – 38%. Admittedly, one of the biggest buyer-seller gaps our research uncovered is actually a result of having too many cooks in the kitchen (or too many cranes on the construction site). . We promise. On average, a buying process includes about 5.6 people (regardless of company size). .

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Marketplace as a Service Construction Software Review 310

Chart Mogul

AUGUST 15, 2019

Revenue-based financing is quickly becoming a popular way for startups to raise funds without sacrificing equity. New investment structures are gaining traction in the early-stage SaaS financing market. A high-level look at Revenue-based financing (RBF). This is how it works. What is RBF? Simplified RBF. We require $450k (1.5x

Finance 85

Finance Payments Revenue Payment Solutions 85

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2024

M13 prides itself on clearly differentiating the way we operate and with our unique platform offering that we refer to as Propulsion. Karl was also the Co-founder + CEO of China Export Finance which grew to $140M in revenue and was the Co-founder + CEO of Clearview Networks: both of which had exits. The ticker symbol is DOCN.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Management Investment AI 286

SaaStr

JULY 24, 2020

Satya Patel: Another major difference is that you can expect that investors are going to want to do many more references than they might have in the past, both customer references and professional references. Can the capital be managed until the next financing? Have those ready. And then, finally, fifth is financial risk.

Scale 208

Scale Finance Investment Government 208

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2024

A couple of months ago, someone in their Discord channel asked a question, and someone else referred them to a blog post written nine years ago that was relevant in 2024. If you can’t hire a CFO, maybe it’s a VP of Finance. Blogs Documentation That was how they drove visibility through Google searches and how developers found them.

Scale 306

Scale Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Development 306

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

Everyone here I think actually has a different background that they bring to the table, whether it’s a programmer, whether it’s in finance, whether it’s in law. They work with the CEO to figure out the financing strategy. There’s more ways to think about the cash flow and financing of the company.

Sales Hiring 258

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 258

The Angel VC

OCTOBER 5, 2014

product/market fit), and once you're at that point, you still need tens of millions of dollars or more to finance the enterprise sales cycle. To extend the metaphor to the 4th and 5th type of customer, let's call them "mice" and "flies". This does not at all mean that elephant hunting isn't attractive.

Scale 280

Scale Business Customer Lifetime Value Enterprise 280

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2019

For example, our Finance team is now able to confirm whether new customer growth is up in our target segments. Compatible segmentations for Sales, Marketing, Product, and Engineering, for shared reference points. In our case, the Finance team was supportive of using this approach for our first iteration.

Business 184

Business B2C Scale Headcount 184

Blulogix

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

The Importance of Accurate Revenue Recognition Revenue recognition refers to the process of recording revenue when it is earned, regardless of when payment is received. Regular Training and Updates : Accounting standards are subject to changes, and it is important for finance teams to stay updated on the latest regulations.

Payment Services 52

Payment Services Payments compliance SaaS Payments 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

“Typically that was the marketing hat in my case, but sometimes it was the sales hat or thinking about finance or other areas of the business. . “It was always thinking about the company first,” said Janine Pelosi of Zoom. And without that context, you lose out.”

Sales Hiring 299

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 299

The Angel VC

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

I remember that a couple of years later, at the first PNC SaaS Founder Meetup in San Francisco in 2012 , Mikkel ended his speech saying something along the lines of: “Kudos to Christoph for investing in us back in 2008 – I would never have invested in these three guys”, referring to his co-founders Morten, Alexander and himself.

Scale 155

Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital Software Review 155

Valuize Consulting

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

This guide emphasizes the importance of making informed decisions based on robust data and financial models, fostering a deeper understanding between Customer Success and Finance. Tools like NPV not only quantify the expected impact but also help bridge communication with finance teams.

Payment Services 52

Payment Services SaaS Payments Customer Success Payments 52

Buffer Resources

OCTOBER 29, 2024

💡 Refer to our Instagram analytics guide for more information on viewing these metrics. Personal finance creator @mywealthdiary used their story to reply to a comment on one of their posts. Instagram’s algorithm prefers Reels that are shared via direct message (DM), which Instagram refers to as "sends per reach."

Engagement 129

Engagement Social Media Trends Travel 129

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 2, 2023

It includes a business overview, detailed historical financials, risks to the business, market sizing / data, cap table information, summary of past financing, and quite a bit more. ” This DOES NOT refer to market cap or any sort of valuation. At this point we have a completed S-1, and there are a couple key items to unpack.

Cloud 49

Cloud Marketing Banking Pricing 49

Panintelligence

JULY 24, 2024

Key takeaways What is embedded finance and how it integrates financial services into non-financial platforms. The benefits and challenges of implementing embedded finance for businesses and consumers. Examples of embedded finance applications across various industries. What is embedded finance?

Payments 52

Payments Merchant Services Payment Services Finance 52

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

So the ability to do flexible payment plans, financing, retire that pre-committed spend has been a really significant a way for us to accelerate and amplify our transactions. We had great uptake on the private offer process, and being able to reduce daily sales outstanding for finance, and accelerate our transaction speed for sales.

Scale 256

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 256

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2019

Sometimes rogue, outside of procurement or financing using their corporate credit card. They aren’t even always a great internal reference. First, just to get on the same page … a Silo-in-the-Enterprise is a small or smallish group in a BigCo that adopts your product.

Enterprise 181

Enterprise Scale Finance Scaling 181

The SaaS CFO

MAY 23, 2023

Average Cost of Service (ACS) is an important but obscure SaaS metric for SaaS finance. I reference this metric when speaking with SaaS founders and finance teams about the balance between their cost structure and pricing plans. It’s also a component of my SaaS Scalability Index (SSI).

Scaling 98

Scaling Finance Metrics Pricing 98

User Pilot

APRIL 30, 2025

Headspace is one of my favorite examples to refer to because they ace their ASO game. If youre building a personal finance app, r/finance would be a great place to see what problems your users are facing. Apps with strong ratings appear higher in search results and convert at a higher rate. Headspace app store optimization.

Strategy 66

Strategy Mobile Systems Review Scale 66

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

Average revenue per account (also referred to as Average Transaction Size (ATS) or Average Sales Price (ASP)). This KPI is also referred to as Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). This KPI is also referred to Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). First response time. Number of accounts contacted. Number of accounts engaged.

Sales Hiring 188

Sales Hiring Metrics Revenue Sales 188

Kellblog

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

For a CFO, do you require a accounting or finance background? Check references. This works for some situations better than others: it won’t work when recruiting a veteran CMO out of an existing job, but it can work nicely when considering a between-jobs, up-and-coming VP of Finance for their first CFO role.

Sales Recruiting 110

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 110

Payrix

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

With the rise of Embedded Payments, payment processors have a new role as a powerful sales tool for software companies that strive to become the everything platform empowering them with essential digital finance tools to manage and grow their business as well as generate new revenue streams. Learn more about Embedded Finance.

Payment Services 100

Payment Services Payments Merchant Services SaaS Payments 100

Kellblog

MAY 18, 2024

Here’s an example question sequence: “So, you ran the budget process in 2023 as the head of finance?” We check references, both those provided and backdoor. Tell me how you laid out the process, the milestones, and timing?” “Did Did anyone have problems with it? Were there any disagreements?” We drill down.

Interviewing 136

Interviewing Finance Management Startup 136

CloudGeometry

APRIL 25, 2022

Think about iconic logos for reference customers, certification to IT industry standards like HIPAA or SOC2, even an improved exit valuation. Proven best practices that help both finance & engineering teams In fact, it is entirely reasonable to ask about “Security and _” for almost any aspect of your SaaS application and platform.

Enterprise readiness 130

Enterprise readiness Enterprise Technical Review Software Review 130