Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 12, 2024

Many companies raised rounds in 2021 who thought they had product market fit. Or who thought their market was 10x bigger than it actually was. For founders - it’s perfectly ok to come to the conclusion that you don’t have product market fit.

Cloud 284

Cloud Venture Capital Acquisition Metrics 284

OpenView Labs

APRIL 3, 2019

The researchers blame “premature scaling” as the root cause, pointing out that 70% of startups in the study scaled before they were ready and that startup founders substantially underestimate how long it takes to validate their market. It’s no wonder that the startup community obsesses over finding product-market fit.

Product Marketing 63

Product Marketing Pricing Scale Marketing 63

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Take a look at just some of the topics and mentors hosting Braindates: Core metrics to track for SAAS with Tarush Aggarwal, Founder & Ceo at 5X Pricing as a growth lever – How, what, why? The goal is to help each other learn something new, find mentorships, create partnerships, and exchange strategies.

VP of Engineering 244

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder Outsourcing Services CTO Coach 244

OPEXEngine

MAY 18, 2021

Valuations of private companies are generally a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis, including market sizing and intangibles, like management team reputation, experience, and network. In this blog, we are looking at the business metrics that can be measured quantitatively and providing a few insights on how investors analyze them.

SaaS Payments 98

SaaS Payments Metrics Payments Payment Services 98

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

Leading him to some of his biggest mistakes when hiring: Not investing enough time. ” Mistake #3: Setting the Wrong Metrics and Goals Ryan at Okta made the wrong choice on short-term metrics and led his team in the wrong direction as CMO. They needed to move quickly. Compromising on hiring principles and values.

Sales Hiring 251

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Leadership 251

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2022

David Sacks uses the phrase “default investible”. There is no “one size fits all” answer, and this will look different for every company, but it does mean that your metrics are such that you are fundable in whatever the current climate is. . To measure efficiency, Janz likes to use the Burn Multiple and the Sales Efficiency metrics.

Scale 237

Scale Management Metrics Startup 237

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

I’ve had the privilege to invest one way or another in about 35 SaaS companies, both as a VC and as angel. They understand why they got “No”s in the early, pre-traction days, and even, in the early-ish days when they had a handful of customers but wasn’t really taking off yet (my favorite time to invest).

Scale 339

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 339

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2021

The market feels different. Investment processes last a few days. Pricing rounds on multiples like public market investing. Vibrant secondary markets. Index investing and the entrance of hedge funds. Preemptive rounds have become a norm.

Software Review 364

Software Review Venture Capital Cloud Pricing 364

User Pilot

AUGUST 6, 2023

Due to the necessity of data analytics when optimizing the omnichannel customer experience, you’ll have more metrics to work with. These insights can help you with other efforts, such as personalized retention marketing or customer segmentation. Having dedicated surveys for key metrics like CSAT, CES, and NPS.

Investment 79

Investment Banking Social Media Customer Lifetime Value 79

SaaStr

JUNE 30, 2023

They were building for a market that didn’t exist so they could sell to job titles that also didn’t exist. You need to parse through the vanity metrics and figure out what will endure. Braze didn’t find a true product-market fit until around 2014-2015. But if the market isn’t ready, it isn’t ready.

Scale 201

Scale Mobile Venture Capital Scaling 201

OpenView Labs

MAY 18, 2020

As the data started rolling in, we sat down as a team to identify the metrics we were most interested in and immediately captured a baseline for those. You may not identify the right “key metrics” in the beginning, and having data for all metrics already being captured makes it easy to course-correct along the way. Acquisition.

Metrics 53

Metrics Startup Investment Company Culture 53

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS, Venture Capital, Bootstrapping, and Valuations – understanding market trends and investment patterns is critical. We’ll explain Jason’s take on the recent market fluctuations, highlighting major deals that shaped investment patterns and their effects on valuation trends.

Venture Capital 218

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 218

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2023

When building a product, organizations are solving a specific need. Of course, building great teams and finding product market fit is critical, but don’t forget about product investor fit. Investors want to know about metrics, the drivers of your business, and whether users are growing, engaged, or churning.

Development Team Review 224

Development Team Review Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team SMB 224

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Go-to-Market matters because sales and marketing spend remain the biggest proportion of SaaS spend, so honing in on that spend to build an engine and drive growth is paramount. But to develop a GTM strategy, you must have Product Market Fit. The Early Stage — $0 to $20M ARR The early stage is crucial for GTM.

Scale 237

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 237

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

He focused on several specific metrics, including Round Size, Valuation, and ARR & MRR. Seed: “What investors are looking for at the seed stage is some sign of product-market fit. Key Takeaways: In terms of valuation and round sizes, there seems to be a shift over the years in the stages of investment amounts.

Finance 300

Finance Product Marketing SaaS Investment 300

User Pilot

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Our guide explores: What exactly CAC payback is Why you should be tracking it How to calculate the CAC payback period for your SaaS What other metrics you need to track How to reduce your CAC payback period We also look at how Userpilot can help you do the job. Let’s get right to it! What is CAC payback? Let’s break them all down.

SaaS Payments 98

SaaS Payments Customer Lifetime Value Payment Solutions Acquisition 98

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2022

However, they were wrong about these assumptions, which kept them from identifying gaps and assessing the extensibility of their Enterprise product-market-fit. Simply because their product was being used in a professional setting didn’t mean it was a product-market fit. Overhaul and invest in your people strategy.

Scale 210

Scale SMB Enterprise Sales Hiring 210

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2022

When to Set Your First Target: At the early startup stage, founders are focused on acquiring the first customers, finding the right product-market fit, and getting their company off the ground. Invest in Sales Ops and/or Finance: This is the time to move the art of sales to a repeatable, more measured science.

Sales Hiring 266

Sales Hiring Revenue Finance Startup 266

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

Higher than he imagined in terms of the founder quality bar and, the stage of the business, and growth and efficiency metrics. For instance, Founders Fund doesn’t really invest in AI, health tech, or edtech, even if you’re growing 5x. If you’ve stalled, it means you’ve fallen out of product market fit.

Sales Hiring 259

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 259

SaaStr

OCTOBER 7, 2022

The number of global venture capital (VC) investments dipped in 2022, thanks to ongoing geopolitical tensions, turbulence in global capital markets, supply chain issues, and increasing interest rates. The rise and fall of these investments have resulted in negativity in the global VC space in 2022. The recent downward movement.

Venture Capital 212

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Construction 212

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2021

A mentor of mine suggested that I reframe my search to seek out companies that I would invest in, instead of the other way around. He told me, you can invest time, talent, or treasure. Unfortunately for me, I had little experience, not much talent, and lacked the treasure/money to invest. It seemed like the best investment! .

Scale 263

Scale Sales Hiring Sales SMB 263

SaaStr

DECEMBER 23, 2022

When you know something is working, you invest in scaling it. “It Samsara has also learned powerful lessons from expanding its product into novel markets. Samsara found a repeatable motion that allowed them to invest in a local team familiar with the challenges. You can’t assume that your product works everywhere.

Scale 173

Scale Engineering Marketing Scaling 173

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2023

Blosser comments, “The big thing I want to share with everyone is just stick with it if you feel like you have product-market fit. WorkRamp invested a lot in its customer success team, contributing to the gross margin. When in doubt, listen to what customers and the market is telling you rather than traditional advice.

Scale 205

Scale Scaling SMB Marketing 205

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

1 Fake product-market fit. You’re company building before product building. So why do founders believe they have market fit, even if they don’t? Raising a series of pre-product market fit. There is a common misconception that product-market fit means you’ve conceptually built what buyers want.

Underperforming Technical Team 177

Underperforming Technical Team Startup Engineering Retention 177

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Product Marketing Manager: This person is tasked with developing product marketing campaigns , crafting compelling marketing messages, and coming up with ideas to retain customers. Cash Position and Flow : These metrics help CEOs track how much money is at hand, what’s coming in, and how the cash is spent.

Sales Hiring 96

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 96

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.

Startup 185

Startup Sales Hiring Payment Solutions Payment Services 185

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2022

Sometimes you find that the customer is fond of your product while investors don’t want to invest because they don’t believe in it. That means that you have to find an investor who truly understands your business model and your challenges, supports you, and has invested in other companies in the same industry. .

Scale 199

Scale Marketing Scaling Communication 199

User Pilot

FEBRUARY 4, 2023

The growth metrics you should be tracking. TL;DR Growth analytics looks at each pillar of growth and chooses the metrics that dictate product growth and revenue. Growth analytics and product analytics go hand-in-hand but are different. Finally, act on that data to improve product adoption. Let’s get started.

Acquisition 95

Acquisition Retention Churn Metrics 95

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Investors have realized how revolutionary technology is and they are ready to invest heavily. Instead of thinking of companies based on how much money investors are giving to them, try to think about companies based on how much money customers are willing to spend to use their products. You will need to fire some of your customers.

Startup 207

Startup Scaling Banking Product Marketing 207

The Angel VC

NOVEMBER 29, 2013

Depending on the stage that you’re in you’ll want to focus on different metrics. The key message of the chart is that in the beginning you can focus on a small set of metrics, but as time goes by and you’re making progress you need to add additional KPIs to your cockpit. Firstly there just aren’t many metrics to keep an eye on yet.

Scale 190

Scale Startup SaaS Customer Lifetime Value 190

SaaStr

MAY 29, 2019

Ellevest is on a mission to close the gender investing gap by leveraging a robo-advisor designed especially for women. About Claire Hughes Johnson… Sitting at number two on the list, Claire was the most steadily popular across all our metrics. With a staggering amount of likes as a presenter and a stellar sessions average.

Payment Methods 229

Payment Methods Payment Solutions Payment Services Banking 229

User Pilot

APRIL 25, 2024

Effective market research combines both qualitative methods, which explore consumer motivations, and quantitative methods, which provide measurable statistics, to create comprehensive insights that guide business strategy and decision-making. Conclusion Throughout our look at market research, we’ve seen its importance and impact.

Market Research 52

Market Research Outsourcing Services Marketing Outsourced Development 52

ChurnZero

MAY 6, 2022

He also discusses how the market’s perception of net revenue retention has shifted over the last decade and what companies can do to increase this red-hot metric. It’s easier to build products that buyers have budgets for. Oftentimes, people build great products. Product-market fit means you can keep customers.

Retention 98

Retention Revenue Entrepreneurship B2C 98

SaaStock

MARCH 14, 2019

Jos White, General Partner at Notion Capital , moderates the panel featuring Nicola McClafferty, Investment Director at Draper Esprit, Michael Brown, General Partner at Battery Ventures, and Tom Mendoza, Venture Investor at EQT Ventures. Their own key considerations, including metrics and parameters.

Investment 128

Investment SaaS Product Marketing Metrics 128

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 20, 2021

Here are three ways to know if it’s time to invest in customer support operations (if you’re looking to scale, it probably is), and a few simple things your organization can do to get started. There are a lot of metrics you can use to measure your customer support team’s performance. Sound good? What is customer support operations?

Scale 156

Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 156

User Pilot

MAY 1, 2024

The ‘why’ shapes every aspect of your community — from the content and activities you plan to the metrics you’ll use to measure success , ultimately guiding the unique aspects of your own brand community. This option requires more investment but allows customization to perfectly match your community’s needs and goals.

Branding 76

Branding Social Media Acquisition Advertising 76

User Pilot

OCTOBER 15, 2023

Conversion rate is one of the most important metrics to track in SaaS, and that’s why conversion rate optimization is an essential focus for growth in any business. Let’s look at the most essential metrics and tactics you can utilize to improve them. Four SaaS conversion rates are significant to focus on.

SaaS Payments 97

SaaS Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions Payments 97