Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

The purpose of the detailed information is to help investors (both institutional and retail) make informed investment decisions. This post and the information presented are intended for informational purposes only.

Benchmarks 299

Benchmarks Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 299

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 28, 2025

That juxtaposition is what makes investing in venture markets these days so fun! This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. This post and the information presented are intended for informational purposes only.

Cloud 299

Cloud AI Scale Scaling 299

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2024

Flipping the format: Instead of 90% executive presentations and 10% discussion, they now focus 90% on strategic discussions 2. Engineering resources: With thousands of engineers, companies like HubSpot can make substantial AI investments when they choose to 3. And I think a lot of the board members did too.”

AI 281

AI Marketing SaaS Interviewing 281

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 8, 2024

Both structured data & unstructured data (extracting information from presentations & pdfs) can be built using Cortex. Cortex is a suite of AI building blocks that enable customers to leverage large language models (LLMs) & build applications.

Artificial Intelligence 271

Artificial Intelligence AI Search AI Investment 271

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2025

First, if youre not sure they want to invest they probably dont want to. The One Question To Ask At The End of Every VC Pitch: What Are The Odds You Would Invest? Just ask what are the odds theyd want to invest, based on what they know now. And its 100% OK to ask. This can lead to hesitation or misaligned expectations.

Investment 160

Investment Startup Communication Engagement 160

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2025

Successful startups balance optimism with realism by presenting a compelling vision while grounding their projections in credible, data-backed assumptions. For example, “If our churn rate exceeds 10%, we’ll invest in a dedicated customer success team to improve retention.”

Scale 205

Scale Sales Hiring Benchmarks Churn 205

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 20, 2025

This will present more challenges. Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter").

Cloud 157

Cloud AI Headcount Pricing 157

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 13, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 144

Cloud Data AI Investment 144

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2025

This exclusive opportunity includes: A featured 2-minute demo slot on the Mayfield AI Demo Stage A chance to win a $500K+ SAFE investment from the Mayfield AI Garage Exposure to SaaStr’s community of SaaS and AI leaders To enter, complete the application linked below.

AI 193

AI Travel Consulting Startup 193

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 21, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 188

Cloud Payment Features Subscription Pricing 188

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2025

The most significant advantage came from customer acquisitioncustomers who might reject an incomplete single-product offering were willing to overlook gaps when presented with a multi-product platform vision. This strategy paid off dramatically: at Samsara, their second product has now surpassed their original offering in ARR.

Scale 258

Scale Transportation Scaling SMB 258

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 144

Cloud Banking Payment Features Subscription 144

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 6, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 144

Cloud Technical Review Software Review Technical Advisors 144

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2024

Despite ever-present uncertainty and change, our analysis suggests that public markets remain resilient and that AI continues to present a new vector of opportunity.” Private Equity does have record amounts to invest. #4. Software growth is the next big phase from AI investment. ” #1. Fingers crossed!!

Software 318

Software AI Scale Investment 318

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2025

Be Present. #2. Would you invest more today? In rough order: #1. Hiding Important Things. VCs are wired to take bad news. But not for it to be thrown at them at the last minute: If Times Are Tough — Don’t Hide. Not Knowing the Zero Cash Date Cold. You just have to know exactly when the cash runs out. And manage to it.

Investment 170

Investment Management Marketing Business 170

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 24, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Enterprise 157

Enterprise AI Cloud Artificial Intelligence 157

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

As the premier SaaS conference , SaaStr Annual’s ability to attract top-tier investment firms and the best SaaS Founders creates unparalleled Founder <> Investor networking and learning opportunities. . Generation Investment Management. How Women Invest. Megeve Investments. PHARUS Investment Partners.

Scale 300

Scale Venture Capital Innovation Banking 300

Clouded Judgement

MAY 16, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Trends 144

Trends Cloud Payment Features Subscription 144

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2021

Let’s examine the relationship between total venture capital investment and the 10 year Treasury in some detail. The y-axis tracks enture capital investment by year and the year of the data point resides in the reddish circle. In short, we should expect some cooling. Do you remember this shape from high school math?

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Marketing Government Investment 363

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 7, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 157

Cloud Forecasting Payment Features Subscription 157

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 14, 2025

Sources used in this post include Bloomberg, Pitchbook and company filings The information presented in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the view of any other person or entity, including Altimeter Capital Management, LP ("Altimeter"). Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 144

Cloud Software Payment Features Subscription 144

SaaStr

AUGUST 11, 2024

As a reminder, the SaaStr Fund is investing $170,000,000 in seed and late-seed investments. Algolia and Legacy Investment Talkdesk in BVP Cloud 100! At SaaStr Annual in September , their CTO will present all the hard data on how it actually works. A big week at SaaStr Fund! Some great news this week: #1. We led the U.S.

Cloud 296

Cloud AI Generative AI CTO 296

SaaStr

JULY 21, 2020

Have Your Team Present More, and You Less. Instead, backfill them and help them present the best that they can. Just assume none of your investors invest again. Professional investors can even write off any given investment if they have to. Share it, so everyone knows and can plan accordingly. More on that here.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting New CTO Scale CTO 363

Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 11, 2024

This behavior can create a surge in purchasing activity, as organizations look to make strategic investments without losing their allocated funds. This is for information purposes and should not be construed as an investment recommendation. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 167

Cloud Cost optimization & reporting GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Review 167

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

First, VCs that attend regular board meetings are much, much more likely to invest again. Then, they have to present a dif to those goals at each meeting. A board meeting presentation is the best way. A few non-obvious ways you can use having regular Board meetings to help you. And to make intros for the next round.

Investment 363

Investment Engineering Management Company Culture 363

TechEmpower SaaS

OCTOBER 9, 2023

This presents businesses with an opportunity to enhance their search functionalities for both internal and external users. It gives stakeholders an opportunity to assess the benefits and challenges before making additional investment on iterative improvements. A PoC is a pragmatic step to evaluate the feasibility and results.

AI Search 519

AI Search Artificial Intelligence Generative AI AI 519

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2025

If you’ve used Zendesk, Algolia, Contentful, or Loom, you’ve experienced the impact of his investment thesis firsthand.

Data 136

Data Acquisition AI Finance 136

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2020

You should already know most of what your team presents. It’s usually a great set of slides for you and your VPs to present from, that everyone has already put a ton of work into … without having to do a lot of new work. After all, you already presented your board slides just a week or two ago before. This is true.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting Management Engineering Customer Success 363

USIO

APRIL 24, 2025

That complexity presents a huge opportunity for Healthcare CRMs, ERPs, and ISVs to drive real value. Invest in Embedded Payment Technology Whether you build, buy, or partner, embedding payment solutions into your software stack creates a seamless, end-to-end experience for users.

Merchant Services 130

Merchant Services Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 130

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

One metric stood out to me I hadn’t seen presented before: just how many private SaaS companies (i.e., I’ve invested at the seed level at 6 that are past $100m ARR today, so I assumed it was a bit more than 150. startups) have crossed $100,000,000. It’s only 150.

SaaS 338

SaaS Startup Metrics Investment 338

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2024

So Redpoint Ventures published some of the slides they recently presented to their Limited Partners (their own investors) here. And what it says is that even though Seed stage investing remains arguably as strong as ever … Series A hasn’t bounced back.

AI 347

AI Pricing Investment Data 347

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2025

Reallocate Thoughtfully, Not Recklessly I get ityou want to invest in product and dev to fix the core issues. These channels often have a lower CAC and can help you maintain momentum while you invest in product. Actionable Insight : Present a clear strategy to your board that includes: A plan to optimize sales and marketing spend (e.g.,

Marketing 149

Marketing Scale Churn Content Marketing 149

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2022

That’s 10% of all the invested capital!! Let’s talk about why it’s a good investment: Trade shows / events produce a lot of so-called “leads”, but a lot of cr*p leads and long lead time leads. This is some of the magic in the math of the investment. You gotta be present. And I said do it.

Scale 336

Scale Investment Retention Customer Success 336

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2024

At least, send enough of it so I already want to invest by the time I’ve read it. What will is a deck detailed enough to present the entire story in a very compelling format. Make the deck so compelling, the VC already wants to invest before the first meeting. Dear SaaStr: Do VCs Like Short, Teaser Pitch Decks?

Investment 291

Investment Sales 291

Clouded Judgement

JULY 12, 2024

Because your competitors are investing in AI efforts, you also have to invest in AI efforts. At the end of the day these investments might not immediately result in better business outcomes (ie more revenue), but they certainly lead to better end user experiences. Altimeter is an investment adviser registered with the U.S.

Cloud 288

Cloud AI Investment User Experience 288

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2024

Learn from partners presenting in various sessions throughout the conference, including Andrew Steele at Activant Capital , Ajay Vashee from IVP , Sandhya Heghe at Unusual VC , and Seema Amble from Andreessen Horowitz. I loved the recent write-up by Lighter Capital of SaaStr Annual.

Banking 294

Banking Finance Startup Investment 294

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2021

You change / make up a new valuation based on how much the VC wants to invest. Don’t change the price, at least not explicitly, based on a VC saying they’d invest $Xm or $Xk. “Oh Oh if you want to invest $2m, then the price is $20m. Don’t bring up anecdotes about every company a VC has invested in. Don’t do that.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Investment Pricing Business Model 287