SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Lattice has launched four product suites in the last eight years, and the ideas that drove their growth apply to most companies today. Many of you are familiar with this visual, most likely created by an investment firm. This showcases a narrow segment of a niche market, and it’s missing a lot of startups.

Scale 221

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 221

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. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework.

Cloud 284

Cloud Venture Capital Acquisition Metrics 284

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2023

In the past, Jason has led investments in Algolia, Pipedrive, Salesloft, TalkDesk, and RevenueCat to name a few. Prior to SaaStr, Jason was an entrepreneur, selling EchoSign to Adobe for $100M where it is now a $250M ARR product. Is the pricing of seed rounds impacted since the downturn?

Benchmarks 212

Benchmarks Investment Pricing Product Marketing 212

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

The report’s authors already laid out how to get back to hyper-growth , and their article inspired me to share my predictions for 2021’s most important product marketing trends: 1. More SaaS companies will adopt product-led growth. More SaaS companies will move to usage-based pricing.

Product Marketing 58

Product Marketing Trends Scale Marketing 58

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Going-To-Market With Budget Constraints Giancarlo joined Zapier as CRO when it was a more mature business, and admittedly, later than many hire their first CRO. So when’s the right time to invest more in sales and marketing when we’re all trying to become radically efficient ?

Scale 250

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 250

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 338

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 338

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2023

Watch it here: And only then … product-market fit. A bad VC will tell others not to invest. A bit more here: The 10 Things I’d Tell My Younger CEO Self to Do Better Next Time | SaaStr and 10 Things Maybe Not to Do In The Earlyish Days | SaaStr Dear SaaStr: How do companies determine what price to sell something at?

Scale 205

Scale Pricing Innovation Revenue 205

User Pilot

AUGUST 6, 2023

Using customer relationship management (CRM) software to centralize your customer data is a worthwhile investment since it will prevent the formation of data silos and streamline the process of ensuring everyone has access to the information they need. Promotional emails are consistent with the information on your pricing pages.

Investment 90

Investment Banking Social Media Customer Lifetime Value 90

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 230

VP of Engineering Technical Cofounder Outsourcing Services CTO Coach 230

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Sydney pulled someone from Salesloft with a product marketing background who understands operations, running programs, and being strategic. This person has built out a partnership marketing team within the product marketing team. Pick your strategies, invest in them, and start tiering. It won’t work.

AWS 198

AWS Scale Sales Hiring Marketing 198

Tom Tunguz

JULY 19, 2023

Reflecting on the last three quarters : Startups have parted with colleagues to extend runway in a difficult fundraising market. Some have significant balance sheets & discovered the ostensible product-market fit isn’t as strong as the business may have believed. The M&A & IPO markets are quiet.

Forecasting 186

Forecasting Startup Pricing Investment 186

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 7, 2015

Is it worth more or less than X product? Ascertain whether the customer believes the return on investment is wildly in their favor. Also, I’m determining whether the company is successfully matching their branding with their price point with a relative pricing question. How quickly is the product evolving?

Product Marketing 159

Product Marketing Development Team Review Software Review Startup 159

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

2021 has proven to be the year of usage-based pricing. . 45% of expansion stage SaaS companies now say they have a usage-based or consumption-based pricing model, according to data from OpenView’s forthcoming 2021 Finance and Operations benchmarks report. . Product: Treat product investments as a revenue-generating expense.

Pricing 64

Pricing Customer Success Scale Compensation 64

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2020

VCs are Worried about “Deflation” in terms of pricing funding rounds. Mark sees multiples falling, which doesn’t just lead to lower prices … it leads to a Stop. “It makes price discover much more difficult.” It Angers Folks, So VCs Default to Newer Deals vs. Lower Priced Rounds.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Venture Capital Innovation Pricing 286

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

Any changes to either of these should cause you to reconsider your pricing strategy. Related read: The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Resources Guide. This is generally a bad thing, as commoditization means lower willingness to pay and less opportunity to make strategic pricing decisions. Has the segmentation itself changed?

Pricing 73

Pricing Marketing Market Segmentation Communication 73

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

They grew like crazy when they found product-market-fit and raised a big Series A and B. Or, maybe they missed a couple of quarters in a row, and stock prices are threatened, so they make a move. In general, your valuation is a hard floor on a good acquisition price. It’s a tough place to be.

Underperforming Technical Team 164

Underperforming Technical Team Data Development Team Review Technical Review 164

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

From an R&D perspective, they invested in what they called vertical solutions to support those new use cases. So, Calendly decided to invest in going Enterprise. Kate has a simple framework for going upmarket: Product, People, and Process. From a product standpoint, you might think you have product market fit.

Scale 216

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 216

User Pilot

APRIL 17, 2024

Want to understand what customers think and how they behave in your product ? If so, you need to invest in the right customer insight tools. These tools are perfect for providing valuable customer insights to make product improvements and optimize your customer experience. Userpilot pricing Starter : Priced at $249/month.

AI Search 96

AI Search Social Media Cross-platform App Design (Application) Systems Review 96

SaaStr

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Not all products are made for enterprise customers. Instead, focus on understanding your target market. . The best way to achieve product-market fit is to study your audience as early as possible and comprehensively overview customer segments in your niche. It’s a waste of time to try to get everyone interested.

Scale 188

Scale Scaling Revenue Enterprise 188

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

The four key pillars he lays out are: Product market fit & expansion. Go to market approach & expansion. 1 Product-Market Fit and Expansion. Is your product sound, and does it solve a big problem for customers, enough for you to scale? Competitive differentiation. Building a stage-specific team. #1

Scale 310

Scale Scaling Technical Review Systems Review 310

User Pilot

OCTOBER 5, 2023

TL;DR The CAC payback period measures the time it takes for a company to recover the money invested in new customer acquisition. This metric helps SaaS companies choose the most effective customer acquisition channels , diagnose inefficiencies in customer retention strategies , and inform pricing decisions. Book the demo to see how!

SaaS Payments 104

SaaS Payments Customer Lifetime Value Payment Solutions Acquisition 104

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2023

If you don’t want your company defeated by change, you need to adapt your Go-To-Market strategy at every stage of growth. Managing Partner of CIPIO Partners, Rolan Dennert, shares how companies need to readjust and rethink GTM fit — and even product market fit — from time to time. Otherwise, things will slow down.

Scale 219

Scale Strategy Scaling Outbound Sales Team 219

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

Klue , which operates an AI-based competitive analysis platform, announced a $15 million Series A investment this week. The round also saw investments from angels like Frederic Kerrest, who is the co-founder of Okta. . Then a central group, which is usually the product marketing team, can curate it.” .

AI 263

AI Consulting Interviewing Innovation 263

User Pilot

JUNE 20, 2023

Is it the best way to invest the resources? Why validate product ideas before building them? In short, product idea validation is necessary to ensure that there is a market need for the product and it offers features and functionality that accurately addresses the pain points the target audience faces.

Underperforming Technical Team 96

Underperforming Technical Team Social Media Scale Interviewing 96

Sales Hacker

MARCH 12, 2024

Prior to RJMetrics, Bob worked on the Investment Team of Insight Partners. Discussed in this Episode: Ecosystem-led growth is about leveraging partnerships to make your go-to-market teams more successful. It involves creating a mesh of interconnected products and services that deliver a joint value proposition to customers.

Cloud 96

Cloud Trends Startup Pricing 96

Tom Tunguz

MAY 13, 2019

My answer was: it’s become incredibly sophisticated along three dimensions: diversity of product offering, pricing sophistication, and efficiency of investment processes. Would you like that Series B from an opportunity fund, an SPV funded by direct LP investment or from a third part? So do private market investors.

Pricing 255

Pricing Startup Investment Trends 255

Casey Accidental

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

In my recent essay about second products , I talked about how the goal of building a second product is not the traditional concept of product/market fit we’ve all been raised on regarding startups. In some ways, our goal with a second product is easier, and in some ways, much harder.

Underperforming Technical Team 63

Underperforming Technical Team Scale GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Startup 63

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

Mistake: Not standardizing pricing and related systems early Every enterprise-oriented startup, including Gainsight, can fall into the same trap. And if you didn’t invest proactively in systems like CPQ early, you create a byzantine mess that’s impossible to scale. Invest in back-office systems early.

Sales Hiring 254

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Customer Success 254

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2023

This is the same advice they give YC companies to become much more successful at fundraising when they’re pre-product market fit. If you’re going to replace Figma and your pricing is competitive, tell them that. Throw in a comparison to understand why the price is that price. This is a hard skill to learn.

Payment Methods 212

Payment Methods Startup Payment Solutions Sales Hiring 212

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 16, 2013

Products aren’t sold in isolation - they exist within ecosystems. Great product market fit and sales pitches hinge on understanding and serving all the members of an ecosystem. Should a product fail to meet the needs of any one member, company success and sales velocity will falter.

Product Marketing 100

Product Marketing Marketing Advertising Sales 100

Casey Accidental

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

After product/market fit, most companies’ obsession is not thinking about how to create their next amazing product. Specifically, how do I get this product I know is valuable in the hands of everyone it can be valuable to. As I have discussed in previous essays , product/market fit can be hard to interpret at the time.

Payments 63

Payments Scale Payment Methods Underperforming Technical Team 63

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

As you approach $10m ARR, Initial Scale, money per se shouldn’t be an issue, other than the rate at which you can and should invest it. But assuming you are growing > 6-10% a month (which you should be at this point, if you have product-market fit) … you will get there. Every hire is just too expensive.

Sales Hiring 300

Sales Hiring Scale Banking Engineering 300

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

How did he come to be CEO at the market leader, UserTesting? * Why does Andy think the seat-based pricing model in SaaS will die? Why is volume-based pricing optimal? How does one instil volume based pricing without disincentivizing usage? We use tons of their products. What are the downsides of it?

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring Scale Leadership Sales Enablement 189

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

These deep-dive topics can be functional in nature, such as delving into the product roadmap or the sales hiring plan. They can also be more strategic, such as a discussion on whether to consider entering into a new business, changing pricing, or adding a new GTM motion. Public companies unfortunately require longer meetings.)

Sales Hiring 231

Sales Hiring Scale Leadership Startup 231

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 13, 2019

You have to build a product that solves a problem and works well for them. As you reach your next wave of growth, you need to continue to invest in those customers and in that product, and recognize that, in order to keep growing, you need that product to appeal to more people. Invest in what will scale”.

Scale 171

Scale Marketing Sales Hiring B2C 171

Andreessen Horowitz

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

7 engineers, if you include me, one designer and one kinda product slash everything else, who’s my co founder. We actually raised 6 million upfront, so we had a lot more money, but I think pre-product market fit, it’s better to be sub 10 people. Immad: Yeah, pricing is kind of weird for Mercury.

Sales Hiring 86

Sales Hiring Banking Scale Pricing 86

User Pilot

MAY 8, 2023

Most challenges that a software company will face fall into one of three categories: product, sales, and business/operations. Getting the positioning, messaging , and product-market fit right will be one of the earliest determiners of whether or not a SaaS solution will find success within its target market.

Software Review 98

Software Review Outsourcing Services SaaS Sales Hiring 98