Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2020

Today, we’re answering the question: how do teams grow as a startup scales? Software companies invest in engineering early and then the product matures, complement that engineering and product investment with go to market teams to commercialize the product. But in sales, a CRO is often hired at the $20-50M ARR range.

Scale 357

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Software Review 357

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2024

To the OG software people who read SaaStr, Jason is “the guy,” Sam says. He’s the person that the founders of Hubspot and companies that make tens of millions of dollars want to learn about software from. He’s invested in startups as a VC since 2013 and has 10x his fund. Let’s step back into the older days of software.

Engineering 237

Engineering Business Model Pricing Scaling 237

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2021

Battery Ventures recently put out its Software 2021 report with a ton of interesting learnings across the leaders in SaaS and Cloud. Battery Ventures’ data says while VC investment $$$ are on fire — they aren’t going into more startups. Some guideposts to guide to at scale. #4. A few top takeaways: #1.

Investment 231

Investment SMB Acquisition Cloud 231

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Automation at scale. 2 Cloud is Eating Software. The astonishing fact is: cloud is eating software. In just five years, Cloud will become the majority of the software market. By 2030, it is predicted to take over all technology and software. Hardware is turning soft, and software is empowering innovation.

Technical Review 292

Technical Review Cloud Software Review Technology 292

Clouded Judgement

JULY 21, 2023

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Subscribe now Are Software Companies Bad Businesses? There was some talk last week on the All-In podcast about software companies. The gold standard for all public software companies is GAAP net income in the fullness of time.

Cloud 130

Cloud Software Sales Hiring Scale 130

SaaStr

JANUARY 6, 2021

How do you scale a company based that can be collaborative for everyone in your org — from finance to marketing? From the beginning, Airtable convinced themselves that they had a different category of product through the creation of a software creation platform that anyone can use. Challenges as CEO. Mentorship is crucial to success.

Scale 192

Scale Software Review Scaling Sales Hiring 192

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Subscribe now Is Software Rebounding? This is the first quarter we’ve heard that message, and a good leading indicator for the rest of the software buying universe. I’m calculating FCF by taking the Operating Cash Flow and subtracting CapEx and Capitalized Software Costs. net retention and CAC payback).

Cloud 177

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 177

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2023

The SMBTech economy is very different from enterprise software, and there is massive opportunity to capture it. Instead of walking into places or calling on the phone to speak to someone, businesses could reach customers through social media and other software. There are over 400M small businesses worldwide. That’s why patience is key.

Scale 188

Scale SMB Merchant Services Payment Methods 188

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Scale-ups are exciting. Scaling to satisfy customers’ demands depends on innovation and foresight combined with enterprise-ready technology and the right partners. On top of considerable dedication, creating a scale-up requires a functional edge—a unique and unreplicable capability compared to the players in the industry.

Scale 214

Scale Scaling Marketplace as a Service Entrepreneurship 214

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Eran Zimman, monday.com’s co-founder and co-CEO, shares his secrets to scaling and growth in an unpredictable market. It’s a very flexible software that allows everyone to build their own solution. It’s a very flexible software that allows everyone to build their own solution. Why project management? It’s cheap.

Scale 164

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 164

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2023

CIPIO Partners is a pan-European growth equity firm and early growth investor, primarily in software and software-enabled models. A Strategic Move Upmarket Another company CIPIO Partners invested in needed to make a strategic move. They had SMB positioning with an unfavorable LTV to CAC ratio. How did they solve the issue?

Scale 220

Scale Strategy Scaling Outbound Sales Team 220

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2022

In my own portfolio , more of my investments had a record month in October than a rough month. And they say 2023 will be a banner year for enterprise software spend at least — growing a stunning 11% to $880 Billion. 32% are increasing investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and 24% in hyperautomation”, per Gartner.

Forecasting 233

Forecasting Artificial Intelligence Software Business 233

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Metronome is a cutting-edge billing infrastructure company designed to support the rapid growth and adaptability required by modern software companies. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? Why did you do the deal?

Scale 223

Scale Software Review Payment Features AI 223

SaaStr

DECEMBER 26, 2023

Almost Everyone’s Gotten Radically More Efficient in SaaS That’s a good metric to think about at scale now. In part, because unicorn rounds have evaporated in SaaS (outside of some AI outliers), everyone just has to be cash-flow positive at scale. But what does it mean in practice, when you are well before the IPO stage?

Venture Capital 268

Venture Capital Scaling AI Investment 268

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 27, 2022

It’s one of the few aspects of computer science that you can’t hide with a thin layer of software. However, as applications scale, distribution becomes a necessity. It is needed as data … The post Investing in Convex appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz. Really hard.

Investment 92

Investment Scaling Software Data 92

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

They also hired a VP of Partners who knew how to scale B2B software. Partner: investing in different partnership channels. Storyblok then invested in an onboarding and learning platform to create a four-week onboarding program rather than the lengthy wiki pages they previously used. Self-service.

Scale 186

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 186

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

Doug Pepper, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth, has invested in software and SaaS companies for 22 years, from seed to growth stage. They initially double their ARR each year in scaling post $10M. Over the last ten years, ICONIQ Growth has partnered with over 90 companies, seeing them grow through critical phases.

Scale 197

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Venture Capital 197

Casey Accidental

MARCH 29, 2022

A common issue leaders in product management, design, or engineering face is justifying investment in the “non-sexy” stuff. I’ll walk through some frameworks and examples from my career on how to drive excitement and investment in these critical areas that may not be properly valued or staffed currently in your organization.

Investment 139

Investment Underperforming Technical Team User Experience Scale 139

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2023

PST, to unveil the data behind effective scaling. Pepper shares that ICONIQ, a venture capital firm with $10B under management, made fewer investments last year than ever before. What are companies doing today to scale efficiently? 59% of companies are implementing software cuts. 80% of companies are slowing hiring.

Outsourcing Services 164

Outsourcing Services Scaling Venture Capital Forecasting 164

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 7, 2020

“Support isn’t just a cost center, but a strategic investment that increases customer retention and reduces churn” Indeed, if you look at the broader financial models of customer support, you’ll see that support isn’t just a cost center, but a strategic investment that increases customer retention and reduces churn.

Customer Support 196

Customer Support Investment Scale Retention 196

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

The same is true in software. In this battle, I’ve found a secret weapon hidden within one of our core engineering strategies, an idea called Run Less Software. As well as being a critical philosophy behind how we build software, it also represents how I feel about the software industry and technology in general.

Software Review 224

Software Review Outsourcing Services Software Outsourced Development 224

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

Scaling a support team is challenging enough as it is. You’re investing resources in hiring and training the right people, tracking different metrics at different stages, adding more and more complexity with each increase in headcount, use cases, and customers. The complexities of scaling a support team. Natasha: It really is.

Scale 206

Scale Software Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring 206

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 31, 2019

Putting narrative order on the past decade, a 10-year-period that has somehow remained stubbornly nameless, is quite the challenge, but it’s impossible to make sense of the 2010s without understanding the role of software. The scale is extraordinary. The post The decade software ate the world appeared first on Inside Intercom.

Payment Solutions 259

Payment Solutions Payment Methods Software SaaS Payments 259

FastSpring

DECEMBER 7, 2023

In this episode of Growth Stage, Carl will dives into his experience running acquisitions of SMB software businesses, including: His thoughts on what makes a software company a good target for an acquisition by a brand. What factors beyond financials makes a target even more valuable. I’d like to welcome Carl Hargreaves.

Software Review 128

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Branding 128

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? In a world consumed by software we believe that a tremendous amount of value will come from the connective tissue between the systems, sharing data proactively across apps to drive the most seamless and effective software stack. Why did you do the deal? 2024 is also a year of truth.

Scale 187

Scale B2B Investment Acquisition 187

Buffer Resources

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

But, she’s also made the intentional decision to scale back over the past couple of years, stopping her work with subcontractors, cutting down client projects to what she could manage on her own, and reducing her revenue by over $100,000.    Location: Appleton, Wisconsin Initial capital invested: Very little!

Scale 109

Scale Scaling Payment Solutions Payment Services 109

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

I’m calculating FCF by taking the Operating Cash Flow and subtracting CapEx and Capitalized Software Costs. As a public company with significant scale, it’s hard to grow quickly if you have to rely solely on new customers for that growth. Some software companies also have seasonality in the “payback.”

Cloud 169

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 169

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 20, 2023

The question on everyone’s mind - when will we see software re-accelerate? The real headwinds to software (tougher expansion, longer sales cycles / procurement, slower new business, budget crunches / RIFs, etc) started last August. And I’m optimistic we’ll see reacceleration in software by the end of the year.

Cloud 161

Cloud Software Benchmarks Scale 161

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? Embat is building the next-generation treasury management software. What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? For over two decades, Creandum has specialized in early-stage investing, Seed and Series A. Check that out here.

Payments 197

Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Scale 197

Chart Mogul

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

The software M&A (mergers and acquisitions) market saw its best year yet in 2020, and it’s on track to see another record year in 2021. VC-backed startups are buying other startups at the fastest pace in over a decade and North American startup investment totaled 155 billion this year so far.

Scale 96

Scale Acquisition Scaling Sales Hiring 96

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

They were $1.7B+ ARR in October , so let’s call it close to $2B at the end of the year, growing 40%+ at that scale –and profitable! (or 300 Employees Working on AI Not a surprise, but interesting to see the scale of investment here. #5. or at least cash flow positive) all just in Year 10 since founding.

AWS 245

AWS B2C AI Scaling 245

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. You’re not scaling as quickly as you’d like. Sound good? What is customer support operations? Use the right tools.

Scale 156

Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 156

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2023

I’ve invested in Logikcull and been an advisor to Showpad, both of which are successful and did just that. More on that with CEO Ben Chestnut here: The challenges include obvious ones such as relative scale and resource contention: Do you kill the services business once the software business takes off? This is almost impossible.

Business 217

Business Investment Software Scaling 217

Neil Patel

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

The good news is data labeling is scalable when you work with the right data labeling software. Data labeling is the process of analyzing raw data and labeling it to provide context to machine learning software, algorithms, and end-users. The task is usually completed by a combination of software, processes, and people.

Scale 125

Scale Outsourcing Services Artificial Intelligence Scaling 125

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 12, 2023

Less than half of the software universe is guiding above consensus, and the median guide has gone from ~2.5% This quarter more than half of cloud software businesses missed next quarters consensus. I’m calculating FCF by taking the Operating Cash Flow and subtracting CapEx and Capitalized Software Costs.

Cloud 161

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 161

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2024

What’s your most recent disclosed investment? What’s your sweet spot for investing — check size, stage, type of deal? Stage 2 Capital invests $4M to $6M in first checks into B2B software companies that are around $1M ARR. These investments typically occur between the seed and the A round. Check that out here.

Technical Review 265

Technical Review Scale Management Sales Hiring 265

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Failure #3: Not Scaling Based On Leading Indicators There’s a big fallacy in software. At Gainsight, they’ve scaled too fast many times. Three moments when they scaled too fast include: Assuming an Enterprise opportunity for CS after closing only one Enterprise deal. Scaling newly acquired raw technology too soon.

Scale 228

Scale Sales Hiring SaaS Scaling 228