SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

Don’t try to evolve into a compound startup later – Unlike conventional wisdom about starting focused and expanding, Conrad believes it’s “really hard” to transition from a point solution to a compound startup: “You kind of have to almost refound the company.” The advantages are substantial: 1.

Startup 157

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 157

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2024

AI in B2B SaaS: The Incumbent Advantage On the AI revolution in B2B software, it’s the age-old ‘startups are innovating and racing to get distribution, and the bigger companies have distribution and are racing to innovate.’ ’ The twist this time is the data is very hard for startups to acquire or accumulate.

AI 284

AI Marketing SaaS Interviewing 284

SaaStr

JULY 4, 2025

Lower Competition = Higher Prices In horizontal markets, you’re competing with 47 project management tools. Toast can charge restaurant-specific pricing. But their customer bases couldn’t be more different. ” They’re digitizing their core business operations for the first time.

Merchant Services 323

Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments 323

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

New Startups and Companies and Enterprise Strong. But SMBs in the middle have become more cost and price-sensitive. #10. Adding Cash Bonuses for Performance, Reducing Equity Grants Everyone is under pressure to reduce stock-based expense, so Kalviyo is rolling out more short-term cash bonuses to make up for reduced equity grants. #9.

Scale 301

Scale SMB Scaling Enterprise 301

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2025

Financial Services: Mortgage & Loan Processing Help users explore mortgage options by collecting key inputs like purchase price, credit score, down payment, and property location, then presenting tailored loan choices with current rates. Pay only for what you use with transparent pass-through pricing for 3rd party integrations.

Payment Solutions 267

Payment Solutions Scale Payment Services AI 267

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2024

So most successful angels in tech are seeking startups that can 100x their money. That’s really 200x from the price they pay, because typically over the lifetime of an investment, total dilution is about 50%. If it’s just 1 Big Winner out of 50 angel investments, to even just double your money, that winner has to do 100x.

Investment 284

Investment Startup Pricing 284

SaaStr

JULY 12, 2025

5 Things Vanta Got Right and 5 They Got Wrong getting to the first $10m ARR When Christina Cacioppo co-founded Vanta in 2017, security compliance was an afterthought for most startups. Simplified Pricing to Annual-Only Early Vanta initially offered both monthly and annual pricing options, following the standard SaaS playbook.

Sales Hiring 184

Sales Hiring Software Review compliance Sales Recruiting 184

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

SaaS pricing isn’t static – it’s a living strategy that grows with your company. In this article we dive into a playbook for pricing across different stages of company growth, inspired by Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm. At this stage, startups face significant uncertainty.

Pricing 109

Pricing Scale SaaS Technical Review 109

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2025

Building a Customer Success (CS) team early is critical for SaaS startups. Hire for the Right Experience Level If you’re selling to mid-market or enterprise customers, hire someone who has experience managing accounts at a similar price point. Dear SaaStr: How Should Founders Build Their First Customer Success Team?

Sales Hiring 197

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale Churn 197

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2025

The latest Q2 2025 Pitchbook-NVCA venture data reveals a highly bifurcated market: AI companies and top-tier startups are raising record amounts at premium valuations, while everyone else faces the toughest funding environment in a decade. Most telling: every major IPO in Q2 priced 17-64% below peak private valuations. months (up 22%).

Startup 173

Startup Data AI Finance 173

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 28, 2024

I try to look at two things in Vertical SaaS startups, at least when investing : Will everyone in the vertical / industry use it? The good news is, you can support these price points effectively with a very efficient inbound sales team, and/or a mix of self-serve and sales-led. At two different price points. That’s the question.

Payment Solutions 261

Payment Solutions Inbound Sales Team Marketing Scale 261

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2025

And the evidence is mounting that AI startups aren’t just complementing SaaS — they’re actively hunting traditional SaaS incumbents for lunch. The Billion-Dollar AI Unicorn Factory The scale of AI startup funding isn’t just impressive — it’s existential for SaaS: The AI Billion-Dollar Club: OpenAI : $8.4

AI Search 289

AI Search Artificial Intelligence AI CTO Hire 289

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2025

You need to close the first 10, 20, or even 30 deals yourself to prove the product is sellable and to understand the objections, pricing dynamics, and customer needs. Startups are scrappy and chaotic, and they need people who can thrive in that environment. As the founder, you know the product and the customer better than anyone.

Outsourcing Services 193

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise 193

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2025

Competition and Differentiation: Founders worry about competitors copying their product or undercutting them on price. Look, No VC Wants to Fund a Startup With So-So Growth. But not most of us. It’s often the only way to scale meaningfully in SaaS. And you should. The pace here has accelerated even more with AI.

Scale 234

Scale Part-Time VPE Scaling Sales Hiring 234

SaaStr

MAY 1, 2025

Have They Sold at Your Price Point? Make sure theyve sold at a similar price point before. Selling for a startup is a completely different gameits scrappier, harder, and requires more creativity. Be very wary of hiring anyone at an early-stage startup who has never worked at one before. Be honest here.

Sales Hiring 261

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 261

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

And there is bad behavior all over the place on these imploding startups. Because VCs not only meet hundreds of startups a year, but they also get probably thousands of random inbounds asking for investment. And that means that 99 percent of startups can’t even raise venture capital. It is not just Theranos.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 312

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2025

Here’s the full breakdown of 25 top public B2B / SaaS companies and what it means for your startup. Traditional horizontal SaaS faces big headwinds (Salesforce -18%, Asana -31%). The Scoreboard: All 25 Public SaaS Companies Ranked I spent the weekend pulling YTD performance data for every significant public SaaS company.

B2B 264

B2B Government Healthcare compliance 264

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2025

From fintech startups like Stripe and Revolut to AI leaders like OpenAI, these companies represent the pinnacle of startup success. This isn’t just a trend—it’s a seismic shift that may rewrite the rules of startup valuations. The New Exit Math The traditional venture capital power law is becoming even more extreme.

AI Search 261

AI Search AI Venture Capital Scale 261

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2025

The company realizes that the startup space is highly competitive in terms of speed, and therefore, they need to execute extremely fast. The most successful startups are those that resonate with customers and succeed in taking budget from existing solutions without being compared to them, as they offer something new and better.

AI Search 244

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Technical Review 244

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

It was started in 2014 when founders Daniel and Jonathan were working together at a delivery startup and experienced firsthand how slow background checks were slowing down worker onboarding. Checkr’s go-to-market strategy was already well-established when Lindsay joined in 2022.

Revenue 293

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 293

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2025

Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 27, 2025 10 Unexpected Learnings from SVB’s 2025 State of the Markets Report Beyond the AI boom headlines, the 1H’25 data reveals surprising shifts that could reshape how we think about venture capital, startup operations, and the innovation economy. Companies are reaching the end of their options.

Outsourcing Services 173

Outsourcing Services Venture Capital Outsourced Development Data 173

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Most startup companies in earlier stages don’t have the most mature product. Walker Research found in 2024 that the customer experience is now equal to price and product regarding key brand differentiators. This is where customer success comes in.

Customer Success 284

Customer Success Scaling Social Media Enterprise readiness 284

Chart Mogul

JANUARY 9, 2025

Whether to offer a self-service model or not depends on a few factors: the products starting price, the level of customization involved, and how much support new users need to unlock its full potential. Source: Softrs pricing page. The majority of SaaS startups grow from $1M to $10M ARR by growing their subscriber base.

Scale 52

Scale Sales Hiring Startup Sales Recruiting 52

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2025

There is a time and place for experienced executives, but early stage startups often arent one of them especially true for experienced CFOs. It is an expensive mistake MANY startups make they go for the big experienced executive (or they inflate someones title) and then that person wants to hire too big of a team for the companys stage.

Scale 315

Scale Finance Headcount Leadership 315

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

These early conversations helped shape Databricks product, pricing, and go-to-market strategy. For startups looking to land their first big customers, Rons advice is simple: Leverage existing user communities. Pricing: Keep It Simple (At First) Databricks started with a simple, consumption-based pricing model.

Scale 176

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 176

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

Digital health company Hinge Health’s May 2025 debut particularly stands out—the company priced at $32 per share (top of its range) and opened at $39.25, closing up 17% on its first day. What’s Next Navan’s confidential filing means specific terms—share count, pricing range, timing—remain undisclosed.

B2B 187

B2B Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 187

Tom Tunguz

JULY 17, 2025

The last fifteen years, startups focused on building software around very well understood processes. The costs simply don’t justify themselves below price points of $100,000 or less per contract. What happens when technology evolves faster than your sales process can adapt?

AI 169

AI Marketing Sales Strategy 169

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 17, 2025

My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., Change in Share Price At the end of the day what investors care about is what happened to the stock after earnings were reported. net retention and CAC payback).

Cloud 277

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 277

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2025

From Parabus to Ramp: The Power of Asymmetric Bets When Karim Atiyah, CTO and co-founder of Ramp, first arrived in the United States from Lebanon in 2007, he couldn’t have predicted he’d build not one but two successful startups in the fintech space. But it’s what came next that demonstrates the power of bigger, bolder bets.

CTO Hire 208

CTO Hire CTO Coach Scale CTO 208

Subscription Flow

DECEMBER 10, 2024

Changing customer expectations, digital advancement, and transforming market trends call for a price discipline. Fair and competitive pricing, especially in the SaaS arena has emerged as a strong requirement for businesses looking for operational stability. What is Dynamic Pricing SaaS? 7 Types of Dynamic SaaS Pricing 1.

Pricing 52

Pricing SaaS Customer Lifetime Value Payment Features 52

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2025

Early adopters were predominantly tech companies, startups, and digital-native businesses with short decision cycles and high risk tolerance. Price pressure is coming. The organizations driving AI adoption today are fundamentally different from those who adopted in 2023. They could implement AI tools in weeks, not months.

AI 281

AI Payment Services Payments Scale 281

Clouded Judgement

JULY 25, 2025

Subscribe now TAMs Lie One of the easiest traps I fall into as an investor (which is even harder during platform shifts) is trying to evaluate a startup through the lens of the existing market. Follow along to stay up to date! But early in big transitions, TAM analysis often leads to the wrong conclusions.

Cloud 167

Cloud Software Review Underperforming Technical Team Scale 167

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

Demand Was the Ceiling, Not Cash Unlike most startups that struggle to generate sufficient pipeline, Wiz faced the opposite problem: “The company had a problem with managing high demand, having calendars full of demos and struggling to find time for team meetings outside of customer interactions.”

Scale 184

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Sales Recruiting 184

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Because too many startups fall into what Gross calls the “Enterprise Mirage” – landing a few big logos through heroic efforts but failing to build repeatable systems. The $10M ARR Rule for Enterprise Here’s a controversial but important take: If you’re under $10M ARR, stay away from Enterprise.

Enterprise readiness 146

Enterprise readiness Enterprise compliance Acquisition 146

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

For SaaS startups, this is your chance to get ahead of the curve instead of playing catch-up later. It’s becoming the price of admission for serious SaaS companies using AI. The AI safety standard is still evolving. Companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are actively shaping it. The smart play?

compliance 173

compliance AI Scale SaaS 173

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Best customer success software for startups and small companies. Velaris – pricing is only available upon request. Catalyst – pricing is only available upon request. Gong.io – pricing is only available upon request. Gong.io – pricing is only available upon request. G2 rating : 4.4

Customer Success 105

Customer Success Enterprise Software Review Startup 105

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

150+ Sponsors Driving Innovation From the biggest names in cloud to the most exciting startups, our 150+ sponsors are showcasing the latest innovations in SaaS and AI. We’ve got an epic 40+ acre campus and it’s just full of fun. And networking.

VP of Engineering 203

VP of Engineering CTO Coach VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Scale 203