Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 17, 2019

This concentration limits the market size, but improves product market fit. AI Agencies use machine learning to disrupt a market dominated by agencies. Often, these startups begin as software companies selling machine learning software into agencies. The startup leverages machine learning under the hood.

Machine Learning 198

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence AI Startup 198

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2024

But there’s a trend I want to highlight now that we’ll see all across 2024. It’s a SaaS startup that basically fell out of product-market fit after the 2021 boom … but has enough revenue and high enough NRR to keep going. Showing folks the way, often through tougher times. It’s the “NRR Zombie”. What’s that?

Headcount 210

Headcount Finance Startup Trends 210

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 204

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 204

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2024

Mistake #2: A VP of Marketing that Can’t Do Demand Generation Don’t hire a product marketer, a corporate marketer, or a strategist. Jason was talking to a founder at $14M-$15M, and they weren’t sure if their Head of Marketing was working out. What was this Head of Marketing’s previous role? Not necessarily.

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring Scale AI Search AI 189

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2024

Lemkin expresses concern about the changing work ethic and loyalty of sales and marketing professionals, observing a trend of multiple job-holding and lack of commitment. Despite the rise of self-service in B2B , the marketing toolkit (targeted outbound, drip marketing, content marketing , webinars, events) remains effective.

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Technical Review Scale 235

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

TJ Nahigian, co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners, and Luci Fonseca, Partner, deep dive into the current GenAI landscape, incumbents vs. startups, and the six questions founders should ask themselves to drive value from GenAI. Base10 is interested in mega-trends that change how people live and work in the next ten years.

Generative AI 229

Generative AI Outsourcing Services AI Software Review 229

Clouded Judgement

JANUARY 12, 2024

Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Setting the stage for our convo was the increase in startups either shutting down or being acquired / acquihired recently. Many companies raised rounds in 2021 who thought they had product market fit. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 284

Cloud Venture Capital Acquisition Metrics 284

Mucker Capital

OCTOBER 27, 2023

In this Mucker Growth session, Kyle Poyar from OpenView delves into the critical topic of pricing for SaaS startups, aiming to rectify prevailing mistakes in your pricing strategies. Optimizing SaaS pricing is an ongoing process, and one that most startup founders struggle to perfect. Achieving product-market-price fit is paramount.

Payments 59

Payments Pricing SaaS Payments Startup 59

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2023

Scaling a tech startup doesn’t come easy, and when you’ve tried all the conventional SaaS advice, it might be tempting to give up. 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. Great Startups Create Their Own Categories.”

Scale 193

Scale Scaling SMB Marketing 193

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 17, 2022

In the private markets, data & machine learning companies continue to raise capital despite the macro-slowdown. GPT-3 and BERT infuse software massively reducing repetitive work and unlocking huge productivity gains. Startup company formation & funding thrives outside the Bay Area. 3 of 5 isn’t terrible.

Software Review 257

Software Review Technical Review Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 257

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

If you haven’t read it yet, head on over to Part 1 of Ask Me Anything with SaaStr founder and CEO Jason Lemkin to learn about sales in SaaS, how to create great SDRs and AEs, developing an impactful content strategy, and potential SaaS trends for the next 12-18 months.

Sales Hiring 219

Sales Hiring SaaS Banking Enterprise 219

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

The unpredictable market has given rise to new trends and a new type of elite company, which Bessemer Venture Partners have dubbed the Centaur. Soon, however, cloud will grow beyond the enterprise software market, penetrating the broader tech market and the world’s GDP. Cloud Goes to Market.

Cloud 223

Cloud Trends Benchmarks Business Model 223

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2024

Be that in the early stages when one iterates on product market fit and finding the right ICP or later on when you scale your GTM. What’s your pulse check on the venture markets right now, today? The market is currently witnessing a positive trend in terms of both velocity and investor interest.

Payments 194

Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Scale 194

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. Product marketing and product owners have specific KPIs on adoption that they track.

AWS 196

AWS Scale Sales Hiring Marketing 196

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2021

While not as hyperbolic an inflation rate as copper or lumber, the price trajectory of early stage cloud startups does result from a similar supply demand/imbalance. But there’s more to this trend than just nomenclature change. The market feels different. In 2021, the post-money valuation has spiked 60% from $48.1m

Software Review 364

Software Review Venture Capital Cloud Pricing 364

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Most startup founders are either pirates or romantics , and Mathrubootham was foolish enough to believe they could start in that small suburb while building a global software company. In hindsight, the biggest lesson was to go after a bigger market to increase your chances of success rather than getting stuck in a niche market.

Sales Hiring 223

Sales Hiring Scale SMB AI 223

SaaStr

JUNE 30, 2023

Build For Something That Will Be True in 5 or 10 Years Determine what changes current trends and developments are going to drive in humans. Braze didn’t find a true product-market fit until around 2014-2015. If you’re struggling to see product-market fit, it can be nerve-wracking. Change creates opportunity.

Scale 190

Scale Mobile Venture Capital Scaling 190

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Will it be existing companies embedding AI smartly or new startups who can meaningfully adopt AI faster? The Battle To Own The Workflow Incumbents have been quick to react to the ongoing AI trend. Shen likes to use the super-human definition of product market fit. So, we’re back to the debate. Only time will tell.

AI 241

AI Generative AI Venture Capital SaaS 241

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 16, 2024

If you’d like more commentary and analysis about news and trends from the a16z Fintech team, you can subscribe here. Alex Rampell: In startup land, we often talk about the concept of 0-to-1 and building a product from scratch. This content first appeared in the May 2024 Fintech newsletter.

Generative AI 98

Generative AI AI Leadership Scaling 98

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Me : “I’ve worked in Product Marketing for the last seven years.”. Them : “Oh, so you do Marketing?”. I work with marketing teams, but my role isn’t exactly marketing.”. It leaves me wondering these questions: How does your sales team stay up to date about the product? Me : “Well, not quite. What I Learned.

Product Marketing 40

Product Marketing Marketing Artificial Intelligence Sales Hiring 40

User Pilot

MAY 13, 2024

Is your team struggling to determine the return on investment (ROI) of product marketing strategies? Or are you looking for ways to improve the performance of your marketing campaigns? In either case, marketing analytics tools can come to your rescue. It can help you monitor the effectiveness of in-app marketing efforts.

Software 81

Software Marketing Scale Social Media 81

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

We were coming off an environment where startup funding was as fruitful as ever. When you hire a Head of Sales, Demand Gen, or Marketing who thinks they need a team to get going, how do you handle that in 2024 when there isn’t budget to hire more people on day one? If you’ve stalled, it means you’ve fallen out of product market fit.

Sales Hiring 242

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 242

Sales Hacker

MARCH 12, 2024

He has also previously served as the Board Chair of Philly Startup Leaders and Board Member of Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT). Discussed in this Episode: Ecosystem-led growth is about leveraging partnerships to make your go-to-market teams more successful. The story of a $2.6

Cloud 98

Cloud Trends Startup Pricing 98

User Pilot

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

The role of the growth product manager focuses on identifying and maximizing product growth opportunities. The product launch manager collaborates with the marketing team to develop launch plans and oversees their implementation. Hardware product managers are responsible for building and launching physical products.

Management 83

Management AI Leadership SaaS 83

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Yet in Mark’s experience working with and mentoring startups, he’s found that many entrepreneurs go with intuition over information. Those risks can be fatal: Mark has found a 75% failure rate for both Series A and Series C startups (as he presented during his 2019 SaaStr talk.). I think that’s message-market fit.

Scale 226

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 226

SaaStr

MARCH 17, 2020

Pendo announced a new offering aimed to help startup companies accelerate product-market fit, and prove that product traction to early stage investors. Learn how Pendo can help companies go from startup to scale-up here. For major launches across Zendesk’s product offerings, check out www.zendesk.com/startups.

Sales Hiring 185

Sales Hiring Scale Payment Features Marketplace as a Service 185

Tom Tunguz

MAY 13, 2019

Last year, startups raised the most capital in history, even adjusting for inflation. For the right business, the number of different financial products available has never been higher. Startup valuation have become much more quantitative. That was the “industry.”

Pricing 214

Pricing Startup Investment Trends 214

OPEXEngine

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

In this framework, you’ll learn how to design a scoring system that aligns to your growth strategy, brainstorm and select leader indicators of success, and operationalize the system across your startup. This could include CSMs, a CS department, or startup executives. Trend lines for the percentage of customers in Red, Yellow, or Green.

Startup 91

Startup Scale Systems Review Technical Review 91

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 23, 2018

In other words, investors are concentrating capital in fewer startups. Consequently, this smaller number of startups has substantially longer runway, fueling a longer gestation period to series A. In 2011, the median startup raised a $0.5M Today, the median startup raises a $1.5M seed and a $3M Series A 9 months later.

Machine Learning 185

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Startup Investment 185

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Whether you’re just starting out in SaaS or have a successful SaaS startup, founders and startup teams can learn a lot from those who have found success in the industry through its ups and downs. Someone bringing in 20 reps when you have no customers or product market fit won’t change the world.

Outsourcing Services 197

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 197

Totango

MAY 15, 2024

From the urgent need for organizations to operate like startups to the surprising disparity in AI adoption between CS and support teams, these experts didn’t hold back. 1: For CS to jump ahead with AI, teams will need to operate like a startup Startups are known for their agility, adaptability, and willingness to experiment.

Customer Success 104

Customer Success AI Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review 104

User Pilot

APRIL 17, 2024

Userpilot offers in-app surveys , user action tracking, and behavior analysis to provide granular insights and improve user experience and product development. Google Trends helps businesses differentiate products in crowded markets by identifying evolving consumer interests and regional search behaviors.

AI Search 75

AI Search Social Media Cross-platform App Design (Application) Systems Review 75

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2023

Even Ford, which isn’t a SaaS startup, is a capital-intensive business that achieved growth and profitability in a mere five months. It’s possible to have high growth if you have a solid product and aspire to be profitable within a reasonably short time frame. The takeaway: Not all of your cost drivers are equal.

Outsourcing Services 228

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale SaaS 228

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

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Big Brain was an internal tool to track revenue, marketing expenses, and usage of the product. Since starting the company in 2014, there wasn’t a lot of money you could raise in a startup. There wasn’t a “business person,” like many startups have. So, they were forced to build a product that automatically converts.

Scale 159

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 159

User Pilot

MAY 12, 2024

It can be a hefty investment for early-stage startups and small businesses. You want to act on product data – Despite its sophisticated analytics features, Amplitude doesn’t have built-in functionalities to turn product data into actions. Head of Product (small business) Negative review of Amplitude on G2.

Software Review 52

Software Review SaaS Technical Review Scale 52

Chart Mogul

MARCH 1, 2023

In the pre-product market fit stage of the business, net retention is usually poor. As startups grow and find product-market fit, net retention improves. This trend of retention being lower in 2022 vs. 2021 is not unique to SaaS startups and scaleups. Learn more in chapter 6 of the report.

Benchmarks 98

Benchmarks Retention B2C Business 98