SaaStr

MAY 25, 2024

Cloudinary VP of Developer Experience Sanjay Sarathy shares his journey to more than $100M and the lessons he learned along the way for building a PLG motion and an Enterprise sales motion. They didn’t initially envision being a large Enterprise sales organization. Self-service here, Enterprise motion here, and they shall never meet.

Scale 312

Scale Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Development 312

Stax

MAY 23, 2025

If youre a software provider looking to boost revenue, streamline operations, and deliver more value to your users, ISV integrated payments can be a game-changer. Embedding payments directly into your platform can unlock tremendous benefits both for you and your users. The best part?

Payments 88

Payments Payment Services Merchant Services SaaS Payments 88

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

As a growing SaaS company, there is a lot to think about in a day: How is my ARR doing? And, when you do, do you even think about sale tax compliance? vary on how they handle sales tax and SaaS. It can be confusing to understand how and where you should charge sales tax. Are we delighting our costumes?

Payment Services 335

Payment Services compliance SaaS Payments Scale 335

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

In SaaS, #1 most common misfire, with a bullet, is the VP/head of sales. It goes something like “You’ve Got to Get Past the Carcass of Your First VP of Sales” or “It’s The Second VP of Sales When You Really Start Selling” or variants thereof. Because in SaaS start-ups, it seems like the majority of first VP Sales fail.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2022

SMB SaaS has a lot going for it: – Millions of them – Short sales cycles – Easier compete. So many VCs and others have gotten more and more excited about SMB SaaS. But SMB SaaS has a lot of challenges, too: Churn is much higher. of public SaaS companies are primarily SMB focused. Much higher.

SaaS Payments 346

SaaS Payments Scale SMB PayPal 346

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 29, 2019

In this week’s episode we’ve dug down into the podcast vaults to bring you some of the best insights shared by our guests about scaling sales. It’s no surprise that one of the key levers for growth as you go from startup to scale-up is your sales team. Hiring for sales with John Barrows.

Scale 172

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Payment Services 172

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2022

Offering its services as a freemium-based model, CircleCI recognizes driving trials as the cornerstone of a go-to-market strategy for any developer tool. . Developers come to CircleCI to use their services for free but the user needs increase as they build for commercial purposes. changes the key processes of your business.”.

Scale 261

Scale Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services 261

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

I was lucky to catch up recently with one of my very favorite SaaS founders, René Lacerte, CEO Bill.com. Bill.com had to develop a network that today has millions on vendors processing bills and payments on it. Bill.com had to develop a network that today has millions on vendors processing bills and payments on it.

SaaS Payments 63

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments Scale 63

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2024

So there’s a vertical SaaS company at over $600m ARR that is extremely well known to its customers that you’ve probably never heard of — Instructure. Instructure is one of the leading learning management systems for education with its Canvas product. That’s the power of compounding revenue in SaaS!

Scale 299

Scale SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments 299

USIO

JANUARY 15, 2024

Subscription Models: Usio will provide general insights into why subscription-based payment processing is often considered advantageous for Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses. Predictable Revenue Streams: Subscription models provide a consistent and predictable revenue stream for SaaS companies.

SaaS Payments 130

SaaS Payments Payment Services Payments Payment Solutions 130

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2022

This episode is an excerpt from a session at SaaStr Scale. So for the audience, cloud giants are turbocharging startup sales, and the predominant reason for this is because they’re fundamentally changing IT budgets at the customers that we’re all selling to. Jabari Norton, VP WW Partner and Alliances, Sumo Logic.

Scale 259

Scale Marketplace as a Service Cloud SaaS Payments 259

SaaStr

AUGUST 3, 2022

Few SaaS leaders have gone through more post-pandemic change than Shopify and Zoom. SaaS growth slowed to 10% year-over-year, down from a peak overall growth of almost 100% (!) Gross Margins declining toward 50% as payments, merchant services and more outpace the growth of SaaS subcriptions. More on that here.

Payment Methods 283

Payment Methods Merchant Services SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 283

SaaStr

OCTOBER 22, 2021

$1M in ARR per employee could be a new efficiency record at IPO for SaaS. As part of that, they learned to outsource anything they could, and maximize the PLG playbook … leading to a stunning $1m in ARR per employee. Sometimes, the self-serve / PLG engine stalls out at a certain scale. based revenue. In one year.

Scale 326

Scale SaaS Payments SMB Payment Solutions 326

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

Founded in 2015, Chorus operates a SaaS platform that provides valuable insights from conversations – say with calls, video conferences and emails — for revenue teams. Last year, the company doubled its headcount, tripled revenue and landed on G2’s Top 100 Global Software list. . No doubt, Chorus provides this at scale.

Scale 359

Scale Artificial Intelligence Payments Payment Services 359

Stax

APRIL 15, 2025

For subscription-based businesses achieving consistent and predictable revenue growth is the holy grail. In fact, monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is one of the most important metrics subscription businesses should be aware of. TL;DR MRR is the average revenue that a company expects to receive each month.

Payments 88

Payments SaaS Payments Revenue Payment Services 88

SaaStr

AUGUST 21, 2024

Grew Restaurant Locations 29% Year-Over-Year to 120,000 Perhaps the most important metric at scale. Only 18% of Revenue From SaaS. Shopify and Bill both also get the majority of their revenue from financial fees and transaction fees, not software subscriptions. But Toast even more so, at 18% of revenue.

Scale 301

Scale Payment Methods Payment Solutions SaaS Payments 301

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

20X year 1⃣ 12X year 2⃣ 5X year 3⃣ #deelspeed @deel [link] — Shuooo (@shuoshuooshuooo) January 23, 2023 When we look at SaaS companies’ success stories, everything looks great on their growth maps. Shuo Wang is the CRO and co-founder of Deel, one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 274

SaaStr

AUGUST 24, 2022

Toast isn’t accelerating the way some SaaS leaders are, but still, 59% growth at $800m in ARR is something a few years back we would never have thought possible. #2. Driving up sales rep efficiency is key to driving up margins. SMB sales (most of Toast) is very tough to do without a highly efficient and effective sales force.

SaaS Payments 326

SaaS Payments Scale SMB Payment Solutions 326

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2023

So over the past decade-and-a-half we’ve come up with a lot of yardsticks, metrics and rules for SaaS companies. E.g.,: CAC of < 12 months is Good-to-Great Paying sales reps 25%-30% of what they close is Good A burn ratio of 1 or less is Good These metrics do sort of work, if you have some capital to spend (i.e., It depends.

SaaS Payments 278

SaaS Payments Metrics SMB Payments 278

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2021

It’s done it by going more upmarket, and better monetizing partners and services. A reminder that adding a bit of fintech to your SaaS can be a huge accelerant. A reminder that adding a bit of fintech to your SaaS can be a huge accelerant. Driving existing customer revenue up more than new logos.

Outsourcing Services 289

Outsourcing Services Payments Merchant Services SaaS Payments 289

Stax

MARCH 18, 2025

The SaaS industry has seen explosive growth in the past decadeand this is expected to continue this year. Data cited by Statista shows that the software as service is expected to hit $299 billion by the end of 2025. Part of this can be attributed to the SaaS model’s unique aspect of relying primarily on future revenue.

Scale 117

Scale Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments 117

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2021

I felt like when I was a SaaS CEO and had to go profitable, they helped saved my rear. Close say a $125k contract, even after a healthy sales commission, that’s $100k+ in the bank right now! bills, “payment terms”, and often, repeated follow-up. . — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 4, 2020.

SaaS Payments 312

SaaS Payments Payment Services Scale Payments 312

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2024

Product-led outperformers generate ten percentage points higher in ARR and 50% higher in valuations than sales-led growth outperformers. How do you scale PLG? How do you build a stellar developer experience and continue to scale when the user base skyrockets overnight? What does scaling Enterprise ARR mean?

Underperforming Technical Team 282

Underperforming Technical Team Enterprise Scale Payments 282

SaaStr

JUNE 1, 2023

We’ll see 2,500+ of the best SaaS founders, execs, and VCs NEXT WEEK June 6-7 at 2022 SaaStr Europa ! Make is the leading visual platform for anyone to design, build, and automate anything – from tasks and workflows to apps and systems – without coding. Grab tickets here. SAP for Startups? We are Worldline.

Scale 245

Scale Payments Payment Solutions Artificial Intelligence 245

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2019

SurveyMonkey is one of the Old School SaaS companies that has followed an interesting path. days, for years it was run by a tiny team and dominated the self-service side of surveys. That is a similar revenue growth rate to Salesforce’s core CRM product. Price Increases Do Work at Scale. A few learnings: 1.

Scale 273

Scale SaaS Payments Payments Payment Services 273

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 28, 2021

UIPath, leaders in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, filed their S-1 last week , revealing an impressive business. Second, UIPath’s cash flow margin, (defined as cash flow from operations divided by revenue), shows the company has attained a turnaround of similar magnitude on a cash basis.

Payment Services 359

Payment Services Metrics Payment Solutions Payments 359

Chaotic Flow

OCTOBER 8, 2013

SaaS product management professionals should always remember that there are four P’s in marketing , one being product. This is a particularly costly mistake in SaaS and is the root cause of many a SaaS Don’t. The Boundless SaaS Product. What are the boundaries of your SaaS product?

SaaS Payments 200

SaaS Payments Payment Methods Payments Scale 200

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Wherever you are in your revenue journey, adopting certain growth strategies can help you keep growing fast. Finding your ICP starts with broad strokes, finding a few customers, and talking to prospects. Build your sales, marketing, customer success, and product development efforts around the needs of your ideal client.”.

Payments 243

Payments Payment Methods Embedded Payments Scale 243

SaaStr

APRIL 19, 2023

So one large category of software spend is on Point of Sale systems. And their mix of software, payments and hardware revenue drives up the total deal size — but puts a lot of pressure on margins. 39% of their revenues from software, and going down. Driving up ARPU at scale key to growth with SMBs.

Payment Solutions 284

Payment Solutions Point of Sale Payments SaaS Payments 284

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

How is SMB SaaS doing today? Transaction Fees Growing Far Faster (38%) Than Software / SaaS License (21%). Both Bill and Shopifty have morphed over the years from almost pure SaaS companies to payments platforms built on top of a SaaS core. But Bill did it the hard way, and built the payment platforms itself.

Payment Services 339

Payment Services Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 339

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2022

No matter how innovative a product might be, a business can only succeed if it enables its customers. Suzanne Xie kicked off her journey in SaaS as the Founder and CEO of Lightwell. What makes a SaaS business so hard? You can deploy subscriptions as a service, billing as a service, fraud prevention as a service.

Payment Features 259

Payment Features Payment Services Outsourcing Services Payment Solutions 259

Subscription Flow

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Businesses may never know how much revenue might be leaking from overlooked nooks and crannies. The purpose of the revenue growth management strategy is to steer a business in an organized, and sustainable direction. In this blog, you will find out the meaning of revenue growth management, its importance, components, and challenges.

Payments 52

Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments Revenue 52

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2022

It’s something we don’t see too often these days, as $200m+ ARR sort of became the new floor to IPO in SaaS. Weave started off as a dental ERP and comms platform (including VoIP / phone), and then expanded beyond that as it scaled. Many SMB SaaS companies struggle to hit 100% NRR and 80% GRR.

SaaS Payments 284

SaaS Payments Scale Payment Methods SMB 284

FastSpring

JUNE 22, 2022

We don’t have to look far to find examples of B2B SaaS companies that have found traction using a self-service or product-led motion. Historically, when SaaS businesses have gone to market, they’ve done so by finding product-market fit with one of two core audiences: consumers or businesses. How B2B and B2C Are Converging.

B2C 148

B2C Payments SaaS Payments B2B 148

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

It requires thinking at a different scale. “The reason why businesses grow is they’re in a great market” It’s this approach to scaling their business that has enabled Paddle to achieve 2475% revenue growth over the last four years. . Product, marketing, and sales are table stakes for growth.

Payments 186

Payments Scale Revenue SaaS Payments 186

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2022

Average Revenue per Customer. So the first question is what made SaaS so successful. If you kind of that question, thinking about the stakeholders and the decisions and companies of using SaaS products, there’s kind of three types. Customers love SaaS products and tools because it simply works. MRR, obviously.

SaaS Payments 246

SaaS Payments Metrics Payment Methods Pricing 246

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2021

Emerging Insurance Disruptors: Are they Really SaaS? Secrets to Aligning Marketing and Revenue Strategies with Marqeta’s CMO. The financial services industry – banking, lending, insurance – has long benefited from deep competitive moats that limited competition and stifled innovation. with Notion Capital.

Payments 274

Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments Banking 274