SaaStr

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

While the allure of customer acquisition can pull a founder’s attention, it’s equally important to dedicate resources to fighting churn and expanding revenue from existing customers. They discuss how Fox helped build a churn-fighting, upselling, and cross-selling machine that continues to generate revenue.

Retention 193

Retention Revenue Startup Sales Hiring 193

SaaStr

APRIL 29, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: How Much Outbound Revenue Should a SDR/BDR be Generating at a Mid-stage Enterprise SaaS Startup? It’s still worth it though in most cases if you can achieve half of that , i.e. 10 qualified meetings per month and $1m in closed revenue. Leading to $2m in closed businesses over the year from those 180–240 meetings.

Enterprise 217

Enterprise Startup Revenue SaaS 217

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2024

Dear SaaStr: I’m Being Recruited by a Startup That Just Raised $5m. It’s likely too early to judge based on revenue and a Google Search. How Do I Vet Them? First, there’s probably something there if they raised $5m. That’s never as easy at it sounds. At least, usually. I’d suggest a quick 2 part test: #1.

Sales Recruiting 197

Sales Recruiting CTO Startup Sales 197

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 4, 2022

With the summer of Defi behind us and a new year for web3, I wondered which categories of web3 startups generate the most revenue. L1s or blockchains, the public databases that record transactions, dominate the revenue share across the top projects producing 78% of revenue. Revenue Share. revenue share but 1.7%

Payments 363

Payments Revenue Payment Solutions Blockchain 363

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 13, 2022

Thanks to the many readers who wrote in to Guess the Startup on Friday. Here’s the early revenue chart again. I had three goals for the Guess the Startup Post. Third, to highlight the revenue growth of web3 vis-a-vis web2, and the value creation possible. Red Company is Ethereum. Red Company is Ethereum.

Startup 252

Startup Scale Retention Enterprise 252

Predictable Revenue

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Breaking down sales strategies that founders and entrepreneurs need to adopt to amplify revenue, specially in startups. The post Founder-Led Sales Strategies For Startups appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Startup 263

Startup Strategy Sales Revenue 263

Predictable Revenue

JANUARY 11, 2024

In the latest episode of the Predictable Revenue Podcast, Colin Stewart dives into a conversation with Saravana Kumar, from Kovai.co. The post Scaling from Startup to Success with Saravana Kumar appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Scale 130

Scale Scaling Startup Revenue 130

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Biggest Problems You Face as a Startup Founder? The list of problems is endless (this is one of the hardest parts of the job), but let me try to order a few of the biggest challenges roughly based on stage: Pre-Revenue: Finding a Truly Great Co-Founder That is Just as Committed as You. It never ends.

Sales Recruiting 238

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 238

SaaStr

OCTOBER 14, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: How Do VCs Verify a Startup’s Revenue? If they do, the financials and revenue are likely at least 90% accurate, which is good enough for seed stage. They also often recognize revenue too early. Round trip deals, pseudo-revenue, and more. It can happen. What can you do, after all? (Is

Revenue 218

Revenue Banking Startup 218

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

In my first start-up job, we were acquired for $1b with < $10m in revenue. A related deep dive with the CEO of Mailchimp here: The post Dear SaaStr: What Prompted You To Sell Your Startups? I’ve been through it 3 times. Once as a start-up exec, and twice as founder. The first time, the answer was price. appeared first on SaaStr.

Startup 179

Startup Cloud Pricing Revenue 179

Kellblog

APRIL 19, 2024

I’ve realized that one of things I do for (or should I say, to) early-stage startups is detect whether they have a real or a faux focus (pronounced fo-focus) — the latter being a focus that appears to be real at first, but is in fact fake. Define the idea of strategic vs. opportunistic revenue. Cash is king.

Startup 98

Startup SMB Airlines Banking 98

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 27, 2022

Reflecting on this question a founder posed this week, I remembered how we came to be here, the three eras of startup pricing: cash-flow, multiples, and discount-to-future-value. The art of startup pricing in a recipe. $5m Startups were priced first on forward-revenue multiple. 5m on $25m post. Home-office rodeo redux.

Startup 239

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Investment 239

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2024

They weren’t a 3H startup. Rag & Bone is selling to Guess $GES for $56m on ~$250m of revenue. pic.twitter.com/3K7wUTiyul — Fan Bi (buying $5-30M DTC brands) (@lifeofbi) February 20, 2024 The post The Riskiest Venture-Backed Startups Are 3H’s: High Growth, High Churn and High Burn appeared first on SaaStr.

Churn 211

Churn Startup SaaS Payments Venture Capital 211

Predictable Revenue

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Collin Stewart delves into the unique experiences and challenges faced by Blake Nolan, the first account executive at Seamless AI The post Mastering the Art of Startup Sales with Blake Nolan appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Startup 130

Startup Sales AI Revenue 130

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

But there are multiple ways to build a leader, and startup don’t always start off with high NRR even if they end up there. The higher a company’s retention, the easier it is to grow, as the company doesn’t have to replace as much lost revenue. Yes, most of the best in SaaS have high NRR, at least once they are public.

Startup 233

Startup SaaS SMB Banking 233

Baremetrics

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

The pre-revenue startup phase has a host of stresses that hopefully disappear as the company begins to earn revenue. Depending on the amount invested, it is possible that all members of the team are working full time jobs to support themselves and then doing that again to push their startup onto the market.

Payments 110

Payments Revenue Startup Development Team Review 110

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 11, 2022

NTM revenues. Revenue, $m. Revenue growth. Coupa’s sale continues a trend of private equity buying venture backed startups , a result of record PE fundraising & depressed multiples. Startups should expect more private equity M&A both in the public & private markets. Second, the multiple is 8.4x

Acquisition 224

Acquisition Startup Software Pricing 224

SaaStr

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Dear SaaStr: What Were Aspects of Your Startup That Were Easier Than Anticipated? 120% NRR: Your revenue doubles in 5 years even with no new customers. 110% NRR: Your revenue doubles in 8 years even with no new customers. 100% NRR: Your revenue stays the same with no new customers.

Startup 242

Startup Retention Customer Success Revenue 242

SaaStr

MAY 13, 2022

There are many ways to track your marketing performance, but if you want to understand how effective it is, one metric reigns supreme: revenue. The most successful marketing strategies achieve short-term and long-term growth by driving revenue year after year. What is revenue marketing? Marketing is not a cost center.

Revenue 209

Revenue Scale Engineering Marketing 209

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 2, 2023

If a startup raised a top quartile Seed round, Series A, B, & C, they typically would have grown headcount by about 6% in the last twelve months. Startups with more business than they can handle should be scaling their teams to satisfy market demand. The headcount growth rate for all other companies? About double at 12%.

Headcount 201

Headcount Startup AI Scaling 201

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 4, 2023

The US startup M&A market in Q4 2022 was one of the quietest in the last 20 years. There are 3 types of acquisitions : team ; team & technology ; team, technology & revenue. During a down-market, young startups who face a radically more challenging fundraising market than six months ago more often choose a quick sale.

Startup 282

Startup Marketing Acquisition Pricing 282

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What’s It Really Like to Be CEO of a Startup? At $10m-$20m+ in revenues, maybe. And it’s a fun club because it lasts for life as long as your startup is at least somewhat successful. The post Dear SaaStr: What’s It Really Like to Be CEO of a Startup? Maybe not even until pre-IPO.

Startup 209

Startup Scaling Revenue 209

SaaStr

JANUARY 1, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Why Would I Start a Startup if I Only Have a 5% Chance of Succeeding? I closed $6m in revenue in the first 180 days. s The post Dear SaaStr: Why Would I Start a Startup if I Only Have a 5% Chance of Succeeding? Don’t do it. And I was 99% wrong once I got into it. The first one, we sold for $50m after 12.5

Startup 200

Startup Revenue SaaS Marketing 200

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Why Do Most SaaS Startups Fail? SaaS), it’s usually going to take you 24 months to get to any truly meaningful revenues , and probably 36 months to get to enough repeating/repeatable revenues to have a really stable business. Most of us don’t get enough revenue, fast enough, for it to be remotely easy.

Startup 221

Startup SaaS Mobile Revenue 221

SaaStr

APRIL 9, 2022

Today, it’s hard because there are 1000x more SaaS startups before. With that, Women in Revenue had a great recent 2022 Annual Report you should download here on how things have, and haven’t, changed in the workplace since Covid, The Great Resignation, and more. So many startups screw this up, but you can fix it now.

Revenue 240

Revenue Sales Hiring Compensation Startup 240

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2023

Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days? Churn too high Burn too high Competitors growing faster Already raised “too much” capital The post Dear SaaStr: When is a Startup Ready to Raise Venture Capital These Days? A lot harder. appeared first on SaaStr.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital Startup CTO Churn 223

FastSpring

APRIL 18, 2024

Some businesses outgrow their home countries after a seed or startup period that saw initial success domestically, while some businesses founded with niche markets or in smaller countries may need international sales as table stakes on day one. Have a different business use case that you need revenue data for?

Payment Methods 78

Payment Methods Payments SaaS Payments Merchant Services 78

Sales Hacker

MARCH 17, 2021

While every entrepreneur dreams of scaling their startup into a multi-million dollar company, many do not understand all that goes into that dream. Getting past the first stage of revenue growth and building an initial customer base is the easy part, but what happens when you hit a revenue plateau and can’t seem to take that next step?

Scale 93

Scale Revenue Startup Sales Recruiting 93

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Dear SaaStr: Why Do So Many Startups Burn Through So Much Cash? 100% of more of your first year’s revenues per customer, and 50% or more of your total revenues. . They grew more slowly in the beginning, being bootstrapped, but then minted cash after they hit millions in revenue. Competition.

Startup 224

Startup Branding Revenue Pricing 224

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2023

If you’re a seed-stage startup, Michael shares the best ways for you to present your company to startup investors. They could talk about how they were starving startup founders who couldn’t pay their rent. That doesn’t necessarily mean they care about a ton of users or revenue, although they like that, too.

Payment Methods 205

Payment Methods Startup Payment Solutions Sales Hiring 205

SaaStr

APRIL 12, 2022

The majority of its revenue is now from Bitcoin transactions, not “traditional” payments and software. And while growth has slowed a bit, its net revenues are still growing an impressive 29% at a $16 Billion run-rate. Only 9% of Square’s revenue is international, but going up. So is Square a SaaS company?

Payments 249

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Services Revenue 249

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top Things to Know Before Starting a SaaS Startup? Venture capital is a niche type of funding and 99% of startups will never be able to raise venture capital. If you want to, understand what it takes to be in that 1% of fundable startups. It often takes 24 months to get to $1m in revenue, or longer.

Venture Capital 245

Venture Capital Startup CTO SaaS 245

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Is It Normal to Feel Like a Pest When Prospecting for Customers for a Startup? Don’t overpay them as a % of the revenue they bring in. The post Dear SaaStr: Is It Normal to Feel Like a Pest When Prospecting for Customers for a Startup? Yes — at least at first. Boy sales is hard. It’s being told No a lot.

Startup 236

Startup Engineering Branding Sales 236

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2020

Hire stretch reps if you want, but someone without any closing experience likely can’t close at your startup no one has ever heard of. Startups are a journey and you need reps that want to be on the journey. If they’ve never had a true revenue commit (see below), or owned a number, they are too junior. A bit more here.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 363

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2024

In 2022, revenue growth held up for many leaders, but share prices and multiples cratered. It was mixed actually, even if startups didn’t seem to get a breather, it wasn’t so bad for most public SaaS leaders. The post Last Year Was a Pretty Rough Year for Many SaaS Startups. So 2023 was a weird year. And 2023?

Startup 174

Startup SaaS AI Pricing 174