SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2024

So theres a theme Ive been working on with all the SMB-focused founders I work with and have invested in: # 1. The Goal for SMB SaaS is 100%+ NRR. Easy in enterprise, hard in true SMB. # However, SMBs have a certain level of inherent churn. And then your NRR will cross 100% with SMBs. Into an ERP.

Churn 273

Churn SMB Payments Payment Solutions 273

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2022

So in theory, SMB SaaS is better than enterprise, at least 9 times out of 10: Deals close much faster. But beyond all the other Pros and Cons of SMB vs enterprise, there’s one looming issue with SMB SaaS: Churn. SMBs go out of business, and quickly. SMBs pay monthly, and often scrutinize every expense.

SMB 363

SMB Churn Payment Services SaaS 363

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2022

Per LinkedIn data, SMB AEs at some of the top SaaS and B2B companies have: an average base salary of $70k, an average OTE of $125k, and. SMB AE | TOP 30 Sales Organizations. The post BowtiedCocoon: Top SaaS SMB AEs have $125k OTEs. And it’s super helpful. the best, top reps make $260k.

SMB 335

SMB AWS SaaS B2B 335

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2021

So many curious things have happened as Cloud and SaaS companies have exploded to $2T+ in market cap. Another is a related challenge to the idea that SMBs, since they don’t pay all that much, sort of “max out” These rules are still true in many cases. As Shopify crossed $4B ARR, it actually got a bit more SMB.

SMB 322

SMB Cloud Enterprise Scaling 322

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Contract Length Many SaaS startups launch with monthly pricing which encourages customers to try the product and engenders demand. At some point, most SaaS startups switch to annual contracts for three reasons. How about a 50 person SaaS company? Veblen Goods in SaaS Veblen goods defy traditional pricing theory.

SaaS Payments 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

Let’s break down for example what SMB sales at low price points typically is, and indeed needs to be, to scale: SMB SaaS companies are overloaded with “leads” They often have so many that they cannot follow up with all of them. SMB sales reps have to be hyper-efficient. You sort of have to.

SMB 332

SMB Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise 332

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

So two of the great leaders in SMB SaaS, Shopify for e-commerce, and HubSpot for sales, marketing and more, are going more upmarket: HubSpot 100+ seat deals are up 55% Shopify now gets 31% of its revenue from “Plus” or its bigger brands and more enterprise product And yet … they are also both going more SMB as well!

SMB 322

SMB Enterprise Scale Scaling 322

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin chats with Mangomint CEO Daniel Lang about why vertical SaaS is booming and how Mangomint got to 110% NRR. What was once considered too small or too niche, vertical SaaS has recently emerged as a hotbed of innovation and profitability. Full-Stack SaaS for SMBs Toast today is worth $14B at $1.5B

SaaS Payments 257

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 257

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2025

The 250,000 Customer Club: How HubSpot and Monday Both Created SMB+ Empires #4. AI, M&A, and the Future of SaaS: Lessons from Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, Co-Founder and Chair #2. SaaS + AI: Its Time to Move Much Faster with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin #3. The Bar Today for a Series B #5. Top Pods and Vids: #1.

AI 242

AI SMB Revenue Startup 242

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

So RingCental is both an incredibly impressive SaaS and Cloud company — but also a bit of a cautionary tale. Even With a Big Enterprise Push for Years, 60% of Revenue Still From Mid-Market and SMB RingCentral closed 20 $1M+ TCV deals last quarter. But even as they push more and more into the enterprise, the SMBs still are buying.

Scale 284

Scale Compensation SMB Cloud 284

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

So I’ve been doing SaaS for a while, and the costs of doing business have just gone up. based SMB sales positions. SaaS sales execs with even a little bit of experience at other SaaS companies are looking for higher and higher OTEs, often with lower effective attainment and high support costs. Salaries have gone up.

SMB 313

SMB Scale Sales Hiring Sales 313

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2025

And come see so many more great convos like this at 2025 SaaStr Annual + AI Summit on May 13-15 in SF Bay , including the CEOs and CXOs at vertical SaaS leaders ServiceTitan, Clio, MangoMint, Owner and so many more! Now well above $1.3B The Five Lessons 1.

Scale 260

Scale Transportation Scaling SMB 260

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2025

The success rate for executive hires at high-growth SaaS companies can be surprisingly low – you’re often lucky if 50-60% of your management team works out long-term. ” If you have a SaaS company above 2 million in revenue, both Brian and Jason agree that at that point, all that matters is the management team.

Sales Hiring 284

Sales Hiring Scale Systems Review Interviewing 284

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2022

SMB SaaS has a lot going for it: – Millions of them – Short sales cycles – Easier compete. But, it's often hard to get to $100m ARR selling just to SMBs. sell just to SMBs pic.twitter.com/Po1I2aMaBK. So many VCs and others have gotten more and more excited about SMB SaaS. Much higher.

SaaS Payments 346

SaaS Payments Scale SMB PayPal 346

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2025

So one big theme of 2025 SaaStr Annual (May 13-15 in SF Bay) will be going deep on Vertical SaaS. We’ll hear from the CRO of $3B Clio (legal SaaS), the CEO and CRO of Flock Safety (police and safety SaaS), and dozens of others on how to scale their vertical SaaS industries and platforms. See you there!

Scale 189

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling SMB 189

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

Let’s look at some of the top public SaaS companies: Shopify — very SMB: 100%. Hubspot — mostly SMB: 100%. Surverymonkey — fairly SMB, but going more enterprise: 100%. Zendesk — 116%, mix of SMB and enterprise. On the low end for the enterprise SaaS companies, but still basically 120%. And mostly SMBs.

Retention 349

Retention SMB SaaS Enterprise 349

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2022

The amount of folks buying SaaS software is a force like we’ve never seen before, and even with some stock market drama, many top SaaS companies still trade at $4B, $10B, $20B or more just a decade after being founded. First, even in the darkest times of ’08-’09 — folks still bought more SaaS than ever.

SMB 361

SMB SaaS Churn Enterprise 361

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

As Checkr follows usage-based pricing, it’s a transactional business that needs to be managed differently than a typical subscription SaaS model since they only earn revenue when the customer is using the product. The SMB sales team was incentivized purely on logo acquisition rather than revenue.

Revenue 293

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 293

SaaStr

AUGUST 21, 2023

So we reached out to the leading SMB vendor. 5x more for the SMB vendor! $50k 50k plus a migration fee (almost $100k total, really) for the SMB Vendor vs. $15k a year today for The Enterprise Vendor. But the SMB vendor is pushing hard to monetize its biggest SMBs the most. That’s huge for an SMB.

SMB 246

SMB Enterprise Scale Pricing 246

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

We’ve been doing the 5 Interesting Learnings at SaaStr for quite a while, looking at many of the public SaaS leaders and pulling out the top learnings for founders and SaaS execs. Toast’s SMB NRR is 114% today — but it took 4 full years just to get to 100%. And it’s the true magic in scaling SMB SaaS.

Scale 363

Scale SMB SaaS Scaling 363

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

30+ SaaS CEOs Share The Signs Their First VP of Sales … Just Wasn’t Going to Work Out. SaaStr 527: Acquiring 10,000 SMB Customers Solely from Data with Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre. The post Top SaaStr Content for the Week: Gorgias CEO, Postman CEO, Waze Head of SMB Sales, Klaviyo SVP Marketing, and More! Plan For It.

SMB 283

SMB Scale Marketing Sales 283

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

While Zoom Enterprise is growing at a healthy clip, churn is over 3% a month for its SMB customers As a result, it’s now predicting 1% growth next year 1% pic.twitter.com/i2k2W9QbVX — Jason Be Kind Lemkin  (@jasonlk) February 27, 2023 So Zoom has just been the craziest story of all time in SaaS. It probably couldn’t last.

SMB 273

SMB Churn Enterprise Engineering 273

SaaStr

MAY 13, 2025

I got it wrong for a while too, until I started invest in and working with more vertical SaaS companies. They are SaaS for spas and salons. New SMB customers often don’t already have a next-gen payroll platform in place. Most SaaS companies do a big push to cross-sell a new product into the base.

SMB 202

SMB Engineering Branding Investment 202

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2025

Today it’s at: $800m ARR Growing 22% 20% Free Cash Flow Margins Modest re-acceleration in revenue growth and new customer count — but not NRR Roots are SMB, but 60% of ARR comes from mid-market and enterprise today And a $4B market cap, so 5x ARR Freshworks is getting a bit of a second wind, which is great to see!

Scale 268

Scale AI SMB B2B 268

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 3, 2024

The State of SaaS Go-to-Market with Theory Ventures General Partner Tomasz Tunguz #2. One Thing is Clear: AI Is Leading to 1000+ New Competitors in SaaS #4. The State of SaaS Go-to-Market l Theory Ventures General Partner Tomasz Tunguz #2. Top Posts: #1. The Cloud Bubble Lasted About 18 Months. Genesys Files to IPO.

Cloud 273

Cloud AI SMB SaaS 273

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

The company is successfully evolving from its SMB roots into a serious enterprise software contender. Monday.com Has Achieved Rule of 40 with Room to Spare The Rule of 40 (growth rate + profit margin should exceed 40%) is a benchmark for successful SaaS companies.

Scale 192

Scale SMB Acquisition Enterprise 192

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2024

How do you build GTM efficiency in SMB sales? While this title is SMB-oriented, the advice applies to Mid-Market and Enterprise, too. This is a smart way to scale for SaaS companies. The post How to Build Go-to-Market Efficiency in SMB Sales with Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton appeared first on SaaStr.

Scale 301

Scale SMB Sales Hiring Sales 301

SaaStr

JANUARY 13, 2022

The late-stage VC firm Meritech put together its annual SaaS report here and it slices the data in a few interesting ways. The average SaaS company hits $225m ARR at IPO. The average SaaS company is growing 55% at IPO (at that $225m ARR). Folks that are very SMB with mediocre retention often don’t disclose it.

SMB 360

SMB SaaS Retention Scale 360

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2021

SaaS spending dipped in the first half of 2020 at the start of the pandemic but has since reaccelerated. As companies accelerate their digital transformations, the SaaS spend has exploded: In Q2 of 2021, G2 recorded the highest software spend per employee to date. “The The state of software buying has changed.

Software Review 284

Software Review SMB Enterprise Software 284

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2020

No SaaS company is yet worth $1 trillion, through perhaps that is coming. What has happened though is the Top 30 SaaS companies together are now worth $1 Trillion. That’s $1 Trillion in market cap from the SaaS leaders. The Top 10 SaaS companies have 70% of the market cap and value. We’ll see.

SaaS 363

SaaS SMB Cloud Enterprise 363

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2025

Moving upmarket isn’t just a nice-to-have for most SaaS companies – it’s often the difference between building a sustainable $100M+ ARR business and getting stuck in the mid-market quicksand. Start Planning for Enterprise Earlier Than You Think The biggest mistake SaaS companies make? ” 2.

Enterprise 244

Enterprise Sales Hiring Scale Outsourced Development 244

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Yamini Rangan, CEO at HubSpot, has many insights on how to serve SMB customers at scale. The Challenge of Digital Expansion for SMB. When the shift began in 2020, everyone wrote off SMBs as unprepared for the necessary changes that lie ahead. As a result, SMBs have recognized HubSpot as a place for solutions.

Scale 261

Scale SMB Scaling Innovation 261

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2023

How To Capture This Global SMBTech Opportunity There is massive market opportunity to sell to SMB businesses. Efficient Go To Market There are a lot of ways to GTM as an SMB. With SMB, you want hundreds or thousands of little merchants to pay you every month. Nail an efficient SMB motion before trying to move upmarket.

Scale 245

Scale SMB Merchant Services Payment Methods 245

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 7, 2024

So one of SaaStr Fund’s latest investments is Mangomint, a vertical SaaS platform for spas and salons. There are multiple vendors in different segments, including Mindbody which IPO’d a SaaS generation ago and then taken private in a $2B Vista acquisition. And why is Vertical SaaS thriving today? Pretty cool!

SaaS Payments 312

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Methods SMB 312

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

When you’re starting off in SaaS, it’s very tempting to target small businesses. That journey here: Most of us don’t stay SMB forever. Zoom similarly started off almost 100% self-serve and SMB, and then later added an enterprise team. PagerDuty was almost entirely SMB at IPO, at $125m in ARR.

SMB 341

SMB SaaS Enterprise Software 341

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

SaaStr Annual has always been the go-to event for SaaS founders, executives, and investors, but 2025 is shaping up to be the best one yet. AI is transforming SaaS, and were dedicating two massive stages to the SaaStr.AI 300+ World-Class Speakers This years lineup includes 300+ speakers from the best SaaS and AI companies worldwide.

VP of Engineering 198

VP of Engineering CTO Coach VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Scale 198

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

So there’s a question I’ve had for some time in SaaS: does high NRR really equal higher growth? Yes, most of the best in SaaS have high NRR, at least once they are public. SaaS Capital asked this question among some other great ones of 1,500 private SaaS companies here. This wasn’t obvious to me.

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Startup SaaS SMB Banking 293