SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2022

G2 put on its big annual digital event, G2 Reach , this week and we were lucky enough to host what ended up being a simply amazing session on the real state of venture capital right now. Iconiq, which has invested in so many SaaS leaders, has seen growth rates at startups on average fall by 50% over the course of the year.

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Venture Capital Investment Cloud Startup 209

SaaStr

APRIL 24, 2021

Q: Is venture capital really necessary to do a start-up? Atlassian never raised any primary capital and waited many years until raising money at all for secondary liquidity. But most leading SaaS companies raised money, at least as soon as things took off. The post Do I Need To Raise Venture Capital At All?

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Scale Scaling Investment 271

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2020

First, come here from 20+ of the top VCs in SaaS and Cloud for FREE at our next big digital event, the next SaaStr Summit: The New New in Venture on May 27th. The post What’s Really Happening in Venture Capital, Right Now appeared first on SaaStr. I’m glad you asked!

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Venture Capital Cloud Investment Startup 235

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

We’ve assembled many of the best SaaStr posts on raising money, working with investors, and more … updated the content … and added great videos from top SaaS VCs. The post New SaaStr University FREE Course: The Secrets to Fundraising and Venture Capital appeared first on SaaStr.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital SaaS 210

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

After several years of booming business in SaaS, the world of fundraising nearly gave everyone whiplash when capital stopped flowing as freely in 2022 as it did in 2021. So, what exactly is happening in the venture capital world, and what do startup founders need to know? What Has Changed For VCs?

Venture Capital 191

Venture Capital Sales Hiring Social Media Healthcare 191

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2020

Let’s take a fun example of a simply awesome SaaS company that will IPO soon, doing hundreds of millions in ARR — Procore. The post Why Do Some People Consider Venture Capital a “Young Person’s Game”? You can start there on Day 1 in a big fund, or a few years in in a smaller fund that does well.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Investment SaaS Compensation 209

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2020

He said the biggest change in venture capital wasn’t investing over Zoom, or Cloud multiples, or even the pace of investing today. No, the biggest change in Venture Capital in 2020-2021 is what he called “The Postmates Effect” That Postmates was arguably #3 to Doordash and UberEats, and still was worth billions.

Venture Capital 207

Venture Capital Cloud Investment Software 207

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2020

Byron started off as a SaaS CEO and has invested in probably more SaaS IPOs than any other VCs, from Twilio to Sendgrid to oldies like Eloqua and Cornerstone OnDemand. Sign up here to join Byron and me on Thursday at 12:15pm where we do a deep dive on what’s going on in venture capital, fundraising and Cloud right now.

Venture Capital 191

Venture Capital Cloud Investment SaaS 191

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2020

Over 1,500 of you registered for an incredible deep-dive we did yesterday with Byron Deeter, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Byron has invested in over a dozen Cloud unicorns and even more importantly, has been investing in SaaS and Cloud since the very earliest days. The agenda: What’s happening in venture today.

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Venture Capital Cloud Investment SaaS 222

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

When reps want a $160k+ OTE for hitting say a $400k attainment, really, that’s only possible when fueled with a lot of venture capital. So things got a bit broken with SaaS sales exec comp in the run-up up until 2020 … and then it got really broken in the crazy times of late 2020 and 2021. Truly dramatically.

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Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring Sales 314

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2023

The new year has officially begun, and since the markets have become more unpredictable over the past few years, SaaS founders are likely wondering what the VC landscape will look like in 2023. It’s no secret –– last year, SaaS founders were feeling the pressure of inflation, rising interest rates, and a compressing public market.

Venture Capital 180

Venture Capital Investment Sales Hiring Entrepreneurship 180

SaaStr

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Don’t raise venture capital. Venture capital is not a gift. Venture capital is not an accomplishment. Venture capital is not free. Venture capital is not a tap. Venture capital is highly dilutive. Venture Capital, at least U.S.-style Mailchimp did.

Venture Capital 256

Venture Capital SaaS Leadership 256

Baremetrics

APRIL 21, 2021

At Bigfoot Capital , we wanted to know how early-stage companies think about capital as a component of their business. To do so, we decided to ask 30 SaaS Founders their thoughts on raising money and venture capital. Key Takeaways from SaaS Founders. Raising Capital for Your SaaS Business.

Venture Capital 71

Venture Capital SaaS Finance Scale 71

SaaStr

DECEMBER 25, 2023

G2 had us back for another great deep dive on just where SaaS investing is there days, and it was a great panel: Accel Partner Arun Mathew Inspired Capital Founder & Managing Partner Alexa von Tobel Salesforce Ventures Managing Partner Paul Drews and Jason Lemkin! Are things any better in venture than twelve months ago?

B2B 222

B2B Investment Venture Capital Scale 222

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Roughly speaking, this is what generally will happen after 3 rounds of traditional venture capital. This is after 3 full rounds of venture capital, and if you are then on the path to IPO or Big Acquisition (which hopefully you are if you take 3 rounds), that 10% (or whatever amount) will still be worth a lot.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Acquisition SaaS Leadership 282

SaaStr

MARCH 21, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What’s Changed in SaaS Today? My list: You have to go twice as far on each dollar of venture capital as in 2021. Some categories in SaaS are holding up well, e.g. Cloudflare, Adobe, etc. So pseudo-SaaS products and other products with lower gross margins are commanding much lower valuations.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital SaaS Startup Marketing 295

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top Things to Know Before Starting a SaaS Startup? Raising venture capital is really, really hard — and only available to a small subset of founders. You can’t get mad or frustrated that you can’t raise VC capital. Top of my list: Picking a mediocre co-founder just doesn’t work. A bit more here.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Startup CTO SaaS 271

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Can You Grow a SaaS Startup Without Spending a Ton on Sales and Marketing? A few examples: Mailchimp was bootstrapped to $1,000,000,000 in ARR Qualtrics was bootstrapped to a $6B acquisition Atlassian was bootstrapped all the way to … today $30B+ Veeva is very enterprise but only spent ~$3m in true venture capital.

Scale 219

Scale Venture Capital Startup Marketing 219

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Bootstrapping in SaaS it isn’t that hard, per se. Companies like Atlassian and Qualtrics have cruised past nine-figures in ARR (and IPO’d in the case of Atlassian) without needing any venture capital. THEN, after $10m, bootstrapped SaaS companies seem to basically scale at the same rate as their venture-backed peers.

Sales Hiring 361

Sales Hiring Venture Capital Scale SaaS 361

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2021

Want to connect with almost 9,000 other SaaS founders? Want to take 4+ FREE courses on scaling SaaS and raising venture capital? The post Meet 9,000 other SaaS Founders at the FREE SaaStr University! Then check out the latest at SaaStr University !! Sign up HERE !! appeared first on SaaStr.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital SaaS Scaling 275

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2023

So Capchase surveyed 900 SaaS businesses between $1m and $15m ARR, and their data showed what I’ve seen as well: it’s tougher out there,and media growth is down. You can download the full report here : The post Capchase: The Best SaaS Startups Are Still Growing 100%-200% To $10m ARR and Beyond appeared first on SaaStr.

Venture Capital 193

Venture Capital Startup SaaS Data 193

SaaStr

JUNE 20, 2019

Third, get a controller, even a part-time one, that knows SaaS. The post How Bridge Rounds Work in Venture Capital: Messy, Full of Drama, and Not Without High Risk appeared first on SaaStr. Second, send out monthly investor updates. You have to do this. This keeps everyone bonded to you. and … they do.

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Venture Capital Scale Finance Pricing 226

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2022

The Day in SaaS, 07.28.22: Public SaaS companies are worth exactly 50% of What They Were 12 Months Ago: [link] pic.twitter.com/pbK4BmoNwo. So we’re in a bit of a weird world and time in venture capital. It sort of begs the question … is every SaaS startup worth half of what it was last year? Well … it depends.

Startup 297

Startup Venture Capital SaaS Cloud 297

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

The reality is, few folks have all 3 options available to them: Most startups cannot attract venture capital, at least not in the early days. Atlassian, Qualtrics, Medallia, Mailchimp and other SaaS leaders all became unicorns without any early-stage venture capital at all. But it took them longer. Does it matter?

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Investment Pricing 240

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 also examine how public markets currently influence the SaaS industry and unpack the elevated CIOs’ role in budgeting for SaaS products.

Venture Capital 219

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 219

SaaStr

DECEMBER 26, 2023

So we’re reaching new levels of efficiency in SaaS — at least in the public markets. The average public SaaS company now has hit $300,000 in revenue per employee or so on average. Almost Everyone’s Gotten Radically More Efficient in SaaS That’s a good metric to think about at scale now.

Venture Capital 278

Venture Capital Scaling AI Investment 278

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2020

Q: How hard is it to raise venture capital? The overall odds of raising venture capital may be 0.05%. And today — it’s the most successful of the current generation of SaaS companies. The post How hard is it to raise venture capital? This is a case where statistics are misleading. Traction cures all.

Venture Capital 133

Venture Capital Investment Metrics SaaS 133

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2024

How IBM Sees AI Changing the Game for Companies of All Sizes We End the Year at All-Time Lows for SaaS Growth. Raising Venture Capital in 2024? SaaStr 714: From Zero to Hero: How to Dominate Outbound SaaS Sales with Rippling and Founders Fund on CRO Confidential     3. A Buying Signal — Or The End of an Era?

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Scale AI Customer Success 236

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

SaaS products and services like Pilot track the finances of 1,000s of SaaS and other startup so they’re an interesting source of hard data. Something that’s both not surprising but also pretty impactful: 57% of venture-backed startups will have to go “back to market” in 2024 to raise more capital.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS 309

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Isn’t venture capital, well risk capital? I believed it then, I believe it now, and as a SaaS founder, I wish I’d taken some of the founder secondary offered to me. If you build something truly great and important in SaaS, you should make $100m+, or more. Doesn’t everyone go into this as adults?

Startup 237

Startup Venture Capital Investment Scaling 237

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2023

Capchase Co-Founder & CEO Miquel Fernandez and 01 Advisors VP Kristen Clifford use data to show us what differentiates the best SaaS companies from the rest. The top SaaS companies are growing really fast, roughly at twice the rate of their peers. As a refresher, the rule of 40 is a measure of sustainable growth for SaaS companies.

SaaS Payments 204

SaaS Payments Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 204

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

So we’re in the 5th or so “SaaS crash” since I’ve been doing SaaS. This one is the worst, not because SaaS companies aren’t’ doing well. Everyone was a genius in SaaS for a while. Public “multiples”, or how much top public SaaS companies are valued at a multiple of revenue, have fallen by half since the peak in Q4’21.

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Cloud Startup SaaS 362

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

How is AI going to impact the software and SaaS landscape of the next couple of years and also the next 5-10 years? She watched the SaaS and Cloud wave ride and thought there’d be a huge pullback in markets this year. It’s how decision-makers make informed decisions. sending a meme in Discord).

AI 262

AI Generative AI Venture Capital SaaS 262

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 28, 2020

Is RBF simply an alternative to venture capital funding? Companies can use RBF instead of working with VCs, but often, RBF is highly complementary to venture capital funding. Those who eventually seek venture capital funding very often find that VCs are then more receptive.

Venture Capital 61

Venture Capital Finance Payments Revenue 61

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. We had a great one last time with Mark Roberge, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today?

Marketplace as a Service 234

Marketplace as a Service Venture Capital Entertainment Construction 234

SaaStr

JULY 16, 2022

There’s a common meme in Venture Capital that traction is tough to quantify, but you know it when you see it. Because I don’t think Initial Traction is at all nebulous in SaaS — and I think it occurs earlier than many think. And that’s where the power and leverage is in SaaS. >>

Scale 267

Scale Venture Capital SaaS Branding 267

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2024

Don’t disguise it in growth and/or venture capital. SaaS + hardware, SaaS + payments, etc. So be extra careful here — you have to be even more efficient than pure SaaS. No the point is this isn’t D2C, it’s B2B. Yes, HubSpot didn’t get to 100% NRR until well past $30m ARR. can be great.

Churn 234

Churn Startup SaaS Payments Venture Capital 234