SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Can A SaaS Startup Really Scale With 2 Co-CEOs? But here’s the thing: the best startups are all outliers. The post Dear SaaStr: Can A SaaS Startup Really Scale With 2 Co-CEOs? Many will tell you it’s a bad idea, and it probably is — in most cases. I sort of tried this myself, and it didn’t quite work.

SaaS 234

SaaS Startup Scaling 234

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2022

Startups create products. When a business is ready to scale, a startup ought to develop an organizational roadmap. The question for early-stage startups is how to start building this structure. Most startups begin either with a product marketer or a demand generation specialist. Who should be the first marketing hire ?

Startup 347

Startup Product Marketing Acquisition Scaling 347

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

However, what many businesses may overlook is the startup segment. Often, startups are lumped in with small businesses, yet this approach fails to recognize what motivates and attracts these early-stage companies. Why Seek Out Startups? How is it that you want to sell to startups differently than the rest of your customer base?”

Startup 218

Startup Scale SMB Customer Success 218

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 10, 2022

I’m going to tell you a bit about two startups and I’d like you to guess the name of each company. Both startups provide database software to developers to build applications. Both of these businesses are publicly traded. Both have grown very fast. In fact, their revenue trajectories through 2020 are nearly identical.

Startup 312

Startup SaaS Revenue Pricing 312

Tom Tunguz

MAY 16, 2023

Startups operate with a broader variance with commercial teams : Canva & Databricks should paint the ends of the spectrum. The correlation with scale is effectively zero, meaning that ratio holds throughout the life of a business, barring the pre-commercialization epoch in a startup’s lifespan.

Startup 242

Startup Headcount Scale Engineering 242

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 2, 2023

Burn multiple measures the capital efficiency of a startup. Startup burn multiples have changed markedly in 2023. In contrast, startups with higher operating expenses will reduce their burn multiple by 34-70%. In contrast, startups with higher operating expenses will reduce their burn multiple by 34-70%.

Startup 240

Startup Marketing Business 240

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Who Should Approve Startup CEO Expenses ? In a startup, the reality is a CEO can probably do almost anything they want — up to a point. More here: Founders: Get Your Comp Package Approved By Your Board of Directors The post Dear SaaStr: Who Should Approve Startup CEO Expenses? Transparency builds trust.

Startup 194

Startup Finance Compensation Leadership 194

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What’s It Really Like to Be CEO of a Startup? 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? At $10m-$20m+ in revenues, maybe. Maybe not even until pre-IPO.

Startup 240

Startup Scaling Revenue 240

Tom Tunguz

MAY 15, 2022

As the fiscal quarters of many startups draw to a close, board members and management teams are having one of four conversations: The World is Your Oyster, Time to Strategize, Chewing Gravel, or Go Big/Go Profitable. The x-axis is the Zero Cash Date: when the startup runs out of money. The north star should be efficiency.

Startup 314

Startup Scale Outsourced Development Churn 314

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2023

AI startups building next-generation offerings should prioritize common workflows shared across a significant fraction of the employee population or workflows for highly paid employees. Startups should focus on AI for Execs (perhaps why legal has been a heavily funded category) & AI for common workstreams (code autocompletion).

SaaS 305

SaaS Startup AI Scale 305

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 27, 2023

Slower sales cycles create pipeline shocks & startups are feeling the impacts. The average startup saw a 24% increase in sales cycle from early 2022 to 2023. Startups selling to enterprises have increased 36%, twice those of Mid-Market & SMB focused companies. Sales cycles shifted dramatically in 2023.

Startup 291

Startup SMB Sales Headcount 291

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2023

SVB failing was a stunning moment in the history of startups. The bank startups had used for decades. A week ago this morning, our bank balances still read as follows: pic.twitter.com/h4kTDaDFeb — Jason Be Kind Lemkin  (@jasonlk) March 19, 2023 So … where did startups that took out their cash put it?

Startup 278

Startup Banking Finance Consulting 278

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2023

So my LinkedIn feed is full of sales execs complaining how unfair startups are: VPs get fired seemingly without cause (it’s never that simple, though. Startups not even hitting 40% quota attainmen t (more common these days, and brutal indeed). VC-backed startups can be an incredible journey. Is this fair? Perhaps not.

Startup 233

Startup SaaS Sales Leadership 233

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2023

So Carta recently put together some dat a on a topic I’ve wondered about: just how many startups allow option exercises beyond the traditional 90 day window? The answer: the general trend is just over 10% of startups have extended windows beyond the traditional 90 days for departing employees to exercise stock options.

Startup 244

Startup Trends Data Compensation 244

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 5, 2022

So even more than usual, VCs have to decide what to do with their struggling startups. The thing is VCs know 3 almost conflicting things: The best startups just grow at an insane rate, at least most of the time. And yet … Almost all the top startups had one rough year. I don’t mean the ones 100% failing.

Startup 306

Startup Sales Hiring SaaS Venture Capital 306

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 post SaaS Capital Survey of 1,500 SaaS Companies: High NRR Startups Grow Twice as Fast appeared first on SaaStr. Yes, most of the best in SaaS have high NRR, at least once they are public.

SaaS 266

SaaS Startup SMB Retention 266

SaaStr

AUGUST 15, 2023

So two discussions this week were reminders to me of how much marketing has changed in the early and “pre-brand” stages: Two very successful founders ($1B+ exits) with new startups pushed me really hard to promote their new startup you’ve never heard of our our podcast + at SaaStr Annual. No one cares you have a new or new-ish app.

Startup 184

Startup Sales Hiring Content Marketing AI 184

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 13, 2022

Thanks to the many readers who wrote in to Guess the Startup on Friday. I had three goals for the Guess the Startup Post. growth rate in a year would be the envy of most seed stage startups. There were a torrent of ideas: Mongo, Twilio, Snowflake, Databricks, Niantic, Klayvio, Microsoft, DataStax, Zoom, and Peloton.

Startup 258

Startup Scale Revenue Retention 258

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Do You Know When It’s Time to Sell Your Startup? We sold to first startup to an other hot startup about to IPO — instead of a more complex deal with Amazon. A startup a BigCo might desperately want to buy today … might be of little interest next year. That was an epic failure. Priorities change.

Startup 209

Startup Acquisition Marketing Strategy 209

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 1, 2022

How much value does a successful software startup create per dollar of venture investment? Over the last 30 years, a venture dollar invested in a successful US software startup generated $10 of value. In addition to MOIC patterns, the data reveals three startup fundraising epochs. Startups in the 90s raised less than $10m.

Startup 265

Startup Software Pricing Investment 265

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 3, 2022

There’s a prevailing narrative that the health of the Bay Area startup ecosystem faces challenges. San Francisco’s share of startup rounds by count has fallen from its perch ten years ago. In 2021, San Francisco Bay Area startups raised $126b. In 2019, US startups raised $126.4b.

Startup 239

Startup Finance Investment Marketing 239

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

This showcases a narrow segment of a niche market, and it’s missing a lot of startups. Any startup in any reasonable category likely has dozens of competitors, and Altman believes the best strategy to compete in 2023 and beyond is multi-product. Startups are no longer fringe. How can a startup compete with a big company?

Scale 190

Scale Startup Scaling Sales Hiring 190

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%.

Startup 191

Startup Headcount AI Scaling 191

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Startup? Most startups never get a single good acquisition offer, ever. The post Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Startup? Having been through the acquisition process 4x — twice as a founder, twice as a start-up exec, here’s my list of when and if to sell. Which is hard.

Startup 330

Startup SaaS Acquisition Scaling 330

SaaStr

JULY 17, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Much Equity Should I Give A Key Startup Advisor? Rule The post Dear SaaStr: How Much Equity Should I Give A Key Startup Advisor? Here’s one way to think about it: Give them shares worth 1.5x-2x 2x the amount of cash their time is worth … vesting over the time they deliver the help. But it’s at least a place to start.

Startup 214

Startup Sales 214

SaaStr

AUGUST 1, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Leave a Startup When I’m an Integral Co-founder? time to go image from here ) The post Dear SaaStr: How Do I Leave a Startup When I’m an Integral Co-founder? Either find a smaller role in the company, and still be supportive. Do that if you can. If you can’t, if you really don’t want to stay.

Startup 221

Startup Finance 221

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

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2023

More at the full report here : The post SaaS Capital: Across 1,500 SaaS Startups, Yearly Contracts Don’t Actually Increase NRR appeared first on SaaStr. You start to go upmarket, you get better at sales and upsell, and you start to add more value, and learn to close bigger customers and make them happier.

SaaS 325

SaaS Startup Churn Retention 325

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

As the Fed raises rates in the next few quarters, will startups borrow less? We’ve established that interest rates are uncorrelated to startup financing over the last twenty years. The more expensive debt, the less of it startups seek. “After the U.S. Apparently, old fallacies never die.”. Is this true in venture capital?

Startup 251

Startup Venture Capital Finance Pricing 251

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2022

But what about startups? Most VC funds “carry” startup investments at their last round price, unless their value has been materially impaired. Even if the startup isn’t quite a rocketship anymore, most smaller VC funds will stay hold it at the same value. Canva has done as well as any startup possibly could.

SaaS 305

SaaS Startup Venture Capital Cloud 305