SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

SaaS Capital surveyed 1,000 B2B startups of varying sizes to find out just how much today they are spending in sales and marketing in this new era of efficiency. Jamin Ball has a great summary here : You can see public SaaS companies arent getting any more efficient, either, and in fact generally have a higher CAC than most startups.

Scale 230

Scale Sales Hiring B2B Startup 230

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2025

Promptless is used by fast-growing startups and Fortune 500 enterprises alike to automatically update docs based on feature releases, support tickets, internal Slack conversations, and more. These startups demonstrate deep technical expertise, clear ROI cases, and impressive early traction.

AI Search 164

AI Search AI Startup Scale 164

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2025

New spending data from Ramp reveals a possible trend: end user AI adoption may be hitting its first growth slow down. Early adopters were predominantly tech companies, startups, and digital-native businesses with short decision cycles and high risk tolerance. The AI adoption party might be slowing down—at least temporarily.

AI 275

AI Payment Services Payments Scale 275

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Given the explosion in domain suffix permutations I wondered if startups' behavior had changed over the last decade. Down from 89% in 2007, the.com designation adorns the addresses of 64% of startups founded in 2020. ai means a startup is all about the future.AI Zoom is likely the most well recognized startup with a.us

Startup 323

Startup Business AI Trends 323

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 284

Venture Capital Startup CTO Churn 284

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2025

The company realizes that the startup space is highly competitive in terms of speed, and therefore, they need to execute extremely fast. The most successful startups are those that resonate with customers and succeed in taking budget from existing solutions without being compared to them, as they offer something new and better.

AI Search 244

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Technical Review 244

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 1, 2019

In 2014, I published a post called Do Startup Require Less Capital to Succeed than 10 Years Ago ? Startups going public from 2006-2009 showed a median ROIC of 0.42. With more capital, startups can take more risk, explore more customer acquisition channels (some which may not work), develop more products and potentially grow faster.

Startup 279

Startup Software Review SaaS Acquisition 279

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2025

Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 27, 2025 10 Unexpected Learnings from SVB’s 2025 State of the Markets Report Beyond the AI boom headlines, the 1H’25 data reveals surprising shifts that could reshape how we think about venture capital, startup operations, and the innovation economy. Companies are reaching the end of their options.

Outsourcing Services 164

Outsourcing Services Venture Capital Outsourced Development Data 164

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2025

These deals highlight the critical importance of database infrastructure in powering next-generation AI applications and signal an accelerating consolidation trend in the B2B and SaaS industry. This acquisition builds on previous AI investments, including the 2023 purchase of Neeva, a generative AI search startup.

VP of Engineering 183

VP of Engineering AI Search AI Data 183

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 274

Startup Trends Data Compensation 274

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

It was started in 2014 when founders Daniel and Jonathan were working together at a delivery startup and experienced firsthand how slow background checks were slowing down worker onboarding. Checkr’s go-to-market strategy was already well-established when Lindsay joined in 2022. With only 4% conversion by month two versus a 10% goal.

Revenue 293

Revenue Scale Sales Hiring Compensation 293

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2020

A bunch of sessions aren’t even up yet — for example, we just added David Wadwani, ex-CEO of Appdynamics, now the newest partner at Greylock — so take these trends with a grain of salt. The Cadence: How to Turn Your SaaS Startup into an Army with David Sacks. I’m glad to see it is trending.

Trends 232

Trends Venture Capital Scale PayPal 232

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

At the IMPACT Summit yesterday, I shared our Top 10 Trends for Data in 2024. Software startups are rising to meet the need. LLMs Transform the Stack : Large language models transform data in many ways. First, they have driven an increased demand for data and are causing a complete architecture inside companies.

Artificial Intelligence 228

Artificial Intelligence Trends Data Software Review 228

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 29, 2022

I observe a few trends. Companies that can buck this trend will be valued at significant premiums to the market - hence the sudden venture capitalist interest in product-led growth motions & Adobe’s acquisition of Figma at 50x ARR. After a two-quarter spike, however, the figure has returned to its previous negative slope.

Sales Hiring 317

Sales Hiring Sales Startup Acquisition 317

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 11, 2022

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. Over time, the M&A market activity should begin to inform public valuations.

Acquisition 250

Acquisition Startup Software Pricing 250

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2024

Is Generative AI going to be transformative or incremental for your startup? A panel of AI-driven organizations took the stage at SaaStr Annual to talk about the trends and opportunities of GenAI and how it’s shaped their companies. The beauty of startups is you’re agile, and with LLMs, it’s language-driven.

Generative AI 272

Generative AI AI Cloud Startup 272

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2022

The survey results review the trends in the public market, in founders’ minds, and the private market. Top 10 Insights from the 2022 Startup Sentiment Survey. There’s no correlation between the amount of money a startup has raised and its runway. The typical founder feels 6.0

Startup 242

Startup Scale Headcount Compensation 242

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

Recently, Redpoint Office Hours welcomed Allison Pickens to clarify the COO role and when startups should consider recruiting one. Whereas a decade ago, a board might have hired a professional CEO to scale the operations of a startup, today, more boards seek COOs. A few hypotheses underpin this trend.

Sales Recruiting 212

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Scale 212

SaaStr

APRIL 5, 2025

Kobe Conrad, Head of Growth at Rupa Health and Onleet, took the stage at SaaStr Annual to break down the five growth channels that transformed Rupa Health from a $20M seed-stage startup into a platform with hundreds of millions in equity and a 4,000% increase in user acquisition over three and a half years.

Scale 209

Scale AI Search Sales Hiring Acquisition 209

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 2, 2021

Unlike equity-only startups, crypto startups maintain two capitalization tables. The first is the equity cap table, just the same as non-crypto startup. At IPO for a classic startup, equity allocation is the reverse. Regardless, the trend is broader than one business. Insiders own 80%. Why this allocation?

Startup 228

Startup Trends Investment Scaling 228

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Best customer success software for startups and small companies. Reports & analytics : Provide tailored analytics, dashboards, and reporting capabilities to track customer engagement, identify trends , and enable data-driven decision-making for improved customer success. Zapscale Best for : Early-stage startups.

Customer Success 105

Customer Success Enterprise Software Review Startup 105

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

They are better aware of tech trends than you are, usually. From the head of innovation at Global 100 leader BT: (note: an updated SaaStr Classic post) The post Dear SaaStr: How Can a New Startup Take on a Big, Established Leader? The main advantage is you can pursue a market or opportunity that is not worth their time. Not at all.

Startup 261

Startup Engineering Innovation Trends 261

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2025

The Paradox of Large Enterprise Leadership Conventional wisdom suggests that technology adoption flows from agile startups to conservative enterprises. This creates an unusual dynamic where startups need to be enterprise-ready from day one, rather than gradually scaling up market. AI is flipping this script entirely. ” Why?

Software Review 227

Software Review Technical Review AI Development Team Review 227

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 25, 2020

A few weeks ago, I wrote What I Expect in the Next Few Months in Startupland , in which I mentioned two fundamental forces: Bullwhip Effect and Startup Growth Rates. This dynamic affects startups just as much as the rest of the economy. More than 30k startup employees have lost their jobs. This is the Bullwhip Effect in force.

Startup 227

Startup Trends Software Management 227

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2023

With all the broad macro economic shifts, startups are pursuing their core markets much differently in 2023 than in 2022. To illuminate those trends, I’ve constructed a brief, 28 question go-to-market survey here.

Startup 216

Startup Construction Marketing Trends 216

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

Darren Mowrey (Google Cloud) Darren leads strategic partnerships at Google Cloud, focusing on helping startups scale their AI implementations. He’s particularly passionate about developer-first approaches and helping startups navigate the complexities of enterprise AI implementation.

AI 171

AI Cloud Enterprise Technical Review 171

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 17, 2025

My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., Subscribe now Overall Trends When looking at the aggregate net new ARR added in Q1, it doesn’t pain the best picture. net retention and CAC payback).

Cloud 277

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 277

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2025

Here’s the full breakdown of 25 top public B2B / SaaS companies and what it means for your startup. Traditional horizontal SaaS faces big headwinds (Salesforce -18%, Asana -31%). The Scoreboard: All 25 Public SaaS Companies Ranked I spent the weekend pulling YTD performance data for every significant public SaaS company.

B2B 241

B2B Government Healthcare AI 241

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 20, 2023

By looking at the cumulative rounds since 2010, we can see that Seed, A, & B volumes all trended meaningfully above their predicted counts. At current trends, actual round counts should revert to the mean sometime in the second half of 2023. These rounds remain at elevated levels relative to the model’s expectation.

Investment 236

Investment Venture Capital Startup Finance 236

SaaStr

MAY 17, 2023

The point of CRO Confidential is to help startups acquire customers, and Cassidy provides a unique perspective on founder-led sales as a current founder and highly talented sales leader. Early-stage startups who aren’t yet household names need to find a way to leverage warm intros to companies instead of cold-emailing sales leaders.

Startup 239

Startup Pricing Sales Trends 239

USIO

JUNE 12, 2025

Whether it’s a fintech startup, a government agency, or a national subscription platform, Louis emphasized one key idea: the future of payments is flexible, seamless, and built to adapt. We enable companies, whether fintech startups or municipalities, to make payments part of the product, not just an add-on.

Payments 130

Payments Embedded Payments Payment Methods Payment Solutions 130

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Shopify, Canva, Monday and tons of other SaaS leaders less focused on tech and startups had big years. But the trend of slowing growth in 2023 wasn’t just a thing — it was an All Time Low. Still, the trend line does make you worry a smidge. So 2023 wasn’t a rough year for everyone.

Azure 349

Azure Cloud SaaS Trends 349

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2024

Four portfolio companies join Sameer to talk about three trends of the Cloud AI Era. Trend #1: Foundation Models Many models exist: open source, closed source, frontier models. For startups like EvenUp and Abridge, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all model that meets industry needs. All the customer has to say is, “That’s great.

Cloud 167

Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence Healthcare 167

Tom Tunguz

MAY 27, 2020

Earlier this week, I wrote Californian Dreaming - Is Silicon Valley Still the Best Place to Start a Company , where I analyzed the IPO and M&A trends of venture-backed companies by state. Those metrics are lagging indicators of startup distribution. I pulled the unicorn valuation list and analyzed US startups by state.

Startup 312

Startup Trends Metrics Data 312

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2023

This you should know as a startup CEO or founder or executive. It’s also now that they are having a much tougher time raising funds themselves to give to startups. If that doesn’t last more than a quarter or two, startups won’t really notice. And importantly, I find most founders are still too optimistic here.

Startup 362

Startup Investment Trends Metrics 362

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2023

ChartMogul’s data, which we covered in another recent post here , shows data from 1000+ SaaS startups from $1m-$30m ARR in essentially real-time, as they are doing real-time revenue analytics. He found new bookings in Q1’23 were down about 33% on average from Q4’22: Yes, these are slightly different time frames, but the same basic trends.

Cloud 344

Cloud Startup Trends SaaS 344

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 11, 2023

For each of the 14 weeks, more people searched for ChatGPT than Taylor Swift according to Google Trends data. For startups, this inquisitiveness is a wonderful thing. You won’t find people outside of tech hubs googling for microservices or layer 2 blockchains or serverless databases with any great frequency.

ChatGPT 360

ChatGPT AI Search Blockchain Data Analysis 360