Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

There are three types of sales: team, team & tech, and team, tech, & traction. The startup can exert maximum leverage immediately before signing the term sheet. Once the term sheet is signed, the startup’s leverage vaporizes. Negotiate the crucial points before signing the term sheet.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Construction Compensation Acquisition 278

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

But with that out of the way, let’s talk just enough about financial accounting to explain why Big Tech Companies both acquire smaller ones — and do corporate VC investment. Because in the short-term, it often costs basically close to nothing to acquire a smaller startup with cash on hand, or do a corporate VC investment.

Acquisition 228

Acquisition Investment Headcount Banking 228

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

He created a moat for a long-term vision and spent years selling books. Big companies with all the data and mediocre AI tech talent, or startups with the best AI tech talent and less data? This involves balancing long-term vision with immediate practical steps. This all helped with operational rigor. So, who wins?

AI 247

AI Technical Review Startup Management 247

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2023

In my first tech job, I was working at a firm helping startups … and then I knew one night, it was time. I could have left on better terms. And the simplest hack to do that is just to leave on great terms. The post The Biggest Unforced Error is Leaving on Mediocre Terms appeared first on SaaStr. That time comes.

Startup 230

Startup Pricing Investment Sales 230

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2023

Every Big Tech company has a budget for sub-$100m acquisitions. As the deal size approaches $300m-$400m … you end up in the … Ain’t-No-Acquirers-Left Zone b/c It’s Too Expensive in Absolute Terms. Which is the first Local Maximum … When You’re Small, But Hot, At $1-$1.5m Yes, Yammer sold for $1.2

Acquisition 361

Acquisition Venture Capital Generative AI Scale 361

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2023

Q: How do you stand out in terms of customer acquisition against large competitors who aren’t incorporating AI? If you go into Enterprise or more sophisticated parts of tech and don’t have AI in your product, you’ll lose deals. A seed stage founder of a construction tech company at $1.5M The market wants it.

Scale 221

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success AI 221

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2024

Jennifer emphasized the importance of having the right motives and values as a leader, such as growing people, expanding markets, and building value for others, to sustain long-term success. As startup and tech leaders, we need empathy for where they’re coming from. PagerDuty’s customers have an operations chasm to cross.

Generative AI 226

Generative AI AI Technical Review Software Review 226

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

But with that out of the way, let’s talk just enough about financial accounting to explain why Big Tech Companies both acquire smaller ones — and do corporate VC investment. Because in the short-term, it often costs basically close to nothing to acquire a smaller startup with cash on hand, or do a corporate VC investment.

Acquisition 195

Acquisition Investment Headcount Banking 195

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2023

We are seeing AI expand from big tech into vertical industries, like education, where learning is language-intensive. Be careful not to over-rotate based on short-term market dynamics. Profitability is certainly a major area of focus, but don’t forsake future, long-term growth for short-term benefits. #4.

Technical Review 199

Technical Review Software Review Payment Solutions Venture Capital 199

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Complexity and building out a tech stack to manage that complexity are happening. A really strong organization in place in terms of geographic presence and the size of your customers is key. To manage that, you need to build a tech stack. What does that mean? Net dollar retention. Is it revenue growth or efficiency?

Scale 224

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 224

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Every time they made a lift in terms of features, it wasn’t because of customer feedback. Picking Your Core Verticals and Selling Outside of “Tech” 70% of Monday’s customers are non-tech — real estate, banking, construction, and even churches. So, how did two engineers get out of tech?

Scale 164

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 164

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 27, 2022

Here’s the thing about Women in Tech. From being the token woman who always gets invited to redeem all-male panels to snide comments about how “she’s just a diversity hire,” the term “women in tech” can sometimes feel more like a burden than a blessing. And yet, it’s still incredibly necessary.

Engineering 138

Engineering Underperforming Technical Team CTO Management 138

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2023

Live your life on your own terms. There are less than a hundred of these exits a year, across all of tech. Not really. You can take care of your family. Do what you want in this world. Put the kids through college. Buy a nice enough house. Travel the world. You don’t need to roll the dice any further and risk losing it all.

Banking 351

Banking Travel Acquisition Startup 351

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2023

Vertice is a tech-enabled SaaS purchasing platform. We have the platform side which assists with SaaS management – it allows business leaders to get an overview of the tools they currently have in their stack, what the terms are, and when they are up for renewal. We think about it in 2 parts.

Outsourced Development 198

Outsourced Development Acquisition Pricing B2B 198

SaaStr

MARCH 11, 2022

Tech companies such as Chime, Loom, and Faire, have leased new offices in 2021, showing that many companies are getting ready to return to a physical workspace. With most companies on the cusp of going back to the office, you must ask: what does the return to the workplace mean in terms of your business?

Data 243

Data Leadership Development Technology 243

Chargebee

APRIL 11, 2024

From ‘Growth at all costs’ to 2023 being the ‘Year of Efficiency’ as termed by Zuckerberg, the objectives shifted to reducing operational overheads, becoming nimble, and redefining processes. Businesses across the globe have seen a massive shift in priorities over the past five years.

Innovation 76

Innovation Revenue Business 76

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2023

The stickier and more convenient your product is to use along with the ecosystem, the more likely you will be to set up long-term retention. Seeding long-term competitive moats and future areas of focus. Seeding long-term competitive moats and future areas of focus. Targeted expertise from category leaders and their executives.

Investment 199

Investment Startup Branding Acquisition 199

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2023

Every business is mostly running OK already with its tech stack, and it’s unlikely your little app, alone, is going to change the revenue/profits course of any customer. I had about $400k a year when I was a VP at a Fortune 500 Tech Company. And that budget may just come from somewhere, somehow, if it isn’t too big in absolute terms.

Sales Recruiting 246

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Technical Review Software Review 246

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 12, 2024

There are few terms in the world of artificial intelligence that invoke more of a reaction than a simple four-letter word: Open. One thing they are not good at is explaining collectively to policy makers in simple terms. ” [21:13] Jim Zemlin: “Open source communities are very good at a lot of things.

AI 91

AI Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Government 91

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

But then, once they get to say $1m+ ARR, growing 15%, 16, 20% a month — why isn’t every VC they meet offering a term sheet? Or their friends got 7 term sheets with good-but-not- as -good companies. Too Many Tech and/or Insider-ish Customers Risk. Or they don’t like it if all your customers are in SOMA.

Scale 338

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 338

30 Day Leadership

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

In this episode, host Nils Vinje welcomes back Maranda Dziekonski for a wide-ranging discussion on leadership practices and challenges currently facing the tech industry. Nils and Maranda also delve into the long-term implications of leadership decisions and the importance of investing in DE&I and Learning and Development programs.

Leadership 52

Leadership Investment Development Management 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2021

The exercise is: “How would you run your business if short-term revenues didn’t matter?” First, of course revenues matter, in the end, they (and profits) are all that matter, and in SaaS, you need short-term revenue to beget long-term revenue. They will plan the near and mid-term for you.

Sales Hiring 272

Sales Hiring Engineering B2B Revenue 272

SaaStr

APRIL 10, 2023

Zendesk came of age as a company alongside some of the highly successful tech companies to date, like Uber and Airbnb, who are both Zendesk partners. 2023 & Beyond: Zendesk has expanded terms for later-stage startups. Why Seek Out Startups? Earlier on, selling was easy since it often involved personalized, CEO-to-CEO relationships.

Startup 197

Startup Scale SMB Venture Capital 197

SaaStr

AUGUST 1, 2023

Basically what’s clear now is customers went through a “10% App Layoff” If you’ve been at a big tech company, you know what this is like. And yet many startups even at $100m+ ARR saw growth slow to 0% or close to it. What happened there?? You get all the VPs into a room, and you tell them to make a list. Of the 10% to cut.

Headcount 201

Headcount Finance Cloud Startup 201

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

We’ve been through big data and tech hype cycles since the early 2000s — when businesses were considered dead if they didn’t have a website, and mobile was everything. User experience” wasn’t a mainstream term 5-6 years ago, and now it’s a primary focus for most companies. Don’t be a solution looking for a problem,” Prasad says.

AI 218

AI Scale Generative AI Sales Hiring 218

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

’ It’s been a rough day – and 6 months – in public tech land. On my index the current median, despite the massive correction, is only 5% below pre-covid long term averages. But stronger than they were before in terms of multiples. We’ll lower than that in terms of revenue multiples right now.

SaaS 327

SaaS Azure Cloud AWS 327

SaaStr

AUGUST 19, 2023

Find out if you qualify today at [link] Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada’s Startup Visa. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do!

Software 188

Software Business Social Media Government 188

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

In terms of looking for new ideas, 70-80% is spent looking at AI. AI is typically divided into three buckets: Infrastructure Co-pilots Pre-AI SaaS Infrastructure — Infrastructure will be owned by big tech companies and paced for a big M&A exit. Can You Raise A Series A If You’re Not AI SaaS? That’s still happening.

SaaS Payments 208

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions AI SaaS 208

SaaStr

AUGUST 24, 2022

Any top-tier Big Tech Company can clearly compete with any start-up. If they are behind and want to catch up — then Buy is usually simplest, at least in the short term. Facebook competed with Instagram before it bought it. There are many examples. But then why do they go ahead and pay up and buy a startup? It saves the most time.

Leadership 224

Leadership Engineering Startup Branding 224

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2024

A free term. The only challenge with a free term is there’s nowhere else to go. There are three areas of the ecosystem you should focus on in terms of building GTM with VCs to their startups: Focus on your target segment. Tailor a GTM Package for Investors to Share Learn the VC tech stack.

Startup 178

Startup Scale Underperforming Technical Team AWS 178

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2023

Most of the app sales and net retention comes from deploying software and tech-driven features that have 100% gross margin. They raise money when they have cash in the bank, which means that they have much more leverage negotiating terms and getting additional funds for the company. So how do they get there? Diversity yields results.

SaaS Payments 197

SaaS Payments Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 197

SaaStr

AUGUST 27, 2022

We expect these trends to continue in the near term, and we’ve reflected this in our guidance.” – per CNBC. Tech infrastructure spend like Snowflake and Datadog and Cloudflare appear to have no downturn at all. Nearly everyone I’ve talked to is taking a more measured approach to their business.

SMB 227

SMB Scale Cloud Trends 227

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Study after study shows that the vast majority of support teams are unhappy with their current customer support tech stacks. Below, we’ll share everything you need to future-proof your tech stack for the new conversational support era. Download The Ultimate Modern Support Tech Stack guide. Is your tech stack ready?

Technical Review 249

Technical Review Customer Support Payment Methods Payment Solutions 249

Neil Patel

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Simply put, you may jeopardize long-term growth if you stop marketing to reduce short-term costs. So, instead of cutting back, figure out how to ease the short-term pain and expand the usefulness of your marketing budget to plan for the recovery period. As a business hoping to market successfully, this is absolutely essential.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Strategy Marketing Social Media 84

BetterCloud

APRIL 2, 2024

Terms like “shelfware”, “bloatware”, and even “crapware” have been coined to describe the situation where companies spend money on software that goes unused or underutilized. Preventing shelfware Visibility matters To make the most of your tech stack and budget, having optimum visibility for everyone involved in the transactions is a must.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Software Review SaaS Benchmarks 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 17, 2020

We’ve had 2 records years in a row of VC investment: But … but look what’s happened in tech and the Cloud: Explosion! The top tech companies alone are worth $5 trillion together! There are >100 public tech unicorns and far more private ones.

Venture Capital 142

Venture Capital Business Cloud Investment 142

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 17, 2024

Leena Joshi is Co-Founder & CEO of CloseFactor , a GTM strategy and execution platform that helps enterprise tech hone in on the exact right prospective customers and accelerates their conversion by helping your sales and marketing teams be contextually relevant to them. 25:38) Finding a leader who has your back. (28:19)

Scale 88

Scale Sales Hiring Strategy Sales 88