The Bloomberg Scandal and SaaS. Don’t Let It Be You. Trust is Lost in a Heartbeat.
We have a no politics rule here at SaaStr. I’m not going to talk about the IRS stuff, or SAC Capital, let alone other headline topics from the right, left or center. But one scandal did really get my eye
Lead, Follow, Or Get Out Of The Way
If you have been following this blog you would know that I mainly blog about enterprise software, cloud, and big data with a few occasional posts on design and design thinking. That’s what I am most passionate about. Having spent my entire career building enterprise software I have realized that success and competitive differentiation in [...]
Is Microsoft doomed? I’ll let you know when Windows 10 comes out.
A lot of folks believe that the Microsoft empire is doomed, and that the rise of touchscreen computing and mobile devices will lead it its inevitable downfall. This may very well be true; it certainly is true that to date, Microsoft’s attempts to enter the touch and mobile markets have been poorly received. Yet much [...]
TAM is Great. But What Really Matters is That You Believe You Can Hit $100m ARR in 7 Years.
I have a strong, semi-proven thesis that in SaaS, market size doesn’t matter that much … at least in the traditional tops-down sense. If you can get to $2m in ARR in 2 years, you can get to $4m the next. From there, it’s on to $10m in ARR. And if you can get to [...]
Should You Consider Replacing Yourself as CEO?
My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have talked about this publicly a great deal – how I prefer “missionaries” over “mercenaries.” But lately I’m more swayed by [...]
Why I hate acquihires (unless I’m doing the selling)
The always insightful Mark Suster recently tackled the subject of acquihires–the practice of large companies buying small startups simply to acquire their people. Mark lays out an excellent argument for why the acquiring companies are actually losing out when they make acquihires: “You have been at Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! for years. You have worked faithfully. [...]
What Makes Cloud Transformation So Hard?
Transformation is not a new concept, and has been around a long time before cloud and big data. It has always been a pretty nebulous term, but generally has referred to the fundamental reinvention or redesign of a business or function. From an enterprise-wide perspective this typically has meant redefining everything from target markets, products [...]
Pulse 2013: A Full-Day Conference on Customer Success on May 30 in S.F. I Think You Should Go.
As SaaStr readers know, I think people put a little too much into sales, and not quite enough into customer success, especially as they hit first Traction. It’s natural. It’s the hunt. The hunt is the new logo, the new
If You Get Acquired, You’ll Need to Learn to Move from Persuasion to Alignment
I’ve had a chance to semi-objectively watch a number of folks go through the M&A process over the past 18 months, and compare and contrast their experiences with mine. Some acquisitions thrive. YouTube, PayPal, Android. Others of course die. GeoCities, Broadcast.com. Perhaps most actually meander in the middle. Flickr. Take a look at this interesting [...]
The One Word That Shouldn’t Exist in an Entrepreneur’s Vocabulary
No. The one word the best entrepreneurs never accept. I said it. Now let me walk you through a broader story because avoidance of the word in and of itself will seem cliche. Stay with me. When I was little I had a role model for entrepreneurship – my mom. She was a natural leader. [...]
By The Time You Give Them a Raise, They’re Already Out The Door
There’s an endless amount written on the ‘net about hiring Rockstars. Finding them, not settling, and all that. That you need to spend 20%+ of time recruiting (I said that myself here). That the #1 most important thing you can do is put together a great team. Which is absolutely true. But the #2 most [...]
The Corrosive Downside of Acquihires
For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And to keep up with the Jones’s it seems that Yahoo! has now employed the same strategy. And who cares, right? A couple of tech giants throw millions [...]
SalesLoft Interviews SaaStr on Metrics, Leads, VP Sales, Deer and Elephants, and More
Kyle Porter, CEO of SalesLoft, just posted a very well put together video interview with SaaStr (cut into bite-sized snippets) on so many of the topics we’ve talked about. He did a great job, so if you have time, click
MadeiraCloud Raises $1.5M From Sequoia Capital To Help Cloud Users Better Deploy Their Cloud Diagrams
MadeiraCloud, a new cloud management player, today announced it has raised Series A funding from Sequoia Capital. MadeiraCloud’s unique cloud management service enables drag and drop tools to allow users quickly and easily design, provision, manage and monitor cloud infrastructure resources. The company also announced full support for Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Virtual Private Cloud [...]
Why Online Video Just Took One More Big Step to Legitimacy
Anyone who reads this blog frequently will know that I am a big believer in low-cost video content and specifically the power of YouTube as a content creation & distribution platform. Our industry just took one big step towards legitimacy with the hiring of renowned media exec Ynon Kreiz to run Maker Studios. The industry finally has [...]
