5 Simple Ideas to Immediately Improve Your Conversion Rates in SaaS
Recently, I was asked a great question about Improving Conversion Rates. If you haven’t done this in the past, I’ve got my 4 best suggestions that will work to get your conversion rates up. If you’re past this point — my apologies. However, before we get there, let me state the obvious, that there are [...]
If You Want to Get Funded – Dude, Make It Easy On Them
Lately, I’ve noticed that some of the absolutely smartest, sharpest folks I know trying to raise early/early-ish stage capital are struggling … and they are sort of amazed how other folks they know who, well, aren’t quite as sharp are mopping up that venture capital. What’s the issue? Seems like it’s always the same. You [...]
What is MRR Churn? | SaaS Metrics FAQs Part 2
Why measure SaaS MRR churn? Show me the money! SaaS MRR churn is an important SaaS metric that measures the financial impact of churn. While customer churn is an important operational metric, CFOs always prefer MRR churn. In this second SaaS Metrics FAQs article, I explore ways to analyze SaaS MRR churn.
The Law of Attach Rates, And Why Partners Can’t Really Move the Needle For You (Directly)
I want to spend a little time on some learnings about Strategic Partners in SaaS. First, let me be clear — to make it in SaaS, you’re probably going to need to achieve real success with Strategic Partners. Because it takes a Village. And because your partners will likely, through integrations in particular, make your [...]
When You Hire Your First Sales Rep — Just Make Sure You Hire Two
The time is probably going to come when you have to build a sales team in SaaS. It may be Day 1 if you have plenty of capital and are selling to large enterprises. It may be X months down the road, once you close a few deals of large enough size ($x,000 ACV) to [...]
Two SaaS Metrics That Actually Don’t Matter That Much: Churn and Sales Cycles
Ok, I know the title sounds a bit controversial, but bear with me, it’s not. Metrics are critical in SaaS, and you need to track them fastidiously. But it’s also important to focus on the right metrics, at the right stage, and not obsess about the less important ones at the wrong times. And I’m [...]
If You Have 10 {Unaffiliated} Customers in SaaS — You Have Something.
One of the tough things in SaaS, a downside of the fact that it compounds, is that you’re always running on the Habitral. That makes it really hard to see your moments of success, and perhaps even more importantly — really hard to see and internalize and process pre-success. So I’d like to highlight a few [...]
Start-Up Success in SaaS? You Have to Bend the Odds In Your Favor. Some Thoughts on How to Do It.
Mark Suster put together a presentation (and a blog post) a few weeks ago that has really stuck with me me. I never, perhaps intentionally, looked at the odds of achieving a solid exit in a start-up. Actually it’s just this one slide that has really stayed with me … It turns out the odds of [...]
Maybe It’s More Important Your Co-Founders’ Weaknesses are Complementary To Yours
I think in the enterprise, in SaaS, it’s especially important you pick the right co-founders. It’s a 7-10 year journey, after all. In Consumer Internet, I guess so long as you hit it early, you can always get rid of Eduardo (as expensive as that may be), kick out the Sean Parkers, bring in the [...]
BATNA, And Oracle’s $811m Purchase of Eloqua
It may seem strange to see Oracle acquire Eloqua for $811m just a few months after their IPO. But it’s not strange at all. I am 95% sure talks at some level were going on for quite some time, long before the IPO. And 80% sure, a soft offer of less than $500m or [...]
Heading into 2013: Thoughts on Ways The Start-Up World is Just So Much Better Now
I came of age in the tech/venture start-up world in the late ’90s. As we go into 2013, I’ve reflected a bit on just how much better things are for founders and entrepreneurs now than they used to be, even just in 2005, when we started EchoSign, let alone the old days of Web 1.0. [...]
How to Get From 1.0 Launch to Traction in SaaS
Building 1.0 products is tough. Creating something from nothing is hard, a relatively rare skillset. You need tenacity, creativity, amazing developers, a keen understanding of your market both today and 24-36 months out. … But in the end, it’s the easy part. Because if you have a talented enough team, you can building almost anything, [...]
Want to Understand SaaS? If Nothing Else — Understand That It Compounds
If you haven’t done a SaaS start-up before, it’s different. The reasons are many, but I think they can almost all be summed up in one key factor: SaaS compounds. What does this mean, that SaaS compounds? It means it’s really, really hard to get revenues going. You close a customer for $120 in annualized [...]
Why Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) Is The Most Important Metric in SaaS
One thing that is great in SaaS, from a 20,000 foot perspective at least, is You Can See The Future. It’s the benefit of a recurring revenue stream in a B2B model. If you did $100k last month, and have grown 6% a month each month for the last 12 mos, I can pretty much [...]
Don’t Accidentally Bootstrap Yourself to Death
There’s a phenomenon, a type of SaaS company, that I think if you are scrappy, if you can make things happen as a founder — that you need to be careful not to become. It’s the Bootstrapped-to-Death Start-up. I’ve known quite a few over the past 7 years, and each and every one is [...]
