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Browse: Home / software as a service

software as a service

Why Misunderstanding Startup Metrics Can Cost You Your Business

Why Misunderstanding Startup Metrics Can Cost You Your Business

By Mark Suster on April 27, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. When I publicly Tweeted […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Churn rate, customer acquisition cost, Gross margin, revenue, software as a service

The Top 8 Mistakes I Made In My First 18 Months As a VC Partner

The Top 8 Mistakes I Made In My First 18 Months As a VC Partner

By Jason M. Lemkin on July 6, 2015

So I’ve been investing “institutionally” as a VC for about 18 months now (maybe really only 12, counting from the first check that really mattered).  A little bit before that as an angel, but not that much.  ‘Cause I sort of needed to decompress for a little while after I sold my last company. At first, […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged investment, software as a service, venture capital

Why Taking Some Risks in the Sales Process Can Improve Results

Why Taking Some Risks in the Sales Process Can Improve Results

By Mark Suster on July 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. In this post I advocate taking a harder stand on where your product or solution differentiates in the market – even if it means you […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged sales, software as a service, startup lessons

“My CEO Told Me To Stop Selling So Much”

“My CEO Told Me To Stop Selling So Much”

By Jason M. Lemkin on June 8, 2015

Recently, I met with a sales leader I’ve known for years, and he told me The Most Curious Story.  His SaaS CEO asked him to stop selling so much. Slow down.  You are doing too good of a job, the CEO said.  We can’t afford it. Now … how could this be?  Well, it does […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Getting to Initial Scale, software as a service

Gadi Shamia, COO of Talkdesk: “8 Things I Learned After Joining a Hyper-Growth SaaS Startup”

Gadi Shamia, COO of Talkdesk: “8 Things I Learned After Joining a Hyper-Growth SaaS Startup”

By Jason M. Lemkin on May 18, 2015

One of the things I want to do between the ’15 SaaStr Annual, the SaaStr blog, and the ’16 Annual is do true, longitudinal, hands-on SaaS case studies.  Not just one-and-done podcasts, posts, and the like.  But to go further, to check in repeatedly with (x) very successful, (y) soon-to-be very successful, and (z) pre-successful SaaS […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Andreessen Horowitz, case studies, SaaStr, software as a service, Talkdesk

I Hired My VP of Marketing at $20k MRR.  It Wasn’t a Week Too Early.

I Hired My VP of Marketing at $20k MRR. It Wasn’t a Week Too Early.

By Jason M. Lemkin on April 29, 2015

One of the starkest differences I see between First Timers in SaaS and Second Timers is when they hire their VP of Marketing. At BoxDev the other week (our post here), the contrast was especially vivid.  Second-timer Shan Sinha, now CEO of Highfive hired his first head of marketing a year before first revenue.  A […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged marketing, Marketing management, sales process, software as a service

Help Us Pick 1 or 2 of the SaaStr Annual ’16 Speakers!

Help Us Pick 1 or 2 of the SaaStr Annual ’16 Speakers!

By Jason M. Lemkin on April 3, 2015

We’ll start to roll out the SaaStr Annual ’16 speakers in the coming weeks.  It will be tough to top the ’15 speakers — from Aaron Levie to Bob Tinker, from Stewart Butterfield to David Sacks, from David Ulevitch to Parker Conrad, etc. etc. But we will find a way! We’ll also have three full […]

Posted in Business | Tagged aaron levie, Danielle Morrill, David O. Sacks, David Ulevitch, Lew Cirne, mark suster, Phil Fernandez, SaaStr, SaaStr Annual, software as a service, Upfront Ventures | 1 Response

Your VP Sales Has a Sales Quota.  Your VP Marketing Needs a Lead Quota.  Period.

Your VP Sales Has a Sales Quota. Your VP Marketing Needs a Lead Quota. Period.

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 31, 2015

A ways back, we did an extremely popular post entitled, Hire the Right Type of VP Marketing or You’ll Just End Up With a Bunch of Blue Pens with Your Logo On Them.  The basic idea was to help folks who haven’t hired a VP or Director of Marketing hire the right one for a […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Acceleration, box, Eloqua, hubspot, lead quota, leadgen, marketing, Pardot, sales, software as a service

5 Tips To Make The Journey More Fun

5 Tips To Make The Journey More Fun

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 23, 2015

Really, there’s nothing I’ve done in my life that is harder than being a founder CEO. Nothing. It’s 100x harder than being a VP. Even if the actual work is easier. It’s 100x harder than being a VC.  Even if delivering top returns as a VC is maybe even harder than as a founder. But I […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged customer relationship management, echosign, Entrepreneurship, Initial public offering, InsightSquared, SaaStr, salesforce.com, software as a service, startups

It’s time to reconsider, Google

It’s time to reconsider, Google

By Paul Miller on March 19, 2015

Almost a year ago, Google made an apparently small change to Google Calendar. They started automatically adding Google Hangout video links to every new appointment. And it was bad. I’m sure you’ve all seen appointments like this pop up in your calendar. How do you join the meeting? Do you dial the phone number, or […]

Posted in Application Software, Featured Posts | Tagged Design, google, google calendar, intuitive, saas, software as a service, tftd, uberconference, unintuitive, usability, user experience, user interface, ux

SaaStr Podcast on Time, Core Metrics and More on “Million Dollar Insights”

SaaStr Podcast on Time, Core Metrics and More on “Million Dollar Insights”

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 18, 2015

Do you podcast? If so, Cara Hogan of InsightSquared has kicked off a great SaaS podcast series of which I was fortune enough to participate. We talked quite a bit about the learnings on the SaaS Journey.  Feel free to listen below or download on iTunes here. The draft notes and script I used (we went […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged dropbox, echosign, hubspot, Jason Lemkin, Podcast, SaaStr, software as a service

5 Tips to Grow 10-20% Faster Than Plan in ’15

5 Tips to Grow 10-20% Faster Than Plan in ’15

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 17, 2015

It’s time to do a series of posts on SaaSt to sort of … kick your arse a bit.  What I mean by that, is that no matter how well you are doing post-Initial Traction in SaaS … you can almost always do at least 10-15% better.  Pretty much almost always.  Because there’s almost always more […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged saas, salesforce.com, software as a service

If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months

If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 6, 2015

It seems like everyone wants to be a SaaS founder these days.  I meet with great VPs of Sales and Product in particular who are Ready.  It’s time.  To go out on their own.  Start their own SaaS company. Awesome. I get it.  I’d like to recruit you to be a VP at one of […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged cloud computing, Entrepreneur, Getting to Initial Traction, Instagram, saas-startups, salesforce.com, software as a service

One Weird Trick to Build a Personal Brand

One Weird Trick to Build a Personal Brand

By Mark Suster on February 4, 2015

My long-time friend Jason Lemkin is on the verge of launching a spectacular SaaS conference called SaaStr this week. What Jason has achieved in no time flat in VC is astounding. Without inventing the browser he has single-handedly created a personal VC brand on a shoestring. And as I’ve written about before – building a […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged dropbox, echosign, Entrepreneurship, hubspot, saas, SaaStr, software as a service, startup lessons, startups, vc funding, venture capital

The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine

The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine

By Jason M. Lemkin on January 13, 2015

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to get from $1m to $10m, $2m to $5m, $10m to $30m, etc. etc. One area we haven’t talked as much about is getting from say $100k in ARR to Initial Traction, or $1-$2m in ARR.  A bit, but not as much. The reason is while I […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged dropbox, echosign, Entrepreneurship, Getting to Initial Traction, Google Drive, product, saas, software as a service, startups, viral app

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