We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about the challenges in getting from nothing to that first $1m-$1.5m in ARR, “Initial Traction”. That it takes longer than you think. That if you get 10 customers, you can get another 10, 100, and so on. There’s a particular moment in time I want to focus on here on the…
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So I’m a little worried for Downtown Palo Alto Lytton Park has recently become overwhelmed with homeless and marijuana is everywhere in the air Blue Bottle and Hana House closed No one has still taken the old Apple Store or much of the Palantir space, Vans + retail empty and… — Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is…
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Dear SaaStr: Why Are Buyers Not Ready to Spend Big on Acquisitions as Readily Today as in the Past? In tech at least, there are two big issues: #1. Revenues Multiples Are Down Even the best public SaaS companies are worth ~10x revenue today. In 2021, they were often worth 40x revenue. So that seems…
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So Ramp has its latest Top SaaS Vendors on Ramp report out for October 2024. Ramp covers a ton of spend but it is fairly tech focused in its customer base, so there’s a bit of a bias in what they buy there. But no matter what, it shows what its customers are spending billions…
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Every year, Bessemer Venture Partners releases a State of the Cloud report. You can access the report here. This year, it’s all about AI, which is why Sameer Dholakia, Partner at Bessemer, calls it the Cloud AI Era. Four portfolio companies join Sameer to talk about three trends of the Cloud AI Era. AI foundation…
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Dear SaaStr: If a startup is at $1.5M ARR and is looking to hire an experienced COO how much equity should they give him/her? 0%. I think $1.5m ARR is too early for an experienced COO in 95 cases out of 100 — unless it’s a total rocketship and you plan to be at $10m+…
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We are gearing up 10,000+ at SaaStr Annual 2025 on May 13-15!! And more details on SaaStr Europa 2024 in the Fall of 2025 soon! Yup, we’re back earlier in the year for Annual where we used to be, so everything will move a bit faster this time. And speaker submissions are now OPEN.  …
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So Thomasz Tunguz put together a great chart summarizing one of my top worries over the past 24+ months in SaaS. He summarized the M&A (acquisitions) of The Top 10 Software Acquirers. And what you can see is there is really almost no liquidity for startups and scale-ups in SaaS and Cloud at the moment. …
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Dear SaaStr: I’m at $50m ARR Losing $10m A Year. We are growing about 20% and have limited cash in the bank. How Do I Get to Break-Even Fast? 1/ You probably have 50+ sellers at $50m ARR. You probably need half of them. That’s tough but true. Cut anyone below mid-pack. Concentrate leads in…
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ZoomInfo’s Season 2 of its Zoom Labs Podcast is up and we were fortunate enough to be the opening guest. Founder CEO Henry Schuck and I went deep on a lot of stuff you haven’t heard before: Who is the better CEO (Henry 10000x) — and why What AI has done to post-sales, and where…
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So Zscaler is a security juggernaut well known to everyone in the industry, but for whatever reasons, it doesn’t quite get as much attention outside of it. Wiz’s epic growth — and saying No to Google’s $22B offer — gets the attention. More obscure (but still important) vendors like Darktrace get attention due to their…
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Dear SaaStr: How Many Options Should I Give to the First Non-Founder Employees of they are making below market but non-zero salaries? Here’s the tough part. It’s really hard. What you should do is give them say 3x their forgone salary in stock — 3x to account for risk. So let’s say you hire a…
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Slice CRO Loren Padelford answers questions on how to build a vertical SaaS company for SMBs and create a massive TAM opportunity.

Dear SaaStr: How Do You Break Into VC and Become Great At It? Ask yourself how you will truly get into the best deals. How will you? This is > 50% of the job. Picking is part of it. But you have to get into the best deals first. Helping is part of it. But helping may…
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So who were the most visited sponsors at 2024 SaaStr Annual? Let’s take a look: Paddle Mercury Roam Booking Front Bill Carta Google Cloud IBM Prismatic Adyen Runway G2 We’re honored to be named one of the standout vendors at #SaaStr 2024! Our CEO @rlacerte shared the stage with @jasonlk to discuss BILL's growth and…
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