Who’s Doing Well This Week: Okta, Crowdstrike, Salesforce, Workday

by Jason Lemkin | Jun 3, 2023 | Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So we wanted to do a little weekly look at who in SaaS and Cloud is doing well.  These are tougher times for almost everyone than the Go Go Days of 2021. Budgets are being scrutinized, and even the best are growing more slowly in many cases. But many are still doing...

5 Interesting Learnings from Snowflake at $2.4 Billion in ARR

by Jason Lemkin | May 31, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So Snowflake is the high flier in Cloud.  It’s one of the few still commanding a premium multiple in today’s world, and still growing at tremendous rates: Snowflake is also a barometer of everything in SaaS and Cloud, because a significant amount of its...

5 Interesting Learnings from Monday.com at $640,000,000 in ARR

by Jason Lemkin | May 24, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts | 0 comments

So it’s tougher out there for many of us, but many Cloud and SaaS leaders are still growing at epic rates, even if not quite at the torrid rates of 2021.  SaaStr favorite Monday.com is one of them.  It’s crossed $640,000,000 in ARR, growing a stunning...

A Look Back: The Top 10 Learnings From Ben Chestnut, CEO of Mailchimp

by Jason Lemkin | May 21, 2023 | Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

As we gear up for SaaStr Europa 2023 in London on 6-7 June and SaaStr Annual 2023 in the SF Bay Area on 6-7 September, we wanted to take a look back at some of our most iconic speakers and sessions from over the year, that we can still learn from today. At SaaStr...

5 Interesting Learnings from RingCentral at $2.1 Billion in ARR

by Jason Lemkin | May 17, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So RingCentral is a quiet SaaS leader that has been around for a long time, since the early days of SaaS.  It’s built its way into an enterprise contact center leader and has now crossed $2 Billion in ARR, growing a mature but still steady 16%.  And while...

My Top 10 Mistakes Getting to $100m ARR: Jason Cohen, Founder WP Engine

by Jason Cohen | May 12, 2023 | Blog Posts, Scale, Top 10 Mistakes | 0 comments

We kicked off a new series that productized something we’ve been doing for 10+ years at SaaStr … getting top leaders to share their mistakes.  So the rest of us can get to $100m+ ARR faster, with less stress and more success.  We’ve done a ton of this content over the...

5 Interesting Learnings from HubSpot at $2 Billion in ARR

by Jason Lemkin | May 10, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So we’ve covered HubSpot on our 5 Interesting Learning series more than any other SaaS leader, but it’s for a reason.  First, so many of us HubSpot itself every day, so it’s … well, tangible.  And second, it’s similar to the apps many of...

Cloudflare: Our Top Reps Are Hitting 129% of Quota. But 100 of Them Are Closing Almost Nothing.

by Jason Lemkin | May 4, 2023 | Blog Posts, Sales, Scale | 0 comments

So Cloudflare is one of our hero Cloud / SaaS companies and even under tougher macro conditions, still grew a stunning 37% at $1.2 Billion in ARR! But it’s getting harder for Cloudflare, just like it is for many of us.  The toughest metric is new customers. ...

5 Interesting Learnings from Freshworks at $560,000,000 in ARR

by Jason Lemkin | May 3, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So Freshworks in another in our line of “hero companies” in SaaS.  While Freshworks is very much a global SaaS leader, its history as perhaps the first with deep roots in India to IPO in the U.S. makes it one we all root for as a break-out global leader....

Gartner: SaaS Will Still Grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion Worldwide. And Another 18% in 2024.

by Jason Lemkin | May 2, 2023 | Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So there’s no doubt things are a bit harder for everyone in SaaS and Cloud right now.  A few of us are seeing no macro impacts, but probably the biggest tell are Cloud platform giants — AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.  All are still growing at very strong...

5 Interesting Learnings from Squarespace at $1 Billion in ARR

by Jason Lemkin | Apr 26, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

Squarespace produces amazing websites for SMBs — we are a big customer at SaaStr.   And that’s powered it all the way to a $1B run-rate with 28% EBITDA.  Self-serve products can and should be quite profitable at scale. But it’s also a story of...

A Look Back: Olivier Pomel, CEO of Datadog at $100,000,000 in ARR

by Faith Storey | Apr 23, 2023 | Blog Posts, Customer Success, Engineering, Featured Videos, Hiring, Leadership, SaaS Product Pricing, SaaStr Events, Scale, Videos

As we gear up for SaaStr Europa 2023 in London on 6-7 June and SaaStr Annual 2023 in the SF Bay Area on 6-7 September, we wanted to take a look back at some of our most iconic speakers and sessions from over the year, that we can still learn from today. Today, Datadog...

The Very Best VCs Have Billion Dollar Positions. Not Just Billion Dollar StartUps.

by Jason Lemkin | Apr 22, 2023 | Blog Posts, Fundraising, Scale | 0 comments

So we’ve posted a lot on SaaStr over the years on how to understand how VCs think.  On how they need to invest in unicorns not just to make money, but just to survive. But what does it take to be a truly elite VC?  And if you meet with a truly elite VC, what are they...

5 Interesting Learnings from Lightspeed Commerce at $750,000,000 in “ARR”

by Jason Lemkin | Apr 19, 2023 | 5 Interesting Things, Blog Posts, Scale | 0 comments

So one large category of software spend is on Point of Sale systems.  The one most of us know best is Toast, because we all use Toast so often when we go out to dinner.  And it indeed has strong market share there.  And perhaps the one we know second-best is Square. ...

Who Could You Buy With 10% of Your Market Cap?

by Jason Lemkin | Apr 16, 2023 | Blog Posts, Growth, Scale | 0 comments

So there’s a strategy exercise I like to go through with startups I’ve invested in that are past $20m-$30m ARR or so: Who would you buy with 10% of your market cap? I.e., who would you give 10% of your company away to buy?  It turns out this is an important threshold....