Dear SaaStr: How Much Money Have VCs Lost on Startups In the Past 5 Years? I’m going to estimate about $200-$300 Billion of losses. Not all realized yet, but about that much. Why $300 Billion? Roughly, VCs model losing money on about 40% of their deals, but only 20%...
So Wikipedia publishes its financials each year, although I’d never taken a close look before. It’s interesting. As a Top 10 website: Wikipedia only spends $3m on hosting. I would have thought a lot more. Wikipedia spends $107m a year on salaries. Given that all...
Gong has its 2025 State of Revenue out. You can grab it here. In general, the report ties to what we’re seeing everywhere in SaaS. We’re ending the year in general with stronger growth that the prior year. Gong also looked across its entire customer base to measure...
So it’s ending up a good year for Enterprise SaaS, fueled in part by AI, but also fueled in part by bounced off some lows in terms of overall enterprise IT spend: ServiceNow is worth a cool $230 Billion at $11 Billion in ARR — the 20x club! Its stock is...
Dear SaaStr: How far in the SaaS can a 10 or 20 person team go? I know many are talking about AI fueling 1 person, $1B start-ups. I hope that happens. But maybe … not so much in SaaS. Today, the most efficient public SaaS company is probably Doximity, at about...
Dear SaaStr: What Were The Top Pieces of Advice You’re Glad You Ignored? #1: “Don’t do any VC investments your first year. Take your time” Sound advice. But would have missed 4 unicorns if I had. I would have missed leading seed investments...
So for a while, it did feel like SaaS was dead in VC. Somewhere from March 2024 to October 2024 or so. Then, many SaaS leaders started to re-accelerate growth, and their market caps in many cases went up 40%+ or more. AI was often the accelerant. And it’s...
I can’t magically change your growth rate. I can’t magically turn you into the hottest Gen AI start-up out there. But I can help you at least increase the odds that when you do look for VC funding, you get it. By avoiding … unforced errors. My list: #1. Just Send...
Dear SaaStr: Should Cancellations be Effective Immediately for a SaaS Company? Why? Yes, they are leaving. But they may still come back. And even more likely, if you treat them well, they still may tell others to use you. So — do whatever is best for the customer....
Top Posts: #1. Inherent Churn vs. Fixable Churn: You Have to Attack Both #2. We Just Left a Vendor We’ve Used for 5+ Years. They Don’t Even Know It Yet. #3. How Many Sales Reps You Really Need for Next Year #4. Is SaaS Back? (TL;DR: It Sure Feels Like It) #5. 4...
