Blog Posts – Cloud Computing and SaaS

2020-04-06

The SaaS Year of Hell. And Then – Reignition.

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

I wrote an early SaaStr post way back in 2013 on my “Year of Hell” as a SaaS CEO in 2008. In 2013, we were just 2 years removed from the real recovery from ’08-’09. And the one thing that was clear to me was that as hard as it was to see at the time, once we got out of our Year from Hell at Adobe Sign / EchoSign … things roared back. I thought it would be worth a refresh of that post here. Will it be a V-shaped recovery this time? Or a swoosh? I don’t know. But many of you will go through not just a rough few weeks, but a Year From Hell. That happy customers and recurring revenue will pull you out of. Almost all SaaS founders experience a Year from Hell at least once on the 7-10 year SaaS journey. And it’s almost

Continue reading "The SaaS Year of Hell. And Then – Reignition."

2020-04-05

VC Firms Are Still Open For Business. Just Assume It Takes 2x Longer and 2x Harder.

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

Q: Which VC firms are still reviewing fundable deals during the Covid-19 quarantine?

Almost every VC firm is reviewing deals. The question is what are they doing about them.

We did a deep dive on the topic with Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners and it’s a pretty incredible look at what’s happening in VC right now:

A few summary thoughts:

A lot of time is still being taken up with “triage” on existing portfolios.
Many bigger firms have “tapped the brakes” and at least made a decision to slow down their investing pace for now.
Many bigger firms want to reserve capital for deals later in the year when valuations “reset” a bit. They feel (right or wrong) that they overpaid for deals in 2019 and early 2020 and a need to benefit from lower valuations later in 2020.
Most VCs still need to meet face-to-face, Continue reading "VC Firms Are Still Open For Business. Just Assume It Takes 2x Longer and 2x Harder."

2020-04-05

How You and Team May Feel Around May 15 or So

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

Everyone’s gone into War Mode of some sort. If you are one of the SaaS companies that is “benefitting” from the current crazy environment, you’re overloaded. If you are one of the SaaS companies that is in one of the hardest-hit categories (travel, events, housing, etc.) you’ve already been through gut-wrenching change. Many of you are in the middle right now — deals slowing down, churn or pre-churn creeping up, etc. Wherever you are in SaaS, you’ve probably adapted. Founders are really good at this. It’s so hard to start something, you almost fail so many times, that somehow you can deal with almost anything. Even a Black Swan event. Even, somehow, a global pandemic. You’ve adapted.

I don’t have any profound insights, but perhaps one way I can help a little bit is that little old team SaaStr started going into War Mode earlier. So we might just

2020-04-04

Why Do Some People Consider Venture Capital a “Young Person’s Game”?

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

Because it takes so, so long to make money from it. At least from very early-stage investing. So while not a young person’s game per se, it really helps to start early.

It doesn’t take that long in venture to make a decent salary. You can start there on Day 1 in a big fund, or a few years in in a smaller fund that does well.

But it often takes so long for early-stage investors to make material “carry”, or a share of gains.

Let’s take a fun example of a simply awesome SaaS company that will IPO soon, doing hundreds of millions in ARR — Procore.

Procore was founded in 2003.

Imagine you were a seed VC:

Started as an angel, in say 2000
Start raising own fund in 2002
Finally close own fund in 2003, after 12 months
Invest in seed round of Procore in 2003
Finally, today, Continue reading "Why Do Some People Consider Venture Capital a “Young Person’s Game”?"

2020-04-04

#1: “SoftBank Abandons $3 Billion Deal With WeWork Investors”

#2: “Salesforce promises no ‘significant’ layoffs over the next three months, even with coronavirus spreading”

#3: “Tech billionaire Marc Benioff wants every CEO to take a ‘no layoff’ pledge as part of an 8-point plan to deal with coronavirus”

#4: “Notion, Maker of Collaboration Software, Raises $50 Million”

#5: The post Top Cloud Stories of The Week: April 4, 2020 appeared first on SaaStr.

2020-04-042020-04-04

Register NOW for SaaStr Summit with CEOs and CXOs of Slack, Zuora, G2, Pendo, TripActions, Greenhouse + More! (It’s Free)

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

2020-04-03

Is This The Beginning of the End of the Bay Area as The Global HQ of SaaS?

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

Things are so crazy right now, and beyond that, the pace of change is almost incomprehensible. Zoom has grown 20x in usage in just more than a month. But at the same time, we added 6,000,000 new to the unemployment rolls. SaaS for some industries is being decimated in just a week or two. In other cases, unexpected upgrades and leads seem to come out of nowhere. We are going to see some sort of rapid evolutionary change in SaaS. Exactly where is hard to see right now. But one thing that has already started is the erosion of the SF Bay Area as the Global HQ of SaaS. Start-ups have certainly became very global in B2B in the past 5-7 years. Atlassian, Adyen, and so many other leaders weren’t founded in the U.S., let alone the Bay Area. MongoDB, Datadog, Continue reading

2020-04-02

5 Free and Discounted SaaS Tools to Get You Through Coronavirus

This post is by Team SaaStr from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

If you’re feeling the weight of being cloistered in your homes for several weeks now, have no fear Team SaaStr has compiled a list of five great tools that you can use for free to get you through this time! We’ll be releasing several upcoming posts featuring great tools and discounts that our community members are offering right now.

1. SurveyMonkey’s Free Templates

Where can I find the deal? Click here for SurveyMonkey’s List of Resources What are they all about? SurveyMonkey is a global leader in survey software. 20 million questions answered daily.

2. Hugo is Now Free Up to 40 Users

Where can I find the deal? Click here for Hugos’ Connected Meeting Notes – Up to 40 Users free so that everyone can stay in sync during this time. What are they all about? Hugo is Connected Meeting Notes software that powers your team with centralized, searchable

2020-04-02

If You Have to Cut — 5 Thoughts On Where

This post is by Jason Lemkin from SaaStr

Click here to view on the original site: Original Post

Q: Based on what is going on in the world right now (coronavirus), is this the right time to ask businesses to outsource? Should I keep my cold calling team? What will be the best marketing strategy?

There are no easy answers, but we do know one thing:

When things come back, you will need everyone great.

Marc Benioff said one of his top mistakes was not hiring enough salespeople in 2009, during the peak of the last downturn.

At almost every company, if we’re honest, the “bottom” 10% doesn’t contribute that much if any value. If you have to cut, start there. Every VP, every manager, and probably even most employees know who isn’t contributing enough. It’s about a 20-minute discussion to align on who the bottom 10% is. Beyond that is harder.
And then, if you have to cut more, at least think about if you can repurpose Continue reading "If You Have to Cut — 5 Thoughts On Where"

2020-04-02