A detailed look at why SaaS business are so different from traditional software companies, and why traditional ways of looking at their finances fail to understand the business. Provides an alternative set of metrics that show the right way to look at a SaaS business.
For more on the SaaS business model and Metrics, see this blog post:
www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/
WebSummit 2018 - The SaaS Business Model & MetricsDavid Skok
SaaS businesses are extremely sensitive to a small number of important variables. If you are running a SaaS company, understanding how these variables drive your business model is crucial to long-term success. In this talk, David Skok, author of the now famous SaaS Metrics 2.0 blog post will talk through those key metrics and their impact on the overall SaaS business model.
A High Growth SaaS Playbook - 12 Metrics to Drive SuccessSaaStock
Keynote by David Skok, ForEntrepreneurs Blog & General Partner, Matrix Partners, at SaaStock on Tour New York, 20th June 2018, KnockDown Center, Maspeth, NYC
This presentation is from my talk at the 2017 SaaStr Annual Conference in San Francisco. It offers an overview of a simple model to understand a SaaS business and the key levers a CEO can pull to get the most impact. The presentation covers:
Optimizing the SaaS Funnel:
- Get inside your customer’s head
- Break down the funnel into microsteps
- Identify bottlenecks
- Use funnel math to make improvements
12 key levers within the funnel:
1) Product/Market fit
2) Top of the funnel flow
3) Conversion rate
4) CAC (customer acquisition cost)
5) Number of sales people
6) PPR (productivity per rep)
7) Getting enough leads
8) Pricing
9) Customer retention rate
10) Dollar retention rate
11) Months to recover CAC
12) Recruiting, onboarding & management
SaaS/subscription businesses are much more complex than traditional businesses, and SaaS performance cannot be measured in the same way as traditional businesses are measured. Based on a talk given at the SaaStr Annual Conference in San Francisco, this slide deck offers a comprehensive and detailed look at the key metrics that are needed to understand and optimize a SaaS business, and how these can be used to drive SaaS success. This presentation includes information on:
- An intro to SaaS metrics
- Unit economics
- LTV and churn: An in-depth look
- Variable pricing axes
- Months to recover CAC
- The primary unit of growth: Sales
- Understanding public SaaS companies
In this presentation you will find information about importance of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) for subscription-based (SaaS) Internet startups.
The full list of metrics mentioned in the presentation, exact formulas, and examles you can find at http://datmachine.co/saas_metrics.
If you have any questions, don't be shy to drop me a line on my email: efremov(at)datmachine.co.
The SaaS Founder’s Journey: What Matters at Each StageDavid Skok
From a talk given at SaaStock 2017 in Dublin, this slide deck covers the three stages of a startup, the most important question founders should be asking to ensure survival/success, and how to build and scale a sales funnel.
Zero to 100 - Part 1: Intro + First SectionDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
WebSummit 2018 - The SaaS Business Model & MetricsDavid Skok
SaaS businesses are extremely sensitive to a small number of important variables. If you are running a SaaS company, understanding how these variables drive your business model is crucial to long-term success. In this talk, David Skok, author of the now famous SaaS Metrics 2.0 blog post will talk through those key metrics and their impact on the overall SaaS business model.
A High Growth SaaS Playbook - 12 Metrics to Drive SuccessSaaStock
Keynote by David Skok, ForEntrepreneurs Blog & General Partner, Matrix Partners, at SaaStock on Tour New York, 20th June 2018, KnockDown Center, Maspeth, NYC
This presentation is from my talk at the 2017 SaaStr Annual Conference in San Francisco. It offers an overview of a simple model to understand a SaaS business and the key levers a CEO can pull to get the most impact. The presentation covers:
Optimizing the SaaS Funnel:
- Get inside your customer’s head
- Break down the funnel into microsteps
- Identify bottlenecks
- Use funnel math to make improvements
12 key levers within the funnel:
1) Product/Market fit
2) Top of the funnel flow
3) Conversion rate
4) CAC (customer acquisition cost)
5) Number of sales people
6) PPR (productivity per rep)
7) Getting enough leads
8) Pricing
9) Customer retention rate
10) Dollar retention rate
11) Months to recover CAC
12) Recruiting, onboarding & management
SaaS/subscription businesses are much more complex than traditional businesses, and SaaS performance cannot be measured in the same way as traditional businesses are measured. Based on a talk given at the SaaStr Annual Conference in San Francisco, this slide deck offers a comprehensive and detailed look at the key metrics that are needed to understand and optimize a SaaS business, and how these can be used to drive SaaS success. This presentation includes information on:
- An intro to SaaS metrics
- Unit economics
- LTV and churn: An in-depth look
- Variable pricing axes
- Months to recover CAC
- The primary unit of growth: Sales
- Understanding public SaaS companies
In this presentation you will find information about importance of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) for subscription-based (SaaS) Internet startups.
The full list of metrics mentioned in the presentation, exact formulas, and examles you can find at http://datmachine.co/saas_metrics.
If you have any questions, don't be shy to drop me a line on my email: efremov(at)datmachine.co.
The SaaS Founder’s Journey: What Matters at Each StageDavid Skok
From a talk given at SaaStock 2017 in Dublin, this slide deck covers the three stages of a startup, the most important question founders should be asking to ensure survival/success, and how to build and scale a sales funnel.
Zero to 100 - Part 1: Intro + First SectionDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Zero to 100 - Part 4: Building a Sales Team - Stephanie SchatzDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
SaaS Metrics: The Secret to Subscription SuccessEd Shelley
Behind every successful SaaS business is a wealth of SaaS metrics.
This presentation gives you a broad overview of the key metrics you should be measuring to fully understand how your business is growing.
Metrics like Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Customer Churn Rate, MRR Churn Rate and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) can often be measured in a number of ways. We show you the intricacies of all of them.
Outbound prospecting for highly targeted lead flowDavid Skok
This presentation described how and when outbound prospecting (Cold Calling 2.0) can work to provide a predictable flow of leads from highly targeted prospects.
David Skok, General Partner at Matrix Partners, provides a simple model to understand a SaaS businesses, as well as the key levers founders, can leverage to drive SaaS success.
Zero to 100 - Part 5: SaaS Business Model & MetricsDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
There are seven key stages in a startup’s evolution from $0m to $50m in revenue. Understanding where you are in that evolution, and how to act at each stage is critical for success, as what is appropriate at one stage is not appropriate at another stage. David will lay out the roadmap, and detail the keys to success at each stage. The talk is aimed at technical/product founders plus their sales, marketing & product executives who are responsible for the go-to-market strategy for their company.
WebSummit 2018 - 9 Secrets for Startup SuccessDavid Skok
Lean Startup taught the world how to find product/market fit, but in the B2B world that isn’t enough. B2B founders must then find a way to build repeatable, scalable and profitable growth before they are ready to step on the accelerator and grow at high speed. In this talk, five-time serial entrepreneur and author of the ForEntrepreneurs blog, David Skok, breaks this journey down into 9 distinct stages and explains the playbook at each stage. Warning: trying to force growth by skipping a step is the number one mistake entrepreneurs make, and it is often fatal.
Zero to 100 - Part 2: Building a Repeatable, Scalable Growth ProcessDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Zero to 100 - Part 3: Founder-led Selling - Pete KazanjyDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
From Bessemer Venture Partners, Partner Mary D'Onofrio releases the definitive benchmarking report on how cloud companies grow operationally efficient businesses and scale to $100 million in ARR (and beyond).
A high growth SaaS playbook. 12 metrics to drive success. 2 goals, present a simple model to understand SaaS business and show what levers a CEO can pull to get the most impact
Developing the pricing model for your B2B SaaS app is one of the biggest marketing challenges your company will face.
This is a guide to developing your SaaS pricing model was created by noted SaaS Marketing expert and Growth Hacker Lincoln Murphy of Sixteen Ventures.
This guide takes you through the questions you need to ask about not just your market and customers, but about your company and goals, to help you figure out your SaaS pricing model.
Whether you have a self-service sales model or one that requires outside sales reps to drive business, the tips and techniques contained in this guide and the source blog post will help you create a profitable and successful SaaS pricing model.
Zero to 100 - Part 7: The Role of the CEODavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Bessemer Venture Partners' is proud to share The State of the Cloud for 2017.
As the definitive guide to the biggest trends in the cloud industry, this year’s “State of the Cloud Report” includes:
1. A Look Back at 2016
- 2016 was a marquee year for a number of reasons. First, we all remember the rocky start in February where the Cloud Market dropped 35%
- Subsequently, rebounded back to normal levels and ended the year up +15%
- The dip in the market had two main outcomes: First, it led to unprecedented amounts of M&A (4x more than any other year and 40% of the total cloud market cap of $300B) – and second, it led to the fewest number of cloud tech IPOs since the financial crisis.
- A combination of these factors has led to the highest quality backlog of private cloud companies in history. The top 100 private Cloud companies alone represent over $100B of private enterprise value.
2. We provide a deeper look into the three top questions every private cloud CEO should be discussing with his/her executive team
- How fast should I be growing?
- How much should I burn?
- How do I scale?
3. Bessemer’s 7 Predictions for 2017
- The year of human assisted AI
- APIs will serve as the backbone for a majority of software infrastructure
- Architect for infinite scale without infinite spend
- Mobile unlocks non-desk worker productivity
- NPS everything
- Diverse teams win
- The screenless software movement
Numbers that Actually Matter. Finding Your North Star Mamoon Hamid
This presentation uncovers a common misconception in fast growing SaaS businesses. Revenue reigns over everything. We talk about what really matters in building a sustainable SaaS company.
Building a Repeatable, Scalable & Profitable Growth ProcessDavid Skok
In a talk I gave at SaaS North 2017 conference in Ottawa, I talk about the fundamentals of building a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process for a startup.
In my talk at the 2017 LAUNCH SCALE conference in San Francisco, I discuss how to get inside your buyer's head to increase funnel conversion rates. In the talk, I cover:
- How to design and build a buyer-centric sales funnel that has low CAC and fast sales cycles.
- How to figure out why your sales funnel isn't working as well as it could be, and how to fix it.
- How to understand the way buyers react to your funnel, and how to use that knowledge to increase funnel conversion rates.
• 3. The 3 Models of SaaS Pricing1How to Pick the Best Price28 Pricing Hacks3How to Test New Pricing4We’ll cover...
• 4. Model 1: Targeting Small Businesses1
• 5. Self-service, no sales team, limited support
• 6. Pricing in the $10 - $100/month rangeThis mean you need to focus onscale and acquiring customerscheaply.
• 7. Similar companies
• 8. Model 2: Targeting Enterprise2
• 9. Sales team, contracts, full support
• 10. Pricing is $1,000s or $10,000s/monthVery little is automated, your teamwill be working very closely witheach customer.
• 11. Similar companies
• 12. Model 3: The Mid-Size Hybrid3
• 13. Automated marketing with a sales team
• 14. Pricing is $100’s/monthYou’ll need to scale your leads butyou’ll have a full sales team toclose them.
• 15. Similar companies
• 16. Pick the right price range for your vision
• 17. 2 Bad Methods for Pricing
• 18. 1. Product cost + X%You’ll undercharge somecustomers and overcharge others.
• 19. 2. What does the customer want to pay?People have no idea until you askthem for their credit card.
• 20. Pricing by Value
• 21. Value-Based PricingYour customers get value worth $Yand it only costs them $X.
• 22. For B2B, focus on money earned or saved
• 23. How much extra revenue do they earn?1How many hours do they save?2What other costs do they avoid?3Ask your customers:
• 24. Capture more value from each customer.
• 25. There’s no such thing as a perfect price.If you need more guidance, pick aprice that’s 10% of the valuedelivered.
• 26. 8 Pricing Hacks8
• 27. Rule 1: Go AnnualYou’ll improve cash flow, reduceyour churn, and improve yourrevenue.
• 28. Rule 2: Don’t Add Unnecessary Digits$1000 looks cheaper than $1,000or $1000.00
• 29. Rule 3: Avoid Discounts Unless LaunchingDiscounts create destructivecustomer habits. Do not use themregularly.
• 30. Rule 4: Offer Multiple Prices to Anchor
• 31. Rule 5: Use pricing plans to segment customers.Different customer types getdifferent value from your product.Capture that value.
• 32. Rule 6: Double Your PriceWe all tend to UNDERvalue our ownservices.
• 33. Rule 7: Be Careful With Freemium PlansVery difficult to make it work in B2Bmarkets.
• 34. Rule 8: Grandfather Old Customers InAs long as you don’t raise pricesfor old customers, you won’t getany complaints.
• 35. These are rules, not laws.
• 36. How to Test New Pricing - 4 Steps
• 37. Step 1: Track subscription plans for all customersSubscription plans1Each monthly charge2Any cancelations3Access to total revenue, averagerevenue per user, and churn4
• 38. Step 2: Launch Your New Pricing Page
• 39. Step 3: Track your entire funnel
• 40. Step 4: Track ARPU and churn
• 41. KISSmetrics helps you find the right priceConnects all data to individual people1A/B tests for your entire funnel2See which plans are most profitable
Zero to 100 - Part 4: Building a Sales Team - Stephanie SchatzDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
SaaS Metrics: The Secret to Subscription SuccessEd Shelley
Behind every successful SaaS business is a wealth of SaaS metrics.
This presentation gives you a broad overview of the key metrics you should be measuring to fully understand how your business is growing.
Metrics like Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Customer Churn Rate, MRR Churn Rate and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) can often be measured in a number of ways. We show you the intricacies of all of them.
Outbound prospecting for highly targeted lead flowDavid Skok
This presentation described how and when outbound prospecting (Cold Calling 2.0) can work to provide a predictable flow of leads from highly targeted prospects.
David Skok, General Partner at Matrix Partners, provides a simple model to understand a SaaS businesses, as well as the key levers founders, can leverage to drive SaaS success.
Zero to 100 - Part 5: SaaS Business Model & MetricsDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
There are seven key stages in a startup’s evolution from $0m to $50m in revenue. Understanding where you are in that evolution, and how to act at each stage is critical for success, as what is appropriate at one stage is not appropriate at another stage. David will lay out the roadmap, and detail the keys to success at each stage. The talk is aimed at technical/product founders plus their sales, marketing & product executives who are responsible for the go-to-market strategy for their company.
WebSummit 2018 - 9 Secrets for Startup SuccessDavid Skok
Lean Startup taught the world how to find product/market fit, but in the B2B world that isn’t enough. B2B founders must then find a way to build repeatable, scalable and profitable growth before they are ready to step on the accelerator and grow at high speed. In this talk, five-time serial entrepreneur and author of the ForEntrepreneurs blog, David Skok, breaks this journey down into 9 distinct stages and explains the playbook at each stage. Warning: trying to force growth by skipping a step is the number one mistake entrepreneurs make, and it is often fatal.
Zero to 100 - Part 2: Building a Repeatable, Scalable Growth ProcessDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Zero to 100 - Part 3: Founder-led Selling - Pete KazanjyDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
From Bessemer Venture Partners, Partner Mary D'Onofrio releases the definitive benchmarking report on how cloud companies grow operationally efficient businesses and scale to $100 million in ARR (and beyond).
A high growth SaaS playbook. 12 metrics to drive success. 2 goals, present a simple model to understand SaaS business and show what levers a CEO can pull to get the most impact
Developing the pricing model for your B2B SaaS app is one of the biggest marketing challenges your company will face.
This is a guide to developing your SaaS pricing model was created by noted SaaS Marketing expert and Growth Hacker Lincoln Murphy of Sixteen Ventures.
This guide takes you through the questions you need to ask about not just your market and customers, but about your company and goals, to help you figure out your SaaS pricing model.
Whether you have a self-service sales model or one that requires outside sales reps to drive business, the tips and techniques contained in this guide and the source blog post will help you create a profitable and successful SaaS pricing model.
Zero to 100 - Part 7: The Role of the CEODavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Bessemer Venture Partners' is proud to share The State of the Cloud for 2017.
As the definitive guide to the biggest trends in the cloud industry, this year’s “State of the Cloud Report” includes:
1. A Look Back at 2016
- 2016 was a marquee year for a number of reasons. First, we all remember the rocky start in February where the Cloud Market dropped 35%
- Subsequently, rebounded back to normal levels and ended the year up +15%
- The dip in the market had two main outcomes: First, it led to unprecedented amounts of M&A (4x more than any other year and 40% of the total cloud market cap of $300B) – and second, it led to the fewest number of cloud tech IPOs since the financial crisis.
- A combination of these factors has led to the highest quality backlog of private cloud companies in history. The top 100 private Cloud companies alone represent over $100B of private enterprise value.
2. We provide a deeper look into the three top questions every private cloud CEO should be discussing with his/her executive team
- How fast should I be growing?
- How much should I burn?
- How do I scale?
3. Bessemer’s 7 Predictions for 2017
- The year of human assisted AI
- APIs will serve as the backbone for a majority of software infrastructure
- Architect for infinite scale without infinite spend
- Mobile unlocks non-desk worker productivity
- NPS everything
- Diverse teams win
- The screenless software movement
Numbers that Actually Matter. Finding Your North Star Mamoon Hamid
This presentation uncovers a common misconception in fast growing SaaS businesses. Revenue reigns over everything. We talk about what really matters in building a sustainable SaaS company.
Building a Repeatable, Scalable & Profitable Growth ProcessDavid Skok
In a talk I gave at SaaS North 2017 conference in Ottawa, I talk about the fundamentals of building a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process for a startup.
In my talk at the 2017 LAUNCH SCALE conference in San Francisco, I discuss how to get inside your buyer's head to increase funnel conversion rates. In the talk, I cover:
- How to design and build a buyer-centric sales funnel that has low CAC and fast sales cycles.
- How to figure out why your sales funnel isn't working as well as it could be, and how to fix it.
- How to understand the way buyers react to your funnel, and how to use that knowledge to increase funnel conversion rates.
• 3. The 3 Models of SaaS Pricing1How to Pick the Best Price28 Pricing Hacks3How to Test New Pricing4We’ll cover...
• 4. Model 1: Targeting Small Businesses1
• 5. Self-service, no sales team, limited support
• 6. Pricing in the $10 - $100/month rangeThis mean you need to focus onscale and acquiring customerscheaply.
• 7. Similar companies
• 8. Model 2: Targeting Enterprise2
• 9. Sales team, contracts, full support
• 10. Pricing is $1,000s or $10,000s/monthVery little is automated, your teamwill be working very closely witheach customer.
• 11. Similar companies
• 12. Model 3: The Mid-Size Hybrid3
• 13. Automated marketing with a sales team
• 14. Pricing is $100’s/monthYou’ll need to scale your leads butyou’ll have a full sales team toclose them.
• 15. Similar companies
• 16. Pick the right price range for your vision
• 17. 2 Bad Methods for Pricing
• 18. 1. Product cost + X%You’ll undercharge somecustomers and overcharge others.
• 19. 2. What does the customer want to pay?People have no idea until you askthem for their credit card.
• 20. Pricing by Value
• 21. Value-Based PricingYour customers get value worth $Yand it only costs them $X.
• 22. For B2B, focus on money earned or saved
• 23. How much extra revenue do they earn?1How many hours do they save?2What other costs do they avoid?3Ask your customers:
• 24. Capture more value from each customer.
• 25. There’s no such thing as a perfect price.If you need more guidance, pick aprice that’s 10% of the valuedelivered.
• 26. 8 Pricing Hacks8
• 27. Rule 1: Go AnnualYou’ll improve cash flow, reduceyour churn, and improve yourrevenue.
• 28. Rule 2: Don’t Add Unnecessary Digits$1000 looks cheaper than $1,000or $1000.00
• 29. Rule 3: Avoid Discounts Unless LaunchingDiscounts create destructivecustomer habits. Do not use themregularly.
• 30. Rule 4: Offer Multiple Prices to Anchor
• 31. Rule 5: Use pricing plans to segment customers.Different customer types getdifferent value from your product.Capture that value.
• 32. Rule 6: Double Your PriceWe all tend to UNDERvalue our ownservices.
• 33. Rule 7: Be Careful With Freemium PlansVery difficult to make it work in B2Bmarkets.
• 34. Rule 8: Grandfather Old Customers InAs long as you don’t raise pricesfor old customers, you won’t getany complaints.
• 35. These are rules, not laws.
• 36. How to Test New Pricing - 4 Steps
• 37. Step 1: Track subscription plans for all customersSubscription plans1Each monthly charge2Any cancelations3Access to total revenue, averagerevenue per user, and churn4
• 38. Step 2: Launch Your New Pricing Page
• 39. Step 3: Track your entire funnel
• 40. Step 4: Track ARPU and churn
• 41. KISSmetrics helps you find the right priceConnects all data to individual people1A/B tests for your entire funnel2See which plans are most profitable
SaaS Companies: What Costs Should Be Capitalized?Armanino LLP
Armanino McKenna conducted a survey of 47 public SaaS companies to examine their accounting policies for certain expenses. The results showed 70% of those SaaS companies are capitalizing expenses - the two most common expenses capitalized are software development expenses and sales commissions. To understand the diversity in capitalization practices, we examined the rules for capitalizing these and other SaaS expenses.
How Startups Can Build a Recruiting MachineDavid Skok
Something important has changed in the recruiting process: the best people are almost never on the market, and you have to develop recruiting processes to find and sell passive candidates. In many cases, it will take months or years of relationship building with these candidates to find the right moment when they are open to considering a change. Closing them takes greater selling efforts than in the past due to the intense competition over the good candidates. This leads me to believe that there is now a third crucial startup skill that needs to be developed: recruiting.
Building a Sales and Marketing machine for a B2B software company involves many functions working together. This slide deck explores the process of funnel design that is highly buyer centric. It looks at the Buyer journey, and how to successfully construct a buying process that they buyer will enjoy going through, which is very different from the typical sale process that is designed from the vendors standpoint, and fails because the buyer is not motivated to go through the steps.
Lean Startup Basics - Evidence Based EntrepreneurshipKelly Schwedland
Introduction and overview to the lean process for startups. An evidence based approach to validate early hypothesis and develop a solid Business Model before launch. Involving Customer Development, Hypothesis testing, Minimum Viable Product, (MVP) to get to Product/ Market fit and ultimately A replicable scalable business model. This simple but disciplined approach takes the guess work out of taking an idea and turning it into a viable company.
Based on Eric Reis, Steve Blank and Alex Osterwald's work with Lean Startup, Lean launchpad, customer development and Business Model Canvas. Now in practice by multiple Incubators, Accelerators, Universities and now the National Science Foundation through ICorp to validate business ideas with before investing.
How (and When) to Hire a Great VP of Customer Success Management CSMGainsight
The VP of Customer Success role has become one of the hottest hiring priorities for companies in the Subscription Economy. Although the impact is now widely recognized, businesses still struggle with identifying the right time to bring on a CSM leader, and furthermore, how to recognize truly great candidates.
Join a lively conversation between Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight, Tomasz Tunguz, Partner at Redpoint Ventures, and Monica Adractas, VP of Customer Success and Retention at Box as they share how (and when) to hire a great VP of Customer Success.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
- How data supports hiring a VP Customer Success earlier in the company lifecycle
- What the key characteristics of greatness are and how to identify them early
- How maturing companies have evolved the VP Customer Success role to meet the changing needs of their customer base
Featuring: Tomasz Tunguz, Partner at Redpoint Ventures; Monica Adractas, VP of Customer Success and Retention at Box; and Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight
SaaS Accounting: The blueprint to understanding and optimizingPrice Intelligently
A bad accountant or finance manager can spell doom for your company though by causing you to not invest cash that you should be or worse - spending money you don’t have in the bank. This is why you need to know your SaaS accounting chops, too. To help, let’s walk through a breakdown of how revenue flows through your business from a booking all the way to cash collected.
Here we walk through exactly how to calculate ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) including what to and not to include in the calculation, as well as how to optimize this crucial SaaS metric.
Slack's Ali Rayl on Scaling Support for User GrowthHeavybit
In this Heavybit Speaker Series Presentation, Ali Rayl talks about building Slack's Support Stack particularly after the company's exponential growth spikes. Ali Rayl is the Director of Quality and Support at Slack where she’s built the team to manage more than 5,000 corporate clients including Stripe, Rdio, Medium, Airbnb, Expedia and Buzzfeed. In the past she was the Director of QA at Songbird — an open-source cross platform music player built on Mozilla’s XULRunner and GStreamer.
Full Video available Here: http://www.heavybit.com/library/developer-operations/video/2014-09-16-ali-rayl
A SaaS Metric designed to Increase Free Trial ConversionsLincoln Murphy
CCAs & Engagement – An Uncommon Way to Engage & Convert Prospects in Your SaaS Free Trial.
A few years ago I came up with a set of metrics that I called Common Conversion Activities – or CCA – that I defined as “The things that all or most paying customers do during their trial.”
In July 2012 I gave a 54-minute presentation where I introduced the next version of this ever-evolving set of metrics for measuring Free Trial success, the CCA, and I want to share that with you now.
See the video of this presentation here: http://sixteenventures.com/free-trial-metrics
"Driving SaaS Success Using Key Metrics" at SaaStr Annual 2016saastr
David Skok, popular blogger and top SaaS investor at Matrix Partners, shares the key metrics that SaaS founders must focus on to remain competitive and build a sustainable business at SaaStr Annual 2016 held in San Francisco Feb 9-11th. www.saastrannual.com
Vadim Nekhai. What should you focus on the road to $1m in annual recurring re...IT Arena
Vadym Nekhai is Chief Executive Officer at Depositphotos stock photo agency. He previously worked as Depositphotos’ CMO and led the company’s growth since 2011.
Understanding what metrics are relevant to your startup, and why, can be a daunting task. In this meetup we will discuss what metrics matter for a SaaS company or project. What investors are looking for in the metrics you track and why do they think they are important. What is CAC and LTC, why is CHURN critical? We will also review how to calculate these important metrics, what equations will give you the right answer, and what tools make sense to use for your business.
Presenter: Lecole Cole, Founder & CEO, Skydera
For the annual FLG offsite, I gave this presentation on understanding SaaS metrics and using them for fundraising. Several people have DM'd me for the presentation, so I'm posting it here.
Most critical SaaS metrics everybody should trackStrive Analytics
Don't get lost in space! Understanding SaaS metrics is no rocket science.
We recently got a lot of user request to explain and detail critical SaaS metrics.
Not only lifeless definitions but also how they're calculated, why they are useful and how they are connected to each other.
This guide gives you a simple to understand introduction into SaaS metrics. So, we grouped them into three parts: acquisition, retention and revenue.
And these are some of the metrics, we're going to introduce:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), User Churn, Retention Rate, Revenue Churn, Customer Liftime Value (LTV) and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR).
Enjoy!
Most critical SaaS metrics everybody should trackStrive Analytics
Don't get lost in space! Understanding SaaS metrics is no rocket science.
We recently got a lot of user request to explain and detail critical SaaS metrics.
Not only lifeless definitions but also how they're calculated, why they are useful and how they are connected to each other.
This guide gives you a simple to understand introduction into SaaS metrics. So, we grouped them into three parts: acquisition, retention and revenue.
And these are some of the metrics, we're going to introduce:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), User Churn, Retention Rate, Revenue Churn, Customer Liftime Value (LTV) and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR).
Enjoy!
Sales Compensation in SaaS Companies Annual Survey 2018Viola Group
The topic of salary compensation for sales professionals is a hotly debated one among SaaS companies, so to see how Israeli startups stack up against international benchmarks, we (Viola Ventures) surveyed some of our portfolio and non-portfolio companies about their sales compensation policies.
You can read the accompanying blog post here: http://www.viola-group.com/violanotes/sales-compensation-in-saas-companies-viola-ventures-annual-survey-2018/
How to Survive and Thrive in the post-Covid EraDavid Skok
This presentation starts by looking at the huge global forces that are currently reshaping the world, triggered by Covid. It then drops down layer by layer, to finally show how you need to react as a SaaS business to set up for success in a changed world.
These are the slides that I used in my presentation at SaaStock Remote 2020 on June 10th.
9 Steps to Repeatable, Scalable, & Profitable GrowthDavid Skok
In this slide deck, David Skok talks through his 9 step process for B2B startups to get through product/market fit, and to then find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process.
In David's experience some of the most fatal and expensive mistakes founders make is trying to skip steps. Understanding this roadmap will save you countless hours and potentially millions of wasted dollars.
In this slide deck, David Skok talks through his 9 step process for B2B startups to get through product/market fit, and to then find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process.
In David's experience some of the most fatal and expensive mistakes founders make is trying to skip steps. Understanding this roadmap will save you countless hours and potentially millions of wasted dollars.
Zero to 100 - Part 6: Experiences putting Theory into PracticeDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Get inside your Buyers Head - Improve Funnel Conversion RatesDavid Skok
SaaStock 2018 Dublin.
Everyone wants more sales. In this presentation, David Skok unlocks the secrets to how he has been able to work with company after company and help them discover breakthroughs that drastically improve their conversion rates. The secret behind it all is become a master at understanding how your buyer thinks as they go through their purchasing journey, and as they experience your marketing and sales.
Optimize Your Funnel By Getting Inside Your Buyer's HeadDavid Skok
Part of finding product/market fit is turning early wins into repeatable, scalable, and profitable sales. In this talk given as part of the Heavybit speaker series, I discuss how to shorten the time to customer conversion from trials, freemium and open source products.
The Application Development Landscape - 2011David Skok
Presentation on the Application Development Landscape given as a keynote to the MassTLC CTO, developer and architect audience on December 15th in Cambridge, MA. Covers the key challenges and architectural decisions faced by developers. Topics include: Mobile, Cloud, SaaS, PaaS, Big Data, Analytics, etc.
The Science behind Viral Marketing is a look at the key factors that drive growth in viral marketing. (Hint, the most important factor is not the one everyone expects.) It also looks at what is needed to get virality to work, and how to create and optimize viral marketing campaigns or viral products.
One part of the presntation shows the key formulae behind viral marketing.
Suitable for marketers or for product designers.
Describes the steps required to build a Sales and Marketing Machine that is predictable, scalable, automated, well instrumented, and cost efficient.
This was a presentation that I gave at the Lean Startup Circle in Boston on March 24th, 2011.
Best Crypto Marketing Ideas to Lead Your Project to SuccessIntelisync
In this comprehensive slideshow presentation, we delve into the intricacies of crypto marketing, offering invaluable insights and strategies to propel your project to success in the dynamic cryptocurrency landscape. From understanding market trends to building a robust brand identity, engaging with influencers, and analyzing performance metrics, we cover all aspects essential for effective marketing in the crypto space.
Also Intelisync, our cutting-edge service designed to streamline and optimize your marketing efforts, leveraging data-driven insights and innovative strategies to drive growth and visibility for your project.
With a data-driven approach, transparent communication, and a commitment to excellence, InteliSync is your trusted partner for driving meaningful impact in the fast-paced world of Web3. Contact us today to learn more and embark on a journey to crypto marketing mastery!
Ready to elevate your Web3 project to new heights? Contact InteliSync now and unleash the full potential of your crypto venture!
What You're Going to Learn
- How These 4 Leaks Force You To Work Longer And Harder in order to grow your income… improve just one of these and the impact could be life changing.
- How to SHUT DOWN the revolving door of Income Stagnation… you know, where new sales come into your magazine while at the same time existing sponsors exit.
- How to transform your magazine business by fixing the 4 “DON’Ts”...
#1 LEADS Don’t Book
#2 PROSPECTS Don’t Show
#3 PROSPECTS Don’t Buy
#4 CLIENTS Don’t Stay
- How to identify which leak to fix first so you get the biggest bang for your income.
- Get actionable strategies you can use right away to improve your bookings, sales and retention.
Explore Sarasota Collection's exquisite and long-lasting dining table sets and chairs in Sarasota. Elevate your dining experience with our high-quality collection!
13. “The thing that surprises many investors &
boards of directors about the SaaS model is
that, even with perfect execution, an
acceleration of growth will often be
accompanied by a squeeze on profitability and
cash flow.”
Ron Gill, CFO at Netsuite
14. What’s the impact of faster growth?
$(10,000,000)
$(5,000,000)
$-
$5,000,000
$10,000,000
$15,000,000
$20,000,000
$25,000,000
2 more
Customers/Month
5 more
Customers/Month
10 more
Customers/Month
15. What’s the impact of faster growth?
$(10,000,000)
$(5,000,000)
$-
$5,000,000
$10,000,000
$15,000,000
$20,000,000
$25,000,000
2 more
Customers/Month
5 more
Customers/Month
10 more
Customers/Month
Cash Flow Trough
gets deeper
16. “As soon as the product starts to see some
significant uptake, investors expect that the
losses / cash drain should narrow, right?
Instead, this is the perfect time to increase
investment in the business, which will
cause losses to deepen again.”
Ron Gill, CFO at Netsuite
37. Revenue from one group of customers
(cohort) with no upsell/cross-sell
Time
$’s
Upsell revenue
from the same cohort
Negative
Churn
Revenue from a single cohort
38. CRR and DRR
CRR: Customer Retention Rate
DRR: Dollar Retention Rate
Annual Numbers – expressed as a percentage
Look at the year ago cohort
40. Revenue Lost with 2.5% monthly Churn
Renewals
Lost due
to Churn
YEAR 3
$3m $7m
Becomes harder
& harder to
replace this with
new bookings
Renewals
Lost due
to Churn
YEAR 6
$30m $70m
44. Customer Success
• Not just the responsibility of Customer Success department
• Product
• Design
• Quality (response time, bugs and downtime)
• Sales
• Don’t over sell the product
• Don’t sell the product to the wrong customer types
• Marketing
• Marketing to customers, not just prospects
• But good to have single executive who has this as their top
priority
47. CHI – Customer Happiness Index
• Find a way to predict the likelihood of churn
• Most common and simple technique: Usage
• More sophisticated:
• Score usage of specific features higher than others
• E.g.
• Commenting on someone else’s posts on Facebook = Low
• Creating your own post = High
48. High Usage does not correlate with High Value
Usage
Business Value
Optimal
Worst
49. My Suggestion
• Consider a CHI score based on Business Value achieved,
and find a way to measure automatically in the app
• Example:
• How many new leads did you bring the customer?
• How much did you improve the lead to customer conversion rate?
57. Always ask to see Bookings over Time
Entrepreneurs always happy to show their MRR over time
But this doesn’t tell whether their bookings are growing
$(15.0)
$(10.0)
$(5.0)
$-
$5.0
$10.0
$15.0
$20.0
$25.0
$30.0
$35.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
MRR Bookings
New MRR
Net New MRR
Expansion MRR
Churned MRR
59. How Revenue Builds for a SaaS Salesperson
(assumingnorampuptime)
$0
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
$35,000
$40,000
$45,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
With Churn of 2.5%
Jan Custs Feb Custs Mar Custs Apr Custs
May Custs Jun Custs Jul Custs Aug Custs
Sep Custs Oct Custs Nov Custs Dec Custs
$0
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
$35,000
$40,000
$45,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
With no Churn
Jan Custs Feb Custs Mar Custs Apr Custs
May Custs Jun Custs Jul Custs Aug Custs
Sep Custs Oct Custs Nov Custs Dec Custs
60. The Cash Flow Gap
$(25,000)
$(20,000)
$(15,000)
$(10,000)
$(5,000)
$-
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
Month1
Month2
Month3
Month4
Month5
Month6
Month7
Month8
Month9
Month10
Month11
Month12
Month13
Month14
Month15
Month16
Month17
Month18
Month19
Month20
Month21
Month22
Month23
Month24
Net profit - New Sales Hire
$-
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$20,000
$25,000
$30,000
Month
1
Month
2
Month
3
Month
4
Month
5
Month
6
Month
7
Month
8
Month
9
Month
10
Month
11
Month
12
MRR vs Expenses – New Sales
Hire
MRR
Expenses
Cash
Gap
(Slightly later breakeven point, because Gross Profit is less than MRR)
11 months to
breakeven
61. The SaaS Cash Flow Trough
$(200,000)
$(100,000)
$-
$100,000
$200,000
$300,000
$400,000
Cumulative Net Profit - New Sales Hire
23 Months to
get back the
investment
Total amount
invested:
$110k
But a great
return on
investment
62. Search for Product/Market Fit
Scaling the Business
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
Sales Model
Conserve Cash Invest Aggressively
63. What happens at the company level when
we add 2 new sales hires every month?
$(250,000)
$(200,000)
$(150,000)
$(100,000)
$(50,000)
$-
$50,000
$100,000
$150,000
Month1
Month2
Month3
Month4
Month5
Month6
Month7
Month8
Month9
Month10
Month11
Month12
Month13
Month14
Month15
Month16
Month17
Month18
Month19
Month20
Month21
Month22
Month23
Month24
Net profit
$(3,000,000)
$(2,000,000)
$(1,000,000)
$-
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
Cumulative Net Profit
32 Months to
get back the
investment
Total amount
invested:
$2.6m
First profitable
month: 21
Worst loss:
$190k in
month 11
64. Comparison: hiring one versus two sales
people per month
$(400,000)
$(200,000)
$-
$200,000
$400,000
$600,000
$800,000
Month1
Month3
Month5
Month7
Month9
Month11
Month13
Month15
Month17
Month19
Month21
Month23
Month25
Month27
Month29
Month31
Month33
Month35
Net Profit
1 sales hire a month 2 sales hires a month
$(3,000,000)
$(2,000,000)
$(1,000,000)
$-
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
Month1
Month3
Month5
Month7
Month9
Month11
Month13
Month15
Month17
Month19
Month21
Month23
Month25
Month27
Month29
Month31
Month33
Month35
Cumulative Net Profit
1 sales hire a month 2 sales hires a month
The time to
breakeven remains
the same
The cash flow
trough is halved
Not adequately shown, but
the acceleration after
breakeven is also halved
67. What happens if we collect a year’s
payment in advance?
$(5,000,000)
$-
$5,000,000
$10,000,000
$15,000,000
$20,000,000
$25,000,000
$30,000,000
$35,000,000
$40,000,000
Month1
Month3
Month5
Month7
Month9
Month11
Month13
Month15
Month17
Month19
Month21
Month23
Month25
Month27
Month29
Month31
Month33
Month35
Cumulative Cashflow
comparision - monthly
payments vs year in
advance
Cumulative Net Profit
Cumulative Net Cash Flows
$(500,000)
$-
$500,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
$2,000,000
$2,500,000
Cashflow comparison -
monthly payments vs
year in advance
Net profit Net Cash Flows
Eliminates the
cash flow trough,
and means $35m
more cash in this
scenario
71. A rough estimate of CAC versus
Sales Complexity
Freemium
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s
$0-
$40
$30 –
$200
$300 -
$800
$3,000 -
$8,000
$25,000 –
$75,000
$75,000 –
$200,000
Rough Estimates of Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)
72. The relationship is roughly exponential
Clearly adding
Human Touch
dramatically
increases costs
77. To make it comparable with a traditional software business,
eliminate New Customer Sales, as those benefit the future
Revenue
100%
CoGS
24%
Sales &
Marketing
51%
R&D
15%
G&A
13%
Profit
20%
Expansion
&
Retention
25%
New
Customer
Sales
26%
CoGS
24%
R&D
15%
G&A
13%
Loss (6%)
Expansion
&
Retention
25%
78. Profit
20%
Expansion
&
Retention
25%
CoGS
24%
R&D
15%
G&A
13%
Now look at DRR (Dollar Retention Rate):
• Example DRR = 123% (Zendesk’s number)
• The existing customer base with no additional revenue
is growing at 23% annually
• So you have a business growing 23% year-on-year,
generating 20% Profit
80. Summary
• Expect to see the P&L / Cash Flow trough
• Use Unit Economics to evaluate the business
• Look for negative churn, (where DRR > 100%)
• Use SaaS metrics, not traditional metrics
81. The 3 Keys to SaaS Success
1 Acquisition
2 Retention
3 Monetization
82. • Visit my blog at www.forEntrepreneurs.com
For more information…
84. The Magic Number
• In general, I don’t like the Magic Number
• Hard to explain and understand
• BUT – a public company may not give:
• LTV:CAC ratio
• Months to recover CAC
• So use Magic Number to calculate something roughly equivalent
• First developed by the Josh James, CEO of Omniture
• The key insight - if your Magic Number is:
• Above 0.75 – step on the gas
• Below 0.75 – step back and look at your business
• Below 0.5 – business probably not ready to expand
85. The Formula for Magic Number
• QRR[X] = Quarterly Revenue in the current quarter
• QRR[X-1] = Quarterly Revenue in the prior quarter
• Sales & Marketing Expense [X-1] = Sales & Marketing expense in the prior quarter
𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 =
(𝑄𝑅𝑒𝑣 𝑋 − 𝑄𝑅𝑒𝑣 𝑋 − 1 ) ∗ 4
𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 & 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 [𝑋 − 1]
𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 =
𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒 ∗ 4
𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟 𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟′ 𝑠 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 & 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑠
Expressed in a slightly more readable form:
86. Example Magic Number calculation
Q1 Q2 Q3
Revenue $1,000,000 $1,200,000 $1,500,000
Sales & Marketing Expense $800,000 $900,000
Magic Number 1.0 1.33