Dustin Sapp

"There are no project opportunities for us in Washington state." Really? 🤔 This was a frustrating update a VP of Sales continually heard. Seeking a fresh perspective, he gave Citylitics a shot. In just one hour, he uncovered over $20M in project opportunities that had missed his sales team’s radar, including a promising project right in Washington state. Knowledge is Power. The most successful businesses in infrastructure are relentless in their pursuit of learning more about their markets, customers, and future project opportunities. Ready to breathe new life into your business development efforts? Challenge Citylitics to uncover fresh insights. 💡🌐 https://hubs.la/Q02GCJCK0 #PublicInfrastructure #InfrastructureInsights #KnowledgeIsPower #SalesStrategies #Citylitics

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The acquisition game is very different from 10 years ago now that 70% of SaaS acquisitions are led by private equity investors or PE-owned strategic buyers. Most SaaS founders aren't thinking about the new realities of eventually selling their SaaS companies. It's very different than the old days of "sell it for big multiples to a strategic buyer, cash out, and see ya later." Here are 5 questions for founders to consider the new realities of a potential PE-backed exit: 1) Is my company built to keep growing efficiently after I sell it? - Your SaaS metrics need to be healthy. Growing steadily with efficient CAC and solid revenue retention - You need a business that runs without you, the founder. - And you will still be responsible for fixing the problems in your business. 2) Would I invest in the new company with my hard-earned equity or cash? PE buyers don't cash you out of 100% of your equity, just a partial "first bite of the apple" prize. They buy a minority or majority of your company, so you become the major private investor in the acquiring business. This is not an earn-out. You now own shares in a new company that you don't control. You must be confident enough in the new owners, operators, culture, and vision to invest 20-60% of your hard-earned equity in this new venture. 2) Why will this acquisition work to build and sell a much bigger company? Most old-style mergers and acquisitions didn't work for either side. In this new world, founders need to find the right owner/partner with the right strategy and team to ensure their hard-earned equity pays off on their "2nd bite of the apple" when it is sold again. Founders should also do deep due diligence on their acquiring PE investors, not just pitch themselves for "sale" to any takers. 3) Do I trust the new owners and operators to do the right things? Most founders don't stay on as CEOs when they sell to PE buyers. Someone else owns your business (PEs), and they have CEOs who will run the business their way. 90% of founder-CEOs who sell to PE end up as board members with the ability to make suggestions to the new leaders. That's it. You must trust the people and their approach to your business and your precious equity. 4) How will things change now that I'm not the CEO? Maybe you continue running the business as a CEO with new owners for a while, but eventually, you won't be there. Now what? How do you spend your time now that you're only an involved board member? This is very jarring for most former CEOs, so it's worth considering before selling. 5) How will things change now that I have money? The biggest reason to sell a major part of your healthy SaaS business is to take some chips off the table and win a major cash prize. You invested 5-15 years in this business and probably some of your own cash. Now what? Will your life change a little or a lot? It's a whole new world for successful SaaS founders when they sell to PE buyers. #practicalfounders

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Catch up on Adam Robinson's journey on The Force & Friction Podcast as he discusses scaling a SaaS company from $20M towards $50M ARR. Watch the full episode here: https://bit.ly/3YzjaBH "It’s a game of different rules at each stage". #ForceAndFrictionPodcast #RevOpsLife #GTM #SaaS #B2BGrowth #EntrepreneurJourney #ScalingUp

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Many SaaS CEOs express concern about silo'ed functions in Sales & Marketing. The big mistake (I think) is in separating these two out and not having them both on the same "GTM" (go-to-market) or "Revenue" team. They've shared with me that they have a robust inbound lead flow and are doing well there. But they need to build the Outbound function, and certainly don't have Allbound (new trendy name for de-anonymizing web traffic and targeting them) up and running. Or vice versa: They staffed up their Sales team early and have a solid Outbound. But Inbound is near nonexistent and they now need to build that and integrate it with the functioning Outbound team. All GTM motions require multiple steps to ensure quality lead flow (and improve conversion rates to qualified pipeline and SQOs). Here's what I typically do when working with clients. You'll notice several steps are the same but the flows are distinct. Why? Because the lead *context* is different for each scenario. So messaging segmentation is key for each of the flows. Inbound 1 - Lead requests info 2 - Lead enters CRM 3 - CRM data is enriched via Clay or Apollo.io 4 - Lead is scored 5- ICP Leads routed to Sales Allbound 1 - Lead visits website 2 - Lead info is de-anonymized via RB2B or Smart CRM LeadFinder 3 - Lead enters CRM 4 - CRM data is enriched via Clay or Apollo.io 5 - Lead is scored 6- Sales reaches out Outbound 1 - Identify ICP Lead 2 - Enter Lead info to CRM 3 - CRM data is enriched via Clay or Apollo.io 4 - Lead is scored 5- Sales reaches out Have you tried this at your org yet?

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Colorado founders -- the next Thunderview CEO Dinners event (Oct 3rd) is focused on getting your first sales as CEO and then growing your sales team. As Natty Zola said at our last dinner, revenue is the best form of funding, and it's up to the CEO to make those initial sales. If you're struggling to get leads and close deals, you're in luck. Our featured speaker is Scott Schnaars, who has sold and build sales teams everywhere from early stage startups like Badgeville and ReSci (Retention Science), mid-stage companies like Firstup (formerly Dynamic Signal) and Cloudinary, and massive companies like Yahoo and Webex. This is a highly tactical conversation, and you'll leave with actionable steps to find and close leads the following day. Additionally, for founders who are moving beyond CEO-led sales, Scott will discuss best practices for hiring and managing your earliest salespeople. If this is your first Thunderview CEO Dinner, please reserve a seat at https://lnkd.in/et5zZShA If you've been to previous dinners, head straight to the tickets page (check your email or DM me) and grab your ticket as this is going to be another sellout crowd. Thunderview CEO Dinner October 3rd, 6p - 9p Mercury Cafe in Denver 🤘 Even if you aren't coming / can't come to the dinner, please please please like and reshare this post if you are in Denver. I'm fighting the "you've shared this link before" LinkedIn distribution penalty. 🤘

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As we move deeper into 2024, tracking the right metrics is critical for scaling a SaaS business. This insightful guide outlines the top metrics to watch and includes valuable benchmarks to keep you on track. Whether you’re focused on ARR, CAC, or CLTV, understanding where your company stands is key to driving sustainable growth. Check out the article for a comprehensive look into the latest SaaS trends and metrics! #SaaS #BusinessGrowth #Metrics

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The PT industry needs more transparency so we're sharing our data. Here's operational benchmark data for PT practices in California - Let's dive in 👇 Average days until documentation completion - 5.16 days Average units per visit - 3.021 First pass clean claim rate - 97.01% (average) Denial Rate - 4.3% (average) Average Reimbursement Per Visit - $86.58 Top Payers in CA: CA Medicare South - $107.45 MedRisk - $106.04 Align Networks - $89.06 American Speciality Health - $87.78 Curious to see more benchmark data like this for other states? Comment "StrataPT" below and I'll DM you a link to them! #physicaltherapy

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The bar for efficiency is rising for SaaS companies. Here's ARR per FTE trends 2022 Vs 2023 (by Kyle Poyar): - 📈 $1-$5 million ARR: Good: $90k, Great: $150k+ - 📈 $5-$20 million ARR: Good: $150k, Great: $250k+ - 📈 $20-$50 million ARR: Good: $200k, Great: $275k+ - 📈 More than $50 million ARR: Good: $250k, Great: $300k+ #founders #startups #venturecapital #vc #tech #B2BSales #SalesDevelopment #LeadGeneration #SalesProspecting #OutboundSales #InboundSales #SalesStrategy #SalesEnablement #SDRTips #SalesTraining #SalesGoals #SalesSuccess #SalesTeam #ColdCalling #SalesTechniques #SalesEfficiency #SalesLeadership

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We've been enhancing our metrics on lease renewal rates and denials/cancels, and just added metrics for min/max rent too. I think this "Cancel %" metric (the ratio of lease applications to cancellations) is going to be incredibly interesting. We're working on a study using this data that shows application denial/cancellation rates by MSA, and some MSA's are approaching 70%... meaning that for every 10 applications, there are 7 rejections/cancellations before a lease is signed. That's craziness! Fraudulent applications are a major issue in some markets, and in others, application fees are now limited by recent legislation... making it easy for prospective residents to apply for several units at a time and choose the best option. I think understanding application/cancelation rates by market is going to be a lot more important for investors going forward. Stay tuned for the MSA-level analysis on app/cancel rates, but in the meantime, if you want to see how this applies to your market, schedule a demo or start a free trial at: https://www.hellodata.ai/ Thanks Tim and Nicolas for your work on these features! #multifamily #realestate #data #ai

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Our Micro SaaS portfolio company just hit ARR / FTE productivity rivaling $50M SaaS firms. Here are 4 lessons we learned along the way: Focus on operating leverage, not just revenue growth. EBITDA/FTE is an excellent scoreboard. Lean teams move faster and punch harder. Return on effort matters more than chasing scale or deal size. Where have you most recently created operating leverage in your business? #ARR #MicroSaaS #BusinessEfficiency

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The future of BRM's product roadmap following our $21.6M Series A + Seed is looking pretty exciting. Let me walk you through what's live today and what we're launching next. Quick overview: We're doubling down on fixing the outdated vendor management process with our BRM SuperAgents. They're not just more quirky AI tools—our SuperAgents are like having extra team members who actually enjoy doing the tedious stuff. Here's what they look like right now: ➝ The Contract Collector Hunts down scattered and "misplaced" vendor docs across your email ➝ The Renewal Wrangler Gives you a heads-up so you never miss renewals + know what if/when to renew ➝ The Pricer Helps figure out which package actually makes sense for you ➝ The Compliance Crawler  Handles all the risk and compliance documentation nobody wants to deal with And we're just getting warmed up. We're also pumped about our newest SuperAgent dropping in Q1 (more on that soon, but sales people might not like that one)... TL;DR: Our funding helps push our investment in SuperAgents, protecting your time and your budget. So yes, 2025 will be a wild ride deep into the AI landscape. We're talking smarter tools and AI teammates that work alongside you, not just another piece of software you have to figure out. Got any questions? Let me know.

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I recently spoke with a product manager who was frustrated with the close ties between metering and pricing in her organization. This interconnectedness was causing significant misalignments between the finance, sales, and engineering teams. Here’s why: In traditional billing platforms, metering is tightly integrated with pricing. This leads to various challenges: ➡️ Engineers have to manage usage tracking while being forced to grasp pricing logic, diverting their focus from core product development. ➡️Finance teams are heavily reliant on engineers to set up and maintain accurate metering infrastructure, which slows their ability to iterate quickly on pricing strategies. ➡️This complexity is compounded by the sales team’s need for flexibility in pricing configurations, limiting their ability to respond to customer demands and close deals faster. However, by decoupling metering from pricing, you can create the most flexible environment you can conceive. 1️⃣Engineers can focus solely on improving data accuracy and usage tracking without needing to integrate complex pricing considerations 2️⃣ Finance teams can independently manage pricing models, whether pay-per-use, tiered, or custom, without relying on engineers.  3️⃣ Sales teams can propose and implement customer-specific pricing strategies (e.g., based on API calls, GBs stored, etc.) seamlessly without requiring technical changes. Clear boundaries between metering and pricing can facilitate improved cross-functional collaboration, drive growth, and optimize revenue. By decoupling, teams can innovate faster, meet customer needs, and remove the roadblocks to growth. Have you also been hassled by a coupled architecture? DM to share your experience. #Billing #Pricing #Finance #Decoupling #Revenue

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Great article defining an MVP in detail from Ben Yoskovitz. Also gives a solid argument against the "L" of my SLC (https://lnkd.in/g9yRi9-B).

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5 most important things to know from California's updated Data Broker ruling: 💸 1. The price to register as a Data Broker jumped 1,550% to $6,600 per year I think this is a bad move by the CPPA. They should be encouraging more Data Brokers to sign up, not punishing the ones that do. They say they need the money to build the upcoming Delete Request and Opt-out Platform ("DROP") System, but the private market already has a lot of opt-out platforms (DeleteMe, PrivacyBee AG, Optery) that USE CALIFORNIA'S DATABASE. I think many registered Data Brokers will take this as a sign to tweak their practices just enough to not have to reregister, but if all 527 Data Brokers do, California is poised to collet a cool ~$3.5MM in registration fees by the end of January. 📸 2. Selling ANY 2nd or 3rd party data makes you a Data Broker Previously if you had a "Direct Relationship" with a user, you could sell whatever data you wanted about them no matter how you acquired that data. Now a company can only sell data about users that the consumer gave directly to them. Mixing in 3rd or 2nd party data now qualifies businesses that monetize their userbase as Data Brokers. 🏬 3. Subsidiaries and Parent Companies must register separately A business, regardless of its status as a parent company or subsidiary of another business, which independently meets the definition of “data broker” for any period of time during the previous calendar year must register with the CPPA. Businesses also have to disclose all of the DBAs. 👼 4. A Minor is defined as 15 and younger Also of note is that businesses that willfully disregard the consumers' age will be treated as if they know the age of the consumer. 📆 5. The Data Broker Registration Period is officially Jan 1-31 Previously the law specified that the end of the registration period is Jan 31, but now there is clarity that the beginning of the registration period is the first of the month. ⚖️ Implications: * The definition of Data Broker just expanded significantly! More companies need to register. * California may be responding to the anti-regulation rhetoric getting thrown around at the federal level * You can check to see if you need to register here: https://lnkd.in/dSinp6QN https://lnkd.in/dmSVJbNR

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TLDR - These Little Details Rock It can be exhausting trying to explain why there really isn’t a one-to-one competitor in our industry on a pitch. We eliminate the need for specialty software and makeshift programs like: Google Suite, Dropbox, Wordpress, Microsoft Excel, Eventbrite, Facebook, Omnify, SurveyMonkey, PayPal/Checkbooks, Paper Printing/Mailing Services, Personal Email and Phone, Slack Imagine the possibilities, and how much time/money/mental bandwidth your organization would save no longer having to rely on any of those? Here’s a list of what our platform can do for organizations and their members. -Website Builder (no need for Wordpress, GoDaddy or Wix) 
-Collect Payments (pay your fees online) 
-Document Repository (store documents) 
-Send Email Blasts and Text Alerts (increase communication to your members) 
-Private Chat between members/groups (committee and member private discussion) 
-Newsfeed/Forums (alternative to Facebook/Nextdoor) 
-Photo Gallery (shares images of community and events) 
-Member Directory (look up your members by custom search) 
-Amenity Reservations (reserve the tennis courts, tee times, etc) 
-Calendar (list all upcoming events) 
-Event Registration (register and pay for events) 
-Custom Forms (unlimited custom form, go from paper to digital) 
-Surveys & Voting (vote on election or voice your opinions) 
-ARC & Maintenance Requests (full workflow for communication in software, and historical reference) 
-Boardroom (create meetings, send invites , take minutes) 
-Committees (join clubs, groups or committees) 
-Sponsorships (let businesses pay to advertise to members) 
-Violation Tracking (report problems in the community) 
-Sub-Admin (allow for granular management of processes) 
-Groups & Tags (set permissions and section off anything) 
-Accounting (Vendor Management, Chart of Accounts, Budgets, etc) 
-Stripe, Twillio, SendGrid & QuickBooks Integrations -Mobile App (releasing soon with Push Notifications!)

So much more, but for the sake of time, I think you get it.  We’re a true all-in-one provider, that eliminates the need for multiple software’s to run your organization. Choose what you need. We’re mostly only selling to HOAs today (HOA Start), and gearing to go after many adjacent markets with different product lines. Can’t wait to show progress on how we change lives, but for now, hopefully you know a little more about us.

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🌟 Bootstrapped & Beating the Odds: Sotaog Joins the Top 4% of SaaS Companies 🌟 When I founded SOTAOG with Robert Estill, I knew I wanted to do it differently. Our recent DOE project milestone places us in the top 4% of SaaS companies—a feat that’s rare even among VC-backed companies. But we’re even prouder to have done it bootstrapped. There are thousands of bootstrapped pioneers example: Zoho, Zapier, Forge (another DOE awardee) whose journey have been powered by relentless focus and determination. The secret? It’s simple, not easy: work harder than everyone else. For example there were days when exhaustion tempted me to pass on new contracts, but each time I’d ask myself one question:  “Sarah, have you pursued every opportunity ahead of you?” The answer was always “No.” And that commitment to seizing every chance has led us to contracts that didn’t just sustain us—they’ve become the long-term partnerships we rely on today. We went through periods where revenue fell to zero, but my commitment to my team never wavered: no layoffs, no matter what. I wanted Sotaog to be a place of stability, growth, and integrity for everyone involved. And as we continue to grow, I’m excited to fulfill my promise of financial growth for each ambitious employee and partner who’s believed in us. Early on, I faced a choice: spend time chasing investors or double down on finding customers who saw value in our solution. With funding odds around 1%, compared to at least a 10-20% chance of customer acquisition, I chose our customers—and it’s a choice I’d make again without hesitation. Today, we’re blessed with inbound calls from VCs who backed unicorns I once admired from afar. And every time we’re approached, I’m grateful we didn’t compromise early on traditional investors and terms that didn’t serve us. We didn’t just wait for the right moment—we worked for it. To every bootstrapper, dreamer, and founder inspired by those who’ve gone before: believe in your team and your vision. The journey may be long, but the impact makes it all worthwhile. #innovation #technology #startups #heavyindustries #sotaog

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Needing a break from getting back in the saddle after the holidays? Love talking about SaaS metrics? Come join me with CJ Gustafson and Ray Rike where we'll be talking about benchmarking and metrics--what's changing (has changed), top metrics, best practices, and more. Unlike more lecture-based webinars, this is going to be more of a fireside chat conversation with two Masters of Metrics. So get yourself a warm beverage, get comfortable, and pop in a question or two (or more). ⏭️ Sign up for all OnlyCFO Webinars ->https://lnkd.in/gZ4fE-VN ⏭️ Sign up for just this webinar -> https://lnkd.in/gwmn98Tp

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Vertical SaaS CEOs are constantly told they need to be a Payfacs to monetize payments. This is a terrible idea. Here is what that person on the other end of that advice isn’t telling you. 1️⃣ It will kill your SaaS multiple. Being a Payfac means you recognize payments revenue on your top line and clear 8 bps after expenses. What happens when payments revenue becomes 50% or more of your previously 90% gross margin business? 2️⃣ You will be in a tri-party agreement with a single sponsor bank, giving you zero negotiating leverage and control of your economic destiny. 3️⃣ There are big upfront costs that are hard to overcome without tremendous scale. Instead, you want to partner with Payfac on a rev share. A partner can give you 20% of top line as straight revenue, you take zero expense (legally you're a distribution partner), and you add 10 bps of 100% margin to your P&L. Being a PayFac without being a payments specialist literally makes no sense. Open invitation to prove me wrong.

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I advise a few early stage GTM execs at tech companies, and probably the most common problem is this (and this isn't just about tech, this applies broadly): Focus. Here's an example of how it goes: Them: We've got SMB customers but enterprise aspirations. Me: Is the product built for the enterprise? Them: Recently, yes. Me: Do you have any enterprise customers? Them: Yes, 20. Me: Are they paying for it? Them: Yes, we're getting upwards of 7 figure deals on 3 year terms. Me: That says a lot-- you've got a repeatable sales motion. Why are you still selling to SMBs? Them: We get a lot of leads like that, and it's hard to say no to a quick close. Me: How much work does it take to service those SMBs? Them: A TON. They have no process for adoption or even people to use it. Plus, there's no expansion upside. Me: What type of company is the CEO telling the board she's trying to build? Them: An enterprise SaaS company-- and that's what the sole focus of the product team is. Me: Why are you not focusing exclusively on selling to the enterprise customer? Do you even really want the SMB customer? Them: Good question. Me: If you focused on that, wouldn't you also be more capital efficient? Would it increase your sales productivity? And let's not forget that sneaky cost to service the customer that's happening with SMBs. You might be actually losing money on them. Them: I think we need to focus or GTM effort. End scene. For my company, I'm focusing on one grape variety (Sauvignon Blanc, or Sauvy B as some cool kids say). You can buy it directly from our website, or it'll be available in very limited geographic locations (Cape Cod, Islands, the Hamptons). All about the focus. #gtmadvice #marketing #b2b #wine

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