John Andrews

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 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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Distributors: Are you considering SKU optimization for 2024? Dan Judge from NetPlus Alliance just shared a super insightful outlook report with members, introducing the idea of SKU optimization. Basically, it's about evaluating customers, vendors, and stocking levels to better align with company goals. One member said, "It's a gradual process but helps in deciding on vendors and our level of aggressiveness with specific product lines.". This got me thinking—how many distributors are actually taking the time to analyze data and make strategic decisions instead of just reacting? As a distributor, how much of your monthly time do you dedicate to these crucial choices? SKU optimization brings several key benefits that can revolutionize a distributor’s operations. Imagine having the perfect amount of the right products at exactly the right time—that's what SKU optimization can do for your inventory management. By minimizing excess stock and reducing stockouts, you not only save money but also boost customer satisfaction. But that’s not all. SKU optimization empowers smarter, more strategic decisions. By diving into data on sales performance, customer preferences, and vendor reliability, you can fine-tune your product offerings to perfectly match market demand and your business goals. Plus, it streamlines operations, cuts carrying costs, and clears out obsolete or slow-moving inventory. In the end, SKU optimization creates a leaner, more efficient supply chain, leading to higher profitability and a stronger competitive edge in the market. By the way, the 2024 Benchmarking Data from Netplus is a goldmine of information and should be a huge help to all members. #wholesalers #netplus #distribution Photo courtesy from SketchBubble

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A poorly executed #customersuccess strategy will kill your #NRR for years to come. I've seen it first-hand too many times over the years. Here is how you deliver a well-executed CS strategy to drive great NRR and ultimately, business growth: 🛣️ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 & 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 The first step in any customer success strategy is understanding the full & dynamic revenue & customer journey. This means not just knowing what your customers do, but why they do it. How and why did they buy your services? How do they move through their journey with you (rarely ina straight line!)? By understanding their motivations, you can better anticipate their needs and deliver solutions that truly add value. And don't forget, the old-school customer journey is not the standard anymore, you need to use the full, dynamic revenue & customer journey to get the full picture. This stretches from pre-sale to post-sale and allows for the customer to move in and out of journey phases/stages dynamically. 📈 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Customer success is not a reactive function. It's about being proactive, anticipating customer needs, and addressing them before they become issues. You have to ensure that your strategy is aligned around, and fosters, a proactive CS culture and process that allows your team to execute effectively. This not only improves customer satisfaction, but also reduces churn, and creates more expansion opportunities. Both key factors in improving NRR. 📊 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 In the #SaaS & #CS world, we have access to a wealth of data. By leveraging this data, we can make informed decisions that drive customer success. This could be anything from identifying usage patterns to predict churn, to understanding which features drive the most value for customers and beyond. And it needs to go beyond telemetry, usage etc. Also capture, track and understand customer goals and other qualitative data points. One problem is that this data is often siloed or hard to access, so make sure you have systems (like RevSetter) that can bridge that gap and allows CSMs to effectively action the data & insights. 🤝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Customer success should not be the responsibility of a single department. It should be ingrained in the company culture. When everyone in the organization understands the value of customer success, it becomes a strategic priority that drives business growth. This is why the dynamic revenue & customer journey, the engagement focus, and the proactive mindset are so important. When those are present - and a strategic & customer-centric approach is adopted by the CEO & leadership - the sky is the limit. Leverage these four building blocks and your CS strategy and execution will thank you for it ✅ *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network

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Our partnership with Brex now gives us unparalleled insight and breadth in SaaS purchasing reports

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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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Amplitude Announces Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results: - Third quarter revenue was $75.2M, up 6% year-over-year - ARR was $298M, up $8M from the end of the second quarter - We now have almost 3,500 paying customers, with 567 of those representing more than $100k or more per year Q3 was all about winning the enterprise. We are starting customer conversations differently, reaching key decision-makers, and demonstrating fast value in ways we weren’t before. The result is a higher-quality book of business, with better attach rates, longer contracts, and bigger expansions (we had multiple expansions exceeding 7 figures in Q3). Consolidation is another big theme that's been playing out for several quarters. It’s clear that our customers are looking for an all-in-one platform, and they are finding that in Amplitude. And we've continued to make our platform better. In Q3, we launched Amplitude Made Easy, our completely redesigned platform experience that takes the difficulty out of analytics. We also deepened our partnership with our friends at HubSpot, launched Web Experimentation, and acquired Command AI (fka CommandBar). To our Ampliteers, partners, and customers—we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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Salesforce is getting pummeled in the markets (-5%) on the announcement of late-stage acquisition discussions with Informatica, a cloud data management platform with a market cap of about $11B. With $1.6B of revenue at a 77% gross margin growing 12% YoY (ARR growing 30%+ YoY), Informatica is a very healthy business that seems well positioned from a market perspective with a product focus on Data and AI, two of the biggest buzzwords in tech today. In the last year, Salesforce has been pushing its Data Cloud product, repositioning the company away from traditional CRM and towards the data layer at the foundation of an enterprise's entire business. Informatica definitely adds to this narrative, focused on the ETL side of data movement and processing and comes with tight relationships with data warehouse players like Snowflake and Databricks, as well as the large cloud providers. Data Cloud is Salesforce's fastest-growing segment by far, up 90% YoY. It's surprising to see the stock getting beat up this bad on the news. Informatica seems like a solid acquisition consistent with company strategy and at a current trading price 7.2x revenue, not overly expensive given the solid margin profile of the business. We'll see if these two move towards a deal and where the price lands, but overall this seems like a good get for #CRM

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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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How do you set your deal priorities? Sales leaders are pretty good at this. But they can do better. The Efficient Frontier For Sales shows you where to focus so you maximize sales for the risk you are willing to accept. On average deal portfolios on the Efficient Frontier produce 58% more in-quarter sales than prioritizations based on stage, deal-size, forecast category, or deal-scores. Want to see how this works? DM me for that case study. #salesmanagement #salesleadership #salesenablement #salesoperations #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #analytics #datascience #forecasting #sales

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Have you ever looked for theory that can answer - how to approach investors - what kind of product to build first - how you’ll defend the company against competitors This new article from CDA partner, Kevin Maney extends Steven Johnson's writing from the book Emergence to #CategoryDesign. All #Startups and #VentureCapital teams should dig in. (link to article in comments)

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50-90% of the journey is complete before a buyer interacts with a sales rep!!! REALLY?? I was pointed to this document by a partner Boston Consulting Group (BCG) written by SPOTIO. Some points that really stood out to me were: 1) More than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process. (Personally I would say this is on the low side) BUT: 2) By making a few more call attempts, sales reps can boost conversion rates by up to 70% AND the channel of communication is key: 3) Only 23% of sales emails are opened WHICH is concerning because: 4) In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in most buying decisions (Gartner Group) TOOLS are needed to help track, prompt and guide the team: CRMs can boost sales by 29% and productivity to 34%. (Salesforce) Some eye opening statistics. Can anyone recommend any other data points that should be considered when thinking about go to market in 2025?

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Anyone interested in generative AI, especially GAI for GTM, should study the work of Erik Brynjolfsson. Erik is an author and Stanford University professor who examines the effects of technology on business strategy and human productivity and performance. Here's just one of the many ideas I've gained from his work, and it relates to the hot topic of the AI SDR. It starts with the belief that AI can serve human performance and not replace humans - race with the machine, not against the machine as the quote says. In the bigger picture, he's an optimist who believes AI can reverse the trend of technology widening income inequality. But that's going a bit beyond my pay grade, so let's go back to the question of the AI SDR... He points out that replacing jobs is the wrong way to look at this because most jobs are a collection of tasks. Rote tasks can be automated with AI, but most jobs include a long tail of tasks and qualities that require human creativity and judgment. The delineation of jobs and tasks means you need to define the tasks an SDR owns. In the case of the SDR, research and writing the first draft are tasks that AI can do extremely well. But objection handling, authenticity, and human connection require a...human! The takeaway is that you need to define the tasks your SDRs own. If you think your SDRs can be fully replaced by AI, you are probably setting expectations too low. This happens to align with how we are building rule5 - as a complement to human performance that performs key tasks, not a replacement for human jobs. Btw, the quote here is from a 2013 TED talk that you can find on Youtube. I'll post it in the comments. Needless to say, this question isn't new it just feels more urgent now with AI. #generativeai #ai #humanintheloop

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AI dialler gets you coverage, at best, on 8-12% of your market. Human-assisted dialling gets you 40-55%. PipelineHeroes use Human assisted...

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Ready to elevate your B2B SaaS game? Dive into strategies that transform complexity into clarity. Unravel the intricate puzzle of growth with actionable insights. Are you aligning company strategy with execution for maximum impact? Discover how to harmonize sales and marketing to power up your revenue engines! How often are you tuning in to market insights and refining your approach? Here are 5 key insights to drive your company forward: 1. Decode the landscape: Know your trends and dynamics to position effectively. 2. Connect the dots: Let marketing drive growth, beyond just campaigns. 3. Embrace synergy: Ensure perfect alignment between sales and marketing. 4. Listen & Anticipate: Use market insights to stay agile and responsive. 5. Empower through enablement: Equip your team for success with consistent messaging. How does your approach stack up against these strategies? Watch the full video: https://lnkd.in/div6jKmY 👏 Don't forget to share this post if you found it insightful—let's spread the knowledge! 🚀

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Mea Culpa: Revisiting My Bold Statement on Precision Mailers vs. Trade Shows After my last post, I realized I should provide additional context because I made a bold statement about how the ROI of our Precision Mailer strategy can outperform attending a trade show. To be fair, this is a nuanced comparison, so here are the numbers I used to support my statement. This comparison relies on averaged numbers for our expenses—your numbers will vary depending on your circumstances. Scenario 1: Precision Mailer to 500 Key Decision Makers Here’s the breakdown for our mailer strategy: Cost Per Mailer: $14 (includes UPS delivery and packaging). Total Cost: $14 × 500 = $7,000. Response Rate: 4% engagement = 20 responses. Meetings Secured: 30% of respondents book meetings = 6 meetings. Follow-Up Travel Costs: $400 per trip for half the meetings (the rest are virtual) = $1,200. Total Investment: $7,000 (mailers) + $1,200 (travel) = $8,200. Cost Per Meeting: $8,200 ÷ 6 = $1,367 per meeting. Scenario 2: Trade Show Attendance Here’s the breakdown for a typical trade show: Booth Space Rental: $10,000. Promotional Items & Giveaways: $800. Staffing Costs: $3,000 (travel, lodging, and per diems for 2 staff). Follow-Up Travel Costs: $400 per trip for 9 meetings = $3,600. Dinners with Prospects: $500 per dinner × 2 dinners = $1,000. Total Cost: $10,000 (booth) + $800 (promos) + $3,000 (staffing) + $3,600 (follow-up travel) + $1,000 (dinners) = $18,400. Meetings Secured: 300 booth visitors → 10% qualify as leads (30 leads) → 30% of leads book meetings = 9 meetings. Cost Per Meeting: $18,400 ÷ 9 = $2,044 per meeting. Precision Mailers deliver a 33% lower cost per meeting while focusing directly on decision-makers. Trade shows, while excellent for brand visibility and networking, often involve higher costs and less targeted engagement. That said, let me be clear; I am not advocating for abandoning trade shows. They are absolutely critical for many businesses and play an essential role in industry networking, brand exposure, and relationship-building. What I am advocating for is a rethinking of how we allocate resources. Instead of overusing email and generic direct mail campaigns, we should consider reallocating those resources into precision marketing where it makes sense. Targeted approaches, like Precision Mailers, can complement trade shows, driving focused, high-value engagement with decision-makers.

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🚨 Last Call for the Nektar Buzz Boat: Just 2 Days to Go! 🚨 Nektar.ai, DocketAI and RevOps Co-op are bringing you an exclusive GTM leaders Cruise in NYC(5th Sep), Boston(10th Sep), Chicago(12th Sep). Our GTM Leaders NYC Cruise is setting sail in just 48 hours, and we’ve got a couple of exclusive passes left. Don’t miss your chance to join an elite group of GTM pioneers for an evening of strategic insights and high-impact networking—right on the water! 🌊 Here’s why you need to be there: 🎯 Cutting-Edge Discussions: We’ll be diving into how AI is transforming sales, how to turn customer engagement into actionable data, and the latest GTM tactics that are driving real growth. 💡Discover how to operationalize Buying Groups: We’ll be diving into how AI automates capturing & tracking engagement with your buying groups on auto-pilot at scale. 🤝 High-Caliber Connections: This is your chance to network with fellow leaders who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the GTM space. 🍸 Unwind & Recharge: Kick back with some great drinks, delicious bites, and amazing views on the cruise while you chat and chill with fellow leaders in a laid-back, exclusive vibe. With only a couple of spots left, this is your last chance to secure a seat on the Nektar Buzz Boat. If you’re serious about elevating your GTM strategy, you won’t want to miss this. Register on the link or DM me to grab one of the final passes. Let’s make waves together! 🐝🚢 #GTM #Sales #AI #Networking #Leadership #Nektar #BuzzBoat https://lnkd.in/g59Sxa6Z

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A very helpful enablement tool that almost no one has? List of initiatives / tools / programs to steal budget from + WHY our solution is a better investment. In most orgs… There are 1000 one pagers about random features. Zero one pagers about initiatives that we could get $$$ from and how to position for it.

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Many AI-Native SaaS companies are taking too much of an opinionated approach to workflows for enterprises It's making it more challenging to get companies to buy and successfully implement. Instead of trying to build a "one size fits all" solution, here’s three approaches I’ve seen work incredibly well when going after the enterprise: 1. Start with a low-code/no-code custom workflow builder and layer on AI Features A company like Fuse Finance is making it super easy for lenders, credit unions and community banks to adopt as they have a customizable UI with agentic tools being built on top that deliver clear ROI in many ways. Unlike a customers current software, which require tons of engineering time to make any changes (which most banks don't have the resources for), Fuse now makes it 10X easier to make any changes to the process while still harnessing the power of AI. Companies with custom workflow builders find it not only easier to sell, but have quick implementation timelines, easy user onboarding, strong customer satisfaction scores + NPS and lower numbers of CX tickets vs. opinionated user interfaces that require a ton of change management 2. Build on top of the industry standard, outdated 3rd party app Datasnipper, a $1B startup backed by Index did exactly this. How? They built AI to empower Auditors with an intelligent automation platform, sitting on top of excel. By building on top of excel, Datasnipper's users feel right at home and it reduces the friction of change management in a big way for all parties involved. 3. Go into the company with forward deployed engineers, build custom workflows and integrations and then find ways to productize it for other customers Palantir is the obvious case study here and people are catching onto this playbook. My thesis is that we'll see dozens of companies launch with this consultative approach, going after Accentures ~$65B of revenue. What many VCs used to mistake as a services company model is now widely accepted as a new GTM strategy based on a two key things: 1. Palantir's success 2. Unlocked acceleration of software development driven by AI Firms, including ours, General Catalyst, Elad Gils and Jared Kushners are all partnering up with large enterprises to launch new companies that have an easy time selling in what feels like are custom builds, but in the longterm are clearly going to be products. Working on an AI software solution with either of these three approaches? We'd love to chat.

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