The Latest from SaaStr: 5 Interesting Learnings from Toast at $800M

THE LATEST FROM SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin  · Wednesday, August 24, 2022 | 5 Interesting Things, Scale

So we took a look at Toast just after it IPO’d.  Times were good then, and Toast was worth $24B.

Fast forward to today. and there’s not much to criticize Toast for.  They dominate a large market, and are growing almost 60% at $800m in ARR!  And yet, the markets are tough today, and Toast is now worth less than $10 Billion, despite executing admirably.  Of course, their margins are lower than a pure software play.

DEAR SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin · Wednesday, August 24, 2022 | Early, Exit Strategy

Well, first of all, they often do both.  They often start off competing, at least a bit.  Salesforce paid $27 Billion for Slack.  But that came years after they spent tens of millions on “Chatter”, a failed collaboration tool.  Facebook competed with Instagram before it bought it.  There are many examples.

But then why do they go ahead and pay up and buy a startup?

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By Amanda Beaty · Wednesday, August 24, 2022 | Leadership, Product

When software startups are in their early stages, most rely on their ARR as their primary indicator of success. However, according to Eléonore Crespo, co-founder of Pigment, it’s not all about ARR. Founders should give an adequate amount of focus to picking their first customers and building their network. What’s more promising than a positive ARR is a trustworthy product with a significant amount of credibility.

It's time!!

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2022 SaaStr Annual: Sep 13-15 in the SF Bay Area

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SAASTR NEWS

By Jason Lemkin · Tuesday, August 23, 2022 | Blog Posts

So there’s a tiny bit of a disagreement on when SaaStr started, but we’ve sort of aligned on this SaaStr post:  Everybody Lies, SaaS Revenue in the Inc. 5000.  It was a fun post looking at the actual GAAP and ARR of many leaders way back in 2012, from HubSpot to Marketo and more.

Fast forward 10 years, and we've grown the community quote a lot.

DEAR SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin  · Tuesday, August 23, 2022 | Growth, Leadership

As your company grows, you'll need to move from being "VP of All The Things" to pushing more responsibility down the org. 

We've provided some general guidelines for how you should move from micromanager to "macromanager".

FUNDRAISING

By Jason Lemkin  · Tuesday, August 23, 2022 | Blog Posts, Fundraising

A ways back, we did a great digital event, The New New in Venture.  We explored how venture has changed since March 2020 with many of the best, and many I look up to, from Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures to Satya Patel of Homebrew to Keith Rabois of Founders Fund and so much more.

I took advantage of the format to ask every VC I interviewed one question: Do You Open Cold Email?

And it turned out it wasn’t just me.  (I love a great cold e-mail).  All of these top VCs read cold emails.  Themselves. 

LEADERSHIP

By Jason Lemkin  · Saturday, August 20, 2022 | Blog Posts, Other

I know it still may feel like Summer now, but we’re all starting that year-end push now.  Or at least, it’s time to.

In a startup, you can survive without performance reviews, and you can give your raises out and additional grants in January if you don’t get to them before.  And just remember to thank people all the time, and then that part will be OK.

But there are some things you just have to get done now, before the year closes out and gets crazy.  Because if you wait — the impact will just be too small.

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