The Latest from SaaStr: Should Your Free Edition Be Even Free-er?

THE LATEST FROM SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin  · Friday, September 2, 2022 | Growth, Product

Zoom’s growth has slowed of late, not because it’s not an amazing app.  But because as we returned to the new normal world, SMB sales finally came under pressure.  So in 2022, finally, at $4B+ in ARR … the Free edition became a bit less free.

But only at massive scale.  Only at $4B+ ARR did Zoom cut back its Free edition.  And even so, it’s still 40 minutes free for everyone.

SCALE

By Jason Lemkin  · Friday, September 2, 2022 | Scale

Now that we’ve been doing our 5 Interesting Learning series on public SaaS companies for a while, we can pull out a number of trends.

Maybe the most jaw-dropping is just how fast the top SaaS and Cloud leaders grow … at $1 Billion in ARR.  We did this analysis a while back, but I wanted to update it with data on the latest in SaaS to cross $1B in ARR, from Box to Cloudflare to ZoomInfo.

So now we have plenty of data.  And the average SaaS leader that gets to $1B is growing well over 50% Year-over-Year! 

NEW PODCAST + VIDEO

By Amanda Beaty · Friday, September 2, 2022 | Fundraising

As a founder, there are different ways you can set your start-up apart from other companies at the venture and growth stages. Investors look for specific metrics to see whether you stand out from the crowd, ranging from your market expansion potential to your product vision and product-market fit.

Atomico Partner, Irina Haivas, and Principal, Hillary Ball, explore what investors are looking for from the early stage through growth.

We're super close now to SaaStr Annual 2022. 

Grab one of the last tickets now to experience:

• All 3 days of SaaStr Annual 2022, Sept 13th-15th 
• 200+ sessions, speakers, workshops + content. Full program here. 
• Networking, including 1,000+ Braindates (one-on-ones and small groups 1:4). Braindate networking is OPEN, so register now for immediate access to start networking. 
• Access to our Meet a VC Program for Founders and Investors. These double opt-in meetings are a chance to meet top tier investors on-site and pitch them during SaaStr Annual. Each year - companies get funded or term sheets at Annual through this super popular program. 
• Lunches & Happy Hours each day are included in your ticket 
• Access to the Big Party on Wednesday, September 14th with DJ Duke Dumont
• And so much more

SAASTR ANNUAL NEWS

By Amelia Ibarra · Friday, September 2, 2022 | SaaStr Events

This year we already have almost 1000 VCs registered to attend SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 in SF Bay Area(!)  From Iconiq to Bessemer, from Sequoia to Andreessen, from Craft Ventures to Initialized.  You can meet them your own way.  But if you are a CEO, apply for Meet-a-VC Day on Thursday, Sep 15.  That’s when we do more.

First, we facilitate 1-on-1s between founders and VCs.  And second, we do small roundtables, Braindates, and luncheons so you can pick VCs you want to learn from.  And importantly, we connect these 1000s VCs with hundreds of top founders interested in venture funding.

FUNDRAISING

By Jason Lemkin  · Thursday, September 1, 2022 | Growth, Leadership

We’ve crossed over 10,000 posts, podcasts, sessions, braindates, and answers on SaaStr, and we held off for a long time on writing on most other VC tropes.  But I thought it might, in these times when valuations have taken a hit, and VC is under stress, to update our “Top 10” list of things that are relatively easy to do, now, that will make your investors and board happier.

if your investors never help … or even if they are driving you nuts … your life will still be better and easier if they are happier.

DEAR SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin  · Thursday, September 1, 2022 | Early, Hiring

Let me take a slightly different take on the question.

Maybe you are really asking – “Am I still on the hook if we hire a ‘real’ CEO to run the company? ‘Cause I’m tired/stressed/don’t really enjoy running this thing. I’d rather just be running product/coding/hanging out at events/whatever.”

SAASTR ANNUAL NEWS

By Jason Lemkin  · Thursday, September 1, 2022 | Blog Posts

There are so, so many great informal, semi-formal and official parties and mini-events around SaaStr Annual 2022, Sep 13-15 in the SF Bay Area!

And the night before Annual kicks off (Monday, Sep 12) there are also a bunch of unofficial meet-ups, including this great one.  We want to focus on ones that promote inclusion particularly.

Treasury Prime, a leading banking-as-a-service SaaS company is hosting the Night Before Annual, a great meet-up for Women in Fintech with Chime and Digit at one of our favorite venues, Wursthall.

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by DuploCloud

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