The Latest from SaaStr: Unicorn Production is Down 80% And Falling

THE LATEST FROM SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin  · Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | 5 Interesting Things, Scale

So if you are in the support space, or CRM, or just generally sell into mixed enterprise-mid market, Five9 is a good one to follow. 

The company has been around for decades in the call center and contact center space, but after rebuilding around a web-native platform, saw a rebirth.

Today it’s at $800,000,000 in ARR growing a healthy 29%, and a strong 18.5% EBITDA. 

But with a lot of telephony and comms bills to pay, gross margins are relatively low at 52%, which is out of fashion at the moment, so Five9 trades at a $3.3 Billion, or about 4x ARR.  It should be higher, but these are the times we are in.

VENTURE

By Jason Lemkin  · Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | Scale

Unicorn “production” has now fallen 80%-85% in Q3, and probably has further to fall.  At the peak of 2021, 40 Unicorns were being minted every month.  It really was like that.  Now we’re down to 8 — and falling.

Yes, you might be one of the 8.  I hope you are.  Just share the chart above with any of your cofounders or teammates who don’t quite have a sense of how things have shifted lately.

Q&A

By Jason Lemkin · Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | Growth, Leadership

I see burn-out much more commonly in “fairly successful” entrepreneurs — not failed ones.

And usually starting around Year 3. Building in Year 4. And then it hits >hard< in Year 5.

First, it’s hard(er) to fail slowly.

It definitely happens all the time, but true failure more often happens quickly. You never get out of WeWork. The angel money is gone, and you have no customers. Etc. etc. This usually happens in the first year, or the second.

Great founders that fail fairly quickly seem to bounce back. With a lot of scar tissue sometimes, yes. But with less true burnout.

NEW PODCAST + VIDEO

By Amanda Beaty  · Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | Leadership, Marketing

Many entrepreneurs seek to create something new, but not everyone has the drive to create new and valuable solutions for today’s problems.

Every successful company, established or on the rise, shares this feature: they provide value to their customers. 

The real value of any company depends not on its share price but on the value it provides to its users.

Gusto CEO and co-founder Josh Reeves has seen firsthand how this value is built.

Q&A

By Jason Lemkin · Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | Fundraising, Leadership

You know what’s back in fashion today in SaaS?  Profits.  Cash.

For years, it was Growth, Growth, Growth.  

Now, for the first time in a long time, it’s Growth + Profits.

And that’s a lot rarer in SaaS.  It’s out there. ZoomInfo, PayCom, Zoom, and more mint cash.  But so many SaaS leaders aren’t really profitable at $1B ARR, even.

WORKSHOP WEDNESDAYS

By Amelia Ibarra · Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | Company Culture, Hiring

“People are the most valuable asset of an organization. Every leader needs to have a strategic playbook to build high-performing teams and retain top talent,” says Guan Wang, Global Director of Market Intelligence for Snowflake. 

In the kickoff for Workshop Wednesdays last week, Guan chatted with SaaStr about how to build a high-performing team and keep it.

As someone who grew his team at Snowflake by 300% in the previous two years with 0% turnover, you’ll want to hear his tactical strategies for those in leadership roles. 

SAASTR EVENTS

EVENTS

By Jason Lemkin  · Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | Blog Posts

With folks finishing up their marketing budgets for 2023 — why should SaaStr be part of it?

SaaStr Annual 2023 in September will be huge!  SaaStr Annual 2022 was the biggest ever, and our highest NPS event ever.  2023 is already tracking to be 30%+ bigger or more!

SaaStr Europa 2023 comes to London to June!  Our fourth SaaStr Europa is coming in June and will definitely be the biggest ever.  Barcelona in 2022 was amazing, and bigger than the prior 2 Paris events.  We’re expecting upwards of 4,000 in London, the biggest center for SaaS in Europe.

Tip the payment scales in your favor by being one of the first to unlock exclusive early access to BlueSnap's 2023 Payment Predictions eBook.

Your sales and customer success teams are losing deals and customers due to backlogged integration requests.

But can you really justify spending months of development on each integration, when an embedded iPaaS can help offload 70% of the work?

There are a lot of factors to consider in this build vs. buy decision, and it's all outlined in this guide.

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