The Latest from SaaStr: 5 Interesting Learnings from Dynatrace at $1B ARR

THE LATEST FROM SAASTR

By Jason Lemkin · Wednesday, December 7, 2022 | 5 Interesting Things, Scale

So Dynatrace is a SaaS security leader that isn’t exactly low profile, but if you aren’t buying security software or in the space, you likely don’t know too much about it. 

Dynatrace was founded way back in 2005 and has been in the “steady growth” camp, now crossing $1B in ARR and a $10.5 Billion valuation, or 10x+ ARR even in today’s depressed valuations.

Why?  Cash.  Dynatrace combines decent growth, growing a still very impressive 28% at $1B ARR (33% adjusted for current effects), with very profitable growth. 29% of that revenue falls to free-cash flow.

By Amelia Ibarra  · Wednesday, December 7, 2022 | Workshop Wednesdays, Product

Helen Zeng, Product Manager at Airtable, shares her extensive experience in low-code platform building at Slack, Twitter, and Microsoft and offers a guide for building platforms that scale.

Zeng says, “Essentially, customers just don’t want to settle for one-size-fits-all enterprise software anymore. They want solutions that work for exactly what they need, and being able to provide that is a significant competitive advantage.”

By Jason Lemkin  · Tuesday, December 6, 2022 |  Scale

So the markets keep changing at a rapid pace. I just got back from Reinvent (Amazon’s big conference), and the booths were packed, the parties were full, and times were good. But buyers kept coming back to one theme for 2023 planning:

• Keep
• Expand or
• Cut

This seemed to be the theme of the waning days of 2022. SaaS and IT budgets are still going up in 2023. But inflation and cost-cutting initiatives are here in force.

So to do more with, not less, but not as much as planned … everything is under new scrutiny. Nice to haves are the first to go, if they can be cut. So we’re seeing, for example, tough times for a lot of sales and related tools that were aimed at increasing rep productivity, but aren’t mission-critical per se.

By Amelia Ibarra · Wednesday, December 7, 2022 | SaaStr Europa

SaaStr Europa is the premiere event for SaaS professionals, entrepreneurs, investors and revenue leaders in Europe, and for the first time ever, we're bringing it to London next June!

If you're looking to connect with fellow SaaS leaders and investors, and strengthen the relationships with your customers and prospects — Saastr Europa is a can't miss event.

We'll have loads of tactical sessions and workshops that will help you scale faster in 2023. Previous speakers have included the leaders of ZoomInfo, Notion, Asana, Insider, Zendesk, Miro and many others. 

Early bird discounts to attend SaaStr Europa are expiring soon and with the holidays, will be gone before you know it.

By Jason Lemkin · Tuesday, December 6, 2022 | Blog Posts

So Slack is ending a bit of an era at $2B+ ARR, having been the fastest growing SaaS startup of its generation, rocketing to an incredible IPO, and then an epic acquisition by Salesforce in 2021 for $27 Billion!

Stewart Butterfield announced this week he’s handing the reins over now to Lidiane Jones at Salesforce.  It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Slack has been a small part of SaaStr since the beginning.

At the first SaaStr Annual ever in 2015, Stewart was kind enough to be our final speaker, sharing the stage with David Sacks.

By Amelia Ibarra  · Tuesday, December 6, 2022 |  Product

When scaling a SaaS company, striking a balance between hypergrowth and risk is essential.

Brex’s COO, Michael Tannenbaum, and Alloy’s CRO, Laura Spiekerman, share top lessons on how to find the right balance.

As your SaaS company reaches hyper-growth, you’ll need to adapt your risk management strategies to keep up. Risk will most certainly evolve and change over time as the stakes for risk vs reward grow larger.

By Jason Lemkin · Tuesday, December 6, 2022 | Fundraising, Q&A

They aren’t as dependable. This doesn’t mean they are “worse”. It does mean be careful how you use them.

This is issue #1.

A few like Salesforce Ventures and GV are an exception, but let me explain:

• Corporate VCs often do not write a “second check”. But most institutional VCs save reserves for another check, if you are doing OK but not great. Institutional / financial VCs have motivations to bridge you if you need it. Corporate VCs often do not.
• Corporate VCs rarely lead rounds. What is most valuable is a lead. Someone to write the first, main check. Few corporate VCs do this. At least not for the earlier rounds.

The answer is..it depends. It's a great stop gap when you're swamped with core product features, but there are many drawbacks to relying on this strategy long term.

We put together a guide that compares the two approaches across their impact on product adoption, your ability to upsell, feature flexibility, and more.

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.

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