Hey SaaStr Community,

So the latest data from Gartner is out, and overall it’s a mixed bag — but good for SaaS in 2023:

Overall IT spend will grow now just 2.4% in 2023 to $4.5 trillion, way down from the 5.1% projected last quarter.  CIOs are cutting back overall much more than anticipated just a few months ago.

But — the cuts aren’t really coming in enterprise software budgets.

Gartner is predicting enterprise software spend will grow a stunning 9.3% to $856 Billion in 2023. 

And that’s up from 7.1% growth in 2022 and a total of $783 Billion in enterprise software spend.

Software is the one place CIOs still plan to spend a lot more on in 2023 than 2022.

So Zoom and Shopify are the latest SaaS leaders to do price increases — albeit very differently.

First up is Zoom. While some of the increases vary, the low-end plans are going up $1.00. 

Yup, $1.00.

Although it’s more impactful than it sounds, because that’s an almost 7% price increase. More on that below.  The SMB segment of Zoom has stopped growing, so going from ~0% growth to 7% growth actually might end up being huge.

Shopify’s increases are much, much bigger. They’ve raised prices 33%!  Important to note they did not raise prices for Shopify Plus, their $2,000+ and up enterprise edition.  So in some ways, a very different approach from Zoom.

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So another quiet SaaS success story is Jamf after a quiet IPO in 2020.  The #1 player for enterprises and businesses managing Apple devices, it’s quietly grown over 20 years into a $500 million ARR machine, growing 27% a year, that’s cash-flow positive.  Boom!

They’re doing pretty much everything right, with strong NRR and an efficient engine. 

But are they worth 10x ARR? 15x ARR?  Nope.  Everywhere in the public markets are tough today.  They’re trading at less than 5x ARR,  It’s tough out there.

Free Trials are Great. 

And really, it would be great if every app had one today.  It’s 2023!

But they don’t always work. It depends.

The Free Trial Has To Work — and Be Great. If your app requires a lot of data to input to get value from, or requires real business process change … the prospects probably won’t bother during a Free Trial. So they may have a worse experience than if you did a carefully planned Pilot.

Many Bigger Customers Don’t Want A Free Trial.  They Want You To Do The Work for Them. Yes, you and I prefer a Free Trial. But many more enterprise buyers don’t want to do the work. They want the vendor to set everything up, do the onboarding, etc. Many likely would prefer a carefully planned Pilot, run by a human — free or paid.

Basically all of the SaaS CEOs/founders I know of have made at least one terrible VP+ level hire.  It’s one of our enduring topics on SaaStr.

Sometimes it’s VP Sales (OK, often, this is the most common mishire.) 

Sometimes it’s VP Marketing.  

Or VP of Eng, or whatever.

Different companies, different positions.

But there’s one common thread — the mishire seems almost always to be the Great “Been There, Done That” VP. 

Often the Great Guy from Salesforce or Shopify or ServiceNow or LinkedIn or whatever other leading SaaS company.  Or sometimes, from a successful unicorn that everyone’s heard of.

The problem isn’t that this hire is a Unicorn.  In fact, there are plenty of them out there.  The problem is They [Almost] Never Work Out.  Why Not?

We're getting so close now to the start of the first SaaStr APAC, Feb 22-23 in Singapore!

Join 1,000 SaaS Founders, CEOs, and Investors at this epic inaugural event. We'll have over 50+ speakers, 100's of VCs in attendance, networking sessions, workshops and so much more. 

This event will sell out shortly, so get your ticket while we still have some availability. 

After several years of booming business in SaaS, the world of fundraising nearly gave everyone whiplash when capital stopped flowing as freely in 2022 as it did in 2021.

So, what exactly is happening in the venture capital world, and what do startup founders need to know?

In a candid discussion hosted by 20VC Founder Harry Stebbings, SaaS Founder Jason Lemkin shares his thoughts on the current state of fundraising and what founders should expect in 2023.

Census is looking for a Commercial Account Executive to oversee both inbound and outbound sales prospecting, qualifying, closing, and expanding new and existing customers.

Explo is seeking an Account Executive to 

own the end-to-end sales process from qualifying leads to negotiating and closing business. You will also be a trusted advisor to their customers, championing the benefits of adopting Explo.

• SaaStr 631: What Is Going On In Venture Capital in 2023 with SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin and 20VC Host Harry Stebbings

• SaaStr 630: Sales-led vs. Product-led? Today’s Startups Need Both with Jason Eubanks, CRO at Harness

• SaaStr 629: CRO Confidential: Sales Recruitment in 2023 For Candidates and Hiring Managers with Flexport's Ben Braverman

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts or Spotify

So far I’ve only lost money investing in startups in 2 situations:

#1. Not Really SaaS

#2. CEO Didn’t Honor a Commitment They Made

Every other time, made money

I know things can be tough out there but Gartner last week still predicted enterprise software would grow 9.3% this year to a total of $856,029,000,000 in spend in 2023

Go grab some of it

Even if it’s a bit harder than 12 months ago

The #1 sign you need to move on from a team member?

You're doing a lot of their job

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