Hey everyone -

We're getting even closer to SaaStr Annual 2023 on Sept. 6, 7, 8 in the Bay Area. 

This year, we're expecting over 12,000 SaaS CEOs, founders, and investors across 3 days to come together to share their knowledge, expertise, and insights.

So why should you attend this year's SaaStr Annual event?

Well, for starters, the speaker lineup is truly stellar this year. 

The 2023 theme of ROI is already showing in our top sessions:

#1 - David Sacks and SaaStr's Own Jason Lemkin are talking SaaS in 2024: everything from exciting uses of AI within SaaS, the importance of metrics for SaaS founders, powering through the current economic headwinds, and the outlook for SaaS in the year ahead

#2 - The Secrets to Scaling and Growth in an Unpredictable Market with monday.com's Co-founder and Co-CEO. Monday.com got cash flow positive in a year. It's 2023 after all :) and they'll be sharing how they did it (and how you can too) at the Annual this year

And there's plenty more where that came from. 

But it's not just about the speakers.

SaaStr Annual is also known for its unparalleled networking opportunities. Whether you're looking for your next big partnership or simply want to meet like-minded individuals, this event is the perfect place to make meaningful connections.

So price increases have been the name of the game in SaaS for the past 12 months, in many (not all) cases to help make up for slowing growth:

• Zendesk up 16%
• Salesforce up 9%
• Google Workspace up 20%
• HubSpot up 12%
• Webflow up 16%
• Shopify up 33%
• Slack up 10%

And some of them like Slack and Salesforce hadn’t raised list prices in quite some time. 2022/2023 was the year!

What did we learn from so many SaaS leaders raising prices — in many cases, a lot?  Well, we learned for the most part there was a lot of price elasticity.  Churn didn’t go up much at all, and the customer base absorbed the price increases.

But it can’t last forever.  You can’t raise and raise forever, at some point the elasticity hardens.

And one of the first to see it was Toast. 

 Toast added a $0.99 fee to orders of $10 or more.  Now that may not sound like a lot, but Toast’s margins are lower than a pure-play software vendor, and the impact to the bottom line and net margins would have been huge.

What happened?

The customers revolted.

It’s pretty simple.

First, you anchor around a “comp”, another product that either does something somewhat similar, or that provides somewhat similar value in the market. The comp could be a direct competitor, an indirect competitor, or merely something in another market that provides somewhat similar value.

You then can Anchor High or Anchor Low. If you are more valuable than the comp, and are confident selling that value — pricing higher than your comp can work well. By contrast, if your main value prop is that you are easier to use, better in Just One Way than a direct comp … many start off as Anchoring Low, or cheaper, than the comp.

Anchoring has downsides — in particular, at least in theory, it can limit your pricing, at least at first — but in the early days, it has huge upside.

Your customers will understand it. Anchoring thus usually, 9/10, provides the least friction in acquiring your early and mid-stage customers.

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Some SaaS and Cloud leaders have seen big impacts from the post-2020 hangover, but others keep accelerating. MongoDB is one of those that has never stopped. 

Instead of looking at those who are struggling, let’s take a look at the epic growth story of MongoDB, a company crushing it in 2023. 

MongoDB is at a stunning $1.5B in ARR, 29% overall growth, and is worth $29B. That’s about as good as it gets in SaaS and Cloud!

While many less efficient public SaaS companies are trading at tough multiples of 3-4x ARR, and the average is about 6x ARR, MongoDB is almost 20x ARR. 

Let’s look at nine interesting learnings about this leading company.

We’re hiring for several roles for our tiny but mighty team at SaaStr, but our top priority is really professionalizing customer and account success by bringing on a great seasoned customer success leader.

We’re looking for a hands-on self-starter that loves making sponsors and clients truly happy.

Experience:

• 2-10 years making customers happier in some role
• some experience in account management, customer success, or client management — can’t be only SaaS experience
• ability to deeply understand the goals and needs of field marketers

It’s a great chance to work directly with leading CEOs, CMOs, VPs of Marketing and more on their partnership and sponsor strategy with Team SaaStr!  If you are organized and love driving up NPS and working with sponsors and similar clients, join us!  We’re distributed now so anywhere in North America works, but travel is required to meet top sponsors and to attend our events.

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

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The best entrepreneurs develop resilience and overcome failure by:

• Just plain wanting it more. They don’t quit when there are plenty of rational reasons to.
• A truly great cofounder. Not just good, but great. They pull you through. And vice-versa.
• A great mentor. That can help you get some perspective, when it’s still worth it to pick yourself up and fight the fight again.
• A long time horizon. You can’t really be killed if you are in it for 20 years.
• Nothing they want to do more. If you feel like there’s something better you could do with your time, you’ll never really fly. And you’ll never really push through the really tough times.

So perhaps the first SaaStr post that generated a lot of controversy was “If Your VP of Sales Isn’t Going to Work Out — You’ll Know in 30 Days”. 

The point of the post wasn’t that a new VP of Sales can get everything done in 4 weeks. 

But rather, that you should see improvements ASAP.

1 or 2 new, better reps.

A few stuck deals that finally close.

Etc. etc.

A lot of veteran SaaS revenue leaders protested, but most of them, upon reflecting on it, came to agree the point was right. A new VP of Sales doesn’t always double sales in 30 days — although it can happen in SMB sales. 

But they do move the needle.

They don’t just talk.

As an update to that classic post, I asked founders what were the signs they first saw … that a mis-hired VP of Sales wasn’t going to work out. I’ve collected them below. If you think you’ve made a mishire, but aren’t sure, take a look at the list below. These are warnings signs.

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