You only have 2 days left (!) until prices for SaaStr Annual 2023 go up on July 31st!

Join 12,500+ of the Best in SaaS and Cloud at SaaStr Annual 2023 on Sep 6-8 in the SF Bay Area! 

Now's the time to REGISTER while it’s top of mind. You seriously don’t want to miss the most relevant SaaS event of the year.

So if you’re looking for ways to be more efficient and do more with less, here is your perfect opportunity. 

Plus!

• You get to hang out with more than 12,000 SaaS professionals who are just as hungry about growth as you are. 
• Listen to 279 LIVE speakers across 8 stages and 3 days.
• Attend 2,000+ networking sessions
• Meet and pitch VCs and investors.
• And enjoy nightly Happy Hours and great parties

So don’t look now, but things are getting a smidge better in SaaS.  It’s still tough out there for many, and selling is challenging.  Goldman Sachs is now predicting the first re-acceleration in ACVs in years:

And:

Top Cloud and SaaS stocks are up 31% this year. 

Now they still are way down from their 2021 highs.  But +31% is real.

Top Cloud and SaaS stocks are trading at 15x ARR or more.  And top quartile is approaching 10x ARR. 

Now this is nothing like the 2021 days.  Nothing.  But it’s way off the lows of earlier in the year.

Inflation appears to be down, and interest rates have mostly peaked.

We’re all macro experts in SaaS now!  But inflation does seem to be way down in the U.S. at least, and interest rates appear close to the maximum.

We’ll start to lap tougher times. 

Growth has slowed for almost all Cloud and SaaS leaders this year, but that also makes maintaining and even beating that growth next year much easier.

Almost everyone has gotten much more efficient. 

The top startups all are more efficient and in many cases break-even.  This will make them much more attractive in the current markets.  Everyone got into better shape the past 12 months.

And … there are a lot of really, really good SaaS companies ready to IPO. Let’s dig in there.

So Capchase surveyed 900 SaaS businesses between $1m and $15m ARR, and their data showed what I’ve seen as well:  it’s tougher out there,and media growth is down.

But — the best are growing as fast as they always have.

Of the 900 surveyed, the median was tougher growth — 39% at $10m ARR, which is still fast enough for sure to get to a strong nine-figure exit, but not fast enough to attract venture capital. 

And the median at $1m ARR was “just” 60% annual growth.

But the top performers in 2023 are doing just about as well as any other year.  The top performers are still tripling at $1m-$2m and doubling at $10m ARR (Triple, Triple, Double, Double).

And the very best are growing even faster.

This just makes sense. If you are truly disrupting a large category, you’ll grow quickly. Good years and bad.

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Year after year, VCs show up to SaaStr Annual locked and loaded, term sheets in hands, on the hunt for soon-to-be Unicorns to add to their portfolios.

From the Founding Partners, Managing Directors and big name SaaS VCs who grace the stage. to the firms that send over a dozen of their Partners and Associates — everyone who invests in SaaS has a presence at SaaStr Annual.

We also see the top private equity firms registering early, and the list of publicly traded companies sending Corporate Development teams is at least 2Xing year over year.

So this is a niche post on a niche issue, but I think an important one because I see it creating real problems all the time.

The Arrogant Chief of Staff that is empowered to make big decisions, but goes rogue and makes bad ones. Or at least, lacks the life experience and maturity to make good ones.

Three recent examples from just the past few weeks:

Example #1:  CEO of $10B+ Public SaaS Company’s Chief of Staff Never Follows Up

A little while back, a CEO of a $10B+ Public SaaS Company that I love asked if we could partner on something for SaaStr Annual.  I said Of Course, and was passed on to their Chief of Staff.  The other day, the CEO asked me if the partnership was still happening. I told him I’d followed up twice with the Chief of Staff but heard nothing. And now it was too late.

Example #2:  More Minor, But Bumping Podcast Guests — Without Telling Them

While a much minor minor than the first example, I think it’s common enough to be worth telling.  The other day I was asked to join a podcast as a favor.  The day was packed but I did rearrange my whole schedule and day to help.

I fired up the Zoom and the browser, and waited and waited. Nothing. No email, no nothing.

I emailed the team and was told by the Chief of Staff, “We decided to work with other partners”.

What does that even mean?

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The truth is, it varies, and it’s fair to have anxiety here.

Generally speaking in most acquisitions:

• All engineering and most/all product employees will be retained. Many times, with a retention package.
• Sales + success individual contributors are retained, but sometimes with short-term goals. Few acquirers want to get rid of your revenue team immediately, but often their goal is to integrate them into the larger revenue team within a year to eighteen months. Most acquirers don’t support a true stand-alone sales team forever, even if they should.
• Managers and administrative employees are often at risk. Often, marketing and sales managers are not retained. “Middle management”, so to speak, is often viewed as not desired by acquirers. Finance and general G&A professionals are also often viewed as in the “want them for 6–9 months but maybe not longer” bucket. CMOs often seem to have a very short tenure post-acquisition in particular.

But you just don’t know.

Acquirers are smarter than they used to be. The goal is to retain more of the talent. More sales teams and marketing teams in particular are being retained. Acquirers have learned in SaaS in particular, you want specialized sales and marketing teams. If you just bought a good one, you want to keep it!

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