So when growth slows, watch out for Fake Marketing on the team.

What’s that?

It’s stuff that OK sure is marketing … and is often seemingly free or cheap … but won’t move the needle.

It’s not what you need. But it takes a lot of time and fills the gap when folks are otherwise out of ideas, energy, or both.

Some examples of Fake Marketing:

• 99% of “Digital Events”. No one comes or shows up. But a huge amount of time and effort, and it feels like you are doing something that matters.  But does it?  We’re not in lockdown anymore.  No one wants to sit in front of their laptop all day and watch a boring “digital event”.
• YAP: Yet Another Podcast. Will anyone actually listen? But again, a huge amount of time and effort goes into these.
• Poorly Attended Side Events. Want to do a side event at Dreamforce or Inbound or SaaStr Annual? Great. But if you can’t somehow drive high engagement and attendance, don’t pretend it’s Real Marketing. Doing field marketing right often is a lot more work than just this.
• Mediocre PR. A little of this is OK. But hiring a PR firm and spending a lot of time on very minor placements gets you nowhere.
• Crappy AI content, crappy AI campaigns. Sure, you check the box.  Sure they take almost no energy or work.  But they don’t perform.
• Too Much LinkedIn + TikTok and Other Social Media. Yes, LinkedIn is great for B2B — up to a point. But spending a huge amount of time here because you are out of other ideas isn’t going to restart growth. If your shorts are getting 50 views, what’s the point?  It ain’t gonna move the needle. Not at scale, especially.

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So yesterday OG SaaS pioneer Zuora agreed to be acquired by PE to go private for $1.7 Billion by GIC and Silverlake.

This is good for SaaS.

CEO Tien Tzuo is an OG SaaS leader since being one of the very first leaders at Salesforce.

Zuora was very early to subscription management — maybe too early (2006) — and built a mature $400m ARR business focused on enterprise subscription management (and more).

• $416m ARR
• 9% growth
• 11% free cash flow margins
• 104% NRR
• 445 $250k+ customers

So … $1.7 Billion is 4.25x ARR. And that’s with an 18% premium to go private.  Before, it was trading at $1.5 Billion, so less than 4x ARR.

That’s not a huge multiple, and in that sense, it’s a reminder that growth matters more than profitability today.

But it’s also great to see PE continue to believe that can re-ignite growth in SaaS and make 3x+ their money here.

It’s a great question.

Some don’t keep working.  Some are happily retired.  But not most in my ecosystem.

In my ecosystem, most do another start-up, invest, or do something related:

• For some, it’s ego.
• For some, they get bored.
• For some, it’s to go even bigger.

But I think for most — it’s for a sense of purpose.

That’s why I am still doing it, personally.

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