This edition of the SaaStr Weekly is sponsored in part by Prismatic

So with the end of the year coming up again, it’s time to once update a classic SaaStr post. It may even be our official SaaStr Holiday post, really.

On why the best sales teams just close so much on the last day of the year (be it Dec 31 for many of you, Jan 31 for others). When there really is no need to buy then … at all. Not really. Especially when budgets remain under much more scrutiny than a few years back.

Why would a customer buy the last week of December? Or even, on New Year’s Eve?

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

Read how Duro Labs increased integration adoption, reduced engineering time for integrations, and launched them 10x faster.

So have we made any real progress in diversity in SaaS the past 5 years?  The past 10?

In some ways, for sure yes. But we have a long way to go, still. A long way.

Per Carta’s latest data, only 18% of tech sales execs are women, and 26% of reps overall.

I’m slightly heartened that overall it’s at 26% women outside of the executive suite.  But still, it’s not enougjh.

Do you want a bro culture in your sales team? I know I don’t want one. And I don’t want to work in one. But if you don’t do something, it’s mathematically where you’ll end up.

I can’t magically change your growth rate. I can’t magically turn you into the hottest Gen AI start-up out there. But I can help you at least increase the odds that when you do look for VC funding, you get it. By avoiding … unforced errors.

So it’s ending up a good year for Enterprise SaaS, fueled in part by AI, but also fueled in part by bounced off some lows in terms of overall enterprise IT spend:

• ServiceNow is worth a cool $230 Billion at $11 Billion in ARR — the 20x club! Its stock is up a cool +64% this year!
• Salesforce is now worth a cool $340 Billion at $38 Billion in ARR.  Its stock is up a cool +40% this year!

Both are epic platforms.

But ServiceNow’s ARR multiple is far higher, as its growing at 23% a year, while Salesforce has dipped below 10% a year growth this year.

So Wikipedia publishes its financials each year, although I’d never taken a close look before.

It’s interesting. As a Top 10 website:

• Wikipedia only spends $3m on hosting.  I would have thought a lot more.
• Wikipedia spends $107m a year on salaries.  Given that all the content is free and community-edited, I would have thought less.
• My guess probably would have been $20m / $40m or so.  $20m for hosting, $40m for salaries.

And note that since Wikipedia’s runs its own data centers, the fully burdened costs of hosting are higher. This does not include most of the headcount-related expenses.  Still, the hosting expenses are much lower than I would have expected.

As you enjoy the Holidays, why not set yourself up for success to attend the biggest SaaS event of the year — SaaStr Annual, May 13-15 2025!

Grab your tickets now before prices go up Jan 4:

• Save 20% on 1-2 tickets, $200 savings
• Save 30% on 3+ or more tickets, $350 savings
• on each ticket!

But should you miss these holiday savings: 

• Startup tickets will be $1099 on Jan 4th
• Big Co & VC tickets will be $1299 on Jan 4th

This is your chance to hit your goals next year and experience the biggest SaaS event of the year. Not to mention, this will be 11th SaaStr Annual so we'll be adding even more new ways to network and get together, building off the success of the CEO + CRO, CMO, CCO and CFO summits we launched in 2024.    

SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin recently sat down with HubSpot Chairman and co-founder Brian Halligan, going deep on the current state of SaaS, evolving board meeting formats, and how AI is reshaping the industry.

• SaaStr 783: HubSpot Co-Founder and Chairman Brian Halligan on SaaS Markets and AI (Part 1)

• SaaStr 782: How to Train Your Sales Leaders: Key Learnings from HubSpot and BILL with Michelle Benfer

• SaaStr 781: How to Think About Product-Led Growth, Bootstrapping vs VC, and Early Exits with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin

Listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcasts

Adding a sales team for the first time?

Increase your pricing 25%

So they can discount 20%

And yes, it will feel wrong and unnatural at first

The CEO in startup probably won't ask you to do

many things if you aren't their direct report

When they do though, try to do what they ask you to do

They probably won't say anything if you don't.

But they won't forget.

It is sort of a mini-test to see if you can be an owner.

© SaaStr 2024

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