6 Important Things Wrong In Your Core Metrics; Plus Weekly SaaS News and Updates

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Hey SaaS Fans,

SaaS metrics can be more confusing than one might think.

What if some of the revenue doesn’t recur? What if the client never deploys? What if a customer churns, but is on an annual contract? Is that just a blip in our NPS?

Here are 6 important things founders get wrong in their core metrics:

1. ARR always = 12x MRR Always. Look, ARR and MRR aren’t really GAAP metrics. But MRR is just a monthly snapshot of your recurring revenue for this month, and ARR is really just a projection of that across the current and following 12 months. So ARR is just 12x your MRR. If you start playing games, or excluding some customers from one of the categories (ARR or MRR) … which I see a lot … everyone will just get confused.

> More here <

- Jason

New This Week

5 Interesting Learnings From Shopify. At $3+ Billion in ARR.

Shopify has grown so quickly, it’s tough to even comprehend. From A $1.6B run rate a year ago to $3.2B today. Wow.

So what can we all learn from Shopify? -->

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This edition of the SaaStr weekly is sponsored in part by Divvy

The most common mistake SaaS companies make on sales tax collection and filings

Wondering how your SaaS business got slapped with a multi-million dollar sales tax bill from one or multiple states?

How one prominent SaaS company learned sales tax the hard way -->

New sessions added to SaaStr Scale on Dec 8-9 l Sign up for FREE

Save you seat before our most popular sessions are maxed out. Grab a free ticket here to access select sessions, or use code saastr50 for $50 off VIP tickets.

Register for free -->

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This edition of the SaaStr weekly is sponsored in part by PandaDoc

How to Gracefully Miss a Quarter. And Take The Right Actions Afterward.

So I know you’re gearing up for a big year end push now, and that you’ll crush it next quarter. But SaaS is a journey. Along the way, you are going to miss a quarter.

When it happens, and it will happen. ->

What Order Should You Hire Your Management Team In?

Hiring is so hard as it is. Don’t try to save a few nickels by putting off a VP hire if you actually stumble into a great one earlier than planned.

Which VP should you hire first? Sales? Marketing? -->

Hot Jobs

•	Revenue Cat is seeking a Head of People to lead their HR, recruiting, and people ops.

•	New!! VP/Director of Digital Marketing at SaaStr. This is a new role at small but mighty Team SaaStr that focuses on our digital media business that includes digital sponsorships, podcasts, newsletters, paid media, and more.

Latest Podcast Episodes

398

Empowering Brand Manufacturing ft./ Rob Gonzalez, Co-Founder & CMO @ Salsify

399

Four Steps to Scaling to $250M, ft./ Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO @ Stack Overflow

400

The Future of Digital Events with Ben Hindman, CEO @ Splash and Jason Lemkin, CEO @ SaaStr

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play Music or Spotify

@jasonlk Tweets of the Week

If you get even 10 paying customers in your first 90 days in market, and they don't churn ...

You have something.

Never, ever quit then.

Even if you have no money.
Even if the team isn't sure.
Even if the competition is fierce.
Even if they say it's too hard.