Metrics
Investors have lots of good habits when it comes to metrics. Operators can copy many of them. One habit they shouldn't copy, however, is smoothing. Smoothing has a legitimate purpose. Investors are trying to understand businesses. They're looking for long-term trends and patterns, so they
Podcasts
We’ve decided, after 122 episodes, to put The Metrics Brothers podcast on hiatus. Let me explain how I think about that decision. On October 20, 1974, the Grateful Dead played what was then billed as their final show before an indefinite hiatus. The band was burned out. The touring
AI
Today, we continue my annual tradition of making ten predictions for the coming year while reviewing my ten predictions for the prior one. As always, I’ll remind you of some disclaimers: (a) don't view this as investment advice or anything resembling it, (b) while I generally avoid
AI
Today, I presented at SaaS Metrics Palooza 2025 on the differences between selling work and selling software. I'd like to thank my metrics brother, Ray Rike, for inviting me to speak and I'd like to thank everyone who attended the session. Topic covered include: * Defining outcomes
GTM
Today Dan Teodosiu, Thor Mitchell, and I hosted a Balderton webinar entitled Aligning Product and Go-To-Market (GTM) Using Customer Value Metrics. We are all executives in residence (EIRs) at Balderton -- Dan covers technology, Thor covers product, and I cover go-to-market -- and, in a display of cross-
Finance
"I have a map of the United States ... actual size. It says, Scale: 1 mile = 1 mile. I spent last summer folding it. I also have a full-size map of the world. I hardly ever unroll it." -- Stephen Wright (comedian) Much as we build maps as models
Demandgen
My marketing professor once said, The answer to every marketing question is, "It depends." Thus, the important part is knowing on what. So, how do you calculate the cost/opportunity? Well, it depends! On what? On the specific question you're trying to answer. When people ask
Boards
Since many of you are in the midst of presenting your annual marketing budgets to your CEO, CFO, and board, I thought I'd write a quick post to remind people what board members actually care about when it comes to the marketing budget. I understand that, in the
AI
Just a quick post to highlight that the good people of Benchmarkit, host of SaaS Metrics Palooza 24, have posted the video of my presentation, The Impact of AI on SaaS metrics. The slides are here. https://vimeo.com/1020584064
AI
Just a quick post to share my slides from today's presentation at SaaS Metrics Palooza 2024, entitled The Impact of AI on SaaS Metrics. The short summary is: * The concept of ARR is already challenged by monthly-varying pricing, e.g., usage-based pricing. * AI will exacerbate that
Culture
This is a huge distinction and sadly I think many people miss it. You go a mid-quarter ops meeting. The CMO shows quarter-to-date MQLs. Someone asks how we define MQL. A 15-minute conversation ensues. The SVP of Alliances talks about influenced ARR. Someone asks how that&
AI
While I was unable to make SaaStr Annual this year, I am pleased to announce that I will back at SaaS Metrics Palooza, an entirely virtual conference (where I don't need to walk on my recovering knee) focused entirely on SaaS metrics, and hosted by my SaaS Talk