BI
I said in yesterday's post, entitled Too Much Money Makes You Stupid, that while I don't have much of a beef with Domo, that I did want to observe in today's fund-to-excess environment that any idea -- including making a series of Alec
Enterprise
The single most misunderstood software-as-a-service (SaaS) metric I’ve encountered is the CAC Payback Period (CPP), a compound metric that is generally defined as the months of contribution margin to pay back the cost of acquiring a customer. Bessemer defines the CPP as: I quibble with some
Management
This post reviews Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin’s new book, From Impossible to Inevitable, which is being launched at the SaaStr Conference this week. The book is a sequel of sorts to Ross’s first book, Predictable Revenue, published in 2011, and which was loaded with great ideas about
Leadership
“I am 100% behind my CEOs up until the day I fire them.” -- Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital I’ve always loved that Don Valentine quote although, like many great quotes, it took me a while to really understand it. In short, it means that the board of directors should either
Bubbles
This post shares a collection of thoughts on what I've variously heard referred to as "the tightening," "the unwinding," "the unraveling," or "the great reckoning" -- the already-in-process but largely still-coming deflation of technology-oriented stock valuations, particularly
SaaS
The more I hear about SaaS companies talking up big total contract value (TCV) figures, the more I worry about The Tightening, and the more I think we should create a new SaaS metric: TTCV = theoretical total contract value. TTCV = PCV + NPCV Prepaid contract value (PCV) is the prepaid portion
Metrics
It’s a frothy time and during such times people can develop a tendency to get sloppy about their numbers. The first sign of froth is when people routinely discuss company size using market capitalization instead of revenue. This happened constantly during Bubble 1.0 and started again several years
Startups
I've written before about the curse of the megaround which can happen, for example, when a startup raises $100M at a unicorn valuation and I've described before what typically happens next: * The company is under great pressure to invest the money to drive strong growth. Late-
Management
When I listen to senior executives talk about their first- and second-line managers, I sometimes get pretty concerned. That happens when I hear what I call "good enough" thinking. "She's doing a solid job, but nothing too inspirational." "He's not
M&A
As mentioned in my recent Curse of the Megaround post, some companies that find themselves flush with cash and under heavy pressure to grow, decide to embark on dubious acquisitions to help shore up the growth story. As one reader it put it, you can summarize your megaround post with
Bubbles
With what everyone seems reluctant to call a bubble in late-stage, private financing in full swing, I thought I'd do a quick post to drill into a concept I presented in my 2015 predictions post, something I call the curse of the megaround. We will do that
Churn
I was chatting with a fellow SaaS executive the other day and the conversation turned to churn and renewal rates. I asked how he calculated them and he said: Well, we take every customer who was also a customer 12 months ago and then add up their ARR 12 months
