The Business of SaaS
stripe.com
The Business of SaaS
1–10 of 252 posts
Re: The Business of SaaS
#2This is by patio11, in case it wasn't apparent.
Re: The Business of SaaS
#3I've been following patio11's blog posts since way back in the Bingo Card Creator days, and he's part of what inspired me to start my own SaaS. I hope his gig at Stripe is good for him, because I think he's supremely well suited to the role of 'teacher' and I think posts like these are great (even if they are part of a content marketing strategy for Stripe)
Re: The Business of SaaS
#4Great read! The "Churn rates" section was super interesting. Our SaaS has hovered around 4-5% churn rate. Glad to see that's doing pretty OK!
Interestingly enough in December we increased our prices by quite a lot (percentage wise, $2/month to $6/month). That month we saw an 8% churn rate, and January 6%, and this month looking like a bit less. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the future.
The jury is not in yet, but it feels that the voluntary churn is a lot less for the customers paying more, compared to the lower price point.
Re: The Business of SaaS
#5Outstanding summary Patrick, was prepared for a piece of dry content marketing but many gold nuggets as usual!
I would add a couple of supplementals unique to 2018 for those of us raising capital in a SAAS or looking to liquidate:
1) The "SAAS Napkin" for 2018, a survey of ~50 Series A / Series B funded companies that have shared with regard to growth / churn / etc. Links here https://www.producthunt.com/posts/saas-funding-napkin-3 and explanation here https://medium.com/point-nine-news/what-does-it-take-to-rais...
2) The fascinating rise of Private Equity companies as a liquidity / funding option outside of larger co Acquisition / VC money as observed by the founder of Pardot (~$100m exit to SalesForce) - https://davidcummings.org/2017/10/03/private-equity-as-the-s...
Re: The Business of SaaS
#6I've been following patio11's blog posts since way back in the Bingo Card Creator days, and he's part of what inspired me to start my own SaaS. I hope his gig at Stripe is good for him, because I think he's supremely well suited to the role of 'teacher' and I think posts like these are great (even if they are part of a content marketing strategy for Stripe)
Can you give some info on your SaaS? Any tips/hints/tricks? I'm always looking to hear stories from people who have shipped a product. Keen to make this year the year I create something small.
Re: The Business of SaaS
#7Coming from somebody who doesn't really know anything about business or how to make SaaS work (despite working as an IC for a SaaS company) this article is very enlightening. In particular I never really grokked how to think about "churn rates" until reading this. It's actually pretty simple when it's explained well!
It's also written very clearly and candidly (although admittedly it's a bit of a self-congratulatory pitch for Stripe).
Re: The Business of SaaS
#8I've been following patio11's blog posts since way back in the Bingo Card Creator days, and he's part of what inspired me to start my own SaaS. I hope his gig at Stripe is good for him, because I think he's supremely well suited to the role of 'teacher' and I think posts like these are great (even if they are part of a content marketing strategy for Stripe)
100%. Stripe Atlas and Increment are some of the best examples of content marketing I know of.
Re: The Business of SaaS
#9I've been following patio11's blog posts since way back in the Bingo Card Creator days, and he's part of what inspired me to start my own SaaS. I hope his gig at Stripe is good for him, because I think he's supremely well suited to the role of 'teacher' and I think posts like these are great (even if they are part of a content marketing strategy for Stripe)
Can you give some info on your SaaS? Any tips/hints/tricks? I'm always looking to hear stories from people who have shipped a product. Keen to make this year the year I create something small.
Here's a great community for just that:
https://www.indiehackers.com/
Coincidentally, Indie Hackers was acquired by Stripe via patio11.
Re: The Business of SaaS
#10So, this quote is my key takeaway:
"There are, broadly speaking, two ways to sell SaaS. The selling model dictates almost everything else about the SaaS company and the product, to a degree which is shocking to first-time entrepreneurs. One of the classic mistakes in SaaS, which can take years to correct, is a mismatch between a product or market and the selected model to sell it on."
From helping build a SaaS company for the last couple of years, I can tell you that knowing which kind of "touch" your product is very very important. Really important.
There are a lot of SaaS markets where the customer needs high touch but can only pay low touch prices. That's not a fun place to live, though it can be a good place to start and then move upmarket. I remember seeing that grid of high/low touch and high/low ACV outlined somewhere, but I don't remember where.