I can judge the experience level of a startup founder or investor by how they use SaaS benchmarks. Newbies learn the general metrics and averages; experienced founders go much deeper and …
There is an active crowd of founders with side gig SaaS startups who are winning the fast-start, fast-flip game in their own terms. Troy Munson was a successful enterprise SaaS sales …
SaaS product startups are often created out of service businesses. It's rare for an experienced product builder to create a successful services business. But it happens. Last year I interviewed three-time SaaS …
I spoke at the Tidemark VSaaS Collective Live event in San Francisco last week. Over 100 vertical SaaS founders came to learn from each other and meet their peers. Here are …
People have been sending me "SaaS is Dead" articles and posts almost every day in the last month. That makes for better clickbait headlines than the real truth that "SaaS is …
Profit is profit, right? Not in the software business, where all profits are not equal. Here are 11 different definitions of SaaS profit used this year in SaaS: Dream Profits - If …
Vertical SaaS used to be a sleepy and scrappy corner of the entire software market, but now, about half of all software companies are industry-focused. They don't create many billion-dollar companies …
One of my favorite SaaS CEOs is hiring her first VP of marketing after years of successful growth and success. This is the best senior marketing leadership opportunity I have seen …
This year's headwinds of slower growth and reduced VC funding for B2B SaaS companies have created an opportunity for serious SaaS founders who didn't raise institutional funding: It's easier to hire …
For every product or service we can’t live without now, I’ll show you there was a time when it didn’t exist. Someone made it up when it was uncommon and …
Many new SaaS CEOs hope for a magical SaaS executive hire who will fix their major problems in sales, development, or marketing next quarter. Unfortunately, expensive exec hires don’t always work …
When my son graduated from university with a degree in electrical engineering in 2017, he didn't join a big company for his first job. He created a tech startup with …
When you don’t raise big VC funding, you get to do it your way and succeed on your terms. No two founders do it the same way. And here's yet another …
SaaS CEOs who grow past 40 employees have to learn how to hire and lead senior leaders who will help their businesses grow, not just the junior leaders who got …
I spent five days in the SF Bay Area with B2B SaaS founders, funders, and senior software engineers. The talk is all about adding GenAI and LLM features to software …
SaaS company growth rates are down, SaaS app buyers are frugal, IPOs are nonexistent, public SaaS multiples are low, big tech layoffs continue, and VC funding for SaaS has plummeted. …
Will they keep the same per-user business model or will they disrupt existing "legacy” SaaS businesses?
The DNA of a tech services business is almost the opposite of the DNA of a successful software product business. Here are the 3 biggest things tech services entrepreneurs need …
A bootstrapped founder of a fast-growing £2 million ARR B2B SaaS company asked me what he should expect on their march to £10M in revenue. How will his role change? I …
Beware of universal business recommendations on LinkedIn. Very few business rules always work for every business at all times. For everything else, it depends. The best advice for you today always …
Here are the biggest milestones for practical SaaS startups on the way to $5 million in ARR when they get started and grow without big VC funding: Finding an idea …
It was a great two days at the #SaaSOpen conference in Austin last week, where hundreds of serious SaaS founders learned from each other in one place. Dozens of successful …
Almost all B2B SaaS companies are either horizontally or vertically focused. They either sell to all industries OR just one industry. There's another model in between that can be tricky …
Building a great product is important to grow a SaaS startup into a valuable company. But it is figuroutable once you have deep knowledge of a big problem someone will …
I don't know what's going to happen in 2024 with SaaS funding, tech IPOs, M&A exits, or AI breakthroughs. But there are a few long-term trends I'm betting on that …
Is there anything big you expected to get done in your business this year that didn't quite happen? All of us had something that didn't go as well as we …
Can experienced corporate leaders succeed in startups? Can startup leaders succeed in big companies? The answer to both is the same: It's possible, but it's not common. Most people who are successful in …
When you grow a software business to $10 million ARR in three years without VC funding you keep your optionality as a founder and focus 100% of your energy on …
Practical SaaS founders can win big without betting the farm, losing their health or family, or playing the all-or-nothing VC funding game. This is possible around the world, not just in …
Compared to 20 years ago, modern software companies are 10 times more resilient when the inevitable recessions, financial busts, wars, and other crises disrupt the economy. This is one of the …
It is great to be around so many practical SaaS founders at the SaaStock conference in Dublin this week. There was more talk of bootstrapping this year than about big VC …
Creating a real SaaS business is more like climbing Everest than doing a hard workout at the gym. The startup climb is totally possible, but the odds are against you. It …
We often hear that 50% of new businesses don't make it through their first year. Or that 90% of startups fail. That's not the whole story or even useful for …
l operations are often neglected by startup and early-stage founders, but it always comes back to bite them later. Here are 5 most common questions I hear from serious SaaS founders …
WeWork announced this week that they have "a substantial doubt of continuing as a going concern." This is a pre-bankruptcy announcement. They will likely wind it down and sell off …
Many startup experiments don’t end up growing big and winning a big prize for founders. Failure is actually a possibility, however you define it. The lessons learned can be just as …
Here’s my biggest surprise after interviewing 46 successful practical founders on the podcast in the last year: When you aren’t raising big funding from outside investors… There are as many ways …
In the last 5-10 years, we have seen a tech funding boom and bust, technology waves of web3 and AI, and other big shifts in the software world. But these deeper …
If you're a leader in a growing company, at any level, you need to spend some of your time working on the future, not just executing for today. That can feel …
A software company CEO with a growing $2M ARR software company asked me what he should expect on their march to $10M in revenue. How will his role change? The founder-CEO …
A software company CEO with a growing $2M ARR software company asked me what he should expect on their march to $10M in revenue. He can feel that his business is …
If we don't raise outside funding for our bootstrapped SaaS company, should we offer equity shares to key employees? A practical founder with a growing SaaS company asked me that the …
What do you do when one of the key leaders in your growing software business is struggling? Struggling to build productive teams, hit reasonable goals, and keep up as your business …
What did you think your software business was going to be when you started it? Is that actually what it is now? I ask this question of software company founders I …
SaaS companies have had a relatively steady playing field for the last 10 years. No major disruptions have put off the steady growth and adoption of SaaS. But now generative AI …
I’m traveling with my wife on holiday this week in Edinburgh, Scotland for the first time. One of the highlights of the trip was meeting an amazing practical SaaS founder …
When a venture investor doesn’t invest in a software company, they often describe the startup’s product as “just a feature.” A feature that could easily be built by a competitor. Or …
The biggest questions and concerns of SaaS CEOs change as their companies grow. Here are the most common issues I work on with founders I talk to every day by size …
Everyone in tech will remember the day that SVB, "the bank for funded tech startups," surprisingly failed in just two days. Here's how I see it so far. What do you …
Moving from a custom services business to the holy grail of a subscription-based software product business can take a while. Most don’t make it. Too much to invest for too long to …
I met two new software entrepreneurs last week who set out to modernize the industry they succeeded in for the last 20 years. Their industry is a notorious technology late adopter. Almost …
Most funded startup companies are going through brutal "rationalizing and rightsizing" right now. This is a healthy exercise that bootstrappers go through every day. If you are breakeven and profitable in …
I got my annual "Your price for Quickbooks increased because we can" email from Intuit. They want me to pay almost 40% more than I paid two years ago. Intuit is …
Here's the biggest difference I see between self-funded and overfunded software companies--from the inside. PACE. How fast you have to race ahead to meet your bigger goals. Founders with lots of outside …
There has never been a better time to start a B2B software company without big funding. Here are 10 reasons why: You can build the first sellable version of a B2B …
This week I talked to three practical founders of growing software businesses with $1M, $3M, and $7M annual revenues. Each of them told me, "I don't know what I don't know …
Bootstrapping, self-funding, and resisting big VC funding are still not very common in Silicon Valley these days. It's not as easy for startup founders to raise funding there this year, but …
I think the startup idea-to-business journey is mostly about this: Surviving long enough to keep experimenting, iterating, and trying things until you find a combination that can grow into a serious …
Startup success stories are often told by a single founder. But usually, there’s another founder involved. The co-founder. Another crazy person with the same passion and grit (and deferred wages), but …
The Practical Founders Podcast is picking up steam every week after just 10 episodes so far. But I need your help. I want to interview more practical founders who are women. …
How are fast-growing SaaS companies scaling up the human-powered customer success and customer support that can't be automated? The tech talent crunch is real in every country around the world. In …
Here are 20 of the most common types of software companies that I see right now. Which one describes your company? 1) The startup just starting. More hope than traction so …
Do you ever get 90% of the way through building a new business, product, or project only to realize you're only halfway done? This happens to me and every entrepreneur I …
Many startup founders complain that investors won't invest until they show a lot more traction. Proof that the product works, that customers love it, and that the CEO can grow …
We sometimes hear that 50% of new businesses don't make it through their first year. Or that 90% of startups fail. Maybe. Here's my take on it for software startups. First, software …
The highest-leverage way to grow a business faster is to DOUBLE DOWN on a target market, sales channel, use case, or marketing message that is already working very well. But there's …
Every mentor, advisor, consultant, board member, or peer founder has a powerful magic trick when they give feedback or advice to an entrepreneur. They are not you. They haven't been fanatically thinking …
Founders often tell me they want to create an advisory board. I ask this question to see if this would be useful for the founder: Do you just need more advice, do …
There is more Service in most SaaS product businesses than they let on. The general baseline for B2B SaaS companies is that at least 80% of revenues are from software, less …
These two things never go together: 1) Ambitious startup founder with growing revenues and big exit ambitions. "Someday this will be worth millions." 2) No lawyer or "some lawyer I know" who …
How are entrepreneurs getting software built for their startups this year? Does the tech stack matter? Offshore, nearshore, or US-based teams? No code? In this Ask an Expert in-depth video interview, I …
Gregslist Phoenix is 5 years old this week. Gregslist.com/Phoenix I published my first curated Gregslist of 126 Phoenix software companies in August 2016. Back then, tech leaders and SaaS founders in Phoenix …
Last week in Phoenix I spent an hour with my good friend Hamid Shojaee to talk shop on his AZ Tech Podcast. Here's what we talked about: - What's happening in the Arizona …
Several times a month I talk to successful founders of: recurring revenue businesses that have great margins that are powered by software. But they aren't SaaS software businesses. They are "Service as …
Gregslist started in Phoenix with 126 local software companies on the list in August 2016. Now there are over 5,000 software and SaaS companies on Gregslist.com in 11 cities in 2021. We …
There are 301 industry-focused software companies in Arizona right now on Gregslist.com/Phoenix. That's half of all B2B software companies in the state. Surprised? For the first 20 years of my career in …
There are more than 1700 software and SaaS companies in Texas in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. There were already a lot of software companies in Texas before 2020 when more tech …
Of all the founders of software companies I have worked with at Scaling Point in the last two years, half of their companies serve vertical markets. They are focused on a …
Last year I met with over 300 founders and CEOs, worked deeply inside 30 businesses all over the U.S., and spoke to thousands of people at conferences and events. Despite that, …
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