SaaS Weekly

Catch up on the latest Industry Roundups from last week's SaaS Weekly roundup ?? ???Public?Markets?|?Cloud companies are ready to party like it's 2021 After two years of penny-pinching and FCF flexing, public SaaS companies are loosening their belts and betting on growth again. Curious timing too????– markets aren't valuing profitability like they used to. ????SaaS Pricing?|?We’re ditching the 'pay-per-seat' life SaaS companies are now charging based on outcomes (like Intercom's $0.99 per resolved ticket) rather than access or usage. Because who wants to pay for a gym membership when you could pay for actual pounds lost? ???Executive Moves?|?Meta's playing musical chairs with Big Tech's AI talent Clara Shih, Salesforce's AI CEO, is jumping ship to lead Meta's new business AI group. Fun fact: She wrote a book called "The Facebook Era" in 2009 – talk about manifesting your dream job. https://lnkd.in/gwEKc8YU

?? This week in SaaS: Cloud companies go for growth. Pricing pages get a workout. Oh, and we’re betting big on racecar?frameworks (say what now???). But wait…let this man cook ??! I just dropped a new section called “From the Trenches.” Every Friday, a Growth/ GTM practitioner from the SaaS Weekly network shares their perspective or lesson learned, and how to apply it in practice. --- In this edition, Mike Northfield drops some marketing wisdom: “Buyers, not marketers, are in control of the buying journey" "We don’t—and can’t—control when a buyer is ready to engage. They’re making decisions long before they talk to us. By the time buyers start conversations with vendors, 81% have selected a favorite. They spend the remaining 30% of the buying process validating that decision." Some good stuff. --- Last thing from me. Here's a preview of the full roundup ?? Growth plays in practice: 1?? The Racecar Growth Framework –?by Dan Hockenmaier & Lenny Rachitsky & Reforge 2?? Interactive Demos: PLG Without the Headache –?by Leah Tharin at Leah's ProducTea Plus: Saved social posts by ???Kevin White –?AI SDRs..are they living up to the hype ?? Henry Schuck –?The go-to-market plays that built ZoomInfo That's a wrap. You can read the full newsletter linked below. #saas #newsletter

SaaS Weekly and I are getting a makeover (same year, new me kind of vibes). While I work on my sixpack, the roundups are making a comeback! Here's the rundown of what's new: ??Refreshed design ??Sections are easier to scan ??Punchier summaries, taking theory into practice (Shoutout to Mike Northfield for helping me with the redesign ????) --- But back to business. Here's what happened this week in SaaS + a few growth reads for your weekend! Industry Roundup: ???AI x Marketing?|?Adobe turned America into a giant gingerbread house The tech giant's creative campaign for Firefly AI generator cooked up 17.6K+ impressions by having AI design state-themed cookie houses. ????Markets?|?SaaS valuations be popping off And I’m not just talking about Salesforce and HubSpot’s stock price. Private startups are trading at a 3.2x valuation premium over public companies. ???Talent Trends?|?Salesforce goes heavy on its GenAI platform The company is hiring over 1,000 new employees for Agentforce, a platform to help companies easily build and deploy AI agents. Growth plays in practice: 1?? The Rise of the GTM Engineer - by Matteo Tittarelli ??at HyperGrowth Partners 2?? How to Build Your GTM Strategy From Scratch - by Maja Voje and Growth Unhinged 3?? Getting Started with Google Ads for B2B SaaS - by Alexander Estner at MRR Unlocked Read the full issue below ?? (Let me know what you think of the design and if you have any feedback ??) #SaaS #Newsletter

Marketing leaders are under a lot of pressure to know everything that's going on in the marketing world. There's just not enough time to keep up. I'm grateful for?SaaS Weekly's (free) newsletter, which sends me breakdowns of all the cutting-edge stuff happening in the world: https://lnkd.in/gWRi8fCX

Pipeline, pipeline, pipeline. ? It’s always top-of-mind. Heck, I even dream about it (??…????♂?). ? Filling the sales pipeline is a never-ending battle. The targets get larger and it can feel like every quarter there is something new to try (and learn). So to help you and I hit our targets this year, we'll take a page out of the "expert" playbook. --- GTM gurus have spoken. Kyle Poyar and the GTMfund surveyed over 350+ CROs and CMOs of software brands. Four themes emerged to drive pipeline growth in 2024. Here's the breakdown: ?? Double down on events. Virtual conferences and small dinners are producing 28x returns and 40% conversion rates respectively to opportunities. ?? Prioritize cross-team collaboration. Use a common propensity score to align product, marketing, and sales teams around target accounts. ?? Run creative outbound plays. Sales teams are finding success with creative plays like SDR personal pages, dedicated sprints, and tapping employee relationships ?? Experiment with entry-level pricing. Consider removing old pricing floors in self-serve offerings, while tightening freemium paywalls to accelerate conversions. --- Every Friday, I source and summarize the best resources covering a single topic. This?week's?theme is all about the sales-led plays: the tools and the tactics. Here's a preview of the roundup ?? 1?? How to build more pipeline in 2024 - by Kyle Poyar at Growth Unhinged 2?? The sales stack of the future - by Sabrina Wu & Vivek Ramaswami at Madrona 3?? How we're scaling 11x fast with our own AI SDR - by Zachary DeWitt at Notorious PLG Plus, featured Social posts by: ??Kevin White ??Ding Zheng --- Read the full issue below ?? https://lnkd.in/gxHFJu86 #saas #newsletter

This one quote still haunts me ?? “First time founders are obsessed with product. Second time founders are obsessed with distribution.” – Justin Kan After navigating my own startup journey, I now see why this quote resonates with so many people. We all have our "past lives" in the startup world. And some of mine are buried in my virtual backyard ??. Ideally, the mistakes we made and the lessons we learned shape the foundation for future wins. Ideally...But that wasn't the case for me. — I see a ton of posts on LinkedIn sharing success stories. So I thought I’d try something different: sharing the "not-so-success" stories (let's just call them learning curves). Here’s the story of how several failed startups led me to write a newsletter. Plus, the lessons I learned from 2-years of running the SaaS Weekly publication. — My past startup lives (summarized): 1?? A trade journaling app: Seven months of coding, zero customers. Turns out, "scratch your own itch" isn't a marketing plan. Key lesson? Value starts with your content, not with your product – that’s how you build trust. 2?? A sales prospecting tool: Three paying customers before a working product. I went all-in on distribution first. Progress, right? Welp. Going too wide too fast left me with surface-level value and waning interest. Key lesson? Lead with your story, not with your solution – it helps to attract your customers early. 3?? A $750 acquisition: A newsletter deal sourced on Reddit. I acquired the SaaS Weekly domain, gave it a face-lift, and rebranded it. But my ambition clouded my vision. Growth obsession without direction is a slow death. Key lesson? Your conviction must match your vision - consistency alone isn't enough. --- There are a ton of lessons throughout my journey and I tried to capture them in the latest SaaS Weekly article. Dive into the full story to learn what they are ?? ?? below... #saas #startup #founders

The framework SaaS companies are using for their content strategy. Blogs and newsletters are now a commodity. Social is saturated. AI is dominating search. Where does that leave B2B SaaS content? Trust is the ultimate form of currency for content. When your audience lands on your article/video, they vote with their time that this is valuable to them. Break that trust, and your media property becomes vacant. As a result, companies are turning to original, value-driven content to garner and sustain captured attention. But where do you start? --- George Chasiotis and Kyle Poyar outline nine examples of original content formats. Here are my top three with examples: ?? Data studies: Analyze proprietary or third-party data to create unique insights, like SparkToro and Datos' study on ChatGPT user behavior. ?? First-person narratives: Share personal experiences and lessons learned, like Veed_io CEO Sabba Keynejad's article on growing from zero to 50k customers. ?? Contrarian content: Challenge industry norms with well-supported arguments, like LinearB's piece on misuses of DORA metrics in engineering organizations. --- Every Friday, I source and summarize resources covering a single topic. This?week's?theme is all about The future of content. Here's a preview of the roundup ?? 1?? The future of content marketing - by Scott Barker at GTMnow 2?? You need a better content strategy [a framework to follow] - by George Chasiotis with Growth Unhinged 3?? 3 tips to create case studies that turn prospects into buyers - by Ann Gynn at Product Marketing Alliance Plus, featured Social posts by: ? Mike Northfield ? Pierre Herubel --- Read the full issue below ?? https://lnkd.in/gZUTgMta #saas #newsletter

?? The future of SaaS Weekly After two years of writing the publication, I’ve finally made this one decision. It wasn’t easy. And I might be wrong. But I’m betting on myself to carve a new path forward. Here's the back story. Last month, I took a break from writing the weekly roundups to do some life reflection and big-picture thinking. I reviewed WHY I was writing and the lessons that led me down this path (more on this later). And I think I nailed it. --- From the very beginning, I decided that SaaS Weekly wouldn’t be a journalist column like TechCrunch or The Information. The publication doesn’t break stories and I don’t run a newsroom. More specifically: I’m not in the business of bringing you news, I’m in the business of guiding your growth. And this singular focus has set the direction. The vision for SaaS Weekly is simple: be the go-to content hub to enable your next growth strategy. Whether you’re a SaaS founder finding your stride to $1M in ARR or you’re a GTM leader building pipeline for a growth-stage SaaS startup, this newsletter is for you. See what’s next for the newsletter ???? https://lnkd.in/ggKih5u3 #saas #newsletter

?? The end of SaaS Weekly? ... This was the subject line for an email I wrote this morning. SaaS Weekly's 4,217 subscribers got a brief update on what's next for the publication (see email below). For context, I took a break from writing the weekly SaaS roundups and did some R&R (reflecting and recalibrating). During that time, I realized that activity is not always progress, and therefore, change sometimes comes from taking a step back. More to come!

Are SaaS companies becoming media businesses? Over the past few years, a handful of SaaS companies have either launched or acquired a media arm, placing content at the center of their growth strategy. ? HubSpot acquired The Hustle ? Pendo acquired Mind the Product ? Salesforce launched Salesforce+ ? Profitwell launched Recur Media (later acquired by Paddle) In today's noisy landscape, where it's harder to stand out and easier to be forgotten, SaaS companies are now?embedding a media business inside them. Here's why. --- ?? Treating content as a core product. When SaaS companies focus on content that serves the reader, not just to service the funnel, they build trust with an audience and a community around their brand. For example, you open the Hustle or engage in Mind the Product's forum, consume the content, and receive the promised value. The content is the destination –?and it drives a conversation. ?? Owning the distribution channel. Like traditional media, SaaS companies opt to 'own' the relationship with their audience – instead of relying on third-party players for distribution. Instead of paying high CPMs or relying on social for reach, they deliver content directly to your inbox. Or nowadays, they have a content hub you consistently tune into. What are your thoughts –?how are you using media-like content for growth? --- Every Friday, I source and summarize resources covering a single topic. And this?week's?theme is all about: ?? SaaS meets media: Growth unlocked --- Here's a preview of the most clicked-on links so far ?? 1?? Are SaaS companies becoming media businesses? - by Ian Ito at SaaS Weekly 2?? Why SaaS companies are embracing owned media - by Scott Barker at GTMnow 3?? Should you buy a media company? ??? - by Kyle Poyar at Growth Unhinged 4?? For buyers of GTM tech, the #1 consideration is integration - by GTM Partners PLUS, featured SaaS Social posts by: ? Anthony Kennada at AudiencePlus ? Pierre Herubel Dive into the full issue below ?? https://lnkd.in/gjutWGny #saas #newsletter #media