In my experience, leading a tech company for over ten years, SaaS engineering talent is the hardest to find. I was at a barbecue over the weekend and ended up commiserating with another CEO over the challenges and philosophies around SaaS engineering quality vs. quantity. We all know that demand outstrips supply for software engineers, […]
CEO
How to Balance Your SaaS Product Development and Evolution
Yesterday, I wrote about my perspective on controlling and launching a minimally viable product (MVP) in SaaS. That MVP process could apply to a startup with an unreleased, pre-revenue product. But, it could also apply to an established product adding new capabilities or features. Today I want to focus on the SaaS product development process […]
SaaS MVP Development Process Management
Efficient and effective SaaS MVP development takes imagination, discipline, process, and above all, customer feedback. I recently met with a company that demoed what they were calling an MVP-stage product. In reality, it was a wireframe-stage product developed in a vacuum from actual, potential customers. They’d been at it for years, had yet to launch, […]
Accountability and Transparency: Keys to SaaS Culture
As the CEO of martech SaaS ion interactive, I was big on accountability and transparency. My co-founders and I managed the organization around the ideas that everyone pulls their own weight and everyone else is entitled to see that. Of course when someone or some team didn’t make it happen, it was obvious to all. […]
How to Prepare to Be Acquired
I began preparing to be acquired a full five years prior to being acquired. We were in the highly competitive enterprise martech SaaS (software-as-a-service) space and needed to: differentiate ourselves strategically; align ourselves with the right partners through integrations; audit ourselves for accuracy and accountability; and evolve ourselves with scalable systems and processes. Long before […]
SaaS Growth Strategy: Balancing Profit and Investment
I was often a self-funded founder whose SaaS growth strategy needed to include profit, as that was how my co-founders and I paid ourselves. When you’re growing a SaaS in a meteoric sector like martech, taking investment capital out of the growth machine in the form of profit must be done judiciously and intentionally. If […]
The Value of Process
Documentation and process are the keys to proving performance, maintaining deal momentum and mitigating risk. Claims made in a book or business plan become the basis of valuation, conditional bank approval or terms.
How to Avoid Revenue Wreckognition
Rev rec must be timely, accurate, consistent and auditable in order to be reliable as a management tool. Strategically, deferred revenue has sizable implications on how cash in the business is managed and invested. This is a CEO’s look at revenue recognition.
What is Revenue Churn and Why Does it Matter?
Revenue churn is a huge indicator of growth potential. That’s because, even when companies have significant customer churn, they can overcome it with expansion revenue. When you have that, combined with success in new customer acquisition, you have a growth machine that will be hard to slow down. It’s a recipe for success.
What is Customer Churn and Why Does it Matter?
SaaS businesses grow at the intersection of customer acquisition and lifetime value. When customers churn they cut short lifetime value and upend the fundamental driver of healthy growth
