Blue Horizon’s reading list is a curated collection of articles for SaaS founders and management teams. We are entrepreneurs and operators who have lived through the process of founding and scaling software companies. Here are the articles and resources we found useful this month.

The New Tailored Shareholder Rule – What Mutual Funds Need to Know
by Synthesis Technology

Beginning in July 2024, mutual fund and ETF shareholders will begin receiving “Tailored Shareholder Reports.” These will be shorter, with a “visually engaging” format, and a stricter focus on the information that would be most relevant and of interest to the average shareholder. This rule change will allow retail shareholders to more easily assess and monitor their fund investments via documents that are concise, relevant, and written in plain (read: non-jargony) English.

The Change in Burn Multiple for Startups in 2023
by Tomasz Tunguz

Companies with more efficient burn multiples between 1-2 plan to increase their net burn per new dollar of bookings by between 14-40%. In contrast, startups with higher operating expenses will reduce their burn multiple by 34-70%. The average startup with a burn multiple of 5 plans to reduce to 1.5.

Lies of Customer Lifetime Value
On OnlyCFO’s Software World

A SaaS company’s customer retention rate is like the keystone in the construction of an arch. The keystone is the wedge-shaped piece at the crown of an arch that locks the other pieces in place – without the keystone, the arch will crumble. Similarly, the whole SaaS business model (particularly high-growth VC-backed companies) is built on an assumption of high customer retention rates. If customer churn is high (the inverse of high retention), then the keystone of the business model gets shaky and the whole thing is at risk of collapsing.

The Four Levels of Customer Success and Product Alignment Maturity
by ChurnZero

Alignment between Customer Success (CS) and product teams isn’t something that just happens—it takes work. The teams must have a shared understanding of customer needs, the company’s vision, and each other’s roles in fulfilling both…
Customers may buy a product, but their overall experience with a company is comprised of a combination of product and service. Even staunch advocates of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) will admit that these scores sometimes reflect a customer’s interaction with a team member rather than just their experience with a product.

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Compete with a Company that has Unlimited Capital — and I Don’t?
on SaaStr

▪️ Be cheaper.
▪️ Have the best and most flexible API.
▪️ Be more Enterprise.
▪️ Be #1 in a vertical.
▪️ Be 2–10x better — at just one important thing.

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Blue Horizon acquires and invests in profitable software businesses with stable recurring revenue streams. The Blue Horizon platform combines long-term capital and industry expertise with an operating model that enables businesses and their leaders to focus on growth and profitability.