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.
B2B Growth Channels for Different CAC Levels Part 2
by Predictable Revenue
At higher CAC levels, thought leadership and top-of-funnel content become even more important…For higher CAC levels, there are typically more stakeholders involved in the sales process. Marketing automation can help you target multiple buyer personas at once and tailor your content to each one (for example, IT, legal, C-suite). You can also map content to where each prospect is on their buyer’s journey.
The Five Biggest Pricing Mistakes SaaS Companies Make
by Patrick Campbell on SaaS Mag
1. Not Spending Enough Time on Your Pricing
2. Setting Your Pricing Without a Value Metric
3. Not Localizing Your Pricing
4. Discounting Too Much
5. Not Continually Optimizing
If you’ve read over all these mistakes so far and confidently declared that your pricing is rooted in value, you’ve determined that your discounts are reasonable, and you’ve spent tons of time thinking everything over, that’s great. You’re ahead of the game, and your customers probably love you for it. But there’s still one crucial mistake that even the smartest entrepreneurs make, and it’s setting their pricing once and then never touching it again. This can leave a ton of money on the table. Pricing isn’t something you can “set and forget.”
PLG & Profitability: More Product Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Greater Profits
by Tomasz Tunguz
▪️ Before [the pandemic], PLG companies operated at better profitability. Since then, PLG companies operate with 10% worse profitability
▪️ PLG companies R&D spend hasn’t produced new business at the same rate as a dollar invested in sales & marketing post-Covid.
▪️ PLG motions tend to focus on smaller businesses which may be more susceptible to the economic downturn.
▪️ Software sales cycles have lengthened, which SLG companies can mitigate with better sales skills. These longer cycles may reduce the conversion rates of non-sales-assisted PLG motions.
10 Great Learnings from Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot
by Jason Lemkin
Highlights include:
▪️ NRR is Metric #1. More Than Sales
▪️ HubSpot has to sell to more stakeholders now. Just like we all do
▪️ The Best Way to Drive up NRR? Put the Incremental Dollar into Product
▪️ It’s a Long Path To Change Your Market Positioning
▪️ The average SMB now uses almost 300 (!) SaaS apps
If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get
by David Cummings
Last week entrepreneurs reminded me several times of one of my favorite adages: if you don’t ask, you don’t get. While it seems obvious, the reality is most people assume if something isn’t offered up or available, then you can’t get it. We’re conditioned to assess what’s in front of us, what’s obvious. Only, pushing beyond the perceived limits is what moves the world forward.
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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.