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 week.
Private SaaS Company Valuations: Q2 2021 Update
Rob Belcher, SaaS Capital
SaaS industry observations on the first half of 2021 and an update to the SaaS Capital Index (SCI) from Rob Belcher. Since peaking at that all-time high in December, the SCI has traded in a fairly narrow range of 14.5x to 16.3x. As of June 30, the median valuation multiple for public B2B SaaS companies in the SCI remains near the middle of that range at 15.5x ARR.
5 Interesting Learnings From Avalara at $600,000,000 in ARR
Jason Lemkin, saastr.com
If you are selling to SMBs, you have to be very efficient. Especially if they need a lot of human interaction…Gross annual churn of 4%, NRR of 107%. It’s great to see an SME leader disclose the combo of gross churn and NRR… Enterprise is $71k ACV on average, Mid-market is $36k, SMB is $23k, and small customers are $14k ACV. Deal sizes are all up over the past 24 months outside of the smallest customers.
Rules of Engagement for Customer Success and Sales: Considerations and Examples
ChurnZero Blog
By creating healthy boundaries, Customer Success and Sales don’t have to spend their days assessing and arguing over every expansion situation. Laying ground rules for how teams work together leads to greater productivity and efficiency while reducing cross-functional friction.
Structuring the Organization and Duties of Product Marketing and Competitive Analysis
Dave Kellogg, Kellblog
Product marketing is product-oriented, focused on articulation of features and benefits…Competitive is competitor-oriented, focused on using all available information to create plays that win deals and support sales in executing them.
Product marketing exists to build messaging and content that describe the features and benefits of the product. The job is to articulate. They are experts in products. Competitive analysis exists to research competitors, devise plays, and build tools to help sales win deals. The job is to win. They are experts in the competitors.
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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.