SaaStr

SaaStr is the largest global community for SaaS founders, executives, and entrepreneurs. Our mission is to support individuals in scaling their businesses from $0 to $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) while minimizing stress and maximizing success. We achieve this through top-notch content and valuable community connections. The SaaStr Annual is the biggest non-vendor event in the SaaS industry, attracting over 15,000 participants from around the globe each February in the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, SaaStr Europa gathers more than 3,000 SaaS leaders, founders, and venture capitalists in Paris every June. SaaStr started in 2012 as a basic WordPress blog where Jason Lemkin shared insights from his journey to achieving $100 million ARR with EchoSign. This led to our first meet-ups in 2013 and 2014, followed by the inaugural SaaStr Annual in 2015, the launch of the industry’s leading podcast in 2016, the establishment of the first coworking space for SaaS founders in 2017, and in 2018, we introduced SaaStr Pro, the first learning management system designed specifically for SaaS founders. We also manage a $90 million venture fund. SaaStr has received accolades such as being listed among the Top 100 Blogs for Entrepreneurs by Forbes and recognized as one of the 50 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine. Jason Lemkin has been acknowledged by Business Insider as one of the 32 Most Powerful People in Business Technology and has been named a Top Writer on Quora six times.

National, Consumer

English

Online/Digital

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Global

#300462

United States

#210377

Business and Consumer Services/Business Services

#2649

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Articles

10 Unforced Errors Founders Make in the VC Fundraising Process

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

So the other day I was introduced to what looked like a great founder. The space was a bit unusual but that’s OK. I asked the founder to send me the most detailed deck he could so I could do my homework. He sent me a 3 page teaser deck with zero data. The classic “teaser deck”. It said basically nothing I couldn’t learn from his homepage. Not even how many customers they had, or what their plans were for the year. I had to send an email back kindly saying it wasn’t for me.
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Build Conviction To Start a Startup?

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

Building conviction to start a startup is about seeing The Future—and believing in it so deeply that you’re willing to commit 7–10 years of your life to making it real. Conviction doesn’t come from just dreaming, it comes from doing the work to validate your vision and proving to yourself that it’s worth the grind. Here’s how you can build that conviction:Talk to 20+ Customers: If you’re not sure yet, go out and talk to potential customers.
Networking is now OPEN for SaaStr Annual 2025!!

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

Brand new for 2025, we’re launching the SaaStr Who Do You Want to Meet AI-powered networking program. This is a brand new way to have 1:1 meetings with peers attending SaaStr. If you’ve got your ticket for SaaStr 2025, you’ll receive a separate email from SaaStr’s New “Who Do You Want to Meet” Program with specific instructions. We have created this all new AI-powered networking program group for revenue leaders attending SaaStr Annual to connect and meet with fellow executives.
5 Interesting Learnings as Marin Software … Shuts Down :(

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

So this series has all been about public B2B and Cloud leaders. Some are still in hypergrowth mode, like Toast and Shopify and Snowflake. Others are at a more mature phase for now, like Dropbox and Salesforce andBut they all keep going, don’t they? Mostly, yes, at scale. But not Marin Software. Now Marin has been in trouble for many years. They were an early leader in digital advertising and marketing software, but couldn’t keep their early lead. But I didn’t realize it had gotten this bad.
Salesforce: 20% of All New Code Is Already Written With AI

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

So Venturebeat did a brief interview with Jayesh Govindarajan, Senior Vice President of Salesforce AI. Now to some extent, everyone in AI at Big Tech Cos is talking their own game, and that’s OK. Now why this is particularly important is this isn’t just prototypes, brand new start-ups that can take a lot of risks, or code that doesn’t have to go through exhausting security and safety reviews.
Dear SaaStr: How Do I Deal With Burnout and Cut Myself Some Slack?

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

Burnout after a tough 4-5 year (or longer) stretch is real, and it’s brutal. Almost all of it feel some of it at least around Year 4-5. Maybe every 4-5 years. But here’s the thing: you can’t just “power through” burnout indefinitely—it doesn’t work. You’ve already proven you can push through when it matters, but now it’s time to recalibrate and rebuild your energy. Cutting yourself some slack doesn’t mean slacking off, it means being intentional about how you recover while still moving forward.
AI Can’t Sell Yet. But It’s Probably Already “Smarter” Than Much of Your Sales Team

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

So we do love our SaaStr AI. It’s not perfect, but in its first month alone, it’s answered over 6,000 chats and questions from the SaaStr community! On everything from how to hire a great VP of Sales, to reviewing investor memos, to helping (many!) founders decide if they should quit or not. It’s not perfect but it’s great. Try it here. And it turns out it can do things we didn’t intend. One is be our BDR for SaaStr sponsorships. Initially, it was OK and could answer support questions on its own.
What is the average rate of closed deals for a SaaS product?

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

Don’t get confused by averages. Instead, just measure a core funnel metric, keep the funnel relatively constant — and then drive the metric up. Why? You can stuff any funnel with mediocre leads and low-quality sign-ups. Top the funnel will then be huge, but conversion rates will be low. You can also tighten the sign-up and registration process so tightly that the conversion rate will be very high. But then you may be excluding folks from the funnel you may later wish had been in there.
Are consumption-based SaaS business models becoming more prevalent?

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

They are, and it’s worth thinking about. We actually sort of started there. The first big SaaS success wasn’t Salesforce, it was WebEx before that. Salesforce learned from WebEx, just like many of us learned from Salesforce. And WebEx started off with a consumption-based model. It made sense, because back then, “minutes” had a high variable cost.
Dear SaaStr: In Consumption-Based Models, Should We Pay Out on Deals Closed or Usage?

1 week ago | saastr.com | Jason Lemkin

I’ll dig in, but a really great deep dive with MongoDB’s head of sales ops here: MongoDB us a blended commission model for their consumption-based GTM. Typically, they pay 40%-50% of the annualized commission upfront at contract execution, and the rest is paid out based on actual usage throughout the year.