SaaStr

JULY 9, 2025

Even at the 2021 peak (85 total unicorn exits), IPOs were only 39% of exits. Employee/early investor liquidity without going public → Strategic acquirers stepped up. Key insight : Even in 2021’s peak year with 85 unicorn exits, IPOs were still minority (39%). Here’s What That Means for B2B Founders. What changed?

B2B 108

B2B Strategize Contract Growth 108

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

The combination of AI excitement, economic stability, and pent-up demand from years of IPO drought has created conditions we haven’t seen since 2021. But here’s the thing: unlike 2021’s “everything rally,” this market appears more discerning. healthy but not euphoric.

B2B 73

B2B Price Growth Finance 73

Search Engine Land

OCTOBER 1, 2024

By analyzing these patterns, you can answer very strategic digital marketing , PR and SEO questions: What types of media placements drove these search patterns? These questions just scratch the surface of ways to apply this analysis to strategic search marketing, new category design or general product management. Random changes.

Electricity 95

Electricity Growth Strategize Launch 95

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2025

Non-technical CEOs can win in AI : Despite conventional wisdom, OpenAI is dominating with non-technical leadership because they excel at recruitment, empowerment, and strategic partnerships. For founders: If you’ve built a B-tier startup that could get funded in 2021 but can’t today, that’s just market reality.

Strategic partnership 113

Strategic partnership Construction Manufacturing Strategize 113

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2025

Bottom Line: If you have marketing managers who are primarily executing at a 2021 pace rather than leveraging AI to triple their output, AI can probably do their jobs better. The CSMs who survive the AI transition will be the ones who solve complex problems and drive genuine strategic value.

B2B 100

B2B A/B testing Engineering CRM 100

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

Every IPO other than Sailpoint is trading up, and we’ve got a jolt of momentum here for the first time since … well … 2021. Strategic Moves Signal IPO Preparation Navan’s leadership appointments read like an IPO playbook. The IPO market has been … on fire in 2025. No “classic” B2B leader has IPO’d yet in this wave.

B2B 74

B2B Appointment E-commerce Represent 74

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2025

After going public in September 2020 with 47% annual growth, the company hit peak quarterly growth of 49% in early 2021. commercial revenue grew from ~$150M in Q1 2021 to $254M in Q1 2025—a 69% increase over four years, but with accelerating momentum. Then came the long slide down. Growth has since fallen to single digits.

Growth 104

Growth Government Represent Networking 104

SaaStr

MAY 23, 2025

The numbers validated this quickly: 2018: 100 apps, $1M tracked revenue 2020: Series A at $15M 2021: 6,000+ apps, $1B+ tracked revenue, Series B at $300M valuation SaaStr Fund’s bet wasn’t just on the founders or the technologyit was on the inevitable shift toward subscription-first mobile business models.

Launch 112

Launch Represent Niche B2B 112

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2025

Since its original inception in 2021, Copilot has evolved and grown to 77,000 organizations and almost 2 million users. Here’s how these leaders handle it: GitHub uses “strategic roadmaps” focused on key bets and learning objectives rather than fixed deliverables per quarter.

Product 124

Product Engineering Technology Technology 124

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2025

Key Metrics at a Glance Exit Valuation : $2.5B (down from $4B peak in 2021) Revenue Multiple : 13.4x discount from its 2021 peak valuation of $4B. But context matters: Market timing : Fintech valuations compressed 60-80% from 2021 peaks Strategic premium : 13.4x exit represents a 37.5%

Drivers/motivators 89

Drivers/motivators Territory Strategize Growth 89

SaaStr

JULY 19, 2025

Be Strategic : Secondary sales should align with the company’s goals. Avoid Early Abuse : During the boom times of 2020-2021, secondary sales got out of hand. It’s enough to take some pressure off without raising eyebrows. Anything more than that, especially early on, can look like you’re cashing out rather than doubling down.

Sell 69

Sell Cross-sell Drivers/motivators Strategize 69

Sales Hacker

JUNE 10, 2025

In 2021, right? Because if they have somebody that’s like in seat and moving and changing or this really strategic role that they don’t wanna get overwhelmed with, they worry that those get out. Like that is telling, um, for sure. And then AI is, is a really interestingly changing the market.

GTM 66

GTM Networking Growth Go To Market 66

SaaStr

JUNE 10, 2025

The Valuation Gap : There’s a massive disconnect between what PE firms think their assets are worth (based on 2021 valuations) and what buyers are willing to pay today. Strategic Buyers Are King : With financial buyers sidelined, strategic acquirers have more leverage. They stick to what they know. Plan accordingly.

B2B 100

B2B Non-Profits Strategize Negotiate 100

Hubspot

DECEMBER 18, 2024

Chu adds, This reduces the manual workload on franchise staff, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities such as customer service or strategic growth initiatives, with decision-making speed increasing by up to 10x. We have to be patient with the process and build our capability over time and in alignment with our strategic objectives.

E-commerce 36

E-commerce Manufacturing Networking Niche 36

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2025

🔄 Crossover Investors Disappeared Crossover participation: Just $11B in Q2 (lowest in 6 quarters) Down from $50B+ quarterly peaks in 2021-2022 Largest crossover round: Neuralink at only $650M Takeaway : Don’t count on hedge funds and mutual funds for growth rounds. annually) This would be a record, surpassing 2021’s $91.6B

Finance 69

Finance Price Strategize Growth 69

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2025

VC Fund That 4X’d in Two Years—Then Got Acquired by Meta The Strategic Implications This wasn’t just an acqui-hire; it represents Meta’s systematic approach to building an “AI talent magnet.” This move shows how companies with high-multiple stocks can strategically de-risk their business models.

Strategize 73

Strategize Represent B2B Growth 73

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2025

Colin joined Wiz in February 2021 when the company was near zero revenue. Rather than seeing this as a liability, Wiz leveraged it as a strategic advantage — even in its sales team. It’s an incredible look back on scaling and more: Colin Jones, first Chief Revenue Officer at Wiz.

GTM 73

GTM Pipeline Trust Price 73

SaaStr

JUNE 30, 2025

revenue, ~$1B total funding 2021: $34M revenue, ~$3B total funding 2022: $200M revenue, ~$3B total funding 2023: $2.2B Epic Raise, But Epic Growth: $58B Raised, $13B Revenue Run Rate Let’s start with the facts that’ll make your Series A look cute: 2020: $3.5M revenue, ~$13B total funding 2024: $3.7B

Growth 70

Growth B2B Launch Market share 70

SaaStr

JUNE 8, 2025

Smart founders are already having conversations about secondary sales and thinking strategically about when to take money off the table. This creates a strategic decision point : Do you optimize for infinity growth, or do you recognize when you’ve built a great business that should be monetized? Data moats are becoming AI moats.

B2B 99

B2B Strategize Cross-sell Gaming 99

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2025

The Core Strategic Divergence The fundamental difference between Olo and Toast isn’t just about technology – it’s about market segmentation philosophy that has created two entirely different business models with dramatically different outcomes. larger revenue base by 2025. margin) Net Income: $11.8M margin) Net Income: $11.8M

Strategize 69

Strategize Networking Represent Market share 69

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2025

New data from Carta analyzing 17,896 primary priced rounds from Q1 2021 to Q2 2025 shows a clear trend: lead investors are systematically taking larger portions of the rounds they lead. This can make it harder to bring in strategic investors, additional value-add partners, or maintain optionality for future rounds. round in 2025.

Government 69

Government Negotiate Strategize Price 69

SaaStr

JUNE 11, 2025

” Year-by-Year: The Trend Is Your Friend The data reveals some fascinating year-over-year patterns: 2020-2021 (The ZIRP Years) : Summer months actually outperformed during the zero-interest-rate frenzy. July 2021 hit 9.0% Post-holiday strategic planning cycles, not summer vacations, create the real fundraising dead zone.

Strategic planning 69

Strategic planning Represent Strategize Contract 69

SaaStr

JULY 3, 2025

The deal reveals the messy reality of 2021 vintage investing. Jason’s liberating perspective : “No one who wrote a check in 2021 at $4B is going to stop a 1x exit. Having honest conversations about transitions, incentives, and burnout isn’t weakness – it’s strategic planning. Melio’s $2.5B

Non-Profits 82

Non-Profits B2B Growth Strategic planning 82

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2025

Proof : While many fintechs struggled post-2021, Wealthfront’s profitability positioned them to go public in favorable 2025 market conditions. Application : Focus on unit economics early. Better to grow slower with healthy margins than to scale unprofitably. Public markets heavily reward profitable SaaS companies.

Referrals 94

Referrals Growth Drivers/motivators Clients 94

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2025

Back in 2021 though, Ramp was just 2 years in — but already experiencing hypergrowth. His journey from consultant to coder to fintech founder offers a masterclass in what he calls “asymmetric outcomes” strategic bets where the potential upside dramatically outweighs the downside.

Presentation 83

Presentation Consult Strategize Gaming 83

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2025

For seven years, growth was painfully slow: 2016-2021 : Minimal revenue, limited funding first years 2022 : $1M ARR (after 6 years!) pic.twitter.com/LVh6AfPhP3 — Replit ⠕ (@Replit) June 23, 2025 Why Replit Became a Rocketship: Three Strategic Masterstrokes 1. 2023 : $2.4M ARR Despite raising significant funding ($97.4M

X-functional 85

X-functional Price Growth B2B 85

Martech

MAY 27, 2025

After five months of declines, The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey surged in May, but remains below where it was in 2021. Wunderkind’s 2025 Marketers/Consumer Tariffs Impact Report Turning to owned channels: Aside from pricing, marketers are making some big strategic changes.

Retail 114

Retail Price Promote Government 114

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 6, 2024

Unlike the rapid expansion in Sales or Product, Customer Success hiring is stable and strategic, rooted in the need to drive retention and expansion revenue. CEOs making these hires consistently highlight that specialization has become a key priority since 2021. Its a balanced, selective growth trajectory. Why is this?

GTM 107

GTM Customers Non-Profits Growth 107

Openview

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

But stock market investors have changed their focus since the last busy round of companies going public from 2019 to 2021. We remain opportunistic, as we always have, about all of our strategic options as we continue to grow.” The company is not saying much about any IPO plans yet. “At Snyk declined to comment. Follow him @ampressman.

Real Estate 78

Real Estate E-commerce Gambling Sports 78

SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2025

Current State of Early-Stage Venture Market The early-stage venture landscape has experienced significant shifts since the peaks of 2021. We’re seeing: Deal activity decline : From the highs of 2021 (around 3.5B raised in Q4 2021), we’re seeing a return to baseline levels but still below pre-zero interest rate era volumes.

Growth 62

Growth Contract B2B Strategize 62

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2025

The companies that win the dilution game are those that think about their cap table as strategically as their product roadmap. In 2021, there was an IPO almost every day. The AI Disruption: Why OpenAI is Going into Hardware The biggest strategic shift happening right now? Those days are gone.

B2B 101

B2B Represent Gaming Growth 101

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2025

The Reckoning (2021-2024): Welcome to Fund Manager Hell Then came the tsunami: 2021 Funds: 15% returned capital (and these are 3+ years old!) Look at those 90th percentile numbers again: 2021: 13.0% You’re stuck with a portfolio of overvalued SaaS companies from 2021-2022 that can’t find exits. They are back.

Strategize 109

Strategize Price Negotiate B2B 109

Hubspot

JUNE 2, 2025

By 2021, that number had risen to eight tries. Use the phone strategically. Perhaps the biggest shift in mindset for the future: The phone should be a strategic weapon, not a default crutch. In this situation, a strategic phone call could be a great option just never let it become your only option.

Cold Call 41

Cold Call Referrals Cross-sell Sales 41

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2025

” The ZIRP Hangover is Healing : Companies are no longer being punished for the sins of 2021’s overvalued IPOs. They can achieve massive scale while maintaining private company advantages (long-term focus, less regulatory burden, strategic flexibility). Quality companies with good metrics are being rewarded immediately.

Non-Profits 99

Non-Profits Profit margin Growth Price 99

Sales Hacker

JUNE 13, 2025

In 2021, capital was abundant, valuations were soaring, and venture moved fast. The bar is higher, but so are the stakes “This isn’t 2021. This is visible in two places: Startup formation is down – just 40% of 2021’s peak, according to AngelList. Founders raised rounds in days. 2025 is a different world.

GTM 90

GTM Drivers/motivators Growth Go To Market 90

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Now that we’re well into 2021, we’re starting to get more value out of those 2×2 Zoom boxes. Note: We will add more conferences as companies announce their plans for 2021, be they virtual or in-person conferences. 9 sales conferences and events to attend in 2021. Unleash 2021. SaaStr Annual 2021. Unleash 2021.

Sales 128

Sales B2B Networking Price 128

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

” Fortunately, the always excellent KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM) 2021 SaaS Survey – which covers over 350 private SaaS companies across various stages and categories – provides a very rich data set to work from. What Is The SaaS “Rule of 40”? In equation form, Revenue Growth % + Profit Margin % > 40%.

Drivers/motivators 127

Drivers/motivators Profit margin Non-Profits Inside sales 127