#SaaS

What is Market Development Strategy? (Definition and Examples)

As the founder of a startup, you will undoubtably find yourself forced to make countless important decisions that, collectively, will determine the overall success of your company. These decisions may feel small when they involve things like who to hire and when, but they will almost certainly feel more consequential when they involve things like optimizing sales models, pricing models, and high impact growth strategies. If your startup is ready to take its growth to the next

What Does Your LTV/CAC Ratio Tell You?

Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) are common SaaS metrics that tell you how much it costs to gain a customer and how much that customer is likely to provide in revenue. Looking at these two in relation to each other — using a metric called LTV/CAC ratio — provides a cost-benefit analysis of the process you’re using to get and retain customers. The LTV/CAC ratio is one of the most important metrics you can look at to get a handle on how efficiently your

What Are Unit Economics and Why Are They Important in Early Stage Startups?

As an early stage startup, data-driven decision making is the key to ensuring you have the necessary information you need to understand your company’s overall health and viability as you navigate the market. Taking a unit economics approach helps you ensure that you’re steering your company in the right direction, and that all aspects of your SaaS are driving profit and growth. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at unit economics and its wider implications for building

How to Increase the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) of Your SaaS Product

As the SaaS market becomes more crowded and the cost of paid advertising increases, startups are beginning to think about the different ways they can achieve a desirable growth curve without relying on the ongoing expense of chasing down new customers. In this article, we’re taking a look at some of the ways to increase the ARPU of any SaaS product, how to calculate ARPU, and why this metric can be effective as a growth tool. What does ARPU stand for? If you are a SaaS startu

What Is Market Penetration Strategy? (Definition and Examples)

If your SaaS startup is looking for low-risk business growth strategies, creating a market penetration strategy should be one of the first things you think about. Although, before moving forward, it’s important to identify a clear definition of market penetration as it relates to SaaS and gain a better understanding of what market penetration strategy is by taking an in-depth look at some common examples. Market penetration definition Depending on where you look, the market p

What Is Dark Data and How Does It Affect Your SaaS Business?

Mention the words “dark data” and it immediately conjures up images of the Matrix, hackers, black hat tactics, and so on. Yet despite its cyberpunk connotations, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Dark data is an incredibly useful source of information that SaaS businesses can tap into to improve their processes. But what is dark data, why is it so useful for SaaS companies, and how can you use it to maintain a competitive edge in the market? In this story, we’ll take a

How to Improve Scalability in Cost Structure

Scalability is a searing hot topic among entrepreneurs and investors these days. Startups must have a firm grasp of how scaling a business is different than growing it, and why scalability in cost structure is an essential ingredient to business success, especially in today’s digital era. Lucky for SaaS startups, software companies are already ahead of the pack, considering the relatively minor costs of replicating a software product for an ever-growing market. However, that

What to Do If Your SaaS Business Has Long Sales Cycles

A long sales cycle can feel like agony for your SaaS business. If it takes you six months, nine months, or a year to bring in each new customer, you might start feeling like you’re pushing something heavy up a steep hill. Sure, you make progress, but it’s exhausting, and your cash flow warning light is constantly blinking red. In the words of SaaStr Founder, Jason Lemkin: “Few things will frustrate you more in the early days than long sales cycles on bigger deals.” Lemkin’s r

What Is the Best Tech Bank for Financing Startups?

Embarking on the entrepreneurial journey – taking an idea and turning it into a growing business – takes guts. This long road to success is not as glamorous as the average person might assume. In fact, it’s often a rollercoaster ride filled with ups and downs, amidst a sea of stress and unknowns. And for the software-as-a-service (SaaS) entrepreneur seeking funding, all this gets compounded by the reality that most banks won’t fund SaaS companies. That’s because SaaS companie

Customer Success Metrics for Healthy SaaS Startups

The importance of customer success metrics There are an overwhelming number of metrics you could be tracking in your business for churn, growth, revenue, and retention. They all have their place, but customer success metrics provide some of the most significant insights for SaaS products. These metrics measure engagement and customer behaviors, helping startups identify specific areas they need to prioritize and improve upon in order to maximize growth. Below, we take a look

How to Improve SaaS Free Trial Conversion Rates

Free trials are one of the most effective ways to get new users to check out your SaaS product. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, the free trial sales model is becoming more popular as companies struggle to find ways to acquire enough users to keep up their growth rate without sinking their budget. Something that’s commonly overlooked with free trial plans is the strategy behind them that moves the non-paying customers to paid plans. After all – it’s not much of a sales

SaaS Finance 101: Funding for Startups That Are ‘Non-VC-Compatible’

While getting VC funding has long been touted as the ultimate goal — and a mark of pride — for tech startups, founders are increasingly skeptical that this is the best (or at least only) way to grow a company. VC firms are notoriously grabby — entrepreneurs trade a substantial ownership stake of their companies for access to VC largesse. A Shift Toward Bootstrapping More and more SaaS founders are recognizing that bootstrapping their company to a certain degree is not only po

How a Personalized SaaS Business Model Can Drive Customer Conversions

We’re all special. Or at least, we really want to be. How many of us stop short of buying something because it’s not quite right for our needs? And how many of us would buy that exact same product if it had those little extra details that would make it perfect for us as an individual? SaaS companies are increasingly looking at customization and personalization as a way to drive customer conversions. With the right SaaS business model and by listening to their customers, compa

Email Marketing: Onboarding, Retention and Reactivation of ‘Zombie’ Customers

Lifecycle emails are one of the most powerful items in your SaaS marketing toolbox. They are one of the best methods for engaging with your subscribers during onboarding, moving from trial to paid, and everything that lies beyond. Want to help new customers to learn about your product, keep current customers in love with your business, or reactivate missing customers? Emails can tick all of these off your list. SaaS Email Marketing: Segmentation and Personalization A segmente

SaaS Entrepreneurs: Thank You for Joining Lighter Capital at SaaStr Annual!

SaaStr Annual 2019 has come and gone, but the long-lasting energy it creates is proof that this yearly event remains the most significant gathering of SaaS entrepreneurs on the planet. For Lighter Capital, SaaStr is all about making real-world connections with SaaS entrepreneurs. There’s no place better for this than the SaaStr Annual – it’s epic! SVB’s Kevin Conway and some of Lighter Capital’s team poses with “Saasquatch” at SaaStr Annual 2019. As part of our mission, we we

What is Enterprise Sales and Why is it Important for Your Business?

Once you’ve established the product-market fit for your SaaS startup, you’ll be spending a lot of time thinking about the sales model that’s right for your business. This is something you need to get right at the point of going to market, and again as you decide how and when to scale. Choose the right go-to market sales model for your SaaS startup Your choice of sales model can be the critical difference between sustainable growth or becoming the next addition to the 90% of f

Cold Email Marketing: SaaS Strategies for Customer Acquisition

Many SaaS companies have huge success using cold email marketing to grow their business, while others end up frustrated with little to show for their efforts. If email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing tactics, why do some companies struggle with getting results? Truthfully, it’s because most SaaS companies aren’t that great at finding qualified leads, creating conversion-optimized cold emails, or following up with prospects. Finding Leads for Your SaaS C

What is ACV in Sales and What is a Typical SaaS ACV

The world of SaaS is awash with cryptic acronyms. If your business model relies on annual subscriptions, ACV will be a term that’s constantly on your mind as your company grows. So, what is ACV in sales and what is a typical SaaS ACV? We explain all that and more, below. What is ACV in Sales? ACV (annual contract value) is a metric that typically represents the average annual contract value of a customer subscription. It is used by SaaS businesses that have a primary focus on

Why Niching Down Can Elevate Tech Startups to New Revenue Heights

Founders of fast-growing tech startups sometimes struggle with where to focus their offering. Is it better to cast a wide net to a large general market or to “niche down” and create more targeted products that will attract buyers in a specific niche? In many cases, the products or services that inspired a startup can have broad application across many industries, so it may be tempting to resist niching down your target market. But in today’s competitive software landscape, on

Why You Need SaaS Accounting Software for Your Startup

Spreadsheets vs. SaaS accounting software When you start making your first purchases for your startup, it’s easy to record them in an Excel or a Google Docs spreadsheet. You may be a spreadsheet whiz, or you you may have downloaded some free accounting templates on a website that helps people launch businesses. Excel spreadsheets may pass muster for the first weeks, or even months, as you’re getting your business off the ground, but continuing to manage your books that way —

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