While Coronavirus concerns were real, it now seems that it’ll affect a lot of things. Stock markets across the world for instance, have taken a sharp dip, and so has the SaaS stocks. Only time will tell how things play out, but we’re here to bring you everything that happened in the world of SaaS in the past week. So without any further delay, let’s begin.
Table of Contents
News of the week
SaaStr postpones annual conference as county officials discourage large gatherings
SaaStr – one of the biggest SaaS conferences which was supposed to take place between March 10th and 12th – was canceled. As you could guess, it was due to Coronavirus scare, which has already led to cancellations of several conferences across the world (including SXSW).
Just weeks after featuring it in our newsletter that Sequoia invested $21million in a SaaS payment startup Finix, it’s backing out from the deal. That’s because, the fund believes that it could be in conflict of interest since it’s also a lead investor in Stripe. What’s strange however, is the fact that Sequoia isn’t asking for its money back, which is certainly a gesture of goodwill.
Scoop: Google’s G Suite cracks 2 billion users
Google’s G Suite, which comprises services like Gmail, Hangouts, Drive, and more, has recently crossed an impressive milestone of 2billion users. The info comes courtesy Google’s Javier Soltero, who says that there’s a lot to be done when it comes to features to be added.
Investment quotient
Goodlord, the proptech startup that offers a SaaS for rentals, has raised £10M in Series B funding
London-based Goodlord has raised a Series B funding to grow and expand its team. The company offers software to property agents, landlords and tenants to help them manage contracts, rentals, and more.
Sales automation startup Novocall bags $500k in 500 Startups-led round
Novocall is a sales automation startup that helps companies with their sales and marketing processes by offering features such as capturing leads, personalizing them and then connecting with them. Based out of Singapore, the company has raised $500k from 500 Durians, the SEA-focused fund from 500 Startups.
Ecommerce chatbot startup Omnichat raises $800k in AppWorks-led round
With chatbots becoming more than a buzzword, it’s only a matter of time before they become mainstream. Omnichat is betting on that to happen as it has raised $800k for its e-commerce messaging platform. Along with offering the functionality for websites, Omnichat integrates with various messaging services such as Line and WhatsApp.
SpotOn raises $50 million in Series B funding from former Twitter executives
Taking Square head on, SpotOn has raised $50million funding for providing POS (point of sale) terminals and software to SMBs for handling payments. What’s interesting is that it’s not just offering that as the company aims to deliver a turnkey solution to businesses, and offer marketing, website development, and loyalty management among others.
Must reads
Double-checking 10 years of SaaS funding data
We explored 3 product positioning and branding failures. Here’s what NOT to do.
6 customer retention metrics to pay attention to
How Buffer reached $20million in ARR by focusing on growing ARPA
Check out
Listen to
The shift to bottom-up in enterprise software with Ajay Agarwal and Kevin Zhang
Bain Capital Ventures’ Ajay Agarwal and Kevin Zhang share their thoughts on how enterprise software is changing with cloud and SaaS models. And why they believe it’s leading to a bottom-up change while ending the podcast with how the future could look like.
Getting your SaaS product messaging right – with Robin van Lieshout
InSided, a customer success community platform is making close to $10million ARR, but the journey wasn’t so easy. Its co-founder and CEO Robin van Lieshout shares the early days of the company, and why landing a big client at the start could backfire. He also discusses how they were able to get their messaging right, and thus target a particular segment of the market (SaaS products in its case).
Recently Pipe raised $6million for providing cash flow to SaaS companies by converting their monthly subscriptions to an annual value. SaaStr manager to get its co-founder on the podcast to share his journey and how Pipe is aiming to revolutionize the world of SaaS offerings.
Watch
Why every startup must cross the Enterprise Chasm to increase defensibility and expand TAM
Selling to enterprises doesn’t seem easy, and this video by WorkOS’ CEO Michael Grinich provides some ways to “cross the enterprise chasm”. He starts by talking about why it should be done, and then go on to discuss the difficulties and how to take care of that.
Tearing down Salesforce’s pricing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GYFb2VxLH8
For a SaaS company, the pricing page could be a make-or-break affair. So how does the OG SaaS business – Salesforce – fare in this department? Well, watch this video from Profitwell to find out.
