The hottest SaaS Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

The changing reality of appsec

Frankly Speaking • 101 implied HN points • 06 Mar 24
🕹 Technology SaaS Software Development
  1. Application security has evolved rapidly with the changing landscape of development practices like shorter cycles and SaaS distribution methods.
  2. Security organizations will face a pivotal moment in adopting new application security methods to stay effective.
  3. In the past, application security was less competitive due to slower development cycles which allowed for comprehensive security checks and reviews.

Why We Founded SaaSGrid

Bottom Up by David Sacks • 541 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🕹 Technology SaaS Metrics Data
  1. SaaS companies need a dedicated dashboarding platform for their metrics.
  2. Problems faced by SaaS companies include lack of proper metrics, errors in data, and lack of real-time availability.
  3. SaaSGrid provides a solution by automating the calculation of key SaaS metrics and offering real-time dashboards.

Your guide to sales compensation & PLG

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 631 implied HN points • 26 Jul 23
💼 Business Sales Compensation Software companies SaaS
  1. Sales compensation design involves understanding company goals, seller profiles, and using compensation to drive desired behaviors.
  2. Components of a sales compensation plan include OTE, base salary, variable comp, quota, quota attainment, and more.
  3. When designing a sales compensation plan for a PLG business, consider business goals, roles needed, best practices, and behaviors to incentivize.
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👊🏽 Special Edition: Ganas and I invested in Avify!

Lolita's Newsletter • 78 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24
💼 Business Venture Capital Startups Investing SaaS Latin America
  1. Ganas Ventures and Lolita Taub invested in Avify, and you can too!
  2. Avify is addressing a $1.8 trillion inventory distortion challenge with strong traction and community support.
  3. Avify's team has a strong background, the market opportunity is significant in Latin America, and they are focused on revolutionizing SMB inventory management.

The Software Slog

Buck on Software • 884 implied HN points • 20 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Software Tech industry Venture Capital SaaS Investing
  1. The software industry may be facing a period of slow growth and low returns, akin to a tiring and boring slog.
  2. Consensus estimates predict a rebound in SaaS growth, resembling past historical market cycles.
  3. Zombie SaaS companies, sustained by oversized funding, create challenges for non-zombie competitors in terms of price competition and talent acquisition.

Dark software: a new model for SaaS and fintech; Income statement: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express; Why the interest in Payfacs?;

Fintech Wrap Up • 58 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
💰 Finance SaaS Payments GenAI
  1. Dark software is a new model for SaaS and fintech with a focus on hyper-specialized ICP, full stack product offering, and outsourcing products to minimize costs.
  2. Interest in Payfacs is driven by the need for embedded payments, ease of setting up payment capabilities, risk management, compliance support, and access to reporting tools.
  3. Income statements from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express show patterns of growth in consumer spending, new payment flows, digital innovations, and value-added services.

The Ultimate Framework to build your Ideal Customer Profile for SaaS startups.

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 108 implied HN points • 21 Oct 23
💼 Business Startup SaaS Marketing
  1. The Ultimate Framework for building an Ideal Customer Profile includes defining the ideal company and personas in detail.
  2. To build your ICP, analyze CRM data, product analytics, create a Dream 100 list, do market testing, research communities, and get qualitative feedback from sales calls.
  3. Creating an Anti Ideal Customer Profile can help in identifying personas and companies that do not align with your business due to various reasons.

The Roundup of Blogs and Newsletters About Analytics - Issue 133

Data Analysis Journal • 314 implied HN points • 22 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Data Analysis Data science Product Analytics SaaS
  1. The post discusses a roundup of blogs and newsletters about analytics.
  2. It highlights key articles on adjacent users measurement, ML in product analytics, and SQL case statements.
  3. Various expert blogs and newsletters are recommended for analysts, data practitioners, and anyone interested in data and analytics.

☁ How to Build an ARR Book (Part 1)

Hard Mode by Breaking SaaS • 39 implied HN points • 13 Nov 23
💼 Business SaaS Metrics Analysis Investment Training
  1. An ARR book is essential in SaaS analysis to track customer contracts and calculate key metrics.
  2. The underlying data for an ARR book comes from customer contracts, detailing customer information and contract specifics.
  3. To convert contract data into an ARR book, organize logos and periods, calculate ARR changes, and categorize them into New Logo ARR, Expansion ARR, Logo Churn, and Downsell/Shrinkage.

Going fulltime on a Shopify SaaS Startup

No-Code Exits • 157 implied HN points • 13 Apr 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Startups No Code SaaS Marketing
  1. The success story of James Devonport and Userloop, a Shopify SaaS startup, showcases the power of starting small and niching down on a specific platform.
  2. Implementing AI, like ChatGPT-4, can greatly enhance customer onboarding and retention strategies in a product.
  3. For No-Code makers, the key takeaway is to launch early, gather customer feedback, and iterate quickly to adapt to customer needs and achieve product-market fit.

The Perfect Homepage for Early-stage SaaS companies: Free Template + Examples + Tips

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 34 implied HN points • 04 Nov 23
💼 Business SaaS Marketing Strategy Growth Tips Pricing Strategies
  1. A good SaaS homepage is crucial for attracting potential clients and guiding them towards the next steps in the sales journey.
  2. The key sections of a perfect SaaS homepage include a sticky navigation bar, a powerful hero section, social proof, a problem introduction, an introduction to the solution, showcasing capabilities, special purpose sections, additional social proof, and a strong call-to-action section.
  3. General tips for building a perfect homepage include having a clear CTA in each section, using concise and engaging headlines, maintaining a conversational tone, and incorporating testimonials and case studies for credibility.

Creating the Talent Marketing Category: The Martec

Making Connections by Jax • 39 implied HN points • 16 Oct 23
💼 Business Marketing Technology Entrepreneurship Startups SaaS
  1. Employer Brand professionals focus on attracting potential employees through brand strategy and content creation.
  2. The Martec provides tools for content strategy, creation, and distribution to help Employer Brand professionals scale their marketing capabilities.
  3. The Martec leverages Founder-Market Fit, Technology Tailwinds, and Category Creation Opportunity to position itself as a leader in the emerging Talent Marketing space.

Revisiting A/B tests in SaaS 💯

The SaaS Baton • 117 implied HN points • 26 Apr 23
🕹 Technology SaaS A/B Testing Data Quality Network Effects
  1. Running A/B tests on SaaS products has unique challenges beyond just having enough users for statistically significant results.
  2. Incorporating minimal clear constraints in projects can drive creativity and productivity, as seen in Buffer's Build Week.
  3. Establishing indirect growth channels, like Gusto did with accounting firms, can create network effects and be a win-win for both parties.

Startups.email - $60k MRR in 3 months

startupsemail • 78 implied HN points • 13 May 23
💼 Business Startups SaaS Entrepreneurship Revenue Market Analysis
  1. Building a successful SaaS business takes time and effort, with exponential growth once momentum is gained.
  2. If a business isn't generating revenue within 6 months, consider pivoting to a new idea; otherwise, stick with it for exponential growth.
  3. Choosing the right market segment, avoiding saturated markets, and understanding product-market fit are crucial for the success of a solopreneur.

Startups.email - Issue #4

startupsemail • 78 implied HN points • 05 May 23
💼 Business Startups Entrepreneurship Technology SaaS Platforms
  1. Building a business with a huge platform risk can lead to high success chances, even though it comes with potential downsides.
  2. Businesses heavily dependent on popular platforms like Notion, Airtable, or Shopify can tap into a large user base and market.
  3. Examples like Notion Forms, Datafetcher, and Wildmetrics show that businesses with high platform risks can achieve substantial monthly recurring revenues.

What makes something defensible?

Superfluid • 79 implied HN points • 29 Mar 23
💼 Business Venture Capital SaaS Startup Investment Competition
  1. Moats are evolving rapidly in the business world, fueled by technological advancements like GPT-4.
  2. Founders need to articulate their product's defensibility to VCs and focus on long-term moat building strategies.
  3. VCs may need to be more selective in their investments, considering competition, data as a moat, and the importance of long-term product vision.

Make Everything Versionable

Sarah's Newsletter • 239 implied HN points • 24 May 22
🕹 Technology SaaS Tools Data Development
  1. Teams are facing challenges with SaaS tools and maintaining them as complexity grows.
  2. Making everything versionable can help in QA, testing, and peer reviewing changes, leading to fewer errors in production.
  3. There is a need for more accessible ways to version configurations across different teams and tools, especially for non-technical users.

SaaS tiered pricing: why do it & its implications to engineering

Brick by Brick • 27 implied HN points • 21 Aug 23
💼 Business SaaS Pricing Engineering Features
  1. SaaS companies often use tiered pricing with free, middle, and high tiers to attract different customer segments.
  2. Each tier serves a purpose: free for lead generation, middle as the anchor attracting most customers, and high for generating the most revenue.
  3. Assigning features to pricing tiers has implications on product development, requiring deliberate assignment, modular implementation, and robust analytics.