SaaS valuations are at an almost all-time high. The Software Equity Group reported that the median EV/Revenue multiple for public SaaS companies in Q2 2021 was 14.3x. The top 25 SaaS companies in the SEG SaaS Index had EV/Revenue valuations that ranged from 25.3x (Sprout Social) to 90.4x (Snowflake). While Gong’s most recent valuation of $7 billion on $120 million ARR is high – 60.4x – it is not unreasonable. Gong has shown consistent high revenue growth coupled with a strong ROI for its customers.
Pitchbook’s US VC Valuations Report H1 2021
Pitchbook is basically the gold standard when it comes to data about VC, and Private Equity financing, and M&A activity. Recently Pitchbook published some great free research on US VC valuation trends. I have excerpted a few of the charts from the 27-page report. Net netthings look very good.
Product Managers: How to Survive an Acquisition
Acquisitions are challenging times for product managers. On the one hand, they can provide an opportunity for career growth. They can also result in the elimination of a product manager’s job.. Product managers are uniquely positioned to be very valuable during the M&A process. M&A projects can be stressful,. Product managers should learn how to survive an acquisition.
Why Do Product Manager Value Equations Suck?
Value equations describe the quantitative and qualitative benefits a customer can receive from implementing a software product. They answer the buyer’s inevitable question “What’s in it for me?” Recently I worked with a SaaS company that had what I considered to be a cool product. They struggled to crisply and credibly explain what value customers would get. They relied on generic statements like reducing customer churn and increasing productivity. When asked to back up their statements with hard numbers and credible customer success stories they drew a blank. Most product managers are in the same boat
Product Managers Should Understand SaaS Revenue Basics
Understanding the dynamics of SaaS product revenues can be hard. Complex price plans, usage limits, overage charges, seasonal variations, and revenue recognition introduce complexity. Product managers should understand SaaS revenue basics to make better decisions.
Why American Product Managers Should Live Overseas for a While
American product managers should live overseas for a while. In a global software economy, it is a requirement. You will develop empathy for your international colleagues. You will learn the needs of all your customers that you cannot do from just a Zoom call.
The Ugly Truth of B2B SaaS Customer Acquisition Costs
Acquiring customers is the biggest challenge any B2B software company has. Unless you are lucky enough to have an award-winning solution that sells itself like the mythical product-led growth companies (Slack, Dropbox, and Expensify), you have to grind it out like everyone else. The ugly truth of B2B SaaS customer acquisition cost is that you need to fill the top of your sales funnel with hundreds of thousands of suspects to get a reasonable number of closed sales.
25 Product Management Memes for 2021
I belong to a Facebook Group called Product Management Memes. It has over 2,800 members and is simply a meme stash for product managers, marketers, and corporate life. People post amusing stuff every day. There’s no self-promotion or spam, just entertainment, Here are 25 of the most popular posts from the past few months based on likes and shares.
Why Product Managers Should Care About Enterprise Value
Understanding Enterprise Value can help product managers in many ways. It can help you understand how your product contributes (or doesn’t contribute) to your company’s overall success. It can help you justify more investment in your product when you can explain how the investment will grow Enterprise Value
Agile is Dead (So is COBOL, XP, RAD, UML, SAFe, etc)
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, all sorts of pundits came out of the woodwork to announce that Agile was dead. Why are people so excited to announce the death of software development paradigms?