How to calculate your total addressable market and make a great TAM slide for investors
I’ve seen hundreds of startup pitch decks in my time at Matrix, and have found total addressable market (TAM) slides to be among the most frequently mis-executed. I get the sense they are often included as a formality in an …
Building a Repeatable, Scalable & Profitable Growth Process
I gave a talk this year at the 2017 SaaS North conference in Ottawa, where I discuss the fundamentals of building a repeatable, scalable, & profitable growth process for a startup.
…The SaaS Founder’s Journey – What Matters At Each Stage
As anyone involved with startups will tell you, focus is key to success. But, it can be very hard when there is a huge overload of topics clamoring for a startup CEO’s attention. In order to achieve the necessary focus …
Bridge Group 2017 SaaS AE Metrics Report
Since 2007, The Bridge Group has tracked the Account Executive (AE) role and gathered data on how metrics and compensation change over time. We’ve partnered together to publish the 2017 SaaS AE Metrics Report and offer sales organizations a set …
Microservices Essentials for Executives: The Key to High Velocity Software Development
“Software is eating the world” – Marc Andreesen
Companies thriving in the new world order have technology as a core competency. They build complex cloud applications. They constantly bring new capabilities and features to the market. And despite the constant …
That’s a nice little $40M ecommerce company. Call me when it scales
It will surprise a lot of entrepreneurs to learn that building an e-commerce business with $10 million to $20 million in revenues is not that hard. It also surprises many to learn that it’s not actually that valuable. This is …
SaaS Business Models – Slide Deck
I presented the following set of slides to the Mass TLC group as the keynote for the “SaaS Business Model Update — Creating and Managing Revenues” event. The slides should be useful for anyone interested in learning about the key …
Customer Acquisition & Monetization
Presentation describing how Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC) and Monetization (LTV) are they key elements to get right for a successful business model. Also describes the latest techniques for reducing CAC, including Inbound Marketing, and the author’s own methodology: Building …
SolidWorks: The best VAR management program in the world?
How SolidWorks grew to $400m a year in revenues by helping their VARs become world class business leaders.
SolidWorks was started back in 1993 with the vision of bringing solid modeling for mechanical design to the masses. Before SolidWorks entered …
Lessons Learned – Viral Marketing
A short study of this web site reveals that a hugely important factor for success in startup companies is finding ways to acquire customers at a low cost. In the Business Models section, we looked at the perfect business model: …
The 8 Dangers of Channel Sales
This post is part of my series An Analysis of 5 Business Models.
Channel sales can be used to create extremely successful business models. The channel gives powerful leverage to an organization, adding additional sales resources, and taking advantage …
Field Sales: The Most Expensive Acquisition
This post is part of my series An Analysis of 5 Business Models.
Direct sales using a field salesforce is one of the most expensive ways to pursue customer acquisition, and as a result only works for larger deal …
Viral Acquisition? Great if You Can Monetize
This post is part of my series An Analysis of 5 Business Models.
Many businesses talk about Viral marketing, but in reality, only a few are actually able to pull off true viral marketing. The effect of viral marketing …
The Power of Free
This post is part of my series An Analysis of 5 Business Models.
One of the most powerful techniques available for customer acquisition is giving away a free product or service. You can see the success of this with …
One of the Best Business Models: Recurring Revenue
This post is part of my series An Analysis of 5 Business Models.
Recurring revenue is the business models that I prefer. It has the benefits of being highly predictable over time, and reducing the stress of having no …
