You’ve bootstrapped your SaaS business to thousands or millions of dollars in revenue. You feel like you have more potential to grow, but you are limited by the cash in your bank account. You need capital, but where do you start? We are all familiar with the traditional path of equity financing, exchanging ownership in […]
The Role of Finance and Accounting in SaaS
The role of finance and accounting in a SaaS company is probably a mystery to most. Yes, we pay the bills and say “no” to a lot of expenditure requests, but there is a lot going in the back office. And, as your SaaS business scales, so must the capabilities of your finance and accounting […]
Bookings vs Invoicing vs Revenue | The SaaS Revenue Cycle Explained
The SaaS revenue cycle all starts with bookings. But what is a booking? And how does a booking differ from invoicing and revenue? SaaS is full of metrics, but in this case, we are mixing SaaS and accounting terminology to make things even more confusing. In this post, I will explain the differences among a […]
SaaS Operating Leverage | Key to Better Margins and EBITDA
As your SaaS business moves into growth and scale mode, you will be very focused on SaaS gross margins, EBITDA, and EBITDA margins. With this financial focus, there are two ways that I think about profitability and margins. I manage my P&L by splitting it into two distinct sections to understand my operating leverage. The […]
SaaS CAC Ratio | How to Calculate and Why It Matters
The cost of customer acquisition is one of the most analyzed SaaS metrics. But it doesn’t have to be complex or hard to calculate. Enter the SaaS CAC Ratio. Or Cost of ARR as I call it. Slightly different than CAC (customer acquisition costs), the SaaS CAC Ratio studies the relationship between new and expansion […]
Free Focus on Cash Course
Greetings, I created a free course over the weekend to help those businesses thtat might be facing a cash crunch due to the corona/covid virus. Check out the course here. It’s posted at The SaaS Academy. 350+ have enrolled as of last night. Eleven video lessons ranging from 5 to 10 minutes. Also, if you […]
How to Prepare for Preliminary SaaS Due Diligence
You’ve decided that it’s time to take on investment or sell your SaaS company. Or maybe that cold email from a private equity associate finally has you thinking about the next steps for your business. What’s next? Preliminary SaaS due diligence. Depending on your role and what side of the table you’ve been on, the […]
How to Calculate Your Renewal and Upsell Rate
In the SaaS space, we talk a lot about the health of our recurring revenue. This comes in the form of churn and retention. And it makes sense, right? Macro level valuations of your SaaS business are based on a multiple of recurring revenue. But as an operator of your business or an investor in […]
Cohort Analysis Explained for Your SaaS Business
We all know that churn and retention are critical concepts to understand in SaaS. As customers churn each month, we track logo and dollar counts in our churn and retention reports. And we document the reasons why. This is an aggregate view of retention. Let me introduce SaaS cohort analysis. Cohort analysis is an analytical […]
Founder’s Guide to Venture Debt
How Venture Debt Helps Founders Grow Their Businesses Many founders of SaaS businesses I speak with look only to equity to finance the start-up and early growth of their businesses. They may not be aware of, or do not appreciate the value of, venture debt financing which is complimentary to venture financing. In this guide […]